Scentsy, another direct selling company, also focuses fundraising efforts in support of victims of breast cancer. Owners Orville and Heidi Thompson started the Scentsy Family Foundation in 2009 as a vehicle to promote the company’s core value of generosity. “We define that value as ‘contribute more than you take,’ ” says CEO Orville Thompson.
Scentsy consultants show their support for raising funds to cure breast cancer.
The decision to support the cause of breast cancer awareness was chosen by the foundation, but influenced by the consultants in the field, explains Susan Rowe, Public Relations Manager at Scentsy. The company has supported the cause by giving donations to the National Breast Cancer Foundation in the United States, Rethink Breast Cancer in Canada and Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. To raise the funds donated for the first two organizations, Scentsy created a pink warmer with black accents and lettering that said Love.Life.Hope., and of course, the ribbon. It was offered in the fall 2010 catalog, making it available for six months. “Scentsy made a donation from the sale of each Love.Life.Hope. warmer in the U.S. and Canada,” Rowe says. In the spring of 2011, Scentsy presented the National Breast Cancer Foundation a check for $613,177 and $16,785 (CAD) to Rethink Breast Cancer, surpassing their half-million-dollar goal. “We were touched by the overwhelming response from our consultants and their customers who passionately expressed their desire to support breast cancer education and early detection efforts,” says President Heidi Thompson.
In addition to the warmers, the Thompsons offered to pay the spring 2010 entrance fee for any Scentsy employee and any family member or friend of that employee to participate in the Komen Race for the Cure in Boise, Idaho. “Support for the race was great and the next year, Spring 2011, the Thompsons paid for the entrance fee of employees and matched any funds employees donated as well as the entrance fee of non-Scentsy employees who joined the Scentsy team,” Rowe says. In total, the Scentsy team was able to raise $195,633 for the Komen organization. “Our goal is to raise $1 million for the cause of breast cancer awareness by 2013, and we are almost there,” Rowe adds.
Scentsy consultant Kim Turner tells a story of how easy the warmers were to sell, due to the passion for the cause. One of her customers, Lisa, fell in love with the Love.Life.Hope. warmer for a very personal reason. Just two years earlier, on Christmas Eve, her mother lost her battle with breast cancer. Her mother loved candles and any “smell-good” product. In addition, her favorite saying was Live-Laugh-Love. She says the Scentsy warmer was such a beautiful reminder of her mother. Lisa wished she could purchase a warmer for each of her daughters and nieces as a special Christmas gift, since they regularly participate in awareness walks in memory of her mother. Although she could not afford that many warmers, Turner was determined to help Lisa get those special gifts.
Lisa held a party and both women worked hard to generate sales, so hard that Lisa was able to use her hostess credits to get a warmer for each daughter and niece—and herself. Lisa was extremely appreciative. She says she considers it a special tribute to her mother, and she and her family will be filled with warm memories every time they enjoy the scents from their warmers.
Many families are impacted by breast cancer, and the Thompson family is not exempt. Two months after participating in their first Komen Race for the Cure, Heidi Thompson’s mother, Alice Kalilimoku, was diagnosed with breast cancer. As an active Scentsy consultant, she had raised money for others and was now staring into the face of the very disease she thought only others could get.
Kalilimoku was prompted to get a mammogram after celebrating her 70th birthday in February 2010. “It was just something I felt I should do because it was such a major birthday,” she says. “A few days after the mammogram, the doctor called and said I needed a follow-up visit. After that, I got the call that I had cancer. I found it hard to believe that this was happening to me, but I immediately called family members and urged them to get mammograms as well. Imagine our shock when both a sister and an aunt were diagnosed with cancer within 30 days of me!
“Breast cancer has a high survival rate if caught early, as mine was,” Kalilimoku continues. “After my radiation treatments were over, I told my doctor that I really didn’t think about cancer often because I was so busy with my Scentsy business. He replied, ‘My dear, you don’t have cancer anymore.’ ” She now supports breast cancer awareness so that others with a breast cancer diagnosis can hear those priceless words.
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