Learn Leadership skills St. Jude and Target Continue Partnership to Help Sick Children - Business Update

St. Jude Children�s Research Hospital recently announced a partnership�one that has impacted the lives of thousands of children and their families who have turned to St. Jude for treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases. That partnership is with Target Corporation� a model of corporate responsibility. For 20 years, Target�s leaders, team members, and guests have whole-heartedly embraced the lifesaving mission of St. Jude�and have become members of the St. Jude family.
This dedication began in 1996, when Target made a commitment to design and built a residence for the patients and families of St. Jude. St. Jude Target House would not be just any housing facility, but a true home-away-from-home for families undergoing the toughest times of their lives.

Thanks to support of partners like Target, families never receive a bill from St. Jude�not for treatment, travel, housing, or food�because we believe all a family should worry about is helping their child live. And St. Jude Target House provides that home for 98 families at a time�families whose children need to be treated at St. Jude for longer than 90 days. Sometimes that treatment can stretch upwards of three years.

Consider this: Since St. Jude Target House opened in 1999, more than 4,500 families from 45 states and 47 countries and territories have called the facility their home.

For these families, what is just as important as having a roof over their heads is the sense of normalcy that St. Jude Target House provides while their children undergo treatment as well as a special sense of community, where families sharing similar experiences can bond and provide support for one another.

That community is also celebrated by Target throughout the year with carnivals and parties that help create memories and experiences for the patients and families of St. Jude.

And Target�s commitment extends beyond support of St. Jude Target House. During its partnership with St. Jude, Target has been involved in the annual St. Jude Thanks and Giving� campaign and served as a sponsor of such events as the St. Jude Walk/Run to End Childhood Cancer, which takes place during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September.

Since 2009, Target has sponsored 25 key fundraising events, including the Fall Festival of Hope and the Red Carpet for Hope, both in Minneapolis where Target is headquartered.

These sponsorships and the millions of dollars raised by Target since the partnership began help support the groundbreaking research and treatment at St. Jude, treatment that has increased the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80 percent today. With the help of partners like Target, we won�t stop until no child dies of cancer.

At the heart of this dedication to St. Jude are the hearts of every Target team member. These  employees from around the country readily give of their time, talents, and energy to volunteer at St. Jude events and help raise the funds and awareness needed to support the mission.

Danny Thomas, the founder of St. Jude Children�s Research Hospital, dreamed of a day when no child would die in the dawn of life. Partnerships like the one between Target Corporation and St. Jude Children�s Research Hospital illustrate the great good that can be done when people work together toward a common dream�a day when cancer no longer takes the life of any child.

�Richard Shadyac, Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children�s Research Hospital