New Cause Campaign Benefits ALS Research during May’s ALS Awareness Month
May 1, 2017 — Every 90 minutes someone in the country is diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS, a neuro-degenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Most people with ALS survive just 2-5 years after their first symptoms, with no known cure. However, ALS is not an incurable disease; it is an underfunded one.
During May’s ALS Awareness Month, Lilly Pulitzer is spreading this critical message across its 41 retail stores and lillypulitzer.com, encouraging its many customers to support the vital cause and shop for a cure to end ALS. The day-long cause program and fundraising effort will support the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), the world’s first non-profit biotech with more than 30 scientists singularly focused on finding effective treatments and an ultimate cure for ALS.
The campaign takes place at Lilly Pulitzer stores or through the website lillypulitzer.com, May 6, 2017—to locate a store near you, head here. To support ALS TDI and its urgent work, Lilly Pulitzer will donate 10% of the net sales of products purchased at Lilly Pulitzer stores or ordered online at lillypulitzer.com on that day (up to $75,000).
“Lilly Pulitzer’s efforts and its many generous customers will help us move one step closer to a world where effective treatments – and even a cure – for ALS are within reach,” says Augie Nieto, Chairman, ALS Therapy Development Institute, and Chief Inspiration Officer, Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS, who has lived with ALS for more than 12 years. “We’re lucky to have a few leading brands from the fashion industry – with Lilly Pulitzer at the helm – join our fight during this ALS Awareness month, thanks in large part to the efforts of one of Augie’s Quest Leadership Council members and fashion industry pros, Michael “Boomer” Wallace.”
Lilly Pulitzer and its many customers will help make it possible for ALS TDI to develop a promising new drug that could forever change the course of ALS. It’s called AT-1501 and is currently in the early stages of clinical trials, but needs additional investments to bring it fully to market.
“We’re at a critical tipping point today, with promising treatments on the near horizon that could change the course of ALS forever and the lives of so many affected. We won’t be successful without dedicated corporate partners like Lilly Pulitzer,” adds Nieto.
“We are honored to support ALS TDI today and we do so very much with our dear friend Boomer in mind. We recognize that we’re ‘stronger together’ in the fight against ALS and want nothing more than to help fund research to better the lives of those affected.” Janie Paradis, Senior Vice President of Creative Communications and Marketing, Lilly Pulitzer.
About Lilly Pulitzer
Lilly Pulitzer speaks to generations of rule-breaking, sun-followers who celebrate the spontaneous bohemian spirit of Lilly Pulitzer. The company’s effortless fashions are truly born from an original. It all happened by accident, when in 1959-ish Lilly (McKim) Pulitzer—a stylish Palm Beach hostess and socialite whose husband Peter Pulitzer owned several Florida citrus groves—needed a project of her own. With Peter’s produce, she opened a juice stand on Via Mizner, just off Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. Lilly Pulitzer’s business was a hit, but squeezing oranges, lemons, limes, and pink grapefruit made a mess of her clothes. Realizing that she needed a juice stand uniform, Lilly asked her dressmaker to design a dress that would camouflage the stains. The result? A comfortable sleeveless shift dress made of bright, colorful printed cotton in pink, green, yellow and orange. Although her customers liked Lilly’s juice, they loved her shift dresses. Soon Lilly was selling more shift dresses than juice, so she decided to stop squeezing and focus on designing and selling her “Lillys.” Lilly Pulitzer became a fashion sensation and a creator of authentic American resort wear as we know it. The brand is now more popular than ever and continues to create authentic printed styles straight from the in-house print design studio. For more brand history and juicy stories, head here.
About ALS Therapy Development Institute & Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS
ALS Therapy Development Institute is the world’s foremost drug discovery center focused solely on ALS, based in Cambridge, Mass. As a nonprofit biotech, ALS TDI operates without regard to profit motive or politics. Led by people with ALS and drug development experts, ALS TDI is funded by a global network of supporters unified to ending ALS in our lifetime. Learn more at www.als.net.
Augie Nieto is the successful fitness industry mogul behind Lifecycle, Life Fitness, and Octane Fitness. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2005. With guidance from a team of friends, researchers, and medical experts, Augie and his wife, Lynne, came to understand the bleak reality that ALS lacked the critical support or widespread research needed to find treatment and cures. Together, they co-founded Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS. Through events, partnerships, and fundraising activities around the globe, Augie’s Quest drives success by funding cutting edge ALS research at the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI). For more information, please visit www.augiesquest.org.
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