Derek Fredrick thought if the buckets were “poppin’ pink” they would draw a lot of attention. And if the results of a recent fundraiser are any indication, he was right.
Fredrick is store manager at Great Bend’s Waters True Value, which recently sponsored a fundraiser to benefit Heartland Cancer Center patients. More than $2,400 was raised from Oct. 1-13 during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Another $80 was raised earlier this year in a separate one-night event.
The pink buckets sold for $5 each with 100 percent of the proceeds going to cancer patients. True Value sold 488 of them for a total of $2,440.
“We asked the company that makes our buckets to make them poppin’ pink in observance of breast cancer month,” Fredrick said. “Then, as an added incentive to raise as much as we could, we also gave a 20 percent discount on whatever you could put in the bucket.”
The store manager credits shoppers and True Value employees with making this fundraiser a success.
“Our team members wore pink shirts and rallied to explain the buckets to shoppers,” Fredrick said. “It was a great collaboration between us and our customers.”
Six Waters True Value stores in Kansas participated in breast cancer fundraisers last month.
“Our store chose Heartland Cancer Center as the beneficiary because we know all proceeds stay in our community,” Fredrick noted. “And we are all affected by cancer in one way or another.”
The Great Bend store raised the most money, and Waters True Value raised more than $11,000 for cancer patients at the six locations.
The local store also donated buckets to the cancer center and Relay for Life for their own use.
Jamie Hutchinson, R.N., Heartland Cancer Center director, said the buckets were quite a hit.
“Our patients are always grateful for this kind of community support,” Hutchinson said. “Donations allow us to help individuals relieve a little bit of their stress. All of us at Heartland Cancer Center appreciate True Value’s efforts on behalf of our neighbors with cancer.”
St. Rose Ambulatory & Surgery Center, which owns Heartland Cancer Center, is part of Centura Health. Centura connects individuals and families across western Kansas and Colorado with more than 6,000 physicians, 15 hospitals, physician practices and clinics, and home-care and hospice services.