(music). Hello.
Hi, how are you? Good.
These items and I'd like to purchase this lovely bear as well.
Oh, cute! This is a part of our Bears That Care program, and a dollar will be donated
to the Marines Toys For Tots Foundation. Awesome.
Okay. Great. Thank you for donating Community Counts Clothing Drive, and this is a $10 off
coupon for you. Thank you.
This scene of generosity at this Palais Royal store is being played out in towns and communities
across the U.S. It's just a small way Stage Stores, a leading specialty retailer, is impacting
our communities with its passion for giving. And joining us in this Be The Change segment
is Bria Lundy, Director of Public Relations, Events & Community, for Stage Stores, and
Kelly Schulz, VP of Communications for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Welcome
to the show, ladies. So glad to have you here this morning.
Thank you for having us. Such an important topic that we're going to
discuss, and Bria, for starters, tell me more about Stage Stores. I know your headquarters
are based in Houston, but you're everywhere right?
We have 840 department stores across 40 stages operating under regionally based name plates
as Stage, Bells, Goodies, Palais Royal, and Peebles. We offer clothing for the entire
family. We have accessories, cosmetics, fragrances, home goods, footwear, and all the clothing
that you need from children to missy and mens. I love that, one stop shopping. That's what
it's all about. It is. It is. And our largest store is actually
our website, StageStores.com that has everything that our stores have along with a lot of exclusives
that we sell only online. Now, tell me about how you were able to connect
with your customers because you do it so well. Well we definitely try. Our customers are
number one. That's why we're here is to provide clothing for them. We enjoy giving them the
community connection that they can have, and when they come into our store we have a lot
of opportunities for them to give back to the community.
And speaking of community, let's talk about your connection with St. Jude's, and I know
it's important. And you partner so much, especially during the holidays.
We do. This is our third year being a partner with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital,
and we do so by partnering with the St. Jude Thanks and Giving Campaign. So, every holiday
season, our customers have the opportunity to make a donation in store, and they have
definitely been very generous to St. Jude. They have donated over $2 million dollars
to the organization, and 100% of the donations go straight to the organization.
You know, Kelly, I know your organization is so grateful to have a committed partner
like Stage Stores. Absolutely. Stage Store is just an amazing
partner of ours. You know, this year, 16,000 families are going to hear those dreaded words,
"Your child has cancer." And at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, we exist to find cures
and to save the lives of children who are battling childhood cancer and other life threatening
diseases. It's going to take almost a billion dollars to run St. Jude this year, and 75%
of that has to come from the generosity of donors and from the public and from Stage
shoppers. And so that's why their support is so critical. You know, every family that
comes to St. Jude, when you make that dollar donation at a Stage Store, it is going to
ensure that no family at St. Jude will ever receive a bill, not for their travel, for
their treatment, for their housing, for their meals. We even have a school on our campus
so that our patients can keep up with their studies while they're being treated at St.
Jude. So, we can't say enough about Stage and their partnership and the generosity of
their shoppers. Every dollar really does matter. And St. Jude is so much a part of your charitable
giving, and I know you have some other initiates that Stage Stores would like to talk about
as well. We do. We have multiple organizations that
we work with, many through our Community Counts program. One that's coming up during the holidays
is our Bears That Care program. That is our little bear here.
The cutest bear! Like, I have a boyfriend right here today. He's so cute.
He is. He is precious. And for every bear that is sold, a dollar goes to the Marine
Toys For Tots Foundation. We have done this for multiple years, and he is a bear built
with love. He is custom made just for us. That's just one of the initiates. We have
a great 30-Days of Giving Campaign. That's fantastic.
This is our second year where our store associates actually get to select a local organization
that their customers can support at the pin pad by making donations. And that has raised
over $2 million dollars for over 1,000 different local organizations across the country. And
we're very proud of that initiative as well. You guys are busy.
We are. You are busy.
We are. We are. And we partner with a lot of national organizations. Of course, St.
Jude, Marine Toys For Tots Foundation, American Cancer Society, Breast Cancer Research Fund…
I'm shopping with you. Busy doing good. Lots.
I like that. We are.
You know, and how we can we, how can our viewers, how can we help?
Julie, we'd love for the viewers to go in and shop at any one of our stores across the
country. Or, if there's not a store nearby, they can go to StageStores.com.
Perfect. They can purchase a bear. They can make a
donation to St. Jude. But any of that would be very helpful and help the great organizations
that we're focusing on for the holidays. Okay, Balancing Act fans, here's your chance
to give back and enjoy the gift of giving. Ladies, thank you so much for coming. I'm
such a fan of St. Jude. Thank you.
I love Stage Stores. This is all good, right? Yes. It's wonderful.
Alright. Come back and see us again. Will do.
And for more information on how you can help Stage Stores with their community efforts
throughout the year, visit StageStores.com and our website, TheBalancingAct.com. We'll
see you next time. (music)