INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Kichler Lighting is committed to support children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases as the first-ever national sponsor for interior and exterior lighting for the St. Jude Dream Home® Giveaway. The annual fundraising effort benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® helps support its mission to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. As a national sponsor, Kichler Lighting is donating nearly $500,000 in products for custom-built St. Jude Dream Homes across the United States.
Through the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway program, ticket buyers have a chance to win newly built, single-family homes in more than 40 cities across the U.S., with proceeds benefiting St. Jude. Homes range in market value from $300,000 to $700,000 and are built using donated or deeply discounted products and services.
As one of only five national sponsors, Kichler Lighting plans to outfit St. Jude Dream Homes with a minimum of $10,000 of interior and exterior lighting, ceiling fans and landscape lighting, a donation totaling nearly $500,000 across all Dream Home properties. And it’s well worth the effort, said Brian Nobbe, executive vice president of marketing for Kichler Lighting.
“At Kichler, we believe in creating products that allow people to see what matters most,” Nobbe said. “Through this national sponsorship, our goal is clear: to support the St. Jude mission: Finding cures. Saving children. We’re humbled to be working with tremendous builder partners and industry professionals in this endeavor, all donating their time and resources to support the lifesaving work of St. Jude.”
Dr. Donald Mack created the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway program in 1991, giving away the first house in Shreveport, Louisiana. Today, the organization has raised more than $500 million in 30 years, giving away 590 homes. It now has a presence in more than 40 markets in 20-plus states.
“We are grateful for the support of Kichler Lighting for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s lifesaving mission,” said Steve Froehlich, chief revenue officer of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “Every ticket sold for the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway helps ensure families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food, so they can focus on helping their child live. Generous donations help St. Jude continues with its $11.5 billion, six-year strategic plan that expands patient care and research and triples its global investment to impact more of the 400,000 kids around the world with cancer each year.”
Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 60 years ago.