goodMRKT Live
goodMRKT Live
Hope Lives Here | Stephanie Scheele of The Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer
Globally, breast cancer affects millions, demanding urgent research and transformative solutions. Join Harry Cunningham and Stephanie Scheele, the visionary director of the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer, as she uncovers the foundation's innovative approach. Witness the foundation's worldwide influence, turning funds into groundbreaking research across continents, igniting the spirits of young scientists in the battle. As 'Ribbons for Research', the organization illuminates the heart of cities with thousands of ribbons, each symbolizing those touched by the disease. Stephanie shares how events keep this crucial cause alive all year and recounts personal tales driving their ceaseless fight. This episode shines a beacon of hope, offering insights for all dedicated to making a lasting difference.
Welcome to season two of the goodMRKT Podcast. I'm your host, harry Cunningham. Each month, we hear from good people with great products, supporting exceptional causes and making incredible impacts on communities around the world. Join us now as we hear another good story about impact that's happening right near you. Good morning, stephanie. Welcome everybody to the latest episode of Good Market Live. I'm excited to have one of my very good friends, Stephanie Scheele, with me today. Stephanie is the executive director of the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer relatively new role We'll talk about that a little bit but more excited about every month of October and the fact that we actually are anniversarying a panel discussion that we did last year. Maybe we'll make this an every-year thing.
Stephanie:I like that.
Harry:I think it's a good plan. It's October, it's nice out, so I think we'll make it our October plan, so let's just jump right in. So, stephanie, last year when we did the panel discussion, you were relatively new in your role. A couple months in. Now, a year, later, a year and change later, what's kind of been your biggest a-ha or your biggest exciting thing to see over the last year coming in. You weren't totally blind when you came in either, and we can dig into that.
Stephanie:Yeah, you know what? Well, first of all, thanks for having me.
Harry:Good to be reunited again.
Stephanie:You know you're right. A year, gosh, lots of a-has, harry, to be honest. So for those of you that don't know me as well as Harry does not new to the foundation, right? So I've been with Vera Bradley for close to 23 years. I always knew of the foundation, but I didn't know the foundation, if that makes sense. So lots of details about how it's run, our sources of sponsors, how the monies are used there's been so many things. How we make money off of events, gosh, there's been a number of things that have been really eye-opening and things that we can do more efficiently, or just improvements to even bring in more funds for the foundation.
Harry:Yeah, so back up a little bit. You said you were obviously with Vera Bradley before you moved into this role. So the foundation now itself is 30 years old this year, 29 years for the classic. So we'll talk about that a little bit too, because you're fresh off the classic Now, a few weeks later so you've had a little chance to recover, have a little sleep, a little bit of sleep.
Harry:So let's think back to when you started with the company. The foundation was seven years old, right? What was happening in the foundation then? Like what was it? Was it just the golf tournament? Then, yeah, you know what? This is a long way back.
Stephanie:I know I had to think way back. Foundation was really small. It always has been small, but it was. It was the golf event once a year, which is our anchor event that we have, which we get sponsors, we accept donations all year long, but that's really our anchor event. And back then it was golf and tennis. And now there's this new found thing called pickleball. Who would have thought that that would have taken over tennis, but gosh, it's grown into this huge event and a month ago we had over 500 sponsors and friends and family sitting around a pool at Foreign Country Club, which was amazing and really inspiring and encouraging to see that we have that much support. So it's grown not only in the size sheer of participants but also in the number of sponsors that we've had.
Harry:So people that are interested in because you have a little bit of a non-traditional role getting into a charitable organization, but I think you bring a lot of really interesting corporate background. Can you talk a little bit about your career and how it progressed to ending up here, because I think it's such a great, amazing place for you to be. But arguably you probably tap into a lot of things that you learned over the last 23 years too.
Stephanie:Yeah, actually, I never imagined I'd be sitting here, but over a series of events, it's now the perfect place for me to be, and so you're right, so started out.
Stephanie:I think I was a child when I started at Mirabarale, working my way through the corporate world, but, gosh, you learned so much, you know that, working together, and you just learned so much about retail, about budgets, about, I mean. There's just a number of things that I've used to apply to this job, which I think other individuals that have sat in the seat did not have the beauty of that experience walking through a publicly held company with that level of experience. And so when I came into this position, I think I just saw a different lens, and the foundation needs to be treated as a business, because it is, and I need to be wise with the resources I have, and so just taking a look at efficiencies, how things are done and monies are spent right off the bat, even from basic meetings to holding IU accountable- that's where our funds go and holding them accountable and asking for monthly reporting which, by the way, is really cool, that we can pick up the phone and ask a researcher hey, what do you want with the funds I have?
Stephanie:And they'll tell me. So just, I think a different lens of, in a different perspective than others have had, based on my experiences sitting in a corporate environment.
Harry:I like that transparency that you talked about with IU and I think that's a really it's very prominent today in 501c3s, but it's something I mean. Even for my time at Mirabarale. I know the foundation was always very upfront about what was going on and I think that's so much, so important for anybody today that's working in this 501c3 space, especially the transparency, because there was a time that charities got bad rap right for how their money was spent and you know where things were going. So it's interesting that you can just literally call them and say, hey, what are you doing? Where's the money going?
Stephanie:Absolutely. I will say, though, that was probably my biggest adjustment, going from a corporate budget to a philanthropy budget A little less money to spend. But if you know me, I'm a little competitive, so it was a great challenge to have.
Stephanie:And I think one of the things that we brag about is 80 cents of every dollar goes directly towards research. So we keep a really, really, really tight overhead with a very tight team. We do a lot of manual labor ourselves. We do a lot of things on our own, and it's fun. It's a challenge to think about things differently than oh, I'll just hire somebody to do that. And that's also where our volunteers come into play. We couldn't do it without the 300 volunteers that we have, you know, typically-.
Harry:I was going to ask you that number 300. Yeah, yeah.
Stephanie:And typically you hire things out, right, I need this done, I'm going to hire it out, whereas we have to think differently and say who's what resource can we use for free? That would be willing to do this, and it's right up their sweet spot, right. So that's been a fun puzzle. To solve, too is depending on the needs, whether it's coordinating or whether it's organizing or whatever that might be. It's finding the volunteers that one love to do it and two can do it really well, and there's so many out there that are untapped, and it's been really fun to put those volunteers together with us and make it happen.
Harry:Yeah, how many people so I know volunteers do a ton of the work here, but how many people actually work full-time on the foundation in the office here?
Stephanie:Well, full-time there's only three, Well, four of us full-time, we have one part-time and then a consultant who is our accountant. So very, very small team. Small but mighty. But, like I said, I count gosh, our steering committee, I count our board, I count our volunteers as unpaid team members right, because a lot of them put in just as much time and effort as we do. So, yes, the paid members are very small, but we have an army of resources, which is fabulous.
Harry:Very cool. So I'm going to jump back to IU for just a minute and I've had the opportunity to visit the research center there. But can you talk a little bit about that? Our listeners? Some of them may not have seen it, but can you tell us a little bit about what it is? What goes on down there, what's happening with the money that's going?
Stephanie:to IU. Yeah, so this is so cool. This is probably another thing that I did not know. I was not as intimately as involved, but so we have Vera Bradley employees, over 35 researchers right In Indianapolis.
Harry:They're all paid for by the money from the foundation.
Stephanie:Exactly, and so I think it's super cool. So there's different divisions within that that focus on different types, whether it's preventative treatment, whether it's reoccurring cancers, whether there's a number of things that each kind of division works on. The beauty of what our team does and this is recent we've learned they're on a floor with many other researchers. It could be for ovarian cancer, it could be for colon cancer, and guess what they're doing? They're sharing similarities. So if they're in a lab testing something and I just I can picture it because I too have been in the lab hey, did you know? I just found this happening in colon cancer. Why don't you try it in breast cancer? And so they're finding if they find a success in a different type of cancer. They're sharing that across divisions of research, which is so so cool.
Harry:It's interesting to think about that as a business too, because in business you do things like that often. I mean, you and I worked together for a long time. We shared stuff like that all the time. But you don't think about that with research, but it actually is. That's really intriguing that they actually did it.
Stephanie:And we celebrate the little things right, and so I'm jumping a little bit of a head here. But one of my and I'm just going to say it, one of my pet peeves when I ask individuals for sponsorship and they say, oh, you're a vir, bradley, you have enough money. You know, I think I get irritated because my response is we haven't cured cancer.
Harry:Right.
Stephanie:We haven't cured cancer. We got a long way to go and until we do, we need the funds for research, which Vir Bradley, as you know, only focuses on research. There's so many areas of cancer that we can focus on. We primarily focus on research and finding that cure, and I lost my train of thought.
Harry:I think the research piece is really interesting because, I mean, we've had both of us and you a lot more than me, obviously I've had a lot of opportunity to spend time with the researcher specifically, and the interesting thing I've always found is they're literally just normal people like us, but they're doing life-changing work. They're really doing amazing work.
Stephanie:Yeah, that prompted my memory. So we celebrate little things, right. So we know we're not going to solve cancer tomorrow. Maybe we are if we are amazing. But it's the little discoveries that we're finding. Whether it's, like I said, a preventative treatment or a recurrence or just any latest discovery, is a celebration. Right. To hear the researchers say the progress they've made in 10 years? Right, and I've been here for 23. So even in two decades, the progress they've made. I mean I'm hopeful that we're going to find a cure when I'm still alive.
Harry:Well, yeah, well, we're alive. It's incredible I don't know if you'll know this answer or not but where does breast cancer research fall in the spectrum of development? I mean, there are other cancers, like I know, blood cancers are having a lot of progress. Where does breast cancer fall in that? Is there a lot that's happening or is it a slower moving?
Stephanie:You know, I think it depends on what area you know, for example. So our lab just came out with a research about the recurrence or occurrence in black women. To me that's so far advanced that they can pinpoint that black women have a tendency to develop a certain type of cancer in a certain area. I mean that came from our lab, that they could discover that, and so to me that's huge advancement over another type of cancer. So I would say individualistic types of cancer or findings I'd say are really advanced Relative to other cancers. I'm not quite sure, but I think what keeps me encouraged daily is, while we don't have a definitive cure for cancer, there are strides that are being made, whether it's treatment, early detection, whatever that might be, which is so encouraging.
Harry:Back to the start of the foundation and I don't know if you knew Mary. My guess is, maybe you didn't know Mary.
Stephanie:I did not know, mary.
Harry:But I were talking about Mary Sloan who really the foundation was started because Barb and Pat lost Mary at an early age and an age very close to well.
Stephanie:I'm older. I'm older than Mary was, me too, me too.
Harry:Right. So when you think about that and you see women today and we have so many shared friends that we know that have survived breast cancer once, twice, even how exciting is that to think about that to your point. Maybe it'll be going away, and I want to jump into the pink conversation a little bit too, but what do you think about that? I?
Stephanie:know, and that's the whole reason, barb and Pat started this because they did not want. In fact, I got to meet Mary's daughter at the classic this year. Oh wow it's beautiful and it's so neat because that's the reason they started this is that Mary's daughters, or Barb and Pat's daughter daughter-in-laws did not have to go through this, you know. And so to see that progress, that hopefully no one has to suffer or die, because we want women to thrive after diagnosis, not just survive, right.
Stephanie:And now with an early detection. Women have that ability too, which is so phenomenal, you know and in fact I think you know about Pat's daughter-in-law, elizabeth, who is a survivor. She was in her 40s when she had early detection and she's conquered and is thriving in life because of it, and one of her doctors was actually with IU Foundation. So it's kind of cool to see it come full circle that you know Pat was co-founder of the Foundation with Barb, and little did she know her daughter-in-law would end up with this and the benefits of the Foundation that she started to save her daughter-in-law's life.
Harry:Right. So how wide reaching is the Foundation now from a from a sponsor point of view? Is it something that's just domestic, or are there people that you know sponsor from around the world? I love this question. This is a fun question.
Stephanie:So I think a misconception is people think the Foundation is just right here in Fort Wayne, indiana, and so really that's one of our strategic initiatives. Our mind moving in is the reach, and we have in fact done that. So not only through sponsorship, which is worldwide, but also through clinical trials. So we're in six out of seven continents through clinical trials, so the work that IU is doing is affecting six continents.
Harry:That's incredible, that's insane.
Stephanie:So something that is generated in our lab is being shared around the world through clinical trials? I mean, I just got goosebumps thinking about that you know, and so that's really cool to say that something that we're working on every day is affecting women around the world.
Harry:Well, it's incredible to know that, too, because this is not just a problem that's exclusive to us here. So it's great to know and I'm you know there are a lot of organizations that support breast cancer research, which is incredible, but it's exciting to know that the work that is being funded from things that are happening right here has having that brought of an impact. When you think about that money, right and there was a big number announced this year and there's a big number that was committed in 2022. Tell us a little bit about what the commitment is, what the commitment is first, and then kind of how the progress is going. Getting to it, yeah, sure.
Stephanie:So to date, I can safely say we've raised 40 million to date, which is amazing, incredible. And then, about a year, year and a half ago, we pledged another 12 million. Our goal is 50. Well, that's not our goal.
Stephanie:We're going until we cure this thing, Short-term goal and so obviously every year through our anchor event, the classic we do in all year long, but we continue to raise funds. So we hit a huge milestone a month ago pledging a big number. We have a lot of events in October, End of the year giving. People forget about end of the year giving. So we'll do another big push at the end of the year. But we're super happy with that number and it's only going to grow or keep going until it's incredible. We no longer have a fight.
Harry:So, steph, last year when we had our panel discussion, we had a doctor, we had a survivor, we had one of our brand partners as well. What about the doctors that are going on? I know and Marie's been down there a long time, but are there new doctors that are coming into this? Is this something that you're seeing new med students get into? Is this an old profession? Is it an exciting profession, or is it kind of like what's happening with getting new researchers in?
Stephanie:Yeah, yeah, that's a really good question. A beauty that we've had with the foundation is the doctors that we've had remain, which is good. Right, they're not giving up, they're staying, but I think they're fostering young talent. So we try to get down there several times a year and you see new talent in there all the time, and by new talent I mean young researchers that have just graduated or are on the path and want to focus specifically on breast cancer. I think not confirmed, but I think it's because of the strides you're making. I mean, think about it. You're in a lab all day long. I mean, you want to see results Totally. It could be really tedious if you don't see results after sitting in the same lab for six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years, but the mere fact that our lab is seeing results, I think, sparks students' interest to say, hey, this is something that I want to make a difference.
Harry:Yeah, super. Actually, we have a really close friend whose daughter went through breast cancer and is surviving, but she's actually in med school now and wants to be a researcher because of what she went through, which is, I mean, I think there are a lot of people like I never. I was a retailer for 30 years and still it's not like I went to a store and was like, hey, this is what I want to. But I love the fact that people can experience something personally and then, because of what they've been through, want to get right into it and dig and push.
Stephanie:That's super interesting. I think another I guess appealing thing about the foundation at IU is that we have the funds, and so what IU does is they have the ability then to go after grants. So what a lot of laboratories don't have is they're waiting on the funds which, with our funds, they can turn into grants which provide money right away to start doing additional tests or clinical trials.
Harry:So they use the money that you're donating or the organization's donating to get the grants.
Stephanie:So they could turn we just pledged a significant amount over a million dollars and they can turn that into grants, which means it could be $5 million $10 million, $12 million, Because they use it sort of as seed funds.
Harry:is that how it works?
Stephanie:Exactly so right there, I mean their eyes light up. Researchers light up when they have the money to try the stuff that they want to try. And a lot of times with research you're going to fail, but you have to have the money to, because one time you are going to succeed, and so that's what's really cool, and that comes right from we asked them why our lab, why they love working there. And that's probably when it because it's it's a sandbox for them to try test and try new things.
Harry:It's crazy to think about what it costs to do the research, but if you put that in perspective, relative to what it costs to care for someone that is suffering with breast cancer, struggling through breast cancer, it's so minimal and the at the end of the day, really if we could spend five or 10 or $50 million, the amount of money that could be saved and the amount of emotional strain and stress that could be saved from these people.
Stephanie:And it's not just women men can have breast cancer too, but these, the anybody that's kind of struggling with it and I do think I don't want to like discourage people. Oh, you're only you're giving millions and millions. I mean we say every dollar counts. Even if you're buying a petri dish, a microscope lens or anything like any little bit counts. That's why we have opportunities not just for the big sponsors but little little sponsor along the way.
Harry:Yeah, and like we're doing Roundup at goodMRKT this month and in every that's what you we were just talking before we got on the podcast that people are dropping dollars in, and every single one of those dollars, you know that one dollar could actually turn into ultimately, a savings in a myriad of ways, not just a financial savings for hospital care and treatment, but an emotional savings for these, and I think that's what's been so inspiring to me about the foundation and my exposure to it has been this, this sense of hope, and I think you all have adopted that word hope in a big way. Can you talk a little bit about hope?
Stephanie:Yeah, I think it's interesting. We are so hopeful and, like I said, because of the strides that have been made in the last two decades, three decades, four decades, whatever we're hopeful that it is gonna, we're gonna find a cure. And we say now, we say hope lives here because it lives right here in the city, it can live in your city, it can live in Uganda, it can live wherever hope lives here. And it's interesting when you said that, because every nickel, every dollar, every dime has a story. When people put money in there, it's not just their spare change, because, you know, breast cancer affects Everyone.
Stephanie:Everyone can say I know someone that's been affected by breast cancer, and so when you see individuals, at your store more than one person, even exactly when you see them drop a penny Quarter. Whatever that has a story it has a name of why they're doing it, and to me that's what's so important is is hearing those stories and making a difference and saving lives.
Harry:Well, I want to. You brought something up that I want to tap into a little bit. So you talked about every dollar has a story. There's a very big ribbon campaign and it happens twice a year here, but can you tell us a little bit about it? And then I mean, every time I think about the ribbons I get goosebumps, thinking about people's names that I've seen on ribbons, kind of unexpectedly. But can you talk about that?
Stephanie:ribbons, yeah, and so we've we've put a little twist on it and we've called them now ribbons for research. Cool, right. And so we fantastic, turn the town pink, whatever, but we're now seeing ribbons for research because we believe that they live year-round, yep. And so what we do is, every time you make a donation, an individual makes a donation, you can say an honor or in memory of someone, and so when we turn the town pink with over 3000 ribbons around downtown, we put stickers on them in honor of or a memory of a loved one that's been touched by breast cancer. And so we just hung last week, last Monday and Tuesday, we hung these ribbons, and you better believe they're all over 10.
Stephanie:And I was literally watching the names and looking at the names of who's been affected or touched by it, and so when you see the ribbon, stop and look and see if you recognize the name or individual, and so but we've Rephrased a little bit for ribbons, for research, because it's more than just turn the town pink. We want you to turn your neighborhood pink, turn your business pink or, every time you buy a ribbon, know that it's going towards research and making a difference.
Harry:It's so interesting for me to hear you talk about this, because we we talk a lot, but not often about you, the foundation, and you have so much put your spin on everything you do just, and I'm lucky to get to know. How you operate, what you do, but I love hearing you talk about this and how focused you've really made everything. It's really impressive and exciting to see what's, what's next, what's coming up. I know you're taking a little bit of a break.
Stephanie:I'm not really really really thinking the foundation, the classic in September.
Harry:Yeah, go right into breast cancer month. Then what's after that?
Stephanie:Yeah, you know a lot, as you know me well, harry Gosh. I like, I like to see how far we can stretch right. And so, yes, you're right, we do have an anchor event. October's huge for us. But but my thought, another observation when I jumped in, is breast cancer is not just a month of October, and I'd like to see us focus on this all year long, and so not just Through a sponsor event. But how do we continue to draw awareness throughout the whole year? It could be Mother's Day, could be graduation, it could be holiday, and so really my mind is going how can we make this top of mind, not just once a year?
Stephanie:right but throughout the year. So we're trying something new this year. I don't know if it's gonna work, but I think. I think we've garnered lots of interest. Lots of interest, but called event in a box, and so Women and men always love a reason to get together, drink wine, celebrate, be with friends, I don't know.
Stephanie:And so what we've done is created this box of everything you need to host an event. It could be in a store, could be in your house, it could be at school, wherever you want. We'll do a giveaway. We do linen straws, a blue and arch, survivor gifts, just fun things that you can say hey, I'm raising my hand, I'm gonna gather girlfriends, I'm gonna gather together and we're gonna take a donation. Whether it's Roundup at the register, it could just be. Hey, we're gonna have book club and everybody's gonna donate anything you want. And so see if this sticks. We've gosh. We've mailed out almost 100 boxes already in a short period of time since we've launched. So 100 people have said, yep, I'll step up and I'm gonna see what I can do to have fun. And it really. It comes delivered to your doorstep.
Harry:So you don't have to do a lot of work, no, you just have to show up.
Stephanie:Yeah, so that's one way we're always thinking of. I don't know if you remember tickled pink, which was a girlfriend's gathering. How can we-.
Harry:Is that coming back? Are you changing that? What's the plan?
Stephanie:We're toying with. What does it mean? How do we get girlfriends together to celebrate and raise a good cause Once again? I'd like to keep this going year round, versus only one shot. I don't think we'll ever. The classic will always be the classic and we'll always have an anchor event. But how do we keep it interesting year round and keep it top of mind?
Harry:So what about this color pink? I know last year we talked about and I think it was Dr Starniolo- that said, I hate the color pink.
Stephanie:She hates pink.
Harry:She hates pink, so what about the color pink?
Stephanie:Yeah.
Harry:I mean, you wear a lot of pink now I do, but maybe the Barbie movie helped bring a little more pink awareness. I'm channeling my inner.
Stephanie:Barbie right now. You know, for us it goes back to that word hope, and I do. My wardrobe now is more pink than I've ever worn.
Stephanie:It was all black before it was I know, I know, but when I look at my closet it makes me smile, it gives me hope, it gives me reason to keep doing what we're doing, because every time I put on pink I know lives are being changed. And we're gonna. I like pink and we're gonna celebrate it until we can put pink in our closets and never have to bust it out again. That's amazing.
Harry:I know that. You know Barb and Pat will, as do I, but I'm curious when you get to talk to them now about the foundation, like what? What do they say? Because it's just, I know I've heard the stories from both of them. Well, like this is not what they thought they were doing by any means, and it's amazing to sort of see what happened as a result of something that was very small. But what do you hear from them? What do they say?
Stephanie:Okay, first of all, the most remarkable women ever.
Harry:Absolutely. Let's just stop right there.
Stephanie:Man. It's been so awesome to work with them in a different capacity and they're both so passionate about this and I see them were now than I ever saw them in the 20 years that we were proud of.
Stephanie:So I found their fashion and just and really picking their brains on, and this is further than they ever imagined it would be Right. They just said, hey, let's do this, and so really hearing their perspective and how we can change and make a difference. And, oh gosh, they're both always full of ideas too. They're in here all the time. They always come in our foundation door and share ideas. Or I saw this, or have you thought of this, or what if we did this and we eat lunch with them all the time and we talk to survivors all the time? And it's remarkable to still work beside amazing women that wanna make a difference and, quite frankly, trust us, and so I'm grateful every day that they trust this team to see the vision that they had and to carry it on.
Harry:What keeps you and the team inspired, like are there ever days that you're just like. I just can't talk about it today? Like what keeps you inspired? Because I don't think there's ever days that I see that you're just like. I just can't talk about it today. But what?
Stephanie:is it that drives?
Harry:you.
Stephanie:Gosh, I didn't think we were gonna go here. So you know my story. I don't know if those listening know my story, but I obviously lost my son 16 months ago to cancer Not breast cancer, but a different type of cancer and I know what we went through dealing with that, and I can only imagine how many families go through that with breast cancer, and I never, ever, ever want a family to feel what we felt by losing a loved one to cancer. I don't care what type of cancer it is, and so for me personally and then I just I don't know if you know, I think you do I lost my aunt in July to breast cancer.
Stephanie:I hate that, and I know Barb and Pat hated it when they lost their dear friend, and so that's what keeps going is. I personally felt it. I don't want any families to ever feel that, ever again, and so I won't stop. And there's always lives that you can be saving in differences, because the feeling that you have of losing a loved one to a horrific, horrific disease is gut wrenching. And if we can stop any any more heartbreak of that terrible loss, that's what keeps me going.
Harry:You know, you made me think of a good friend of both of ours, tina Conrad, who is a vir-br-rly employee, and she and her mom both you know are breast cancer survivors. And when you think about something that's touched a family not once but twice, yet every single day, tina's a warrior, she's fighting about it, and I think there's so much inspiration, there's so much power in all that and it's exciting to hear you talk about that and arguably, a very, very tough situation that has turned into something really incredible that's gonna help myriad, countless people far beyond our lives. Just, you know the work that's happening is amazing.
Stephanie:I agree, herionette, but I also think you and I have both had, we've had two individuals model the way Barb and Pat Right. I mean they are always. They're the most glass half full individuals I've ever met, and so I think that's what inspires me too, is you get up and you?
Harry:keep going, that's right.
Stephanie:Because so many times you could say, yes, I lost my best friend, my whomever, insert whatever name but you can also feel sorry for yourself, or you can get up and fight, right, and I think we get up and fight every day, yep, and. But we had two incredible individuals model the way for us that we keep fighting Totally.
Harry:Well, and you're a fighter in a good way too. I know that it's funny. I was talking to somebody recently about PTSD from mental health and the people that are either left behind or the people that have struggled mental health and then have to manage the PTSD. I think that there's an interesting idea behind this PTSD of disease as well, and my grandmother struggled with breast cancer, had to double mastectomy. We never even talked about it.
Harry:And cancer was not something you talked about in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and it's amazing and incredible and inspiring to see today that you can say breast cancer and there's a smile that comes to people's faces because there's progress being made right, which is, I mean, for me. I love knowing that because I didn't. You know, we're not that old you and I aren't that old but in our lifetime, the changes that have happened, when you think about our kids and their lifetime, the changes that are gonna happen, maybe there will be no more pink, Maybe there will be no more breast cancer, right.
Stephanie:That's hope, let's hope. I know when you hear that, when you hear in fact we had a coworker here at Vera Bradley just this week say, my sister-in-law's diagnosed Thank goodness it's early detection and she's gonna have a great diagnosis, or you know prognosis and that's what it's all about. And so that continues to give us hope, and we have an army of supporters, so we're not doing this alone. You know, which makes it fun that people wrap your arms around you and say, let's do this, let's do it together.
Harry:And there's so many people attached to the Vera Bradley brand, whether internally or friends of or customers of, that support this and it's exciting to see a company really find what their strength or what their causes that they're gonna champion, and championed in such an inspiring way that they've dedicated office space, they've dedicated their name, they've dedicated countless hours. So, kind of what do you hope for next? Could more brands do this, and how could this happen in even a bigger way?
Stephanie:Yeah, gosh.
Harry:And I know you come from the branding world too.
Stephanie:I know we are incredibly blessed because not all foundations have the access that we have or the platform right, and so my hope is not just Vera Bradley, but whether it's other brands, other institutions, whatever it might be say, hey, we're gonna hold hands and do this together. And you know, we're not territorial. We wanna join hands and say we're gonna fight breast cancer. I don't care what your logo is, what your name is. Let's join forces, causes, the same Causes and make a difference. And so I really hope that we start to break down those walls of saying, oh, this is my cause or this is my breast cancer foundation, this is my foundation, it's no, let's join forces.
Harry:I think it's interesting to hear you say that you and I both have learned that a lot in the last couple of years is this philanthropic space, is purpose-driven space, social, cause space that we both now get to live in. It's really interesting to see how causes support each other. And you know, there's a saying rising tide lifts all boats. It's not so much about if the money's spent here or there, it's about if the money is spent. That's what needs to happen. Is the research needs to happen, right?
Stephanie:That's great to hear you say that.
Harry:So we're sitting here. Anybody that's watching us can see, but anybody that's listening I'd encourage them to go look at the video on YouTube, because we're sitting in a really inspiring room and behind you on the wall are some pictures of a campaign you and I did together. We did Right. So fun and I love seeing them still. You know live in such a powerful way and I'm so proud of what we got to do there. But can you talk a little bit about the room that we're in here?
Harry:and the importance of kind of everything that's here.
Stephanie:I love this room. It's so cool and you take it for granted. So we're sitting in the legacy room and what it does it just walks through the history of the foundation how we were formed, special events that's happened, amount of money's raised, significant research developments just kind of a celebration of where we've come and what we stand for. And so it's really neat. You say we're attached to Vera Bradley and we are Well when they bring a tour through.
Stephanie:This is on the stop, which is pretty cool, it's pretty cool that they stop in the foundation and say this is what we stand for. But yeah, your team put this together years ago and it's just a beautiful representation of what we've, you know.
Harry:It's nice to see it. So I mean I haven't seen it in a little bit, but it's nice to see it, so like holding together more things being added to it all the time.
Stephanie:I know it is, it is.
Harry:So what's coming up next year with the classic again in September? Yes, that's the plan and you kind of reinvented it this year.
Stephanie:We did we did. I think it's just growth right. How do we? Or maybe it's sustained right. We had to pump the brakes a little. We consolidated golf courses. If you remember, in the past we've done two golf courses. We kind of consolidated to grow, which it worked. Huge success, really, what we want to do I think a misconception is the classic is only if you participate in golf or pickleball. And we want to squash that. We want it to be a community event. Anybody can come and join in the festivities. New this year we did sell the tickets and we had a lot more community members join which did not participate in golf or tennis or pickleball. And we just want to expand the whole Fort Wayne community, not just if you're a participant or not. And so really we'd like to see that grow and expand, which we know it will.
Harry:So if somebody's listening at home and thinking, this is great, I love hearing what I'm hearing, but I can't be a part of it because I can't get to Fort Wayne or I don't have a store near me. What can one person do that might be listening, that doesn't have access?
Stephanie:A couple of things come to mind, right? So one person we always sell our ribbons for research year round. So for $25 donation you get a pack of five ribbons. It could start there, whether you decorate your house or your office or whatever it might be. So that's one way. Another way would be our new event in a box. So we talked about this. If she has a few girlfriends or whomever, she can throw a little party and raise funds and have a great reason to get friends together and celebrate, and then we can always because I said well global, there could be areas even if you live in Tulsa, oklahoma, we don't know, but there could be where we could connect you with whether it's a clinical trial or something that our area reaches that we could get you involved somehow.
Harry:And if there's a student out there that's thinking about what do I want to do, what would you tell them to encourage them to consider breast cancer research?
Stephanie:Do it, do it? No. I think it's so encouraging. The funds are there, I think discoveries are being made, so it's sure as rewarding, and we'll always take you at Indiana University, for sure.
Harry:And I didn't realize. Actually the research center is in Indianapolis, it is. It is Not in Bloomington.
Stephanie:No, it's in Indianapolis and so beautiful campus and if people are interested, we do take tours at least twice a year. They always open their doors, which is really cool. Most laboratories are closed Laboratories. Ours is open. They do tours. They have nothing to hide. It's very cool, very transparent, and so it's very cool to see hands on.
Harry:Great, so any last thoughts about your? I have one more question for you, but any last thoughts that you want to share?
Stephanie:Oh gosh, Harry, I have a lot of thoughts. You always know that. I just want to thank you for reaching out to us. You've always been a fabulous partner and friend and supporter. So thank you, and thank you to Good Market, for I think you're doing change at the register and a drink donation.
Harry:I'm really a drink donation, yeah.
Stephanie:Yeah, and I think maybe some apparel might show up in your store. Never know, that's right, that's right.
Harry:So last question for you, when you think about your career and how you ended up being executive director. I'm getting to meet a lot more people, especially young people, that want to get into philanthropic work. What advice would you give them and I know you're only just not even two years in yet, but you've been in enough that you've been certainly exposed to a lot and you've been around a long time what advice would you give those people that want to get into philanthropic work?
Stephanie:Yeah, you know, I think everybody's always like I don't want to go into philanthropy because I have to ask for money, and that's not true. I mean, yes, there is a component of that, but for me this job has been more fulfilling in the last two years, one and a half than the 20 years, because of, like you said, we all work together. Once you have that common bond of doing good, giving back the feeling that you give every day, that you're making a difference, it just feels really good. It feels really good and it's hard work. It is hard work, I'm not going to lie, but just there's another sense of accomplishment and do good and you find a different community out there that truly loves and cares on each other.
Harry:Yeah, it's exciting to see actually that we can even have that conversation, to see that the next generation behind us, our kids' ages, are thinking about how do I actually make a difference, because I don't know that the generation we grew up in that wasn't top of mind. But it's exciting to see that that is now top of mind, which I think it gives us all a little bit more energy to go every day. I do Stephanie always fun talking to you.
Stephanie:Aw thanks, harry.
Harry:Thank you for taking the time today and we'll see you out in the store soon, absolutely my pleasure. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the goodMRKT Podcast. A new episode will drop the second Tuesday of each month, so make sure you subscribe wherever you're listening. Give us a like, a follow and a share, and please leave a review so that we can reach even more people and grow even more good. Tune in next time to hear more stories from good people with great products supporting exceptional causes. Thank you.
