SUMMARY
Gilda’s Club Westchester, located in White Plains, NY, is a regional resource in social and emotional support for people living with cancer, along with their friends and family. The first Gilda’s Club was founded in 1995 in New York City following the death of comedienne, Gilda Radner. Radner, the funny face of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” died of ovarian cancer in 1989. Gilda’s Club Westchester was founded in 2001 and its greatest challenge since has been moving beyond the Gilda Radner association with ovarian cancer, and on to whole families and the friends of people living with cancer. This is the fourth year of our public relations campaign, with our focus last year on men touched by cancer. We successfully reached out to this important demographic and now work towards embracing the entire family and family network – men, women, children and friends.
OBJECTIVES
- To create awareness of Gilda’s Club Westchester as a resource for anyone touched by cancer – men, women, children, families, etc.
- To broaden the reach of services among Westchester families, and as a result to increase membership
STRATEGIES
- To develop a media relations campaign that generates placements about Gilda’s Club’s and all its services, especially those focusing on families and children
- To generate attendance at Gilda’s Club Westchester events in order to attract whole families as new members
TACTICS
- Focus publicity and grass roots outreach to Westchester high school students to generate awareness for the “It’s Always Something” teen essay contest
- Outreach to notable celebrities including Tony nominee Vanessa Williams; WNBC’s Darlene Rodriguez; MTV anchor Kurt Loder; WABC anchor Phil Lipof; and,Seventeen Magazine fashion editor, Marissa Grumer to judge this year’s contest
- Leveraging interest in the newly-launched Kid Support program
- Developing TV segments following the untimely deaths from cancer of celebrities Farrah Fawcett and Patrick Swayze.
- Guest columns by Gilda’s Club Westchester CEO on such topics as, “Returning To Work After Cancer” and features from the Gilda’s Club Children & Families Coordinator on such topics as “Kids & Cancer: It’s OK To Talk About It”
- Media advisories to promote Gilda’s Club Westchester events for families including Noogiefest, the A Capella Concert for Westchester high schools and the Spring Family-Time Carnival
- DDRPR photography of all events, and then captioning these photos for placement in target media
- Feature stories, including those focusing on:
- “Tennis, Sports & Fitness Now An Integral Part of the Cancer Support Program at Gilda’s Club Westchester”
- “Gilda’s Club Emphasizes ‘Living Your Life’ – Cancer Now Perceived As A Chronic Disease.”
- “Not Chess, Not Poker… Bridge… Gilda’s Club Westchester 8th Annual Celebration of Life Peggy Hirschberg Bridge Tournament”
- Cancer In The Classroom
- Kids & Cancer – A Three-Part Series
RESULTS
An intensive media relations campaign resulted in placements of features and bylined columns in target Westchester-based media including Westchester Family, Westchester Parents, ParentGuide News, Westchester Business Journal, The Wag, Westchester Magazine, The Journal News, News 12, etc., as well as on WNBC Weekend Today In New York and WABC Weekend News.
