NEW YORK, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ann Taylor Stores Corp. announced today that it will return again this year as a partner for the 6th annual Thanks and Giving campaign, a holiday fundraising and awareness program for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This year marks the third year that Ann Taylor, through its ANN CARES charitable giving initiative, has participated in the campaign where we offer our shoppers an opportunity to help save children's lives by supporting St. Jude while shopping this holiday season. Clients who shop at Ann Taylor, Loft, Ann Taylor Factory or Loft Outlet Stores from November 22nd to December 31st, will be asked to add a donation to their purchase to support St. Jude. In addition, the Ann Taylor brand offers a Children's Cashmere Cardigan with 60% of full price purchases donated to St. Jude, available in stores and at www.anntaylor.com.
"We are passionate about giving back and our commitment to women extends beyond our brands and into communities," stated Kay Krill, President and CEO of Ann Taylor Stores Corp., "being a mother of two young children I can say that the work that St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is doing is nothing short of miraculous. Our associates embrace this campaign each year and I am proud of their commitment and dedication to consistently exceed our goal year over year."
In its first two years of participating in the campaign, Ann Taylor Stores Corp. has donated nearly $2M to St. Jude. Ann Taylor is proud to again join the nation's leading brands and most respected companies and their customers, as they help St. Jude to fulfill its mission to find cures for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.
"We are thrilled that Ann Taylor Stores Corp. is once again a part of our annual Thanks and Giving campaign," said Marlo Thomas, National Outreach Director. "Their dedication to the campaign has an enormous impact on the lives of countless children and their families in communities across the country who benefit from their caring and generous spirit. Ann Taylor will enable us to carry on our mission that no child should die in the dawn of life"
Ann Taylor Stores Corporation is one of the leading women's specialty retailers for fashionable clothing in the United States, operating 932 Ann Taylor, LOFT, Ann Taylor Factory, and LOFT Outlet stores in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as of October 31, 2009, as well as online at AnnTaylor.com and LOFTonline.com. (NYSE: ANN).
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is the nation's leading pediatric research and treatment center devoted solely to children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases and the only pediatric cancer research center that covers all of the costs for treatment, travel, food, and lodging for a patient and a family member. Children come to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital from across the country and around the world, and no child is ever turned away because of family's inability to pay. Since its inception, St. Jude has developed protocols that have helped push survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent to more than 80 percent overall. When St. Jude opened in 1962, the survival rate for acute lyphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, was 4 percent. Today, the survival rate is 94 percent thanks to the research and treatment protocols developed at St. Jude. Research findings at St. Jude are freely shared with doctors and scientists all over the world, and the work being done at St. Jude impacts the lives of children in communities everywhere.
SOURCE Ann Taylor Stores Corp.
