The Board of Visitors 2023 Care Card Program to benefit The BIG Pink Bus
03/31/2023
Arizona’s oldest women’s charitable organization, The Board of Visitors, has selected The BIG Pink Bus as the beneficiary of its annual Care Card retail fundraising program for 2023 and 2024. A program of Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, The BIG Pink Bus is a mobile 3D mammography unit that will bring life-saving breast cancer screenings to women across the Valley, especially those in underserved and outlying communities.
Over the past 23 years, the Care Card has become Arizona’s largest retail fundraiser, generating more than $3.6 million for local charities supporting health care for women, children, and the elderly. Shoppers purchase the Care Card annually for $60 and receive a 20% discount at hundreds of local retailers and restaurants during a 10-day shopping period in October. 100% of funds raised through Care Card sales go to the selected beneficiary each year.
“Such a wonderful grant request is always of particular interest to me and holds a special place in my heart with my being a breast cancer survivor,” says Amy Hall, a member of The Board of Visitors who served as Grants Chairman in 2022. “Everyone involved was impressed by this project because of the reach and impact associated, providing communities and neighborhoods critical medical assistance that may not normally be available to all.”
Care Card sales will begin in mid-September, with the shopping period taking place Oct. 20-29, 2023. Participating retailers include popular local stores such as Lululemon, Aveda, Crate & Barrel, Evereve, Sur la Table, Nothing Bundt Cakes and locally owned boutiques, salons, and fitness studios, and restaurants including Flower Child, Grimaldi’s, Zinburger, Sandbar, The Henry, and more. A full list of retailers participating in 2022 is available here. An updated list will be available closer to the launch of the 2023 Care Card Program.
The BIG Pink Bus is one way that Banner MD Anderson is working to remove barriers to women accessing mammograms, which are known to reduce breast cancer deaths by 40%. One-third of women with health insurance and more than two-thirds of those without health insurance do not get regular mammograms, often citing personal and professional obligations, the long distance to an imaging site, or lack of transportation as reasons. The BIG Pink Bus will be a fully outfitted RV that brings 3D mammography—the gold standard in screening—to women where they are. 3D mammography offers greater accuracy, reducing false alarms, finding more cancers than conventional mammography, and detecting invasive cancers sooner.
Because The BIG Pink Bus is a program of Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, women whose mammograms detect cancer will have access to Banner MD Anderson’s Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Program that leverages integrated care across several breast cancer specialties, using the latest technologies, treatments, and research. All physicians in the Breast Cancer Program are specialists in their field. Additionally, throughout the cancer journey, patients are part of the Breast Cancer Navigation Program, where compassionate patient coordinators help guide them through the treatment process and ensure they are well-informed and supported.
“We are thrilled that this innovative, life-saving program has been selected as this year’s beneficiary of the Care Card,” says Andy Kramer Petersen, president & CEO for the Banner Health Foundation. “Gifts from generous donors and community partners, including the Arizona Diamondbacks and Bashas’ Family of Stores, over the past two years have helped bring our vision for The BIG Pink Bus to life, and the support from the Care Card will now allow us to complete our fundraising campaign and put the unit on the road in 2023. We are so grateful to The Board of Visitors for this wonderful support that will serve so many Valley women.”
The Board of Visitors has been raising funds for more than 100 years to support nonprofits in the greater Phoenix community. The journey began in 1908, with 16 women volunteering to visit patients at St. Luke’s Home, a tuberculosis sanatorium. These volunteers became The Board of Visitors, who began raising funds for the facility that eventually became St. Luke’s Hospital. When the hospital sold in 1996, The Board of Visitors became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and continued fundraising for the healthcare needs of the community. Today, The Board of Visitors raises funds through donations and three fundraisers, including the annual Charity Ball, Arizona’s oldest fundraising event, the Care Card program, and the Fashion Show Luncheon that has kicked off the holiday season for 65 years.