American Cancer Society Recognizes Exceptional Corporate Efforts to Reduce Employee Cancer Risk

ATLANTA, November 16, 2012 /3BL Media/ – The American Cancer Society is recognizing several companies today for their exceptional efforts to help create a world with less cancer and more birthdays among their staff.  The recognitions - Award of Excellence, Excellence in Cancer Control, Excellence in Employee Engagement, Excellence in Employee Giving andExcellence in Tobacco Control - are all part of the American Cancer Society Corporate Impact Awards, presented annually by the Society’s Corporate & Systems Initiative.

“Each of these companies has demonstrated that they share the American Cancer Society’s commitment to help people stay well and get well, to find cures for cancer and to fight back,” says John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society. “Through their efforts to emphasize the importance of cancer prevention and to reduce cancer risk among their workforce and in their communities, they are taking action to help prevent a tsunami of unnecessary disease and suffering.”

• Allstate Insurance Company will receive two awards this year: the Award of Excellence which recognizes a company’s corporate and employee giving, customer engagement, and volunteerism, and the Excellence in Cancer Control award, which recognizes a company for providing health information and benefits in four cancer prevention behaviors: physical activity, nutrition, tobacco cessation, and cancer screening. In 2012, Allstate became the Society's largest corporate enrollment site for the Society’s third Cancer Prevention Study (CPS-3), and Allstate employees have access to an on-site, state-of-the-art fitness center, a pharmacy, a physician and a staff of nurses to help employees stay well.

• United Technologies Corporation will receive the Excellence in Employee Engagement award for demonstrating outstanding volunteerism in support of the Society’s mission to save lives from cancer. United Technologies Corporation recognizes the American Cancer Society as a charity of choice, and by hosting 18 events across the nation, United Technologies employees, family and friends cumulatively raised more than $350,000 dollars to support the Society in 2012.  

• WellPoint, Inc. will be honored with the Excellence in Employee Giving award for incorporating an American Cancer Society-supported employee giving campaign that embodies a variety of best practices, including branding the campaign, expanding employee giving options, integrating employee and leadership involvement and recognizing donors and volunteers.  WellPoint has run a 3-year strategic choice campaign featuring the Society, donating approximately $1 million each year to the Society through pledges and a 50 percent match from the WellPoint Foundation.

• Duke University Health System will be awarded the Excellence in Tobacco Control recognition for implementing a company-wide smoke-free policy and providing employees access to tobacco prevention and tobacco cessation programs. Duke University Hospital has been tobacco free since 2007 and continues to implement strategies to support this initiative. The hospital’s Great American Smokeout event engages over 800 employees and recruits over 100 employees to the Duke program each year.

Allstate Insurance Company, United Technologies Corporation, WellPoint, Inc. and Duke University Health System  will be presented with the awards today during a session at the American Cancer Society’s Nationwide Volunteer and Staff Leadership Summit held in Atlanta at the Loews Hotel. Photos of recipients will be posted on the @AmericanCancer Twitter page (hashtag #ACSImpact) later today.

The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end cancer for good. As a global grassroots force of three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping you stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early, helping you get well by being there for you during and after a diagnosis, by finding cures through groundbreaking discovery and fighting back through public policy. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing more than $3.8 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, an estimated 13.7 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org. 

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