Community Giving: Safe Families & Communities: Target House
As an actress, producer, author and social activist, Marlo Thomas continues to create meaningful and successful projects within all areas of the entertainment community. Thomas has been honored with four Emmys, nine Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe, the George Foster Peabody Award, the Grammy, the NAACP Pathway to Excellence Award, the Helen Caldicott Award for Nuclear Disarmament, the Thomas Paine Award from the A.C.L.U., the American Women in Radio and Television Satellite Award and has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.
As National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Marlo is the driving force behind countless public awareness efforts to educate the public about the landmark and life-saving work being done every day at St. Jude – work that impacts the lives of children in every community in this country and around the world. This base of wide public support enables St. Jude to raise more than 500 million dollars annually for St. Jude, making it the third-largest health-related fundraising effort of its kind, second only to the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society.
Marlo’s work on behalf of St. Jude is both innovative and far-reaching. Her personal direct-mail campaigns and “Time To Live” television specials have reached hundreds of millions of people across the country, generating much of the vital funding needed to support St. Jude’s efforts to find cures and save children’s lives in communities everywhere.
Her tireless work and ingenuity led her to create with her sister Terre and brother Tony the annual “St. Jude Thanks and Giving” campaign in 2004, a national event that encourages holiday shoppers to “Give thanks for the healthy children in your life and to give to those who are not”. Now in its fourth year the Thanks & Giving campaign has become an annual holiday tradition.
For Thanks & Giving, Marlo meets with CEOs of major corporations across the country to enlist their support. As a result corporate partners in the Thanks & Giving campaign now include American Airlines, Autozone, Brooks Brothers, Casual Male, CVS/pharmacy, Diane von Furstenberg, Dollar General, Domino’s Pizza, GNC, Gymboree, HSN, Kay Jewelers, Kmart, Marshalls, Nine West, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Target, Time, Inc., Williams Sonoma, and many others. Marlo has also recruited movie theatre chains across America to join the Thanks & Giving effort, along with the country’s online leaders, Yahoo!, AOL and eBay, insuring that Thanks & Giving is a dominant presence on the Internet throughout the holidays.
Thanks to Marlo’s efforts, Thanks & Giving is also featured on NBC’s Today show in multiple segments spotlighting patients, doctors and scientists from St. Jude. Additionally, Marlo has enlisted some of the nation’s most beloved celebrities to donate their time for special PSAs and movie trailers for the campaign. Produced by Tony Thomas the spots feature Jennifer Aniston, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Bernie Mac, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ray Romano, Jimmy Smits and Robin Williams. The 30 second spots run on all major networks and the 60 second trailer can be seen on 25,000 movie screens across the country and on all American Airline Flights.
Marlo has written three New York Times best seller books whose royalties go to benefit St. Jude. “The Right Words at the Right Time” (2002) is an illuminating collection of personal stories by more than one hundred remarkable people -- from Jack Nicholson and Katie Couric, to Muhammad Ali and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- who responded to Marlo’s invitation to reach back into their lives in search of that single moment when words made all the difference. “Thanks and Giving: All Year Long” (2004), a children’s book and companion CD, include original works from award-winning authors and illustrators, as well as contributions by Tiger Woods, Sheryl Crow, Mel Brooks, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Buffett, Maurice Sendak, Faith Hill, Sarah Jessica Parker and writers from Sesame Street. (The CD won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album, Spoken Word.) In April 2006, Marlo released her latest book, “The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2: Your Turn!” which was inspired by the overwhelming success of Volume 1. It includes 101 essays, culled from a nationwide contest, in which everyday Americans share their own inspiring stories about the startling and life-affirming power of words.
Marlo, with her family, carries on the life’s work of her father, Danny Thomas, who founded St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 1962, and whose example continues to inspire all that every child has a birthright to good health care.
Ms. Thomas lives in New York with her husband, Phil Donahue.
