There's determination behind breast cancer campaign

September 13, 2011

General Mills Corporate Communications

For many employees at the General Mills yogurt plant in Carson, Calif., the annual Save Lids to Save Lives campaign to support breast cancer programs is personal.   That’s because supporting breast cancer programs started even before Save Lids to Save Lives began 13 years ago in 1998. Hilda Wong, a machine operator at the plant who has since retired, lost a daughter to ovarian cancer in the mid-1990s.

And she’s been an active organizer at the plant ever since – first with the Revlon cosmetics company’s breast cancer initiative and later with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which General Mills supports. And the plant has followed her lead.

Wong's nephew, Robert Gonzalez Jr., also works at the plant and says it’s wonderful to see the pink Yoplait cups rolling off the production line this year for the first time. In the past, just the lids were pink.

“It’s great to see that out there – it definitely raises awareness,” says Gonzalez, a training coordinator for Carson, who also participates in Susan G. Komen for the Cure events.

Online redemption The pink cups aren’t the only new things for Save Lids to Save Lives this year. The Yoplait lids can now be redeemed online (by entering the codes on the lids at Yoplait.com), and the proceeds will be funneled directly to support local breast cancer programs in communities where the lids were collected.

Once again, Yoplait will donate 10 cents for every lid redeemed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, up to $2 million – an increase from the $1.6 million pledge last year. And consumers are also being encouraged to share their breast cancer stories after sending a request to redeem a lid.

“I’d like to dedicate this to my aunty Martha,” wrote Deidre on Yoplait.com. “Fourth of July will never be the same without the cookout and the food! We all miss you.”

Supporting local programs By matching the lids to be redeemed with the ZIP codes where they were collected, Yoplait hopes to encourage more people to participate, knowing that their efforts will help people in their communities.

A central theme of the public relations effort is to “redeem your lids to make a difference in your community.”

Since 1998, Yoplait has donated more than $30 million to the breast cancer cause (including all donations). Combined with our broader Pink Together campaign, General Mills is the No. 1 consumer goods supporter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the leading global breast cancer organization.

And once again – as she has for the past 15 years – Hilda Wong will be volunteering at the Race for the Cure in Los Angeles near the Carson plant.

“As long as I am alive, and to my last breath, I will participate to pay tribute to my daughter’s memory and for the cure,” says Wong. 

 

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