May 26, 2006
LEE NATIONAL DENIM DAY® ANNOUNCES NEW CAUSE PARTNER
Kansas City -
Lee Jeans today announced a new partnership for Lee National Denim Day®, the largest single-day fundraiser supporting for the fight against breast cancer. The Women's Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry Foundation has been named the new beneficiary of Lee National Denim Day® as the fundraiser enters its second decade.
"All of us at Lee Jeans are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished in creating Lee National Denim Day®," said Liz Cahill, director of advertising and public relations for Lee Jeans. "We have seen firsthand what the passion and the power of a simple idea like Lee National Denim Day® can achieve. We want to leverage that passion and power toward specific research projects that can help us find a cure for breast cancer."
"The Entertainment Industry Foundation is extremely honored to begin a partnership with Lee Jeans," said Lisa Paulsen, President and CEO of EIF. "With Lee Jean's crucial support, our women's cancer programs can continue to fund some of the most promising research in the country focused on better detection methods and improved treatment options for breast cancer. We also plan to announce a Lee Jeans-funded research project later this summer."
The beneficiary for the first 10 years of Lee National Denim Day® was the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The Komen Foundation received more than $61 million in the first decade with the bulk of the dollars going toward education and awareness programs. Last year, people at nearly 30,000 companies and organizations wore denim on Lee National Denim Day® in exchange for a $5 donation to fight breast cancer.
"Lee National Denim Day® may be changing beneficiaries in 2006, but the core purpose of the program remains the same," said Cahill. "We look forward to starting the second decade of Lee National Denim Day® and we won't stop until we find a cure for breast cancer."
Net proceeds from Lee National Denim Day® will support groundbreaking breast cancer early detection and treatment research with application to other women's cancers, as well as local community breast cancer programs.
Lee® Jeans is a division of VF Corporation. (NYSE: VFC). Headquartered in Merriam, Kan., Lee manufactures and markets brand denim, casual pants, shirts, fleece and knit apparel. A brand committed to the community, Lee Jeans founded Lee National Denim Day®®, the largest single-day fundraiser for breast cancer. VF Corporation is a leader in branded apparel including jeanswear, outdoor products, intimate apparel, image apparel and sportswear. Its principal brands include Lee®, Wrangler®, Riders®, Rustler®, Vanity Fair®, Vassarette®, Bestform®, Lily of France®, Nautica®, John Varvatos®, JanSport®, Eastpak®, The North Face®, Vans®, Reef®, Napapijri®, Kipling®, Lee Sport® and Red Kap®.
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The Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), as a leading charitable organization of the entertainment industry, has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to support charitable initiatives addressing critical health, education and social issues.
EIF is committed to saving lives by raising awareness about the importance of early detection of breast and reproductive cancers, and providing funds to advance early detection and treatment research, as well as support to community programs that assist the millions of women and their families at risk of or affected by cancer.
Through EIF's National Women's Cancer Research Alliance and EIF's Revlon Run/Walk For Women, EIF funds some of the most promising research being conducted today to develop new and more effective approaches to the treatment of women's cancers. EIF grants have helped accelerate research that has contributed to the development of a breakthrough gene treatment called Herceptin®, the first successful drug that seeks out a particular gene found in one of three cases of the most aggressive form of breast cancer. EIF grants have also supported other state-of-the-art therapies bringing new and innovative treatment approaches to breast cancer worldwide.
More recently, EIF launched its Women's Cancer Research Fund. Focused on early detection of cancer, the initiative is supporting EIF's Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project - an ambitious, groundbreaking scientific project where a group of internationally recognized scientists and clinicians from some of the best scientific institutions in the world are collaborating to develop a blood test that will detect breast cancer in its beginning stages, when survival rates are highest.
For questions about EIF's women's cancer programs and information about breast cancer, visit eifoundation.org.
Media Contacts:
Judi Ketcik (818) 505-2649
jketcik@eifoundation.org
Entertainment Industry Foundation
Angela Accurso (816) 512-9160
aaccurso@beap.com
Barkley Evergreen & Partners Public Relations
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