About the Authors
Jenny Monson-Miller
Environmental Compliance Manager
Emma Schimnowski
GIS Specialist
Amanda Stallings
Senior Policy Manager
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Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among U.S. women, with nearly 300,000 new diagnoses every year. Breast cancer impacts millions of individuals and families — including several National Grid Renewables employees.
As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, National Grid Renewables recently hosted a successful fundraising event for breast cancer research. We made a donation of $7,600 to METAvivor, an organization that focuses on funding research for Stage IV metastatic breast cancer.
Focusing on underfunded research
The initial idea for the fundraiser event came from our Women in Network employee resource group (ERG) and Employee Engagement Committee at National Grid Renewables.
We wanted to put on an event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month to help raise awareness and remind people about the importance of regular screening and early detection. A fundraiser allows us to go further than an event around awareness alone and enables us to be a positive force for change in a more powerful way.
We were very intentional about choosing an organization to donate to. We identified METAvivor as the perfect partner for a few reasons. First, they have no overhead — so 100% of our donation is going directly to research. Second, METAvivor focuses on funding research for Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, an area that has traditionally been underfunded, despite its low survival rates and significant impact on thousands of women and men.
Having fun for a good cause
We wanted the event to be meaningful, fun, and accessible to all employees. So, we made things simple: All you had to do was wear something pink to work on the designated day, and National Grid Renewables made a donation to METAvivor in your name.
Participation was great: We had 75 employees (and a cat) participate — more than a third of the whole company — across our main office, our field operations, and other remote employees.
In the office, we got everyone together for some sweet treats provided by a local bakery owned by a breast cancer survivor. We also got a lot of selfies from remote employees, including a great group “Pink Out” photo of all the employees at one of our wind farms — plus their official feline representative, Terry, who was also wearing pink.
Meeting people where they’re at: Focusing on accessibility
Next year, in addition to a fundraiser, we’re looking at hosting a mobile mammogram event, where a bus comes to our main office and offers private screenings all day long.
We want to make health benefits as accessible as possible. Because the reality is a lot of people know they need to get screened, but it can be hard to find time in a busy life. It’s a lot like the annual flu shot clinics that National Grid Renewables hosts for employees. The goal is to meet people where they’re at and eliminate as many barriers as possible to getting important health care.
Both the fundraising and the future plans for the mobile screening come back to a core focus that National Grid Renewables shares with our parent company, National Grid: We want to do the right thing. We usually talk about this in terms of our community focus — supporting the communities where our projects are located. But we’re also committed to supporting our employee community. Whether it’s taking a little time and money to help this underfunded area of research, taking time to call attention to breast cancer awareness, or giving our employees the time to get screening.
