Rite Aid Supports Children’s Health and Wellness

For Rite Aid district manager Carla Burke, supporting the company’s corporate partnership with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is a natural fit. Carla’s first job with the company was as a manager at Rite Aid’s Laburnum Avenue store, not far from Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s (CHoR) Brook Road Campus.

Rite Aid has been supporting CMN Hospitals since 1994. Through Rite Aid’s annual springtime Miracle Balloon campaign as well as local special events, the company has donated more than $75 million, making Rite Aid the sixth-largest CMN Hospitals corporate partner. In Richmond, 33 stores support the effort through the Miracle Balloon campaign and events like bake sales, spaghetti dinners and last year, an Easter egg hunt at CHoR’s Brook Road Campus. In the last five years alone, local Rite Aid pharmacies have raised $209,303, with more than $40,000 raised in 2016.

“We want to support the health and welfare of our communities, but not everyone is healthy, and we know that,” said Carla of the need for CHoR and its community support.

Through the Miracle Balloon campaign, Rite Aid associates ask, and customers give, one dollar at a time. Carla said associates love the campaign, especially meeting the children who benefit from the hospital’s care, and customers feel good knowing their donations make a difference. As the seven-week campaign progresses, Carla said associates get creative with their donation requests, often asking customers to “round up” their bill to the closest dollar or wearing crazy hats or aprons with Miracle Balloons pinned to them.

“We want it to be fun,” said Carla, who enjoyed answering phones at CMN Hospitals’ Radiothon last December. “It’s such a good cause and so contagious.”