When 10-year-old Carolyn Coveney danced for joy in the Giant aisle at the sight of Fla-Vor-Ice freezer pops, it wasn't because of her sweet tooth.
The West Springfield, Va. girl is a survivor of Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, an aggressive and common form of childhood cancer, and her elation came from the packaging of the popsicles, which is the first commercial packaging to bear a gold ribbon for childhood cancer awareness.
"She was so happy to see it," said Carolyn's mother Jennifer Click. "Every year we go in the grocery store in October and see all the pink ribbons (for Breast Cancer Awareness Month) and she says why don't they have gold ribbons in September, which is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month?"
Thanks to years of effort by Kensington-based Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation, Jel-Sert, the company that makes the Fla-Vor-Ice pops, agreed to put a ribbon on the box with information about how to donate to Candlelighters.
Ruth Hoffman, the executive director of the foundation, said for now the ribbon is intended only to increase awareness—no donations come from each package of pops purchased, for example—but "we're hoping this is the first of many" companies that will participate in the campaign.
She said breast cancer research has made great strides due to similar marketing techniques, and the word breast, which was taboo to even say in some 1980s circles is now just acknowledgement of a disease that kills about 40,000 people a year.
"Now you see it out of context, you know, like a pink blender, and you know that it's for breast cancer research."
Hoffman said the same understanding needs to come about for childhood cancer, which is the number one disease killer of American kids, but the campaign has been hard to initiate.
"It's been difficult because companies would say, well that's sad and we don't want our product associated with something that makes people sad, you know, kids that get cancer," Hoffman said. "(Now) [w]e can point to (Jel Sert) and say, that you know, this company didn't look at it like this is something sad, they look at it like this is something a lot of people don't know about."
"I was very new to this, in shock when my child had it," said Traci Robinson, a Virginia woman whose daughter Ja'Nae was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma at age 18. She said she hopes the new ribbon helps direct more funding to Candlelighters, which provides support services to families with recently-diagnosed children.
"They were actually the first support group that came up to the room to greet us," at the hospital when Ja'nae was diagnosed, Robinson said. "I hope it helps them, they're so important."
Click agreed.
"I didn't realize kids get cancer until it was mine. It's not something people think about and people don't realize there's very little money designated for childhood cancer," she said. "If we just had more interest in it and more support, our doctors have said there's a cure within reach."
