Eleven years ago, as most kids were putting on their costumes to go trick-or-treating, my 8-month-old niece was being diagnosed with Leukemia. The world stopped that day for our family and our little fighter, who is now 12 years old, and a healthy two-time cancer survivor! Yes, two times – as we were gearing up to celebrate her 5-year anniversary of being in remission, she was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor.

This is why MultiVu’s partnership with Northwestern Mutual over the years is so near and dear to my heart. Sure, I love working with all our clients to develop integrated distribution strategies, but Northwestern Mutual’s dedication to childhood cancer holds a special place for me. In fact, this year marks the 10-year anniversary of the Northwestern Mutual Childhood Cancer Program, and with that they deepened their decade-long commitment to fighting childhood cancer with a $2 million donation to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation which we announced through this Multichannel News Release. This donation supported the organization’s Crazy 8 Initiative designed to bring together scientists to collaborate and support innovative treatments for incurable cancers.

But they didn’t stop with this mega research donation. They continued to spread goodwill to families impacted by childhood cancer by partnering with Special Spaces to surprise 10 children battling cancer with dream bedroom makeovers. Volunteers from Northwestern Mutual's local offices have been involved in this surprise dream bedroom makeover in 10 cities across the country: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dubuque, Iowa, Buffalo, New York, Chicago, Illinois, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Indianapolis, Indiana, St. Louis, Missouri, Omaha, Nebraska, Cleveland, Ohio, and Boca Raton, Florida. The MultiVu team has been enthusiastically following along this journey since they launched this initiative in September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month by updating this Communications Hub and distributing it each month to feature the excitement of the children as their bedroom makeovers are revealed.

Local Northwestern Mutual financial advisors also get involved with this important cause. At MultiVu, we’ve had the pleasure of helping local offices amplify pediatric cancer fundraising events, like the Lemon Drop the Mic concert recently in Tampa Bay, through multichannel strategies that have secured localized broadcast and digital exposure. With the help of its dedicated employees and network of financial advisors, since 2012, the company has contributed more than $45 million to the cause and has funded more than 520,000 hours of period oncology research.

It is an honor to partner with the Northwestern Mutual and bring awareness to the Childhood Cancer Program. The Foundation’s mission is to improve the lives of children and families in need, and they certainly don’t miss a beat when it comes to fulfilling this undertaking for children courageously fighting cancer.

ABOUT THE EXPERT: Heather Schwanke

Heather Schwanke serves as a Senior Strategist at Cision MultiVu with over 20 years of experience in helping clients effectively reach and engage their intended audiences with integrated multichannel solutions. She develops content creation and data-driven distribution plans and serves as a resource for the MultiVu and Cision account teams to help strengthen partnerships through strategic collaboration. Heather pulls from her experience in business development and client management across multiple industries with a broad range of needs whether it is B2B, B2C or for internal PR/marketing outreach. Heather has a degree in Communications from St. John Fisher University and lives outside of Philly with her husband and three boys. When she isn’t architecting distribution strategies, she is shuffling her boys around to their sporting events and cheering from the sidelines as their #1 fan.

About MultiVu

MultiVu, a Cision/PR Newswire division, produces and places compelling content strategically across multiple channels globally to deliver targeted results and drive desired engagement. Created in 2002 from network news veterans and media relations professionals, MultiVu has grown into a content creation and media strategy company, leading in the broadcast communications industry. More information can be found on www.multivu.com.