Battling Breast Cancer with Impatiens

For the second consecutive garden season, home gardeners across North America have the opportunity to support breast cancer education and research -- just by purchasing beautiful impatiens bedding plants in the "Memories, Milestones & Miracles" campaign.

The exclusive collection of impatiens -- the "Accent Miracle Collection" will be sold at more than 300 participating garden centers in the U.S. and Canada this spring and summer. The second-year campaign is geared to start around Mother's Day and last well into summer. Last year, "Memories, Milestones & Miracles" raised $136,000 for The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the nation's largest private funder of research dedicated solely to breast cancer. The industry-first campaign was lauded throughout the nursery industry, and leaders even presented the "Accent Miracle Collection" to First Lady Hillary Clinton at the White House.

"Memories, Milestones & Miracles" is the brainchild of Goldsmith Seeds, Inc., one of the world's largest wholesale breeders of hybrid flower seed, and the hybridizer of "Accent" impatiens. Ladies' Home Journal magazine will feature the campaign in its June issue. What makes this groundbreaking campaign particularly unique is the "miracle network" -- everyone involved in creating the flowering product including growers, container/tag manufacturers and retailers -- are donating a minimum of 10-percent of their proceeds to The Komen Foundation. Goldsmith Seeds got the program off and running by donating 100-percent of the proceeds from its "Accent Miracle Collection" impatiens seed.

The "Accent Miracle Collection" from Goldsmith Seeds features a special mixture of three pink shades of impatiens, which coordinates with the pink breast cancer awareness symbol. They will be sold already budded and blooming in everything from flats and 4-inch pots to 12-inch hanging baskets and ceramic containers. Participating retailers will have the option of selling a pink, ribbon-shaped Swarovski crystal pin, which symbolizes breast cancer awareness. A minimum of 20-percent of the pin proceeds will go to The Komen Foundation.

"Our goals are simple," says Joel Goldsmith, president of Goldsmith Seeds, Inc., headquartered in Gilroy, California. "We need to increase breast cancer awareness by raising funds for education, screening and research, and align our industry with a cause worth fighting." Goldsmith has a personal interest in the subject since his 91-year-old grandmother has been a breast cancer survivor for the past 15 years. "Breast cancer seems to touch almost everybody's life in some form or another," he adds.

Breast cancer claims the lives of almost 44,000 American women annually. It is the leading cause of death for women ages 35-54. During this decade, it is estimated that more than 1.8 million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. This is not about frightening statistics; these are real women with real lives. With the help of Komen outreach efforts, hundreds of thousands receive the light-saving message of early detection.

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