Lee National Denim Day

Lee National Denim Day is a single-day fundraiser created by Lee Jeans to support the Women's Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. Every year, on the first Friday in October breast cancer awareness month, people nationwide are asked to wear their jeans and donate $5 in support of breast cancer research.

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Program History

Lee National Denim Day is one of the largest single-day fundraisers for breast cancer in the world. Each year, on the first Friday in October National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Lee Jeans encourages millions of people nationwide to wear their favorite jeans and make a $5 donation to support the fight against breast cancer.

Now in its 12th year, Lee National Denim Day has raised more than $66 million in the fight against breast cancer. In 2006, people at nearly 18,000 companies and organizations wore denim on Lee National Denim Day.

Program Beneficiaries

Funds raised from Lee National Denim Day benefit the Women’s Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry Foundation [1] and will help to:

• Establish the Lee Jeans Translational Laboratories to accelerate promising treatment research for new targeted therapies, and increase patient access to some of the most significant clinical trials in the nation

• Support the EIF’s Breast Biomarker Discovery Project, a multi-year effort led by world-class scientists to develop a blood test for early detection of breast cancer

• Create web-based and print resources for the National Breast Cancer Coalition that will offer individuals with breast cancer evidence-based information to help them make more informed decisions about breast cancer risk, diagnosis and treatments options.

For more information about Denim Day, visit [2].

Celebrity spokespersons

• 2007 - Actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays detective Olivia Benson on Law and Order:SVU is the 2007 Lee National Denim Day ambassador, and is dedicating her involvement to her childhood friend who lost her battle with breast cancer in Spring 2007. Also supporting the program in 2007 via team fundraising pages are musician and television star Billy Ray Cyrus, and actresses Gabrielle Union and Kerry Washington.

• 2006 - Actor Pierce Brosnan, who played British superspy James Bond, was the 2006 spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day. Brosnan's first wife, Australian actress Cassandra Harris, died due to ovarian cancer, and he has been a cancer advocate ever since.[3]

• 2005 - Actors James Denton and Ricardo Antonio Chavira, stars of the hit TV show Desperate Housewives, joined forces to help raise $8.5 million to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Lee National Denim Day®. The mothers of both actors lost their lives to breast cancer. [4]

• 2004 - Actor Charlie Sheen, star of the hit TV show Two and a Half Men, was the 2004 spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day. A close friend of his lost her life to breast cancer, and Charlie wanted to help find a cure for the disease. [5]

• 2003 - Actress Christina Applegate, who is particularly well-known for playing Kelly Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children, was the 2003 spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day. Christina's mother, Nancy Priddy, is a breast cancer survivor. [6]

• 2002 - Actress Melina Kanakaredes, star of the CBS TV show CSI:NY as Detective Stella Bonasera, was the 2002 spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day. A friend of hers was diagnosed with breast cancer. [7]

• 2001 - Actress Lucy Liu, co-star in the film Charlie's Angels and on TV's Ally McBeal, was the 2001 spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day. Liu was once diagnosed with a non-cancerous breast lump. [8]

• 2000 - Actor Rob Lowe, perhaps best known for playing Sam Seaborn in the TV show The West Wing, was the first male spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day. His grandmother and great-grandmother both suffered from breast cancer. [9]

• 1999 - Actress Patricia Arquette, who stars as the psychic Allison DuBois on NBC's TV show Medium, was the 1999 spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day. Patricia's mother died from breast cancer in 1997. [10]

• 1998 - Actress Yasmine Bleeth, most famous for her acting role as Caroline Holden on the worldwide-syndicated TV show Baywatch, was the 1998 spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day. Yasmine's mother died from inflammatory breast cancer when Yasmine was only 20 years old. [11]

• 1996 - Professional Basketball star Rebecca Lobo, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor, was the 1996 spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day. In 1996, Rebecca and her mother, RuthAnn Lobo, collaborated on a book entitled The Home Team [12], which dealt with RuthAnn's battle with breast cancer.

Trivia

The manufacturer of Lee Jeans, VF Corporation, is also a leader in the manufacture of intimate apparel such as Vassarette®, Bestform®, and Lily of France® and has been around for more than 118 years.

See also

• Lee Jeans

External links

• Lee National Denim Day
• Lee Jeans