Graeter's helps neighbors in need in local community

Graeter’s raised more than $52,000 for The Cure Starts Now Foundation during its annual Cones for the Cure campaign this fall, when stores gave away free scoops of Elena’s Blueberry Pie ice cream—a flavor that was created out of the ice cream parlor's and nonprofit’s collaborative fundraising efforts.
 
Chip Graeter, who co-owns Graeter’s, says the partnership started when he wanted to return a favor to Keith Desserich, founder of The Cure Starts Now.
 
“We were helping a family—a neighbor of ours whose dad was stricken with cancer,” Graeter says. “And Desserich’s business did carpet cleaning and things of the sort, but the house needed work done on it, and he was nice enough to donate some of the work to help this family.”
 
The two men met prior to the creation of The Cure Starts Now, but Graeter says he told Desserich that if he could ever help him with anything, to let him know.
 
“Unfortunately in 2006, his daughter [Elena] was diagnosed with brain cancer, and she died less than a year later,” Graeter says. “Hence a foundation was born.”
 
Desserich contacted Graeter to ask for help with The Cure Starts Now Foundation’s gala and auction, for which Graeter donated a behind-the-scenes experience where an auction winner could create a new flavor of ice cream—Elena’s Blueberry Pie.
 
Since the initial auction, Graeter’s has continued to raise awareness through its ice cream and coupon books that are given out during each year’s campaign, for which this year’s donations were higher than ever.
 
“It’s a really great local family that unfortunately experienced a tragedy, and it’s a local organization—but it reaches worldwide,” Graeter says. “Their main goal is to find a cure for [pediatric] brain cancer, which then will open up the doors to finding cures for many cancers, and I’m hopeful that they get to accomplish it.”

Do Good: 

• Support The Cure Starts Now Foundation by donating.

• Reach out to The Cure Starts Now Foundation for support.

• Like Cones for the Cure on Facebook.

By Brittany York
Brittany York is a professor of English composition at both the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.