CoffeeWeek, a charity event to benefit cancer treatment, is enticing coffee drinkers to give a little bit more with each morning cup of joe this week.
The weeklong event aims to raise money for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s cancer treatment through drink purchases and donations at six participating coffee shops around the Valley. The event began Monday and runs through Sunday.
Participation requires a donation of 50 cents or more in exchange for a complimentary small cup of coffee. Coffee drinkers also have the option of buying other coffee products, and adding a donation onto the normal price.
CoffeePledge, a program of the Social Good Foundation that aims to raise funds for cancer research and awareness, hosts the event.
The Fair Trade Cafe, including its location in Civic Space Park, is taking part.
“We’re about community — supporting everyone and everything,” said Stephanie Vasquez, owner of Fair Trade Cafe. “This was right up our alley.”
Vasquez said she had no idea how much money to expect from participation, but Monday’s event opening showed a good response.
Aspen Decker, executive director of CoffeePledge, said his inspiration for the charity was his mom’s 15-year battle with cancer.
The organization started out as a social media movement and used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to test how many people would actually pledge to buy coffee to help cancer patients.
As of Tuesday evening, the #CoffeeWeek hashtag had more than 15,000 tweets. Other social media outlets reported over 5,500 CoffeeWeek photos and about 70 videos from the event so far.
Decker and his business partner, Marcos Arce, decided to tap into coffee shops for a charity event because of the number of people who drink coffee on a daily basis.
“We wanted something different because we’re fighting against hundreds of other charities for the same funds,” Decker said.
Journalism freshman Julianne DeFilippis participated in the event and said one downside was that shops served hot coffee, which deterred her from participating in hot weather.
Lucas Machado, also a freshman journalism student, said, “I didn’t really hear about (the event). I think they could advertise it more and they would get a better turn out.”
Decker said 100 percent of funds go to help cancer patients. They chose the Phoenix Children’s Hospital since Decker said it had an immediate need for the money, and stood out because of its accountability. Decker said the hospital had 13,000 cancer treatments last year, making it the largest children’s cancer treatment facility in the state.
CoffeePledge intends to expand to multiple charity events in the future. Decker said the organization would like to have the event in Los Angeles and San Diego and spread from there.
DeFilippis said she learned about the event by word of mouth.
“Any excuse to have coffee is great, and it makes you feel better about spending all this money knowing that it counts,” she said.
Contact the reporter at jessica.zook@asu.edu
