Breast cancer affects millions of people in North America every year. As an organization with thousands of women working on our team across nearly 300 retail locations in North America, breast cancer is something that’s affected us personally. It’s affected our team members directly, it’s affected the spouses of those working with us, and it’s affected people we know and love.

For this reason, it’s been our charity of choice for over 20 years now and we’ve undertaken various initiatives over the years to support breast cancer research and find ways to end it.

Here are 7 ways we have fought breast cancer and continue to do so.

01 Annual Walk on Deck at National Conference

For over 15 years, we’ve been doing a walk on deck fundraiser at our annual National Conference. The conference is attended by corporate team members as well as all our franchise partners and takes place on a cruise ship at sea. The Walk on Deck includes about 300 people, all dressed in pink, coming out on deck to support the cause. But it’s more than just a simple walk.

We have a DJ blasting music, a fitness and warmup session, a costumed mascot cheering us on, and every one of us wearing bright pink. It’s a fantastic sight that’s hard to miss by anyone on board – generating tremendous awareness for the cause. To encourage donations, everyone who donates enters a raffle to win prizes. Sometimes, multiple cruises are given away to increase submissions and get the most donations. All proceeds are donated to organizations that support breast cancer research.

02 Cruise for the Cure

This is an initiative started by Barry Foot, an Expedia Cruises Franchise Partner. After a 5-year long battle, Barry lost his wife to breast cancer in 2009. In 2010, Barry started Cruise for the Cure in her memory. He invites people to book a cruise vacation together and wear bright pink clothes on board, generating awareness and inviting other cruisers on board to come and learn more about the cause. Several events are also organized onboard to generate more funds.

Barry and his team have sold hundreds of cruise ship staterooms over the years and a percentage of the sale is donated to Breast Cancer Canada. In total, they have donated over $290,000 over the years from all the proceeds generated over ten sailings.

But Barry’s mission is about more than just generating funds. To him, Cruise for the Cure is about traveling with your family, spending time with them, and informing people that you can cruise even after you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer – like he did with his wife. It’s a powerful message and it reminds us of the importance of cherishing time with loved ones while highlighting the power of community in driving change and collectively striving to end breast cancer.

03 Golf Tournament Fundraiser

Daniel Lemay, an Expedia Cruises’ Franchise Partner based out of Ottawa, started a Golf Tournament Fundraiser in 2019 after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. He calls the fundraiser “Nine and Dine” as it includes a 9-hole golf game followed by dinner. The event also includes a silent auction, a “Longest Drive with a Marshmallow” competition, and even games within the game. There are so many innovative touches and finer details added that it becomes a great, fun-filled event for everyone involved. This is perfect because Daniel has found that a great deal of participants are not passionate golfers, but rather people passionate about the cause of breast cancer.

Daniel is happy to report that over the course of 3 tournaments organized so far, 403 people participated in them, and hundreds more were made aware of the cause at the Golf Club. The net result has been a sum of $57,000 generated in 3 tournaments. The proceeds have been donated to various organizations supporting breast cancer patients in Ontario, Canada.

The reason it all started – Daniel’s wife – is now cancer-free and doing well. As for the fundraiser, he continues to organize the golf tournament every year and is looking forward to the next one in 2025.

04 Cruising with Hope

Carole Peterson, a Franchise Partner based in Delta, BC, has been involved with the Nite of Hope Foundation, a charity that supported women with breast cancer, since 2000.

Over 15 years ago, she started Cruising with Hope, an initiative to raise awareness and generate funds to support breast cancer research. Over the years, she has organized 15 sailings, with a total of about 1,200 participants cruising with her and her team. Onboard, she and her team organize various activities, including dressing in pink, a raffle draw for those donating funds, walks on deck, and so much more.

They donate the entire booking commission amount to Breast Cancer Canada. Over the years, they’ve managed to generate over $220,000 in total to support the cause. The next Cruising with Hope sailing embarks in January 2025 with 85 participants already booked. Carole’s dedication to the cause inspires us all to contribute to a future free from breast cancer.

05 Partnership with Celebrity Cruises

In 2022, Expedia Cruises partnered with Celebrity Cruises for our Rediscover Celebrity Sale. As we worked on the promotion together, we realized that fighting breast cancer has been a cause near and dear to both organizations over the years. So, in honor of all bookings made in the month of the promotion, Expedia Cruises and Celebrity Cruises together donated $20,000 to support breast cancer research in the US and Canada.

06 Dress and Donate for the Cause

As breast cancer research is our charity of choice, we feel it is important to raise awareness and generate funds even at our corporate headquarters in Vancouver, BC. With this in mind, we organize events in the office every year to encourage people to donate to the cause. Last year, we organized “Cupcake for the Cause” and “Dress for the Cause” to raise funds within the office. Everyone who made a contribution to our online donation page was entered to win a Gift Card through a random draw. This year, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we’re organizing a Bake Sale to raise funds.

Although these activities at the corporate office are at a smaller scale compared to our other initiatives, these activities are still meaningful, and they inspire us all to do more for the cause.

07 Raise More Challenge

This year, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, to encourage maximum participation and to drive increased awareness, we’ve set up a friendly competition between our Expedia Cruises stores. With nearly 300 stores across North America, we’ve created individual donation pages for each one of them and asked them all to reach out to their friends, family, customers, and acquaintances to generate awareness and ask for donations. The center with the most funds generated will win a Free Cruise for two.

Our goal for this friendly competition is to raise $50,000 in total from all our centers this month. As of writing this article, we’ve already achieved $38,000, which is more than half of our goal, and we have many more days to go!

The Way Forward

Over the last 20 years, through our various fundraising events and activities, we’ve collectively raised over $750,000 to support breast cancer research. But we’re not done. Breast cancer research still has a long way to go.

To that end, we will continue with our efforts to generate awareness and raise funds which will be donated to Susan G. Komen, an organization dedicated to fighting breast cancer through research.

We would really appreciate your support in our goal to end breast cancer. Join the cause by donating today!

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