Net proceeds from the sale of Hero Allograft are donated to charities benefiting children with life-threatening medical conditions.
Encinitas Brownie Troop Kicked off Season of Giving Friday December 5th by Donating Check from Girl Scout Cookie Proceeds to Make-A-Wish® San Diego
Troop Joined Carlsbad Company Spinal Elements®, Recipient of Make-A-Wish San Diego’s 2014 Corporate Partner Award, in Hosting Ceremony Honoring 4-Year-Old Wish Kid Benjamin from San Marcos
Carlsbad, Calif – December 8, 2014 — Spinal Elements, Inc., a San Diego-based spine technology company, celebrated a very special wish it recently granted to Benjamin, a local Wish Kid in a festive ceremony held on Friday at their corporate offices in Carlsbad. 16 girls from Encinitas Brownie Troop 1050 were on hand to give holiday cheer, greet Benjamin with homemade signs, and presented Chris Sichel, President and CEO, Make-A-Wish San Diego, a miniature donation check for $100 –proceeds from their 2014 cookie sales. Spinal Elements is the recipient of the Make-A-Wish San Diego 2014 Corporate Partner Award, and has donated almost $100,000 to MakeA-Wish San Diego in just two short years. These donations are made possible by Spinal Elements’ Hero Allograft product and the surgeons and hospitals that use it. Spinal Elements donates net profits from the sale of its Hero Allograft to charities benefiting children with life-threatening medical conditions. The company sees allograft as a gift, and Hero Allograft honors that gift and pays it forward to children that need it the most.
Jason Blain, president, Spinal Elements presented Benjamin with his very own “Hero” cape and gifted the family a special video montage of Benjamin’s journey. Kaitlyn Blain, daughter of Jason Blain, is the reason that her Brownie Troop donated their cookie proceeds to Make-A-Wish San Diego. Kaitlyn was aware of Make-A-Wish because of her Dad’s company, and knew about Benjamin’s Wish. When Brownie troop leaders asked the girls where they thought the proceeds should go, Kaitlyn gave a presentation about Benjamin and Make-A-Wish, and the girls voted for the proceeds to go there. Kaitlyn presented her Brownie Troop’s check to Chris Sichel, President and CEO, Make-A-Wish San Diego, at the ceremony.
ABOUT SPINAL ELEMENTS’ HERO ALLOGRAFT:
Spinal Elements offers surgeons and hospitals across the country the opportunity to pledge to use only allograft tissue from companies that do not profit from the transfer of that tissue whenever clinically feasible. Allograft is human tissue that is obtained by way of an authorized gift of a donor and/or their family, and can then be turned into scores of medical products. Every year, 1.5 million of these products are given to American patients.
Spinal Elements chose to name its first allograft tissue product “Hero®” to honor those whose donation made the tissue donation possible. Although many companies earn significant profits from the sale of allograft, Spinal Elements has chosen to donate net profits from the sale of its Hero allograft to charities benefiting children with life-threatening medical conditions, such as Make-A-Wish® and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Hero was launched in October, 2012 at the North American Spine Society (NASS) convention. Spinal Elements donated over $300,000 from net proceeds of Hero in 2013, and estimates it will donate an additional $300,000 in the second year of the Hero program for a total of $600,000 since inception.
