Berlin, NJ – August 24, 2017 – During yesterday’s “Share Your Colors” event at A.C. Moore’s headquarters in Berlin, NJ, hundreds of team members sorted through the more than 19,000 pounds of crayons collected for national nonprofit The Crayon Initiative. The pre-loved crayons will be upcycled into 95,000 new packs to be donated to children’s hospitals in the Greater Philadelphia Area including The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper.
A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts also pledged to donate $1 for every pound of crayons collected, presenting The Crayon Initiative Founder Bryan Ware with a check for $19,308 to further the organization’s mission to improve the lives of hospitalized children through art and creativity.
“Thank you to all of our generous customers who donated crayons to this year’s collection—especially the countless children who engaged their schools and communities to make a difference,” says Pepe Piperno, owner and CEO of A.C. Moore. “Having opportunities to create can reduce stress, ease anxiety and prevent boredom during a young person’s hospital stay. Through our partnership with The Crayon Initiative, we hope to make these children’s lives just a bit brighter and more colorful.”
The Crayon Initiative is a national non-profit that recycles unwanted crayons into unlimited possibilities. The new crayons are created with a special mold, making them thicker and easier to grasp for young patients and those with special needs, and flat on one side to prevent them from rolling off hospital trays. The organization’s mission is to preserve the environment and enrich the lives of hospitalized children through art and imagination. The Crayon Initiative has collected 11.5 million crayons reducing environmental waste and donated more than 31,000 new packs of crayons to pediatric patients in 55 hospitals in 14 different states.
A.C. Moore is a specialty retailer offering a vast selection of arts, crafts and floral merchandise to a broad demographic of customers. The first A.C. Moore store opened in Moorestown, New Jersey in 1985, and has expanded to more than 135 stores. Stores are located in the Eastern United States from Maine to Florida. A.C. Moore is devoted to being the first choice for product selection, value and service that inspires and fulfills unlimited creative possibilities. The assortment, convenience, service and pricing differentiate them from their competitors. The assortment of merchandise consists of more than 60,000 stock keeping units, or SKUs, with approximately 40,000 SKUs offered at each store at any one time. They also offer custom framing in the majority of their stores. In-store events and programs for children and adults provide hands-on arts and crafts experience and encourage the creativity of customers. For more information about A.C. Moore, visit http://www.acmoore.com/about.