Like many generous Huntsville business owners, Shoppers Drug Mart owner and lead pharmacist, Dana Murdy, believes in giving back to the community. She and her staff have chosen to support the Huntsville Hospital Foundation for the past eight years, and this year donated $9,326 to bring their total amount donated to more than $30,000 targeted at women’s health issues.
Those funds have been raised through a series of store-level campaigns and a Shoppers Drug Mart grant.
“When local people pass through our store for a few weeks in September and October, we ask if they will donate two dollars,” said Murdy. “We always support a charity that has something to do with women. For the last few years, the money has gone to the mammography suite at Huntsville Hospital.” In 2015, that campaign raised $4326.
At a corporate level, Shoppers also designates a pool of money for charitable donations. Murdy requested and received a $5000 grant which was presented to the Huntsville Hospital Foundation at Golf Fore the Girls in June.
“Over the past five years, most of Shoppers’ corporate donations have gone to women’s health issues,” said Murdy. “Shoppers was the lead sponsor for One Walk to Conquer Cancer (previously known as The Weekend to End Women’s Cancers) for five years and now they are focusing on women’s mental health issues.”
The store has also supported Chrysalis in the past and is open to helping other women’s charities in the future. “If someone came forward with a women’s charity that could use some support, then we would look at it to see if there was somewhere we could find money in the Shopper’s organization to support it.” They will continue to support the Huntsville Hospital Foundation because “the breast screening suite is always being updated and has a new digital mammography machine that needs to be paid for.”
Murdy, who has also been a member of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation board since 2012, believes that all local businesses should support the community in some way. “The hospital is my passion because without it we don’t have a vibrant community. We want to keep it as equipped as we can. When people move to a community, a hospital is one of the things they look for. Whether you choose to support the hospital or some other program that’s running in the community like the soup kitchen or a local children’s sports team, you’re giving back to the people who make your business viable. My business is here because people support me and my business is here because I have a great staff that cares about the community. We want to give back. I think it’s important for every business to look at it that way.”
Jody Cecile says
Thank you, Dana and your staff for raising funds for women’s health in our community! Also thanks to SDM for such a generous grant to the Golf fore the Girls fundraising efforts!
Morgan Earl says
So many tanks, Dana to you and your awesome staff! And a warm thanks for being always available with some valuable advice.