Hope Floats fundraiser to support breast cancer patients renamed Wrapped in Hope

The Wrapsody retail shops in Hoover and Auburn will, for the eighth consecutive year, host a special fundraiser to help kick-off Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.

They also will raise money for care and support of cancer patients. The Wrapped in Hope event — formerly called Hope Floats — will be at the stores from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1.

All Wrapsody customers will receive an honorary ribbon with each purchase so they can honor or remember a friend, family member or loved one with breast cancer in both stores’ celebration windows.

“We want [Wrapped in Hope] to truly be about wrapping those going through breast cancer in hope and love — celebrating their fight, their daily struggles and caring for those that are faced with the hardship of this overwhelming disease,” said Wrapsody co-owner Sarah Brown.

In Hoover, Wrapsody will raise money for the Angel Squad at the UAB Kirklin Clinic, and the Auburn store will raise money for the East Alabama Medical Center Breast Fund, Brown said; 10 percent of all sales that week will be given directly to the Angel Squad and to EAMC.

“The Angel Squad … truly cares for those going through cancer in such a direct way” and are “angels to those that are touched by them,” Brown said. “Many of them are breast-cancer survivors themselves, so they are truly able to wrap them in hope and love due to their own experiences.”

Each store also will hold a raffle for a $500 Wrapsody gift card. Raffle tickets are available with a $10 donation. All proceeds go to Angel Squad or UAMC.

Brown and her co-owner, Terry Shea, will not hold a balloon release this year — the main focus of Hope Floats — due to environmental concerns after the balloons pop, Brown said. In 2015, employees and customers released thousands of pink-and-white balloons at a celebration in October.

The series of cancer fundraisers at Wrapsody began in 2009.

“We honestly were inspired by customers and friends that had breast cancer,” Brown said.

One of those customers was Rashel Ross, a survivor who had started a foundation to help cancer patients obtain meals and pay bills, Brown said.

“The first year we actually gave the money to a local lady fighting breast cancer,” she said.

Brown credits the store manager at the time, Merri Crow, with the idea of using balloons to honor or to remember patients as a way of celebrating something hopeful.

The annual events have benefited such entities as the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer research and The Joy to Life Foundation in Montgomery. The events in 2015 raised almost $10,000 for the Angel Squad and the EAMC.

For more information, call 989-7277 or 334-887-7447 or go to wrapsodyonline.com.