blue sky scrubs are making cancer patients feel good about themselves. Through Project Blue Sky, blue sky scrubs is able to provide patients with a fashion forward way to cover the most outward sign of sickness, hair loss.
“One thing cancer patients fear the most is losing their hair as it is a sign to the world that they are sick. Our hats offer them a cheerful and sophisticated way to cover their hair loss.”
With every purchase, blue sky scrubs sends a free to hat to either a cancer patient at MD Anderson or the purchasing customer. "Project Blue Sky is a way of harnessing the care and compassion of our customers and passing it along to those struggling with cancer," says CEO David Marquardt. "One thing cancer patients fear the most is losing their hair as it is a sign to the world that they are sick. Our hats offer them a cheerful and sophisticated way to cover their hair loss." During her residency, co-founder, Shelby Marquardt, MD spent a great deal of time at MD Anderson. During that time, she wore her scrub hats during surgery and quickly realized that cancer patients were particularly interested in them. They seemed to be inspired by the luxury fabrics and wondered where they might get one for themselves.
Since its inception, blue sky scrubs has always had a focus on philanthropy. Over the last five years, not only have they given away tens of thousands of scrub hats to their customers but they also donated over $150,000 of designer products. "We don't compare our selves to Tom's shoes. We were already giving when we learned the story of Tom's Shoes and how it was changing peoples lives but if you want to call us 'the' Toms shoes of scrubs that's fine," says David. We hope to inspire other companies in this difficult time to channel their giving efforts toward a specific population of people in need. The company was originally founded on a collection of scrub hats, so cancer patients seemed like a natural fit. This new focus made both the employees of blue sky and their customers feel like they are working toward a great good.
Our word is spreading. The best thing about this project is the people it attracts. Here is one of our favorite example of a motivational story: "After undergoing chemotherapy at MD Anderson in Houston I finally got to wear a blue sky scrubs hat. I feel so much better now. This is a big ego booster."
Approximately 11 million people are newly diagnosed with cancer each year. Millions of those will require chemotherapy. Some say that they fear chemotherapy as much as they fear the mortality from their cancer.
Project Blue Sky is immensely important to the employees and owners of blue sky scrubs. Their patented hat designs are $24 and can be found exclusively at www.blueskyscrubs.com.
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