February 1 is National Wear Red Day – the day set aside by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for Americans to help raise awareness about women’s heart disease by wearing red. The month of February has also been designated as American Heart Month. This day also brings awareness to the government’s The Hearth Truth campaign: “Heart disease doesn’t care what you wear – it’s the #1 killer of women.” Heart disease strikes a resonant chord in me because it is a common ailment in my family.  I will be wearing red to show my support, even though I only own one piece of red clothing – my LA Clippers t-shirt. It’ll have to do.

What can businesses do to support National Wear Red Day?

The first obvious answer is to encourage their own employees to wear red. It’s as simple as an internal group email alert or memo, a posting on the lunchroom board, or a paycheck insert. A company can also actively support this day to their customers and clients through such methods as a banner on the company website, a press release, or a poster in its stores. The NHLBI provides an excellent set of resources on this webpage designed to help people promote this day, including everything I’ve already mentioned, plus red dress pins, media alerts, PSA radio scripts, a flyer, a newsletter article, fact sheets, and more—it’s a great resource full of useful materials.

It’s all in an effort to help raise awareness for heart disease. I also think a company helps strengthen its own culture and sense of community within the company by actively supporting such worthy days as National Wear Red Day for heart disease and other causes to support the fight against cancer, lung disease, etc. A company’s employees can rally behind such causes, finding and enjoying a sense of unity that will help worker productivity and job satisfaction. I don’t think it would be a detrimental distraction to the employees. And wouldn’t it be great to know that your company is actively supporting the fight against heart disease? Wouldn’t that make you proud of your company?

A company can also donate money or time to show support for National Wear Red Day. The NHLBI and the American Heart Association both provide various resources and methods to help fund and donate to the fight against heart disease.

Businesses possess much power to do that which is good by supporting worthy causes—often they can do it for free. In the process, the business will find an increased sense of unity and positive spirit within its own workforce.