Jersey Mike’s donates extra $500K to The Valerie Fund

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — Jersey Mike’s Subs is pledging $500,000 to The Valerie Fund, in addition to donating the proceeds of its Day of Giving, Jersey Mike’s CEO and founder Peter Cancro said in a surprise announcement this week.

Mr. Cancro, standing alongside stunned Valerie Fund staff members, made the announcement at the Point Pleasant Beach location on Wednesday, which was the sub shop chain’s Day of Giving.
The Valerie Fund, one of the beneficiaries of Jersey Mike’s Month of Giving in New Jersey, is a nonprofit organization serving more than 6,000 children in New Jersey with cancer and blood disorders.

Throughout the month, customers have encouraged to round up their order total to the nearest dollar or donate $1, $3 or $5 to the charity partnered with that location. The campaign culminated on the Day of Giving, Wednesday, March 27, when all sales — not just the profits — made that day are to be donated to New Jersey’s The Valerie Fund and more than 200 other organizations across the country.

“We’ve been around for 48 years; we have eight treatment centers and we treat more than 6,000 kids with cancer and blood disorders,” Bunny Flanders, director of marketing and communications of The Valerie Fund, told The Ocean Star last week. “The original mission, which is a really beautiful thing, was to treat kids with cancer close to home.”

Mr. Cancro explained to The Ocean Star how the Day of Giving was inspired by philanthropy in the local restaurant business.

“When I took over 49 years ago — March of my senior year in high school…Bob Hoffman of Hoffman’s Ice Cream and Jack Baker from the Lobster Shanty gave unconditionally to the youth, the first aid, the kids’ programs; being a recipient of that in high school, when I took over the shop, I said that this is what we’re going to do,” Mr. Cancro said. “That’s where the mission statement started – to give, to make a difference in someone’s life. It’s what I learned from those two business mentors of mine.”

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