Colgate and Woolworths team up for a brighter future

Colgate and Woolworths have donated $20,000 to each of five children's hospitals around Australia to assist with children's oral health education programs. The money was raised through Colgate's children's oral health education program, Bright Smiles Bright Futures™, that conducted a range of initiatives in Woolworths stores nationally in late 2006.

Bright Smiles Bright Futures has been running for 10 years now and in that time has donated over 2 million samples to Australian children and families, teaching them to look after their smiles so they last a lifetime.

In this instance, the $100,000 was raised through various promotions in Woolworths stores that involved a percentage of revenue from selected Colgate products sold during a particular timeframe being put aside for this cause.

The facilities that received the donation were the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide; Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital; Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney; Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne; and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth.

Hospitals like Westmead were chosen because it has a dedicated Child Dental Health facility staffed by paediatric dentists and the money donated will be used to help fund a visiting dentist to the unit.

During the month of March this year, a similar promotion saw 10 cents from each purchase of selected Colgate toothpaste from Woolworths being donated to The Smith Family. The nationwide 'Give a child a smile' initiative, aimed at raising funds to help increase awareness of the importance of oral health and achieve healthy smiles for life, will use the funds to develop an oral health and healthy eating training program for community settings and parents of young children in Australia.