Fred Astaire and Variety Charities

We are pleased to announce that FRED ASTAIRE DANCE STUDIOS has partnered with Variety to raise awareness, as well as dollars, for Variety’s National Mobility Program. Through the creation of a special edition Top Hat pins available for purchase at Fred Astaire Dance Studio, local area children with mobility challenges will receive the wheelchairs, walkers, and prosthetic limbs they so desperately need.

National Mobility Program
Variety has been serving children with special needs for over 75 years, and we have found that what these children want most is to be active members of their communities. In order to achieve this, they need what most of us take for granted: access. For children with disabilities, this means having the freedom to go where they want to, either on their own, or if they need assistance, reducing the impact they make on those helping them. With the advent of many new mobility technologies, this access is becoming available to more and more children.

Many of the local Variety chapters have seen this need, and have already been focused on providing children in their communities with prosthetic limbs, walkers, wheelchairs, and specially design adaptive bikes. In the coming year, these diverse efforts will be unified into a single national program, Variety’s National Mobility Program. And while it is a national program, it will still be true to our roots: enabling local communities to better serve their children with special needs.

Variety's Gold Heart Campaign
The Gold Heart Pin Campaign is Variety International's signature fundraising endeavor worldwide. Chapters throughout the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Israel, Barbados, France and Canada participate in the campaign that begins in November and goes through the end of March, with the crescendo of sales revolving around Valentine's Day.
Like Variety itself, the Gold Heart campaign started simply and has since grown to become our signature fundraising initiative. It all began in England in 1991 with an idea from Variety International board member Marsha Rae Ratcliff, based on a children's storybook she had written. In 1999, through the dedication of Los Angeles Board member Clark Woods, who is now with MGM Pictures, the Gold Heart campaign was brought to the motion picture industry and has become a multi-million dollar campaign that raises money for children in need around the world.

To promote the Gold Heart campaign in the United States, Variety partners with major motion picture theater chains. More than 2000 theaters around the country sell the pins and display promotional posters, counter cards, in-theatre slides, film trailers and other materials. During the 2005-2006 campaign, the in-theater promotional materials were seen over 440 million times. This partnership between Variety and the motion picture industry has raised $95 million dollars worldwide. Additionally, many local radio stations and cable channels support their local chapters by airing Gold Heart pin public service announcements.