This holiday and always, it’s so important to us to give back to our communities and make #RealWishes come true. Read on to see how we’ve been doing our part, and get inspired to give back on your own. Share your story with #RealWishes @Aerie!
Giving Tuesday
In celebration of #GivingTuesday, we partnered with The Girls’ Circle to host a private shopping party for 25 young women from the Bronx. The Girls’ Circle provides a safe space to help young women develop their voices and tackle challenges faced during their teen years, and also creates a sisterhood with their peers. We held a special party for these amazing ladies at our Times Square Aerie store, where each girl got to hang with an Aerie designer to talk everything from shopping to career to life advice, and got a $250 gift card to treat themselves.
We also made Giving Tuesday all about giving cozy! From 11.27 to 12.6, Aerie and AE partnered with Delivering Good to give back and donate a warm winter hat to someone in need for every winter accessory purchased online and in stores. We were so proud to donate 70,000 hats!
Sharing the love at school
To spread the giving spirit at schools across the country, we asked our #AerieREAL Ambassadors to to tell us how they wanted to give back for Giving Tuesday. From volunteering at local food banks and collecting feminine product donations for homeless women to writing letters to breast cancer patients and survivors—they accepted the challenge with open minds (and hearts!).
AEO makes #RealWishes come true
At our home office, we were so excited to bring back our Holiday Giving Trees. This year, we partnered with several local charities—including KidsVoice, Mars Home for Youth, and Beverly’s Birthdays—that support underprivileged, at-risk youth. Home office employees picked a gift wish tag from the tree and purchased a gift for a special young person. Together, we were able to make more than 125 holiday wishes come true.
For more fun around the office, AEO held their 5th Annual Turkey Bowl on 11.20. Employee players and spectators embraced the Thanksgiving spirit and raised a record $15,000 through raffle tickets and donations for several special charities and organizations:
- Giving Tree Wishes
- Anti-Defamation League
- Tree of Life Synagogue
- AEO Helping Hands (which supported AEO associates affected by the California wildfires)
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh
- UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
- Candy for our Troops
The funds raised were matched by AEO, for a total of more than $25,000 to help those in need.
Aerie stores give back (& pop up!)
Soon after Giving Tuesday, some of our store associates helped count and pack bras that YOU donated to Free the Girls. And that donation happens in every Aerie store, every day! If you want to participate, bring in a bra to your store (any brand, any style), and we’ll recycle or donate it to Free The Girls. Your donation also gets you 15% off a new bra. So far we’ve donated more than 2,000 bras, and you still have time to help out!
For the second year in a row, the Give Real Pop-Up Tour made the rounds at 4 cities, and we donated 50% of all sales at every stop to a local non-profit.
December 1st: Philadelphia – We donated 50% of all sales to Women’s Way, a non-profit dedicated to the advancement of women, girls and gender equality.
December 2nd: Baltimore – We donated 50% of all sales to Girls Empowerment Mission, a program that provides opportunities for high school girls from underserved communities and enables them to become independent, self-sufficient and confident young women.
December 8th: Atlanta – We donated 50% of all sales to I AM B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L., a non-profit dedicated to building self-esteem and leadership capability in girls and women of all ages and stages.
December 15th: Charlotte – Last stop! We’ll donate 50% of all sales to EmpowHERment, Inc., a non-profit that empowers girls and women to be leaders through mentorship, talent development and advocacy.
Share how you’re making real wishes come true this holiday with us @Aerie & use #RealWishes.