It’s hard to believe that summer is coming to a close. The kids are back in school, the weather is FINALLY cooling off, Halloween décor is on display in stores, and my Minnesota Vikings are back playing REAL AMERICAN FOOTBALL!  As I look back on this brutally hot summer that had TCL’s North American HQ surrounded by alternating heatwaves and wildfires, one highlight of the season is seeing my TCL family come together and rally around the four pillars of #TCLcares like never before.

#TCLcares is the “guiding hand” here at TCL, a simple set of rules that all decisions are filtered through:

#TCLcares for our users.  It is our responsibility to add joy and simplification to their lives by innovating and advancing technology.

#TCLcares for our employees.  It is our commitment to provide an environment that embraces diversity, excellence, learning, and laughter.  

#TCLcares for the communities we serve.  We are all one and we are committed to find ways to give back and make a positive impact.

#TCLcares for our environment.  We have an obligation to minimize our footprint on the planet our users and employees call home.

We believe that at the end of the day, following these rules will allow us to have a successful business that we can feel good about. Being part of a team that is accomplishing much more than selling TVs makes me very proud to lead this great group of people. 

In that spirit, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and the TCL team is working overtime to make a difference.

It seems everyone has been touched by the ravages of Cancer but when children are afflicted, I know I’m not alone in thinking that this is truly the worst case scenario. The toll this unforgiving disease takes on these kids and their families is unthinkable to us all.

In 2003, Richard and Diane Nares endured the unthinkable when their son Emilio lost his brave battle with cancer at only five years old. Turning their loss into a legacy, they founded The Emilio Nares Foundation to help other children and their families navigate the long and painful journey that cancer leads them upon. 

This incredible organization helps underserved families navigate their child’s journey with cancer, offering programs to aid a child’s best chance of recovery. The primary mission of ENF is to provide transportation for these families, ensuring that they can get to treatments and back home safely.  As you can imagine, a child that has a compromised immune system takes tremendous risks using the public transportation that is typically available to these families. 

“Ride With Emilio” has earned national recognition from President Barack Obama and was included in the 2011 U.S. Surgeon General’s National Call to Action on Cancer Prevention and Survivorship report. Since then, ENF services have grown to include Emilio’s Nutritional Snack Bags, Family Resource Centers, Creating for Hope: therapeutic knitting and sewing programs, as well as End of Life Child and Family Care.

While the bulk of families served currently resides in the San Diego and Imperial Counties, TCL North America wants to ensure that the program can expand into other California Hospitals and eventually nationally.

Our team not only reached into its own pockets, they reached OUT. Out to valued partners, out to vendors, out to our suppliers, out to family, out to friends and even out to the vast social media world… all to help change the lives of others. 

I challenged my team to raise money to support ENF and our small but mighty crew definitely stepped up to the plate for this special cause. In just a few weeks, the TCL team and our partners raised nearly $30,000 in cash, plus many in-kind donations for a silent auction at the end of September to help ENF deliver on their mission of helping families dealing with childhood Cancer.

But who wants to stop there? Certainly not the TCL team!  We know what we can accomplish as a team and we are going to apply the same energy that created America’s Fastest-Growing Television Brand into raising funds to help these families.

We are pleased to partner with Amazon.com to help these families just by doing what you want to do anyway, BUY A TCL TELEVISION! TCL is donating 1% of revenue from all TVs purchased through Amazon to ENF for the entire month of September in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

If you are shopping for a television, buying a set now will not only bring joy into your living room but will also help a young cancer patient’s family.  Simply using the code TCLcares at checkout will mean that 1% of your purchase price gets donated to ENF!

On behalf of TCL, I thank you in advance for helping us support this worthy cause. The contributions we make today can become a positive and lasting change for our future. I mean, if Richard Nares - the founder of ENF, chosen as a CNN Hero - can run 1,700 miles from Seattle to San Diego this summer (essentially 26 marathons in 12 weeks), stopping at children’s hospitals along the way to raise $250,000 for the cause, I know there are mountains that can be moved by banding together.