The Skin Cancer Foundation’s Road to Healthy Skin Tour stopped at five locations around South Florida. The effort began Thursday at the Sports Authority in Boca Raton and wrapped yesterday at the Sunrise Dan Pearl Branch Library. For the third annual tour, the foundation partnered with Aveeno, Columbia sportswear, and Rite Aid to educate Americans about skin cancer prevention.
“We wanted to engage partners that brought something different to the table, like a sunscreen company in Aveeno and a clothing line with Columbia,” said Dan Latore, director of corporate partnerships for the foundation. “Rite Aid had partnered with us for a Summer Skin Guide, so it was a natural fit.”
The tour’s customized 38-foot RV serves as the event headquarters, traveling to 85 cities around the country. Stops in Jupiter, Boca Raton, and Miami attracted 341 people over five days. Between two and four local dermatologists were on hand at each stop to provide free body screenings to consumers in two private rooms inside the RV. Last year’s tour detected more than 2,300 suspected skin cancers and 77 suspected cases of melanoma.
The sponsors also helped promote the event for the first time. “Last year we did a lot of the promotion and it’s very time consuming, so this year we broke up [the tour schedule] and gave different markets to different partners,” Latore said. Fitness magazine, DSA Pharmaceuticals, and Solar Guard Window Film also sponsored and promoted the tour with print materials as well as their social media and Web sites.
At each stop Aveeno distributed half-ounce samples of its Continuous Protection sunblock with SPF 55 and its new Positively Ageless sunblock with SPF 70.
The tour will stop in Orlando on Saturday and Sunday before heading to Tallahassee then Atlanta on April 16.
