Carter’s HR & Legal Department

8180 Park Lane

Dallas, TX 75231
214-363-4336

March 28, 2019

Dallas Chamber of Commerce

10707 Preston Road
Dallas, TX 75230

Dear City of Dallas Chamber of Commerce,

I. Introduction:

When Kristine, one of the members of our team, was expecting a little sister, her
mother’s pregnancy was very high risk due to gestational medical issues. Her mother had
hypertension or high blood pressure. This makes the pregnancy extremely dangerous for the
baby, which means that she required extra medical attention. About 6 months into the pregnancy,
her mom was instructed to stay at the hospital until she was able to give birth. This instruction
was given to allow for constant monitoring of her and the baby. On April 10, 2014, her mom’s
liver numbers and heightened blood pressure alarmed her medical team of the potential risk to
the baby if they did not deliver the baby that day. Although her mom was only 31 weeks and 6
days into the pregnancy, the medical team decided to perform an emergency C section on her
mom and deliver the baby, causing her to be born prematurely. In order to be considered a
premature baby or a preemie, the baby has to be born before 37 weeks. The baby girl was born
weighing 2 lbs 5 oz and 13 ¾ inches long. With the baby’s lungs not fully formed yet and being
so small and early, she was required to stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) until she
was developed and strong enough to go home with her family. In the NICU, the baby was given
a breathing treatment, a feeding tube, an IV, and constant monitoring. Although the baby had
many wires attached to her, she was always dressed in baby clothes to help ease the anxiety for
her family. With only certain “touch times” that the family was able to see her, they were under
tremendous stress. Throughout her time at the NICU, she would need to hit certain milestones
before she would be released to go home. Those milestones included reaching a weight of 5 lbs,
being able to regulate her own temperature, and being able to digest her milk properly. A few
days after being born, the baby’s lungs fully developed, allowing her to be taken off of a
breathing tube. The next step would make sure that the baby could digest her milk properly. To
check how her digestive system was doing, the nurses would pull the milk out of her stomach
through the feeding tube using a syringe. During all of this, they kept an eye on her weight as she
was slowly gaining weight. Regulating her own temperature was not a problem for the baby, she
was thriving very well in the NICU. The last milestone that she needed to hit was to weigh at
least 5 lbs. However, because the baby was doing so well in the NICU, the Neonatologist let her
go home while only weighing only 4 lbs. This is the first time that the doctor had ever let a baby
go home at 4 lbs. Kristine’s family was ecstatic to be bringing home the baby, as she was there
for 5 ½ weeks.

II. Background:

As Carter’s, we are primarily a baby and young children’s clothing company while also
selling other products necessary for child care. According to the Carter’s Code of Business
Ethics and Professional Conduct (2003), the William Carter Company was founded in 1865 and
its philosophy, from the start, has been to continuously work hard “to foster an emotional
connection to children and their families” (p.1). Our goal is to better support parents as they
embark on a beautiful journey with their newborns. Through our constant efforts to gain the trust
of families with high-quality products, we have established a well-known name as a children’s
apparel department store. Carter’s is known for its thoughtful design and creation of baby
clothing. For example, we have established a unique neck design in infant apparel for that allows
clothing to slide over their ears and little hand mittens to prevent babies from hurting themselves
with their nails (Carters, 2019, para.3). It is through our attention to detail and constant effort to
provide the best apparel for young children, that we have been able to successfully thrive as a
company.
Another important aspect is that we want to create clothing that is safe for newborns
while also being environmentally conscious. We ensure that the environments we work in to
develop the clothing are safe and ethical. The work environment established is one that is free of
drugs and one in which employees are treated with respect and kindness.
As per the Carter’s Code of Business Ethics and Professional Conduct (2003), we are
also “a long-time participant in community affairs and a dedicated supporter of community
programs and charitable organizations whose mission, like ours, is the welfare of children” (p.3).
We focus on helping and donating to causes that are dedicated to improving children’s health
and growth. Carter's is continuously encouraging our employees to take part in charitable
missions and dedicate their free time to volunteering and giving back to the community.
As mentioned previously, Carter’s has become aware of the need for clothing and items
for NICU and premature babies. It is now our new goal to further raise money to help parents
and their newborns in their time of need by donating items that are essential and safe for their
newborns. We are proposing a detailed plan of a charity event we plan to host along with where
exactly the funds raised will be allocated. As Carter’s, we would like the Dallas Chamber of
Commerce to help fund our event in support of this relatively unknown problem occurring in the
Dallas area.

III. Problem:

As seen in Kristine’s experience, no one expects or is prepared to have a premature baby.

The video of Kristine’s mom further explains how this problem impacted her family (Wilson,
2019). Although it was very difficult for Kristine’s family to find preemie size onesies, they had
5 weeks to look for them while the baby was still in the NICU. This really showed her family
how much of a problem this really is, here in the Dallas area. Being unprepared for such an event
is difficult on the family because not only is their newborn in the hospital but also because they
do not have any of the supplies that a premature baby requires. These supplies include preemie
size clothes, a special car seat that allows babies of such a tiny weight, hats, gloves, and small
nipples because the babies mouths are only so big. According to the World Health Organization,
about 15 million babies are born prematurely a year (Preterm, n.d). This means about 1 in every
10 births; this statistic reflects the world and proportionally, Dallas. This is a problem for the
community because premature babies are being born but they need more supplies than the
hospitals have. The hospitals only have so many preemie size onesies and hats for the babies to
use. A much bigger problem exists when the babies are ready to go home and the parents don’t
have any of the much-needed supplies to better care for their newborns.

IV. Purpose:

Our purpose is to create a ‘Bless Bag’ that will be donated to the hospitals in the Dallas
area to help their NICUs have clothes onsite for their surprise deliveries. We will raise money
through an event we will be holding to help create these individual bags that will go to each baby
that is born in that year. Raising these donations through such a large event will help us not only
be able to create these bags to cloth premature babies, but also raise awareness to everyone that
this is an issue and we need to take action towards a solution.

V. Proposal & Plan:

Carter’s is committed to “look for opportunities to nurture and protect children and to
build communities in which they can thrive” (Corporate Community. n.d.). With this philosophy
in mind, we are proposing an event that will bring awareness to the needs of the NICU and raise
funds to donate our ‘Bless Bags’ to NICUs in the Dallas area. On November 2, 2019, at 7:00
PM, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill will headline a concert in the Band Shell at Fair Park in Dallas.
Throughout the concert, between a few songs, we will bring 3 families who had
premature babies up on stage to share their experience of being surprised with an early birth and
consequently had to spend time in the NICU. We hope that this will tug at the heartstrings of
concert goers. If they feel so compelled, there will be booths set up conveniently around the
venue showcasing an example of the ‘Bless Bags’ and accepting donations on the day of the
concert. These donations, along with all proceeds from the ticket sales, will go towards the
‘Bless Bag’ donations.
Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have generously agreed to donate their time and resources to
play this concert for free. Hill gushed about her youngest daughter, now 17 years old, to Good
Housekeeping magazine, “Audrey was born on December 6. She was eight weeks premature,
and we were finally able to bring her home the day before Christmas Eve,” (Koyne, 2007).
Through this experience, celebrity couple came to appreciate the necessity of excellent neonatal
care and the stress a premature baby can impose upon a family. They strongly support our cause
and are excited to be able to support it at the concert.
The venue for the concert, the Band Shell at Fair Park, holds about 4,000 guests at a cost
of $2,000 per day on the weekend (Band Shell. n.d). As part of the agreement, the concert will be
staffed by Fair Park’s vendors. The venue is conveniently located near the Fair Park parking lots
and access to the Band Shell is easily accessible through Gate 6 so guests should not have a hard
time finding a space to park.
VI. Schedule:

As previously mentioned, the concert will take place on Saturday, April 27, 2019, at 7:00
PM. The overview of the timeline for preparation is as follows:
● March 13, 2019: Announce the concert and begin marketing via social media
● March 22, 2019: Begin ticket sales and make venue deposit
● April 20, 2019: Confirm staff, create ‘Bless Bag’ examples, and ensure we have collected
the necessary equipment for musicians
● April 24, 2019: Boost event on social media

The venue will be reserved the entire day of April 27, so set up will begin early. Here is a
schedule of the day of the concert:
● 10:00 AM: Begin stage and venue set up
● 3:00 PM: Brief venue staff
● 6:00 PM: Open doors
● 7:00 PM: Begin concert - Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
○ Share families’ stories between songs
● 9:00 PM: End concert
● 9:30 PM: Begin venue clean up
● 12:00 AM: End of venue rental

VII. Staffing:

Since this will be the first time Carter's is hosting a charity event to support
premature babies through a concert event, having a strong staff team is necessary for the
concert to go smoothly. Our team, Lan Nhi Vo, Kristine Wilson, Sahithi Kuruchelapati,
Suhani Patel, Kelsey Thomason will be supervising the whole event. We will attend the
charity concert and make sure everyone attending the show is satisfied with their
decisions and gain more knowledge about premature babies. We are planning to hire 24
employees in total, and it will include sales staff, marketing staff, concert staff and
vendor staff. Below is a detailed schedule of staffing and their respective roles:

● There will be four employees in charge of sales. The sales staff are responsible for
handling the vending of the tickets. After comparing all the online tickets selling
platforms and brainstorming with our performers, we have decided to sell concert
tickets through Ticketmaster because they are widely trusted by concert-goers.
Below is an example of what the ticket page looks like on the website. It clearly
displays the name of the artists, the time, and venue.
 ● For concert staff, we are looking for around 15 employees that will guide people to their
assigned seats and answer any questions regarding the tickets or the seat location.

● It is industry standard for venues to provide their own vendors and security. Following
this model along with the venue’s requirements, Fair Park will provide the staff for food
and drinks along with trusted security to ensure the safety of the concert.

● We will assign two of our best employees, Kristine Wilson and Kelsey Thomason, to
work at Carter's booths at the event. At these booths, we will display an example of our
Bless Boxes and donations will be accepted for attendees wanting to further support the
cause. The booths will have screens playing informational videos and infographics and
brochures will be displayed for educational purposes. Attendees will have a chance to
learn more about our cause with the interactive tablets in our booths.

● Since this is a concert event with a large audience, we will be able to take advantage of
this opportunity to promote our cause to a large number of people. Having a strong
marketing team is essential to selling the tickets so we can ensure our concert is full of
eager and caring people. We will utilize three employees from Carter’s excellent
marketing staff to promote the charity event by handing out flyers to attract local
attention, creating a Facebook event, and advertising the event in other ways they see fit.
We will use the Facebook page to communicate with Facebook attendees and update the
event and use social media advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Any
questions regarding the event can be answered through these platforms.

VIII. Budget:

The budget for our plan will now be broken down. The ‘Bless Bag’, in total, consists of
18 various items, including 1 diaper bag, 5 onesies, 3 snap onesies, 2 pants, 3 pairs of socks, 1
hat, and 3 mittens. The total price of all items adds up to $85, in accordance with the retail prices
listed on Carter’s website (Sam et al., 2018). The snap onesies that we have included in the bags
are a tailored product specifically made to be able to open and close for any additional tubes or
IVs that many premature babies require. The venue will cost us $2,000 for the entire day, plus an
additional $3,000 for the vendors and staff that will be present on site during the entire event,
according to the requirements of Fair Park. Since Tim Mcgraw and Faith Hill had a premature
baby born in the NICU and have personally dealt with the issue we are focused on, they have
generously offered to incur the cost of their personal musicians and equipment by committing to
do the show as a charity event to give back to this cause.
Furthermore, each ticket will be sold at $50 each as general admission, with seating being
on a first come first serve basis. Looking at event turnouts for past Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
shows, we expect a sold-out show. With this expectation, we are expecting to raise $200,000 for
the 4,000 seat capacity of the venue. As shown in Figure 1.2, when calculating our revenues and
expenses, we expect to raise around $195,500 from this event. We are asking the Dallas
Chamber of Commerce for $10,000. $5,000 will cover our expenses for the venue and staffing
and $5,000 will go towards creating more bags. When dividing the sum of our expected revenue
and the generous donation by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce ($205,500) by the cost per bag
($85), we will be able to create 2,417 bags altogether to donate to hospitals in the Dallas area.
We expect these bags will be able to help all premature babies born in the NICUs of Dallas’s
major hospitals for an entire year.

Figure 1.2

The distribution of the expected 2,417 bags will be based on the average number of
babies that were born in the NICU from the previous year. These numbers suggest that we
donate 500 bags to Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas (“Maternity Services,” n.d.), 717 bags to
the Children’s Hospital (“Children’s Health,” n.d.), and 1,200 to Parkland (“Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit,” n.d.).
IX. Conclusion:

The issue of not having enough clothing and items for premature babies is becoming
increasingly more relevant, especially in the Dallas area. As Carter’s, we have chosen to tackle
this problem head-on by putting on a concert charity event starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
that will allow us to raise enough money to provide support for premature babies. Since the
arrival of premature babies is not always expected by parents, we will use this money to create
our version of an infant care package known as a ‘Bless Bag.’ These ‘Bless Bags’ will include
different types of clothing and items necessary for the care of premature babies. With the amount
of money raised, we will create as many ‘Bless Bags’ as possible and donate them to Neonatal
Intensive Care Units all around the Dallas area based on the statistics of premature babies in each
hospital. Some of the hospitals our donations will go to include the Children’s Health, Parkland,
and Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas.
As Carter’s, our goal is to help better prepare parents for the difficult journey they are
about to take with their newborn and to help premature babies pass the milestones so they can go
home. We want to help parents like Kristine’s with the pressure and stress of welcoming a
premature baby into the world. As Kristine’s mother said, the tiny clothing makes all the
difference in helping families be less afraid of what is to come and to better connect with the
baby.
We would like to thank the Dallas Chamber of Commerce for taking the time to read
about our cause and efforts and for considering us for a donation of $10,000 to generously help
cover the costs of our event and create more ‘Bless Bags’. Because of our strong belief in this
cause, we hope to make a beneficial impact on families with premature babies, because of our
belief in improving children’s growth and overall health.

Sincerely,

Carter’s Human Resources and Legal Department

Kelsey Thomason
Kristine Wilson
Lan Nhi Vo
Sahithi Kuruchelapati
Suhani Patel
 References

Baby Neutral Clothes. Carter’s, Inc. Retrieved from

https://www.carters.com/carters-baby-neutral?page=3. Accessed March 27, 2019.

Band Shell. Fair Park, TX. Retrieved from

http://dallasparks.org/DocumentCenter/View/5655/FairPark--Band-Shell-?bidId=.
Accessed March 12, 2019.

Carter’s Code of Business Ethics and Professional Conduct. U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. Retrieved from
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/795363/000104746904008672/a2131272zex-1
4.htm#CarterSPhilosophy​. Published 2003. Accessed March 27, 2019.

Corporate Community.​ C​ arters, Inc. Retrieved from

http://corporate.carters.com/corporateCommunity.html. Accessed March 27, 2019.

Event Staffing: Optimize Your Process. Shiftboard, Inc. Retrieved from

https://www.shiftboard.com/event-staff-scheduling-how-to​/. Accessed March 12, 2019.

Maternity Care Services NICU and Special Care. Texas Health Dallas. Retrieved from
https://www.texashealth.org/dallas/services/women-and-infants/maternity-services/.
Accessed March 27, 2019.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Parkland. Retrieved from

https://www.parklandhospital.com/nnicu. Accessed March 27, 2019.

Pediatric Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Childrens. Retrieved from
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natal/continuum-of-care-programs/level-iv-nicu. Accessed March 27, 2019.

Preterm birth. World Health Organization. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preterm-birth. Published February 19,
2018. Accessed March 12, 2019.

Tim McGraw Tickets. Ticketmaster. Retrieved from

https://www.ticketmaster.com/tim-mcgraw-tickets/artist/762799. Accessed March 27,
2019.

The Carter’s Story. Carters, Inc. Retrieved from

https://www.carters.com/carters/carters-story.html​. Accessed March 12, 2019.

Koyne, K. Holiday Fun with Faith Hill. Good Housekeeping.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/interviews/a12473/holiday-
faith-hill-interview/?utm_medium=google. Published October 31, 2007. Accessed March
20, 2019.
Wilson, K. NICU. Youtube.com Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDR8ukifLJM. Published February 13, 2019.
Accessed March 12, 2019.