‘Make March Matter’ With Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Jamie Lee Curtis, LATE Clothing and Other Palisades Businesses Support the Cause

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has kicked off its eighth annual Make March Matter campaign—and there are several ways to support the fundraising initiative in and around Pacific Palisades.

“Make March Matter is an important fundraising initiative in Los Angeles where celebrities along with local businesses and organizations across fashion, fitness, food and more rally together to support CHLA’s lifesaving programs to provide care for all children regardless of health insurance,” according to information shared by CHLA.

The goal of the month-long initiative, which was started by CHLA Associate Senior Vice President of Development and Corporate Partnerships Dawn Wilcox, is to raise $1 million or more to support the hospital.

Make March Matter first launched in 2016 with 65 participating businesses and has since grown to more than 100 businesses in 2023.

Entities that are participating that have a location in the Palisades include Chevron (make a donation at any LA location during the month of March), Veronica Beard (mention Make March Matter when checking out at the Palisades Village store and it will donate 10% to CHLA) and Alfred ($1 donated for every Lavender Latte).

“Alfred Coffee has been with us from day one,” Wilcox shared. “Every year they come up with something new or fun … and have raised thousands and thousands of dollars when people go and have a cup of coffee.”

McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream in Palisades Village donated 5% of sales during the first week of March.

LATE Clothing, founded by Paul Revere Charter Middle School student Lalia Susini, will donate a portion of sales from shopping online to CHLA, and My Hand In Yours, operated by Palisadian Jamie Lee Curtis, will donate 100% of proceeds.

Curtis, who founded My Hand In Yours in 2020 to support CHLA through its sales, helped kick off this year’s Make March Matter campaign. She was surprised at the March 1 event with a personalized quilt, made by CHLA patients in the expressive arts therapy program as a thank you for her continuous support of the hospital, according to a press release. The quilt was designed with images of hands stitched throughout—a tribute to My Hand In Yours.

“I’ve had a lot of surprises in the last few months,” the Academy Award nominee shared during the ceremony, “but this is the nicest one.”

Following the event, Curtis posted a photo with Susini with the caption: “Got to meet [Lalia Susini] a former patient [at CHLA] and now a clothing designer [for LATE Clothing] who gives back to the institution that helped her and if THAT isn’t what [Make March Matter] is all about then I don’t know what is.”

In October 2022, Susini sustained a severe head injury of which ended in a stroke and left side paralysis.

“At just 11 years old she was admitted to CHLA where she would re-learn everything from scratch,” according to information shared from LATE Clothing. “Maxou, her older brother, has never left her side in the fight to take Lalia from paralyzed to walking. The duo will be forever thanking to the hospital that turned her life and countless others’ lives around. With gratitude, the siblings continue to create and design clothing that directly benefits the rehabilitation department at CHLA.”

Four-year-old Ella Nelson, who serves as this year’s face of the campaign, also attended the kickoff event.

“When Ella was just shy of 2 years old, she was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, a rare and difficult-to-treat pediatric cancer that affects about 700 kids in the U.S. each year,” according to CHLA.

Ella and her family moved across the country to LA within a week of her diagnosis “after extensive research to find the top hospitals in the country.” At CHLA, Nelson became cancer-free after “just two cycles of medical treatment”—with her mother, Megan, saying, “The best decision we made as a family was to come to CHLA.”

“There’s just a whole long list of ways to participate and hopefully it’s just things you would normally do in the month,” Wilcox shared of supporting the campaign. “You work out, you go out to eat, you shop, you have a cup of coffee or you can just make a donation and know that it’s going directly to impact the patients and families that we serve every day.”

For a full list of participating brands, visit makemarchmatter.org.