Conley Golden realized early on an important lesson about being a valuable volunteer:
“When someone walks in the door with a smile on his or her face, saying, ‘How can I help?’ and they really mean it, so much can happen. When I commit to something, I try to be one of those people.”
In the time we’ve gotten to know Conley, we’ve realized she is one of those people, always smiling and always welcoming. That’s why the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is fortunate to have her helping drive the sales behind their annual fundraising vehicle, Partners Card.
Now in its 7th year, the program has raised approximately half a million dollars to support the auxiliary’s mission, which “seeks to provide information, service, compassion and hope to those whose lives are touched by cancer.”
Partners Card works like this: cards are purchased for $50 each from the WRCI Auxiliary. Cardholders are then eligible to receive a 20 percent discount at approximately 150 participating retail stores around central and northwest Arkansas for one week (Friday, Oct. 29–Sunday, Nov. 7).
“It’s a win/win/win project,” said Conley, who is married to Allied Bank CEO Alex Golden. “The Cancer Institute Auxiliary wins every time someone purchases a card for $50, the cardholders win by helping the Cancer Institute and getting 20 percent off at participating stores, and the merchants win by having an increase in volume of sales and new customers.”
According to Conley, proceeds from card sales are combined with profits from Cooks Tour and the Cancer Institute Auxiliary Gift Shop and presented in the form of grants at WRCI and in northwest Arkansas to support services for cancer patients in Arkansas.
According to Golden, the auxiliary has donated wigs to female cancer patients, and it has also given grants to HOPE, Inc. of northwest Arkansas, Reynolds Cancer Support House in Fort Smith and more.
Although this is Conley’s first year working with Partners Card, the Little Rock native isn’t a newbie to the volunteering community. She is the sustainer advisor to the Junior League of Little Rock’s membership committee, and she is working with the league’s GROW program for adolescent girls.
“Teenage girls are faced with so many decisions, and this program helps each make positive decisions as they become young women. This then helps that young woman become a positive influence in her community, a positive employee and a positive mother. The chain continues as they go through life. A positive person affects people [in ways] they don’t even realize,” she said.
She’s also involved in next spring’s Tabriz for Arkansas Arts Center, and she spends a lot of time volunteering at Forest Park Elementary, where she and Alex’s three daughters, 6-year-old Evan and 4-year-old twins Emmy and Tess, attend school. “The volunteers at our school, on a daily basis, make something better for the kids or teachers, and I love being a part of that,” she said.
As for Golden’s husband (who reminds us of a young Alec Baldwin), she has known him basically her entire life. “I met my husband playing tennis when I was 7 and he was 9. He was always known as the ‘handsome’ guy,” she said. “Our parents [Diane and Fletcher Lord and Ellen and Lex Golden] have always known each other, and for many years when Alex and I were younger, we lived on the same street.”
After high school, Conley attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where she graduated with a marketing degree. Then she moved to Atlanta for several years before coming back to Little Rock. “I reconnected with Alex that first weekend I moved home, and we were engaged nine months later,” she said.
She worked as the director of marketing for her family’s business, Bumper to Bumper, Crow-Burlingame, where she handled the delivery of new marketing programs to more than 400 stores before “retiring” to raise her girls. “I am a stay-at-home mom now, but I do work at Antiques on Kavanaugh, my mother-in-law’s store, on Tuesdays now that my girls are in all-day school.”
When it comes to philanthropic endeavors like Partners Card, Conley said she’s motivated by seeing something she’s been a part of come to fruition and become a success. Well, guess what? We say she’s on the right track with this one, too.
The ‘Golden’ Rules for making the most of your Partners Card experience:
1. Make a list of whom you will be shopping for during the holidays.
2. Find at least 10 stores in the [Partners Card] brochure you have never visited.
3. Make time to browse through these new stores and see what sparks your interest for someone on your list.
4. Finish up your shopping at your favorite participating stores.
5. Relish the fact that, on Nov. 7, you will have completed most of your holiday shopping.
6. Wrap gifts at your leisure.
GET YOUR CARD TODAY! Partners Cards are on sale now and may be purchased by calling (501) 686-8286 or by visiting Cancer.uams.edu/partnerscard, which also features a complete list of participating merchants.