PJ’s Coffee Rallies Guests to Help Child Receive Life-Saving Surgery

New Orleans-born coffeehouse partners with nonprofit HeartGift to raise funds for two-year-old’s open-heart surgery

New Orleans, LA  (RestaurantNews.com)  PJ’s Coffee is asking its guests to share a little piece of their hearts with Kamila Temes, a prematurely born child in desperate need of open-heart surgery.

The two-year-old girl was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, a combination of four defects in her small, fragile heart that left untreated are incompatible with life. Kamila must undergo surgery to leave the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans intensive care unit and return to her home in Belize.

PJ’s Coffee is partnering with HeartGift — a not-for-profit organization that provides lifesaving congenital heart defect surgery to children worldwide — to make this miracle happen. Throughout September and October, PJ’s guests are invited to donate to the HeartGift Campaign in the amount of $1, $3 or $5. These funds will help cover the expense of Kamila’s surgery in New Orleans because the specialized medicine and treatment are not available in Belize.

“It’s a privilege to be able to help Kamila, and her family, in this way,” said Reid Nolte, Vice President of Brand Strategy at PJ’s Coffee. “We are once again honored to partner with HeartGift and our generous guests to literally save a precious little girl’s life. Because Kamila’s surgery will be performed right here in our hometown of New Orleans, we want to make sure she and her family feel the love of this amazing community and PJ’s guests all across the country.”

While PJ’s handles the finances, HeartGift will take care of everything else Kamila needs during her stay. The organization has already placed Kamila and her mother with a gracious New Orleans host family that is providing a home-away-from-home experience throughout Kamila’s surgery and recovery period.

The fundraiser will take place across PJ’s Coffee locations systemwide, which will be decorated with flyers and HeartGift-branded posters in support of the campaign. All donations will go toward Kamila’s surgery expenses.

About PJ’s Coffee

Phyllis Jordan, a pioneer in the coffee industry, founded PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans in 1978, and demonstrated that better beans, superior roasting techniques, and pure passion for the art of coffeemaking mattered. In 2008, the company was purchased by New Orleans natives and brothers, Paul, Steven, and Scott Ballard. PJ’s Coffee serves a wide variety of hot, iced and frozen coffee beverages using only the best quality Arabica coffee beans, as well as organic tea and fresh breakfast pastries. PJ’s Original Cold Brew Ice Coffee is brewed daily using a special cold-drip process that protects the flavor and strength of the beans, while producing a coffee that is two-thirds less acidic – a process and technique developed by its founder and used for more than 40 years at all PJ’s locations. Bags of whole bean coffee and single serve cups of PJ’s Coffee are available for sale in-store and online. With more than 160 operating stores, including four international locations, PJ’s Coffee continues to grow in the U.S. and abroad. For more information, visit pjscoffee.com or follow PJ’s Coffee on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

About HeartGift

HeartGift provides life-saving heart surgeries to children from around the world where specialized medical treatment is scarce or nonexistent. With 1 in 100 babies born with a congenital heart defect (CHD) globally each year, we have the ability to impact a child’s life and provide a lifetime of freedom from this disease. In industrialized countries such as the United States, the corrective surgery is accessible and provided to those in need, regardless of financial capacity or geographic location. In developing countries, this care is simply not available. In 2000, HeartGift was founded to address this disparity and since its inception, it has served over 800 children from 35 countries, providing care in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and South America. For more information, visit: www.heartgift.org.

Contact:
Virginia Fielder
Champion
214-676-3244
vfielder@championmgt.com

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