VISIT THE 2010/11 HEART OF GOLD WEBSITE

Announcing VARIETY's 2012 GOLD HEART CAMPAIGN FEATURING STAR WARS!

A special message from C3P0 and R2D2 on Variety's current Gold Heart Pin Drive (TM & © 2011 LFL)

VARIETY 2010/11 HEART OF GOLD CAMPAIGN

Variety - The Children's Charity is thrilled to partner with Warner Bros to bring you this year's Gold Heart Pin Campaign featuring Yogi Bear.

The pin is available for purchase in movie theaters. Proceeds support programs including Variety Kids on the Go!, which provides funding for wheelchairs, walkers, strollers, specially-adapted bikes and other durable medical equipment for children with disabilities.

GOLD HEARTH PIN LAUNCH PARTY

In celebration of the launch of the 2009 Gold Heart Pin campaign, Variety hosted an exclusive screening of Disney's "Princess & The Frog" for area Girl Scouts on Saturday, December 19, 2009.

VARIETY'S 2009 GOLD HEART PIN CAMPAIGN

Variety - The Children's Charity of Illinois' signature fundraising initiative, the annual Gold Heart Pin Drive, aims to help children in need by asking people to wear their heart on their sleeve. Running roughly from Thanksgiving through Valentine's Day, this year's Gold Heart Pin is adorned with everyone's favorite amphibian, Kermit the Frog. To send a Variety e-card from Kermit himself, or to view a personal message about the campaign from Variety friend, Whoopi Goldberg, go to http://varietyecard.org/.

Sold for $2 at area movie theatres, the Gold Heart pins are collected and worn by millions of people around the world as symbols of their support for Variety and the children who are helped by Variety funded programs and facilities. The Gold Heart Pin campaign is one of Variety's most recognized and successful global fundraising programs (Variety has 54 chapters in 13 countries - all of which participate in the Drive). The program was created in 1991 in Great Britain by a Variety International board member, who thought to create gold pins in the shape of hearts to raise funds to assist children in need.

For the past seven years, Variety has launched a partnership with the motion picture industry to design and market the Gold Heart pins around Hollywood movie properties. Each year, Variety partners with a major motion picture studio to design a new Gold Heart pin around a movie or a movie character from that studio. Gold Heart pins with tie-ins to universally recognized characters Mickey Mouse, E.T. , Shrek , and Spider-Man have helped raise awareness of Variety's work and have generated millions of dollars for children in need. More than 2,000 theatres around the United States sell the pins and display promotional posters, counter cards, in-theatre slides, film trailers and other materials. This partnership between Variety and the motion picture industry has raised $95 million dollars worldwide to date.