A couple of weeks ago, I took my sister to her breast-cancer chemotherapy treatment at the Stanford Cancer Center. As we pulled up to the hospital, I was thankful to see that they offered patient valet parking as it's not easy for post-chemo patients to get around. However, after helping my sister out of the car, I was disappointed to learn that budget limitations force the hospital to charge for this seeming necessity. I had one of those "life isn't fair" moments. Certainly, if you have to go through chemo for four months and lose all your hair, you shouldn't have to add rummaging through your coin purse to your list of worries.

When I got back to the office, we fired up our Yahoo! Purple Acts of Kindness engine. (A Purple Act is an unexpected act that delights the recipient and supports our local communities — more here). Yahoo! has a modest monthly budget for these types of occasions — when a small gesture puts a smile on someone's face for at least a day. So, this past week, Yahoo! furtively picked up the parking tab for nearly 1,500 cancer patients at Stanford. After all, it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We figured it was the least we could do.

BTW: Here's a photo of my brother, Yahoo! SVP Brad Garlinghouse, who shaved his head in solidarity. (He asked his barber to spare a few hairs, but don't worry — the "Y" only lasted a day.)

Meg Garlinghouse
Director, Yahoo! for Good