My Special Aflac Duck®
Dan Amos, Aflac Incorporated CEO and Chairman: “I think it symbolizes all the things we are and want to continue to be, and that is to help kids and to try to make a difference in their lives.”
Jon Sullivan, Director of Corporate Communications: “Well you know, children are like consumers in a way in that when you give them something that they like, they want to see it advance year in and year out. So, we are constantly adding things to the program.”
Buffy Swinehart, Senior Manager, Corporate Responsibility: “So, this year we actually did a child life care kit.”
Aaron Horowitz; Co-Founder & CEO of Sproutel: “We built a suite of physical medical tools: a stethoscope, an injector, a pulse oximeter, a temporal thermometer. We designed an MRI carry case – an MRI CT scan carry case. All of these tools that can help child life specialists continue this physical medical play with children.”
Buffy Swinehart, Senior Manager, Corporate Responsibility: “We love those items so much. Going forward, we want every child who gets a My Special Aflac Duck to also get those medical accessories.”
Aaron Horowitz; Co-Founder & CEO of Sproutel: “Some of the really fun aspects come in app improvements, so we built into the app something that we call the Music Maker feature. Kids can go in. They can customize all sorts of different music, and when they hit a button, their duck starts to dance along to the music as it's being performed.”
Lindsey Carrick, Aflac Cancer Center Child Life Specialist: “It's a really unique position to be in to have not only, you know, the support of the hospital, but to have the support of the Aflac corporation behind us. It is so powerful knowing that they are constantly seeking to create tools to make our jobs easier and better. It's kind of beyond words for me.”
Buffy Swinehart, Senior Manager, Corporate Responsibility: “It was always the plan to expand to Japan, but we definitely had to move up the time frame once we got a letter from a little boy in Japan who had seen the My Special Aflac Ducks here in the United States and wanted one himself.”
Jon Sullivan, Director of Corporate Communications: “When we saw that, our CEO Dan Amos said that we're going to have to accelerate the program, and we're going to have to bring it to Japan.”
Buffy Swinehart, Senior Manager, Corporate Responsibility: “And so we decided, why wait? Let's go ahead and launch in Japan. It's been very successful there as well.”
Haruka Itoh, General Manager, Social Responsibility Activity Office, Aflac Japan (in Japanese subtitles): “We were able to donate about 300 units through about 20 hospitals and organizations. At the hospitals that received it, we heard that the children were very happy to play with it, and that it made them smile more than before.”
Aaron Horowitz; Co-Founder & CEO of Sproutel: “We’re so excited that Aflac has kicked off a bit of work for this coming year to create really a special package and support materials to use My Special Aflac Duck with patients with sickle cell.”
Dan Amos, Aflac Incorporated CEO and Chairman: “The African American community plays an enormous role in the success of our company, so the ability to be able to help with sickle cell has been very important.”
Jon Sullivan, Director of Corporate Communications: “No child should have to face a diagnosis of cancer, but until we get to that day, Aflac is committed to ensure that terrible diagnosis will be eased as much as we can have that sort of an impact. And the My Special Aflac Duck is having that impact.”
Haruka Itoh, General Manager, Social Responsibility Activity Office, Aflac Japan (in Japanese subtitles): “I want to help as many children as possible who are suffering from painful treatments. We hope to expand our efforts to bring My Special Aflac Duck to more hospitals.”
Dan Amos, Aflac Incorporated CEO and Chairman: “It’s just our way of giving back and telling people, ‘We love you and we want your kids healthy.’ And really, the best gift is the gift to us of being able to give it away.”
