A Coupon Craze for a Good Cause: The Woman Behind the Movement

After a couple years, I reunited with Linda a couple of weeks ago while visiting my parents at their 55+ community in the suburban Weston, Florida. I stumbled upon the swim aerobics class and got a spot next to the most loquacious swan of the bevy.

Linda shared with me how her work brought her across the country including to my new home of California — once suffering from lack of Brooklyn bagels — and asked me if I could stop by again to help with computer issues. Well, I went that day, and I was instantly brought back in time to a beautiful chaos. And now I had an unmistakable feeling of a mission that simply could not be disrupted. I was in Coupon Land, and it’s queen was all powerful.

Linda runs the show, Coupons4Cancer, an initiative that she founded to raise money for the ACS. Somehow she has managed — through throngs of coupon sites you have to see to believe — to regularly receive coupons and requests from people in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and of course Florida. She became a sort of local celebrity too: neighbors swing by her street recycle bins with coupons and inserts, and local organizations like the Y and the temple make the stashes overflowing. Coupons are mailed at least once a week — many to“frequent customers” — or categorized in her ceiling high drawers arranged alphabetically. Judge it what you may but Linda has a system down with pre-stamped envelopes and all, and the transaction is often an even exchange; virtually no money is “lost” on either side as supporters simply give lesser, equal and sometimes greater monies in the form of donations. Priceless is the joy it brings to Linda and volunteers alike who know they are helping a greater cause, evident upon entering into the casino-like excitement as they push the limits snip by snip.

Linda puts all funds towards her Relay for Life team, “Time for a Cure”, which in turn benefits American Cancer Society (ACS). Every September donation season starts anew and so far she has received $1,331.76 to the minute, not to mention another $12k from events in her 55+ community alone. Here is link to the 2016 team valid through the end of August.

Linda has been volunteering for ACS since 1982, a year many of those reading this did not see; she taught classes to the public on cancer prevention and early detection, and has participated in the annual ACS walk-a-thon for 33 years and counting. She made a team “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer,” for Relay for Life”, in which she has been involved since 1988.

It may not come as a surprise to hear that in 2009, Linda was awarded the Presidential “Call to Service” Award for her commitment and lifetime service to the ACS, the community, and the nation. This is an honor bestowed by President Obama.

In 2014 approaching her 75th birthday, Linda decided to give back to Adelphi — her 1961 alma mater — an education that she says enabled her to accomplish all that she has throughout her life and her professional career. (She proceeded to earn her Master’s and completed a National Cancer Institute Fellowship in Oncology, which she eventually taught.) She and her husband Arthur established the Linda Tenenbaum Oncology Award at Adelphi University. The award is presented to a graduating student in the College of Nursing and Public Health who has demonstrated an interest and/or involvement in oncology nursing, and intends to specialize in the field.

Despite cutting a record album with her sister that didn’t go anywhere, Linda is also a best-selling author with accolades in the nursing community akin to what the Grammy’s are for music. Not only publishing cutting edge information in the widely talked about field, Linda also might have been one of the first — if not, the first — to use data tables, for better learning. Medical students and pharmacists to a niche group of medical practitioners and academics relied on Reference Guides for Cancer Chemotherapy and Biotherpy first published in 1989 and its second edition published by popular demand five years later; both are still available for sale on Amazon.

Linda may not have hit #1 on the billboard music charts, but she regularly receives adoration from fans and donors:

You are doing a very admirable thing and the world needs more people like you. No one ever knows when it will become a part of their life.

What A Wonderful and Generous Idea! Thanks again. I see you have helped many people.

My mother is a 10 year breast cancer survivor. Thank you for all of the work you are doing!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I cannot even express how happy I am, and how grateful I am to you.

You are the important and intricate volunteer. My Mom collected for over 12 years for the American Cancer Society door to door. Unfortunately she is no longer able to do this community service. I applaud you for giving of your time for such a wonderful cause!

We have had a long line of cancer in our family. My father died at 53 with a brain tumor and I had breast cancer. My Grandmother on my mother’s side had cancer and my cousin (she died at 54) and Aunt also had cancer. Thanks for the coupons

Wonderful news about donations to Cancer Soc. I have been really sharing the word about you and coupons for cancer…

I am a breast cancer survivor X 4 years-3 months, so your efforts mean a lot. May God bless you and all you efforts!!

What an awesome idea to raise money for cancer. Both my parents are cancer survivors, so I am happy to be able to support this. Blessings

I want to thank you again, there are so many useful coupons in this lot! I also wanted to let you know that I am glad it was good for the cause! So, have a nice day, and thanks!

I help at the food bank and am showing these people how to use coupons. (in Pittsburgh)

My M-in-law died [of] breast ca[ncer], grandmother died of ovarian cancer I was Marketing Director of a large company. You have a great idea for fundraising for cancer, I am glad it is working out.

I admire you for sending coupons to benefit the American Cancer Society. I lost both my parents to cancer, so I will let you know when I need more coupons.

There is adoration beyond what Linda hears first hand. For example, a neighbor told me how Linda approached her out of the blue asked for her blessing to make a luminaria bag in honor of her late husband who had lost his battle with cancer less than two years ago. The poignant anecdote shared on the verge of tears illuminates the stretches to which Linda’s efforts are felt. I am sure Linda — who often makes these bags for strangers who may never even know it — soaks in each and every one, and her eye is always on the prize: a cure for a debilitating disease.

I call Linda’s landline to secure my second visit to take pictures and get a quote of the anomaly that is Linda Tenenbaum’s coupon operation. Her husband, Art, warns me; what I soon walk into cannot be described other than sheer yet amazing mayhem. A room full of coupon-mad women reading scores of discounts aloud, sometimes in British accents, cutting furiously over tables and bins — some sporting hats, others banana clips, flip phones and flip flops. Art yells jolly banter every so often from across the room and somehow I manage to get to the other side where in his computer den he quietly professes adoring words about his Coupon Queen. He hands me a little memo he wrote up with some achievements that Linda’s modesty and New York pace prevents her from sharing; looking up at me he says, “now do I sound like a proud husband?”

There are movie stars we go gaga over daily, and angels we look to in trying times. And then there are heroes — those who help keep our angel’s spirits alive by celebrating and charging forward in their honor every day. Linda reminds us to care about others through her earnest actions and a zest for life to match. It’s time she ought to be celebrated, too.

To donate please visit Linda’s “Time for a Cure” 2016 page.