Photo: Actress Holly Robinson Peete and Stella & Dot CEO and Founder Jessica Herrin attend the HollyRod Foundation’s 17th annual DesignCare Gala. (Tiffany Rose/Getty Images for HollyRod Foundation)
Stella & Dot recently earned the 2015 HollyRod Corporate Compassion Award for its contributions to autism awareness. Since 2013, the fashion accessories brand has raised more than $270,000 in support of the HollyRod Foundation, which is dedicated to providing care for people living with autism and Parkinson’s disease.
Jessica Herrin, Founder and CEO of Stella & Dot, accepted the award on behalf of the brand’s Stylists and customers during the foundation’s 17th annual DesignCare Gala, a fashion benefit held Aug. 8 in Los Angeles.
Actress Holly Robinson Peete and her husband, former NFL quarterback Rodney Peete, established the HollyRod Foundation in 1997 in honor of Holly’s father, who battled Parkinson’s disease. The foundation’s mission expanded when the couple’s eldest son, RJ, received an autism diagnosis.
Stella & Dot has supported the cause—one of a handful advocated by The Stella & Dot Foundation—by launching a capsule collection during Autism Awareness month each April. All net proceeds from the accessories collection benefit the HollyRod Foundation.
The San Francisco-based brand has provided tablets to help non-verbal children with autism communicate, funded various summer camps and programs, and helped to open seven RJ’s Places across the U.S. and Canada. HollyRod installs RJ’s Place and technology rooms in hospitals and autism centers as a comfortable space for children accompanying a sibling to treatment.
