Page 2 / News, Trends, Gossip and Stuff To Do : Here and Now : Charity Begins at the Mall

Shopping in October will provide an opportunity to be charitable. Many beauty and fashion companies will donate proceeds from products sold throughout National Breast Cancer Awareness month to fund research for the second-most deadly cancer (after lung) that strikes women.

On Thursday, Saks Fifth Avenue kicked off a national fund-raising campaign with the Council of Fashion Designers of America that runs through Sunday. The chain will donate 2% of all sales on those days to national and local breast cancer charities. Local recipients will include Cedars-Sinai Research for Women’s Cancers in Los Angeles and Huntington Harbour Cancer League in Orange County.

Saks is selling T-shirts with a logo designed in 1994 for the council by Ralph Lauren. Since then, sales of the T-shirts with the blue bull’s-eye design have raised $8.5 million for breast cancer research and education.

A wide selection of other goodies will be sold in October in stores, on the QVC cable shopping network and by mail order to benefit cancer research. Merchandise includes pink underwear, cosmetics, shoes, a pink gingham pillow to sew and more. (Pink is the color of choice because of the pink ribbon symbol, which stands for breast cancer awareness.)

If you’d rather walk than shop, Avon is sponsoring a 60-mile, fund-raising walk from Santa Barbara to Malibu on Oct. 22. For details, call (888) 332-9286.