Charlotte’s Web Celebrates CBD Industry’s 1st Decade With its New “Charlotte Figi Family Grant Program”

DENVER – This week represents one decade since the seven Stanley brothers helped launch the CBD industry from Colorado. Per proclamation by Governor Jared Polis in 2020, following the unfortunate passing of Charlotte Figi, today is officially ‘Charlotte Figi Day’ in Colorado. Charlotte’s Web Inc., the market leader in CBD products, today unveils its “Charlotte Figi Family Grant Program” as an annual initiative to honor the historic legacy of Charlotte, the little girl who suffered from seizures due to Dravet Syndrome, and her story that helped to change CBD access for millions around the world.

Ten family grants are being awarded in keeping with the ten-year anniversary of the Stanley brothers providing their (high-CBD and low-THC) full spectrum hemp formula to Charlotte Figi after her pediatrician supplied written permission. Each year on Charlotte Figi Day, the Company will now announce its family grantees and increase the number of grants by one annually. This year’s granted families were selected by the Colorado-based nonprofit Realm of Caring based on families with the greatest need. Each family will receive a year’s supply of Charlotte’s Web product to support each family’s overall health and wellness. This year’s ten family grantees herald from six states from California to Virginia.

“We keep Charlotte’s heroic story illuminated while also supporting wellness and relief for those families most in need,” said Charlotte’s Web CEO Jacques Tortoroli.  “Our founders were there at the beginning in 2012 with Charlotte and her family. Charlotte’s story stands for the true founding of not only our company, but the entire hemp CBD industry. The Charlotte Figi Family Grant Program pays tribute to our namesake by giving to health-seeking families with qualified needs.”

Charlotte’s Web hosts an event for all of its employees today at 3:30 pm MST at its manufacturing plant and R & D facility — the LOFT — in Louisville to honor the legacy of Charlotte Figi and will present the inaugural ‘Courage Award’ to an employee who has demonstrated unbridled courage in their work and their life in this past year.

Since 2012 Colorado has been (and still is) the epicenter for the CBD movement that swiftly became an industry. In its first decade, the CBD industry grew from just one brand – Charlotte’s Web– to more than 3,500 CBD brands in 2020, according to The Brightfield Group. Colorado was the first state in which CBD product sales were legal and the state has remained at the forefront of hemp and cannabis innovation and growth. In a relatively short time span, the CBD sector has expanded and grown, according to the Brightfield Group research firm (November 2021) that estimated the U.S. hemp-derived CBD market at $4.7 billion in retail sales in 2021 and forecasted revenues to reach $12 billion by 2026, driven by accelerated growth of ingestible products.

This profound growth first began as a result of the courage of Charlotte Figi, her family, and the entrepreneurial passion of the Stanley Brothers. Charlotte’s experience became a shared experience by tens of thousands of families, many of whom migrated to Colorado. The activism of Charlotte’s Web and the nonprofit Realm of Caring helped to change laws in dozens of states and helped establish two meaningful national farm bills that changed access to hemp for all Americans.

The timeline below shows the significant milestones that have led up to Colorado’s official “Charlotte Figi Day”:

• Feb. 2012: Paige Figi, Charlotte’s mother, meets Joel Stanley in Colorado and Charlotte, with written permission from her pediatrician, and first uses the formula from the Stanley Brothers (now called Charlotte’s Web Original Formula).
• July 2012: Heather Jackson and her family are the third to meet the Stanley Brothers in Colorado to secure Original Formula for her son Zaki who also suffered from pediatric epilepsy.
• Aug. 2013: Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s CNN’s Weed 1 airs, telling the story of Charlotte Figi and the Stanley Brothers.
• 2013: Paige Figi and Heather Jackson founded nonprofit Realm of Caring to ensure all families had support in understanding hemp wellness.
• March 2014: CNN’s Weed 2 follows up, showing that there are so many other people similar to Charlotte.
• Dec. 2014: The waitlist for the Stanley’s formula spikes to 15,000 families seeking access to the Original Formula.
• 2012-2015: Charlotte’s Web founders and employees and Realm of Caring helped 500+ families move to Colorado to access CBD. (“We stopped counting at 500.” – Heather Jackson)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Still photos and B-roll video available upon request of Sylvia R. Tawse.
Relevant Video: North Star / History video; The Stanley Brothers explain Charlotte’s significance in the cannabis industry- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3IHGSl8pVcht

(This information is primarily sourced from Charlotte’s Web PR Marketing.  Highly Capitalized has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Read our Disclaimer here).