Our LIVESTRONG Challenge!

The LIVESTRONG Philly Challenge has now come and gone. All I can say – is WOW!!! WOW!!! and WOW!! In all the events that we have been part of, this has got to be the most motivational, inspirational and worth while cause. We loved every moment of it.

After months of fundraising, Jason and I were able to raise $3,140.00!! We are very proud of ourselves and very thankful to our friends, family, customers and business associates for supporting us and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Since we raised over $3,000, we were invited to the Awards dinner on Saturday night. I gotta tell you, LAF knows how to throw a party! The food was awesome and the speakers were worth every word they spoke! There were standing ovations for Team Fat Cyclist who has raised over $600,000! There were tears as the Team leader spoke of the loss of his wife 3 weeks ago. There were cheers and laughter along the way too.

Sunday morning started out early – very early!! Jason was up around 4 am and out the door at 5 to get his place in line for the ride. I got up around 5 and was out the door at 6 to find my power stop location and get the medical tent set up. Jason and I stayed in contact via text message and around 8 am they finally left the gate.

When the first riders came along to our power stop it was exciting! There were cyclists and bikes every where! We helped riders make sure they had sun screen on because God blessed us and took the rain out of the forecast and the sun came blazing out. We fix small cuts, iced some bee stings, and helped some riders who were just in distress and while having good intentions, just could not complete what they had started. We spent time listening to their stories and sharing moments of joy and pain. It was awesome.

Jason came in to the power stop and soon moved on. I received text messages when he was at other power stops. I was worried about him doing the big hills on the back side of the course. I was relieved when he wrote me – “Big hills done, I made it”. I was so proud of him.

There were many riders who had to stop and walk up those hills, I think I give them more props because I know I couldn’t walk up some of those hills!

As the day wore on, the sun grew very bright and the heat started setting in. We closed down our Power Stop around 11 and packed up everything to move to another location. My team and I showed up at Power Stop 8 and wow… was that a busy place! When our gear showed up, we grabbed our tents from the van and extra supplies from our previous stop and started making the area larger.

There were many riders that just needed a chance to sit in shade and put some cold water on their heads and necks. We started doing quite a few thigh, calf and neck rubs. My hands still smell like Bengay. Some riders really needed medical attention and we unfortunately had to pull several people from finishing the ride because they had just pushed themselves to hard.

One young guy, in his early 20’s came to us for help with his hip. He had fallen earlier in the ride, and had been stopping at every med stop to have them stretch his hip and thigh. There was such a tight knot in his thigh that our doctor told him, he was done. He told us no. I HAVE TO FINISH. I got down next to him and asked him why, what was his story. We both sat there and cried as he told me that he had signed up to do this event with his friend Bob. It was to be their first time and they were gonna do it together. He then told me Bob died 3 weeks ago. We talked for a long time and asked him if Bob were here right now, what would he tell you to do? With tears rolling down his face, he told me, “He would want me to stop and get medical attention”. He hugged me when I put him in the SAG van and sent him back to the main medical tent. I will never forget him.

Jason made it through my Power Stop looking amazingly fresh. He got a quick calf massage and I filled up his bottles, his snack pack and sent him back on his way. He sent me a message around 3 that he had completed the 100 miles and rode through the finish line to see his daughter ringing the cow bell at him. His parents, daughter, sister and her boyfriend stood at the finish line and cheered him in. I can not imagine the feeling of accomplishment to have completed that ride.

In all, Jason finished his 100 miles in just about 6 hours of ride time. He made sure he stopped at every power stop to fill his drink bottles, stretched his legs and chatted. He said he averaged 16 mph on his ride which is just a bit faster then he had hoped.

There were so many stories, so many faces! So much joy and pain at the same time. Some of these riders couldn’t even walk after being on their bikes for some long, but they were determined to finish. By the end of the day, we were stopping riders and putting them on the bus. We no longer had police out on the road protecting them and stopping traffic for them. The bus brought them to 2 miles out and allowed them to ride into the finish line on their own.

There were NO quitters here – NO ONE failed. Everyone was a winner. Everyone should be proud for what they did! It was awesome!

We are already talking about how we are going to be involved with next year. O.k. maybe I am already talking, I think Jason is still trying to get the kinks out of his back from being hunched on the bike for so long. What we both know is that this was probably the most inspirational and worth while cause that we have ever been involved with.

Thank you to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for coming to our area! Thank you for doing what you do! Thank you for helping so many people. You can be sure we will be back next year for more fun and fundraising!

LIVESTRONG!!!

Helping Friends

Recently, thanks to Twitter, I met a new friend. While I have not known her very long, I have learned very quickly how strong, caring and how wonderful of a person she really is. Her name is Maria.

Like me, Maria is a Police Officer. She is very active and is constantly on the go. Right now, Maria is training to run a 1/2 marathon to raise money for the Rally Childhood Cancer Foundation. She is dedicated to this run, and is doing this run in honor of her rally kid Clark. the run is scheduled for January in Disney World. How Cool!!!

Hearing her talk about what she is doing, sparked a flare in me to help her out. I thought about it and came up with an idea. I created a coupon code for her to give to her friends and I posted it on my website for others to use. With this coupon code, people can buy whatever Awareness products they want for whatevery cause they care about, and use the special code to have the 20% donation directed to Maria's fundraiser. Using the code would also allow them to get 10% off their purchase.

I thought this was a great idea and a way to help others who are doing fundraisers to get a little bit of extra assistance.

I was so happy to be able to tell Maria, that the day after her special code was set-up someone used it to make a purchase and $3.87 was set aside to be donated to her fundraising efforts!

If you would like to read more of Maria's story, you can read about it here on her fundraising page: http://www.active.com/donate/2010disneyteam/mariabaldwin

If you would like to help Maria in her fundraising by purchasing an awareness product, please visit our website at www.RibbonsforaReason.com and enter coupon code MARIACLARK.

I am honored to be able to help this amazing friend out!

Get out there and run Maria! (and don't forget your vest....lol.....)

LIVESTRONG Everyone - LIVESTRONG!!!

Sunset our Last night on vacation!

Ocean City Maryland Bay Sunset

Relaxing with sunsets

One of the many beautiful sunset we saw on vacation in Ocean City Maryland.

Where does the time go?

It has just occured to me that my last blog was June 1st. JUNE 1ST!!! It is now July. Does anyone know where June went???

My last post was so positive about the fund raiser I had just assisted with. Since that date, I feel like I opened a door someplace and time just flew right out.

June has consisted of graduations, birthday parties, poetry recitals, yard sales (where we made over $800 that was donated directly to LIVESTRONG), business, everyday work, household duties (although not much done on that front) and finally got a chance to sit back and relax on a family vacation.

As I worked this last weekend and had to write the date on something, it hit me. It is July. Before we know it, it will be October and our kids will be dressing in crazy costumes and hunting for candy.

With that said, I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I hope to get back on the wagon here and start producing some great blogs.

Fundraiser Event

This weekend I had the pleasure to help a friend with a benefit dinner for the Komen 3-Day Walk. It was a lot of fun and they did a wonderful job.

They had an awesome 3 person acustic band, wonderful silent auction items, a donation bar and a food spread that was wonderful! They couldn't have ordered better weather for the event! Sunshine with a nice breeze and nice warm temps.

They had some great trivia questions where they gave out prizes. I am happy to say I personally won a Silent Auction basket full of Power Bars. I specifically bid on those to give to my husband as he continues his training for the LIVESTRONG Challenge in August and also the Irish Pub Tour de Shore in July.

They had some great t-shirts for sale and of course I had to have one! It was a wonderful day and the people that attened were great people and good friends!

They even had a pinata in the shape of a woman's chest. That was a treat! One of their friends painted a huge Pink Ribbon on a hill in the back of the yard and kids ran it like it was a race track!

With the help of my very good friend Amy, Ribbons for a Reason set up a booth at the event. We displayed many of our products out there for everyone to see. During the event we donated between 30%-50% of every item sold back to the Komen 3-Day and Nancy's team. We are happy to say that we were able to donate $200.00 to them!

It was a great day to relax and help raise money for a great cause. I was honored to have been asked to take part in this event. Thank you Nancy!

Go Green for MCS Month!

MCS - Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

I thank Suzanne Olson for this article that was posted on examiner.com.

Go green for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness Month
Green ribbons signify Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and May is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Month. But you probably won’t be seeing many green ribbons around.
Like AIDS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity or Environmental Illness is one condition people just don’t want to think about.

Okay, we all know someone who reacts to a particular face cream or detergent.

And there’s perfume sensitivity. A lot of people can’t be around perfume, and that’s no big deal.

But, what if our planet was so polluted that some people couldn’t tolerate chemicals at all? These people would react to perfume, detergent, dryer sheets, paint, pesticides, carpet, glues, makeup, deodorant, and pretty much everything sold in stores.

They would be so sensitive to such a long list of chemicals, they would have stay away from people just to survive.

What if prevention and the cure for this condition, was the same: Everyone had to stop shopping. Not altogether; people could still buy natural, chemical-free products, but basically 90% of the products on the market would be in the “not recommended for your health” category.

Just like any polluter, industry would say Multiple Chemical Sensitivity doesn’t exist. Companies would say their products are safe. Insurers would say MCS must be psychological.

Lawmakers would stick their heads in the sand, except to avert the occasional political disaster. They might hold a meeting about toxic trailers or lead in toys.

And people would continue to get ill from bad products.

The truth is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity does exist and is already a problem at crisis proportions. The Social Security Administration knows it. The schools know it. Employers know it.

So, buy a little piece of green ribbon and wear it. And, even more important, go green. Go green for your kids. Go green for your friends. Go green for your relatives. Go green for your employees. Go green because you are sick of getting sick, and you want to live a long and healthy life. Go green, for people with MCS.

******************

Sorry for not having posted recently, I have been very under the weather with a Upper Respiratory Infection.

See our Website to find your Green Ribbons! www.RibbonsforaReason.com

A different kind of Drug

I think this is a great letter and wanted to share with everyone!

If you click on the newpaper picture above, it will enlarge for you to read!

Knowing about my customers

What is the difference from having a storefront and having an on-line business?

Having a storefront offers you the opportunity to see your customer, hear thier stories, get a sense of who they are and what they are about.

When you have an on-line store, it makes it much harder to know who your customers are. They come in the form of a name and a IP address. They supply you with an address and some form of payment, but you never really get to know who they are.

Do the business owners care who thier customers are? I mean more then demographics that tell us women between the ages of such and such make more impluse purchases then men. Do they want to know the stories behind why people buy what they buy? Or is it just another order, and more money in thier pocket?

Me, I want to know my customers. I love it when a customer actually sends an e-mail and asks a question. It opens the door for me to learn more about them. More about why they are interested in what they are looking at. What in thier life has lead them to find my store?

Over the last year, I have met so many people and I love having the opportunity to speak with them about why they have come looking for me. The stories they tell are heartbreaking at times, and I want to reach out to them and tell them it will be o.k. Other times the stories are great tales of survival and love!

Each and every customer that I have had the opportunity to speak with, has touched a piece of me. Left an impression on my soul. I can only hope that with the work I do, they are also feeling the affect of how someone cares about thier story, some cares about them.

I am honored to have the customers I have. I am honored to have met the people I have.

Someday, I would love to have a storefront where I could see my customers and hear thier stories from thier mouths rather then reading about them in e-mail. Until then, I look forward to reading the next e-mail where someone needs hope, someone needs love and someone needs faith. I'll be there to give it.

Until then.... LIVESTRONG!

Starting our Fund Raising for the LIVESTRONG Challenge

The LIVESTRONG Challenge will be here before we know it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my husband decided to take the Challange. His intent at this time is to do the 70 mile ride in Philly on August 23rd.

I have to admit, I am very excited about this! Excited for him to do this, excited to be a part of it, and excited to be making a difference.

Our goal is to raise $3,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. We think big, and we intend to achieve our goals!

Many people have asked us if we are directly affected by cancer. Who isn't? If you are asking if we have cancer, No. Are you asking if someone in our family has cancer, No. We are concerned because Cancer is huge! Cancer kills. It makes people and families suffer. It can be cured. I want it to be before my children have to deal with it.

With my business, I hear the stories of people who are touched so deeply by Cancer. A woman not to long ago, reached out to me for help in picking out Teal Ribbon items for her sister who had just found out she not only had ovarian cancer, but cervical and uterine cancer too! Her story touched me deeply! While I do not know this person personally, her story touched me such a way that it made me want fight with her - fight for her.

I hear a lot of stories, and that is why I do what I do. That is why I want to raise funds to Cancer - For my friends, my customers, my families and all of you out there.

So for those of you who want to reach out and help someone, but you don't know who. Make a donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Make a donation to help find the cures for cancer. Reach out and help others.

You can visit our website for more information on our LIVESTRONG Challenge at www.RibbonsforaReason.com.

Fallen Law Enforcement Officers

Here is a picture of the memorial bracelet I send out to family members.

As my husband and I are both Police Officers, learning of a brother or sister who was killed in the line of duty is a very emotional thing for us. So far this year, 41 Officers have been killed in the Line of Duty - 43 - all with families - most with wives and children. All who left thier homes that day to protect and serve thier communites, only to never return home.

Of these officers - 15 were killed by gun fire. 13 were killed by Automobile accident mostly when responding to an emergency call. 5 were killed by Vehicular Assault. The rest were killed by other reasons (accidental, assault, Duty related illness, heart attack, motorcycle accident, struck by vehicle and pursuits).

In April 14 Officer's lost thier lives while on duty. March recorded 12 officers down. California is ranked the highest in line of duty deaths with 6 this year. Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania have all had 5 this year.

Last year, I designed a Memorial Bracelet for Law Enforcement Officer's killed in the line of Duty. Since then we have sent out 40 bracelets to the wives, mother and other family members of these officers.

Today, I sat down and made 25 of these bracelets to catch up on this years line of duty deaths. It is one of the few bracelets I do not enjoy making, because of the reason behind it.

On Monday, 27 bracelets will be sent out to the families from the recent months. While we can not take the pain away for thier loss, we can show them that thier loss was not in vain and that they were Heros.

Heros Live Forever!

Please check out our Officer's Memorial Page: http://www.ribbonsforareason.com/category_s/197.htm

Headaches, Latex and matching ribbons!

Why headaches and the burgundy and grey rbbon? Easy - yesterday I spent the day in bed after I very quickly came down with a migraine. Luckily it was not the kind of migraine that stops you dead in your tracks - it was just enough to make my head really hurt and make me not feel well.

About half way through my afternoon, while the headache was feeling better while I laid down, my asthma flair ups started. I have not had any bad asthma flairups in a couple of years - and yesterday I they came about every 30 minutes.

I know that the flair ups were because of my exposure the day before. One thing I have not mentioned is my Latex Allergy. Diagnosed with this in September 2008. I am a both a Level 1 and a Level 4.

With Level 1 latex allergy, when you come in contact with latex, you develope skin irratations. My Level 1 is minor as I can handle latex like shoes and stuff with my hands without rashes or problems. But it will grow as time goes on.

With a Level 4 latex allergy, you can not be around airborne latex. People generally think about airborne latex as Balloons and dust off latex gloves. What they don't know is that everytime something with latex moves - it lets off latex particles. The elastic in the waist band of your underwear or your socks.

Latex allergy is a very serious allergy! Something I will go deeply into soon.

In the mean time - Since yesterday I dealt with headaches - Ashtma from Latex and other Allergen exposures - here are my ribbons for today: Burgundy, Grey and the Latex Allergy Ribbon.

The Burgundy Ribbon is known for the awareness of: Adhesions, Brain Aneurysm, HEADACHES, Disabled Adults, Hospice Care, Meningitis, Sickle Cell Anemia, Thrombophilia & Multiple Myeloma.

The Grey Ribbon is known for the awareness of: Allergies, Asthma, Brain Cancer, Brain Tumors, Diabetes and Mental Illness.

The Latex Allergy Ribbon was recently designed by myself with the help of the American Latex Allergery Awareness Association. It is Red on one leg and Pearl on the other. The red of the ribbon signifies - "NO" or in medical worlds "ALLERGY". The Pearl side of the ribbon is to show the Latex - as it is a creamy off white substance.

You can check out more of our ribbon color meanings here: www.RibbonsforaReason.com

Here is hoping to a day without tylenol or proventil!!!

Why Ribbons for a Reason?

In 2006, I started making hand crafted jewelry. At that time, my business started under the name "Sparkle by Sammie". Shortly after that, I found a desire from others to make awareness jewelry.

I soon began searching for good qualitiy Awareness Ribbons, and the meanings beind them all. WOW! Are there a lot of ribbons out there!!! Finding good quality ribbons at good prices, became very hard! I soon started searching for a manufacturer to make the ribbons for me. From there the inventory of colors started to grow. It was not long before we had over 40 different colored awareness ribbon charms to choose from.

Seeing that people were so interested in getting the awareness out, and how much people appreciated being able to find such a variety of colored ribbons, we decided to move our business in a different direction. We soon got rid of the basic hand crafted and fine jewelry we had started with, and moved exclusively to Awareness jewelry, gifts and finding ways to get the awareness out!

In January 2009, we officially changed our business name over to "Ribbons for a Reason". Since then, our on-line business has taken off. We now have two different kinds of ribbon charms, silver plated and 100% pewter. We offer the largest selection of awareness ribbons for hundred's of reasons.

The best part, we now donate 20% from EVERY sale to a cause of the Ribbon! That has been very exciting to us as we have watched our sales grow, and know that we are not only helping you to get the word out, but we are making a difference by donating!

Our store also carries fine awareness jewelry, inspriational gifts, handcrafted awareness jewelry and so much more. Thanks for visiting us and stay in touch so you can hear the wonderful updates of our company!

Click on the link below to view our Color Meaning list!

http://www.ribbonsforareason.com/category_s/96.htm