Heyoo Superpeeps! Another quick SuperGear post for you, this one to offer some conscientious choices for your holiday shopping! ‘Cuz that’s how superhero DO, you know?
(Yeah, I’m still hitting my stride with this whole gear-blogging thing, give me a break. Here we go.)
Uncommongoods.com
I love this one, and I would affiliate with them if they’d let me. They sell neat artsy stuff with meaning, like this mother-love necklace below, and cool stuff for the self-reliant hero–like a mushroom farm, or a ravioli kit, or a specialized jar to brew your own kombucha. Best thing about UncommonGoods? If you click on their name up there, it’ll take you to a page where a portion of any purchase is donated to a charity of your choice from their list. You buy weird, cool stuff while helpin’ out good causes. That’s pretty awesome.
Doterra
Another one I discovered putzing around the internet this winter. These guys put their charity work front and center. Operation Underground Railroad helps stop Sex Trafficking. Days for Girls Hygiene Education helps girls get the products we need to avoid infection and improve health for mothers and children worldwide. One of my personal favorites, Mentors International, provides micro-lending opportunities to help start small businesses in needy areas: a strategy that’s been shown to be better than straight-up charity or government aid in creating long-term sustainable change. It makes sense, you know: when you give a lady a bunch of cash, you feed her for however long that cash lasts, but when you give a lady a business, you help her care for her family and improve her community longterm.
On top of DoTerra’s participation in these, and other community projects, they’re a company that sells stuff that’s good for you. It’s all essential oils with various health benefits–I recommend you go on the NIH’s research website, Pubmed, which is where doctors go to look up new studies, and look up the individual ingredients–and it’s all responsibly-sourced. A bit pricey, so I only got my mother-in-law one oil from here, but I thought I’d mention them. You know what, though? You could go to each of the charities I mentioned above and help them out, instead. Either way, take a look.
Vitamin Shoppe
The Vitamin Shoppe is a much cheaper way to get the essential oils mentioned above. You’ve heard of them, and all their other health food supplements. But you may NOT know that they also participate in a number of community help initiatives, like the Vitamin Angels–providing vitamins to malnourished folks–and with the New Jersey Multiple Sclerosis Society. Since I write a comic about a hero with MS, I thought they deserved a mention here.
Smile.Amazon.com
(Christian Relief Fund or Project Paraguay)
And if you don’t want pretty stuff, weird stuff, essential oils, or healthy stuff, there’s always good old Amazon. Hopefully you already knew that you can type in Smile.Amazon.Com when you buy your stuff, and then they’ll donate to your chosen charity every time you shop. I like Christian Relief Fund (despite the name, they don’t just help Christians) because they’re a small non-profit I can communicate with directly, and it’s easy to check the progress of the wells they build, the children they sponsor, and all their other health and sustainability projects; I like Project Paraguay for similar reasons (and also because that’s where I’m gonna build my clinic when I become a superhero). Whoever you give to, maybe make a little bookmark to remind you to use Smile instead of normal Amazon. I keep forgetting. ;_;
Japan Trend Shop
I’ve mentioned these guys before–and no, I’m not an affiliate of theirs, but I am touting their site a little bit since they were nice enough to offer my readers a 10% discount on all their goods. Turns out they’ve got a few charity initiatives, too, about once a year or so, so they’re worth checking out. You can click up there on their name to hear about their big campaign in Haiti after the earthquake.
Oh, and if you want that 10% otaku discount to Japanese trend gear, drop me your e-mail here or here. Or down there. Wherever you want, really.
While you’re waiting for my little secret discount code, I also found you some more reading on how to help people in need during the holidays. Or, if you’d like to help just one person–say, your favorite nooblet comics artist this Christmas–you can check out the deal I worked out with comics artist Palle Schmidt here.
See you ’round, my dear SuperPeeps. -_^
~Jen
