Lunapads

A happy little post for a Friday afternoon…

Our first song has just been sent to us, courtesy of Filmmaker and Mom extraordinaire, Camille Brown. You can see a trailer for her teen period movie, “A Period Piece” by visiting her site. She’s pictured here with her daughter - what a beautiful photo.

When she sent me this song this afternoon, I just had to post it - enjoy!

“La La Lunapads”

My Lunapads are coming from outer space

they’re going to replace

my disposable ones

my disposable ones.

No more waste

No more waste

And so I sing, la la luna

la la luna

la la Luna

la la la lunapads

 

I celebrate my red with green

I celebrate my red with GREEN

my flow is like a teen-ager

my body is not in danger

anymore

I don’t buy pads from a store…

Reusable

Bubble Mosaic

Purple Stardust

Hearts

keep me feeling creative

It’s delightful to be recyclable

every month

every month

so I celebrate the Earth

I shed red tears of joy

Oh, la la luna

la la luna

la la Lunapads

I celebrate my moon cycle

while riding my bicycle

with two toddlers in tow,

Oh, la la luna

la la luna

la la Lunapads

Lunapads wouldn’t be here, as it is today, if it wasn’t for the amazing support and inspiration we receive from 2 very special people.  Pictured here is me and Carol Newell and Joel Solomon of Renewal Partners at the PEAK awards honouring Women in Finance.  Carol was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her pioneering charitable work and social investing. Over the past fifteen years, she has placed over $60 million in organizations, individuals, and businesses working toward sustainable economic development and social and environmental justice throughout Canada.  One such organization is the seed capital company Renewal Partners, of which Lunapads is an investment.

Her acceptance speech was addressed to an audience of primarily women with highly successful financial careers devoted to helping their clients manage, account for, or grow their wealth.  And she delivered a passionate, important and inspiring message to them: think about what you do with wealth and consider putting it towards social profit enterprises.  

She asks “can we find a way to do our work in community on this planet in a way that honours and respects our mothers and our sisters, and our daughters, as well as the planet that provides for us?”  She challenged us to go from “simply making more, to making better” and using money as ”a fuel - a catalyst - to help restore the health of the planet, and re-connection among ourselves.” 

As I looked around the room and chatted with colleagues whom I hadn’t seen for many years (my former life was a full-time finance professional helping a big company keep track of and create wealth) it felt incredibly satisfying to know the direction I have taken my career at Lunapads has not only served me well, but serves others.  When I met Madeleine 8 years ago, I intuitively knew I was ready for a change - and her powerful vision for Lunapads was the spark for me to move on.  Today, I feel fortunate to be able to use my financial skills to do meaningful work and to be part of the greater vision that Carol holds: to stimulate a soically just and environmentally sustainable economy and way of life.

Are you a student looking for a summer job at a cool, progressive, feminist place of business?  Lunapads will be hiring a summer student this year under the “Canada Summer Jobs Program” to assist with community outreach and customer service.  To learn about what it is like to work at Lunapads, just check out the ‘about us’ section on our website.  To qualify, students must have been registered as a full-time student during the preceeding academic year and intend to return to school on a full-time basis during the next academic year at a secondary, post secondary, vocational or technical program.  You must also be a Canadian citizen (sorry, it’s in the fine print of the paperwork!) between the ages of 15 - 30.  We look forward to hearing from you!  Apply at jobs@lunapads.com.

This is an awesome 20-minute video all about - you guessed it - STUFF! The creator and narrator, Annie Leonard, has done her research and breaks down the linear structure of how we make our Stuff to how we buy our Stuff to what we do with our Stuff once we’re done with it. It’s a system that does us and our world no justice but by understanding how it is wrong we can work together to fix it. Watch the movie - you won’t be disappointed.

The Boss of You is here! As many of you are aware, we are huge fans of our fabulous web designers, Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears  of Raised Eyebrow Web Studio. Not only are they talented web designers (no bias here!) but they are also brilliant writers and have written a fabulous (it’s just how they do things, fashion included) book, the Boss of You: everything a woman needs to know to start, run and maintain her own business (Seal Press), now available at Amazon.com, or better yet your local (preferably woman-owned bookstore.

We love this book for so many reasons: the witty-yet-brisk tone that is a perfect balance of inspiration and practicality, the numerous examples of women-owned businesses defying conventional business practices and having the courage to succeed on their own terms, and last but not least, that we now have the perfect book to recommend to all the gals who come to see us for business advice! - I almost forgot to mention that we happen to be one of the businesses profiled, which we are beyond chuffed about. We actually had the opportunity to gush about them live at the book launch party (see photo) the other day.

Because we think every budding (or new) woman entrepreneur needs to read this book, we’re having a contest to win an autographed copy (well, actually three of them!) Here’s the deal: write to blog@lunapads.com and tell us what inspires you most about having (or the idea of having) your own business and what success looks like to you. Bonus points for telling us the name of Lauren and Emira’s e-zine and blog that they collaborated on from 2000-2006. We’ll pick the winners by the end of June - good luck!

We’ve been on a very lucky streak as of late (well, for several years, now that I think of it!) with respect to staffing here at Lunapads. But the orders keep coming and frankly we’re falling behind and need a new set of hands on deck. Are you the next Lunagal? Ask yourself the following questions: are you passionate about natural menstrual products, environmental issues, attachment parenting, women-led businesses and suchlike? Are you handy with a computer, willing to work with little kids running around, want/need a flexible work schedule, have experience perhaps with bookkeeping, customer service and/or order fulfillment? Send your resume with cover letter explaining what draws you us to jobs@lunapads.com today!

A good laugh for a Friday afternoon!

We love the DivaCup here at Lunapads, and are pretty sure that you will too, if you’re not a fan already! May is “officially” (as official as anything gets around here, that is) DivaCup month and we’ve got some fun specials and contests to celebrate. For a quickie review of the hows and whys of Divadom, check out our DivaCup 101 Guide.

First, all DivaCup and DivaCup Kit purchases this month will receive one of our beautiful new Cycle Charts as a bonus gift with purchase. Divawash is also 10% off.

For seasoned DivaCup users we are having a blog contest: tell us how the DivaCup has changed your relationship with your period or your your life. Humorous stories are more than welcome (DivaCups have been mistaken for everything from measuring cups to cat toys!) Include a photo and your odds of winning increase. We’ll choose our 3 favorite submissions and send the bloggers each a bottle of Divawash as a gift. Send your submission by May 31, 2008 to blog@lunapads.com.

We encourage DivaCup newcomers to join Crunchy Chicken (Goods4Girls founder Deanna Duke)’s DivaCup Challenge, where they can share their adventure with a group of other new Divas. We love Crunchy’s almost-daily eco-lifestyle reports, and recommend checking out the blog whether you’re in the DivaCup Challenge or not.

A recent customer email caught my attention. Not that I ever tire of the “usual” (“How do I use this?”, “Thank you!!!” etc), but this one struck a personal chord and I’d like to share it with you. In 1992 the first inkling of what was to become Lunapads (product and company) was stirring in me: the “the glimmer in my eye”, you might say. One day I sat down and wrote a letter that was basically a brief outline of a dream: to bring a group women together to make and sell environmentally responsible products. I sent it to about a dozen or so people that I respected for their feedback. Much to my surprise and disappointment, I didn’t get any replies - good thing it didn’t stop me

Andrea Bloomquist has honored us by bringing us her desire and ideas in hopes that we might be able to help her create her dream. To me, there are few things more powerful and inspiring than a young woman wanting to make a difference in the world, so let’s help find a way to put her to work!

“My name is Andrea. I am a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle, studying educational leadership & policy with an emphasis on higher ed. I am set to graduate in August (yay!) and am doing some serious soul-searching to figure out where to let my branches sway next.

I have been reading all about Luna Pads and Diva Cups and am a recent convert (no more waste!). I also have been spending much of my time over the years, especially recently, thinking about how I can put my interests (women’s reproductive/sexual health, education, the environment, and international issues) together and pursue a career.

I am writing to you in this very early stage of my brainstorming in the hopes that you may be able to point me in an interesting direction. Through your customers, clients, friends, colleagues, etc., do you have any knowledge about an organization (large or small) that could use the help of a passionate, bi-lingual (Spanish), woman to educate women about the Diva Cup or Luna Pads so that they can be free to pursue their education, secure stable employment, support their families, etc.? I believe I have a lot to offer, so I am looking for that person/organization that is saying to themselves “if only we had someone who could help us spread the word…”.

It is looking very likely that I will travel to Australia for 3-6 months beginning in January, 2009. After that I may be relocating to Colorado to be close to my mom. So, these are two potential location where I could help spread the word. I am open to others…

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. I absolutely admire the work that your team has done. It is so inspiring to see the birth and growth of your company. I hope that someday I will make such an impact as well.

Thanks very much in advance for your help.”

Go Andrea! Thanks for having the courage to share your dream with us. If any of you want to contact her directly, send your thoughts to blog@lunapads.com and we’ll make sure she gets them.

Wow! That’s the single-best word I can come up with to describe the Passion with a Purpose fundraiser last week. For the record, we had no idea what to expect, and had never met Loretta Cella, the organizer, before. But hey, if someone is a friend of a beloved friend, then chances are good that you’ll connect. And connect we did! What a great evening, from start to finish. Loretta is connected with a fantastic group of women here in Vancouver who socialize regularly. The spa was gorgeous, and there were lovely snacks, including handmade chocolate-dipped strawberries, wine and the best hummous I’ve had in ages. We started off the evening with introductions - Loretta talking about her upcoming trip to Kenya, and Madeleine introduced Lunapads. From there, most gals went off for various treatments while those remaining got to know one another. That’s Suzanne on the left, looking totally blissed out after a massage, with me on the right, in front of the Lunapads display.

Best of all, over $1,000 was raised to purchase “Goods 4 Girls” Kits (that’s 35 kits!). Like I said, WOW!