Lunapads

I’m going to reprise two themes that have been common this summer at Lunapads: being out and about, and mixing business and pleasure. This past weekend Suzanne and I were at opposite ends of the country attending very different events. I’ll leave her to tell her tale in another post: as for me, I was in Toronto as an exhibitor at the Canadian Health Food Association trade show. For those of you who may think of Lunapads as an exclusively online venture, in Canada at least, Lunapads are in fact available at a couple of hundred health food stores – check the list here. I was attending the show to help bring Lunapads to more stores, in addition to meeting valued suppliers and inspiring colleagues.

What was so great about it? In a word: the people. It’s always a great pleasure to visit with the DivaCup ladies themselves, Mom and daughter duo Francine and Carinne Chambers, pictured above. To all you DivaCup fanatics out there: you have these gals to thank for your menstrual freedom. There are few products that have made such a profound difference in so many women’s lives, and I can tell you that it has not always been an easy road for them to make it happen (let’s just say that there’s some paperwork involved!) It will not come as a huge surprise to learn that the DivaCup won the gold award at the show for best product for women – way to go, you two!Further to the inspiring women entrepreneurs theme, one of my personal all-time favorites would have to be Jodi Weiss, founder of PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics. If ever there was a mission driven business, this is it: Jodi makes ultra-pure lipstick, nail polish and lip gloss (upwards of 75% organic ingredients and counting), then donates a massive chunk of the after-tax profits to a variety of social profit enterprises that serve women, their families, and world peace. Please consider PeaceKeeper the next time you’re trolling for some new self-adornments or gifts for makeup-loving girlfriends – everything rocks about her and her products.

Next up on my excellent people list is Anna Belayev (pictured above at our display), a Toronto-based Lunapads customer who offered to help at pretty much the exact moment that we decided to attend the show. Not only did she do us a spectacularly good turn on a business level, it was a great pleasure on a personal level to get to spend a couple of days working with her. Thank you, Anna!!

Other people I was only too happy to run into included our Luna(tic) chocolate bar suppliers, Tiz and Camille from Zazubean, Alain, Rachel and the team at Druide organic bodycare products (we sell their soap), Brian from Curelle haircare products (I have been using his shampoo and conditioner for years), Kathi from our packaging designers Fluid Communications, and “best new person” Carolin from Navitas Naturals, the most appealing awesome-for-you, unprocessed snacks that I have come across in ages (parent alert – your kids will love this stuff!)

It was hard work being on my feet all day, but being in such good company made it fun and energizing. Good luck everyone, and hope to see you next year!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 10:51 am by Madeleine and is filed under Inside Lunapads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.