Lunapads

It’s been just over one year since we moved into our new office, which makes it a good time to pause for a moment to reflect on everything that’s happened in those fleeting 365 days. It’s too much to get into at the moment (I’m thinking that I’ll do a “year in review” post in December.) In the meantime I’ve just posted a bunch of new photos to the photo gallery that tell a longer story, but suffice to say that it’s been busy!

Here’s a shot of the current Lunagals: L-R Suzanne, Goni, Jennifer, Charlene, Morgan and me. Sandra is off for the summer working at an organic fruit orchard in the interior of the province, and Lisa is on the other side of the lens. Enjoy your summers, everyone!

Vancouver Folk Fest has been running for 31 years, and to a large number of Vancouverites it’s the cornerstone of the summer. For three days every year Jericho beach is transformed into a Wonderland of delicious food, ethical crafts, and best of all: incredible folk artists from around the globe. Lunapads hasn’t had a table at Folk Fest for quite a number of years, so it was an honour to take part in the festivities.

The Lunagals, (team intern: Jennifer and Char ) and Lunapads owner Suzanne spent the weekend getting to know our customers, building a new clientele, and listening to great music. The highlight of the weekend was Ozomatli’s main stage performance on Friday evening.. although free samples of Lunatic bars all weekend came close second.

Over all it was a fantastic weekend, and we can’t wait to “man” our Under the Volcano table next weekend.

So if you’re in Vancouver (August 10th) come check out one North Vancouver’s ode to Art and Social Change.. and don’t forget to stop by and get some great deals and more chocolate!

Thank you to Dave Niddrie for the photo, and all the lovely customers who stopped by to chat and support Lunapads!!

Way back before we had kids (6+ years ago) we often used to take the Lunapads show on the road, attending trade shows and festivals on a fairly regular basis. From local New Age/Women’s/Eco/Wellness shows to major US natural products trade shows, you could find our smiling faces expounding the virtues of natural menstrual products to anyone patient enough to listen - it was hard work, but often lit up with wonderful connections with customers and colleagues.

This year we have made a commitment to be a little more “out there” in our community and as a result ended up attending 2 major events this weekend - the annual Doulas of North America (DONA) conference, and the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. I’ll share a bit about DONA, and Suzanne will tell you about Folk Fest (as it’s known locally) in a subsequent post.

Having both been attended by Doulas in our births, Suzanne and I were only too happy to meet several hundred of them! For those of you who may not know, Doulas are highly skilled and compassionate professionals who attend Mothers through their pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum stages. You can learn more about their role and services here.

Not surprisingly, several of our Doula friends were also in attendance, and it was a great opportunity to reconnect. I’m sure this is true of many places, but in the past few years, Vancouver has seen the emergence of a wonderful community of Midwives, Doulas, La Leche League leaders and other breastfeeding and attachment/natural parenting advocates etc. and their devoted clients and supporters. Here’s a nice photo of me and Nikiah Seeds of Mama Goddess Birth Shop in front of the Mama Goddess and Lunapads displays. Other treasured colleagues at the conference included Sarah Juliusson of Mama Renew and Dancing Star birth), Sarah’s business partner Jennifer Lee Koble, Bridgitte Alomes of Natural Pod natural toys, Paula Violi of Baby Buddha slings, Amanda Spakowski of Luna Birth, Aimee Sturley of Adar Birth Services and Wendy Armbruster of Pump-ease breast pump supports.

Love you gals - keep up the great work!

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 (ie: working in our office assisting with sales, customer service and shipping as well as attending local community events to share the Lunapads story).  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 with a resume and cover letter telling us why you’d like to join the team.

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!

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.

For all you gals who have switched to resuable menstrual products, Lunapads and the Earth thanks you. As another small token of our thanks, we are offering our new Cycle Chart as a free, earth friendly download to fans who join our facebook group. Joining our facebook group is a convenient way for us to stay in touch with our customers and give you facebook exclusive specials like this one. The free Cycle Chart download offer expires My 31, 2008. �

As you know, we are very proud of our beautiful office. One of my favourite things about it (other than the people and paint colours) is a collection of artwork and documents at the front. So this post is a bit of a mini-tour, as well as just sharing some of the things that make working here special.

Thanks to a recent suggestion from our personal Feng Shui expert (aka Suzanne’s Mom), we recently moved our front altar table (pictured at left) to improve the inflow of good energy into the office. The table was built by a talented architect/designer friend as part of a trade show display. On the upper far left of the table you can see a beautiful statue of Kuan Yin (the Goddess of Compassion - Suzanne reminds me of her) that I inherited from a beloved Aunt. Next to her is an African fertility statue given to us by our friend and herbal supplier Nikiah (that’s a bag of her herbs under the table, as it happens, waiting to become herbal heat packs!) Underneath that there is a mask given to us by a Zimbabwean-Canadian woman as a thank you for donated pads, a lovely box that I brought Suzanne as a gift from Mexico, a gorgeous red glass ball given to Suzanne by a close friend, the Maiden garland Suzanne gave me prior to my wedding, and a “prosperity” piggy bank - a gift from Wendy, our production partner and next-door neighbor.

The photo on the wall above on the left caught my eye at an art show at a local cafe and reads “create” (a personal mantra) - it was taken at the Berlin Wall just prior to its fall. The painting on the right is a powerful piece reminiscent of Georgia O’Keeffe that I commissioned from a local artist many years ago to incorporate in Lunapads packaging and marketing materials.

The photo on the right is basically of a big mishmash of letters from customers, thank you letters from organizations who have received donations, and random fun bits and pieces. My personal favourite is the knitted pink “L” made by uber-crafty Lunagal Morgan.

If these walls could speak, I think they’d say “we like it here!”