Dream, Believe, Take ActionFebruary 19th, 2013 Friends & Friends of Friends, I know life gets busy but within a time frame of 110 days, I hope you'll find some time between March 3rd and the Summer Solstice (June 21st) to help Amé Amé, begin to change the world 1 umbrella, 1 tote bag, and 1 city park at a time. There are several goals for Amé Amé’s “110 Days of 110% Heart” but the ultimate goal is to raise at least $30K so that Amé Amé can finally have its own line of quality umbrellas to more effectively end the buying of disposable, ugly umbrellas and begin to make long lasting contributions that build and improve city parks. The plan for our 110 Days of 110% Heart is to have several events (including a dance party right before Earth Day), launch an Indiegogo campaign, and sell special tote bags. We hope that sales of the totes bags will not only help us achieve our $30K goal but more importantly inspire others to live their lives sustainably and with 110% Heart just as we are striving to do so at Amé Amé. The primary goals of the events are to raise awareness about how important parks are and help us raise $5K to sponsor a bench in New York City’s Washington Square Park and a bench on the west coast in Washington’s Deception Pass State Park, a park that is deeply responsible for my motivation to be a champion of parks. Why a bench? Because they're needed and we can inspire people by placarding our motto of:
There’s no such thing as bad weather. The goal of the Indiegogo Campaign is to provide us the $25K in financing needed to produce a minimum order of quality umbrellas, so that we can sell these umbrellas for $45 an umbrella and donate 10% of sales to special park projects and park organizations like Trust for Public Land. Thus one day when we’re able to sell 1 million of these umbrellas, as hoped, Ame Amé can do things like support the salary of 100 park employees (jobs which the city keeps taking away because of budget cuts, even though these employees are crucial to keeping our parks clean and safe.) Furthermore, the plan is to design these umbrellas in collaboration with artists so that Amé Amé can help expose more artists to more people and foster greater appreciation for beauty in our world and the artists that help create such beauty. I hope that what I’m sharing resonates with you and that you’ll join our facebook event page so that you can stay up to date about the many events that will be happening from March 3rd until April 20th such as March 3rd – launch of Amé Amé’s Indiegogo campaign. March 14th – a wine and chocolate night at Amé Amé to unveil two tote bags I’ve designed and had made in New Hampshire (aka the USA) by a woman owned business. (These aren’t cheap promo tote bags with a cool screen print. I’ve designed them to be highly functional as well as stylish) March 16th & 17th – 20% off anything bought at Amé Amé that you can fit into your 110% Heart tote bag. April 20th – Dance with 110% Heart to celebrate Earth Day an Save our Parks
June 4th – Get ready for Gay Pride Day. Buy a tote bag and get 20% off our beautiful rainbow umbrellas.
Rain or Shine, -Teresa Soroka
March 5th, 2012
Always Smiles,
Circa 2009 & 2008
At Ame Ame we believe all people and the environment deserve easy access to clean, abundant water, both fresh and salty. Such water is a threatened resource and it’s a topic that often gets neglected. Thus with Ame Ame’s love for rain, we hope to bring more attention to the matter. As this section of the site develops, we want to educate people about various water issues, such as the ability to simultaneously provide water and playgrounds to villages in places like Kenya and Cambodia by donating to www.PlayPump.org. In the meanwhile, if you already have thoughts about water issues please get in touch with us by emailing info@amerain.com . We care about what’s on your mind and what you think matters.
Rain or Shine,
Teresa Soroka
Think the government is protecting your drinking water? Then think again. The New York Times is starting "Toxic Waters" a critical series about the worsening pollution in American waters and regulator's responses. Read this article to realize that the Clean Water Act doesn't mean your drinking water is safe. Clean Water Laws are Neglected, at a Cost of Suffering But don't lose hope we can turn things around. Make this an important voting issue.
PBS Frontline produced a fantastic but very serious report called Poisoned Waters. For anybody who cares about the Puget Sound, The Chesapeake Bay, and other bodies of waters be sure to watch this program.
As the Frontline excerpt below suggests, Poisoned Waters shows us, individuals like you and me are very much responsible for the suffering environment. In Poisoned Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith examines the growing hazards to human health and the ecosystem. "The '70s were a lot about, 'We're the good guys; we're the environmentalists; we're going to go after the polluters,' and it's not really about that anymore," Jay Manning, director of ecology for Washington state, tells FRONTLINE. "It's about the way we all live. And unfortunately, we are all polluters. I am; you are; all of us are." Through interviews with scientists, environmental activists, corporate executives and average citizens impacted by the burgeoning pollution problem, Smith reveals startling new evidence that today's growing environmental threat comes not from the giant industrial polluters of old, but from chemicals in consumers' face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains, and eventually into America's waterways and drinking water. "The environment has slipped off our radar screen because it's not a hot crisis like the financial meltdown, war or terrorism," Smith says. "But pollution is a ticking time bomb. It's a chronic cancer that is slowly eating away the natural resources that are vital to our very lives."
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