Spring has finally Sprung!

Spring has finally sprung in Huntington Beach. Although, according to Google, it only went to 79 today, it felt much warmer. We are hoping to visit the Bolsa Chica Wetlands tomorrow as all the little baby birds have been born and are out tweeting - no not on Twitter! To celebrate Spring, if you are reading this blog, please feel free to use or share this special coupon. Type in "spring" at check out, and your entire order will be reduced by 10%. This coupon is good until May 31, 2011 - perfect time to shop for your Mother's & Father's Day presents. We just found out that we are in the upper third of all websites in the world and with an overall score of 89%, we are only 8 points behind the biggies, like Red Envelope. Not bad for a small, woman-owned and operated business! As you know, I am very involved with local charities. This is a very busy time of year for me. Working Wardrobes is gearing up for its Women's Day of Self-Esteem (http://www.workingwardrobes.org/). I am on the Planning Committee, and I am a Success Coach for this event (as well as for the Men's Day of Self-Esteem). As a Success Coach, we spend the 5 weeks before the event, helping women become more job-ready with sessions including how to write a resume and how to interview. The Duck-A-Thon is happening on the weekend of May 13, 14 & 15. This is the biggest fundraiser for Alta Med's Huntington Beach Community Clinic where thousands of uninsured and medically underserved are treated every year (http://www.duckathon.org/). And, our Soroptimist Club is having its first annual Making a Difference for Women Walk on June 18. If you want to know more about this and/or want to walk (if you live in Huntington Beach or nearby) or sponsor me, please email me at terry@giftsfromadistance.com. Funds raised from this walk will be distributed to charities like Collette's Home, Working Wardrobes, Project Self-Sufficiency and others, both local and international. If you want to know more about our club, go to http://www.soroptimisthuntingtonbeach.org/. If you want to know more about Soroptimist, go to http://www.soroptimist.org/. For those of you who don't know, Soroptimist is the only international organization dedicated to issues affecting women and girls, like trafficking. Thank you for supporting us and for your generosity in helping others. As Mother Teresa once said, "We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love." Until I blog again...Namaste, terry

We live in Huntington Beach, CA. My step-daughter called yesterday to see if we were okay. My best friend just landed in Hawaii two nights ago for a vacation with her husband - the first in many years - they were evacuated. She called me yesterday to let me know she was ok. No one can predict a natural disaster but, when one strikes, I feel that we can all help. We, at Gifts from a Distance, believe in "giving back." We donate a portion of our proceeds to charitable organizations, we donate goods for auctions that those organizations to help them raise money in order to sustain their humanitarian or environmental efforts, and we believe in promoting those organizations. Today, we are promoting AmeriCares (http://www.americares.org/). AmeriCares is a nonprofit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization which provides immediate response to emergency medical needs – and supports long-term humanitarian assistance programs – for all people around the world, irrespective of race, creed or political persuasion. We sent them a donation to help the victims of the tsunami in Japan. Since their founding in 1982, AmeriCares has provided more than $10 Billion of aid to 147 countries. If you would like to know more about AmeriCares, please click on the link above.

It's been awhile since I blogged. I will try to be better about it in the future. It is a great way to provide information about what is going on a giftsfromadistance.com as well as other things.

Namaste,
Terry