Monday, April 30, 2012

A Reprise for Giving Back




reprise (noun):  a recurrence, renewal, or resumption of an action
 
A few of you may remember my sewing machine image from a year ago when it accompanied my post at the time.  Today I reprise it to make an announcement:

OUR V&V SHOPPE IS NOW OPEN!

There are 21 women of this age who are collaborating day in and day out to make this vision and verb juxtapositioning work.  Some of us have been on the ground level from the get-go when we started out in January of 2010.  Our newest member joined us a week ago.  As we say, a lot of water has gone under our bridge!

One piece bantered about, once our feet got wet enough, was how we could give back to the world at large.  Could we do more than just click our cameras and blah-blah-blah?  Could we think bigger?  Could we make a difference?

YES.  A resounding YES from all of us!

And, after all the back-n-forths, it has come to this:  we collectively are reprising select images from over 800 posts in the form of greeting cards.  Greeting cards for sale to the public.  To the WHOLE WIDE WORLD.  To you.

And what will you get out of it?  Our fine art.  Our heartbeat.  Our soul....

And more!  The profit from every card sold (approximately 50%) will be given back to the larger world in allotments of $25 loans to men and women seeking to start their own businesses.  The conduit for these loans is KIVA, a non-profit organization that enables us to lend to the "working poor" around the world.

SEE THAT BUTTON?  Our very own Marie Otero has created the above graphic, incorporating my sewing machine into the KIVA mission of empowering people around the world.  She also created the graphic for our Vision & Verb button on our sidebar.  If you wish to add either or both to your own site, please let us know privately or in a comment below.  We'd love for you to further our cause around the internet.

More than anything, huge gratitude goes to our own Sue Henry who is the html architect behind this room in our V&V home.  You would not be reading this post today if it weren't for her magic.  It's been a real honor for me to work with her to bring this "mission" to fruition.  Thank you, Sue!

Check it all out here or click on Our Shoppe room at the top of this page.  You'll find collaborator galleries for mixing and matching...a total of 79 cards to begin with.  We'll add more and/or swap out over time, once we see how this takes off.

But for now, please join us in our Grand Opening.  Share a button or two and buy some cards!
Recurrence.  Renewal.  Resumption of an action.  We reprise (verb) in order to give back and to say Thank You to the world!

OUR SHOPPE IS NOW OPEN!
Help us empower people around the world with a $25 loan.



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