Like going to an art museum and using every bit of restraint in you not to touch the oil paintings, we’re drawn to things that have texture, like oyster shells. Their pearlescent colors lure us in and all that rough calcified texture distracts us from what’s inside. Lucky for the oysters, we’re less fascinated with what’s inside. As the oysters disappear, beachcombing allows us to reuse and repurpose the shells. And we like the interaction between human hands and nature as the shells travel from beachside to beach house. We draw inspiration from all kinds of marine life. But the oyster is truly a special creature. We’ve tried to capture its stories here in each of our oyster pieces.
May 222009
We love traveling to meet our vendors all around the world. We not only meet our suppliers in the established markets, but we also meet with them in their homes. It’s always an adventure. Recently, we were in India meeting with one of our favorite vendors. They make a lot of the fantastic furniture you see in our catalog. We always like to show up at their facility around lunchtime because they serve the most delicious vegetarian meals. During our last visit, I saw one of the men making chapati (an Indian bread). Of course, I had to try my hand (literally) at making it. All the cooks covered their mouths to hide their laughter as I tried and tried (and failed) to get it right. Even so, our hosts were generous enough to take my half-baked creation and serve it at lunch. We all took a piece of bread and passed it around. In many ways, that’s what is so great about this job. We get to travel around the world, meeting all sorts of wonderful people and sit down and break bread together, all over the best-tasting food ever!
The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship’s mission is to reduce disparities in healthcare by developing service-oriented leaders who are skilled and dedicated in helping underserved communities and influence and inspire others by example. The Fellowship achieves this through an interdisciplinary, service-learning model that fosters moral and professional development.
Albert Schweitzer spent his life in service. At the age of 30, aware of the desperate medical needs of Africans, he decided to become a doctor and devote the rest of his life to service in Africa. Dr. Schweitzer and his wife opened a hospital in Lambarene, Gabon. After years of bringing aid to a vast number of his patients, he authorized the formation of The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship to support his medical work in Africa. In 1979, the Fellowship began sending senior medical students to work at the Schweitzer Hospital, which has provided care through over 35,000 outpatient visits and more than 6,000 hospitalizations annually for patients from Gabon.
In 1992, the Fellowship launched its United States Schweitzer Fellows Programs. Students in health professions and related fields carry out service projects in underserved communities in the US. To date, more than 1,500 US Fellows have contributed over 300,000 hours of service and worked with more than 400 community-based agencies across the United States. Since Dr. Schweitzer’s death in 1965, the Fellowship has continued to support Albert Schweitzer’s humanitarian efforts across the world. www.schweitzerfellowship.org
About 2.3 million children in America have parents who are in prison. Over the past 7 years, at least 1000 of these children have been given holiday joy through the organization known as Clayton’s Backyard Crew.
In 2000, 10 year old Clayton Lillard found two discarded bicycles in his neighborhood and came up with an idea. He decided to repair those bikes in order to give them to less fortunate children so they could share in the joy he got from his own bike. Clayton set a goal of repairing 25 bikes. Each bike would be distributed to a deserving child through the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree. Word of Clayton’s work began to spread quickly. Soon old bicycles began showing up at his door, and he quickly realized he would need some help to work on all these bikes. Thus his crew was formed: a collection of Clayton’s classmates and neighborhood friends who pitched in to help complete all of the bikes in time for Christmas. The team worked tirelessly and Clayton spent almost 350 hours with his crew and still more bikes came.
Today, seven years later, Clayton continues his efforts. Each year the bicycles are collected and repaired and then each bicycle is paired with a helmet and a lock and given to a child. Through significant support from his own community and across the country, Clayton’s efforts continue to impact the lives of children who otherwise would not have a Christmas gift.
The Happy Factory named because of the happiness it brings to the volunteers and the children who receive their sturdy wooden toys is a charitable service center. They create toys to reach children in need throughout the world. Volunteers, ranging from senior citizens to troubled teenagers, handcraft toys from scrap hardwood donated by local cabinet companies. So far over 733,000 toys have been made and delivered to 120 countries. The Happy Factory’s motto is “We may not be able to make a toy for every child in the world that needs one–but we’re going to try!”
The Happy Factory founders Donna and Charles Cooley have learned that toys are not simply playthings, but tools to unlock a child’s imagination and to help him cope with the world around him. Children who experience trauma often learn to suppress their pain and fear by turning off their minds to escape. A toy triggers the imagination and creates feelings of ownership, hope, and love.
From its tiny roots in Cedar City, Utah, in 1995, The Happy Factory has grown to include over 30 satellite branches, most of which are mom-and-pop garage wood shops. Toys are donated locally to hospitals and crisis centers, and internationally to orphanages, schools, and churches. Our hobby has turned into a full-time labor of love!
The Walnut Hills Fellowship is a small group of inner-city neighbors learning to love each other and the rest of the world. In January of 2007, founder Bart Campolo decided to move his family from the comforts of suburban Cincinnati to an inner-city neighborhood. Prior to the move, Bart worked as a pastor, and realized other pastors just did not have the time needed to devote to these neighborhoods. Bart decided that he and his family would live as servants to better their community under the motto: “Love God, Love Others, Nothing Else Matters”.
Their primary program is a large weekly dinner that provides both physical nourishment and spiritual encouragement to their neighborhoods. They also help clean or fix up their neighbors’ homes and put together fun, educational activities for kids in the community. As important as these programs are, the real goal of the fellowship is to build strong, personal relationships with and among their poor neighbors, and to leverage those relationships to positively transform both individuals’ lives and the overall community.
Because most of their members are poor, the Walnut Hills Fellowship relies on financial contributions from their extended family of supporters. Plans for the coming year include local service projects, life-skills training, academic support, personal counseling, group-building exercises, field trips, and other activities which will improve the lives of needy families and individuals and help them grow together into a genuine faith community. They are currently focused on raising support to finance the creation of a ministry space.
Many summers ago, I worked at a nonprofit service community in rural northeast Georgia called Jubilee Partners. Located on 260 acres two hours east of Atlanta, Jubilee is actively involved in housing and educating refugees from around the world. If you have ever wondered where refugees go when they first arrive in America, Jubilee is one of those places.
Since 1980 over 3,000 refugees from nearly 30 countries have made Jubilee their temporary home. A major part of the staff’s time and energy goes into welcoming, hosting, and teaching these refugees, who often come from Sudan, Afghanistan, Burundi, and other war-torn countries. These folks are exhausted by their ordeals, anxious about how they will survive in this new culture, and unable to speak much, if any, English. Jubilee becomes a safe place for them to learn a new language, get acquainted with our country, rest from years of hardship, and begin their new lives in an environment of love and support.
Our friend Cynthia Uduebor, a lawyer at a prominent Dallas law firm, and her family have started the Otis Uduebor Sickle Cell Foundation in memory of her brother Otis Uduebor. Diagnosed with sickle cell anemia at the age of four, Otis was told he would not live to see his fifth birthday and, if he did, would not grow to be more than three feet tall. But Otis defied the odds. At his death in January 2007, Otis was 23 years old and over six feet tall. In his 23 years, Otis touched many lives as an example of perseverance and faith. He simply would not allow himself to be defeated by the physical obstacles of his disease. In August 2006, Otis graduated from the University of North Texas, and following graduation, he planned to launch a national campaign to increase sickle cell awareness.
Sickle cell anemia affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States, more than 70,000 people have the disease and about 2 million Americans have the sickle cell trait, making it the most commonly inherited blood disorder in our nation. Because there is no universal cure, treatment often involves pain management and blood transfusions.
The Otis Uduebor Sickle Cell Foundation seeks to empower persons with sickle cell to live long, healthy, and purposeful lives, provide support for their families and friends, and increase public awareness of the sickle cell disease. They envision holding blood drives and testing opportunities, creating support groups, and developing other ways to raise awareness about the disease. By making Otis’s dream a reality, they hope to improve the quality of life of persons with sickle cell and their loved ones.
The Himalayan Youth Foundation (HYF), is an organization dedicated to supporting education based initiatives in the Himalayan region. The Himalayas have an extraordinary landscape. Though beautiful, daily life for its people is harsh, and typically without the benefits that a modern city offers, including basic health care and education. This affects the children in particular, who often live in extreme poverty with a low life expectancy and high rates of illiteracy.
By helping to provide basic health care, proper nutrition, and an education to the underprivileged children of the Himalayas, HYF hopes to bring additional stability and prosperity to the region. Donations are invested directly by an experienced board of professional men and women that are committed to wise use of monetary gifts and direct monitoring to insure that the programs are provided for as needed.
Presently, supported projects include the Kailash Hostel in Kathmandu, Nepal, operated by the Himalayan Children’s Foundation. The Kailash Hostel offers a chance at formal education, basic necessities, psychological welfare, and shelter through individual sponsorship. Additionally, the Choki Traditional Arts School in Bhutan offers free housing and education in Bhutanese arts, math, and language to impoverished children in the area. We’re happy to be reminded that a little kindness can make all the difference in the future of a child most anywhere in the world.
We want to share with you a story about a special woman who came to work with us several years ago who recently succumbed to cancer. Sybil Todd was our Vice President of Customer Service. She had spent her entire career in higher education, mostly at the University of Virginia, where she was Dean of Students. During her time at UVA, Sybil focused on turning budding college students into leaders that could someday be forces for change in their own communities. She focused on expanding education, both academic and real world, using leadership and mentoring programs that she started and headed up during her time at the university.
After her retirement, she came to work with us at Wisteria. She helped us move from a crazy start up to a crazy professional company, all without losing the values, determination, and laughter that marked those early days. Sybil used to say “God help us in spite of ourselves.” God surely did by sending Sybil our way.
We are proud to tell you that Sybil’s friends and family have established an endowment at the University of Virginia to benefit young leaders in the UVA community. If you knew Sybil or just want to celebrate the power of mentors and educators in our lives, please consider making a contribution. A positive future so often begins with a strong education. Sybil knew the value of that and we will never be the same because of it.
