Pictures for a Purpose

Your child's smile could help save a life...

We are launching our 1st Annual Pictures for a Purpose fundraiser at our May 4th meeting. We have five great photographers lined up to photograph our kiddos on Saturday, June 28th. Every photographer is donating their entire day and all profits to Eastside Women of Purpose!

Our goal is to raise $6500. All proceeds go to programs that help children at risk of being trafficked in
SE Asia.

You will have a chance to sign up to help at our next meeting on Sunday, May 4th! (Check out how cool these shots are...)

Our Next Meeting is...

Sunday, MAY 4th at 9:30am in OCC's Orchestra Room! We will be launching our 1st Annual Pictures for a Purpose Fundraiser that we hope will raise at least $6500! We will be able to buy lots more jewelry from Freedom Stones (I have tons of it in my possession and the jewelry is gorgeous)! Be there! Bring friends! See you soon...

Help Stop the Hunger Crisis!

In just three years, the price of staple foods like wheat, corn and rice has almost doubled, and this week, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that if left unchecked, global food shortages could set the world back seven years in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. We must urge our leaders to take action.

Sign One's petition to President Bush. Click on this link and take 30 seconds to sign the petition.

The Truth About Chocolate

Among other things, I am a chocolate lover. I just came across an article about the trafficking of children into the chocolate business. An estimated 12,000 children have been trafficked into Cote d’Ivoire to work on small cocoa farms. Nearly half of the world’s chocolate comes from Cote d’Ivoire. That's 12,000 children making our cheap-o chocolate!! This really rocks me. So what can we do as consumers of chocolate (some of us more than others).

After a little research, I found out that fair trade chocolate is also traffik free chocolate. I will be really careful where I buy chocolate from now on. Check out the Good Chocolate Guide to find out where you can buy Fair Trade Chocolate locally. Trader Joes brand is fair trade certified and Whole Foods carries fair trade chocolate as well. Help me by spreading the word about chocolate! Just another step in putting traffickers out of business...

Last Call for AWAKE!!

OCC's Awake Women's Event is coming up this weekend! We moved the event into a larger room so that you can still have a chance to register but space is filling up fast!

Check out www.occ.org for details or e-mail charlened@occ.org
This event is going to be life-changing (and very not cheesy!) You can also register the night of the event if you are a last minute kind of person. (It starts at 7pm...)

For a preview of our speakers, you can visit;

www.sunbreaksintherainycity.blogspot.com (Jodie Howerton, speaker)

www.onemomtrying.blogspot.com (Neely McQueen, speaker)

www.troniefoundation.org (Rani Hong, speaker)

www.mrssyrup.blogspot.com (Marisa Butterworth, worship leader)

See you all there!

Freedom Stones are Back!

Lynne just returned from another trip to Thailand where she met with the boys making the Freedom Stone necklaces and brought some back for us to sell! We only have a couple left after our meeting yesterday but email her (lynnee@occ.org) if you would like one. We also have another shipment ordered so if you can't buy one this time around, we will have more!

Date Change for Pictures for a Purpose

We have changed the date for Pictures for a Purpose to Saturday, June 28th. We will start selling the appointments at the May meeting. Be ready to sell!