"Life’s persistent and most urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" Martin Luther King
Probably what excites us the most is creating connection and building community. We currently organize two annual projects to support our local and global community, a small thank you for the support that our community shows us. It's not just an obligation that we give, but a privilege, and we do it with excitement.
GIFT AN EDUCATOR
Many of our clients and customers are teachers and we admire the work that they do. Around the onset of the pandemic so many of our customers and the greater teacher community were among the many heroes on the front lines showing up for our children. We wanted to make them feel special so we launched the Gift an Educator Project. Since 2020 we’ve invited our community to nominate an amazing educator in their life. We continue to value the contribution that educators make to society day. We've now gifted educators from all across the country with a special golden gift.
You can learn more and nominate your favorite teacher for a chance to be gifted Gwen Beloti jewelry. It takes just a couple of minutes to shout out that special person. Nominations open during Teacher Appreciation Month and close the end of fall. A number of educators are selected in November and gifted in December, just in time for the holiday season.
100 DRESSES FOR LITTLE DRESSES FOR AFRICA
Gwen’s love for creating and empowering women motivated her to form her own initiative in support of the nonprofit organization Little Dresses for Africa (LDFA). If you've read Gwen's story you know that before she designed jewelry, she was a self-taught then formally trained apparel designer. Her foundation in apparel design and love for fashion forged her relationship with LDFA. For several years annually during the month of June, Gwen has organized a group of volunteers to assist with making and designing 100 dresses for little girls across the globe who were in need of them. To date the company has donated several hundred dresses with the help of the community. In 2020-2021 when COVID posed a challenge for convening in large group settings we hosted a virtual at home “Make a Dress Challenge”. Families not just locally or across the county, but across the world were able to join in on the challenge. It was such a beautiful way to build community.
We’re honored to be a longtime supporter of LDFA and their selfless commitment to providing relief to children across the continent of Africa and abroad. We continue to show our support by giving a percentage of our June month sales to an organization that is changing the lives of thousands of children and families around the globe.
If you would like to stay up to date with our community initiatives or get involved in our programming, join our mail list for updates.