What a great photo! Thanks to Cammie Moise at Moms Material for lending us this pic of her too-cute-daughter and hosting a UV Skinz Giveaway! For more Wordless Wednesday go to 5Min4Mom.
Archive for April, 2009
Wordless Wednesday…
Join our May “I Saved a Baby’s Skin Today!” Campaign
In honor of Skin Cancer Awareness Month, UV Skinz is promoting awareness of sun protection and skin cancer prevention by donating up to 3000 Baby Skinz swim shirts; UV Skinz will ship a free Baby Skinz swim shirt with every order placed in May.
“The intent is for customers to ‘pay it forward,’” says Rhonda Sparks. “We hope clients will donate the Baby Skinz to a charitable cause of their choice such as a women’s shelter, YMCA or even a neighbor in need. We want to get as many children covered as we can and with each donation, we hope to raise the level of awareness that much more.” Each May shipment will contain a free UV Baby Skinz along with a flyer encouraging customers to pass along the Baby Skinz to a chosen cause. UV Skinz was able to give away about 1,850 swim shirts for the May 2008 Skin Cancer Awareness promotion. The company’s goal this year is to nearly double that as supplies allow.
Babies under age six months should not be in the sun at all. Most pediatricians recommend no direct sunlight exposure for infants within the first few years. However, most infants older than six months regularly spend some time outdoors, even if just for walks in a stroller, and should be sun protected from head to toe. Protecting babies’ skin, regardless of the season, is essential to good skin health and safe sun exposure into adulthood.
The National Cancer Institute reports that many common cancer rates are falling, but melanoma rates within the U.S. continue to grow at an alarming rate. Sparks implores parents to cover their children to prevent them from becoming the one in five Americans who will develop skin cancer. “I am doing all that I can to protect my children from suffering the same fate their Father suffered when we lost him to melanoma. I hope our Baby Skinz donation program will prevent more families from being impacted by this devastating disease.”
An important part of skin cancer prevention is creating awareness. Creating awareness is all about saving our children’s lives in the future. Over 90% of skin cancers are preventable with the right education and awareness. We need you to help us spread the word about Skin Cancer Awareness Month and the “I Saved a Baby’s Skin Today” UV Skinz blog campaign!
As a blogger and an influential part of the blog o’ sphere…How can you help spread the word?
- Blog about the “I Saved a Baby’s Skin Today” campaign.You can see the full press release here. Feel free to include links to UV Skinz, the press release and/or UV Skinz blog! Remember the campaign starts May 1st.
- Add our button and/or banner to your blog! Let everyone know you support this campaign and encourage others to do the same!
- Follow UV Skinz on Twitter and join in on the discussion by following the progress of “I Saved a Baby’s Skin Today” campaign with twitter hashtag #UVSKINZ (Remember to use a “z” and not an “s”)
What can I do if I don’t have a blog?
- Forward this to your friends and family!
- Print out the official “I Saved A Baby’s Skin Today” Button and post it to your bulletin board at your home, home-office, or work.
- Follow UV Skinz on Twitter!
So, what’s in it for you?!
Besides the warm feeling you get by helping to save a baby from potential skin cancer, UV Skinz is giving all bloggers a special discount code to use at our online store! At checkout enter the code: MOMBLOGS15 and SAVE 15% through August 31, 2009 (as long as you are a participating blogger it doesn’t matter if you aren’t a Mom )
Be apart of our Sponsor Showcase Page! Once you have posted about the campaign, then email me the link and your blog button (as an attachment) and you will be added!
If you have any questions or suggestions then please feel free to email me at kalisha@uvskinz.com
Row for Hope…
A while ago I heard of a young man who had the goal to ROW across the Atlantic Ocean! “On March 29, Paul Ridley, landed in Antigua after an 87 day journey. Two goals kept him going…to row 2,950 miles solo across the Atlantic Ocean and to raise $500, 000 to fight cancer.”
What an inspiring story! Paul Ridley lost his Mother, Kathie Raub Ridley, to skin cancer in 2001. She instilled in her children a sense that nothing is impossible, and that nothing they did with passionate dedication could fail. Row for Hope is Joy and Paul’s thank-you gift to Kathie, and their unwavering effort to spare other families from similar loss.
Row for Hope is so similar to UV Skinz. From a tragedy; passion and hope grew. Neither Paul or Rhonda let the loss of their loved ones hinder them in their life. It gave them both the strength to persevere and the drive to educate the public about skin cancer.
If you would like to read more about Row for Hope–go here. I’m going to end this post with a really inspirational quote that I read in one of my favorite books, Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much.
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end. –Ursula K. Le Guin
Be Cool and Stay in the Shade!
One of the most important tips for sun protection besides wearing sunscreen, is staying out of the sun between the hours of 10am-4pm and staying in the shade as much as possible. One easy way to take the shade with you is to carry an umbrella!
Before having children I never would have thought myself to be the type to think about or even carry an umbrella around with me. I have seen many women (mostly older ones) who carry umbrellas while walking, when it’s not even raining! And I would always think–“Oh! How smart! But I am too cool for that!” Or I would see Mom’s carrying umbrella’s to shade their sleeping baby kept snug in a sling or baby carrier.
Since we moved from Santa Monica to the valley I have noticed a huge difference in the obvious temperature rise, but it seems that the sun beats down harder here than it does near the beaches. One of our neighborhood parks has plenty of shade trees on the grassy areas, but the playground and the sand can get scorching hot. For that reason I usually bring our beach umbrella to stick right in the sand so that Faith can play and dig as long as she wants, and I don’t have to worry.
I have become one of those women who now carries an umbrella; to the park, along for a bus ride and of course to the beach. Journey, Faith and I are no stranger to the bus and actually enjoy taking a trip anywhere we like without the hassle of traffic or restraining car seats. The only down-side to the bus, besides the semi-looney people you may meet, is that the bus stop benches either have little to no shade! That’s where bringing along your own umbrella comes in handy.
Taking my shade along has never been more stylish or as easy since I received the Soleil Chic UV Umbrella. It comes in two sizes (small and medium) and three bright and vivid colors; yellow, blue and white. It opens and folds up very easily, has amazingly soft yet durable fabric, and is small enough to fit perfectly inside my diaper bag.
Details: (Taken from the Soleil Chic website) “Our special fabric is a material that blocks 97 percent of UVA and UVB rays and is recognized by NASA for its proven sun protective qualities. Soleil ChicTM umbrellas are designed to provide year round protection and to color-coordinate with and fit into a side pocket of Lynn Rose totes. These UV umbrellas offer excellent sun protection and are treated to be water repellent.”
Developed by Lynn Rose who lost her husband to melanoma and also started to notice the long-term effects of sun damage to her own skin. Lynn says:
“With convenience and fashion in mind, some months later, I designed classy tote bags. The umbrellas color-coordinate with the tote bags and fit into a side pocket. I am committed to educating people about sun safety, and also to providing sun protection for women that is fun, fashionable and easy to use.”
UV Skinz Wishes You a Happy Earth Day!
Rhonda Sparks, owner and Founder of UV Skinz, has built a foundation on creating products that allow consumers to both enjoy and preserve the outdoor venues in which they live without being concerned about skin damage from both UVA and UVB rays. In honor of Earth Day and every other day “protecting skin in addition to the environment has been an integral part of UPF 50+ protective outdoor wear producer, UV Skinz’ corporate conscience since the company’s inception in 2005.”
Practicing good sun protection (wearing UV Skinz) and learning “to be more discerning in your choices to buy organic, natural and eco-friendly sun protection that doesn’t contain ingredients that could harm you and, collaterally, add to the degradation of our ecosystem,” is what Rhonda Sparks wants consumers to be more conscious of.
“UV Skinz does not contain harsh sunscreen chemicals that could not only potentially irritate sensitive skin but also, over time, in environments with heavy tourist traffic in particular, cause damage to sensitive animal and plant life.”
Did you know?
The World Trade Organization reports, for instance, that about ten percent of vacations are taken in tropical areas with coral reefs that are, in turn, exposed to the effects of 78 million tourists annually. This magnitude of traffic yields around 4,000 to 6,000 tons of potentially destructive UV filter sunscreen ingredients seeping into reef environments in just one year. A twenty minute swim releases about twenty-five percent of sunscreen ingredients on skin into the water.
A May 2008 study, appointed by the European Commission and published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, a U.S. journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, confirmed that sunscreens worn by consumers who visit beaches all over the world are largely contributing to coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is a tell-tale indicator that a coral colony is in distress. Bleaching occurs when a stressor, such as increased water temperature or changes in water chemistry, causes coral to expel the symbiotic algae that lives in coral tissue and is responsible for the vibrant coral colors. The study indicates that up to 10% of reefs globally are susceptible to bleaching caused by lotion-based UV filters that are thought to trigger coral viruses.
“If protecting delicate skin from the damaging effects of the sun isn’t enough to convince consumers to cover up,” says Sparks, “we are happy to provide yet another compelling incentive. Wearing protective swimwear that covers up more skin means less sunscreen finding its way to delicate coral colonies. And less sunscreen consumption, in general, means fewer sunscreen containers ending up in our trash.” The lifespan of UV Skinz garments can be several years which can translate to that much less sunscreen and sunscreen containers entering the eco-system.
(You can read more about Green Sunscreen here)
I want to end this post with some ways my family and I enjoy celebrating the Earth every day!
Have a great Earth Day!
Appreciate and Smell the Roses!
Show Respect for even the tiniest and slimiest animals!
Kiss a Tree!
