Social Changers: TOMS

[This blog has since moved to bybethanyjae.com. Head on over to check it out, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised… x]

“Giving is what fuels us. Giving is our future.” – Blake Mycoskie, TOMS founder and Chief Shoe Giver

TOMS. A company with a point of difference: A One For One Model.

When Blake, an American entrepreneur, travelled to Argentina in 2006 and saw children running around with no shoes to protect their feet, he decided to change that and started TOMS with a unique mission:

“With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One For One.”

Blake had no idea how to make shoes at the time, but he partnered with the right people, had the right connections, and TOMS was born.

Gathering worldwide attention and popularity by celebrities, media coverage, students, mothers, fathers, travellers, businessman, teenagers, and the like, by September 2010  TOMS had given its millionth pair of shoes to a child in need.

Having gone to many impoverished countries giving shoes to children, Blake saw other basic needs that weren’t being met – like eyesight. So in 2011, TOMS Eyewear was launched with the same One For One Model:

“With every pair you purchase, TOMS will help give sight to one person in need. One For One.”

TOMS also produce T-Shirts, sweaters, beanie’s, stickers, and a stack more. And when you purchase something, they give a pair of shoes to a child in need – One For One.

[fun fact: blake and his sister were on the second season of “the amazing race”. they came in second, missing out on the $1million prize by 4-minutes!!]

But TOMS isn’t just a company, it’s a movement. One Day Without Shoes is an annual event that started in 2008 by a group of college students. The reason? To spread awareness about the millions of children around the world without shoes. Since then it’s exploded and in 2010 over 250,000 people took part worldwide in 1,600 events.

But don’t get fooled by thinking that TOMS is named after Tom (as some articles on the web have claimed, tsk tsk). TOMS is a clever deriver of the phrase “Tomorrow’s Shoes”.

Truth be known, I love TOMS. Right now as I type this, my MacBook has a TOMS sticker on it, and I’m wearing a TOMS sweater and necklace. I also have two pairs of classic canvas shoes and a pair of botas in my shoe collection. And my bookshelf contains “Start Something That Matters”, an incredible book by Blake Mycoskie about the TOMS journey.

Sure, their products are nice, but the reason behind it makes TOMS so much more attractive and purposeful. My 6 TOMS items = 6 happy children with shoes. 

It’s new. It’s practical. It looks good. It’s innovative. And it’s helping people.

Website: toms.com | Twitter: @TOMS | Facebook: facebook.com/TOMS

INTRODUCTION: Social Changers

[This blog has since moved to bybethanyjae.com. Head on over to check it out, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised… x]

Hi All!

Hope you’re all having a super week!

Let me begin by giving a bit of a background about this blog. It started in October 2010 when for one of my University assignments we had to set up a WordPress blog account, pick a topic and write weekly blog posts about it, gaining followers and publishing skills along the way.

Most of the girls picked fashion, most of the guys picked sport, and I picked social media.  I decided to call the blog “itsasocialthing” because the media is now a major part of our social lives, and at the time I was working with a social media marketing company. Once the assignment was completed my blog posts drizzled out to only being published every now when I came across something inspirational.

Over time this blog has changed. It travelled with me to the Philippines, it’s been listed on upstart: the magazine for emerging journalists, one of my heroes in the writing field even looked and commented on one of my blog posts (I was so shocked that I never even replied to even say thank you!!), and people subscribe to it now from all over the globe (what the?).

From post to post though, the focus has slowly changed. It’s no longer about social media, it’s about social justice. But it’s still all social. One of my passions is finding charities, non-profit organisations, people, and anything else that it related to bringing about a positive change in the world. The more I discover, the more I get excited about the state of the future.

So, I’ve decided to introduce something new to my blog entitled: SOCIAL CHANGERS.

Once a week there will be a post highlighting someone, an event, organisation or anything else that is bringing about a change in the world (think poverty, human trafficking, bullying, non-profits, cancer awareness days, charities, and more…)

Why? Because it’s one thing to be made aware of the injustices and poverty in our community, nation and world…but it’s another to be made aware of those who are being the solution and making a difference in it.

Stay tuned for the first piece. It will be up over the next few days.

Much love, Beth x

[Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours. — Cesar Chavez]

What Does Making A Difference In The World Look Like?

[This blog has since moved to bybethanyjae.com. Head on over to check it out, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised… x]

‘Make A Difference In The World’ seems to be a catchphrase in the world lately. And it’s something that has resonated deeply within me for some time now. Going into 2012 though, my focus on it changed. Last night I began thinking and was challenged with the thought of: what does making a difference in the world actually look like? Here are my thoughts. I hope it challenges and inspires you like it challenged and inspired me…

WHAT DOES MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD LOOK LIKE?

Being a light where the darkness dwells. Because even the smallest of lights begins to scare off what can seem like the deepest of the darkest.

Oozing grace to every person you come in contact with because they deserve it; despite what they may portray or how they may make you feel. And if you think that’s unfair, think about what John Henry Newman once said: “The way God gives His grace is scandalous.”

Spreading Hope where hearts have despaired.

Outstretching both hands and using all of your might to help pick up those who cannot pick up themselves.

Being strategically generous.

Partnering action to the dreams that God embedded in your being and whispered in your ear. No dream in a heart is pointless, what’s pointless is if you neglect to see why it was put in your heart to begin with.

Opening your mouth and speaking for the unempowered and those whose freedom to speak for themselves has been unjustly taken from them.

Speaking life and encouragement. Realising that words have the ability to not only plant seeds into the essence of a person’s soul, but to also water them. Will yours produce a lush, green rainforest, or dried up thistle and weeds?

Getting the revelation that going to Church on Sunday isn’t enough, but being the Church every day is our mandate on this earth.

Acquiring a faith so contagious, sweet, and real that people can’t help but be drawn to the One who fuels it.

Having eyes that don’t just look, but that see the present and what the future could be. And when they see a problem, they realise that it’s their responsibility and opportunity to restore and revive – for that’s why they noticed it.

In a world full of anguish and worry, be a statement of peace that calms the stormiest of seas in someone’s heart.

And love. Love like you’ve never known hate. And love because that’s the common thread we all have in our lives. Once we experience love and begin to give it out, it becomes deeper. The threads then begin to weave tighter pulling everyone together, making a masterpiece that’s beautiful and hard to break. Because love unites and love includes. To love and be loved is the purest form of making a difference in this world. 

This is what making a difference in the world looks like to me. It’s beautiful, it’s wholesome, it’s purposeful, it’s influential, it’s practical, it has to make our hands dirty from doing the work, but it’s doable…. And it begins with me.