Lunapads Blog

We’ve giving Lunapads Starter Kits away to 5 Mothering Community Members this week. Visit MDC now to find out how you can enter to take the Lunapads Challenge!

Lunapads Starter Kit includes:
2 Mini Pads with 2 Mini Basic Liners and 2 Mini Wing Liners
2 Maxi Pads with 2 Maxi Basic Liners and 2 Maxi Wing Liners

The Lunapads Challenge:
For one month, opt out of disposables menstrual products and use the Lunapads Starter Kit instead. Once you’ve had a chance to see the benefits of the LunaRevolution, come back to MotheringDotCommunity’s Review section and share your thoughts with the Community.

Eligibility:
Open to all United States and Canada residents. Residents must have a permanent address, not a P.O. Box.

How to Enter:
1. Visit Lunapads.com and sign up for the Lunapads Newsletter. As a thank you, Lunapads will email you a $5 off coupon code for purchases over $35!
2. Follow Lunapads on Twitter or “Like” Lunapads on Facebook
3. Post to this thread on MDC with the following statement: “I have signed up for the Newsletter, am following Lunapads on Twitter and/or Facebook, and am ready to take the Lunapads Challenge!”

GIVEAWAY ENDS THURSDAY, JUNE 16TH

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Before we ring in some news about what’s new for 2010, we wanted to reflect upon 2009, and how it brought Lunapads some great new people, products and inspiration.  Here are a some of the highlights:

Pads4Girls expands:  During 2009, we expanded our Pads4Girls program by eagerly partnering with new groups that reached out to communities in Cuba, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.  Thanks to customer support and the work of courageous individuals and NGOs, hundreds of girls and women are now able to stay at work or school while menstruating, and deal with their periods safely and with minimal environmental impact.

Recognizing there are practical solutions closer to home, we created our  “Make your own cloth menstrual pads” video series that has been viewed by thousands. These videos are regularly used by women in Africa (and here in North America) to make their own cloth pads. And in December 2009, Lunapads partnered with Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) by donating 20% of holiday sales for 2 of our top-selling gift items to their program, which makes biodegradable disposable pads from agricultural waste in Rwanda.

Fabulous folks and adventures abroad: One of the perks of our work is choosing to take some strategic business trips and while doing so, connecting with some truly amazing people.  During 2009, we had the good fortune to meet some real treasures and leaders in our community: In March 2009, we attended the always mindboggling Expo West Natural Products Trade Show in Anaheim CA and reconnected with our friends Francine and Carinne Chamers, founders of the DivaCup and also met Sarah Kraft, founder of the online Mindful Mama community.

While walking the trade show, we spotted Mothering Magazine Founder, Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara and couldn’t miss the opportunity to stop and tell her how much we adored her.  This conversation led to the plans for a personal visit from Peggy right here at Lunapads the following month.  Leveraging off of Peggy’s rock star status as a natural parenting pioneer and leader, we brought together a group of friends and colleagues to hear Peggy speak at a warm and inspiring tea party benefiting Pads4Girls.

In September 2009, I took a first-time trip to the ABC kids expo in Las Vegas, where I also had an insightful visit to Zappos.com‘s headquarters.  Meanwhile Suzanne had yet another transcendent experience at the Social Venture Institute (SVI) at Hollyhock, BC.  In November 2009, we both attended the Green America Business Conference and Green Festival in San Francisco.  While we were there, we had the great fortune to meet up with  SHE founder Elizabeth Scharpf and one of our business heroes, Reusablebags.com founder Vincent Cobb.

New products and fabrics: We expanded the Lunapads collection with several new products and fabrics: the P-style, Wysi-wipes, Cloth Wipes (which elicited one of our most discussed blog posts of the year) and our first-ever custom 100% organic cotton print, Magenta Mandala.

Lunapanties, our very own period underwear, made a long awaited comeback in November 2009, with the introduction of our new Hipster style and magenta colored organic cotton.

Staff changes: We bid a tearful and fond farewell to Sandra, one of our longest-term employees, as she moved on to continue her work as a bicycle safety educator. While it is hard to replicate Sandra’s incredible personal flair for customer service, Sara, the newest addition to the Lunapads team, is doing a fantastic job!

Media and accolades: In the summer of 2009, we learned that Lunapads and the DivaCup were featured in an entertaining and informative book by Canadian journalist Vanessa Farquharson called “Sleeping Naked is Green“.  At the end of 2009 Lunapads was profiled in our of our local papers, featuring a funny photo of Suzanne and I having a “tug-of-war” with a clothesline of Lunapads and Lunapanties.

By far the biggest highlight of the year was being voted into the top 10 of Green America’s People Choice Awards and so you can imagine our reaction when we found out that we had placed in the top 3 and received the newly-minted Shining Light award.

While Suzanne and I celebrated our award San Francisco, we never lost sight of the unsung heroes in the exercise: staffers Lisa and Morgan (whose idea it was in the first place), Facebook and Twitter (follow us! @Lunapads, @Luna_Diva (me) and @Luna_gal (Suzanne)) for providing the forums to drum up votes, and last but far from least, YOU, our awesome customers, for taking the time to cast your votes – it couldn’t have happened with you.

On that note, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a great 2009, and wish you all the best for 2010 from the Lunagals!

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In Vancouver, while there are many lovely stores to purchase mama, baby and earth friendly products, one of my favourites is Little Earth, located right beside my midwives clinic.  Run by Mariska and Flavia, Little Earth carries unique, high-quality childrens clothing and toys, as well as consignment clothing for mamas-to-be and children.

In honour of Mother’s Day and to thank the amazing Mamas who have supported them, Little Earth will be hosting a Free Mommy Make Over Day.  So, if you are a local Vancouver Mama, consider treating yourself to some pampering.  While you’re there, please consider doing some shopping that day for the little ones in your life, as Little Earth is generously donating 10% of all sales on this day to our very own Pads4Girls program! Deets below…

Join us for a day of well deserved pampering and treats!

There will be professional make up artists, hair stylists and Indian head Massage all for you!  10 % of all sales on this day will be donated to Pads4Girls.

You can pre- book to secure your spot, but walk-ins are always welcome.
Where: Little Earth
When: Sat May 9 noon-4 pm
Who : Beautiful Mama’s and Mama’s to be
How :  Pre-book 778-737-7004

littleearthvancouver@gmail.com

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Since meeting one another, Madeleine and I have shared many special moments both personally and professionally.  The summer of 2002, for example, was amazing:  Madeleine got married and I gave birth to my first son, Aiden.  Buying our own office space in 2007 was another important business milestone.  This past week saw another major highlight:  spending time with Peggy O’Mara, publisher and editor of Mothering magazine, and hosting a fundraising tea party in support of Pads4Girls with her as the guest of honor.

As Madeleine referenced in an earlier post, we bumped into Peggy last month at a trade show.  Knowing she was coming to Vancouver for the Healthy Families Conference, we invited her for tea at Lunapads.  As we planned the event, we also learned Peggy had no particular plans while visiting Vancouver, so Madeleine and I took it upon ourselves to be her host and show her our beautiful city.  After picking her up at the airport, we headed to Tojo’s, one of Vancouver’s most creative sushi restaurants (Peggy lived in Japan for several years in her teens) and, over a delightful west coast meal, we chatted about being moms and entrepreneurs. What immediately struck me was that despite her celebrity status (in my eyes, anyway!) Peggy is just like us: a devoted mother and mission-based entrepreneur with whom we share similar goals and business challenges.

The next day, we transformed our bustling office into a open meeting space.  Held as a fundraiser for our Pads4Girls program, 30 women, mostly mompreneurs in the birthing or baby industry, gathered to hear Peggy speak.  Madeleine and I savored the incredible energy that built up as each woman arrived.  We listened to Peggy talk about her career’s humble beginnings on her farm in New Mexico, raising four young children, and how she purchased and grew Mothering magazine to where it is today.  If you want to read more about Peggy’s story (and other inspiring passages) I highly recommend you refer to the Mothering site here for archives of Peggy’s editorials.

(more…)

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It’s April and we’ll be kicking off an exciting month focused on Pads4Girls and community outreach.

To help support some of our current partners going to Africa, we’ll be holding a Pads4Girls Benefit Tea with Peggy O’Mara at Lunapads on Friday, April 17th.  More details forthcoming in a future post as we finalize our plans.  Needless to say, I am buzzing with excitement about having Peggy here at Lunapads.  I have been a reader of Mothering Magazine for 6 years and a huge fan of Peggy’s books.  The magazine and website has been a constant source of information and inspiration for me as a mother.

Also this month, Lunapads is a sponsor and exhibitor at the Healthy Families conference in Vancouver.  In addition to key note speaker Peggy O’Mara, this two day event will feature speakers and workshops with topics to help build community for our children at home and in school.  I am looking forward to establishing new connections and gathering ideas on how to strengthen the relationship between family, children and community.  The event is April 18 – 19th and you can get tickets here.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes in our global community, momentum is building for projects like AfriPads.  Over the next few months, we will be closely following the journey of a young couple (Paul Grinvalds and Sonia Klumps) who are working in Uganda with plans to make cloth pads.  We were introduced to Paul and Sonia by Carrie-Jane Williams, who is also busy networking with other folks to help make her dream of pads being made in Africa happen.  Next week, Madeleine and I are attending a benefit dinner for Partners in the Horn of Africa, a not for profit organization that works in Ethiopia to provide infrastructure improvements, health and welfare and women’s anti-poverty projects.  We hope to learn more about how individuals and organizations are helping to make the lives of girls and women in Africa better and how Lunapads can help.

In the meantime, please continue supporting our partner organizations in our Donate section.  Thank you!

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Suzanne and I were in Anaheim CA a couple of weeks ago, where we attended the Natural Products Expo West trade show. It’s a busy place that can be a bit overwhelming, but there was no shortage of inspiration to be had.   One of the major highlights for us was running into Peggy O’Mara, founder of Mothering magazine. 

I hadn’t seen Peggy since I attended a workshop she was leading 3 years ago at Hollyhock.  It was a very special time for me, and I was joined there not only by my then-5 month old daughter Gigi, but also by my Mom Pat.  Peggy held the space for our stories, joys and fears, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to connect with one of the most influential figures in the natural parenting movement.

Peggy and Mothering have been huge sources of inspiration and information for Suzanne and I as Moms, and we are very excited that she will be here in Vancouver delivering the keynote address at the Healthy Families Conference, April 18 and 19 (co-sponsored by our friend Bridgitte from Natural Pod natural toys.)  We are trying to line up a visit with Peggy here at Lunapads as well, so stay tuned!

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