Vices / Shopping
Shopping With a Purpose
By Wilson Sherwin
Many New Yorkers are rethinking what to do about gifts in this holiday season. Some are contracting because of finances, or are eliminating the massive present-giving in lieu of family trips or events together like dinners and cultural outings. Others look to make donations to worthy charities.
Here’s a roundup of a few ideas that may allow you to present a gift to a loved one, a co-worker, or friend, and simultaneously give a little something to a good cause.
GAP, American Express. and Apple have teamed up in an initiative called “(Product) RED.” If you use the new red AmEx card, 1 percent of every cent you spend will be donated to the Global Fund to fight AIDS. If you want to give the gift of music, then purchase an iPod in the new red color and Apple will make a donation to the fund. GAP, perhaps as a way to offset some of the bad press it received for underpaying its workers, is donating 50 percent of the profits from its red line to the Global AIDS fund. To find the full listing of all the companies participating go to WWW.joinred.com
One of my favorite gifts leaves neither wrapping paper to dispose of nor strange objects to display. The Heifer organization has a glorious catalogue by means of which holiday shoppers can send chicks, ducks, flocks of sheep, or an entire ark of animals to families in Africa or South America. Visit their website www.heifer.org and consider whether you want the ark for $5,000 or just to send some chicks to a family in Zimbabwe for $20 (FYI, one chick, grown up, can lay over 200 eggs per year; it’s the ultimate gift that keeps on giving). Each donation arrives with a description of the gift and family. and there is no need to find a large sheet of paper to wrap the sheep.
The venerable company Graf von Faber-Castell has been making pencils and pens for more than a century. This season it offers a limited-edition Walden Woods roller-ball pen especially made for the wordsmith and lover of all things tactile. It is inscribed with words by Henry David Thoreau, and for every pen sold a new tree will be planted somewhere in this country as a part of the American Forests Historic Trees Project. WWW.Grafvon-faber-castell.com
Kitchen Sink bags are handmade shoulder and shopping bags fashioned from recycled materials bought from Jakarta’s trash pickers who go house-to-house collecting plastic. Now before you go “Yuck!” -- these bags are beautiful, really eye-popping. Each one is different. The XS Project Foundation has put all the available bags on line. Go to www.kitchensinkusa.blogspot.com, Profits are used for environmental and social programs and to train local craftsmen. One of the goals is to highlight the plight of those who collect waste in Jakarta. (There are some 350,000 trash pickers in Jakarta alone who earn a pittance. See a video www.eco4theworld.com,or www.xsproject.bl)ogspot.com.
If you love Native American jewelry and handcrafts, do not hesitate to go to www.southwestindian.com, which has a huge selection of authentic bracelets, necklaces, even watches crafted by many different tribes, as well as moccasins, skirts and blouses, other apparel, art, and even baby gifts. A sterling-silver baby cup embellished with native designs is $99, a third of what Tiffany charges, and a percentage of the profits go into the foundation for scholarships.
Not all gifts give back right away; some are intended to create a mood change. Bond9, the high-end perfumery, has created a scent called Peace, a laudable conceit in these bellicose times. Peace comes as a fragrance or a candle, is a combination of grapefruit, currant, and musk, and will at the very least let your intended in on your intentions for the coming year. Peace for all. Find Peace at Bond NY, (212) 228 1940.
Whatever you purchase make sure you save some of your shopping cash for donation to a worthy charity so that good fortune is shared.
