Category Archives: Charitable Donations

Armadio.co Open a Closet and Win!

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You’ve heard bits and pieces, now we’d like to tell you the inside story. .Armadio.co[m] is an online mall where it’s easy to sell (and buy) new and pre-owned clothes, accessories, and jewelry. And, it’s easy to donate to a charity you favor to support a worthy cause.

Here’s How You Can Help.
Armadio is designed to provide you a place to set up a closet (it’s your own storefront) and begin selling. Buyers will come, but first we (you and many others like you) must fill the mall with “inventory” and that’s where Armadio needs your help.

To make it interesting we’re having a drawing, prizes are: Two Kindle Fire tablets. Two winning closets will be randomly selected from the first 500 closets that open with five items or more. In addition, these 500 closets will be placed in a second drawing for ten (10) beautifully hand crafted pieces of jewelry. 

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Rachael’s Motto Feed Children & Animals

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Rachael Ray is a consistent supporter of charities that focus on Kids and Pets.

She has established one heck of a charitable track record and it seems she has no intention of slowing down. Here is a quick, but incomplete rundown of Ray’s activities that will give you a flavor (pun intended) of her charitable work:

Back In 2007 Rachael Ray with the help of Bill Clinton established Yum-o! (that’s so Rachael isn’t it?!), which was designed to help children be healthier by eating healthier. More recently, Gerber has teamed up with Rachael Ray’s Yum-o! charity to donate $1 (up to $500,000) for every new Facebook fan they receive for a specified period. During this promotion Ray said she now needed to perform “some sort of penance for actually using the phrase “yum-o” no matter how worthy the cause.”

It’s clear Ray loves children and animals. Rachael Ray Nutrish pet foods were created from the recipes Ray developed in partnership with a group of pet food experts at Ainsworth Pet Nutrition® to create recipes inspired by Rachael. The ingredients are simple and natural and all proceeds go to Rachael’s Rescue, a charity founded by Ray for at-risk animals – Wow!

The ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has announced that it has teamed up with this celebrity,bestselling author, and philanthropist to launch the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100,000 Challenge, with more than $500,000 in prize grants to help shelters save more homeless cats and dogs.

An ASPCA spokesperson said that with the added support and visibility from a great animal advocate like Rachael Ray,animal shelters can save more lives. And Ray added:

“All my life, I’ve been an advocate for animals and a supporter of animal welfare groups,”  Rachael continued. “My love for animals and for my pit bull, Isaboo, inspired me to create a pet food called Nutrish to raise money for animals in need. I donate 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of Nutrish to organizations like the ASPCA so they can implement programs like the $100K Challenge and support shelters around the country.”

Ray also added, “I have made a personal commitment to helping the millions of cats and dogs each year who find themselves in shelters and are in need of a second chance at a new home and a better life. By partnering with the ASPCA for the $100K Challenge, we will help animal shelters across the country to get more homeless cats and dogs out of shelters and into the loving homes they deserve.”

And, in her spare time, when she wasn’t cooking up 30 minute meals for us, she made a public service announcement (PSA) for the Food Bank For New York City.

Ray attended the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance’s 35th anniversary gala in 2009, helping to raise $225,000.

 

Jumping ahead a little, in December 2011, Ray lent her support to the AARP’s Drive to End Hunger campaign – she’s not leaving anyone behind young, old, or four legged..

Hey Rachael, we’re with you – take a look at Best Health Program Ever Invented – Rescue a Dog  one of our most popular posts ever. Maybe some day soon we can get together and run a campaign on armadio.co!

Rachael Ray has supported the following boat load of charities:

  • American Association of Retired Persons
  • Blue Planet Run Foundation
  • Centre For Environmental Education
  • Clothes Off Our Back
  • Feeding America
  • Food Bank For New York City
  • Heifer International
  • Hope North
  • Keep A Child Alive
  • Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City
  • Robert F Kennedy Memorial
  • Share Our Strength
  • Soles4Souls
  • The Art of Elysium
  • The Heart Truth
  • The Lunchbox Fund
  • Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance
  • Yum-o!

Ms. Rachael Ray, we admire and respect you – please keep up the good work. You are an inspiration!

 

Paris Hilton Making a Difference!

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We agree with Paris!  ”Life is too short to blend in.” Paris Hilton

Not only does she “not blend in” in a good way, she also leads the way when it comes to being charitable. Let’s take a quick look at just a few of the activities in which she’s involved.

One of her activities an our favorite (because it closely aligns with our goals) is her charitable act related to giving clothes away. (London, Oct 29, 2011) Paris Hilton went through her fabulous fashions, a clothing collection with few rivals, and selected outfits she no longer wears and donated them to charity. At the young age of 30-years this well known socialite tweeted she is donating the unused clothing in her closets t to raise money for worthy causes.

“At home going thru (though) my closets, so I can donate my clothes to charity. Feels good to give back,” Contactmusic quoted her as writing on her Twitter page (ANI)

Moreover, this is only one example of the many acts of charity Paris has been and is still involved in performing.

Paris tells us that she and her sister, Nicky, were taught to think of others, that their good fortune should be shared. As children she and Nicky often helped raise funds and awareness for various causes such as the fight against breast cancer. For years now (since 2007) having watched a gruesome video on how animals are raised for their fur Paris put her support in play against wearing fur. “I’ve never worn fur and I never will,” she remarked said after seeing the video. “I also haven’t eaten any meat since. I just survive on pasta and stuff like that. I was grossed out. It was disgusting.”

Paris Hilton has supported all of the following charities: ACT for MS, Bottletop, Cancer Research UK, Cathy’s Kids Foundation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Clothes Off Our Back, Education Africa, Feeding America, Gibson Girl Foundation, GRAMMY Foundation, Leeza’s Place, Life Rolls On Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation, MusiCares, Nancy Davis Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis, Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre, Playing For Good, Precious Paws, Richie Madden Children’s Foundation, Soles4Souls, Starlight Children’s Foundation, The Art of Elysium, and Union Rescue Mission.

Has this socialite taken a few missteps? Sure but who among us hasn’t? We’re more than willing to forgive her – this is one of, if not the most, impressive list of charitable works you’ll find in hollywood or any where else for that matter!

 

Paris, we love you – keep up the great work and when you feel the urge to give away more of your outstanding clothes collection please consider doing it on Armadio.co!

Open a Closet for Charity

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Helping a Charity
Opening a closet to help support a specific charity is at the core of what Armadio is all about.

However, sometimes, as my Dad likes to say, “charity begins at home” and if you need a little extra money for kids’ shoes or some other essential items than you owe it to your family to use the money from your Armadio sales to provide for them.

If your are fortunate enough not to need all the money from a sale for you or your family consider sharing a portion of the sale from your closet to support a charity you feel is doing great work!

Either way we hope that the Armadio community will be a “community of giving” whether it’s helping your family or someone else.

How We Add Charities
We want you to know how our process works for registering nonprofit organizations.

If you’d like us to add a nonprofit, you can submit a charity for our consideration. All you need to do is send us the name of the charity and any contact information you have – go to www.armadio.co and use the Contact form. We’ll contact the organization and let them know you told us about them.

Alternatively, you can have a representative of the charity contact armadio [same way using the Contact form on www.armadio.co] and we will assist them in getting on the website. Only an authorized representative can set up a charity account – they must agree to being registered on the site.

If you are the representative of a charity then you will want to set up a separate account for your organization to take advantage of potential donations. Click on the word “Charity” on the main menu and then use the “Add Your Charity” tab the rest of the steps will be clear [Let us know if it is not clear].

Once a charity has set up a profile page they must then be approved – we take this very seriously to guard against fraud. We authenticate all nonprofit profile requests using GuideStar http://www.guidestar.org/Home.aspx.

That’s our process and we hope you appreciate the care we take. Looking forward to seeing your “fabulous closet” on armadio!

 

Lucy Liu Black Belt in Helping Prominent Causes

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Actress Lucy Liu, is considered the most well-known and visible Asian American women in the media today. She is an active artist in several forms of media and a women you don’t want to make angry given her martial arts capabilities (expert in Kali-Eskrima-Silat, which is knife-and-stick fighting). But kidding aside, Lucy is a formidable force, she is the “Asian Excellence Award” winner for Visibility, and visibility comes in handy as she pursues roles as ambassador and spokesperson for a number of prominent causes.

Liu took part in the America: A Tribute to Heroes charity telethon for victims of 9/11. In 2001, she was the spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraiser, a single-day fundraiser created by Lee Jeans to support the women’s cancer programs run by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501©(3) non-profit, and the leading charitable organization of the entertainment industry, funding more than 300 charitable organizations annually, both in the Los Angeles area and throughout the United States.

I hope we can one day have Lucy Liu use the reach of our website and her wonderful sense of style to promote causes she is passionate about and help us help others. She certainly is no stranger to helping people around the world. Liu has traveled to Pakistan and Lesotho, among other countries, as an Ambassador for UNICEF.

 

She has also donated profits of her art shows directly to UNICEF and also through Whatever It Takes, a unique artwork campaign launched by 21st Century Leaders.

Lucy Liu has supported numerous charitable organizations during her fabulous acting career. Here are few charities where she has taken an active role: 21st Century Leaders, Bicycle For A Day, Entertainment Industry Foundation, Raising Malawi, UNICEF, and Whatever It Takes.

Keep up the great work Lucy, we look forward to your next block-buster role and we thank you for being a great role model and an inspiration to us all.

Together We Can Fight Cancer!

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Yes, this is a bold statement!  Nothing great has ever come from making timid statements. As Captain Kirk (Starship Enterprise) was fond of saying, we will “boldly go” where no one has gone before (although proper English would be we will “go boldly”).

It was a bold statement that President Kennedy made when he said we would reach the moon in ten years. A vision that propelled this country forward. Not a ten or fifteen point plan, but a vision, a bold challenge, which set us in motion, not just to reach the moon, it was a catalyst for driving new technologies and educating our young folks in science and mathematics.

Martin Luther King made a bold statement when he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech, which still sends shivers up my spine. Well we’re not pretending to be in the league of JFK or Martin Luther King, but I do believe that together we can accomplish what others might think is impossible.

Armadio is not actually going to do cancer research, far from it. However, we are creating a “community of giving” and providing that community with the tools to unlock value they already have; and through generosity to redistribute this value in the form of donations to causes worth fighting for – helping to fight the plague of cancer is our bold statement.

Here’s How to Help.
Armadio is designed to provide you a place to set up a closet (it’s your own storefront) and begin selling. Buyers will come, but first we (you and many others like you) must fill the mall with “inventory” and that’s where Armadio needs your help.

To make it interesting we are having a drawing, the prizes are: Two Kindle Fire tablets. We will randomly select two winning closets from among the first 500 closets that open with five items or more. The winning closets will also be featured on the Armadio’s Homepage.

In addition, these 500 closets will be placed in a second drawing for ten (10) beautifully hand crafted pieces of costume jewelry. 

Please help us fill the “beta site mall” with great fashions so we can get the ball rolling! We appreciate your help to create a community of giving. Armadio needs your help

Armadio more than a website – it’s a Movement!

Do You Have a Closet or a Dungeon?

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When you open the door to your closet, and for those with large walk-in closets take a step into it, what emotion do you feel? Is it a feeling of delight or one of dread?

If you are delighted please share with us how you achieved this form of nirvana.  We can all use guidance on making the experience of entering our closet a pleasant one.

On the other hand, if you are not delighted and moreover you have a sense of dread, disgust [that may be a bit strong], or general displeasure than it’s time to take action. Here is a “3-Pile” approach to help you sort through your fashions and accessories.

 

Pile number one – Clothes, accessories, jewelry, etc that you truly love. Stuff that fits well and you often get compliments on from strangers. These are all the items you would buy again today if you didn’t already own them.

Pile number two – All the items you rarely if ever wear, never feel good about, and/or you would never miss.

Pile number three – This one you may have to work on repeatedly, but for now these are the items you can’t decide whether to keep or not. Could be an emotional attachment, or clothing item you’d like to fit into again, or one you’re keeping because a special someone gave it to you. There are many reasons why items will be placed in this pile. Don’t stress over it too much, sleep on it and revisit this pile in a day or so.

Now take action. Arrange the items in pile #1 so you can see them and start taking notes on what you need to fill in any gaps in your wardrobe.

Start organizing pile #2 and get ready to set up your online store i.e., “closet” on www.Armadio.co  - Happy Shopping!

Gwyneth Paltrow Donates and Donates and…

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Gwyneth Paltrow is a “charity machine.” This beautiful celebrity truly believes in giving back. Among the work she’s involved in is the donation Estée Lauder makes of a minimum of $500,000 of sales of items from the ‘Pleasures Gwyneth Paltrow’ collection to breast cancer research. In 2008, Paltrow donated $75,000 to the Food Bank For New York City.and said we all need to be doing more.

Paltrow also gives of her time serving on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization which attempts to mitigate the many problems caused by poverty in the Big Apple (New York City). She hs been the Ambassador for the Saks Fifth Avenue Key To The Cure campaign against breast cancer. And, she narrated the UNICEF film The Gift.

However, it doesn’t stop there.Actress Gwyneth Paltrow – who is married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin – is a big supporter of Kids Company and British band Coldplay donated £1 million to this children’s charity in the UK. The group made this donation because the charity provides practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people. They focus especially on kids with severe emotional, behavioral and social difficulties, that resulted from significant experiences of trauma and neglect..

Last year, she cleaned out her closet for an auction to benefit the charity, and she recently designed a range of clothes to raise money for the organization. We hope that someday soon Gwyneth will work with Armadio to create a fundraiser that will do something spectacular!

Gwyneth Paltrow has supported many other charities, here are the names of a few of them: Act Green, American Cancer Society, Environmental Media Association, Healthy Child Healthy World, Hoping Foundation, Keep A Child Alive, The Lunchbox Fund, and UNICEF.

 

Way to Gwyneth! You are a role model and an inspiration to us all.

 

Spotlight on Debra Messing

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Hollywood stars know there are many causes that need a champion’s support.and that those in need are in need year-round. It’s wonderful to know that there are celebrities out there who are giving back to the communities they live in and not simply using their celebrity status to increase the glitter, red carpet events, and glamour that surrounds them. Numerous celebrities use the position and connections they have, not to mention their large incomes, for the greater good. We give these celebrities a standing ovation for the example they set and the good works they support.

One very good case-in-point is how Debra Messing rolls. She’s a New York’er and knows a thing or two about how hard city life can be on people.

One of Debra Messing’s more substantial efforts has been with the charity Trevor Project, which tackles a number of issues. This nonprofit organization helps in the prevention of suicide and promotes the acceptance of gay and questioning teenagers. She has in fact been the recipient of The Trevor Life Award, which is an honor few people have received. Debra has teamed up with Italian jeweler Bulgari in it’s efforts to help Save the Children with its 125th Anniversary campaign. She has participated as an advocate for other foundations and groups such as Feeding America, Autism Speaks, The Art of Elysium, and Clothes Off Our Back.

Wow Debra, we’re impressed and we want our readers to know about the great things you’re doing offstage. Perhaps one day soon you’ll consider using Armadio as a platform for conducting a fundraiser. You could show women some of the fabulous fashions in your closet by posting them online for sale with Armadio. If you did, I’m guessing women across America would stand up and be counted by donating to your favorite cause.  .

Debra Messing, we appaud you and wish you all the best in your career and your charitable work – we hope to see you participating on Armadio.co someday soon.

 

Monaco is Just Getting Started – Enter Angelina Jolie

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Monaco is famous for many things among them the Formula One race on the streets on Monaco, which race driver Mark Weber of Australia won last Sunday. For those of you who don’t follow auto racing this is a premier race.

However, Monaco and excitement are always one in the same – I’m talking of course about the Monte-Carlo casinos such as Le Grand Casino. And, now we have something even more exciting taking place. Something I know you will want to see.

We are to be treated to another kind of extravaganza – an array of necklaces, earrings and bracelets that actress Angelina Jolie has worn to a variety of events including movie premieres. These fabulous sparkling items will be on display at the Grand Hotel in Cap Ferrat and Monaco’s prestigious Hotel de Paris on July 15 and August 15, concurrently.

As you might have guessed, these jewels are typically available for viewing only by private appointment. Leading gemstone specialist Procop has close ties with Jolie especially after designing the engagement ring Brad Pitt offered her earlier this year – what a couple!.

This venue will provide an unprecedented access to the line of jewelry. And, perhaps more importantly, the proceeds from the sale of the jewelry will be donated to the star’s charitable foundation. Way to go Angelina!

If you don’t already know Angelina Jolie is a champion for the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which helps children in need across the globe.

Angelina is a great role model and we applaud her work LOUDLY!

Perhaps one day she will open an online closet on Armadio, show us some of the fabulous fashions in her wardrobe and again make a donation to a great cause.as well as encourage other women and stars to follow in her footsteps.

Angelina, we wish you the very best and hope to see you participating on Armadio.co someday very soon.