Monday, November 9, 2009

Shop...Save....Support? Save a life?

by Stephanie *The Shopper* Ladeira (the sweetie to the right is Delilah, my foster who was just adopted, appropriately, by a woman who goes to Bloomingdale's every day to take the dogs to see the pretty lights!)

In October, everywhere I went, I saw decorations for the holidays already up! I couldn't believe it, but then I realized that the holidays are right around the corner so I used the reminder to think about how I could make it easier for all of HSSV's supporters and friends (and myself!) to shop for friends, their (my) pets (and themselves/myself!) in a way that helps HSSV's animals.
So, today, we are launching our own Humane Society Silicon Valley Shop for the Animals Campaign. It's called Shop! Save! Support! because each shopping purchase helps to save a life by supporting HSSV with a percentage of sales. Whatever you need to get, for whomever you need to get it, you can get it here. I have found that shopping from my chair has been great fun and takes the stress out of everything.

CafeGive is HSSV's newest way to provide tons of stores for all of us to shop to benefit HSSV's animals. There are so many stores there - Home Depot, Shoebuy.com (same benefits and selection as Zappos.com), Gaiam.com for all your "green" shopping, tons of kids and baby shops and, most importantly, GREAT shops for dog/cat/rabbit shopping! 1800PetMeds.com, Doctors Foster and Smith, Dog.com (my fave) and more. Each business gives a percentage of your purchase and it really adds up for our animals. One of our supporters just bought an OVEN on the site and HSSV will get a great percentage of that! You can also use the site to create widgets of items that YOU like that you can post on your facebook or other social networking sites or email to a friend. I think that's pretty cool.

One of the other really neat ways to support HSSV and make my own life more convenient? FETCH! HSSV's new FETCH! Program allows you to shop online, pay via phone and have all your pet supplies ready to be picked up - just run in and run out! Great for people like me who always remember that I need dog food when I'm in a meeting and can't do anything about it. Boom! On my iphone, order my stuff and swing by to pick it up later!

DogTagArt is another new vendor that has waaaay cool, indestructible dog tags that can be personalized with your dog's/cat's picture, your favorite saying, etc. The tags are double-sided so there's room for all the usual, plus something much more fun. I plan to buy one that indicates how awesome "recycled pets" are!

Silpada Jewelry is another EXCELLENT site! HSSV supporter Sue Scheen gives HSSV a huge portion of her proceed from all sales from the Silpada catalog. She's extended it this year to go through December, which is soooo generous. I see pretty much all the gifts for every single woman I have to buy for in this catalog (and a few men, too - there are belts and such). Check it out.

HSSV is doing all that we can to make it easy for our friends and our community to support our work. I hope you'll take advantage of all the fun shopping stuff we're launching.

All the little stuff adds up to saving a life - lives like Angel's (read her story here on bringlight.com!)

Have fun!