Imagine that this is your freezer. No room for ice cream or a bag of peas and good luck trying to fit a frozen pizza in there. No, instead your freezer is full of milk. Breast milk to be exact. Bottles and bottles of breast milk. This is the situation Petunia Pickle Bottom owner Korie Conant found herself in when her now 8-month-old son Beckett was born 2 month early.

Like all preemies, at just 33 weeks Beckett had not mastered the “suck, swallow, breathe” reflex and had to be fed droplets of milk through a tube. Encouraged by the doctors and nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Ventura’s Community Memorial Hospital to pump, pump, pump to keep her supply up, Korie was left with an incredible amount of milk that her newborn son would never use. “Seeing all those sweet little babies in the NICU and hearing horror stories from some of the other mothers about how little milk they were able to produce started to make me feel pretty guilty,” described Korie. “Here I had this overabundance of milk and the mother next to me had almost nothing. I couldn’t just pour the bottles down the drain.” After poking around on the internet, Korie came across the International Breast Milk Project. “From my first visit to the site, I was completely touched,” Korie recalls. “I really connected with the founder’s story of how she started the organization and as tired as I was from the emotional roller coaster of our NICU experience and as daunting as the process seemed—I just felt like this was what I needed to do.”

The International Breast Milk Project is an worldwide organization that provides donated breast milk to the over 3 million infants orphaned by HIV/AIDS in developing countries as well as works to improve the health care, sanitation, education and employment opportunities in the local communities. In May of this year, IBMP sent over 43,000 ounces of tested and pasteurized breast milk to South Africa, including Korie’s - equal to 10,000 meals for infants in need. “I felt very connected to the mission of the Milk Project and excited to be a part of it. Though there was a small pang of fear when it was all packed up and ready to be shipped. It was completely irrational fear…like Oh my gosh, what if my milk dries up tomorrow and I have nothing to feed my son!”

Although initially donating the milk seemed overwhelming, “the whole process turned out to be very simple,” Korie explains. “The people within the organization simplified the process so very little burden was placed on donors. All correspondences were short and to the point. Every shipment contained simple instructions, pre-addressed and pre-paid envelopes. I simply filled out the online application to begin the process and everything else just sort of flowed like clockwork.” For Korie, the experience meant an empty freezer and relief knowing that her extra milk was going to good use. For the orphans in Africa who received Korie’s milk, it meant life.

If you or someone you know if interested in donating milk or money to the International Breast Milk Project, visit www.breastmilkproject.org for information.

Beckett Conant, 8 months

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Howard Jones didn’t change the channel. Nearly 30 years ago when he and his wife Shirley were watching TV one night, they decided to sit and listen to the fundraising special for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The faces and stories of the children on the program so touched Jones and his wife that they decided to donate to the Tennessee hospital. One donation turned into two, and two turned into a lifelong commitment to the work and research of St. Jude Hospital, where he and his wife eventually set up a trust to help provide for the current and future needs of the hospital.

Although some may find it strange that a Californian would support a Tennessee children’s hospital, Howard Jones realized the national impact that St. Jude has on children in need. “Because of the vast research being conducted at St. Jude, I feel that if I needed help I could put my grandchildren in the hands of St. Jude and not have to worry.”

And the Joneses didn’t stop there. Over the next few decades, Howard and Shirley Jones became advocates and contributors to a variety of worthy organizations including St. Joseph’s Hospital of Orange, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the Salvation Army and Mater Dei High School.

A unique man - one who never held a 40-hour/week job, one who had jobs ranging from a repo man to real estate investor, one who was characterized by his patience, humor and generosity.

The world lost an inspiring advocate for children on May 26th.

Howard Jones is survived by his wife Shirley, his five children, and ten grandchildren including Morgan Simpson, who was Petunia’s first employee and currently runs our San Diego branch. We here at Petunia are inspired and challenged by the life Jones lived and the depth of his generosity. While we mourn his passing, we celebrate his life as a husband, father, grandfather, philanthropist and friend and the incredible impact he had on children everywhere through his generous giving.

For more information about or to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, click here.

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Twice a year, Petunia holds an incredible Outlet Sale of Certified Seconds and Discontinued Classics from the PPB line (click here to find out when the next sale is) with a portion of the proceeds benefiting children’s charities in our own community and across the world.

We were honored to donate $6,500 from our last sale to Hands & Feet, a non-profit Haitian orphanage whose mission it is to “raise a generations of orphans in their own culture who will change their country.” Why Hands & Feet? According to Korie Conant, “We met personally with co-founder Mark Stuart and were impressed with how he and his organization are truly making a difference. Each orphan with the Hands & Feet project is given a new life with medical attention, education, and a nurturing environment. We are honored that we might have a hand in changing a child’s life for the better through our donation.”

Starting in 2004 with only a parcel of land and a passion to make a difference, Mark Stuart and his band Audio Adrenaline embarked on the construction of facilities to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of orphans in Haiti. Hands & Feet now cares for more than 34 children, from 2-months to 9-years old and has plans to open another home in Nicaragua. By connecting world-renowned bands with each new site opening, Hands & Feet’s goal is to promote their call for help by utilizing the prevalence of pop culture to bring about awareness, compassion and aid to children in need around the world.

Click here to learn more about donating to the Hands & Feet or to sign up to sponsor a child.

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The recent Isis Maternity Fashion Show benefiting the Massachusetts- area Ellie Fund we told you about here was a huge success! Thanks so much for all of you who participated in the evening. Take a look at some of the coordinated looks from the runway with maternity wear available at Isis Maternity and PPB’s Glazed Clutches.

Click here to learn more about the classes, products and services available at Isis Maternity or the good work of The Ellie Fund.

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If you’re in the Needham, Massachusetts area, put April 5th on the calendar and get the girls together to enjoy a night out at the Isis Maternity Spring Fashion Show. Hosted by Kelley Tuthill of WCVB-TV5, the evening will include a runway of the latest maternity fashions from Isis’ spring line, delicious food and beverages and an incredible raffle with prizes from Bugaboo, Stokke, Scandinavian Child, DaysAgo, phil & teds, UPPAbaby and Petunia Pickle Bottom. Tickets are $25 with proceeds going to The Ellie Fund, a community-based non-profit supporting mothers battling breast cancer in Massachusetts.

Tickets must be purchased in advance online, in-store or over the phone (781-429-1500). Click here to learn more - and enjoy an evening out with the girls for a great cause!

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As you (hopefully) know, October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Companies and non-profit organizations alike spend countless hours and dollars supporting a variety of amazing efforts to raise awareness and money for treatment of breast cancer and research. Here at Petunia, it’s an issue close at heart not only because it impacts mothers and families the world over, but because several of our employees’ lives have been changed as a result of this disease. That’s one of the reasons we partnered up with Team Spirit this past October. Team Spirit is a small group of Long Beach, CA residents who are dedicated to raising money for support of and promoting awareness in the treatment, research and emotional well-being of breast and ovarian cancer patients in its community. In the past 7 years Team Spirit has been successful in raising more than $430,000 for Long Beach Memorial Center Foundation. We at Petunia are personally touched by this organization as one of the Petunia mother’s is a breast cancer survivor herself and founder of Team Spirit. In an effort to help support this amazing organization a portion of the proceeds from the sale of every PINK Petunia bag during the month of October was donated to Team Spirit. With October now come and gone, and all those marketing dollars from the big companies focused on different issues, we ask that you not forget that the fight continues and we thank you for all your support to this great cause.
Posted by: Korie Conant

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