Leading Italian eyewear specialist Safilo Group has announced its continued commitment to supporting the Special Olympics, the international sports competition for people with disabilities.
Safilo is sponsoring the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens from 25 June to 4 July, when 7,000 Special Olympics athletes from more than 170 countries will compete in 22 Olympic sports.
Safilo's involvement with the Special Olympics started in 2003 as a global supplier of the Special Olympics-Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes vision care programme. Opening Eyes, part of the Special Olympics' award-winning Healthy Athletes public health initiative, provides vision care for people with disabilities.
Many athletes benefit from vision screenings and receive prescription glasses to correct their vision impairments and sunglasses to protect their eyes. The Opening Eyes programme also provides sports protective eyewear for athletes who train and compete in contact sports.
Opening Eyes was founded by the American Optometric Association's Sports Vision Section and formally incorporated into the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes programme in 1997. A grant from the Lions Clubs International Foundation, the largest service club in the world, formalised a global partnership and enabled the Opening Eyes programme to expand internationally.
Safilo renewed its support for the Special Olympics by donating more than 80,000 spectacles and sunglasses between 2010 and 2011 for Special Olympics athletes. In addition, Safilo staff often take part in the events as volunteers, donating their time and expertise for the benefit of Special Olympics athletes and those with disabilities.
In more ways than one, they walk a mile in her shoes
Wiley Smith can now say he knows what it's like to walk in a woman's shoes.
The 38-year-old Reading man was among several men who donned high heels and marched with women and children down Penn Avenue in West Reading on Saturday to protest violence against women.
About 200 people, including Smith's wife, Milly, marched from Park Road to Fifth Avenue. Organized by Berks Women in Crisis, the march was part of a national initiative called Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.
The event coincided with West Reading's annual Art on the Avenue festival on Penn Avenue - a day filled with music, art and opportunities to showcase the businesses, artisans and residents of the borough.
During the march, men were encouraged to wear women's shoes and march side by side with women and children.
Wiley Smith said he felt it was important to take part because he was exposed to domestic violence as a child.
His wife said that it was impressive to see men wearing heels to show support for women on the issue.
"I was in an abusive relationship, so it means a lot for me," she said.
Crocs released a 20% off code good on men's and unisex style Crocs this weekend.
You'll still have to pay for shipping ($4.99)
Note if you don't want that code but need a code, they'll email you a code if you register a new email account.
They do have other schools too. GO to the SALE tab. Hit low to high, view all and scroll through the shoes. Also -- The only size in the Auburn shoe was a men's size 8 which would be women's size 10. The code makes them $11.99.
After shipping it will be $16.98 not bad it was going to be $19.98.
I do believe the sharpest tool in the shed is a man's eye for clothing and accessories. The world has changed since the Leave it to Beaver days; now men collect boxer briefs like women collect shoes. (Wink, wink)
Ross Fontenot and John Peterson, who MANeuver between the just-go-with-it look to the ever so slightly twisted classic style. Can I say, these two gentlemen of Genterie Supply Company are the big daddy of the most desirable trait in a man. They are the embodiment of cool. And while taking masterful charge of decorating their boutique, geared mainly (not manly although that works) for men, I'd say we have a modern day equivalent of Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy on our hands!
Nowadays, women like wearing men's cologne, boxers and oversized button-up shirts, so long as they let me browse, I'll be making myself at home—isn't that what women are known for anyway?
Speaking of nesting, not only do they offer organic shampoo & conditioners, neck ties, shoes, saddle bags (man-bags), but there are a few antique pieces for sale, along with furniture built by Ross and John for displays. Who knows, maybe you could talk them into creating one for you. Stop by for a father's day gift or just to look around—you won't be sorry and I can guarantee you'll be impressed.
Genterie Supply Company is located downtown Lafayette at 210 East Vermilion Street, between The French Press & Recycled Cycles (two other spots to check out). Call for details 337.401.3833. Hours are Tues-Sat 10am – 7pm and Sun, YES SUNDAY, from 10am -4pm.
Happy Buying at Genterie Supply Company! Hey, your Dad is worth the best, right; and most importantly isn't it best to bring your Dad up a level or two to coolness…. I'm just sayin'.
How much is your high school athletic career worth?
That is the question an Anne Arundel County teenager had to decide last month after winning $5,000 in a putting contest at a charity golf outing.
However, before 15-year-old Garrett Sauls, a freshman at South River High School, could think about a spending spree – perhaps a new putter, some wedges and new tennis shoes – his father realized that accepting the money might present a problem.
Taking the money, Rob Sauls said, might affect his son's amateur status and his high school and collegiate eligibility.
“The funnest times of your high school career are playing high school sports, at least it was for me,” said Rob Sauls, a 1977 graduate of Annapolis High who played lacrosse there and at Anne Arundel Community College. “I didn't want him to take the chance of not finishing his career playing high school golf. You can't put a value on it. I don't remember who was in my math class, but I remember who my other attackman was.”
Though there is no way to predict just how successful Garrett Sauls might be on the golf course, he said it would take at least $25,000 for him to give up high school golf or the chance to play Division I college golf.
Sauls won the putting contest at Lake Presidential Golf Club in Upper Marlboro on May 16 by successively making 15-, 25- and 35-foot putts at the turn.
This past fall, Sauls was one of the top golfers at South River, but he did not qualify for the state high school tournament and his average of nearly 48 strokes per nine holes is unlikely to land him a spot on a professional tour anytime soon. Still, the 5-foot-7, 130-pound teen has a goal of playing golf in college and does not want to affect those chances.
The NCAA allows Division I prospects to accept money to cover tournament expenses and entry fees. NCAA Division II and Division III potential athletes are able to accept prize money from events such as putting contests without affecting their eligibility.
The U.S. Golf Association, which oversees various amateur championships, is slightly more lenient, allowing contest winners to accept up to $750 in gift certificates and retain amateur status.
The most restrictive governing body in Sauls's way would be the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, which oversees public school athletics in the state and says athletes are ineligible if they use their athletic ability for financial gain. For many golfers, though, playing for their schools is secondary to playing in junior tournaments around the region and the nation.
“I think, and [Garrett] is not going to agree, it's a good life lesson,” Rob Sauls said. “He'll have the opportunity to earn a lot of money if he goes on to play college golf or possibly play professionally.”
Of course, Sauls has heard the suggestion that he could just take the money or have it given to his father and worry later if one of the sanctioning bodies thought something improper had taken place.
“I was thinking [of taking it] because you wouldn't really get in trouble unless you get caught,” said Garrett Sauls, who added that he has yet to be contacted by any college golf coaches. “It's like in college football, those players, sometimes they get paid.
“If you know you're not good enough, then you take the cash. I'm no superstar or anything, but it's still in my mind that I have the possibility to play.”
It was not the first time a high schooler won the hospital tournament's putting contest and declined the money. Hall Chaney said that in addition to passing up the putting contest money in 1999, he also passed up a new Ford Explorer for making a hole-in-one during another outing.
“I made the right decision at the time,” said Chaney, who was entering his sophomore year at Key School and later played one year of golf at the University of Delaware. “I was more worried about the NCAA. I had full intentions with going ahead and trying to play golf.”
After making the first two putts – stepping off the distance of each – Sauls spent more than one minute surveying the final shot as a small audience watched quietly from the side of the putting green, though no one offered advice for fear of breaking Sauls's rhythm. Though he considers himself an average putter at best, Sauls said he was confident as he struck the ball.
“There was a little turtle shell in the middle so I had to go straight over top of that a little bit,” Sauls said. “And I had to maintain my breathing, my heart was beating pretty fast with that money on the back of your mind. You try not to count it up yet because you haven't made the putt yet.”
To look at them, Diane Irvine and Mark Vadon are a business odd couple.
Irvine, the chief executive of Seattle-based Internet jeweler Blue Nile, favors dark-blue suits with sensible shoes, keeps her short blond hair tucked neatly behind her ears, and sticks to her talking points.
Vadon, Blue Nile's executive chairman and co-founder, prefers jeans and boots, rarely shaves and talks off the cuff.
"I'm the disorganized, chaotic person," Vadon says. "She's very well-put-together and organized. We've always been a good complement to each other."
But when Vadon met Irvine, he wondered if she might be too buttoned-up.
It was 1999 — the booming dot-com era — and Blue Nile needed a chief financial officer. Vadon, then the CEO, sought help from a headhunter, who produced some 30 candidates. Among them was Irvine, previously the CFO of Plum Creek Timber.
While Irvine impressed Vadon in interviews, she won the job only after grabbing a beer with the Blue Nile staff at Kells pub near their Belltown offices.
"Back then, the company was mostly 20-somethings wearing jeans and T-shirts. Maybe she shows up and sees what's going on and runs out screaming," he remembers thinking.
"But Diane can drink beer with the best of them."
Irvine, a married mother of three, went on to become president in 2007 and CEO in 2008, when Vadon stepped down from day-to-day operations to provide strategic direction.
Last month, Blue Nile reported its seventh straight quarter of year-over-year sales growth, after being hit hard by the Great Recession. It posted a first-quarter profit of $2.4 million on sales of $80.2 million, up 8 percent from a year ago. Its stock, which dropped below $20 in 2009, currently trades in the mid-$40s.
"After sales declined 7 percent in 2008, people weren't sure she could right the ship," said Internet analyst Herman Leung, of Susquehanna International in San Francisco.
"Starting in the second quarter of 2009, she turned it back into positive territory," he said. "She gave consumers a wider range of products at different prices and expanded a little bit more into the nonengagement-jewelry segment."
Irvine, 52, grew up on a farm in Illinois as the second of five children. The family raised cattle, as well as chickens that produced some 4,000 eggs daily.
"My job, when I got home from school, was collecting and washing eggs," she recalls. "I also drove a tractor for my dad, baled hay or did whatever else needed to be done. It was a lot of hard work, but I kind of developed a work ethic."
That discipline is reflected in Blue Nile's balance sheet. Last year, the company's overhead costs stood at 15 percent of sales, roughly the same as in 2009 and 2008. It ended 2010 with $113 million in cash, up from $78 million a year ago.
If there was any lingering doubt about whether Irvine belonged at Blue Nile, it was erased on Sept. 11, 2001, when she, Vadon and three other employees walked to a meeting with diamond suppliers in midtown Manhattan.
After only two blocks, they saw smoke coming from the Twin Towers and returned to their hotel. They spent the next few hours watching TV news, assuring friends and family they were OK, and at one point meeting with an Israeli diamond supplier who had survived the Holocaust.
"I'll always remember the smell of smoke and all the posters of missing people," she says. "There was just this overwhelming sadness."
On the third day after the terrorist attacks, they rented a Ford Expedition and began the 3,000-mile drive from New York to Seattle. (Although a government ban on commercial air travel had been lifted, new passenger flights were slow to resume.) Taking turns behind the wheel, they arrived home in 46 hours.
"Mark, being the data- driven person that he is, had a spreadsheet of every driver's mileage and the time it took them to drive that far," she says of Vadon, laughing. "I only got one shift because I didn't drive fast enough."
Now, Irvine must steer Blue Nile through a shaky economic recovery, as well as changing attitudes about marriage.
A recent study by Pew Research shows today's young adults are slower to marry than their counterparts in older generations.
Engagement rings account for nearly 70 percent of Blue Nile's annual sales, so the delay in marriage among "millenials" could be bad for business. Only 22 percent of those between 18 and 30 years old are married, according to Pew Research. When GenXers were the same age, 30 percent had tied the knot. What's more, 25 percent of millenials aren't sure they want to marry, including 5 percent who claim no interest in marriage.
In an earnings call last month, a financial analyst asked if the royal wedding had prompted more people to buy jewelry from Blue Nile.
"Lots of interest for sapphires," Irvine replied, referring to Kate Middleton's blue-sapphire engagement ring.
"We'll see if it inspires more people to get married, though," Vadon said.
Still, Irvine isn't waiting around. Blue Nile's 2011 offensive includes a broader array of nonengagement offerings, such as colored gemstones, pearls and sterling silver. The new offerings are meant to draw more women customers.
"This will be the most aggressive product launch in our history," she told analysts.
It's a direction that Irvine — one of a handful of women CEOs at publicly traded companies based in Washington state — seems uniquely suited to take. While men remain Blue Nile's core customers, women are a big untapped market.
"More than half of our traffic is women," she says. "Many times, they're building rings and emailing them to their significant other. We want to cater to men, but expand the audience."
Recently, Blue Nile moved its corporate offices from Seattle's Chinatown International District to Pioneer Square. During the search for a new headquarters, Irvine briefly considered downtown's financial district.
What did she not like about the financial district?
It was too buttoned-up, she decided.