Growing up, my family often visited my paternal grandparents for Thanksgiving. The day was filled with keepsake traditions ranging from homemade pecan pie, to a rousing and sometimes dangerous game of “spoons”, to the “Moment of Thankfulness”. Once the meal was prepared, my grandmother would gather us around the table and ask each of us to share one thing for which we were thankful.

Today, as I drive my children to their grandfather’s house near Chicago for Thanksgiving, I wish instead that I could head to my grandmother’s house so that I could share my thankful item. Since my grandmother passed away nearly 5 years ago, I can no longer share with her.¬† But, I can share with you.

This year I am thankful for a company named Links Unlimited and their visionary owner, Scott Kooken. Through a series of seemingly random interactions, Scott learned of our work at Beaded Hope. Because Scott and Links work hard to find ways to give back to the community, Scott invited me to meet with him. By the end of our meeting, Scott and his team had offered to provide inventory management and order fulfillment services for Beaded Hope. Now, this might not seem like a big deal to you, but to me (and Beaded Hope) it is HUGE. Before Links, all Beaded Hope inventory had been housed in my basement and all orders were filled (sometimes successfully and sometimes not) by me.

So, this year I am thankful for Scott, for Links and for their willingness to partner with Beaded Hope and support us in our mission to help women in South Africa. I think my grandmother would be pleased.

I’m not too proud to tell you that when my children were younger, and it was difficult to get through a shopping trip without a meltdown on someone’s (anyone’s!) part, I used to bribe them. I learned quickly that the best bribe was an Icee; something that I couldn’t make at home and that was only available in a few select stores. So, I would head out with 2 kids in tow promising a wonderful, sweet, cold treat if they would just be good through the stores that lead up to the one that had the Icees.

This strategy worked like a charm…
until I went to South Africa for the first time.

While on that first trip to South Africa I spent a lot of time thinking about what it would mean to start a beadwork business. What would it look like? What would it take to be successful? How would we measure our success? Eventually, I landed on the key question:

What does it cost to feed a person in South Africa for a day?

I became obsessed with gaining an answer to this question and understanding how the answer would fold into the (potential) business of Beaded Hope.

$3/day

That was the answer. For just $3 a day you could feed a person in South Africa. Granted it would be a very simple, basic type of food but still, it would only cost $3 a day.
With this knowledge in my head I returned home and set out on my first shopping expedition with my children. As was our routine, I bribed them to be good until we got to Target where I would buy them an Icee. They were. I did. And then the unthinkable happened; they whined about the Icees that I’d just bought them.

Those Icees were a treat! Those 2 Icees cost me nearly $3!

Now, of course, I didn’t tell me children how appalled I was that they could consider wasting the $3 that it cost to buy them their Icees. Instead I turned the thought inward and wondered how often I have frivolously wasted $3 (or $6 or $9) without even thinking about it.

Today, as you browse our website, you’ll see how this experience has influenced the way we measure the success of Beaded Hope. A days’ worth of food on an artist’s table is a success. A weeks’ worth is an even bigger success. Over 6 years’ worth of food (that we provided last year) is an amazing success. Our perspective on success has changed, all because of a silly little bribe.

Be sure to come back often and watch this spot for announcements

about upcoming Beaded Hope holiday events.

I’ve been contemplating the concept of “giving” recently, wondering out loud what it truly means to give. I’ve researched the wisdom of men and women of history and found sage advice. One of my favorite wise men, Albert Einstein, states that “the value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.” Winston Churchill was quoted as saying, “we make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” And Anne Frank noted that “no one has ever become poor by giving.”

But what I am really looking for is a contemporary model of what it truly looks like to “give”. At the end of my search I’ve found myself examining a humble granny from South Africa named Mrs. Tshabalala (pronounced Cha ba la la) who has been diligently working for Beaded Hope for over 3 years. The fact that she creates beautiful beadwork and is always a joy to work with (despite the fact that we don’t speak the same language) is not what makes her a model of giving. It is what Mrs. Tshabalala does quietly behind the scene that is truly amazing.

You see, Mrs. Tshabalala lives in a typical poor neighborhood and has worked her entire life to provide for herself and her family by making and selling beadwork at an open air market at the Pretoria Zoo. Traveling from her home to her booth, selling her work at the booth and creating new beadwork made for long, tedious days for Mrs. Tshabalala.

But when she began to notice young children roaming the streets, orphaned by a virus, she took action. Mrs. Tshabalala opened her home to children who had nowhere to go. She gave them food. She even began to teach them beadworking skills so that one day they can take care of themselves.

Mrs. Tshabalala would never tell you that she gives so generously to these orphaned children. Instead she quietly, humbly continues doing her beadwork and giving the best way she can.

Thank you, Mrs. Tshabalala, for modeling giving for me.

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You can check out Mrs. Tshabalala’s beadwork here.