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hotel st. cecilia

Liz Lambert: I love glassybaby. We use a lot of local artisans, or handcrafted things, sometimes we do try to look for local but sometimes we cant. But sometimes, it is important to reach out- like with glassybaby- when something is just really stellar. 

The most interesting thing that happened with glassybaby is I did a wedding- actually, Matthew McConaughey’s wedding- and we needed to make a chapel really fast (disclaimer: only wedding I've ever done, I don't do weddings). He wanted 40 tents all with beds and air conditioning in 30 days.

                              source: people.com/archive

Mericos Rhodes: Where was that?

Here in Austin at his place. We did a big alter and I needed something really really beautiful.

I didn’t know it then, but glassybaby rents the votives. We did all amber colored glass. I bet there were 200, 300 glassybaby. So they all came in boxes, we put them all out, used them, then sent them back.

  MR: How do you use glassybaby here at the Hotel St. Cecilia?

  LL: They come out at night. They are at the bar here at the hotel, which is out here under the tree, and then there’s a small place in here and glassybaby are on all the tables.

We sell them in the store too, if you go in and look you’ll see them up on the top shelf.

  MR: Can you tell us about your turn down service?

 LL: We bring a carafe of water and a couple glasses and a glassybaby. It’s beautiful.

Its the depth of the color its so good its so rich and so deep. And you just don’t generally find glass votive holders that are like that. The shape is so organic and beautiful.They are so striking as an object on their own. As you know, some are opaque and some are translucent, so the variety of light they give off is really stunning. You can see them from the moment you walk in.

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Community Spotlight: Pam Rose, Swirlz Cupcakes

Mericos Rhodes: So I hear you’ve been a glassybaby fan for a long time. How did you first hear about us?

  Pam Rose: I was at a graduation party in Seattle—I can remember how many years ago it was now. The woman who was hosting the party must have had 150 glassybaby in the house, not kidding! It was incredible. Just a beautiful use of glass and color. And I’ve been hooked ever since.

  As a small business owner, I can appreciate what glassybaby has done.

When we started this business, we had a little bit of a different mission—kind of like Lee Rhodes. It wasn’t “we’re going to be the biggest and the best, we’re going to be in all 50 states.” No--it was more about integrity, quality of product, very much ingrained in the community. We know all our customers, and they count on us for our product.

We’ve stayed non-contractually exclusive with Whole Foods because we felt the integrity of their brand really matched ours—we didn’t want to sell out to just any grocery store, we wanted to keep the integrity of our product intact.

  MR: That’s great, we can relate to that! Can you tell me a little bit about the charitable component to Swirlz?

  PR: Every October, from the 1st through the 31st, we feature a cupcake that’s a pink and white cupcake and we donate 100% of the proceeds of the cupcake for the whole month goes to them at Breast Cancer Foundation. I actually knew the mom who passed away from breast cancer, and her daughter is the one who started the foundation.

  The National Kidney Foundation did the same thing. We did a cupcake for them, and donated 100% of the proceeds to them!

So even though were small, there are ways to maximize what we do. Street sales are not a heavy source of sales, but [donating to events] is a good way to maximize what we are able to give. So many people light their annual galas, those kinds of things. If you are donating an order of cupcakes for a gala its anywhere from $500 to $2,000 in product.

There are people (groups) that count on us almost every year. But we do support new giving partners because we try to spread it around. I love the animal charities. Swirlz [donates to] several Chicago AIDS foundation benefits, stuff like that.

  MR: Can you give me an example of how you give back?

PR: Some groups want raffle gifts like gift cards or sometimes we bundle things for people as well. For example, we bundled a cupcake party at the “Social Table”, a space in Chicago whose concept is a shared kitchen and table, so you can sit with perfect strangers or friends at a table. We approached the Social Table and said we would bring our pastry chef if they would donate their space, and we donated the event to the auction for Final Bridges and it can be a beautiful birthday party. Something like that at a live auction for a charitable foundation can go for $2,000-$5,000!

   You creatively bundle things with people, to maximize what you can do and maximize your impact.

We try to partner with as many people as we can, bigger bang for the buck!

  So that’s what we do here! Its fun! We do the best cupcakes—at least we think so ;)

  We think so too. 

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the glassroots tour was lucky enough to spend some time with Jill Vedder, and talk to her about her personal connection to glassybaby. 10% of "belle"  goes back to Babes Against Brain Cancer, an organization Jill and her sisters founded after one of them was diagnosed with brain cancer. To learn more, visit the Babes Against Brain Cancer Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Babesagainstbraincancer11

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glassybaby, music, recovery: Stephanie in Bend, Oregon

One of the biggest, brightest smiles that we have seen on the tour was the face of Stephanie Leone, whom we met in Bend, Oregon. Stephanie’s warm smile expressed incredible vitality, love, and courage. These three qualities surely helped her during her battle with breast cancer, from which she is emerging victorious.

  Stephanie received her first glassybaby from her neighbor and friend Alicia when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She fell immediately in love. The flickers and waves of light that glowed from her glassybaby resonated with, and amplified, the waves of positivity and courage inside her.

  When we met her in Bend, she asked if we happened to have the ‘given to fly’ color glassybaby with us. I told her that I wished we did, and asked her why she was looking for that green-white color in particular? She replied with a story that has made me smile whenever I have thought about it since.

  Stephanie underwent Chemotherapy and a double mastectomy to combat the cancer. Several weeks ago, after these treatments were complete, she had an MRI to check on her status. When she walked into the MRI room, a nurse gave her a plain blue shift to keep herself warm during the imaging. “It tied below the neck and opened in the front, just like a cape,” Stephanie noticed, “and they made me lay down in the machine with my arms stretched out above my head. I was thinking, ‘this cape should have a Superwoman logo on it!’” As she slid into the MRI machine, the nurse told her they would play music during the test.

  Over the loud clicks, thunks, and whirrs of the magnets, the opening riff of Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow” spurred Stephanie’s energy. During the 40ish minutes of that MRI, listening to a Pearl Jam greatest hits mix, Stephanie felt just like Superwoman.

  As it turned out, this feeling was totally justified. The MRI showed no signs of any tumor! Stephanie has ordered a ‘given to fly’ from us to be shipped, to celebrate the moment of her victory and to support Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation, our giving partner for that color.

  Thank you for sharing your story, Stephanie; your smile and your attitude have inspired us. We wish you the best of luck with the last few weeks of your treatment.

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OHSU Knight Cancer Institute

Mericos Rhodes: We’re here with Susan Headland of the Knight Cancer Institute of OHSU. So can you tell us about the mission of the Knight Cancer Institute?

  Susan Headland: Dr. Druker often describes our mission is to end cancer as we know it. His campaign is to really help us understand the biology and the genetics of cancer. He believes if we can understand those things effectively then we can develop specially targeted treatments for each patient that has cancer. That’s really his dream and his mission, we’re all here to support it!

  MR: So what is your role at Knight Cancer?

  SH: I am the manager of patient and family support services, and what that means is we have a team of social workers who are trained specifically to work with people with cancer to offer counseling, support, resources to help them navigate both having a diagnosis of cancer and also the changes that can come along with that, either as a result of the treatment itself or as they navigate the world back into health after treatment.

There are a lot of steps that people need to take to adapt to something so life changing. Our team is trained to help them develop coping skills, help them communicate with their family members and loved ones.

  And in addition to the team of social works-- we work with the individual as well as the family members and other loved ones deemed appropriate-- we also have a whole cadre of integrative medicine specialists including massage therapists, an acupuncturist, a mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher, writing classes, yoga classes, and all of that is tailored toward helping people stay as well as they can during the cancer experience.

MR: so the knight cancer institute was so named because of a donation from Phil Knight?

  KH: Phil Knight in 2008 he gave us a $100 million to further the work of Dr. Druker and his colleagues and just a year and a half ago we were surprised that he met us with a challenge. He said he and his wife Penny would give us $500 million dollars to further our research and our endeavors as long as we could match it!  and we had two years to do it!

  We are 10 months into the campaign, and we are only $70 million away from meeting it!

  And I think Phil Knight was wise! He knew if we were challenged to do this in a short period of time it would accelerate the giving. I know many patients and others who have participated in the campaign. Theres an excitement being a part of something so groundbreaking. It will be the largest donation to the cancer institute. And in my program, even though my program is certainly much smaller, every dollar given goes to that challenge. And an important part of our program I forgot to mention, we maintain a fund for patient/ family emergency assistance. We see people from all over the state- Oregon is a largely rural state- we also see people who are uninsured or under insured, or who have  insurance but have fairly large copays, so one of the things my social workers do is identify people who are having a hard time getting to treatment, either because they are coming from a long distance, don’t have a place to stay, can afford gas, or a particular medicine isn’t affordable…so our staff will screen to see what the need is, and they can allocate resources. That part of our program is really the heart and soul of what we do.

  The intention of all this is not only to eradicate cancer, but in the meantime, there are a lot of people we need to take care of. And I feel really proud of our program, through donations from organizations such as glassybaby, we are really able to help people on the ground.

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Trina Chow

Mericos Rhodes: Hello! Today we wanted to ask you a few questions about your relationship with glassybaby and glassybaby giving. So how were you first introduced to glassybaby?

  Trina Chow: I’m from San Francisco. My friend Paula moved to Bellevue about 7 years ago. And when she came back to visit me for the first time she brought me my first glassybaby.

  MR: What color was it?

  TC: It was white. I think it was a second, so I don’t actually know what name it was. But it was the first introduction I had. When I came to visit her in Seattle, she brought me to the Madrona store to see how they were made. And that started the whole collection. I fell in love, I started buying them as gifts, and every time I came to visit we would visit the store.

  MR: So what is your favorite thing about glassybaby?

  TC: Oh there are so many things I love about this company!  I love the product, I love the story about how the company was started, but I especially love the giving that glassybaby does. That this company has given away more than 2 million dollars is just amazing. It makes me happy on so many levels. It means that the company is successful, but it also means that its two million dollars that did not have to be given away is given away due to the generosity of Lee Rhodes and the [White Light Fund]. The giving campaign is such a wonderful and unique quality.

  Everything about glassybaby is a win-win. You get a beautiful product, you help a beautiful company, and you’re also helping the different organizations that the company is giving money to. It makes us feel good to buy it and support it!

  MR: So tell us about your own giving efforts. You started the Immediate Impact Walk in San Francisco?

  TC: We are in our third year now. It’s a 55-mile walk, over three days in San Francisco. A lot of us branched off of the national walks, and doing our own local one, so about three years ago I started working with glassybaby to do road shows to san Francisco before you had the store there. So for the first one you guys came to my house and brought hundreds of glassybaby to my house (which was wonderful!), and we had an event which was successful. The following summer we found a venue that we could use that was open to the public and we had what was at the time the most successful road show that glassybaby had ever done. We raised about $1,200 in one afternoon. It was just amazing. It went to benefit the Immediate Impact Walk. Our walk benefits three local organizations in the San Francisco bay area.

  One of our three beneficiaries is the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund.

The Breast Cancer Emergency Fund helps patients who are under insured and need help with paying basic daily bills, so it might help with the electric bill, lunch money for hteir kids, grocery bills, so that’s where the fund comes in.

  We also donate money to the Charlotte Maxwell Free Clinic. Patients come in and they get free acupuncture, medicinal herbs, they do massage, and they also do end of life home treatment.

  Our third local beneficiary is called Friend to Friend. They are associated with UCSF, and they help provide free wigs, bras, and different apparatus for women who are going through chemotherapy. They have the hair dressers from the san Francisco opera come in and fit their patients with wigs.

  We just believe so much in what our three beneficiaries do for their patients. And more than 80% of the money donated to the Immediate Impact Walk is donated to these beneficiaries. It’s a very large percent for this type of organization and fundraiser that we do.

  We are very efficient. We are all volunteer-based, no one is getting paid for anything we do, and all of our beneficiaries have promised us that all of the money received from us goes directly to their patients, not to their administrative costs, so really all of the money we raised goes directly to patients in need.

  MR: So here we have the “Possibilitarian Set”. Its Fearless and Compassion.

  TC: 10% of the sale of the Possibilitarian Set goes to the Immediate Impact Walk. We chose them for the colors as well as for the names. We thought it really symbolized what it is we mean to do from our walk. We are very proud to be working with glassybaby on this.

    MR: So are we. A lot of our giving is about that basic needs, uncompensated care, its great that you can donate the money we raise for you so effectively.

  TC: Just like you, our walk is a grass roots effort. And I think that makes it just so much more special for those of us who are involved in all parts of the process.

    MR: So why 55 miles?

  TC: Oh it’s enough! We do three days. The first two days are 20 miles each, the last day is 15 miles. It’s intended to be a challenge its not supposed to be easy. So we train for about 5 months, hundreds of miles ahead of time, so by the time we get to the event our bodies are prepared. We each have to do a minimum amount of fundraising of 1000 dollars per day that we are walking. Our fundraising goal this year is $150000. We’re a small group, we have 46 walkers signed up right now, the first year we had 24 and we raised $110000! We’ve met our goal that last two years, and we hope to increase it again this year!

The Immediate Impact Walk will be Friday, October 10th- Sunday October 12th in San Francisco. Come out and cheer us on, or even better, sign up and walk with us!

For more information, please go to: http://immediateimpactwalk.org