Star 50 Handbags and Make it Right Foundation

We recently reviewed Star 50 Handbags and just wanted to let you know what else makes them such a fine company besides having fabulous handbags.

Star 50 Handbags has graciously offered to donate 5% of all sales from the Louisiana Market Sac (pictured to the left) to the Make it Right Foundation (MIR9).

For those of you who are not familiar with the MIR9 project and foundation, here is a summary:

- "Make It Right" was created by Brad Pitt in December of 2006.
- The foundation is inspired by the courage and hope of the residents of the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans.
- The initial goal is to construct 150 eco-friendly homes on 14 square blocks of New Orleans Lower 9th Ward using sustainable materials that are healthy for families and the environment.
- The concept of "The Pink Project" is to reflect the progress of the rebuild in real time.
- The individual pink "components" or "volumes" lay at the site and are assembled as progress is made. When enough donations have been raised to cover one house, 3-4 "volumes" are pieced together to show a placeholder for a house.
- The ultimate goal of the Make It Right project is to build these eco-friendly homes throughout New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
- As of Sunday, February 17, 2008, the money for 78 of the 150 houses has been donated and over 3/4 of the funds for the 79th house have been raised.

I fully encourage you to head over to the Make It Right website and check out the full details of this project. I spent a good four hours or so clicking through the site the other day and familiarizing myself with what is going on down there. I'm actually in contact with the folks at MIR9 to possibly set up a "Team House", so that when you donate, you can donate through our house and show your support in re-building this devastated area of New Orleans.

Here are some details regarding making donations:

-You can make cash donations or donations of products and/or services.
-You can purchase items for the Donation House (from $5 for faucet aerators to $150,000 for the entire house)
-You can purchase merchandise and the all proceeds will be applied toward building new Make It Right homes
-Donations are tax-deductible

We'd love to read your comments regarding the MIR9 project! Please be sure to let us know if you'd be interested in making a donation (even if it's only $5!) to the foundation through a "mums" team house. We're working on getting that set up asap and will contact you with more details if you provide your contact info in you comment.

In the meantime, kudos goes to Star 50 Handbags for supporting this fantastic cause!

WIN IT!

Last but not least, here's your chance to snag a Star 50 Handbag of your own! We have a New Hampshire Messenger Bag to give away to one lucky MTW reader! This is a very sassy, durable bag that you'll want to show off while you're out and about.

To enter, send an email to mumsthewurd[at]gmail[dot]com with "Make It Right" in the subject line. In the body of your email, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the Make It Right project.

Contest ends on Friday, February 22nd at 10PM CST. A winner will be chosen at random and notified via email.

Good luck!