K8 Company To Assist BSL

k8company! ---> http://www.cafepress.com/k8hayes

k8company!Blog ---> http://k8company.blogspot.com

k8company!Two -->http://www.cafepress.com/k8company2

k8company HANCOCK --->http://www.cafepress.com/k8cohancock

I've been a CafePress shopkeeper (or "CPer," as we call ourselves) since 2004. I got started completely by accident. What happened was that I got what I thought was an amazingly clever idea for a t-shirt slogan: "I am embracing my inner misanthrope." (Still think that's pretty clever, by golly). Why I came up with that sentiment is another, longer (although fascinating) story. Anyhoo, I (being a Web fanatic) thought there *must* be someplace on the Web that would make my t-shirt for me. And, of course, there was. I checked it out (It shall remain nameless because it SUCKED.) My sister (If you get to know me, you'll realize my sister is my closest soulmate in the entire Universe. She's also an even bigger Web fanatic than I am.) Turned me on to this site she'd heard of: Cafe Press.

And the rest is history. But wait! That doesn't explain my non-profit revelation!

So around the first of March I saw, on the Lehrer News Hour, part of a report about these two men in New Orleans (I think it was) who were receiving emergency medical care IN A TENT (with an overworked-overstressed-exhausted medical staff) for really normal, treatable things that had gotten way out of hand because of the deplorable conditions that STILL exist in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. And I guess that was just the old straw that broke my camel's back.

So my husband and I both work our rear ends off. We have a mortgage and bills and lots of medical expenses, and blah blah blah, like just about everybody else in America now (except the 1% of the 1%, of course), so I knew I had no money to contribute and no time to go there to volunteer. But I did have k8company! my Cafe Press shop. So I decided then and there to start sending my (still not very sizable) profits to ... To what?

I began the search for a charity (why do I hate that word?). I wanted my money to go to those guys I saw on TV, to people in the Gulf region that weren't getting emergency or everyday medical care NOW. I asked friends and looked online and was told Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Charity Hospital. All good things, yes, but great big things where my money would roll around in the bottom of a big big barrel and never get to my guys in New Orleans with their STAPH infections from little cuts on their fingers.

After a frustrating search in my precious little free time I got my Democratic National Committee newsletter, and there was an article about the **Bay St. Louis Free Clinic**. And now I can say it: THE REST IS HISTORY. I contacted the Clinic, got their go-ahead and their tax-exempt ID, and On March 8, arranged with CafePress to have my commission checks sent directly to the clinic.

With the BSL Free Medical Clinic Closing, Kate is now going to donate her profits to BSL the city.

About 99% of my sales are from the Politics "Department" of my shop. My all-time bestsellers are "Impeach Bush," "Boycott Wal-Mart," and "Iraq Had Nothing To Do With 9/11." When I make a sale I get to see the person's name and where they're from. It's really exciting.

BUT I sell other things too: stuff for lovers of words, lovers of cats (yay), techno geeks and office grunts, original poetry on shirts and coasters and posters (a poetry collection book will be published soon), and stuff I call "comfy," or "komfy," which goes better with "k8company."

Thank thank thank you to KatrinaCoalition, to DesignForACause, to CafePress, and I feel like I'm accepting an academy award. Enough already!

Peace, Love, Understanding,
Kate Hayes