The blue awareness ribbon honors those people dealing with different illnesses such as M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis), CFS, colon cancer, arthritis, Dysautonomia, Huntington's Disease, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and of course, such organizations as Police officers lost in the line of duty.
I started making the support watches because I was trying to raise money for research for the Whittemore Peterson Institute . The WPI is committed to doing research to find treatments and/or cures for a lot of the above illnesses. To raise money, I gave away a free blue ribbon watch to anyone who donated $50.00 to WPI, or did a birthday wish which raised $250.00 for the WPI. Why did I do this??? I was trying to encourage people to donate to research, because another patient organization was pulling money away from donations for research and the WPI by soliciting donations for an ad campaign featuring xmrv and ME/CFS (and this ad campaign did not work). This other patient organization was trying to force the government to act by using a name which does not have a id case definition in the ICD- 9-CM US and a retrovirus which has not been proven to be the cause of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) or CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). Anyone who's been watching this whole saga KNOWS that you cannot force the government to do anything, much less force them to acknowledge an illness without an id code.
I brought a lot of materials up with me from Fla. I brought no furniture, but I did bring a all of my supplies for the business with me. The watch faces themselves were usually paid for by other patients advocates (Vera Swofford, Deb Bradshaw, Janet Suggs Jo Ann Cardogan, Barbara Kell, Malcolm Eaves to name a few )
This blue ribbon watch is made with labradorite and blue topaz chips with Swarovski spacers, and another one is done with Lapis. It is really a classy watch, and I hope it does what I set out for it to do, which is honoring those suffering with any of the above conditions. It can be found at the store
The price has gone up because now I have used all the supplies necessary to make this watch and have to buy chips, spacers, and clasps.
You can also find me on facebook....Earthslittletreasures on facebook also has a shop button on the left.
We are trying to raise money for research and the WPI has entered the Vivint contest..Just click on this Vivint link and it will take you to the WPI page...you will have to like the page, and then click on login in the middle of the page, and then scroll down to the bottom and click on Vote...voting is everyday and it would help the WPI in getting research dollars, so that we all might have a chance at being productive members of society, instead of drains on society.
