Version en Español
A good friend of mine(and fabulous journalist!), Maria De Los Angelesinterviewed Willa Shalit at Blogalicious this weekend. Willa, who owns Fairwinds Trading. recently launched a new project, Heart of Haiti , a partnership with Macy’s to rebuild the community by selling art pieces hand made by local artisans.
In this video also are Christie Crowder and Lorraine Robertson, two women who created the ambassador program for the Rwanda Path To Peace, another initiative led by Willa Shalit. As avid bloggers, they turned to their blogging community for that project and are now doing the same for Heart of Haiti. (You can also check out their collective site- The Blogrollers for lots of great projects)
After the presentation, we were looking for a place to interview away from the chatter of all the lovely bloggers. As we were moving down the steps to a quiet place, we saw some workers about to throw away over 20 vases full of beautiful fresh roses and hydrangeas.
I stopped them right on their tracks by having the interviewees sit down right on the steps. Even though the workers were a bit annoyed because we were interrupting their job, they conceded. I was immersed in the moment of saving those beautiful flowers. I wasn’t thinking that here I was directing Willa Shalit and her friends from Heart of Haiti to sit on the floor! But it ended up being a wonderful spontaneous moment, as these flowers enveloped us with their presence.
As I say in the video, life brings us thorns…but like the rose, if we focus on the petals, we can be filled with the beauty. Heart of Haiti is focusing on the talent and creativity of the artisans to turn the community around. That is real beauty! I think it is fantastic that they were able to partner with Macy’s to help in this endeavor. Don’t forget to check out the beautiful products at Macys.com/haiti.
Here is the interview from Maria on the steps with the flowers:
For those of you that have met me, you know I like to take video….but it takes time to get it all together. So my recap in 3D will be posted throughout the week. I will also be posting some great interviews for my vlog project in asking others what inspires them. So stay tuned!
