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Hi Girls!
Welcome to our "Beauty" issue. This year we wanted to do something special, and discount tiffany our May/June 2010 issue all about what we think makes girls and women truly beautiful - and we're not talking about looks like so many other magazines!
Veda says, "Beauty isn't all about how you look, but rather, how you treat others and the confidence you have in yourself." That's why she recommends reading, "What is Beauty?" (p. 12 ). She says, "This article teaches us that beauty comes from empowerment, community, and understanding. We're all beautiful!"
New Moon Girls Editorial Board members think that girls should define beauty! We asked Tiffany Bracelets some tough questions about the effect of media on girls and got some wonderful answers. Jen says, "This article is so important because it talks about how media targets different girls at different ages. I learned a lot and think there is some great advice for girls."
We also wanted to talk about whether or not girls feel pressured to wear certain brands and styles in clothing. Check out "Voice Box" (p. 10), where girls talk about the pros and cons of buying trendy clothes. Kahlo says, "Girls will enjoy reading this article because it's interesting and inspiring to know so many girls have their Tiffany Pendants style and wear what they want! "
All three of us fell in love with this issue's Science Side Effects article, "Puppy v. Girl: Battle of the Senses!" (p. 1 7). We all thought it was really interesting and informative! Veda says, "It teaches the difference between the senses of our canine friends and our own." And we all loved learning that a dog's nose prints are as unique as a human's fingerprints!
We think every girl is beautiful in her own way, and believe that our generation of girls needs to Tiffany Earrings what beauty means to society (and to us!). We think beauty is so many things that go way beyond figure, hair, or make-up. We can't wait for you to read this issue!
this diwali let the spirit of light illuminate your world, says damas!
Presents two specially designed diamond jewellery sets and free 22k gold coins on minimum pur-chase of AED 1,500/ between October 1 17
Damas, the leading international jewellery retailer in the Middle East, adds extra sparkle to your Diwali celebrations this year with two specially designed diamond jewellery sets! The first is a splendorous 22k yellow gold and rose cut necklace and drop earrings set from its popular Legacy collection. And the other is a bewitching 18k yellow gold and diamond jewellery three-piece set comprising pendant chain, earrings and ring, inspired by the beauty of intricate Rangoli designs.
The glittering Damas Diwali 18k yellow gold set has diamond setting employing a special technique using rhodium. What is more, though the full set is priced at AED 3,990 shoppers can buy individual pieces too if they wish to! The pendant chain contains 0.10cts of round brilliant diamonds - being sold at a fixed price of AED 1,090. The earrings contain 0.17cts of round brilliant diamonds and are being sold at a fixed price of AED 1,750 and the ring contains 0.09cts of round brilliant diamonds. It will be sold at a fixed price of AED 1,150. These prices are valid only during the Diwali promotion period.
Along with this comes yet another attractive offer - for every minimum purchase of AED 1,500 on gold and diamond jewellery, Damas customers also get free 22k gold coins! This grand Damas Diwali promotion runs between Octo-ber 1 17 and is valid only at select Damas shops across the UAE. Cardholders of Emirates/NBD can also enjoy 0% interest for three months on gold jewellery and six months on diamond jewellery purchases through the entire month of October 2009.
Damas special Legacy 22k yellow gold set for Diwali showcases rose cut diamonds with an antique finesse in pressure setting and comes in a two-piece set of necklace and drop earrings. The necklace contains 16.6cts of diamonds and is priced at AED 15,950 while the earrings contain 3.86cts of diamonds and is priced at AED 3,950. The total price of the two-piece set is AED 19,900.
Tawhid Abdullah, Managing Director Damas Jewellery commented, "On the auspicious occasion of Diwali, I extend hearty greetings to all our Indian shoppers who form one of our largest and most enthusiastic sections of shoppers. As they have a deep appreciation of ethnically rich designs, we are indeed very happy to present them two specially designed gold and diamond jewellery sets, one from the Legacy collection and the other drawing inspiration from floral Rangoli designs which form a key feature of Diwali celebrations. This mega 17-day promotion has several other very attractive aspects too which are designed to turn this Diwali into a truly memorable one for all our shop-pers."
One of the oldest and also most favourite festivals of India, Diwali, is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains across the world, and is popularly known as 'The festival of lights' as it is observed by lighting tiny oil lamps all around the house at twilight. Diwali celebrations last for five days with the first day known as Dhanteras. An impor-tant and time honoured practice on this day, calculated according to the position of the stars, is the buying of gold and gold jewellery, as doing so is believed to attract greater prosperity into one's life. This year Dhanteras falls on the October 15 and Diwali will be celebrated on October 17.
As one of the oldest and most well known names in jewellery, Damas is known to enthusiastically participate in the festivities and events of the region's populace by bringing out specially designed sets on key occasions. Rangoli is a traditional and colourful art form of India where beautiful patterns are laid out near the entrance of a house to attract good fortune as well as welcome guests. Made with coloured powders or with flower petals, the term Rangoli is derived from the words rang meaning colour and aavalli meaning row.
This Diwali visit your nearest 22k Damas Jewellery shop and avail exciting offers to turn it into a truly special and memorable occasion for near and loved ones. About Damas:The journey of Damas began in 1907. It has grown from a UAE based company into a global fashion and jewellery network spanning the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and North Africa. The Damas Group has over 500 stores in 18 countries around the world as of 30th April 2009. Damas houses internationally acclaimed jewellery and watch brands such as Tiffany & Co., Mikimoto, Daniel K, Faberge, Carrera y Carrera, Paspaley, Pasquale Bruni, Roberto Coin, Fope, Chronoswiss, Parmigiani, Perrelet, Quinting, Montega, Frederique Constant, among many others. The innovative in-house collections include the majestic Bridal jewellery, exclusive jewellery brands such as Damas Cut, Boudoor, Hayati, Riwaya, Jawaher, Farasha, Fairouz, Harmony, Farfasha, Al Manthourah; watch brands Varotti and Aquamarin; and a wide range of other classic and contemporary jewellery and watch collections. Quality consciousness, inspirational leadership and international reputation have led Damas to win prestigious awards including the exclusive De Beers Award 2000, 2004 and 2007 for jewellery design. Damas International Limited is listed on Dubai Nasdaq (former Dubai International Financial Exchange) and its shares are traded under the ticker 'DAMAS'. 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
Platinum Makes Comeback In Jewelry Market After 50-Year Absence
Platinum Makes Comeback In Jewelry Market After 50-Year Absence.
When Geri Bondanza first started selling platinum jewelry 18 years ago, there were few takes for the once-popular precious metal.
"No one was looking for platinum anything - there was zero market for it," said Bondanza, vice president of Michael Bondanza Inc. in New York. "People thought we were crazy to go near the stuff."
Today, Bondanza laughs about those days, especially as platinum makes a fierce comeback after a 50-year absence. Sales have jumped over 30 percent in the last three years.
Prior to World War II, platinum was considered the premier metal for jewelry-making. The finest jewelry and most bridal pieces-engagement rings and wedding bands - were exclusively platinum.
Consumers flocked to platinum for its look and feel. It's rich, silvery tone was styled in either a matte or polished fashion. It was also considered the heaviest and purest precious metal, enabling more detailed jewelry designs.
But platinum's reign came to an abrupt halt during WWII when the U.S. government temporarily restricted its use to military purposes.
"Platinum went from being the ultimate to being virtually unknown in a blink of the eye," said Laurie Hudson, president of the U.S. office of the Platinum Guild International, a trade group based in Newport Beach, Calif.
When the ban was lifted after the war, platinum was unable to regain its place. Consumers, instead, turned to white gold, which mimicked platinum's silvery luster but cost less.
It wasn't until the early 1990s that platinum again found its niche, mostly due to an intensive 10-year drive by the Platinum Guild to educate the public, jewelry designers and retailers about the metal.
"We put ads in magazines, held sales training seminars and we really pushed platinum at every trade show we could," said Hudson, who opened the U.S. office of the guild in 1992. "There was a whole generation out there that had never even seen platinum. .TX.-During the same period of time, the availability of platinum increased as more mines opened and more sophisticated mining processes were developed.
"It's still rare, but it wasn't as hard to get anymore," said Carl Denney, a spokesman for Johnson Matthey, one of the world's largest platinum suppliers. "That helped expand the market."
There are only 133 tons of platinum produced annually, compared to 1,782 tons of gold, the guild said.
Interest eventually caught on, and a generation of consumers - namely young working women between the ages of 18 and 35 - started purchasing platinum.
"Platinum is for the '90s woman who wants to something that is elegant but understated," said Rudolf Erdel of OE Design, a New York jewelry maker that specializes in platinum.
Such was true for Andrea Wiesel, a 26-year-old financial analyst, who fell in love with platinum after she got an engagement ring in the metal last year, and has since bought two pins.
"My grandma always said platinum was best," she said. "Once I started wearing it, I felt the difference."
Retailers from major department stores to small jewelers are expanding their platinum collections to reflect the growing demand.
In the last year, Tiffany & Co. introduced two new lines of platinum jewelry, while continuing its tradition of setting all its diamonds in the metal.
"There is a coolness of platinum that you can't find in other precious metals," said Jeanne Daniel, vice president of merchandising at Tiffany. "Many people want it because its quality without the flash."
And there has been a boom of U.S. designers and manufacturers working in platinum. There are over 250 companies working with the metal today, up form 50 in 1980, the guild said.
Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi promoted his new platinum and diamond necklace - called "Angle Rings" - during this spring's New York fashion shows. And jewelry designer Paloma Picasso mixes platinum and gold in her "Little Secrets" collection.
As the number of manufacturers using the metal has grown, so has the consumption level. More than 60,000 ounces of platinum was used in the United States last year for jewelry making, up from 20,000 ounces in 1991, according to Johnson Matthey.
That number is expected to rise in the coming years with estimates reaching as high as 190,000 ounces by 1999. That would nearly double what consumption was in the 1920s, the height of the platinum era.
Still, the cost of platinum exceeds all other precious metals, making its pricey for some. On the current commodity markets, platinum is about $430 an ounce, compared to $385 for gold. And many designers are just starting to make smaller, affordable pieces for the general market, said Erdel of OE Design.
"It is expensive," he said. "We've gotten people to notice platinum again, so I guess as the demand goes up (and more platinum is on the market), the price will start to fall."
GOLD JEWELRY – ALL THAT GLITTER PRODUCES TOXINS
Marking the second anniversary of their "No Dirty Gold" campaign, EARTHWORKS and Oxfam America are reminding consumers that the production of a single 18-carat gold ring weighing less than one ounce generates on average at least 20 tonnes of mine waste that may prove very harmful for local communities and the environment.
"Gold loses its luster when it is produced at the expense of healthy communities, clean water and human rights," according to Payal Sampat, the international campaign director for EARTHWORKS, which is based here. "Retailers and consumers are saying this price is too high."
Valentine's day is the biggest holiday for gold jewelry sales in the U.S., and particularly for the three biggest sellers of gold jewelry, Wal-Mart, Zales and Sterling.
To mark the day, campaigners, including a giant puppet called "Ms. Goldzilla," will be distributing Valentine's cards with the message, "Don't tarnish your love with dirty gold," in front of major jewelry and watch stores along New York City's Fifth Avenue.
Consumers will be asked to sign a pledge calling on gold mining companies to use cleaner alternatives in mining, particularly in developing countries where regulations are generally more lax or less enforced than those in wealthy western countries where gold is still mined.
In a major scandal that surfaced last year, an independent study completed by Indonesia's Environment Ministry found that waste generated by Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corporation at its Minahasa Raya gold mine had contaminated Buyat Bay in Sulawesi province with mercury and arsenic at levels that pose a human health risk, particularly to young children.
Newmont has rejected the report's conclusions, but investigations by the New York Times, which consulted independent experts, backed up the Environment Ministry's findings.
In addition to the pollution, mining often creates serious social problems. Governments eager to attract foreign investment will often sell concessions to major companies without consulting local communities that are most affected by the mining operations..
"We want buyers and sellers of gold jewelry to hold mining companies accountable to the communities where they operate," said Carrie Dann of the Western Shoshone Defence Project in Nevada.
Worse, gold mining has become increasingly mechanised so that communities often don't receive many new employment opportunities despite the enormous capital costs involved in mining.
Metal mining currently employs less than one-tenth of one percent of the global workforce, but consumes seven to 10 percent of the world's energy.
But the major impact is environmental and the huge amount of waste generated by mining.
"Mining companies have polluted our water resources and violated our right to a healthy environment in their rush to riches," said Kalia Moldogazieva, a mining activist from Kyrgyzstan whose open- pit Kumtor mine, owned and operated by Canada's Cameco Corp.. and partially financed by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has suffered a number of toxic spills and a 1992 cave- in that killed one worker.
In the United States, mines generate an amount of waste equivalent in weight to nearly nine times the garbage produced by all U.S. cities and towns combined, according to the two groups.
Based on gold-sales projections for the first two weeks of February, the two groups estimate that Valentine's Day sales of gold jewelry in the U.S. will have produced 34 million metric tonnes of waste worldwide.
The two groups say that their campaign has gained momentum since its launch on Valentine's Day 2004, with groups in Germany and three gold-producing nations -- Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru -- starting their own campaigns.
In response to the campaign, leading jewelry and electronics retailers, including Tiffany & Co, Cartier, Helzberg Diamonds and Harry Winston, have issued public statements in support of its goals.
"As consumers and retailers learn about the true cost of gold, they are calling for it to be produced in ways that do not harm people and the environment," said Keith Slack, a senior policy advisor with Oxfam America.
The "No Dirty Gold" activists are drawing heavily on the experience of other recent consumer efforts to end sweatshop labor in the apparel industry, combat the trade in so-called "blood diamonds", and promote Fair Trade coffee and cocoa products to press retailers of these products to press their suppliers -- mainly multinational corporations responsible for most of the world's gold production -- to ensure that they do more to reduce waste and protect the environment, health, and human rights of communities where they operate.
Most consumers, according to the groups, are unaware of the social and environmental impact of most gold-mining operations.
Like the other campaigns, the gold campaign also enlists students in their efforts. The two groups noted that students at about a dozen colleges in the United States and Canada have been organising to clean up "dirty gold" used in class rings.
In addition to Wal-Mart, Zales and Sterling, the top 10 U.S. jewelry retailers include QVC, JC Penney, Sears, Tiffany, Finlay Fine Jewelry, Fred Meyer Jewelers, and Friedman's.
The world's top six gold mines by production in 2003 included Freeport's Grasberg mine in Indonesia, Newmont's Yanacocha mine in Peru; Navoi's Muruntau mine in Uzbekistan; Barrick's Betze-Post mine in Nevada; and Gold Fields' Driefontein and Kloof mines in South Africa.
The next biggest include Newmont's Carlin Trend mine in Nevada; Placer Dome's Cortez mine also in Nevada; Barrick's Pierina mine in Peru; and Barrick's and Newmonth's Kalgoorlie mine in Australia.
Girl, 11, robbed of bracelet in Lake Worth
A woman robbed an 11-year-old girl who was skateboarding behind her mother's tiffany jewelry Lake Worth business, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reported Sunday.
The incident occurred about 5:15 p.m. Saturday behind Lynne's Nails, in the 1900 block of Lake Worth Road. An older-model red car drove past the victim, then returned.
The woman asked the girl and her 10-year-old friend about a restaurant. The woman then asked about the girl's 18-karat gold bracelet, grabbed her arm and pulled the jewelry off, causing the girl's wrist to bleed.
The bracelet had the name "ANH THU" etched on a name plate and is valued at $800. The suspect is described as about 40 years old, 5 feet, 2 inches to 3 inches tall, with brownish-blond hair and acne.
Authorities ask anyone with information to call Detective Victoria Miller at 561-688-4712 or earrings Crime Stoppers at 800-458-8477.
Credit: Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
WWII ‘Paul E. Rose’ bracelet leads to search for airman’s kin
The battered bit of metal poking from a French farmer's field carried a name, a string tiffany and co of numbers and the ghostly outline of an aviator's wings, but it had a story to tell, a story that stretches all the way to Dallas.
The field lay near an old airbase, used by the Germans in World War II until Americans captured it in the last months of 1944. The owner of the ID bracelet, Paul E. Rose, might have served there, the farmer decided. But the war had ended long ago, and finding Rose seemed almost impossible for a man with a farm to run.
So he tucked the bracelet away for 15 years or so until he learned that people in the nearby village of Saint-Peravy la Colombe were dedicating a memorial earlier this year to the crew of an American B-26 bomber that had been shot down near town a week after D-Day, in mid-June.
The farmer took the bracelet to the dedication, met local history buff Christian Dieppedalle and showed him what he had found.
Dieppedalle took up the quest.
He pulled out a copy of the book Bridge Busters, by J. Guy Ziegler, which detailed the operations silver earrings of the 394th Bomber Group of the U.S. 9th Air Force, the group that used the airfield in 1944.
In it, Dieppedalle found a mention of the midair collision of two B-26 bombers on Oct. 8, 1944, which claimed both crews, including Sgt. Paul E. Rose.
The two B-26 Marauders were part of a group flying in tight formation after a low-altitude raid on a German railroad bridge. They even flew over other members of the 394th holding a memorial service for the same crew honored in Saint-Peravy la Colombe 65 years later.
"They probably had the formation a little tighter than usual because of the memorial service, and two of the planes got together," said Don Enlow, whose father flew with the 394th, and a part of the effort to find Rose's survivors.
Using the Internet and military records, Dieppedalle found some sketchy information about Rose.
He was single, born in Ohio (city unknown), and joined the Army Air Corps in Tucson, Ariz., in December 1942. He listed his hometown as Dallas, Texas. He was 22 when he died.
An Internet search for "Rose" and "Dallas" turned up dozens of addresses and phone numbers, he said, a daunting task for a man on the other side of the ocean. So he enlisted help on a B-26 Web site, and got an e-mail from Enlow, of Jena, La., who offered to do what he could.
"This isn't new to Christian [Dieppedalle] -- he does this as a hobby," Enlow said. "The French people think a silver key rings lot about what the Americans did for them in the war. They're more sentimental about it than we are."
But Enlow knows that finding someone close to Rose could be very difficult.
"We know what year he was born and his service number. But what scares me about this is what we don't know," he said. "What was he doing in Dallas at the time of his enlistment? Had his family moved from Ohio to Texas? Was he down there working? Had he gone to school there?
"What if we're looking in the wrong place? What if his family never left Ohio?"
The Army can't release next-of-kin information to the public, said Lt. Col. Maria Quon of the Army's Human Resources Command in St. Louis. She suggested that the farmer in France send the bracelet to the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
"The basic problem is it will end up on some bureaucrat's desk," said Roy Bozych of suburban Chicago, another member of the team trying to track down Rose's kin.
"Do you recall the very last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the Ark is boxed up and basically buried in this huge government warehouse? That is what will happen with the bracelet."
Like Enlow, Bozych is the son of a B-26 crew member, and like Enlow, a pilot silver necklaces himself.
Both feel a deep personal involvement, and a debt.
"We've gotten to know a lot of these World War II vets. We've broken bread with them," Bozych said. "Doing this is our way of saying thanks."
Alcohol Bracelets Helping to Keep Veterans Sober and Accountable
The veterans program began using the technology, known as SCRAM (for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor), in December of 2008 in order to help manage the epidemic rate of alcohol abuse and addiction among the combat veterans in their court. The system includes an ankle bracelet tiffany, worn 24/7, that actually samples an offender's perspiration every 30 minutes in order to measure for alcohol consumption and ensure compliance with court-ordered sobriety and treatment requirements.
The award-winning program was the first veteran-specific court in the country to deal with the unique needs of the ever-increasing number of combat veterans going through the criminal justice system. Under the direction of the Honorable Robert T. Russell, the court aims to link veterans coming through the city's criminal justice system with a full range of social services, including drug and alcohol treatment, mental health services, medical care, anger management, family counseling, vocation/educational services and housing. "Substance abuse, homelessness, unemployment, mental health problems--these issues are found in combination and in alarming numbers with our combat veterans," says Russell. "Ensuring the sobriety of these offenders while we address their issues is essential for long-term success and for helping these men and women get their lives back on track, as well as community safety," he adds.
The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) has recently launched a Veterans silver cufflinks Treatment Court Clearing House in response to the overwhelming interest in creating a veterans program from courts across the U.S. According to NADCP, there are now 13 Veterans Treatment Courts across the country, and with funding from the Veterans Administration, the number of programs is expected to increase substantially in 2010.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 1.8 million combat veterans meet the criteria for having substance abuse issues. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reports that 35 percent of justice-involved veterans suffer from alcohol dependency, and the U.S. Department of Defense reports that the rate of veteran involvement in alcohol-related incidents, including DUI, reckless driving and drunk and disorderly conduct, more than tripled between 2005 and 2006 alone. "This isn't about criminality," says Mike Iiams, chairman and CEO of Denver-based Alcohol Monitoring Systems, which manufactures and markets SCRAM throughout the U.S. "This is about addiction. When these individuals drink, bad things happen, and this program silver bracelets is redefining the way our justice system can change the course of their lives," says Iiams.
The Buffalo Drug and DUI courts have utilized the SCRAM System since 2007, monitoring more than 330 offenders to-date, and the Veterans Treatment Court began using the anklets in December of 2008. AMS donated 10 units to the Buffalo Veterans program in 2008, acknowledging what Iiams calls the "critical importance" of the ground-breaking program. Today, veterans monitored by SCRAM in the Buffalo program pay $6 per day for the monitoring fee, making the program self-sustaining.
SCRAM currently monitors just over 10,000 offenders daily and has monitored more than 115,000 offenders in 48 states since it became available in 2003. SCRAM is used to manage and monitor drunk drivers, drug and domestic violence offenders and underage drinkers. It's also utilized as a tool in family court, where the determination of custody silver rings may be dependent on a participant's sobriety.
Keywords: Addiction Medicine, Epidemics, Mental Health, Alcohol Monitoring Systems Inc.
NORTH IDAHO COLLEGE CHRISTMAS CONCERT TO FEATURE HOLIDAY SING-ALONG
Families are encouraged to attend this year's annual holiday concert at North Idaho christmas gift College Dec. 5 and 6, which will include the traditional holiday songs and the sing-along that bring the crowd to its feet each year.
The "Sounds of Christmas" concert will feature several holiday-themed pieces by the NIC Wind Symphony led by Terry Jones. The band will perform "Jubilant Holiday" by Sean O'Loughlin, "Greensleeves Variants" by Robert E. Foster and the Johnnie Vinson arrangement of "Overture to Miracle on 34th Street."
The NIC Concert Choir, Madrigal Singers and Jazz Co. jazz choir will perform selections such as "Ding Dong, Merrily on High," "O Holy Night" and a medley from Irving Berlin's "White Christmas."
The NIC choral groups, which are conducted by Max Mendez, will then join forces with the silver money clips NIC Wind Symphony for the traditional holiday sing-along of well-known Christmas carols with the audience.
"Sounds of Christmas" will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6 in NIC's Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center.
The concert is free and open to the public.
Information: (208) 769-3276.
For More Information NIC Band Director Terry Jones, (208) 769-3258, or NIC silver pendants Choir Director Max Mendez, (208) 769-3275.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.
Stacy Hudson, 208/769-7819, stacy_hudson@nic.edu.
A gift for Christmas: Donations pour in for Haley’s new golf cart
Smiling, Haley Christmas rides again.
She will ride soon, anyway. Because York County will not stand for somebody tiffany jewelry stealing a golf cart from a lady with cerebral palsy.
The story of the theft of "Bye-bye," Haley's golf cart, ran in Thursday's Herald. It was snatched last week from her family's yard in Lesslie. The cart remains missing.
But by Thursday afternoon, Haley Christmas was at Andy's Used Golf Cars in Rock Hill, deciding whether she wanted pink or blue.
Showing Haley and her father the options was a guy with working man's gear oil on his hands and tears running down his face named Andy Clabough. A man who heard about the theft and heard from his customers who wanted to donate and strangers who wanted to donate, and without anybody asking, he offered to build a new cart for free.
"Blue!" squealed Haley.
"Blue it is!" called out Clabough.
Before Thursday, Andy Clabough had never heard of Haley Christmas. Yet, before 8 a.m., calls were coming in to Clabough with offers to help.
A guy named Wayne Logan who took his electric cart there for service offered up his cart, no strings attached. Since silver key rings Haley needed gas, Logan just said, "Put a sign on mine and sell it and use the money for Haley."
Clabough decided right then and there that this girl was going to get a cart, if he had to pay for it himself.
"I never had a morning like this in my whole life," Clabough said. "This is about the most amazing thing I ever saw. I come to work today, and I found out that people care so much more about a little lady who had her golf cart stolen than anything else.
"Hit me right in the gut, it did. Been crying all day."
Clabough took an old plastic jar that once held pretzels and made it into a collection box. People called and offered to bring in cash. One guy offered $400.
A lady named Frances McEntee, who before Thursday never heard of Clabough or the Christmas family, started e-mailing and calling friends and fellow parents at St. Anne Catholic School to raise money because she could not sit idly by after reading of this dastardly deed. The school forwarded the e-mail to hundreds.
"I went to the dentist; the hygienist gave me $5 for Haley, and the dentist wrote a check," McEntee said. "Anybody I talked with wanted to help."
A guy named Henry Eldridge from Tega Cay came in to Clabough's shop to get some work done on his golf cart and dropped in a big bunch of money without ever meeting Haley Christmas.
"No way is somebody going to take away Haley's wheels," Eldridge said. "Thieves don't win. Haley wins."
By 1 p.m., the jar had fivers and ten-spots and C-notes. A C-note is a $100 bill. Clear plastic jars with c-notes look silver necklaces great.
Finally, better than a thousand dollars to help get another cart to replace the one that had cost about $5,000 three years ago when it was bought. Clabough thought he was on his way.
But Clabough didn't have to pay for a new cart. Paul and Jeryl Christmas, Haley's parents, didn't have to pay, either.
A lady named Nicki Nash whose kids go to that St. Anne school made one phone call to her boss, Founders Federal Credit Union president Bruce Brumfield. Brumfield needed about two seconds to say: "Do what you gotta do; get that girl a golf cart!"
Paul and Haley Christmas came over to the shop to meet Clabough, who sure was getting no other work done Thursday as he fielded phone calls and dropped money in the jar and cried like a baby.
Nash stopped in and told Clabough the cart builder these simple words from behind a huge grin almost as big as Haley's grin: "Do what you gotta do. Make it happen."
All agreed that Founders would pay for the base cart, and the donations would pay for the extras to make Haley Christmas' golf cart the best cart any girl who likes to sit at the side of the road waving and smiling at strangers ever rode in. And this one will have a security system to make sure it isn't stolen.
These strangers turned friends decided if the stolen cart turns up, it will be donated in Haley's name to a charity that needs a cart to get another disabled person around. If there is extra money after the cart is finished, it will go into a foundation or scholarship in Haley's name to help someone else with cerebral palsy.
"My daughter's been smiling all her life. She's 27 years old, but this might be the best day she ever had," said Paul Christmas bangles, Haley's father.
Haley gave out as many hugs at that golf cart shop as there were people to accept them. Clabough got his hug and that golf cart mechanic just about floated.
Clabough needs a couple weeks to put together this custom cart. It will have special tires and taillights. A radio/CD player, and roof, and special backseats for Haley's friends and family. A cover to keep out the rain. A gas engine for plenty of get-up-and-go. There will be hubcaps to shine and mirrors to see where she's been.
But no headlights. Haley's glowing smile will light the way to wherever she may go.
No, Virginia, Christmas Is Not Here Yet
The autumn leaves, red and yellow and brown, are tumbling from the trees, tiffany resigned to their fate. Weekends are full of football and the scritching of rakes. Lazy squirrels are still munching on moldering jack o' lanterns left over from Halloween. In other words, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Disney released a new version of the Dickens Scrooge story last week, timing it so that "A Christmas Carol" will be lucky to be in distribution past Thanksgiving Day.
Starbucks has already retired its white cups for the duration, replacing them with cranberry-colored, snowflake-flecked seasonal substitutes. Wal-Mart is just one of the retailers already Kringling away like crazy, running television ads with Andy Williams crooning "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Who knew that the weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving were the hap-happiest season of all?
The day after Thanksgiving used to be the official launch of the commercial rings Christmas season. Now Sears is running "Black Friday" specials all through November.
Given half a chance, retailers would probably try to get their plastic garlands hung just after Labor Day. (Ho-ho-ho, it's back to school!) But we've been spared that particular encroachment, thanks to a holiday that has proved capable of standing athwart the relentless forces of Christmas-creep -- Halloween. Once a quaint bit of Americana built around the simple pleasures of costumes, candy-grabbing and petty vandalism, Halloween has become a marketable and profitable holiday, putting many official holidays to shame. If only Presidents Day had some sort of free-candy angle.
In contrast to Halloween's stalwart ability to keep Christmas from jumping the queue, Thanksgiving has lost its cultural muscle. The early advent of the Santa season may have less to do with the red-and-green imperative than with the weakness of Turkey Day. What happened to this quintessential American holiday?
Lydia Maria Child's ode to going over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house is a good place to start in decoding Thanksgiving's decline. First, there is the anachronistic attention given to grandmother. Thanksgiving is one of the few occasions left, in our fanatically kinder-centric culture, to honor the elderly. Picture the famous Norman Rockwell illustration "Freedom From Want" -- at the Thanksgiving table grandpa and grandma have pride of place. No wonder the day gets short shrift.
And then there is all that over-the-river-and-through-the-woods business, which in our day means a choice between stripping for the nice TSA agent or creeping along I-95. Thanksgiving is the official holiday of planes, trains and automobiles. What the modern travel experience lacks in charm it makes up for with sheer bracelets ordeal. And what's the payoff for all this effort? A chance to make small talk with in-laws.
The Food Network may be the only institution in America unapologetically boosting the holiday. For weeks, the cable channel's programming is packed with turkey tutorials, stuffing suggestions and investigations into the mysteries of cranberry sauce. But Food Network's programming is less an indication of popular enthusiasm for Thanksgiving than a measure of the fear the holiday engenders. Hostesses know that they will be judged on the juiciness of their turkey, the cooking of which is an exotic undertaking chanced but once a year. And the result must be achieved while juggling a half-dozen side dishes, all the while making the above-mentioned small talk.
None of which would be so daunting if the day meant more to us. Could it be we've lost our capacity for gratitude? A successful harvest occasioned thanks back when it was all that stood between us and a long, cold, hungry winter. But now we're divorced from the seasonal rhythms of the farm, where the harvest is celebrated as the payoff of all the year's labors. Even in the midst of this Great Repression we enjoy perpetual plenty. What resonance does a cornucopia have to people who have come to expect ripe blackberries in February? If anything, we should be more grateful, but that's not our nature. Anything we struggle for, we hold dear; anything that comes easy, we take for granted.
Not only don't we celebrate the astonishing abundance that is our good fortune, we whine and moan cufflinks about how it makes us fat. Lydia Maria Child's poem ends, appropriately enough, with dessert: "Is the pudding done? / Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!" A version for our time would read, "Is the pudding sugar-free?" And if that weren't enough to squeeze the pleasure from the day, no modern Thanksgiving is complete without a college student home from school, lecturing the family on the cruelty of meat. (To which the only appropriate response is: "Does that mean you don't want the drumstick?") That same sophomore is also likely to bemoan the grim fate of the Native Americans who made the strategic mistake of helping the Pilgrims avoid starvation. In some circles, Thanksgiving is second only to Columbus Day as an occasion for grieving.
There will be plenty of time next month for all the secular manifestations of Christmas: shopping, trimming the tree, shopping, mugs of frothing Tom & Jerry, shopping, and watching Ralphie get his Red Ryder BB-gun and Clarence get his wings. Oh, and yes, shopping. But before we break out the ornaments and dust off the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack, let's make the most of autumn and its particular pleasures. Jump in a pile of leaves. Savor the waning daylight. And go ahead. Week after next, eat that second slice of pumpkin pie -- just be thankful for it.