Saving the World, One Plastic Bag at a Time

If there's one bandwagon to jump on, its the re-usable bag one! I'm totally hooked on these. If you're like me, then you have tons of plastic bags laying around. I recall seeing Target, Forever 21, and Macy's plastic bags in my room as I left this morning. I'm still getting used to remembering to bring my re-usable bags with me, hence those plastic bags currently in my room.

Well, in my quest to save the world, I came across some merchandise in Macy's back in December. They were really cute so I started to look more closely at them. At the time, I was buying Christmas gifts so I thought the make-up-sized bag would be perfect for my girls. And then I noticed the tag said "featuring artwork by Kanye West." I started looking at other ones and there were some by Heidi Klum, David Bowie, Giorgio Armani and Gwen Stefani.

Here's a tid-bit of what the tag said:
The signed artwork reproduced on this garment is the original work of the celebrity artist and has been donated for the exclusive use of the Whatever It Takes campaign, which has so far raised over $1,500,000 for charitable projects worldwide.

How cool is that? These celebrities actually drew out these designs! I wanted to research more about what Whatever It Takes.org is all about and found out this organization is based in the UK. Which got me thinking, "Why are they selling things here?" Then I saw they are trying to tackle key global issues, such as poverty alleviation, environmental conservation, and the protection of children. These celebrities contribute their designs to the items sold from Whatever It Takes.org and the sales of their products go to the celebrities' charities of choice.

This organization supports tons of causes around the world, not just in the UK. A few that I picked out from the list are:

• CARE International - works in more than 70 countries around the world tackling poverty where ever the need is greatest. It has impacted 45 million people worldwide


• LIFEbeat - the US music industry's charitable organization, dedicated to reaching America's youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention.


• St. Judes Children's Hospital - discoveries made here have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.


• Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program - works to improve the lives of patients and their loved ones by providing at-home help, childcare, transporation, access to support groups and patient care srvices offered within Cedar-Sinai Medical Center.

Check out a full list of causes and their charity report here: http://www.whateverittakes.org/causes.php

Well, when I was at Macy's looking at the Whatever It Takes.org merchandise, I came across a bag that contains four reusuable bags! I didn't buy it at the time because I was Christmas shopping and told myself not to buy anything for myself. Well, ever since then, I've regreted it because the bags were really cute! I started looking online for them, but the Whatever It Takes.org is based in the UK and the prices were listed in pounds. I'm always a little scared to buy something that's not in dollars. And the website didn't have the bags I wanted. I searched in other places and saw other people who were like me and discovered this organization in places like Urban Outfitters. Well, long story short, I found my bags! I got the ones designed by Lucy Lui.

What I like about them, besides the fact that they are loud and colorful, is that they roll up and are secured by a button so they are only about 3 inches big, which means they are easy to carry!