Tag: "children"

Heads Up On New SafetyTat Designs For National Safety Month And Giveaway

Back in January I did a SafetyTat review on Val’s Views. SafetyTats are colorful kids temporary safety tattoos. I found them to be a terrific, valuable and useful product for any family with children, especially families with special needs children. Safety Tats waterproof temporary tattoos for children. They can be ordered with your phone number preprinted or blank so you can write your phone number yourself. There’s a large selection of designs including ones for allergies, diabetes, autism, non-verbal and diabetes.

June is National Safety Month. What better time for SafetyTat to release 9 new Quick Stick Write-on! Designs! These designs were launched today. Check out the press release.

Parents Find SafetyTat A “Must-Have” During National Safety Month

SafetyTat’s products are to be worn on a child’s arm or hand, and simply feature a parent’s mobile telephone number, making the child easily findable should they become separated. The product line also expands to other safety alerts for allergies, Autism and special needs. New to the product line is the proprietary waterless “Quick Stick” tattoo, allowing immediate, on-the-go safety–perfect for when a child is with a caregiver other than the parent.

Parents love them for their convenience and practicality and kids love them–not just for the cool designs–but for the empowerment and sense of security they provide.

Krug, age 5, became separated from his family at a crowded beach, while wearing his SafetyTat. Krug’s mom, Jennifer, recounts, “As I started to panic, I heard my cell phone ringing back on my towel. I ran to get the phone, and it was a lifeguard calling me. He said, ‘Your son is here with me. He couldn’t find your spot on the beach.’” Jennifer adds, “I was so relieved. And better yet, my son didn’t panic. He told me, ‘Mommy, I got lost, but I knew just what to do. I told the life guard to call you.’”

According to statistics from The Center to Prevent Lost Children, 90% of all parents will experience an unplanned separation from a child at some point. That separation–no matter how brief–is gut-wrenching for parents.

Michele Welsh, mother of three children and Founder of SafetyTat said, “There is no better feeling than to know your product has helped reunite hundreds of wandering children with their caregivers.”

SafetyTat products are sold online at www.safetytat.com, and are also available at numerous water parks, theme parks, museums and specialty children’s retailers nationwide.

During National Safety Month and the height of the travel season, there is no better time to equip parents and caregivers than with “The Tat That Brings Kids BackTM.”

BUY IT NOW AND SAVE

Want to buy some now? You can get a discount of 15% off your $15 or more purchase of SafetyTats. Just use code VALMG09 ( this is a case sensitive code) when you check out. This coupon is valid until 07/04/09.

WIN IT!

Three winners will each receive one package of SafetyTat’s new 6 multi design pack.

HOW TO ENTER. (MANDATORY)

To enter visit the Safety Tat website and take a look around. Then come back here and leave a comment on this post telling me which design you like and who you’d use these on.

BONUS ENTRIES - LOTS OF THEM!

1 - Subscribe to my RSS feed.
1 - Follow me on Twitter AND leave your Twitter name here.
1 - Tweet this giveaway.
1 - Fave this blog at Technorati AND leave your Technorati name here.
1 - Stumble this giveaway AND leave your Stumble name here.
1 - Blog about this giveaway, including a link here.
1 - Place my button on your blog.
1 - Visit HereAndThere.US (my Mom) and leave a comment on any post (except a giveaway post) there. Then return here and leave a comment on this post telling me one thing you read or learned on my Mom’s blog. (That’s two comments you need to leave for this bonus entry, one there and one here.) Unlimited entries for this method of entry.

Leave an additional comment for each entry you qualify for. You must have completed the first entry according to the instructions to be eligible for any bonus entries.

THE SMALL PRINT.

US addresses only please. This contest will end on Thursday 06/11/09 at 11:59 pm est. If you’ve entered any of my giveaways before then you know that only comments containing all of the requested information will be eligible for entry. The winner must contact me to confirm they wish to receive the prize within two days of my email notifying them they’ve won. Good luck to everyone! Members of my own family are not eligible to win but are still welcome to leave a comment.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Jun 05, 2009 | 10 comments | View Post

Plant a seed and help children flourish

Well, for millions of football fans, the long awaited day is finally here. Superbowl Sunday. Diehard football fans wait for this day all season long. Many football fans won’t leave their seat on the couch until the commercial for fear of missing something. Ahem. I’m not one of them. When I see a football field I don’t envision big games, I wonder who keeps those fields looking great. I go about my life as usual, only returning to the room for the commercials. I like seeing the new commercials. I got a heads up from Mom Central about a new commercial that’s going to air during today’s Super Bowl. The Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Earn Your Stripes program has created an initiative called Plant A Seed. The commercial announcing this initiative will air for the first time during the Super Bowl tonight.

The Kellogg’s Earn Your Stripes program is all about encouraging and inspiring children to be their best, on and off of the playing field. Kellogg’s believes that in order for children to be their best and reach their full potential they should have a place to play, be active and stay fit. Sports are more than just a great way for children to be active. They’re also a great way for children to make friends and learn character traits like confidence, determination and good sportsmanship. But with municipalities, companies and families facing tough economic times, the money needed to keep playing fields in shape just isn’t there.

The Plant A Seed campaign was created as a call to action to join in a nationwide field renovation program. This campaign is asking people to nominate a field within their community that needs to be rebuilt. From the fields nominated 30 will be selected to receive a make over, with the hope that when the fields are renewed so will be the sense of community thereby making a difference in the lives of our children.

Before anyone can earn a stripe someone’s got to plant a seed. Please answer this Call to Action by visiting www.frostedflakes.com/#/plantaseed and nominating your local field. By doing so you’ll be helping children and community.

Feb 01, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post

Children’s book review - William Is Going Green

It seems almost daily we learn of new reasons why we should “go green”, another way of saying environmentally friendly. I consider it part of my job as a mother to educate my children on the ways we can help protect our environment. Thanks to the Parent Reviewers I received the opportunity to review the book William Is Going Green by James Martin II.

William Is Going Green is a hardcover book targeting children ages 3-8. It tells the story of a garbage truck named William that learns he must change who he is in order to survive. He begins the story as a smoky white garbage truck working in a city. William found he was no longer desirable after the people of the city complained about the dirty smoke he made. When traveling through another city, Jamestown, he discovers that he will only be desirable again if he gets a new hybrid engine that burns less gas and creates less pollution. Unfortunately, he cannot afford a new engine. After doing a good deed for a stranger by rescuing Gage the cat he is rewarded by the City of Jamestown with the new engine he needs. William is transformed into a green hybrid recycling truck and is once again useful.

James Martin II wrote this book drawing from personal experience in the hopes that it would help educate parents and children alike on how to make this earth a safer and cleaner place for us to live. The main character William was written as a garbage truck because of James Martin III’ s love of garbage trucks as a young boy.

We enjoyed the book. The story is written in words that would be easy for young children to understand. I read this story to my youngest and we had fun. The book contains lots of well drawn, colorful images that grabbed CJ’s attention. Making sound effects to go with the sound words like VROOM and BANG was fun. I recommend this book to anyone whose child is starting to enjoy reading independently or anyone who reads to children. It provides reinforcement to a message that we as parents and educators need to teach today’s children.

You can learn more about William Is Going Green by visiting www.williamthegarbagetruck.com. The book is available to purchase directly on the website for $14.95 and is also available from other popular online booksellers. William Is Going Green is the first book of a series featuring William and other characters in the crew.

Sep 27, 2008 | 1 comment | View Post

Precious Girls Club review and giveaway

Thanks to MomSelect I’ve learned about another great new item! Precious Moments, the company that makes those adorable figurines that most people are familiar with, has created an entire new product line called The Precious Girls Club that encourages young girls to enjoy being young, or precious, and encourages the values and ideals that we as parents want our children to have.

The Precious Girls Club is recommended for girls age four to eight. The heart of the Precious Girls Club is the website, an interactive virtual world created just for little girls to play in safely. To join the club all a little girl needs to do is visit www.preciousgirlsclub.com where all she needs to do is register a user name and create her profile. A standard membership is free and there is an enhanced membership available for a small monthly fee of which $1 goes to St Jude Children’s Hospital. Once a member girls will be able to create their own online character, decorate the character’s room, explore, socialize and play. Only Precious Girls Club members are able to access the site and members may only communicate with other members. Moms are able to share this experience with their daughter as well, by sending a message to her daughter in the virtual world and even reward her real world behavior with virtual charms.

The Precious Girls Club website was created to be a safe and fun environment where girls can have fun and learn. Kids grow up quickly enough without being hurried along by society, this site encourages young girls to be the precious young girls that they are. The site offers age appropriate activities, crafts and games that all encourage character traits such as helpfulness, kindness, responsibility and caring. Merchandise complementing the site such as charm bracelets, charms, music CDs, figurines water globes and plush toys will also be available in retail and specialty stores and will provide positive reinforcement of these traits. Products purchased will include special codes that upgrade the child’s membership. Also being released to complement the website is a series of chapter books. These books are a series based on a character named Kate Bennett. The first book in the series is A Little Bit Of Faith by Cindy Kenney and it becomes available for purchase this month. Precious Moments has even included moms by creating the new Precious Moms website. At www.preciousmoms.com, women will find planning tools and recipes and be able to interact with other mothers.

Time to give some stuff away! Five winners will each receive a copy of the first Precious Girls Club book A Little Bit Of Faith and one scratch off card good for a free Precious Girls Club Premium Rainbow Membership trial. Five additional winners will each receive one scratch off card good for a free Precious Girls Club Premium Rainbow Membership trial. To enter the giveaway visit the Precious Girls Club website and take a look around. Then return here and leave a comment on this post stating who you’d like to win this for and one thing from the site that you think they’ll enjoy. Contest ends Friday 09/26/08 at 11:59 pm est. US addresses only please. Only comments that include the requested information will be eligible for the giveaway.
Good luck to all!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.

Sep 17, 2008 | 14 comments | View Post

The Back Pack Program

Did you know that September is Hunger Action Month? Food banks all across America will be trying to raise awareness and collect food to help feed the hungry people living in our country.

My boys’ schools have held food drives around the holidays for at least as long as they’ve attended. I always thought of it as a nice way to help people who were a little down on their luck and short on cash. How naïve I was. I didn’t realize that in certain areas of New Jersey there are children going hungry every weekend. The lunches these children eat in school under the free/reduced lunch program are either the only nutritious food they get or the only food they get at all.

The Back Pack Program is a national program that tries to ensure that children that have only been getting meals in school have something to eat at home on weekends. Each week food banks send participating schools food, which is then separated and distributed to the needy children in backpacks. The Food Bank even donates the backpacks, which students may keep and use. The program is the fastest growing national program within the America’s Second Harvest network, having grown almost 100%.

The Back Pack Program is handled on a local level by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, the largest food bank in the state. According to the statistics I received, almost 40,000 packages of food were distributed to more than 1,280 children every week in five cities in Northern New Jersey during the 2006-07 school year. That is a staggering number that totally shocked me. By the time it clicked in my head that that figure was only for a part of New Jersey I was totally heartbroken.

The Back Pack program is completely dependent on the generosity of donors. I encourage everyone reading this to do what you can to support this program. Monetary donations are always needed and welcome. It only takes a moment to register to donate on their secure donation page. It’s only $15.40 to sponsor 1 child for 1 month, about 50 cents per day, less than a cup of coffee. I’m not asking everyone to sponsor one child for 1 month, although it would be nice. I’m just asking that those who can help in any small way do.

If you’re in the area, the program needs donations of backpacks as well as single servings/individual containers of the following foods:

Peanut butter/jelly mix
Stew/soup (pop top can)
Heat & eat entrées (pop-top can)
100% Fruit juice boxes
1% Shelf stable milk (white & chocolate)
Fruit cups
Applesauce cups

To learn more about this and other child related programs run by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, visit http://www.njfoodbank.org/kidsdivision.htm.

Please help if you are able. This is not a paid post or a sponsored post or an affiliate link. It is simply my way of trying to help draw attention to a big problem. If you happen to have read this and be thinking that it doesn’t effect you because you don’t live in New Jersey, think again. It effects the whole country. It’s a nationwide program. People, these children need help. They didn’t ask to be hungry. They don’t deserve to be hungry. It’s our responsibility as a society to make sure children are taken care of. It’s our responsibility as people to do what is right. Please help. No matter whether you give to a NJ food bank or a food bank in your state, make no mistake, your help is needed.

Sep 10, 2008 | 2 comments | View Post