I actually hosted a Tupperware Party when I was in High School and sold enough plastic storage containers to get my own free wedding cake pans. I’m not sure why I wanted wedding cake pans when I was 14, but I guess I just wanted to bake a very large cake. These days, there is a much cooler party option – a BeadforLife Party. My daughter and I recently invited about 20 friends over, set up strands of beaded necklaces and bracelets in our dining room, had a fun afternoon and raised nearly $600 in sales which will go to help women in Uganda.

So, how does it work?

Basically, the folks at BeadforLife hire impoverished women in Uganda, teach them to make beautiful beads using recycled paper, pay them a fair wage, sell the jewelry around the world and use the proceeds to help more people in the struggling African nation.

My daughter, Zoe, is a 6th grader in Boulder and her school has a community service requirement for students of at least 20 hours during the school year. (Pretty cool, right?)  Zoe had heard about BeadforLife when a representative spoke to her 5th grade class during their study of Africa. We visited their Boulder office and bought some jewelry for ourselves. When she found out from some other friends at school that you could host a bead party, she jumped at the chance.

If you want to host a partyof your own, just go to the BeadforLife website. They will send you everything you need for the event by mail or you can pick it up if you live nearby. The jewelry is very reasonably priced – between $5 and $30 – and is fun and colorful. Thought it is made from paper, it is surprisingly sturdy stuff. Zoe lost her bracelet at a friends pool last summer. They ended up finding it in their filter when they shut down the pool for the winter and the bracelet was still as good as new.

So, ditch the candle and gourmet kitchenware parties for this much more gratifying way to support women and their families in a distant land. The fact that you end up with some fun and funky beaded jewelry is a nice bonus.

blog by elephant’s realtor, Liz Benson