What is the WCA and why does Winfield’s support it?
Thus $15 of every OctaCZ is donated to the Women's and Children's Alliance, a battered women's and children's shelter in Boise, Idaho. We were so pleased with the donations that we were able to make with the OctaCZ that we have also added in the LucidaZ as a donation stone. When you buy one of these stones, you not only receive something of true beauty but you help distressed families in Boise, Idaho.
The WCA is the Women's and Children's Alliance, a battered women's and children's protection center. Having come from a happy home I was at first incredulous and then sickened to learn about the hideous abuse of many women and children in our society.
When I approached Karl K* for permission to cut the OctaCZ he asked that in lieu of a royalty I donate money to a local charity with each stone sold. When I spoke with my wife about what charity we should choose she reminded me that a good friend of our family, Bea Moe Black, was now the executive director of a very wonderful organization protecting women and children. We have known Bea for many years and have always been impressed with her business acumen and ability. With Bea in charge I knew our contributions would be properly applied and would do a great deal of good.
I called Bea the next morning and asked her if it would be okay to donate a portion of our sales to the WCA. She enthusiastically agreed and a new tradition was born at Winfield's. Currently all OctaCZ's and all LucidaZ's that we sell generate a donation to the WCA.
Last year the WCA provided more than 12,100 safe bed nights to 269 women and 327 children. They also offered more than 1400 individual counseling sessions to children and adolescents affected by violence just in the first nine months of 2009.
I am very pleased to say that at only $15 per stone in donations we have already donated many hundreds of dollars and that our clients have donated many hundreds of dollars more through their voluntary giving when buying one of our donations stones. Currently, more than 34% of our clients add to the donation that we are making. This gives me a very warm feeling in my heart that in these tough economic times our wonderful clients care enough about people they've never met to share with others.
If you would like to learn more about the WCA in Boise you may visit their website here. While I am appalled that there is a need for such an organization, I am happy to have provided even a small amount of help to such a worthy cause. Soon, very soon, I expect to be able to change several hundreds of dollars to several thousands of dollars provided through the sale of the beautiful gems that our clients have come to love so much.
Whether or not you are buying one of our donations stones, you will be given the opportunity to donate if you so desire. Because we do not expect you to donate we have been so very pleasantly surprised by how many do.
I think it is one of the things I love most about working with gems, that I get to meet such a wonderful group of people.
*Karl K is the designer of the Octavia diamond cut. It is a patented design and we are the only vendor of cubic zirconias that has been given permission to sell a cubic zirconium that looks like the Octavia. He asks that we call it the OctaCZ to clearly differentiated from his beautiful diamonds. He even gave us the correct angles at which to cut the cubic zirconium to correctly duplicate the look of the Octavia diamond because of the different refractive indices of the two gem materials.
