The Artful Lifestyle: A Link in the Chain

Mina Yamada and Courtney Tomlin

It started with a visit from one of our favorite jewelers, whom we were introduced to via the Trinity School. Over the past several years, Huff Harrington Fine Art has happily contributed to the Trinity School’s Spotlight on the Arts fair, and so as a kind “thank you” this year, Trinity generously gave each of us a gorgeous bracelet from one of their jewelers, We Are One Designs. We loved the bracelets and we loved the story behind the jewelers, who contribute a hefty 20% of their sales to the customer’s charity of choice. So naturally we asked the jewelers, Mina and Courtney, to come by the store and show us their wares.

Adorable Mina barely had time to walk in the door before one of us unabashedly pounced on her to buy the necklaces right off her neck. (This is one of the many perks of our job!) Luckily, she kindly obliged and now one of us is getting compliments on the necklace every time she wears it!

It got even better. There were so many styles to choose from that we had a hard time narrowing it down, and so we kept increasing our order. Mina had to make several trips to the store that day, but she was happy to provide. And our customers responded immediately by buying the jewelry even before we could get the pieces in to inventory.

And then the piece de resistance. Along with the purchase order we had to make a decision about which charity would benefit from the 20% donation to their cause. We talked amongst ourselves about some of our favorite causes and then Allison walked by and suggested a lesser known but extremely important and effective local charity called Focus. Allison and Mina both had experiences with Focus, which supports families with children who are medically fragile or have significant disabilities. We told them we’d think about it, and we did a little research.

Fast forward two days, and Allison came back to the store (on her day off!) with her adorable daughter Kate and equally adorable husband Mark. It was Allison’s birthday and she wanted to shop! Allison has an exceptional eye for jewelry and discerning taste, and so it was no surprise that she ended up picking out a bracelet from our growing jewelry section. She casually asked us, as we were wrapping her birthday present, whether we had chosen a charity for the jewelry sales from We Are One Designs. We told her we’d selected Focus, and she was overjoyed.

Later that day, Allison wrote us a little email, and this time we were overjoyed: “I came home tonight and was more excited about HHH choice to support FOCUS than my beautiful birthday present! I remembered an article that Katie (her daughter) wrote about her experience with FOCUS through National Charity League and had to share with you. I also have to say that we have a dog named after a beautiful FOCUS child, Chloe ...”

That made our day, along with meeting FOCUS' Executive Director, Lucy Cusick, and her associate Annie, when they came by the store with our jewelers, Mina and Courtney on Friday. We hope that through our association with these jewelers and this fine organization, we at Huff Harrington Home will be a little link in the chain to help the families of children under stress, especially during this holiday season.

From left: Mina, Meg, Ann, Lucy, Annie and Allison (and Courtney was behind the camera!)

Cheers!

PS For more information on Focus, visit their website at: http://focus-ga.org/index.htm. Their mission: FOCUS understands and supports the unique needs of families with children who are medically fragile or have significant developmental or physical disabilities. FOCUS offers comfort, hope and information to parents; accessible recreational and social programs for children and teens; and fun, inclusive activities for the entire family. A non-profit founded by parents in 1983, FOCUS continues to embrace and strengthen metro Atlanta families.