UnderShare

SHARE The Love This Valentines Day

UnderShare — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:49:02 +0000

Share The Love

Underwear from Head To Toe

UnderShare — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:14:48 +0000

Before you get any ideas about what we’re wearing on our heads these days, this post isn’t about some downward trend in fashion, but rather an act of generosity that warmed our winter hearts. In 2010 I was fortunate enough to meet Marisa Cardenas, owner and proprietor of Westchester hair salon Head To Toe.

Head to Toe Salon

By some miracle, when 2011 rolled around, Marisa remembered UnderShare from the 2010 event, and held a drive at her salon over the 2011 holiday season.

Well she and co-stylist Heather must be knocking out some pretty darling do’s because Head To Toe’s customers donated a trunk-full – literally a TRUNK FULL – of donations! Oh, and a rather generous cash donation to boot. The Head To Toe donation netted 38 packages of underwear, 7 bras, 40 pair of socks, and 40 diapers! And that’s just a partial list.

Having had met Marisa only briefly, it should go without saying that all of us at UnderShare were incredibly touched by her proactivity and her unsolicited generosity.

It’s volunteers like Marisa that assist UnderShare in living up to its mission, and who motivate us to come up with unique drive and fundraising events of our own. So, if you are ever find yourself down in Westchester and in need of a cut, color, or just want to try out one of those urban feathers, make sure to pop in on Marisa and say hello.

We can pretty much guarantee that she’ll make you look better than a pair of undies on your head.

A Trunk Full of Undies!

Great Expectations – Winter 2010 Drive Success!

UnderShare — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:41:26 +0000

With so many different people and organizations running winter drives to benefit UnderShare this winter, I was definitely hoping for relatively good haul for our beneficiaries. What I wasn’t expecting was the piles and PILES of underwear, socks and toiletries that we collected! It took a good 4 hours to sort and catalogue everything, and at the end of the day we managed to collect 340 pair of underwear, 110 pair of socks, 305 diapers and 197 bars of soap!!!!!!! That doesn’t even include the dozens of bottles of shampoo, condition and body wash that were so generously donated by our January Featured Volunteer, De Jur Jones.

It left me with a warm and grateful feeling that will carry me far beyond the holiday season. I cannot express my appreciation enough to the LAX Coastal Young Professionals, Raksa, our volunteer graphic designer Bryon Hutchens and De Jur Jones for organizing and collecting these hundreds of items which we were able to donate to Step Up on Second, Sojourn Services, and Downtown Women’s Center.

Hope to see you all at our first Drop And Give Me Undies! event on January 15th – Intro Kickboxing with 5x World Champion Kevin Brewerton!!!

Happy New Year!

My trunk before dropping off at Step Up on Second and Sojourn Services. And this doesn't even include the donation to Downtown Women's Center!

Raksa Open House

UnderShare — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 18:22:43 +0000

If there a better way to spend a Saturday than getting pampered at a gorgeous modern spa then please tell me. The open house that Raksa founder Apinya Pokachaiyapat hosted on UnderShare’s behalf yesterday was absolutely fantastic. In addition to offering a wide array of mini spa and wellness treatments for our attendees to enjoy, PopChips, Hint Water and Dry Soda were offered thanks to Carly Harrill who coordinated the event between UnderShare and Raksa. Carly not only co-owns her own PR firm – Farmacy Agency – but also oversees the website Healthy Bitch Daily, a daily health and wellness email blast!

In addition to offering their FABULOUS services to the event attendees, Raksa spent the months of November and December collecting socks & underwear for our facilities and is also donated 5% of all November proceeds to UnderShare.

I personally was able to try two treatments – the therapeutic massage with Coo and a tarot reading with Tori – and both were GREAT. The massage basically turned me and my friends into rubber, and the tarot reading was eerily spot on, not just for me but for everyone who tried that service! Here are some pics from the fantastic day. If you didn’t make it to our event, I highly encourage you to get to Raksa and try their services and fantastic wellness treatments and classes. Or just pop in for a healthy bite and fresh-squeezed juice. Yum!

JUST ANNOUNCED!!! – DROP AND GIVE ME UNDIES 2011

UnderShare — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:57:03 +0000

We’ve just confirmed our first Drop and Give Me Undies! event for 2011. On Saturday January 15th at 11:00am, kickboxing champion Kevin Brewerton will be leading a sweat-fest at Bodies in Motion Century City. More details coming soon!

Kevin Brewerton

Big Blessings in Mini Packages

UnderShare — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:40:06 +0000

The LAX Coastal Young Professional’s Holiday Mixer Tuesday night at Cafe del Rey was a HUGE success for UnderShare. Not only did the YP’s do an incredible job of bringing together a truly energized, dynamic and fun group of people for their own organization, but I was floored upon arrival at the event to find that they had managed to collect a car-load of items for our shelters and facilities. By the end of the night the entire back of my car was filled with socks, underwear and diapers which we’ll be donating to Step Up on 2nd and the Downtown Women’s Center.

LAX CC YPs Event Donation in My Mini

Given that prior to this event we had no affiliation with this group of YPs, and that we were all but picked at random to be the beneficiaries of their charitable endeavors, I was even more touched that complete strangers had worked so hard on behalf of the causes that UnderShare supports.

For anyone interested in networking regularly with a group of spirited, intelligent and really fun professionals, I highly encourage you to check out their Facebook page. Even though they call themselves “Young Professionals” there is no formal age cap for the group and there was a wide range of ages at Tuesday’s event. Here are some pics of the YP’s making merry at the event.

YP's Getting their holiday mixer on.

The holiday generosity must be contagious. UnderShare was also recently selected by Raksa (a Culver City wellness center) to be the beneficiaries of 5% of all November proceeds AND they are hosting an open house Yoga/Spa event this coming Saturday 12/11 on our behalf!

The event includes FREE yoga (all levels) from 10:30am – 11:50am and FREE mini spa treatments from noon-3:30pm.

Any participant who brings 1+ new/unopened packages of socks and/or underwear for UnderShare can sign up for up to 4 mini treatments, which will run every 1/2 hour with 10 minute breaks in between to rotate. Five people will be allowed in each session at a time. It’s first-come, first-serve, so the earlier you get there the better!

Spa treatments include: Feldenkrais, Facial, Shamanic Healing, Hypnosis, Reflexology, Tarot Card Readings, Astrology, and Therapeutic Massage.

It should be an amazing – and RELAXING – event, and a nice juxtaposition against all of the holiday craziness. If you need a break from the shopping, wrapping, and partying, then Raksa this Saturday is the place to be. Who knows, maybe a little Reflexology is just what you need to kick that holiday party hangover to the curb!

A Very Goodfriend Indeed!

UnderShare — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:56:24 +0000

OK, so there were many MANY things to love about our most recent Drop and Give Me Undies event on Sunday October 10th. For starters, it was being held at my new favorite studio, Raksa, in Culver City with my very favorite yoga instructor the beautiful Maria Naisbitt instructing a 1 hour and 15 minute class of level 1 Hatha bliss.

In addition, we were so so blessed to have the very talented professional photographer Marnie Goodfriend snapping pics of the whole event! On her wedding anniversary no less! Marnie brought her husband David along to partake in the yogastivities and they are just the cutest couple you will ever see. So adorbz it kind of made me want to throw up in my mouth a little. Okay, not really, but they are just SO darn cute together!

This was undoubtedly one of our best Drop And Give Me Undies! events ever. The entire studio was packed full of bodies. So full in fact that Kim at the Raksa front desk said that it was the most people they had seen in the studio at one time. Go us!

Here are some pics from the wonderful afternoon. For those of you who missed out, Raksa is donating 5% of all of their November proceeds to UnderShare AND hosting an open house on December 11th with FREE yoga and FREE spa treatments. Make sure to visit the Raksa December Open House event page for more info.

Photograph by Marnie Goodfriend www.marniegoodfriend.com

Ink n Undies Thanks Its Volunteers

UnderShare — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:53:53 +0000

A very special thanks to all of our amazing and incredible and wonderful volunteers who made Ink n Undies a possibility. Nothing we arranged as a thank you could have possibly been enough to thank everyone, but we did our best with lots of cocktails and yummy appetizers at Boardners in Hollywood. After everyone had their fill of what turned out to be some pretty strong cocktails, we concluded the event by presenting volunteers with a Certificate of Appreciation and some fun-filled UnderShare goody bags. Unfortunately not all of the Ink n Undies participants were able to make it, but here are photos of some of those who chilled out with us on the muggy October evening.

Drop And Give Me Undies is Back!

UnderShare — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:55:01 +0000

Yayyyyy! After a long summer hiatus to plan and then recover from “Ink n Undies”, Drop and Give Me Undies!, our ongoing fitness underwear drive is back! Despite its popularity while it was ongoing throughout the late winter and early spring, I had been worried that once Drop And Give Me Undies! dropped off of everyone’s radar, it would be difficult to get things up and running again.

Fortunately, our amazing yoga instructor Maria Naisbitt not only agreed to teach another yoga class, but helped UnderShare to secure a beautiful yoga studio in Culver City – Raksa – for the location.

It’s been way too long since I’ve been able to attend Maria’s classes and I have the knotted back muscles and tight hamstrings to prove it.

We also lucked out that a VERY talented photographer – Marnie Goodfriend – contacted us and agreed to shoot the class! So we’re continuing the tradition of documenting this wonderful ongoing series that benefits both our attendees and our shelters!

Maria’s yoga class will be held on Sunday October 10th from 1:45pm – 3:15pm. To RSVP, just email me at jamie@undershare.org, and stay tuned for more info and hopefully an additional lineup of Drop And Give Me Undies Events!

Happy Birthday to Ben!

UnderShare — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:31:03 +0000

One of the best things about holding a huge event such as Ink n Undies is the amazing people who become a part of your life. In fact, it was weird to wake up the Sunday morning after our event and not find a slew of event-related emails in my inbox. It was like the realization on par with waking up January 2nd with the holiday season behind and realizing that life was back to normal again. All of a sudden, things were a little TOO quiet. I was actually missing getting the daily emails from everyone involved in this event!

Typically speaking, people who are willing to donate their time so selflessly to a non-profit cause for nothing in return are good and energetic people, and the intensity of these situations leads to a sort of bonding that you don’t find in other social scenarios. Some of my life-long friends – such as our founder – are people that I’ve met during my 10 years with UnderShare and I can’t imagine my life without them. Someone TRULY answered our prayers for this event when we met DJ Benjamin Walker. In addition to being extremely talented, he’s one of the warmest and most gracious people you could ever hope to come across, and we were fortunate enough to have a mini reunion with Ben on Saturday to celebrate his birthday party at the Ion bar at the Ritz Carlton downtown.

Not only was it great to be all together with the UnderShare gang, but it was fun to have a few cocktails and share our thoughts on the event now that it’s all over and the pressure of making it happen is all behind us. With the warm California sun, a cool cocktail in hand and Ben DJ’ing, I truly couldn’t have asked for a better afternoon.

Jamie Klausner, Trisha Maoz, Aszur Hill and Helen Huang

Aszur Hill & Benjamin Walker

Benjamin Walker

Jamie Klausner and Jason Deparis