We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Callie Crews a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Callie, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Seven years ago my mother was diagnosed with melanoma cancer. Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer. She realized that educating us, her daughters, about sun safety was the most important thing she could do to protect us from getting melanoma.
When we learned that almost 90 percent of melanoma cases were preventable, we knew we had to do something to help others learn about this too. We decided to create a bracelet that would be both fashionable and remind you to protect your skin from uv rays.
We learned about uv detecting beads at our elementary school and the idea evolved from there.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Our names are Callie Crews and Margot Maguire and we are president and Vice President of One Change Bracelets, a nonprofit organization started in January of 2018. We are 9th grade students at Palmer Trinity School. My sister, a few friends, and I designed a bracelet with a UV detecting bead and distribute them for a $10 donation. The color change of the bead is a visual reminder to put on sunscreen or use sun protective clothing. 100% of the proceeds goes to Melanoma cancer research. Our mission is to raise awareness and educate as many people as possible about Melanoma cancer, hopefully helping to reduce one of the few preventable cancers. Melanoma does not discriminate based on age, race, or gender. We thought we needed do something to help raise awareness and money for Melanoma Cancer Research. Since January of 2018, One Change Bracelets has raised over $100,000 to Melanoma research. We have also organized two melanoma awareness walks in our community park.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
When we started One Change Bracelets we had a goal of raising $1000 for cancer research. We posted our product on Instagram and sold $450 the first weekend. We decided to make a much higher goal and quickly reached that with Instagram and our website. From there we started participating in local shows,festivals, 5ks and boutiques. We approached our dermatologist office and she was thrilled to promote our bracelets in her office. Dermatologist offices has been the best source for our bracelets.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Margot and I have known each other since elementary school.
Contact Info:
- Website: Info@
onechangebracelets.org - Instagram: Onechangebracelets
- Facebook: Onechangebracelets
Image Credits
Images belong to one change bracelets