Accidentally Creating a Business Through an Act of Kindness: Love & Above
What Started Out As Two (kind of adult) Best Friends looking for a new hobby…
In the summer of 2016, I had been working full time as a bridal designer for over a year but felt the need to use my creativity in a more personal and meaningful way. I was at a point of serious transitions in my life and wanted to channel the uncertainties and new challenges into something that would positively impact people, even if in just a small way.
My love for arts and crafts had me creating wish bracelets with a piece of silk string and some colourful beads. Much like the wish bracelets I had often brought back from the beaches of Italy, the idea behind them was to tie them on your wrist, make a wish and eventually after some time they would fall off. With whatever proceeds I had collected from the bracelets, I decided I would donate it to the SickKids Foundation in Toronto.
In the same summer my best friend Stefania, who would soon become my business partner (at “Love & Above”), got nominated for a kindness challenge on Instagram put on by an account called @JordanasRainbows. Jordana’s Rainbows was created in honour of a 10 year old girl named Jordana Fiorini who passed away in January of 2016 due to a rare and fatal paediatric brain tumour called DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma).
Stefania approached me with the idea of raising and donating $500 from the wish bracelets I had been making as her act of kindness. I thought the idea was crazy and there was no way we’d ever be able to do that.
On July 1st of 2016, we posted this photo on Instagram and within 24 hours of posting we had dozens of messages requesting the bracelets and several messages from Jordana’s mom herself wanting to meet and collaborate with us.
Within weeks of the initial popularity we had received, we designed and developed the official Jordana’s Rainbows Wish Bracelet with 50% of our net-proceeds benefitting DIPG research at The SickKids Foundation.
The bracelets came in the 7 colours of the rainbow representing the 7 chakras or spiritual centres of the body, each having different meanings. To date, Stefania and I created, packaged and sold over 4,000 Jordana’s Rainbows Wish Bracelets.
On October 1st of that same year, we excitedly donated our first $10,000 to SickKids from the sales of our Wish Bracelets.
The Jordana’s Rainbows brand had become second nature to Stefania and I at Love & Above and we were able to launch the official Jordana’s Rainbows collection which consisted of much more than Wish Bracelets, but an array of fun rainbow coloured products all with 50% of the net-proceeds benefitting DIPG research at SickKids Hospital.
The Love Bracelet was our Valentine’s Day limited edition of our popular Jordana’s Rainbows, it came in pink with some sweet messages too!
In just two short years, Love & Above was able to donate $50,000 to Jordana’s DIPG fund at SickKids Hospital, and upwards of $35,000 to other amazing charities and causes across Canada through alternate collaborations and the sales of our products.
The positive reception to the Jordana’s Rainbows collection would help pave the way for the launch of the Official Jordana’s Rainbows brand in 2019 with myself as Creative Director and Brand Manager.
