Quick update, Stephanie and Sonja just finished a GREAT meeting with David Strickland from Sen. Rockefeller’s office.  I found this about him

“David Strickland, senior counsel on the Commerce Committee under Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), who is taking over Appropriations, is considered a candidate for the Treasury Department. He also played an important role on legislation setting standards for toy safety and fuel efficiency. He could also land jobs at the Consumer Product Safety Commission or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.”

She said it was the most amazing meeting and made the trip successful.  She was able to communicate with him on the impact the CPSIA has created on our businesses and he was very responsive to them.  This might not be their last trip to Washington DC  to discuss this issue!!!

More to come!

- Jolie

Stephanie and Sonja just contacted me after meeting in Senator Merkley’s office.  They have had a great meeting and they have a lot of information to share with you all when they return.  It is time to have another meeting soon.

Senator Merkley wants to support the people of Oregon and is interested in exactly what our amendments should be.  Andrew Green, from Merkley’s office, suggested working with some law professors (Lewis and Clark school of law) to write up what would best meet the needs of the people of Oregon.  This can be written as a new bill, or an amendment to an existing one.  Currently there are 8 new bills in circulation.

The ladies have 2 more meetings today, I will keep you all posted.

Yesterday afternoon I dropped off the last package to the ladies selected and sponsored to go to Washington DC by the people and small businesses of Portland. They have been working frantically for more then a week to get prepared for this trip.

Times are tough everywhere, but the Oregon economy has double weakness right now. Oregon has the third highest unemployment rate in the country, and Oregon people are very, very creative. The crafting and artist community defines the Pacific Northwest. Travelers from all over the world can recognize the style and care of the people of Oregon. Products leading in eco-friendly and safety. This is the community who sent these women to Washington, who saw an opportunity to be heard and pooled their money together in bits of $15 and $25, to send these women out there to make a differences.

Two families are interrupted, two businesses are put on hold, two daughters will be very sad about 8 pm tonight when they do not have their mommies there, to love them to sleep. These two women, mothers, business owners are on the plane, flying across the country to fight for the people and businesses of Oregon. They are sleeping on couches, eating packed lunches, and working tirelessly for the people who raised the money to send them there.

We owe these women more then just the cost of the trip. They have turned to all of the resources in order to make this trip possible. The staff at Spielwerks Toys is working the extra time to cover for Sonja’s absence, friends and family were called in from hundreds of miles away to help care for her young daughter for 4 days.

Stephanie has called on friends and family to assist her as well. From coast to coast, Stephanie has a support system who has spent hours helping this inspiring woman to fight for what is right-the necessity to bring common sense to the CPSIA. Stephanie spent hours writing and compiling information to hand to all of the lawmakers in Washington DC that she will be meeting with, and she was doing this with her 4 year old daughter sitting patiently, waiting for her mom to play, cook, and care for her.

Stephanie and Sonja represent the 100,000’s of mothers in America who have worked early morning, all day long and deep into the night to live the American dream. We want to do both, be a mother and a business owner. We want to be able to take a vision and make it come true; to share our gift, craft, talent, whatever it may be, with the world, and make money with it to support our families. This is our right! This is the right we have earned through generations starting with our homesteader Great Grandmothers, who made their own clothes and made them well enough to bring in food in a time when no one had money.

I want to teach my kids to sew, knit, stamp leather belts like their Grandfather. I want my kids to know they can work hard to learn a trade, and then be rewarded for their hard work. How will I explain that their projects must be filed in the great “testing bin” for an indefinite time, because we do not have the money to third party test the hat she just knit!

Stephanie and Sonja are out in Washington DC fighting for us all. Everyone has a story that is his or her own, but we all need the same thing.

We need common sense brought to the CPSIA.

She also knew that both she and the other businesses in her NWCBA needed to have someone at the rally to represent them to ensure that their business stories and their needs were heard.

She isn’t the type to wait-and-see so she called and emailed all of the members of her alliance and asked if they could donate anything to send someone to Washington.

When she was through 20 businesses had donated between $15 and $100 and they are sending two members of NWCBA to meet with their Senators and Oregon Reps as well as actively participate in the rally.

A simple and straighforward approach to problem solving worked its magic.

Look for more about the ladies from Oregon and rally experience in the blog section of this site.