Our Story
Wearing your heart on your feet is truly about letting the things you care most about in life direct your journey. Whether that is time with friends, family, traveling the world, or starting a business that has a social mission to make the world a better place.
The mentality of wearing your heart on your feet is truly captured in our yoga mat flip flops that have heart impressions on the soles.
In the past, this business has been able help feed hungry children in the US and Costa Rica, support Make-a-Wish foundation, and the Ronald McDonald house. These are all causes that have truly touched the Share the Love Family.
This year, we’ve decided to focus our effort on a single cause that is incredibly close to our hearts (literally). Raising awareness for Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs) and support families impacted by them.
Let me tell you why that new cause is so important to the Share the Love Family.
- Most people don’t know what a Congenital Heart Defect is until a close friend/family member is impacted by it
- CHDs are the most common birth defect - about 1 in 110 children are born with them in the US
- 25% of babies born with CHDs require life-saving surgery in their first year of life
Considering this, it is clear that CHDs don’t get enough visibility from the population at large and we want to help change that. We’d like to use our platform to raise individual stories and make those numbers real.
Here is how it became real for us:
One day, my sister set up a phone call with my mother and I to explain why my few week old niece was having trouble gaining weight. She had a CHD (AV Canal defect) and would require open heart surgery when she got strong enough for it. In the meantime, she’d need to have a feeding tube so that she could grow strong enough. While the initial surgery was successful, she had complications overnight and spent weeks on life support. Eventually, she got well enough to go home, but her little heart never truly healed. Today, she is the recipient of a donated heart. She is doing great. Our family is grateful for this gift of life.
When she was three years old, she had a little sister was also born with a heart defect (HLHS and IAS). The complications due to her combination of CHDs was too much for her to handle and, despite being an incredible little fighter, we had to say goodbye to her at 5 weeks old.
These are not the only stories of CHD within the Share The Love Today family and we understand the difficulties these and all families impacted by CHDs face. These families need our support. Not only do they deal with their defect, but the complications that sometimes arise from them can make things very difficult.
Sometimes, children with CHDs have disrupted development and things most people take for granted, such as learning to eat, don’t come naturally and they may require a feeding tube (potentially for many years). It’s common for children with heart defects to have learning disabilities due to lack of good blood flow during early brain development. And, it goes without saying that families that lose their children to these defects will never be the same. Families lucky enough to have a healing child still have to make sacrifices when it comes to where they live, what jobs they can take (need to be able to take children to hospital often or need high quality health insurance), or, in general, living a “normal” life.
We’ve selected these charities to support in our mission because they help increase awareness of CHDs and support families.
Proceeds from every purchase on our website go to support the below charities.
The Ronald McDonald House - An Amazing home for families facing serious medical challenges away from home
This place is a sanctuary for those traveling to have life saving treatment for their children. With complicated heart defects, it is mostly specialized hospitals that provide the best care and they are sometimes hundreds of miles away. For an incredibly reasonable fee (sometimes none), the Ronald McDonald house provides families with housing, food and compassion. We are now so thankful that we have the opportunity to help support the cause who lovingly supported our family in a moment of crisis. (Please, when you see that change tray outside the drive through window at every McDonald's restaurant, please toss in some change. It all ads up and your donation goes to an amazing, compassionate and worthy cause!
Always looking for a good cause
