A short video about these kits!
September 7, 2021 – Tuesday
WHY
I first came up with this idea about a year after the boys were poisoned (about 15 years ago) – when I wanted to conveniently carry LeadCheck swabs around in my purse in an unbreakable case but couldn’t find the right case for them. Since then – every couple of years I would revisit the idea to see if I could find an appropriate case and also find someone to etch them with a logo and website. After many many years of not finding a good pre-made case available I even spoke to fabricators and inquired about having a case custom made.
WHAT
The goal behind creating these was to have a tool I could give to other parents of Lead poisoned children around the world – something they could easily and conveniently keep in their purse or backpack in case they came across suspected-Lead-paint out in the world and needed to test something! My original goal also included finding a corporate sponsor to cover the cost of making (and filling and shipping) these cases – so I could afford to give them away for free.
HOW
A couple of years ago I finally found the perfect case (made by a Japanese company and sold by a store here in Portland) and I started looking around to see if I could find someone to customize them (so everyone who carries one with them will be known as a fellow #LeadSafeMama – part of the club!)
With the pandemic happening (on top of needing to spend so much time managing the legal battle in defense of my advocacy) I didn’t take the next steps with these little boxes until a few weeks ago. Recently my good friend Carissa got a machine that does laser etching (she made me some custom laser-etched pencils for my kids!). When she popped by to drop off the pencils I realized SHE might be able to do the etching for me on these little boxes.
I decided to go for it! I had 15 of these cases shipped to Carissa – who then tested out the etching idea on a template (the case I have had sitting around for 2+ years) and it worked great. So I asked her to do all of them and now have a total of 16 Lead Safe Mama “Lead Poisoning Prevention Kits” to find homes for! I have already offered a few as gifts to friends who are fellow advocates and mothers of Lead poisoned children – and your opportunity to own one of these first 16 cases is below.
HOW MUCH
The cases (with shipping and etching) cost me about $17.50 each. With 4 LeadCheck swabs in the case that works out to about another $14.50 in cost – so the total cost to me on these is about $32.00. Since I don’t yet have a sponsor for these and cannot yet afford to make enough of these to give to all of the parents of Lead poisoned children in my life, I decided to use some of this first batch as thank you gifts to go with a little fundraiser to help raise $ to help cover the current shortfall created for Lead Safe Mama, LLC from recent payments towards my legal defense fund.
So… while supplies last…
For folks who are able to contribute $100 (or more!) in support of my current legal retainer – for my Federal Civil Rights case against the State of Oregon (more details in the recent video) – in thanks for your support of this work I will send you one of these new (hot-off-the-presses) Lead Safe Mama etched metal LeadCheck carrying cases (& I will also include FOUR LeadCheck swabs and a small stack of LeadSafeMama outreach cards PLUS a LeadSafeMama lip balm too!) The link with details on supporting this work (including how to make a contribution!) is below in blue.
ASAP Goal: $1,400 to cover payments made to my legal fund.
Please email me with your address after you make your contribution, so I know where to send your thank you gift! TamaraRubin@mac.com
Contribution Link:
https://tamararubin.com/2021/07/ways-to-support-the-work-of-lead-safe-mama-llc/
Thank you!
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
P.S. IF you work with a company that might like to sponsor producing 100 more of these (so I can give them away to parents of Lead poisoned children for free!) please let me know! I am certain we could work out etching your logo or website on the back of the case in recognition! [Costs include: packaging, shipping, swabs, etching, printing (cards) + the cases.]
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