by admin -

Live in Our Skinz

The winner is:

Here are your random numbers:

11

Timestamp: 2009-05-10 23:42:27 UTC

Michelle K.

Michelle wrote: Wonderful post. Very important information. Lost my bff to skin cancer on 2/14/07 Miss her dearly as she was only 46. Much to young to be gone. If I win would love the Flutter – S – Butterflies YSS-FLU one in a size 4 for my grand daughter. Her mom loves pink and I love Butterflies. A win win situation. Great site.

I am not in the habit of bossing people around, okay who am I kidding, my entire family reads this blog and they know I love to boss people around. But, I try not to boss my readers around… until today.

Protect your children this summer!

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, since I grew up in Florida and spent most of my life in the water I am very aware of the dangers of skin cancer. While I have not personally been affected by skin cancer, Rhonda Sparks has, she lost her 32 year old husband to the disease several years ago. After her husband died she turned a tragedy into something positive and started UV Skinz, a company that sells swim shirts, shorts, hats and accessories.

For the past several years my kids have worn swim shirts whenever they are in the water and even when they are out of the water! In my opinion swim shirts are an excellent alternative to sun screen, you never have to reapply and you never miss a spot, not to mention you don’t have to keep buying more and more sunscreen. Did you know that one in five Americans develop skin cancer every year? You can prevent this from happening to your children by protecting them with a swim shirt.

Now, here is why you should buy your shirts from UV Skinz. Over the years I have purchased swim shirts from many different companies, Old Navy, Target, Lands End, LL Bean, local Surf Shops and not a single shirt held up as well as the ones I have from UV Skinz. Last summer one of my boys had a UV Skinz shirt and the other had one from Old Navy. This year when I pulled out their shirts from the summer clothes box the Old Navy shirt was worn thin and would not give my son any protection this year. The UV Skinz shirt looked almost brand new.
Here is a picture of my son last year in his shirt.

This year in the same shirt.

As you can see the shirt hasn’t faded even though I washed (and line dried) it many times last year. My daughter loves her shirt and today I am ordering shirts for the rest of the family.

There is a reason I waited until May to order my other shirts, other than the fact that I live in Maryland and it is currently 55 degrees and rainy. In hopes of spreading the word and helping to prevent skin cancer, UV Skinz is giving away a free baby skinz with every order during the month of May. It is Rhonda’s hope that customers will then donate the baby shirt to someone in need and pay it forward. UV Skinz are free of harsh sunscreen chemicals that can irritate baby’s sensitive skin, the shirts also carry a UPF50+ rating, blocking more than 98% of the sun’s harmful UVA and UVB rays.

Many parents have their children wear t-shirts to protect them from the sun. Personally I think this is a bad idea. T-shirts are not made for swimming and do not protect as well as swim shirts from the harmful rays of the sun when they are wet. Also, I have seen many children struggling to swim in a weighted down water-logged t-shirt. Swim shirts do not absorb water and are made for swimming.

Finally investing is swim shirts is a frugal choice. Last year we did not go through tubes and tubes of sunscreen. We invested in swim shirts and one tube of sunblock for their faces.  The UV Skinz are so well made that they are able to be worn year after year saving me money in the long run. But more important than saving money I am saving my children’s skin from the harmful effects of the sun and that is priceless.

UV Skinz is giving away your choice of swim shirt to one of my readers. Go to the UV Skinz site, look around and then leave me a comment letting me know what shirt you would like to win.

Would you help me and UV Skinz spread the word about Skin Cancer Awareness Month? If you have a twitter account you can twitter about this giveaway and use the hashtag #UVSkinz. You can also write a blog post about protecting your kids from the sun this summer and link back to this post. You can pass the word on to family and friends. You can also sign up for the UV Skinz monthly newsletter which will keep you informed regarding all things sunny. The sign up link is on the left sidebar of their homepage. For each thing you do leave me another comment and that will earn you another chance to win a swim shirt of your choice.

So let’s recap:

Sun = bad

Swim shirts = good

Rhonda and UV Skinz = super cool mom of three boys turning a tragedy into something positive

Giveaway = you can win your choice of a swim shirt from UV Skinz

Ways to enter = Leave a comment, tweet with the hash tag #UVSkinz, blog about it, tell your friends, sign up for the newsletter and don’t forget to leave a comment for each thing you can do to help promote Skin Cancer Awareness month and this giveaway.

Oh, I forgot to add, the contest ends Thursday May 7, 2009, Cora time!

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I am not in any way affiliated with UV Skinz. I don’t make any money if you buy from them. I am promoting them because I believe in what Rhonda is doing and want to support her 100%.

by admin -

Protect Your Kids

I want to begin this post by saying that if I endorse a product on my site it means; I own it, love it, buy it as a gift for others, and I want you to love it too. I do not promote products very often, but when I do, consider me a believer.

A few weeks back I wrote a post about swim shirts. My kids have been wearing them for several years, and I believe all kids should be wearing them when they are in the pool, at the beach, or running around in the front yard sprinkler. One million people will be diagnosed with skin cancer this year, and every hour one person dies from skin cancer. Over 90% of skin cancer is caused by sun exposure. I have always known that skin cancer is dangerous ( I grew up in Florida), but I never really thought about how deadly it really is, until I met Rhonda.

Rhonda’s husband Darren was your typical outdoor guy. He loved to surf and snowboard and of course had many sunburns throughout his childhood. In 1996 Darren was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Darren stayed positive and lively for his three young boys, Ethan, Seth and Caleb and never gave up hope during his long five-year battle with the disease. On September 14, 2001, Darren lost his battle with cancer, at the age of 32.

Rhonda decided to take action with the hope of preventing another family from having to live through this type of tragedy. She started the Darren Lee Farwell Foundation on December 1st, 2001 to help fulfill Darren’s legacy. The Foundation was created to raise general public awareness of the ever-growing dangers of UV radiation from the sun; to educate children and adults as to how to protect themselves from over-exposure by using sunscreens, hats and UV protective clothing; and to facilitate early detection of skin disease by teaching people to be aware of their bodies and to look for the warning signs of skin cancer development.

After starting the Foundation Rhonda made a trip to Hawaii, and brought back some rash guard shirts for her boys. These shirts became so popular, but so hard to find, that Rhonda decided to start UV Skinz a company that sells swim shirts, shorts, hats and other accessories.

There are so many things I admire about Rhonda. When she was hit with a terrible tragedy, she made the best of a bad situation. Instead of looking back she set her gaze forward. Although I am sure she has had her moments, she has made it her mission to keep this from happening to others.

Her website is incredibly informative about why swim shirts are better than sun screen, and believe me as a long time user they are, facts about skin cancer, and her products are cute to boot. This month in honor of Darren’s birthday they are giving away A FREE SWIM SHIRT with any purchase for the entire month of June.

When my oldest son was little he had a severe reaction to sun screen. Every time we applied sunscreen his face would swell up and he would break out in hives. This kept us from taking him in the pool, except in the evening, for the first few years of his life. Thankfully he outgrew this allergy, but if we had known about swim shirts 12 years ago, things would have been a lot different.

I have been buying swim shirts for my kids for the past 5 years. I have purchased from many different companies including Target, Old Navy, Lands End, LL Bean, and local surf shops. The UV Skinz shirts blow away the competition. The sleeves are a little longer than most, for extra sun protection, and the fit is just right, not as tight as rash guard t’s but not so loose as to inhibit swimming. My son loves his UV Skinz shirt and wears it as often as he can, even if we are not going to the pool. In fact, tonight he is even sleeping in his shirt.

I would encourage you to check out Rhonda’s site UV Skinz. Skin cancer is 100% preventable if caught early! Protecting your skin during the first 18 years of life can reduce the risk of some types of skin cancer by up to 78%.

Your kids will thank you for it.