This couldn’t be a more fitting time to announce, TOMS Chief Shoe Giver, Blake Mycoskie’s involvement in The Plastiki Expedition! The “Plastiki” is a 60-foot catamaran made out of reclaimed plastic bottles. Blake will be accompanying David de Rothschild and a “handpicked” crew in the last leg of this sailing adventure across the Pacific Ocean, from Bali to Sydney. Explore this innovative vessel and track their voyage at www.theplastiki.com.

“The goal of the expedition is to not only continue encouraging the world to focus on reducing, reusing and recycling more of its natural resources but ultimately to think smart by re-thinking waste as a resource. It is such a re-think that will ultimately help to promote and provide stepping-stones towards the type of thinking that will lead individuals, business and industry alike to start living within the equilibrium that our natural world craves.”

Blake is extremely excited to be chosen as a crew member during the final leg in late January 2010. What could be better than raising awareness for an amazing cause while enjoying your passion for sailing? Caring for the environment is important to us here at TOMS. Everyday we are trying to improve our environmental awareness. It’s inspiring that TOMS Chief Shoe Giver is passionate to do the same.

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Today is Blog Action Day and this year’s topic is Poverty. After logging on the site and browsing through some of the participating blogs (there are over 11,000- isn’t that incredible?!), I was pretty inspired. This call to action is reaching over 12 million blog readers around the world. All of these people are taking 10 minutes out of their day, one day out of the year, to raise awareness on an issue that we all wish to remedy. Social media on the web is giving every one of us the opportunity to be part of a movement towards a different world; to speak out; to educate each other; to rally around promoting change. I think we’re all starting to realize how simple it can be… A wedding blogging site I looked through was discussing how to incorporate giving back into a wedding day (“Donate unused food or cake from your wedding to local shelters or soup kitchens.”); others are giving the facts: “Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished;” even techie blogs are making incredibly simple suggestions, “Donate $1 for every 1,000 page views or visitors to your blog or website in a given time period (i.e. one month).” Some have even called out TOMS!

Poverty is an issue very close to TOMS. If the world were a community of 100 people, 40 would not have shoes. Children who cannot afford shoes are susceptible to infection, disease, cuts: conditions that they most likely cannot afford to address. In Ethiopia, it is estimated that eleven million people are considered at risk for a Podoconiosis; a disease caused by walking or working barefoot in silica-heavy volcanic soil. Podo causes extreme swelling, repeated ulcers, and deformity, especially in the legs. This creates a large public health problem in at least ten countries in tropical Africa, Central America and northern India, with between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people already affected. The solution? Shoes. Starting in 2008, TOMS Shoes will begin working to prevent this disease by giving durable footwear to all early-stage and at-risk children in the hazardous areas of Ethiopia. The shoes donated will be different than the traditional TOMS Shoes, adapted to best prevent exposure to the volcanic soil.

I encourage you to check out , or think about how to take one small step (even if its only for today) towards ending poverty in our world.

Please leave us comments about what steps you will take to raise awareness or initiate action!

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