"Green" is in, especially at auctions this year. Auctioning off our eco-friendly sports balls is a great and easy way to make a lot of money for your organization.  If you purchase a regular priced Fair Trade Sports soccer ball at $45, have one of your organization's VIPs sign it with a Sharpie marker, then auction off the soccer ball for $1,000. You've made $955 for your organization! We've had a number of folks do items like this. Today I'd like to draw your attention to one of them.

The Washington Health Foundation was founded in 1992; their mission has been to improve the health of the people in Washington State.  Their goal today is to make Washington the Healthiest State in the Nation.  Their Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign is the largest civic engagement project for health in Washington's history, with more than 1,0000 businesses, over 350 schools, and more than 35,000 individuals involved.

In recent years, the Washington Health Foundation has lost the funding that kept them going for their first ten years.  They've had to seek alternative means of funding their programs.  One way they've done that is by holding auctions, where they've auctioned off Fair Trade Sports' "green" soccer balls.  Pictured in the photograph above, from right to left, are Heather Pitre, Gina Legaz, Nhi Eklund, Sandy Duncan, and Rose Baz from one of their 2008 "Heroes of Health" galas.  I quite happy to say that our soccer balls are helping to make Washington one of the Healthiest States in the Nation.