4 Types of Handmade Soap in the Movie Themed Gift Baskets I’m Raffling for the Red Cross

Proceeds from my raffle featuring the "Girl’s Night Movie Gift Bag" benefit the disaster relief efforts of the American Red Cross.The cast and crew members who worked on the short military homecoming drama “Abyss: The Greatest Proposal Ever” used a lot of soap while filming this movie.

At various points during the production, you could’ve found any one of us lathering up to remove makeup, germs and blood from our skin before shooting the next scene or wrapping for the shoot.

Given that this was just another day at the office per se, we didn’t think twice about using a regular ol’ drugstore brand. Or at the very least, I didn’t. My approach to choosing soap, however, took a different route when the time for making DVD gift baskets for my dinner-and-a-movie style Red Cross fundraiser came around.

I wanted to create a movie night experience that allows the winning recipients to entertain and pamper themselves this holiday season. Nearly all of these DVD gift sets include one bar of handmade soap that is produced in the USA. The bars are available at Soap Hope, a Dallas, Texas-based company that carries natural, wholesome and eco-friendly body care and household products. I buy from this store because I like their practice of doing business in a way that gives back to communities near and far.

According to Soap Hope, 100% of profits they make from every purchase are invested into microloans that empower women around the world to uplift communities from poverty. The recipients of these microloans return the funds interest-free within one year after obtaining the skills and resources they need to become self-sufficient. It is a business built on the idea that when you shop at Soap Hope, you change the world.

A family of four is in the care of the Red Cross following a devastating fire. / via @telesaraKnowing that my purchase helps a business make it possible for women to end poverty, in communities where sustainable solutions for capital and other basic resources are needed most, makes it all the more worthwhile.

It’s like putting the icing on the cake because this very purchase also helps me give back to the Red Cross so they can continue meeting the immediate needs of men, women and children who are rebuilding their lives after losing their shelter and belongings to home fires. In the end, those who win the gift baskets get to reap the benefits of bathing with organic bath and body products containing ingredients such as shea butter, olive oil, goat’s milk and coconut oil. It’s a win-win for everyone involved, all for the goal of trying to make the world a better, safer and more resilient place.

The LEAP Organics Lemongrass, Orange and Lime soap bar is available at www.soaphope.comCreated around themes involving the special limited edition DVD of my short film about a U.S. Army Sergeant whose homecoming plans are, the Movie Lover’s Emergency Go Bag includes one bar of French Green clay soap; The U.S. Army “Night at the Movies” Care Package comes with a Lavender, Clove and Orange soap  bar while The Girl’s Night Movie Gift Bag has one Confetti Zum Bar goat’s milk soap.

Last but not least, the Guy’s Movie Night Gift Bag sports a bar soap infused with Lemongrass, Orange and Lime – made by LEAP Organics in Boston, Massachusetts.

I’m convinced it would be hard to find a movie goer who doesn’t recognize the value that soap has in our daily lives.

Whether it comes in liquid, bar, foam, power or some other form, soap washes the remnants of butter popcorn off your fingers. This cleansing item helps us get ready for a night out (or in) at the movies. While we can all agree that soap is a necessity, all soaps are not created equal. There is a time to use standard soap when performing everyday tasks, and then there’s a time to break out the good stuff on special occasions. I wish all who are supporting my film and Red Cross fundraiser the very best of luck in the movie gift set raffle because this is, indeed, one of those occasions.

What do YOU do with your soap scraps? Do you use them until there's nothing left or Do you designate them for other purposes (room freshener, etc.) or Do you just discard them?

The Challenge of Trading Art to Save Lives

“It’s really interesting because people are judging my actions but they aren’t willing to help me achieve my goal. I really don’t get that. How can you place judgment on someone and not be willing to help them? I think it’s really selfish and super controlling. But I’m stepping in the light and focusing on myself.”  - Television actress Nydia Simone on her update at UCLA

Reality is a bitch. When I set out to use my film to raise funds for the Red Cross, the initiative seemed more promising and easier than it has come to be so far. This effort has introduced me to some of the best and most supportive parts of several communities while also bringing out the naysayers of society.

The latter part is an experience that I find rather unbelievable because you’d think it makes sense to help an organization that works to ensure your safety and survival, right?! In the last few months, however, I’m finding that a lot of people who would gladly receive financial assistance or other forms of humanitarian aid from disaster relief organizations (and even expect it) are less than willing to give it. This makes for a sad world we live in where people want to take and take and take from others but too few people want to put in anything for the chance at saving lives.

I thought my Red Cross fundraising campaign would be an ideal way to give back to a good cause while also gaining an audience for the movie. However, I’ve encountered folks who question these efforts without even taking the time to request further details or look it up for themselves and find out more information about what I’m doing.

Have you ever tried talking to someone who won’t even take a minute to consider supporting a good cause because they have so many more constructive things to do -- like scroll through iPhone apps, shop for superficial goods or complain about their own, unrelated, misfortunes? You know, those kinds of people who are on the defense and ready to shoot down any chances to make a difference before these opportunities get presented to them. From the door, they’ve already decided they’re not getting involved with whatever you have going on. However, they want to make sure you hear them out loud and clear on what they think about you’re objectives. 

Five year old, Sofia clings to a new stuffed animal given to her by Red Cross volunteers after she was displaced due to wildfires. Photo by Cesar Rodriguez/American Red CrossIt’s no secret that finding support for the arts (especially indie music, film, painting, sculpture, etc.) is like finding a needle in a haystack. I didn’t imagine, however, that it would be just as hard to find support for the Red Cross. So, I wonder if this experience is providing a glimpse into the difficulties that many non-profit organizations face every day of the year, when trying to obtain funding for the programs and services they provide to our country’s citizens and abroad.

Have we really come to a point where you have to dump a bucket of ice water on top of yourself in order to get other people to care about important matters that could affect them or their loved ones?

Between DVD sales and a movie gift basket raffle, the money raised so far through my movie tour is enough to impact survivors of disasters in the following ways:

• Buy a week’s worth of groceries for two families displaced from a disaster


• Provide more than one dozen blankets to warm men, women and children who experience power outages during a winter storm


• Supply nearly two dozen comfort kits filled with toiletries such as soap, toothbrushes and shaving cream


• Connect a family to a military spouse or relative serving overseas, so they can return home during an emergency


• Cover a few nights in a hotel for people who lost their home in a disaster

This is what’s happening with my fundraiser while the negative nancies in our communities sit on their asses, being rude, narrow-minded and downright hopeless. When was the last time any of these folks provided disaster relief to more than a handful of strangers affected by a tragedy? Probably not anytime recently, if ever. That is why I understand where actress Nydia Simone is coming from when she shares her observations on people who are quick to judge others but not be willing to lift a finger to help.

Oklahoma resident Ashley Sylvester awaits her husband’s return from military service in Afghanistan while she cleans the remains of their home. After seeing a familiar face when Red Cross volunteers visited her neighborhood, Sylvester hugs her friend Harriet Wingo. Photo by Talia Frenkel/American Red CrossPay closer attention (but not too much, ‘cause any more is a waste of time) and you will likely find that those who talk crap about what someone else is doing live uneventful lives. Whatever the issue is at hand, they tend to be part of the problem, not the solution. It’s easy to shoot down the efforts of others when you don’t have anything worthwhile going on. It’s easy to judge how someone spends his or her time when you’re not actively contributing to the rest of the world.

It’s easy to remain in your own little bubble without a care for the tragedies occurring outside your door or in your backyard – that is, until you are the one who is in need of solace from a catastrophe or help from those outside your circle of friends, family and “trusted” sources.

As a human race, I know we can do better. Time will tell what comes of this Red Cross fundraiser but there have been a lot of lessons learned up to this point. It’s a whole new world when the ideas I have in my head about what can be accomplished with the projects I’m involved in turn out looking much different in action. Still, I’m going to do what I can because, as famed rocker Lenny Kravitz once said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

From Street Hustling to Cannes – How One L.A. Actress Got $2,400 to Pitch Her Natural Hair Documentary (Part 2)

When IndieGoGo no longer seemed promising for actress Nydia Simone’s crowdfunding campaign, she turned random people on the streets of Los Angeles into benefactors of her Cannes Film Festival trip. The experience quickly came with some hard but important lessons as she met with strangers in several areas including Long Beach, Old Pasadena, UCLA, Baldwin Hills and Crenshaw Plaza.

Getting donations from people who generally don’t carry cash on them when they’re surfing was among Simone’s many obstacles. Still, that Hermosa Beach experience was nothing compared to getting kicked out of The Grove by the concierge and later visiting Beverly Hills – a place she believes is so pretentious, you can feel the judgment oozing out of people. When a man who donated to the Cannes trip asked if Simone was homeless, she started wondering if her signage deterred potential supporters.

In the end, she is certain that all successful moments during this entire stint pounding the pavement was made possible by letting go of her pride and talking to God. I met with Nydia Simone before she flew off to France and we discussed how this New York native went from living out of a carry-on bag to getting over $2,400 in two weeks for her Natural Hair Documentary.

Madlab Post: How many hours a day did you spend holding signs and collecting donations for your Cannes trip?

Nydia Simone: An average of 3-5 hours a day. In the beginning, it was three hours and then I was thinking “If I’m gonna get this money, I need to average like four or five hours a day!” and that’s just standing outside. That doesn’t count me going there – and I take public transportation. So, it takes time to get there and it takes time to get back. I remember one time it took me over two hours to get to a place and I was a little upset because all I got was $35 at this beach but I did get a really cool idea after that. The thing is, you live and you learn.

In between getting money for Cannes and auditioning for film and television roles, actress Nydia Simone also worked with production crews.In total, it takes up your whole day because you leave in the morning or mid-morning, you get to your spot and by the time that’s done, you go home.

You collect all these business cards and you’re emailing people “thank you for this” and people that want you to work with them or send them your headshot or information, blah, blah, blah!

Half of these people are bullshit. So, you have to figure out which ones are real but you never know. I’m going to be interning with a distribution company that I met on the street.

I don’t know what will come of that but I’m going to absorb notes and work as hard as I can so that they go “That girl right there is going to be somebody and do something amazing! We better watch her!”

Why did you choose those particular locations where you went to collect donations for your trip?

The most important thing was traffic. High traffic wins over…whatever. Sometimes I would get advice but I stopped listening to people because they were giving horrible advice. People told me to go to Hermosa [beach] – that was a horrible, horrible place! It was probably pretty good for what they were doing, but for what I was doing, I needed to be somewhere else. So, I’ve researched high traffic areas in L.A. when I ran out of ideas.

I learned that places where there is community, the people in that community are more likely to donate than those in tourist spots. When I went to Hollywood and Vineland – I could only stay for an hour that day because I have so much to do – but I got one dollar in an hour. Maybe I could’ve gotten $20 in the next five minutes -- you never know, but that’s not a good place for me to be.

Is there a stake in the community? North Hollywood was really good because a lot of people live and worked in L.A. and they believed in dreams. Crenshaw was great because black people are more likely to donate. Period. It’s a community, they want people in the community to do well; the older people in that community want young people to do it!  It is common for people to collect donations this way. People don’t do it as much in California but I feel like what I did wasn’t so outlandish. Maybe it was, but I was so desperate that I was like “I don’t care,” (laughs).

Of all the places you went to collect donations, which spot brought the least amount of donations and what areas contributed larger donations?

The most amount I received was at Crenshaw Plaza -- $201 in one day. The least amount of money was West Hollywood and that was like $30. However, a lot of factors go into it because what time of the month are you going? Everybody has money at the beginning of the month. At the end of the month, their funds are a little low. It was the end of the month when I went to West Hollywood. Maybe I didn’t go to a good spot.

Maybe I didn’t have as much traffic as I was expecting. You can’t be on private property; you have to be on public property. The most I got was $35 or $37, so that was probably the worst place just because people didn’t have cash on them; If you’re in a bathing suit, then you’re probably not carrying any cash. I know I still have a lot to learn about crowdfunding, but, I make more money collecting cash on the street than on IndieGoGo.

What factors attributed to your IndieGoGo campaign falling short of its goal online?

My video was basically just me and my computer. Definitely your video is very important – if it’s nicely edited, if you have it done professionally, you’re probably going to get more money. I edited my video on iMovie and threw it up on there; you can see the black couch in the background.

When we’re face-to-face, I can sell you on my film, what I’m passionate about and what I want to do. It’s either you’re going to donate or you’re not. If you’re not, let’s move on to the next person. It’s very straightforward. Online, people have to take out their credit card, look at the numbers, and type them in. Soon it’s like “I don’t think I want to do this anymore. Oh, the pizza is here! I forgot,” so it’s a lot easier to get money now, on the street.   

What role does making movies, particularly documentaries, play in furthering your goals as a Television actress on Nickelodeon or Disney channels?

This came because I learned that as a black actress, in Hollywood, we just don’t get hired. People are like “Oh no, I hired a black girl last week” and a lot of people will agree that yes, black people do get hired – but not that much in Hollywood.

If I’m going to be working here, I’m going to have to create my own work. Otherwise, I’ll just be sitting around twirling my fingers.

I’ve wanted to do this documentary for 2-3 years and planned on waiting until I was seasoned and know more about show business but if I wait, I’ll just be waiting. This has already provided opportunities for me. I’m working on a new television network called the G-Block for teens and tweens. As soon as I figure out when we’re going to be shooting, then I’ll be able to start my production schedule. I’ve noticed that when you’re on a moving train, everything just comes. But when you’re waiting, nothing comes.

Stay tuned as my conversation with actress/producer Nydia Simone continues, where we cover…

• How Facebook played a role in her decision to seek out movie investors in France.
• Why she changed her business major to acting while studying at The City College of New York (CCNY).
• How she survives in L.A. while making time to attend church with one of Hollywood’s elite couples.

If you missed my chat with Nydia Simone about her Natural Hair Documentary, read Part 1: HERE.

What are some of the most pretentious cities/towns YOU'VE ever visited?

Who is YOUR favorite natural hairstyle wearing actress?

*Photos courtesy of Nydia Simone