So my company is called Salamat Designs. Salamat means thank you in the Filipino language. I named I named it Salamat because for me that means gratitude. Um oftentimes when you think about the word gratitude, you just think about what do I receive? But I feel like it's a two-way street where um it's not only understanding and reflecting on what you receive, but what do you do with that if that's your time, energy, wisdom? And so for me, my heritage um my family is very important to me and a lot of the values that they've instilled um in my upbringing and I've always wanted to like share that with people and um and Salama just felt like it was like an appropriate name.
And so that shared aspect is um is that peace part. So the meals part, excuse me. So, um, with every item that I sell, I donate meals to children in the elementary school in the Philippines, specifically in Mindanao, which is the southern region uh, of the Philippines. And then to make my jewelry, I source locally there in the Philippines. Uh, I work directly with the suppliers um to get my materials. So, they're all natural, raw, um, local wood.
They're sustainable material. Uh coconut shells, various seashells. Um and then some are just like even not um I need to like manipulate and craft it and like polish it uh in order to make uh earrings, um bracelets, necklaces, keychains, and that's what I sell. So currently I sell them at popup events. Um, so popup events, if that's not a term that's usually recognized, uh, at craft shows, they're usually these oneoff events um, in just around the Chicagoland area and like they could be farmers markets, for example.
Uh, when I first started, uh, they were primarily farmers markets or craft shows. And then over time I've realized that like as I grew my network um I've been invited to a lot of events that were very Filipino specific. So either it was like a Filipino festival, local festivals. Uh I've been invited to fashion shows uh to be vendors anywhere where you can table and then sell your product. Um that's where I I usually sell my my jewelry.
