The Pulsera Project

Grateful for the opportunity to speak with Spain Park High School's Spanish students earlier this week over video chat! Co-Founder Chris Howell talked a bit about the history of the project and took questions from students in Hannah Joseph's class -- Hannah has been a supporter of the project for more years than we can count now! It's always great having these chances to personally connect with the clubs & classes invesating their time in the Pulsera Project.

Grateful for the opportunity to speak with Spain Park High School's Spanish students earlier this week over video chat! Co-Founder Chris Howell talked a bit about the history of the project and took questions from students in Hannah Joseph's class -- Hannah has been a supporter of the project for more years than we can count now! It's always great having these chances to personally connect with the clubs & classes invesating their time in the Pulsera Project.

Summer color designs 🌈

Summer color designs 🌈

As the school year winds down, we wanted to take a moment to say a huge “thank you” to all of the schools that somehow found a way to work the Pulsera Project into such a crazy and difficult year. We are so grateful for the continued support and to every single student and teacher who invested time & energy into keeping the project alive in the past year. We’re looking forward to a hopefully normal school year on the horizon and we can’t wait to work with more of you to plan Pulsera sales in the coming months!

Photos from: University of Toledo and Dunlap High School.

Haciendo Pulseras - Gabriel (Cuero Bolea) English Subtitles

See the entire process of crafting one of the leather pulsera styles in this installment of our "Haciendo Pulseras" video series, with pulsera artisan Gabriel.

https://vimeo.com/343452842

https://vimeo.com/343706436 (with subtitles)

Haciendo Pulseras - Gabriel (Cuero Bolea) English Subtitles This is "Haciendo Pulseras - Gabriel (Cuero Bolea) English Subtitles" by The Pulsera Project on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people…

Despite the challenges of 2020, we were still able to continue implementing our artisan housing program in the community of Peñas Blancas in Nicaragua.

Here are a few photos of the house of Arleny and Enoé, who in March and April last year were able to build a new house for their family with funds raised from U.S. Pulsera Sales!

Our annual year-end review is here!

You may notice that 2020’s overview is shorter and much more abbreviated than previous years — like millions of other businesses and organizations across the globe, The Pulsera Project was hit particularly hard by COVID-19, and much of the past year has seen us in full-on survival mode as we navigated the repercussions of this pandemic on every facet of the project in the U.S. and Central America.

We are so grateful to everyone for their continued support and for continuing to lend their time & energy to The Pulsera Project with everything else going on in the world. We appreciate you all so much, and we hope that this coming year can see both the project and the world-at-large return to some semblance of normalcy.

Mil gracias!

www.pulseraproject.org/yearendreview

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¡Ya tenemos nuestra revisión de fin de año!

Podrás notar que la reseña de 2020 es mucho más reducida que las de años pasados - tal como millones de negocios y organizaciones alrededor del mundo, la Pulsera Project fue fuertemente impactado por el COVID-19, y gran parte del año pasado hemos estado en modo supervivencia mientras navegábamos las repercusiones que esta pandemia ha tenido en cada faceta del proyecto en los Estados Unidos y Centroamérica.

Estamos muy agradecidos con todas aquellas personas que nos han dado su apoyo sostenido y que han continuado prestando su tiempo y energía al Pulsera Project, aún con todo lo que está pasando en el mundo. Estamos agradecidos con vos, y esperamos que este año entrante traiga un poco de normalidad al proyecto y al mundo en general.
http://proyectopulsera.org/reportefindeano

Our annual year-end review is here!

You may notice that 2020’s overview is shorter and much more abbreviated than previous years — like millions of other businesses and organizations across the globe, The Pulsera Project was hit particularly hard by COVID-19, and much of the past year has seen us in full-on survival mode as we navigated the repercussions of this pandemic on every facet of the project in the U.S. and Central America.

We are so grateful to everyone for their continued support and for continuing to lend their time & energy to The Pulsera Project with everything else going on in the world. We appreciate you all so much, and we hope that this coming year can see both the project and the world-at-large return to some semblance of normalcy.

Mil gracias!

www.pulseraproject.org/yearendreview

**********

¡Ya tenemos nuestra revisión de fin de año!

Podrás notar que la reseña de 2020 es mucho más reducida que las de años pasados - tal como millones de negocios y organizaciones alrededor del mundo, la Pulsera Project fue fuertemente impactado por el COVID-19, y gran parte del año pasado hemos estado en modo supervivencia mientras navegábamos las repercusiones que esta pandemia ha tenido en cada faceta del proyecto en los Estados Unidos y Centroamérica.

Estamos muy agradecidos con todas aquellas personas que nos han dado su apoyo sostenido y que han continuado prestando su tiempo y energía al Pulsera Project, aún con todo lo que está pasando en el mundo. Estamos agradecidos con vos, y esperamos que este año entrante traiga un poco de normalidad al proyecto y al mundo en general.
http://proyectopulsera.org/reportefindeano

Around five years ago as part of our artisan scholarship program, a scholarship was offered to Jhonatan Velásquez Castro of the El Chile group in Nicaragua to support him with part of the expenses of his university studies.

Today we're so happy to share with you that a few months ago Jhonatan completed his studies and obtained his Bachelor of Nursing degree. We are super impressed and proud of his achievement, especially considering the extra significance that his career has in a world working to battle COVID-19.

Many congratulations to Jhonatan, his family and his beautiful community.

Thank you to the students and community at Salgado Jr. High!

We hope that everyone’s 2021 has been off to a good start so far and that things are looking up for you in the school year ahead. We just wanted to write a quick post and let you all know that The Pulsera Project is currently open for Spring semester pulsera sale sign-ups through June.

While we know that many schools will still not be able to host pulsera sales this year, we’re eager to continue working with some of you to implement safe & covid-compliant sales. We’re continuing with some of the changes we made in 2020 to make sales easier & safer for you and your students:

1.) We’ll continue accepting digital payments through Venmo to reduce the need for handling cash at sales.

2.) We’ll continue with a default 4-week sale period instead of the normal two weeks in the hopes that this gives you some more flexibility in your planning and implementation.

3.) We’ll continue to provide an alternate display board to help schools showcase pulseras without the need for students to physically handle them at the table.

4.) For schools that want to support the project but would rather not commit to a full sale, we’re continuing to offer our “Classroom Packs” where teachers can purchase pulseras upfront from our website. All money collected from those sales is then yours to keep as a reimbursement. (See www.pulseraproject.org/shop.

Thank you so much to everyone who has continued to support the project through this crazy & unpredictable school year — as always we are so grateful for the support, and we hope that we’ll be able to work with many of you again soon!

We hope that everyone’s 2021 has been off to a good start so far and that things are looking up for you in the school year ahead. We just wanted to write a quick post and let you all know that The Pulsera Project is currently open for Spring semester pulsera sale sign-ups through June.

While we know that many schools will still not be able to host pulsera sales this year, we’re eager to continue working with some of you to implement safe & covid-compliant sales. We’re continuing with some of the changes we made in 2020 to make sales easier & safer for you and your students:

1.) We’ll continue accepting digital payments through Venmo to reduce the need for handling cash at sales.

2.) We’ll continue with a default 4-week sale period instead of the normal two weeks in the hopes that this gives you some more flexibility in your planning and implementation.

3.) We’ll continue to provide an alternate display board to help schools showcase pulseras without the need for students to physically handle them at the table.

4.) For schools that want to support the project but would rather not commit to a full sale, we’re continuing to offer our “Classroom Packs” where teachers can purchase pulseras upfront from our website. All money collected from those sales is then yours to keep as a reimbursement. (See www.pulseraproject.org/shop.

Thank you so much to everyone who has continued to support the project through this crazy & unpredictable school year — as always we are so grateful for the support, and we hope that we’ll be able to work with many of you again soon!

Hurricane Iota batters Nicaragua, especially its Caribbean coast

Our thoughts are with our entire Central American Pulsera family as they deal with the devastating impacts of Hurricane Iota this week. Some of you may have seen in the news that Nicaragua was hit particularly hard — for those looking to contribute to the relief efforts there, we can recommend a donation to Cruz Roja in Nicaragua (their chapter of the Red Cross) through this link:

https://cruzrojanicaraguense.org/campaigns/operacion-humanitaria-huracan-eta/donate/

We have partnered with Cruz Roja on past emergency relief efforts and know that any funds sent their way will be put to good use.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1248132

nbcnews.com “The hurricane came, it destroyed my house, my daughter’s house, it destroyed five houses in total,” said Filimon Wilfred, 72. “Where am I going to live?”

Pulsera sales are in full-swing right now at a handful of schools, and we just wanted to post a quick reminder that we are still accepting sign-ups for the fall semester! For those schools that are able to safely host a sale or have space in their busy schedules, we’ve implemented some changes making pulsera sales safer & more accessible in the COVID-19 era. Those include new display boards, lengthened sale blocks, digital payments via Venmo, and more.

See all of the changes we’ve implemented at www.pulseraproject.org/covid19 and as always please feel free to shoot us an email with any questions or for help setting something up — in the meantime we hope everyone is hanging in there!

(Thanks to Shining Mountain Waldorf school for this great pic!)

We’ve created a simple new display for this school year that should help a bit with socially-distanced Pulsera sales. The idea behind these is that sale leaders can tape up to eight Pulseras on the posters and then hang them up so that students can quickly view and select what Pulsera they’d like from at least six feet away. We figured having people say “I’ll take Pulsera #6” could be a better option for many schools where gathering around a table and shuffling through pulseras just isn’t feasible right now.

We’re starting to add these displays to each box that goes out, and we hope this helps a bit in adjusting your Pulsera sales to the reality of this school year!

As you settle into distance-learning or in-person classes this year, remember that we have a wide range of free materials available to all teachers looking for authentic cultural lessons to add into their curriculum. These are open to all teachers during the 2020-2021 school year regardless if you’ve led a Pulsera sale or not; the materials can be found at www.pulseraproject.org/freematerials

New for 2020 we're offering the option to pre-purchase a Pulsera "classroom pack" for those schools that may not be able to lead a traditional pulsera sale during this uncertain school year.

For each classroom pack you'll be able to select the quantity and styles you'd like, and as usual each pulsera will cost $5. The main difference is that instead of sending us back any materials or funds raised, you'll keep all of the proceeds as a reimbursement for your purchase, and nothing will be returned to us. Shipping will be a flat $5 for all orders.

We're offering this option to schools that are looking to continue their involvement but who may have barriers in place to a sale as they navigate the COVID-19 reopenings. We envision it as a way for teachers to gauge interest from their students on how many and what style they'd like to buy and then order accordingly.

Check out www.pulseraproject.org/shop for access to this new option, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

For schools that still want to lead a pulsera sale this year, we've implemented a few big changes to our service-learning program this year to make the project easier & safer for you:

1.) Safe Practices - in accordance with CDC recommendations, pulseras will not be handled prior to shipment - boxes will be pre-packaged, and Pulsera staff will wear appropriate PPE when sending boxes.

2.) For the time being, The Pulsera Project will accept digital payments through Venmo at all pulsera school sales in addition to cash. Students will still pay $5 per pulsera and when a sale leader has seen a student's payment verification screen, that student will then receive their pulsera(s). Venmo payments can be sent to @pulseraproject, and the memo line must list the only the name of the school.

3.) For teachers who don't want to worry about a whole pulsera sale kit, for 2020-2021, we'll offer new pulsera "classroom packs" that will work differently from a normal sale. Instead of us sending pulseras upfront and you sending money at the end of the sale, teachers will have the option to pre-purchase pulseras for their club, class, grade, etc. At this point teachers can sell pulseras directly to the students who have expressed interest in them and will not have to worry about the sale timeline or about sending excess materials or money back to us. Any money collected on your end would be kept as a reimbursement for your purchase of the classroom pack. The classroom packs will be available to order starting September 1st.

4.) For 2020-2021 we'll be extending the timeframe for all pulsera sales. Rather than the normal two-week period, we're extending this to a default four-week sale period for all schools that want to lead pulsera sales. Schools still of course have the option to do a normal 1-2 week sale, but we hope this default extension will give you some breathing room in adapting a pulsera sale to the new reality.

5.) For 2020 we'll be sending an extra display board that you can pin pulseras to. We think this will be a great way for students to be able to look at pulseras from afar and select which one they want without touching a bunch of bracelets on the table. The numbered poster board will come with a pre-drawn grid on it and a corresponding cell # drawn in each block, so for example a student could be looking from six feet away and say "I'd like pulsera #7."

We will continue to look for ways we can make the project as accessible as possible this year, and we are always open to feedback on how we can do the best job possible implementing these types of changes to the service-learning program.

(See www.pulseraproject.org/covid19 for this full list).

Hi everyone — we miss you all, and we hope everyone has been doing okay throughout this crazy year!

As some of you may have noticed, we’ve pretty much been on pause since March when pulsera sales came to a grinding halt at schools across the country due to the widespread COVID-19 closings. Since then we’ve been continuing to work in the background to get our bearings, communicate with teacher leaders, and fully understand how we can best move forward with the project during this unprecedented time.

We wanted to officially announce that we are indeed still up & running, and open for pulsera sale sign-ups for the Fall 2020 semester. We know that the situation in every state, district, and school is different right now, and we know that a pulsera sale may be the last thing on people’s minds as they adjust to the new reality of this school year.

For those schools that would like to lead a sale, we’ve made a few small changes to the sale program to ensure an easier and safer experience for you this year, such as extending sale lengths, accepting digital payments, and offering new displays to showcase pulseras from a distance. Info about these changes, as well as the new “classroom pack” offering can be found at www.pulseraproject.org/covid19

Throughout this whole process, our solidarity and commitment to furthering the project’s mission of a more just and colorful world remains unchanged, and we want to thank every single person that has helped us grow this project from a homespun idea into a movement that has touched communities in nearly 3,000 schools.

Though uncertain days lie behind us and uncertain ones remain ahead, we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that the Pulsera Project’s partnership with U.S. schools and its social impact programs in Central America can continue to thrive long into the future.

Thanks for reading, and we’re wishing you all well as you head into this new school year.