Reunion Online

Two weeks ago, eight men whose portraits and biographies appear on the Bristlecone website lent their portraits and statements to the gallery of survivors on the web site of the NO MORE campaign. These men, and their brothers at Bristlecone, have chosen to sit in front of a camera and to look directly into the camera’s lens.

With joyful and one-of-a-kind Heartshop products ranging from accessories to gourmet treats, you’re sure to find the perfect gift for anyone on your list—and you can feel great knowing that proceeds support our work.

Our friends at the Verizon Foundation recently launched a new campaign called Your Voice Counts. The campaign is helping to break the silence around the issue of domestic violence by equipping bystanders?especially men?with tools to begin speaking up to prevent and end domestic violence.

We are proud to announce our first awareness campaign, 1BlueString. This campaign is aimed at raising awareness for the 1 in 6 men who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Our 1BlueString campaign is simple. We are asking guitarists at all levels to replace their low E guitar string (one of six strings) with one of our free, blue guitar string to symbolize the 1 in 6 men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood.

Throughout history, we have watched visionaries change the world. Eli Whitney. Henry Ford. Steve Jobs. Not only did these people isolate a need, but they also found the right way to communicate how their innovation would benefit the world.

If you wanted to get a message out there in relation to helping men who have been sexually abused, what information would you want put out there?

That was my question to a group of men who attend a monthly support group in Brisbane, Australia. The group is part of a service designed to assist men sexually abused in childhood, their partners, friends, family and service providers.

With March officially here and springtime only weeks away, we wanted to help keep you prepared for the changing temperatures. It's why we'd like to remind you about one of the latest—and possibly softest yet—additions to our Heartshop, the White + Warren Cashmere Travel Wrap!

If you're like me, you watched in disbelief as the news media uncovered recent childhood sexual abuse allegations at Penn State University, Syracuse and numerous other institutions. I couldn't help but wonder how these allegations were kept from authorities for so long. As someone who endured seven years of sexual abuse as a child, I understood why the alleged victims didn't feel safe to talk, but I couldn't get my head around how or why the adults who were made aware of the alleged abuse were so reluctant to demand justice.