YEAR-ROUND RELEASES
National Figures Help Alternatives Celebrate Anniversary!
A dozen well known national figures serve on the Honorary Board of Directors to help Alternatives celebrate its Anniversary.
"For our 30th we issued numerous new resources, updating our web site and establishing an endowment fund," said Gerald Iversen of Simple Living Works! Alternatives' successor.
"For our 40th we are extending our mission significantly through social media, including several blogs per week, two podcasts per month, as well as Facebook, Twitter and others. We offer coaching to simple living groups over the internet," Iversen said.
Simple Living Works! Archives offer hundreds of resources to read and download at no charge. By the end of 2013, the ELCA Archives Office near Chicago will provide hard copies of Alternatives' resources at nominal cost.
New resources include a podcast series of the audio version of its best known, most widely read resource, the family Advent-Christmas annual, "Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?" Millions have been distributed in booklet form. Although no longer published on paper, it is being continued online.
The audio "Living Simply and Loving It!" speaks of people of faith seeking, choosing and growing on the journey of integrity.
The DVD "The Vision of Simpler Living: Alternatives' Audio & Video Collection" brings together two videos, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Break Forth into Joy: Beyond a Consumer Lifestyle" (with Spanish for the first time), plus the audio "Living Simply and Loving It!"
The videos are available free of charge on YouTube and the audio at SimpleLivingWorks.org >> Audio/Video Archives.
The Honorary Board of Directors includes: David Beckman, President, Bread for the World; Walter Brueggemann, Professor, Columbia Theological Seminary; Tony Campolo, author, speaker, educator, Eastern University; Shane Claiborne, author, speaker, activist, The Simple Way Community; Millard Fuller (deceased), Founder, Habitat For Humanity International; Alisa Gravitz, Executive Director, Green America (publisher of The National Green Pages); John McConnell, founder of Earthday; Vicki Robin, author of "Your Money or Your Life" and Convener of The Simplicity Forum; Ronald J. Sider, President, Evangelicals for Social Action; Betsy Taylor, former Executive Director, Center for a New American Dream; and Jim Wallis, Executive Director, Sojourners Magazine, and Convener, Call to Renewal.
Simple Living Works! - the successor to Alternatives - is an all-volunteer organization extending the mission of "equipping people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly, and celebrate responsibly." Started in 1973 as a protest against the commercialization of Christmas, it encourages year-round conscientious living.
Alternatives published six editions of the Alternate Celebrations Catalog, held the Best and Worst Christmas Gift Contest for many years, and produced a quarterly magazine and three videos.
Throughout its 40-year history, Alternatives helped lead the movement to live more simply and faithfully. The many staff members and volunteers of Alternatives have developed a wide variety of resources, organized an annual Christmas Campaign, led numerous workshops, and reached countless people with the message of simple, responsible living. Alternatives emphasizes relationships and traditions over things, hoping to avoid stress and debt, and promoting alternative giving - helping the truly needy instead of spending so much on ourselves.
The archive of resources includes material produced by Alternatives on simple living and related subjects, such as hunger, the environment, media literacy, etc. Because we provide resources for Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, weddings and other celebrations (some in Spanish) for adults and children, our motto is 'Resources for responsibly living and celebrating since 1973.'
Simple Living Works! sells nothing, and solicits and accepts no donations. All of its online resources and services are free of charge.
Visit SimpleLivingWorks.org, or email SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com # # # #
Editors: For more information, contact Gerald Iversen.
Media releases
and many feature articles are available on our web site for easy downloading!
Visit SimpleLivingWorks.org. Click on About Us >> News, or Archives >> Articles.
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This page last updated 3 October 2013 (originally 17 July 2003)
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MISSION: Equipping people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly // An all volunteer educational organization.