Note: This post is part of an ongoing blog series called #costamesa365 where the author is striving to shop only* in her city of Costa Mesa, for a year.
This week, I was delighted to deliver a big box of I Heart Costa Mesa shirts and stickers to Estancia High School. The swag is to be included in a welcome gift for a group of student delegates visiting us all the way from Australia. It’s all part of a “sister city” exchange program where a group of Costa Mesa teens visits Australia, and then a group of Australian teens visits Costa Mesa. So cool!
(I wish that opportunity had been around when I was a teen. I would have loved it, mate!)
Costa Mesa is such a big, diverse city – with so many fun and interesting things happening, like the Sister City Program – it’s easy to have FOMO around town. I can’t possibly be involved in all the amazing events, projects, organizations and efforts going on… no matter how much I’d wish it.
But I Heart Costa Mesa can always throw a little extra love on top of an already wonderful situation. It’s a good feeling to have helped the Australian students feel welcomed in Costa Mesa, in our own small way.
And can we talk about the idea of I Heart Costa Mesa shirts walking around Australia – so exciting! Even though the #costamesa365 challenge has me committed to staying local for 2019, our shirts, stickers and hats are slowly migrating around the world.
Last year, we shipped a tank top to Canada.
Last month, a handful of stickers journeyed to New York.
Now we will be “hearting” down under. Pinch me!
I’ll never stop being amazed at how far and wide a little love can grow… especially when the seeds were small and planted right in my own backyard. ♥
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*We will always start by shopping / looking in Costa Mesa, first. But if we really need something and an alternative is nowhere to be found in Costa Mesa, we’ll stray. Also, as parents, we’ve decided that certain kid-related things (mainly educational) will need to remain baked in.
