Anthill Garnet and Navajo Nation Update
Many of you know the beautiful chrome red Anthill Garnets are gathered on the Navajo Nation. Some of you also know that Columbia Gem House set up a fundraiser to help address the serious Covid-19 outbreak on the reservation. As of July 14th there have been 8290 covid cases and 400 deaths in a population of approximately 180,000 people. This is greater than many states that have populations 20 times larger. This is a pretty staggering number so support of any kind will help.
Columbia Gem House gets 100% of its Anthill chrome pyrope garnet from the Navajo Reservation in the Southwest. We have been sending surgical facemasks to the reservation and our fundraiser was to raise cash to help support any needs for the Covid-19 effort there. For the month of May and June, Columbia Gem House committed to donating 20% of its Anthill Garnet sales to this effort. In addition we auctioned off a Anthill garnet ring on Instagram to raise funds. This ring raised $135.00 which was matched by Columbia Gem House plus the two of our retail partners, Trios Studios and Dally + Toil. Between the 20% of Anthill sales plus the generous matching from our partners we raised $700.00, which is, going out today with additional face masks. So even in this very challenging business environment, people wanted to help. So, thank you to all of you. This will help to address one of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19 in North America.
The Covid-19 outbreak and its lingering, impact will not go away soon. Thus, Columbia Gem House has decided to extend our Anthill garnet sales promotion through July and August. So, if any of you have been thinking of designing with this beautiful gemstone, if you purchase now, you will know 20 percent is going to help fight the Covid-19 emergency on the Navajo Nation.
Our industry is working to support many different social programs in these trying times. If we continue, we will both make a difference and come out of this trying time showing show a personal, supportive and beautiful industry we work in. Isn’t that what jewelry is supposed to be?
Thank you all again and stay tuned for additional information about this and other Covid-19 efforts.
