lululemon ambassadors are always up to amazing things. This October, Ted McDonald is taking a break from teaching yoga and promoting healthy living in Southern California to lead a life-changing trip to Ethiopia with Imagine1Day. The best part? There's an opportunity to be part of Ted's inspirational trip.

building schools & communities

Imagine1Day has a goal of bringing quality elementary school education to every child in Ethiopia. Most of us are familiar with the way in which Habitat for Humanity builds homes for communities in need. Rather than homes, Imagine1Day builds schools in small communities in Ethiopia. Imagine1Day spends three years working within each community to ensure that the programs can be sustainably maintained. They collaborate with the local communities and the Ethiopian government to train teachers and to teach families in the community to run profitable businesses. It's the educational equivalent of "give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime."

who's educating whom?

Ted, who's been leading yoga retreats for eight years, has set a vision for this trip to "create a better world". "It's amazing to go to places like this and to meet people who would never imagine to have the kind of infrastructure, amenities, technology and support that we have in the West. Meeting people like that, to me, is one of the greatest ways to open your heart." Ted thinks that the ripple effect will continue long after he gets back State-side (although the focus of Imagine1Day is to create education opportunities in Ethiopia, a large component of their work is dispelling misconceptions about Ethiopia). "If anyone has an interest in elevating their own lives and the lives of others," says Ted, "they should definitely come on this trip."

the trip in a nutshell

get involved

• Contact Imagine1Day & pack your bags. There are spots available on the trip.
  
• Meet some 'creatributors' and see how it all works.
• Help by doing something you love. Become a 'creatributor'.

We tend to do things a little differently around the lululemon parts. Rather than update our board of directors with an endless stream of charts and powerpoint presentations, this year we tried to capture what we're doing in our communities through video.

What you see below is the latest in a series of videos that is meant to highlight our big wins in PR, interesting events we’ve held at the stores, ambassador profiles and to show the impact we’ve had in specific communities all over the world.

Here's our Community Update for Q1, 2009. Drumroll please ....

Community Update: Q1 2009 from lululemon athletica on Vimeo.