Speaking of Anita Roddick!

So, I log onto Blog Sisters to sing the praises of Blog Sister Anita Roddick, and there she is, posting (below) about the virtual march that she is organizing for London. But I'm mentioning her for another reason. She's in my locality this week.

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop and international activist, is spending this week at Russell Sage College in Troy as this year's Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. She's here to show her support for the new bachelor's degree program created by Brownell and Ingraham -- business and organizational management with a focus on social responsibility.

For those of you who don't know about Anita Roddick, the local newspaper article goes on to say:

She opened the first Body Shop in Brighton, England, in 1976. Today, the skin and hair care company has nearly 2,000 stores in 50 countries and is a leader in the social responsibility movement. Calling itself a "corporation with a conscience," The Body Shop uses ethical, environmental and socially responsible methods to produce its products and conduct business. For example, the company promotes fair trade by working cooperatively with small producers and protects the environment by using minimal and recyclable packaging.

The corporation encourages these values outside the company's framework by campaigning for the protection of the environment and against animal testing within the cosmetics industry. The Body Shop supports human and civil rights actions -- from fair employment practices worldwide to volunteerism within local communities.

Roddick's activism isn't limited to business, however, or to one area of the globe. It extends to women's business cooperatives in Ghana, to safe sex initiatives in India and to London, where she is speaking out against a possible U.S.-led war in Iraq. (And organizing a virutal march, as her post below explains.)

I buy my cosmetics at our local Body Shop. If you never tried them, you should. Not only are they great products, but I love the fact that a company like Anita's is behind them and that she's a Blog Sister!!

I wonder if I show up wearing my Blog Sisters t-shirt at one of the events at which she's featured, if it will get me a personal intro.