Create Change

When Josh Allen spent time in rural Ethiopia as part of a mission trip with his church, he didn't expect it would inspire him to launch a new personal initiative—but that's exactly what happened.

While on that trip, Josh spent a day with an organization called Bring Love In. B.L.I. pairs up "unadoptable" orphans from Ethiopian government orphanages with local widows that have lost their kids and families, yet still desire to be moms. B.L.I. legally adopts the kids and pairs them up with the "moms" to create family units locally in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia's capital city. Josh came away "really impressed" with the organization and the way they were "helping locally, in their culture, setting the orphans up for future success from 'the inside out' rather than asserting more foreign 'aid' and culture from places like the USA."

Upon returning from the trip, Josh felt called to do more. He happens to be the owner of an all-natural pet supply boutique in Montana called Dee-O-Gee, so he decided to use his knowledge of the pet industry to develop a line of toys that would help. Through a partnership with Bring Love In, Josh donates a percentage of his sales to offer nutritional aid for the widows and orphans. This initial line of toys has grown into WO Design, through which he offers awesome toys and collars, as well as tees for people, all which support Bring Love In.

"The W is for widows and the O is for orphans," Josh explains. "Each product WO sells has a tangible 'give back' associated with it. We've started with providing meals—home cooked food for the orphaned kids—and to date we've funded over 15,000 meals for orphaned children and widows."

The goodness doesn't stop there. WO Design also encourages customers to participate in their toy-recycling program. While the products are designed to give years of fun (throw it, float it, recycle it, love it!), when your dog is done with them you can send them back to WO to be recycled into new toys instead of adding to landfills.

Start to finish, WO Design is all good.