URI Student, Alex and Ani Design Bracelets to Benefit Clean Water Charity
GoLocalProv Business Team
URI Student, Alex and Ani Design Bracelets to Benefit Clean Water Charity
21 year old University of Rhode Island junior and East Greenwich resident Paige Dellerman has designed a bracelet that is bringing clean water to poor communities worldwide.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTTwenty percent of sales of The Living Water Charm Bangle, available from Alex and Ani, goes to Living Water International, a nonprofit organization that provides clean drinking water to developing countries.
So far, more than 200,000 bracelets have been sold, raising more than $600,000 for Living Water.
Dellerman, while brainstorming ideas for a senior project at East Greenwich High Scholo, decided to reach out to the Cranston-based jewelry company to find out if she could create a bracelet for its “Charity by Design” line.
Working with Alex and Ani, she was involved in all aspects of the creative process, from designing to marketing. The bracelet was the first student-driven project at the company. The bangle is a single robin’s-blue-egg teardrop that is designed to look like a drop of water. Fifteen percent of the jewelry sales at the event went to Living Water. The bracelet is one of Alex and Ani’s top five sellers in the Charity by Design brand.
In 2013, Dellerman helped design another bracelet, a pink teardrop called The Living Water for Women Bangle. She chose pink to honor women, who bear much of the burden of carrying water in developing countries. Twenty percent of the Living Water Charm Bangle, a limited edition, go to Living Water and raised $60,000.
Last summer Dellerman accompanied two Alex and Ani employees to Guatemala for eight days to help dig wells in poor villages, thanks to Living Water, which paid for the trip.
Great Moments in Alex and Ani History
On the Silver Screen
April 2011
Alex and Ani Hit Silver Screen
Local jewelry makers and retailers Alex and Ani has partnered with ScreenVision Direct, the worldwide leader in cinema advertising, on a project that includes playing a movie trailer advertisement in Rhode Island theaters. It represents a new type of advertising environment for Alex and Ani. Read More
Best Places To Work
May 2011
Alex and Ani Named One of Best Places to Work
The Alex and Ani jewelry company has been named on of “The Best Places to Work in Rhode Island" - recognition of the growth of the company and the culture. Read More
Fastest Growing Companies
August 2011
Alex and Ani Named One of America's Fastest Growing Companies
Leading business publication Inc. Magazine has ranked Designer Carolyn Rafaelian’s Alex and Ani, Inc. number 470 on its annual Inc. 500 list, jumping nearly 800 spots since last year’s ranking of 1,247 on the Inc. 5000. This exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies recognizes Alex and Ani as the only Rhode Island based company to make the 500 list – a prestigious acknowledgment among the nation’s primary independent-minded entrepreneurs. Read More
$1M Donation to Bryant
January 2011
Alex and Ani Donates 1 Million to Bryant University
Alex and Ani, Inc. - named one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest growing companies for 2011, has donated $1 million to Bryant University. The gift -- $100,000 a year for 10 years – will support the University’s nationally recognized International Business (IB) program. Read More
Biz Person of the Year
March 2012
Alex and Ani's Rafaelian RI Small Businessperson of the Year
Celebrating a substantial history as an established business, growth in the number of employees, innovativeness of products and contributions to the community, the U.S. Small Business Administration has announced Alex and Ani, Inc. Owner, Designer Carolyn Rafaelian, Rhode Island’s Small Business Person of the Year. The announcement means she will compete for the National Small Business Person of the Year. Read More
$1M Donation to RIC
September 2012
Alex and Ani Donates $1M to Rhode Island College
Alex and Ani, LLC has donated $1 million — $100,000 a year over 10 years — to Rhode Island College. In recognition of the donation to the college, the new $17 million Art Center currently under construction building will be named Alex and Ani Hall. Read More
Belcourt Castle
November 2012
Alex and Ani Founder Buys Belcourt Castle
Belcourt Castle has been sold to jewelry designer Carolyn Rafaelian for more than $3 million. The sale by the Tinney Family to the founder of Alex and Ani is the most recent in a series of acqusitions and expansions tied to the Rhode Island-based jewelry company. Read More
Difference Maker
December 2012
Carolyn Rafaelian: 12 Who Made a Difference in RI in 2012
You can go big or go home. Or, if you're Carolyn Rafaelian, you can go big, stay home, and do worlds of good with the great success you're generating as a business. Read More
Buying a Vineyard
December 2012
$8.95 Million Sale of Sakonnet Vineyards To Alex and Ani Final
Lila Delman has announced the sale of Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton, listed at $8,950,000, to Alex and Ani, the Cranston-based jewelry company. According to RI’s statewide MLS service, this is the highest sale in Little Compton in the last two years. Melanie Delman, President of Lila Delman, Susana Gustavson and Robin Nicholson, Broker Associates with the company, represented the seller. Read More
The Boss
March 2013
Alex and Ani Designer Rafaelian Appears on “The Boss”
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Job Creation
September 2013
Alex and Ani Fuels Economy - Creates Thousands of Jobs in RI
Rhode Island’s economy may be stuck in a low growth gear, but Alex and Ani is developing into one of the bright spots for the Rhode Island economy according to a report by Bryant University’s John H. Chafee Center for International Business and The Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies. The Bryant report found that in 2012, the company directly or indirectly generated nearly 1,100 fulltime jobs in Rhode Island. Read More
Celtics Team Wine
November 2013
Celtics Name Carolyn’s Sakonnet Vineyard Official Team Wine
The Boston Celtics have named Carolyn's Sakonnet Vineyard as the official team wine, in a partnership announced today between the 17-time World Champions and the domestic, international-award winning wine producer in Rhode Island. Read More
Man of the Year
January 2014
Rhode Island’s Man of the Year: Giovanni Feroce
In 2013, no one man has done more to transform Rhode Island's self-confidence than Giovanni Feroce.
In just four short years, he helped to grow a small Rhode Island jewelry company from just $4 million in sales to over $200 million. No favorite son has spent more time and energy reinvesting in the Ocean State, between rebuilding a manufacturing base, to multiple million dollar donations to colleges in the state, to growing jobs. Read More
New CEO
March 2014
Alex and Ani Appoints Carolyn Rafaelian Interim CEO
Alex and Ani has announced that founder Carolyn Rafaelian has been named Interim CEO of the Cranston-based life-style brand company.
The company, which has grown to be one of the largest employers and manufacturers in Rhode Island, has been on a rocket of good news. Presently featured in a national ad for Bank of America, the Alex and Ani has been featured as a model for innovation, branding, and Made in America manufacturing. Read More
