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Timestamp: 2009-05-10 23:42:27 UTC

Michelle K.

Michelle wrote: Wonderful post. Very important information. Lost my bff to skin cancer on 2/14/07 Miss her dearly as she was only 46. Much to young to be gone. If I win would love the Flutter – S – Butterflies YSS-FLU one in a size 4 for my grand daughter. Her mom loves pink and I love Butterflies. A win win situation. Great site.

I am not in the habit of bossing people around, okay who am I kidding, my entire family reads this blog and they know I love to boss people around. But, I try not to boss my readers around… until today.

Protect your children this summer!

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, since I grew up in Florida and spent most of my life in the water I am very aware of the dangers of skin cancer. While I have not personally been affected by skin cancer, Rhonda Sparks has, she lost her 32 year old husband to the disease several years ago. After her husband died she turned a tragedy into something positive and started UV Skinz, a company that sells swim shirts, shorts, hats and accessories.

For the past several years my kids have worn swim shirts whenever they are in the water and even when they are out of the water! In my opinion swim shirts are an excellent alternative to sun screen, you never have to reapply and you never miss a spot, not to mention you don’t have to keep buying more and more sunscreen. Did you know that one in five Americans develop skin cancer every year? You can prevent this from happening to your children by protecting them with a swim shirt.

Now, here is why you should buy your shirts from UV Skinz. Over the years I have purchased swim shirts from many different companies, Old Navy, Target, Lands End, LL Bean, local Surf Shops and not a single shirt held up as well as the ones I have from UV Skinz. Last summer one of my boys had a UV Skinz shirt and the other had one from Old Navy. This year when I pulled out their shirts from the summer clothes box the Old Navy shirt was worn thin and would not give my son any protection this year. The UV Skinz shirt looked almost brand new.
Here is a picture of my son last year in his shirt.

This year in the same shirt.

As you can see the shirt hasn’t faded even though I washed (and line dried) it many times last year. My daughter loves her shirt and today I am ordering shirts for the rest of the family.

There is a reason I waited until May to order my other shirts, other than the fact that I live in Maryland and it is currently 55 degrees and rainy. In hopes of spreading the word and helping to prevent skin cancer, UV Skinz is giving away a free baby skinz with every order during the month of May. It is Rhonda’s hope that customers will then donate the baby shirt to someone in need and pay it forward. UV Skinz are free of harsh sunscreen chemicals that can irritate baby’s sensitive skin, the shirts also carry a UPF50+ rating, blocking more than 98% of the sun’s harmful UVA and UVB rays.

Many parents have their children wear t-shirts to protect them from the sun. Personally I think this is a bad idea. T-shirts are not made for swimming and do not protect as well as swim shirts from the harmful rays of the sun when they are wet. Also, I have seen many children struggling to swim in a weighted down water-logged t-shirt. Swim shirts do not absorb water and are made for swimming.

Finally investing is swim shirts is a frugal choice. Last year we did not go through tubes and tubes of sunscreen. We invested in swim shirts and one tube of sunblock for their faces.  The UV Skinz are so well made that they are able to be worn year after year saving me money in the long run. But more important than saving money I am saving my children’s skin from the harmful effects of the sun and that is priceless.

UV Skinz is giving away your choice of swim shirt to one of my readers. Go to the UV Skinz site, look around and then leave me a comment letting me know what shirt you would like to win.

Would you help me and UV Skinz spread the word about Skin Cancer Awareness Month? If you have a twitter account you can twitter about this giveaway and use the hashtag #UVSkinz. You can also write a blog post about protecting your kids from the sun this summer and link back to this post. You can pass the word on to family and friends. You can also sign up for the UV Skinz monthly newsletter which will keep you informed regarding all things sunny. The sign up link is on the left sidebar of their homepage. For each thing you do leave me another comment and that will earn you another chance to win a swim shirt of your choice.

So let’s recap:

Sun = bad

Swim shirts = good

Rhonda and UV Skinz = super cool mom of three boys turning a tragedy into something positive

Giveaway = you can win your choice of a swim shirt from UV Skinz

Ways to enter = Leave a comment, tweet with the hash tag #UVSkinz, blog about it, tell your friends, sign up for the newsletter and don’t forget to leave a comment for each thing you can do to help promote Skin Cancer Awareness month and this giveaway.

Oh, I forgot to add, the contest ends Thursday May 7, 2009, Cora time!

I am not in any way affiliated with UV Skinz. I don’t make any money if you buy from them. I am promoting them because I believe in what Rhonda is doing and want to support her 100%.