‘The Giving Keys’ was created by Actress/Singer Caitlin Crosby, in 2010 after falling in love with a New York City hotel room key, asking a locksmith to engrave the word LOVE on the key and loving the chain so much, she began to sell the ‘Key Chains’ at her concerts, with HOPE, FAITH, and STRENGTH engraved on them.
When Crosby realized the world she was born into, was bursting with Hollywood Life aloofness, it didn’t match her desire to help people and make society a better place, so she asked God for guidance. As her Key project continued to grow, she had a chance encounter with two strangers on the streets of Hollywood. Enter Cera and Rob, two homeless 20 something year olds, who she instantly connected with on a rainy LA night, when she saw them holding up a sign that said, ‘Ugly, Broke, & Hungry’.
She hired Cera and Rob to help engrave the keys, hustling and bustling to ship out orders, before she knew it, the keys were beginning to sell in the thousands.
With their headquarters located in the Downtown, Los Angeles Arts District, this nonprofit organization now focuses on giving back. You see, by hiring people who are in a battle to fix the fate of their future, ‘The Giving Keys‘ brightens up their path, away from the hardships of homelessness. ‘The Giving Keys’ gives folks the opportunity to make jewelry from repurposed keys; once inspirational messages have been inscribed on the keys, the organization allows the people who made those keys, to be inspired and rise out of their current situation, towards a positive future.
Y The Theme? “Pay It Forward” …. Well, by giving the key away to someone, once you feel the key has done its job to inspire you, can help someone else receive the message of hope that hangs in the balance… The last task… blog about your experience on the organization’s website about giving or receiving that key. Someway, somehow that key will change your life.
Crosby is quite known, for sharing her heart with the world, she focuses in on the responsibility of humanity to care for others, especially when they are weak and broken… Y? Because at some point, we will all be there, be humble enough to accept that and help raise someone up. Her mission to help people realize that humanity is just like the keys, she was using in her jewels – unique, flawed, scarred.
The magic of ‘The Giving Keys’, comes from the company’s passion to help others and that passion has taken The Giving Keys to all corners of the globe, now sold in over 1200 stores in the US including Nordstrom, Fred Segal and Kitson.
I personally learned of ‘The Giving Keys’ when a key slated with the word ‘BELIEVE’ was given to me, precisely at a moment in life when Believing in myself, my potential and the possibilities of my future was precisely what I need to be reminded of. My mom gave me my key and I cannot wait for the key to have finished working for me, so that I can pass it along to someone else I meet along my path, who I feel needs to hear that message and carry it with them, more than me.
Healing from acceptance of your flaws is part of the journey of life. I have been faced with having to heal on more than one occasion, whether it stemmed from Bullying or a Broken Heart, I realized that key was speaking to me, because it’s true… when you are lost, only one thing will save you, ‘Believing’.
Not only believing in yourself and the higher power guiding you, but learning to believe in the positive outlook of your future and realizing that there is a plan for you, sometimes it just takes a second to see it.
How To… As you wear & embrace the word on the key, allow it to remind you of the opening opportunity in your life, to create a call to action for altering your future path… hold onto that key until you can pay it forward to someone who needs the message more than you.
A BIG Thank You to ‘The Giving Keys’ for inspiring ME!