Glasses focus on charity

VANCOUVER – Claudia Alan Inc. – a fashion house focusing on the creation of specialty accessory programs – is donating an estimated $80,000 from sales of this year’s AYA collection of sunglasses to a First Nations School Breakfast program.

Partial proceeds from the sale of every pair of AYA glasses – whose frames feature original artwork by renowned First Nations artist, Corrine Hunt – are being donated to ONEXONE, a Toronto-based Canadian registered charity committed to supporting, preserving and improving the lives of children in Canada, the United States, and around the world, with programs dedicated to five fundamental pillars: water, health, education, play and food.

Hunt, a member of the Raven Gwa’wina clan of Tlingit people from Ts’akis, a Komoyue village on Vancouver Island, was co-designer of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic medals created for the Vancouver Olympic Games.

AYA glasses are being purchased in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom, and have been contributed to celebrity gift bags at the Oscars, Grammy Awards, Canadian Country Music Awards, and Toronto International Film Festival. They have been  received by Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill, David Foster, Seal, Heidi Klum, Fran Drescher, George Stroumboulopoulos, Daniel Radcliffe, and many more, as well as First Nation celebrities Adam Evans, Derek Miller, Crystal Shawanda and George Canyon.