from BUSINESS LINE, January 13, 2010 Hyderabad, Jan. 12 – Faced with severe margin pressures, members of the gems and jewellery industry (GJI) are now concerned about the proposed changes in the Direct Taxes Code, including provisions relating to search and seizure, tax deduction at source (TDS) and minimum alternate tax (MAT).

The All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), an apex body Tiffany Blue heart lock charm and bracelet the trade feels that since the proposed changes are in the draft bill now under circulation, the Finance Ministry could reconsider these provisions. If the Code gets cleared in the present form to be applicable from April 1, 2011, the industry would be adversely hit.

The Director of All-India Gems and Jewellery Federation, Mr Mohanlal Jain, said, “if these changes are not brought about before enacting the Direct Taxes Code Bill, 2009, the provisions relating to seizure of any stock in trade of bullion, precious and semi-precious stones or jewellery, is draconian and discriminatory against the GJF trade.” The seizure of entire stock in trade when there is any difference during raids is not acceptable. The GJF has also objected to 2 per cent tax on gross assets since the industry operates on small margins with high inventory levels. There is a discrepancy in this as a company earning 2 per cent net profit will require to pay the same tax as a company earning 8 per cent net profit, Mr Jain said.

The GJI in India contributes to approximately 3 per cent of the gross domestic product of the country and is a key player in the economy. Therefore, it would be in the interest of the Government to ensure that it remains healthy and the trading community are not subjected to these proposed provisions.

“As a representative of the industry trade body, we are Tiffany Charm bracelet up the matter with the Finance Ministry and apex chambers and hope that the changes are brought about before it is finally enacted,” he said.

Move over ladies- it’s time for the boys to strut the catwalk! Drop Dead Tiffany Bangles(TM) Cocktails & Couture combines some of Atlanta’s favorite “models” and the latest styles as its avenue for advocacy. TJ Duckett, Niko Karatassos, Pano Karatassos, Richie Arpino, Rob Marciano, Adi Allushi, Reco Chapple, Scott Strumlauf, Vincent Martinez, Derek Blanks and more have taken a stand against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in a fun informal fashion show May 20, 2010 to be held at Tongue & Groove. America’s Next Top Model Alum and DDG(TM) Spokesmodel, Bre Scullark hosts, and Susan Muscari and Bronni Karatassos co-chair this year’s event.

Drop Dead Gorgeous (DDG)(TM) is a social justice organization, which utilizes the fashion and entertainment industries as its vehicle to reduce demand for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC). DDG(TM) recognizes the tremendous amount of influence these industries have over culture, and aspires to harness their influence in order to begin a global movement to reduce demand for CSEC through awareness, education, and giving. The May 20th event invites Atlantans to take part in the movement over Tiffany Bracelets and hottest men’s fashions. Cocktails & Couture kicks off with a 7:00 pm VIP reception, followed by the fashion show, with raffle and giveaways throughout the night.

According to the FBI, Atlanta ranks as one of the top cities in the nation for child sex trafficking, but most Atlanta residents have no idea this issue exists in their city. Drop Dead Gorgeous(TM) will address this issue through advocacy, awareness, and education. After drug dealing, human trafficking (meaning forced labor or sexual servitude) is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world today, and it is the fastest growing (*US Department of Health & Human Services, Human Trafficking Fact Sheet).

Along with Tongue & Groove(TM), DDG(TM) is sponsored by Bluepoint of Buckhead Life Restaurant Group(TM). Tickets are $45.00 for VIP and $25.00 general admission. Cocktails & Couture is the precursor to the Drop Dead Gorgeous(TM) Annual Fashion Benefit slated for September 23, 2010. For Tiffany Pendants or more information about DDG(TM), please visit www.ddgcharity.weebly.com.

Media inquiries/interview requests, please contact Carmen Cruz at 404-408-2103.

SOURCE Drop Dead Gorgeous

Michelle Obama is widely considered one of her husband’s biggest political discount tiffany. Like most first ladies, she has developed a strong following around the country, and 71 percent of Americans think she is doing a good job, according to a recent Associated Press poll. (Her husband’s approval rating is about 50 percent.) White House officials say it’s not yet clear how direct a role she will play on the campaign trail this year, but in 2008 she was constantly on the road promoting her husband. She emphasized the historic change her husband would bring as the first African-American president and the hope that he inspired in so many everyday people. She still prompts intense media attention and public interest in everything she does, and she is sure to lend her name and charisma to the administration’s agenda.

“Her role is where policy and people intersect,” says Katie McCormick-Lelyveld, the first lady’s press secretary. This is a contrast to Hillary Clinton, spouse of the last Democratic president, who was deeply involved in healthcare legislation and other issues. And it is closer to the example set by Laura Bush, who promoted reading as her special project but was mostly an appealing supporter of her husband, George W. Bush, a Republican and Barack Obama’s predecessor.

Obama considers herself first and foremost a mom to the first couple’s young daughters, Malia and Sasha. And to the surprise of her critics from the campaign, she is rather traditional in her choice of projects to take on as first lady. She is promoting such noncontroversial goals as federal assistance to military families, a Tiffany Bangles to public service, and, her project for 2010, leading the “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity through “healthy eating and healthy families.”

She has started a highly publicized White House garden to underscore the importance of fresh vegetables and fruit as the cornerstones of good nutrition. The images of the first lady digging in the dirt behind the presidential mansion, harvesting sweet potatoes, lettuce, and other staples, not only sets an example for home gardeners but also has helped Michelle alter her image as a fashionista who might be a bit too interested in clothes.

There is a little-known personal side to her cause. A few years ago, a family doctor said that the Obama girls had a “body mass index issue,” a nice way of saying they were gaining too much weight. So Barack and Michelle Obama told Malia and Sasha they needed to exercise more frequently and be careful about junk foods. Michelle admits to a weakness for french fries, but has disciplined herself not to eat them too often. Barack limited his intake of cheeseburgers, one of his favorite foods. “Her philosophy is, if you want a cheeseburger, you Tiffany Bracelets have a cheeseburger,” says a family friend. “But don’t have it every day.”

Obama rarely talks directly about race, even though she is the first African-American to serve as first lady. But she clearly believes she can be a role model for young blacks. At Anacostia High School in one of Washington’s poorest neighborhoods, one of her many appearances at public schools in the majority-black capital, she told the students about her early life. “We didn’t have a lot of money,” the first lady said. “I lived in the same house my mother lives in now … I went to public schools. The fact is I had somebody around me who helped me understand hard work. I had parents who told me, ‘Don’t worry about what other people say about you.’ I worked really hard. I did focus on school. I wanted an ‘A.’ I wanted to be smart. Kids would say, ‘You talk funny. You talk like a white girl.’ I didn’t know what that meant.”

Her press secretary says Obama wants young African-Americans, especially girls, to realize that they can be achievers. “She wants people to see themselves in the White House, to see it as a place for all, where they can feel at home, where they belong,” says McCormick-Lelyveld. It could be that serving as an Tiffany Pendants is Michelle Obama’s most important mission.

Maybe because of the way its bourgeois tendencies keep clashing with its elitist ambitions, the novel is a literary form that writers have never been able to resist reinventing. There are epistolary novels and those in the form of diaries, wordless picture novels, graphic novels and novels written as dictionaries and encyclopedias. The Serbian writer Milorad Pavic may win the prize: he has attempted novels disguised as a crossword puzzle, a tarot book and even a clepsydra, an ancient water clock (at least conceptually; the pages are dry).

That a work of fiction has now assumed the form of an auction catalog could be seen as a sign of the Valentine’s Day gift — deeply materialistic and, with a big recession on, increasingly for sale. But the artist and writer Leanne Shapton said that the idea for her novel, being published this week by Farrar Straus & Giroux under the unwieldy title “Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry,” came to her because she noticed how the lot descriptions in some estate catalogs added up to elliptical plots about the lives of the former possessors.

When Bonhams & Butterfields, the auction house, sold more than 300 items of Truman Capote’s personal effects in 2006, Ms. Shapton bought some of his clothing, including three of his raincoats and some scarves, which she gave as gifts. (“It’s really morbid, I know,” she said.) “It was in reading that catalog that it struck me that it was like reading a kind of autobiography of Capote’s later years, especially the last years of his life in California,” said Ms. Shapton, 35, who is a well-known illustrator and the art director of the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.

Her book tells the story of a hopeful young New York couple and their four-year relationship almost completely through their things, many of which end up unceremoniously, and improbably, under the gavel: books, pajamas, bedside lamps, a stuffed squirrel, an astrakhan coat, the winning half of a wishbone and lots of notes, inscriptions and e-mail messages that start out giddy and become slowly more complicated, angry and sorrowful.

If there were a real failed-relationship auction house named Strachan & Quinn, where the sale is supposed to take place on Valentine’s Day, the event might actually draw a modest crowd, if only because the fictional Hal Morris, a globe-trotting photographer in his early 40s, and Lenore Doolan, who is presented as a late-20s cake tiffany bracelets for The Times’s Dining section, are generally more meticulous than conspicuous in their consumption.

Hal asks Lenore to move in with him by sending her a case of 1989 Calon-Segur Bordeaux (auction estimate $55 to $95 for the remaining bottles); she informs him of her growing affection by altering the title page of May Sarton’s novel “Kinds of Love” to read, “I Kind of Love You” (estimate $55 to $75). Their first serious tryst happens at the St. Regis (estimate for Lenore’s handwritten note on hotel stationery, $10 to $20); they have great taste in clothes and bands and vintage paperbacks; and even their doodads, like a teapot in the shape of a dog (estimate $12 to $20), seem imbued with discrimination.

“It’s sort of about how reliant we are on our things to define us,” Ms. Shapton said, acknowledging that there is a strain of what she described as somewhat “suffocating discernment” running through the protagonists’ lives.

“But I wanted to balance that with a pretty genuine love of very private meaning,” she said, adding that most of the things put up for sale are “those kinds of things that mean everything to the person who owned them and nothing to anyone else.”

Ms. Shapton recruited two of her friends, Sheila Heti, a Toronto fiction writer, and Paul Sahre, a graphic designer who does work for The Times, to stand in for the fictional characters, posing elegantly together in pictures at fake parties and laughing arm in arm in various locations where Ms. Shapton shot them last summer as she pieced the story together.

As for the stuff, much of it came from secondhand stores or garage sales, though some of it — for example, 18 bras on a double-page spread, looking like something from a Victoria’s Secret catalog or a lost Ed Ruscha photographic project — was hers. This includes a vintage baby outfit that Ms. Shapton and an old tiffany cufflinks once bought together as an expression of their desire to someday make a family together and that appears in the book seeming to serve the same purpose for Hal and Lenore.

“There are just those relationships you think are going to go the distance but they don’t,” Ms. Shapton said in an interview over a cup of coffee. She added that her current boyfriend (James Truman, the former editorial director of Conde Nast) told her that he was worried when she started on the auction-breakup-novel project that it might lead to their own breakup. But instead he proposed over the holidays, and she accepted.

Lenore and Hal, sadly, never quite make it, an ending the reader begins to sense less than a few hundred lots in, when Sylvia Plath books start showing up and when, even amid the cans of designer house paint that evoke full-scale co-habitation, there is a Playbill with Lenore’s handwritten accusation: “Why go through my e-mail?” By the time you get to the Hermes watch Hal gave Lenore to apologize for his bad behavior when she told him she might be pregnant (she wasn’t), you know the end is very near.

But all hope isn’t lost. The auction house, perhaps trying to hook buyers with a bit of intrigue, begins the catalog with a recent note from Hal to Lenore in which Hal writes that he and his current girlfriend are taking a break. “Alone again!” he reports.

At least one possession-obsessed novelist, John O’Hara, would have approved: “For the sake of verisimilitude and realism,” he wrote, “you cannot positively give the impression of an ending: you must let something hang. A cheap interpretation of that would be to say that you must always leave a chance for a sequel.”

Nelson Peltz, the US activist investor, last night filed with US regulators to raise up to Dollars 750m from stock market investors for a large shell company that will pursue acquisitions.

Trian Acquisition I Corporation will have until late 2009 to identify an acquisition target and take control of it using at least 80 per cent of its assets.

Trian Acquisition I plans to sell 75m units in itself for Dollars 10 each.

The addition of a “special purpose acquisition company”, as such entities are known, follows Mr Peltz’s decision three years ago to raise a dedicated fund for activist investments, known as Trian Partners.

He is also chairman of Triarc, the publicly traded holding company for Arby’s, the sandwich chain, and Deerfield & Company, the Chicago-based asset manager.

The Trian Spac prospectus says no industry has yet been identified for the acquisition and there is no deal in mind.

Spacs have been used to acquire Navios, the shipping company, and Jamba Juice, the fruit juice chain.

Mr Peltz and his team, including long-time associates Peter May and Edward Garden, have campaigned for change at several big companies in recent years.

These include Wendy’s International, the US hamburger chain, Cadbury Schweppes, the UK drinks and confectionery group, HJ Heinz, the ketchup and baked beans group based in Pittsburgh, and Tiffany, the jewellery group.

However, these moves have involved taking minority stakes in large companies and putting pressure on management to adopt certain changes in strategy. With a Spac, Mr Peltz will have to take full control of a business.

Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Maxim Group are underwriting the initial public offering, according to the prospectus.

Malibu, Calif.-Answering the question of what to give when cost is no object, Robb Report magazine emphasizes fine jewelry in its “Ultimate Gift Guide,” launched in November.

The publication features 21 exclusive items only available for order through the magazine, including the 76.45-carat D– color flawless diamond owned by Archduke Joseph August, a Hungarian prince of the Hapsburg dynasty and husband to Princess Au guste of Bavaria. This $25 million gem, pictured on the cover of the magazine, is classified as a Golconda diamond and comes as part of a $27 million gift that includes a $2 million necklace adorned with Millennium diamonds, pictured below.

Also within the pages of the guide is a less– expensive yet opulent Harry Winston locket. This special $40,000 item holds a sample of actual moon dust. Personally designed by Ronald Winston, CEO of the jewelry company and son of Harry Winston, the heart-shaped, white gold locket features a half-carat diamond on the front and an interior light that illuminates a portion of the moon dust.

Tiffany & Co. and Patek Philippe have created a limited-edition watch in commemoration of the 150th year of the two companies’ affiliation. The T 150 watch features unique mechanical movements, a Tiffany “T” at the 12 o’clock position and an engraved image of the original Geneva Patek Philippe store on the back of the closed case. Tiffany & Co. has reserved three of these timepieces for Robb Report’s “Ultimate Gift Guide”: an 18-karat rendering available in white gold and rose gold for $22,500 each, and an 18-karat yellow gold piece for $21,000.

Erin Stelmach beamed as she recalled the moment she knew she had a knack for designing jewelry.

It was 1999, and the Buddy Dog Humane Society in Sudbury was holding an auction. Stelmach, then a volunteer at the society’s shelter, designed a small silver teardrop charm with a raised paw print. She wasn’t sure anyone would want it. As the bidding climbed to $100, she was stunned.

Afterward, Stelmach immediately called her husband, Michael, exclaiming, “It sold!”

“People came up and asked, `Can you make more?’” Stelmach recounted. “I said, `Sure.’”

At her home in the Jefferson section of Holden the other day, Stelmach held her dog, Lilly, a Maltese, on her lap as she explained how she creates her designs. From the outset, she knew she didn’t want to make “cute” jewelry.

“I started making designs I would wear myself,” Stelmach said. “I wanted something you can wear even around non-dog people.”

After the paw print, Stelmach created a dog bone. She uses the paw print and the bone in a variety of ways – for necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets, rings, key rings and identification tags. Some pieces are cast from molds and others are engraved on round, diamond and heart shaped tags. She uses sterling silver, brass, stainless steel and gold. Occasionally, she incorporates stones. Her casting, soldering and stone setting are done elsewhere. She does her own polishing and assembly work.

A new creation often evolves from the previous one.

“I tend to look at something after I make it and say, `This piece is done, but what if I try adding this or changing that?’” she said. “Sometimes, I’ll end up creating an entirely different piece, like starting with a pendant and ending up with a ring.”

Stelmach’s love of animals is reflected in all of her creations. Indeed, a much-loved dog inspired the name of her business, Sleeping Bear Company, which she formed in 2000.

Bear was a pug the Stelmachs adopted when they answered a “free to a good home” ad placed in a newspaper by a breeder in New Hampshire. Bear was in ill health and nearly blind. The Stelmachs had him for 10 years; he died in 2005.

“Every time I sketched out a design, Bear would always be sleeping at my feet,” Stelmach said. “Not one of them was created without Bear. He was my muse.”

Stelmach sells her jewelry at shelters and humane society fund-raisers, among other venues. She always donates a portion of the proceeds to the cause.

“I couldn’t just sell my stuff and keep the money,” she said. “It sounds corny to say it, but Bear gave me so much I really do want to give back.”

Indeed, Stelmach, 39, pretty much dedicates her life to improving the lot of dogs and cats.

A few years ago, she moved from volunteer to full-time employee at Buddy Dog. As an adoption counselor, Stelmach cares for the animals and helps each prospective owner find the right pet. She also is a receptionist at the Integrative Animal Health Center in Bolton.

Not surprisingly, Stelmach’s home is a refuge for former shelter inhabitants.

A year ago, she brought Lilly home. “Lilly wouldn’t let anyone else touch her,” Stelmach said, her blond hair spilling over her shoulder as she gave her tiny white dog a kiss. “She would bark and run away.”

Lilly goes to work with her owner every day. “She keeps me from talking to myself in the car,” Stelmach said with a chuckle.

Mugsy, a 16-year-old Pekingese-dachshund mix, now totters around the Stelmach residence. He had bad teeth and a serious heart murmur. He was sleeping on a hard floor, and no one wanted him. Kelsey, 9, a shepherd-Lab mix, was 10 months old and had been at the shelter her whole life. Stelmach couldn’t let that situation continue.

Three cats – Zelda, Tinker and Rosie – all shelter adoptees, round out the menagerie. Stelmach pointed out that her paw print design is as appropriate for cats and cat lovers as it is for those inclined toward canines.

Stelmach was a student at Lesley College studying management and art when she got hooked on jewelry design. She had a summer job next door to Joel Bagnal Goldsmith in Wellesley. The owners offered her a job during the holidays. She soaked up everything she could from their designer, who let her apprentice in his workshop in Rhode Island.

She went on to intern at Tiffany & Co. in Boston and ended up staying five years. She worked in sales and then customer service, handling repairs, special orders and engraving. Seeking more experience on the manufacturing side, she took a job with Ozcan Inc. She ordered stones, set prices and tracked inventory. Meanwhile, she studied at the Museum of Fine Arts and dabbled in jewelry design at every opportunity.

For the first five years, Sleeping Bear grew gradually. Then a year ago, the jewelry began to get wider exposure after Stelmach met Erny Isabelle at a Worcester Animal Rescue League fund-raiser. Isabelle, a manager for Especially for Pets, a retailer with six locations in Massachusetts, was immediately intrigued with Stelmach’s designs.

“I bought several pieces right then and there,” Isabelle said.

Isabelle invited Stelmach to set up a table from time to time at each of the stores. Isabelle was particularly enthusiastic, she said, because both her company and Stelmach are dedicated to animal welfare.

“I told her, `You’re the kind of person who fits with us,’ Isabelle said. “The stores love her jewelry and her. It’s simple and wears really well.”

Besides appearances at Especially for Pets stores and at animal events, Stelmach sells her jewelry online at www.sleepingbearcompany.com and www.etsy.com. It is also available at Buddy Dog and Integrative Animal Health Center. Her prices range from $10 to $225 for a gold teardrop paw print charm with a diamond; most of the pieces cost $35 to $55. Stelmach now spends about 10 hours a week on her jewelry. Her goal is to devote full time to Sleeping Bear and return to her volunteer status at Buddy Dog. The future looks bright. Always delighted to break even, she has started to turn a profit.

Stelmach laughed and recounted a recent incident she found exceedingly encouraging.

Her mother is a salesperson at Lord & Taylor. Not long ago, she was wearing a teardrop pendant, and a customer remarked that her husband had bought one for her. Stelmach’s mother exclaimed, “Oh, my daughter makes them!”

Although consumer spending may be down, there’s one area where many Americans are willing to forego the budget and that’s romance. In fact, according to the just-released National Retail Federation’s 2009 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch, this year the number of flower purchases will be nearly the same as last year. The survey revealed over one-third (35.7 percent) of people will buy flowers compared to last year’s 35.9 percent.

To meet the demand for beautiful flowers, Florverde(R)-certified farms are planning to ship more than 300 million stems to the U.S. in time for Valentine’s Day. Two out of every three flowers sold in the U.S. are grown in Colombia and the majority of these blooms are grown on the 163 farms participating in the tiffany jewellery Florverde program.

“Florverde is a third-party certification program that represents a commitment to social and environmental responsibility by Colombian flower growers,” said Augusto Solano, president of Asocolflores, the Association of Colombian Flower Exporters. “When Americans purchase flowers this Valentine’s Day, they are not only expressing an act of love and communicating emotions, but also supporting businesses in the United States as well as global environmental progress and social programs that help Colombian flower workers and their families.”

Florverde farms have greatly contributed to improving the quality of life of their workers, as well as preserving the environment. As of December 2008, the more than 163 Colombian farms participating in the program together amount to 5787 acres of flower production in Colombia. There are nearly 45,000 workers benefiting from the Florverde programs and more than 700 million flower stems certified under this program are shipped throughout the world.

About Florverde

Established in 1996, labeled with Spanish name meaning “green flowers,” the Florverde program valentines bracelets has made ongoing advancements to improve Colombian workers’ quality of life and to ensure Colombian-grown flowers meet specific environmental standards. The Florverde-certification program was created by Asocolflores with a vision to lead the flower industry and improve practices by establishing and regulating a set of social and environmental standards, as well as a code of conduct. Validating the progress, GlobalG.A.P. (The Global Partnership for Good Agricultural Practice) recognized Florverde’s socio-environmental practices with the GlobalGAP international seal; Florverde and GlobalGAP standards are now equivalent and mutually accepted by all trading partners. The GlobalGAP seal and standard is one of the most important and recognizable certifications in the world promoting sustainable agricultural practices.

“The standards of these two certifications — Florverde and GlobalGAP — preserve and protect fertile soil and natural resources with the mission of achieving sustainable agriculture,” stated Solano. “Retailers, flower wholesalers and consumers around the world will continue to embrace with confidence the beautiful flowers that come from our beautiful country.”

Colombia, Land of Flowers

From the rich, fertile soil and the beautiful year-round climate to cultural pride, Colombia truly is a land valentines cufflinks of beauty and flowers. To further support the Colombian flower industry and image of this beautiful land, Colombian flower growers have launched a new, global branding initiative — Colombia, Land of Flowers. The worldwide marketing campaign was created to build brand recognition among consumers, floral retailers and wholesalers as well as to provide assurance of the quality and social responsibility of the Colombian flower industry.

Singing valentines are nothing new. Barbershop choruses such as the Greensboro Tarheel Chorus and Winston-Salem’s Triad Harmony Express have been doing it for years.

This year, though, a High Point choral group will deliver singing valentines exclusively in tiffany jewellery High Point.

Senior Class, a 1950s and ’60s group sponsored by the Roy B. Culler Senior Center, is offering — for a fee of $50 — to send your sweetheart a Valentine’s Day package featuring an eight-person ensemble, a live red rose and a greeting card.

The singing valentines will be available on Valentine’s Day only, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“Last year, the Greensboro Tarheel Chorus and Triad Harmony Express both sang over a hundred valentines for people in the Triad,” says Dennis Eaton, the group’s director. “So I decided I wanted to try it here in High Point, since there’s no specific singing group that targets High Point only.”

Dressed in red, white and pink for Valentine’s Day, the mixed ensembles will sing three songs silver bracelets from a repertoire of six that includes “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” “True Love,” “If I Give My Heart To You,” “The Alphabet Song,” “Why?” and “You, You, You.”

For recipients who have a piano at their home or place of business, a pianist will accompany the ensemble on the piano; if not, the accompanist will play a keyboard instead, according to Eaton.

Senior Class is a group of nearly two dozen seniors, ranging in age from 60 to 90, who perform music — mostly rock “n’ roll — from the 1950s and ’60s. Proceeds from the singing valentines will be used to buy costumes and cover other expenses incurred by the group.

Appointments are limited and will be made on a first-come, first-served basis, Eaton says.

“I’ve done this for years (with the Greensboro and Winston-Salem groups), and we’ve always silver cufflinks been really successful at singing and making money,” he says. “I thought it might be fun to experiment and see how well we do here in High Point. If it’s really popular, then we’ll expand it and do even more next year.”

The U.S. Air Force Material Command issued the following press release:

By Ron MullanOklahoma City Air Logistics Center Public Affairs

For Carol Oakley, the POW/MIA tiffany and co bracelet tucked carefully away in her jewelry box for 14 years was near and dear to her heart.

The name on the bracelet was Maj. Frederick Ransbottom, an Oklahoman still missing in action from the Vietnam War. But for Ms. Oakley, F100 requirements flight chief with the 540th Combat Sustainment Squadron here, events would unfold that would make Major Ransbottom more than a name on a bracelet.

POW/MIAs have always had a special place in Ms. Oakley’s heart and prayers. She bought her first POW/MIA bracelet when she was in high school in 1970.

“I wore it for two-and-a-half years and never took it off,” Ms. Oakley said. “It was one of the early ones made of nickel and it began to develop a crack on the top of it.”

When the Soldier whose name was on the bracelet came home from the Vietnam War, she took off the cracked bracelet and put it in her jewelry box for safe keeping. In 1992, she discovered half of the bracelet on her patio.

“One of my children had gotten a hold of it and was playing with it,” Ms. Oakley said. “I never found the other half.”

The loss of the bracelet was distressing.

“That bracelet meant a lot to me, I wore it for a purpose,” Ms. Oakley said. “It was my way of supporting our servicemen and women. I wanted to get another bracelet.”

Later that year, while on a business trip to Washington, D.C., Ms. Oakley would get her wish.

“I was visiting the Vietnam War Memorial and off to the side was a Kiosk,” Ms. Oakley said. “They had POW/MIA bracelets and I bought one with the name of Maj. Frederick Ransbottom, from Oklahoma, on it.”

Though the war had been over for a long time, Ms. Oakley knew the major had not returned. Instead of wearing the bracelet, she took it home and placed it in her jewelry box.

“I wasn’t going to let another one break in half,” she said.

Over the years, she continued to pray for his return as well as others listed as missing in action.

A few weeks ago, she saw a news report that the remains of a Major Ransbottom from Oklahoma City had been recovered, identified and would be returned to Oklahoma for internment.

“I knew immediately that was the name on my bracelet,” Ms. Oakley said.

She called her daughter and told her that the name on the bracelet was that of the recently identified MIA Soldier. Ms. Oakley’s daughter is an executive news producer for a local television station. Her daughter called Ms. Oakley the next day and told Ms. Oakley that the station was doing an interview with Major Ransbottom’s mother, Laverne, who lives in Edmond, Okla. Ms. Ransbottom indicated that she wanted to meet Ms. Oakley.

“When we met, I presented my bracelet to her and told her that I thought it belonged to her and placed it on her wrist,” Ms. Oakley said. “We hugged and Laverne told me that ‘I’ve received a lot of bracelets in my life, but none prettier than this one.’”

The two women visited for an hour-and-a-half as Ms. Ransbottom talked about her son, his life growing up and her 38-year struggle to find him.

“Laverne has a corner of her hallway devoted to her son filled with pictures, telegrams and other memorabilia,” Ms. Oakley said. “She never gave up hope in finding him.”

When Major Ransbottom’s effects were returned to his mother, she invited Ms. Oakley to cufflinks come see them. Among his effects were his billfold, his dog tags and a class ring, undamaged, from Putnam City High School. The identification process was aided by the fact that his military identification card was intact.

“His name was clearly legible,” Ms. Oakley said. “Ironically, at the bottom of the card you could read, ‘If found, please drop in U.S. Post Office Box.’ Laverne thought that was kind of comical.”

Ms. Ransbottom plans to have a memorial service for her son in January 2007. Ms. Oakley plans to be there. She also plans on continuing the friendship. And she has already purchased another POW/MIA bracelet to replace the one she returned to Ms. Ransbottom.