Taking a Break

My name is Alicia Voorhies and I'm a RN who left the work force to spend some time recharging.  I enjoyed working as Director of Nursing for a non-profit organization to care for people with developmental disabilities in a home-based setting.  But I began to suffer from that old familiar burn out, so I decided to take a nice long sabbatical - and ended up never going back.  So how do you take a break from nursing and then somehow end up starting a hybrid information/product-based business anyway?  Fast forward to December 2006, when I was first introduced to Bisphenol-a (BPA) . . . 

It all started when my sister moved with her family from our Midwest town to the East Coast.  She called me one morning after taking her son to their new doctor, where she was promptly told to immediately throw out the clear, hard plastic baby bottle she was using in his office.  She was seriously concerned that she was dealing with a doctor who was off his rocker, so she turned to me, the medical research geek for help.  I set out that day to prove him wrong.  Instead, hundreds of medical studies would only prove him right.  The more research I poured over, the more I began to see a pattern of chemicals leaching from plastic to disrupt the delicate endocrine system - especially in children.   I knew we needed safer options right away and began searching for a non-polycarbonate baby bottle.  I quickly realized how limited the information was and how few options were available.  At that time, there were only two brands being marketed as BPA-free.  Beyond that, I was left swimming in an endless sea of unlabeled plastic!  My mission became clear and we opened the doors to The Soft Landing in April of 2007.  Now I work with my team (my three sisters and our Mom) to educate parents about the most prevalent environmental toxins harming our children today.

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November 8, 2009
Note: This Perspectives Blog post is written by a Guest Blogger of DrGreene.com and is provided in order to offer a variety of thoughtful points of view. The opinions expressed on this Perspectives Blog post do not reflect the opinions of Dr. Greene or DrGreene.com. As such, Dr. Greene and DrGreene.com are not responsible for the accuracy of the information supplied. This post is used under Creative Commons License CC BY-ND 3.0.
 
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Comments

Anonymous's picture

Wow FruitfulVine2 and Sarah

Wow FruitfulVine2 and Sarah Jo - thank you so much for your positive words and support!
Anonymous's picture

Alicia, I am so grateful for

Alicia, I am so grateful for all your hard work to help bring us factual information on safe products. Keep it up and I can only hope that more companies will see the reasons to change their materials and brand philosophies towards a pure, toxin-free and safe offering. Thank you, Sarah Jo
Anonymous's picture

Thanks for sharing the story

Thanks for sharing the story of your beginnings. Looking forward to reading your other posts.