USANA Notebook: Lending a Hand, Promoting a Vision

Photo from ICOatitlan.blogspot.com

I’d like to open the latest USANA Notebook with a note about an Associate doing some great work in Guatemala. Dr. John Snively, from British Columbia, is currently volunteering in San Antonio Palopo to provide much needed dentistry assistance for the residents.

It’s part of an overall humanitarian effort. According to the ICOatitlan blog, “the 2011 initiative will provide energy efficient stoves, much needed medicines, support for our vibrant Social Center, donations of school supplies and repairs to the temporary school to provide a safe and healthy environment for the 450 young children.”

John, who arrived in the area in late January, is already making a difference but he’s also witnessing how much more needs to be done.

“It would be an incredible place for CHF to provide USANA vitamins as the malnutrition is dramatic,” John wrote. “So many children delayed both physically and mentally. Many women have no breast milk to give their babies and no money for formula. To see 3-year-olds with all their teeth decayed to the gum line is tragic indeed.”

Read about all the wonderful things John and the other volunteers are doing to help those in need. Thanks to USANA Silver Director Karen Ross for letting me know about John’s efforts. To learn a little more about John, here’s a great post he wrote earlier this month.

Are You in the Club?
Celebrity trainer and USANA spokesperson Kathy Kaehler is a firm believer in living an active lifestyle and eating right.

Her Sunday Set-Up™ program is extremely popular and she recently launched an all-new club to give members access to exclusive recipes and regular webisodes of Kathy in the kitchen with celebrity clients cooking up a storm! You’ll definitely want to check it out and sign up to take advantage of a special limited-time offer.

In the News

Once again USANA and its immediate family is making headlines. Here is a sampling of the press mentions over the last month or so (thanks to PR Specialist Diana Yin for compiling this list):

• Kathy Kaehler works out with the hosts of Access Hollywood Live while promoting RESET Kit.
• Jim Brown, USANA’s vice president of operations, talks about the importance of quality control with Contract Manufacturing and Packaging Magazine (pages 15-16).
• USANA’s ConsumerLab awards — No. 1 Rated Overall Merchant Based on Customer Satisfaction and the No. 1 Rated Direct Sales Merchant Based on Customer Satisfaction — are featured in this tradingmarkets.com article.
• Kathy Kaehler gives fitness tips as a USANA spokesperson on AOL’s Stylelist.
• Dr. John Cuomo, USANA’s executive director of research and development, is quoted on this medical news site talking about the new USDA dietary guidelines.
• Rev3 led this StyleCaster list of effective, healthier alternatives to crash-and-burn energy drinks. Take a look! 
• Here’s a fun one that led up to the Oscars. USANA’s own Senior Scientist Brian Dixon shares some knowledge.

The Power of Rev3
Lisa Kuftinec passed along a fun story from our friend David Gunn (you might remember him from this post).

David was watching the evening news on his local ABC affiliate in Texas when he heard the anchors preview an upcoming segment about energy drinks.

During the casual banter that’s typical before the commercial break, the meteorologist said, “I love energy drinks but they sometimes have a crash.”

David hopped on his computer and sent an e-mail to the station with a little information about Rev3 Energy, while also explaining that he wasn’t trying to sell anything, just letting him know about the product. He concluded his e-mail by saying he would be happy to drop some off at the station if he would like to try it.

Now the cool part: About 4 minutes later, as they’re wrapping up the story on energy drinks, the person David just sent the e-mail to read it on the air: “I just got an email from David in New Braunfels and he tells me a drink called Rev3 is used by some Olympic athletes and doesn’t have a crash. It’s made by a company called USANA.”

Needless to say, David will be dropping off some Rev3 at the TV station. Great story!

What’s the Buzz?
If you don’t “like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, you likely are missing lots of exciting news that is perfect to share as you talk to people about USANA. Here are a few of the more popular topics being discussed on those channels in the last month:

• Check out the above video for some highlights to star-studded events USANA’s attended in the last two years. Whoops! Looks like we’ll have to update it after our recent trip to L.A.
• Heart Health Awareness Month is coming to a close, and several posts and tweets offered information about USANA’s commitment to heart health. Check out this post…and this one.
• USANA made an appearance in InTouch Weekly. It proved to be incredibly popular on Facebook.
• And of course, our trip to Anaheim for the U.S. Cross Regional Conference (XRC) created quite a bit of chatter.

Exciting New Look and Feel
Our friends at Vérité helped us create this super-cool dynamic “Your USANA tab” on the USANA Health Sciences, Inc. Facebook page, as well as this slick “A Winning Team” tab for our USANA Athletes page! Please let us know what you think of the tabs and what additional information you might like to see there in the future.

Plus, as I type this we are putting the finishing touches on What’s Up, USANA? and Corporate Blog redesigns. I think you’re really going to like the new look and functionality. Stay tuned…

Dr. Tim Wood

And Finally…
In February, USANA announced that Dr. Tim Wood, executive vice president of research and development, would be retiring from full-time work at USANA on March 31. Here’s a message from Dave Wentz on the Corporate Blog. We wish Dr. Wood the best in his future endeavors.

USANA Notebook is an occasional series of posts in which I compile various tidbits from within the corporate walls or from out in the field. The series will also at times include commentary on what’s happening throughout our industry and in social media. As always, please share this information with your networks and feel free to send along information that could be included in future posts.