More than half of Amway’s West Michigan employees volunteer in some way to help children.

But no one does it quite like Kraig Haybarker.

Kraig, who’s a distribution coordinator at our North American Regional Distribution Center,  is a Hospice Santa, making the holidays merry and bright for the youngest patients served by Hospice of Michigan. 

Hospice’s Early Care program provides support for children coping with a long-term illness or chronic condition.

Kraig, as Santa, just paid his third visit to three siblings who suffer from a genetic disorder that causes blindness, seizures and developmental complications. Violet, Willie and Carson Sherman, who have each lost their sight, have come to know the sound of this special Santa’s voice.  

Santa brought gifts of teddy bears, recorders, a copy of The Polar Express and bells from Dasher and Rudolph’s harnesses. 

But more than anything, he brought the joy of the season, which Kraig says he wishes could last all year long.  “Wouldn’t it be great if we all had that same smile, glow and happiness in our voice every time we met someone?” he wrote to the Shermans.

Kraig isn’t finished spreading good cheer.  The jolliest volunteer at Amway will host a live web chat today with Mlive  from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time and answer questions as Santa.

When Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel decided to expand Amway beyond U.S. borders in 1962, they didn’t go far.

That year Amway Canada launched in London, Ontario, as the company’s first international market, a four-hour drive away from our world headquarters in Ada, Michigan.

Today Amway Canada  commemorates its 50th anniversary. The celebration has been going on all year, through different events to mark the golden anniversary. A 50th anniversary video tells the story of Amway Canada from the perspectives of the distributors and employees who helped build our business there.  Others have shared thoughts and words on a “virtual memory wall” at Amway Canada’s Facebook page.   

Yesterday Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving.   Today, we give thanks for the distributors, employees and customers who have made Amway Canada what it is today.

More than seven decades ago, Carl F. Rehnborg introduced what’s believed to be the first multivitamin/multimineral food supplement, manufactured in a Quonset hut in Southern California.

Since then, NUTRILITE has become the world’s No. 1 selling vitamins and dietary supplements brand, and is the only global vitamin and mineral brand to grow, harvest and process plants on its own certified organic farms.

Today, Carl’s son Sam Rehnborg, Ph.D., and George Calvert, Ph.D., Amway Vice President of Research and Development and Supply Chain, were in a field in Quincy, Washington, to celebrate yet another milestone for the company.

Amway  broke ground on a $38 million botanical concentrate manufacturing facility that will process plants from the company’s nearby Trout Lake Farm operations. Trout Lake is the largest certified organic herb farm in North America.

The Quincy project is part of a $185 million manufacturing expansion we announced earlier this year to meet growing global demand for NUTRILITE products. Amway had sales of $4.7 billion for its nutritional products for 2011.

Check back at The Amway Insider and our Facebook page for photos from the groundbreaking ceremony and more about our growing nutrition business.

Nearly 180 of the 430 acres at Amway World Headquarters Campus in West Michigan are managed that boast more than 80 different species of wildlife habitat, including woods, wetlands and 8,000 feet of river frontage.

In protecting this land, Amway distributors, employees and leaders across the world take pride in our generations of environmental stewardship.  Since a photo speaks a 1,000 words, we thought a video could truly convey the beautiful serenity of our campus wildlife.

YouTube Direkt

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has come a long way since it was founded in 1912, today collecting and providing performance ratings on more than 4 million businesses in the United States and Canada.

In 2010, the BBB announced a relationship with the Direct Selling Education Foundation (DSEF) to help educate direct selling companies, their representatives and prospects, and their customers on their rights and responsibilities. That relationship has resulted in a number of blog posts counseling consumers on everything from how to identify a pyramid scheme to why we trust some people, but not others.

More importantly, formally agreeing to abide by the BBB Code of Business Practices is something that Amway and most of our industry peers have done, beginning with Avon in 1949. That long-term commitment means most of us earn the BBB’s A+ rating year after year.

It’s a grade we take pride in, and one we’ll all continue to strive for.

Amway Home products are top of the line, but don’t take our word for it. Check out a product demo and see for yourself.

To prove the effectiveness of our products, our Research and Development team creates product demos that compare our product performance to that of our competitors.

The Permanent Marker Demo, featuring our L.O.C. Kitchen Cleaner, is a favorite of the Home Care Product Development group. This demo shows a quick and simple solution to an everyday household problem – removing permanent marker from countertops and other surfaces.

Product demos are a powerful tool for our distributors to use in selling our products to customers. Russia and China reported that most distributors in those markets rate product demos as “important” or “very important” to their business. After the permanent marker demo was released in North America, we saw a significant increase in L.O.C. Kitchen Cleaner sales.

See for yourself the demonstrable quality of our products.

Nutrilite is in the process of launching new, natural source bone health products around the globe. As part of our work investigating ways to optimize bone health, we have embarked upon a partnership in North America with the International Osteoporosis Foundation, or IOF. If you’re from North America and you’ve purchased the new Ultimate Bone Health Solution product, you may have noticed the IOF logo on the package.

Teaming with the IOF gives us a way to help elevate osteoporosis awareness, along with the importance of proper nutrition, weight-bearing exercise and other lifestyle choices that contribute to healthy bones. The IOF maintains different committees within their organization, including the Committee of Corporate Advisors, and Nutrilite scientist Yumei Lin represents us on this committee.

Frankly, the number of people affected by weak bones across the globe is staggering. If you visit the IOF’s website you’ll learn that osteoporosis is often referred to as the “silent disease” because of its symptomless development. You won’t necessarily realize you have osteoporosis until a fracture occurs. In fact, around the world, an osteoporotic fracture is estimated to occur every 3 seconds with 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of 50, at risk of suffering one.

Bones are built up during childhood and adolescence, so you actually have a limited window to build bone strength earlier in your life that goes up into your thirties. As you get older you need to take preventive action to maintain your bone strength.

Understanding the nature of this issue is one step toward resolving it. Make the right nutrition choices that include sufficient calcium and protein, get enough vitamin D, and supplement when necessary. And be sure you keep active with regular weight-bearing exercises. Taking these steps will help to keep your bones healthy and strong, reducing your risk of having painful and disabling osteoporotic fractures.

More than 400 of our employees are getting fit.

In fact, they’re racing toward their optimal health, thanks to two “miles” of reward given for each minute that they exercise.   

Named after the legendary U.S. highway, Get Fit on Route 66 is a program that shows how fast employees can ”travel” the historic 2,448 miles stretching from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean.

The more employees exercise, the more miles they earn. While some employees quietly track their progress online, others publicly mark their mileage on large, brightly colored maps.

“It’s all about having fun and creating a sense of community,” said Sheila McCarrey, our Optimal You Wellness Program coordinator. 

Part of reaching optimal health is to enjoy the journey. Our goal is to reach the end of the road together.

 How does fun help motivate your healthy fitness habits?

Ever wonder how the stuff you use gets to you?

The staff at DC Velocity magazine did. So they recently followed the distribution process step by step at Amway — from the time one of our distributors places a customer order, to the moment the truck carrying these packages pulls away from our Michigan campus.

A video crew also tackled that question. As a result, our Midwest Regional Service Center now stars in the lead segment of “Move it!” — a web-based TV series focused on the $1.2 trillion U.S. logistics market.

The segment showcases our state-of-the-art distribution technology, including a sophisticated conveyor system designed to handle a wide range of consumer products — from lipstick and lotions to multi-purpose cleaning liquids. In addition, our B+ Carton Technology stations right size each shipping carton, by folding down the top edge of each box to match the height of the tallest product.

According to Deb Parme, vice president of North America Logistics, that attention to detail improves our customers’ experience by creating durable packaging that protects products during delivery. This efficient technology also helps minimize packaging materials needed per order.

Open for just six months, this super service center keeps our growing business on a roll.

We believe it’s important for people to have a safe, clean place to live.

Since the Amway One by One Campaign for Children partnered with Habitat for Humanity last year, distributors and employees across the Americas have worked hard to make that happen.

Here are three examples where our distributors and employees are building hope for others.

In Guatemala, Amway employees and distributors from the United States, Mexico, Barbados, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Colombia and El Salvador built a dozen homes. They also raised half a million dollars, matching a $250,000 gift of Tim Foley, longtime Amway distributor and Amway Founders Council member. These  funds will finance construction of more than 40 homes throughout Latin America over the next five years.

In São Paulo, Brazil, Amway distributors and employees raised nearly $5,000, and used it to renovate two homes. Their next  project? Already they are evaluating how to apply their time and talents to help people affected by the devastating floods in Rio de Janeiro.

Finally, after raising $16,000,  more than 25 Amway Colombia distributors, employees and their families constructed two homes in only two days.

Visit our Amway One by One blog to learn how we’re making a difference in 2012. Make your own difference, too, at Habitat for Humanity.