By James Kwee

Diana Meunier is an especially sweet volunteer and contributor to Cheerful Givers – literally! Meunier owns and operates Pippy’s Sweets and Sweet Stuff Designs. She has been able to successfully use her resources and expertise from her delectable enterprises to aid the Cheerful Givers cause. In the Birthday Bag department, Meunier has both donated goodies from her sweetshop and books from Penguin Group. She has also used her graphic design abilities to create signs and graphics for Cheerful Givers. Particularly noteworthy are the gifts and other small tokens of appreciation that she and Cheerful Givers President Karen Kitchel put together to thank volunteers. On top of all this, she also donated gift baskets for fundraiser events. Pippy’s Sweets is an online business catering to the necessities of New York City brides, specializing in personalized pre-made chocolates and cookies for special events. The idea for the shop came to Meunier out of the planning and participating she did for her own wedding and for events for family and friends. While concocting edibles for these events, she discovered there was something she liked more than the taste of chocolate: making, molding and wrapping chocolate. Soon after her wedding in 2004, incited by her love of embellishing chocolates and encouraged by her husband, Meunier’s ideas and aspirations found birth in Pippy’s Sweets (the name was derived from a childhood nickname). The sweetshop offers the personalized wrapping of candy bars, hand decorated cookies, and various other personalized items. In addition to Pippy’s Sweets, Meunier owns and operates Sweet Stuff Designs, another online business that offers custom invitations.

Meunier first stumbled upon Cheerful Givers in an article featured in the March 21, 2005 issue of People magazine—her favorite weekly read. Touched by the charity’s unique outreach, Meunier took things a step further and contacted Cheerful Givers, eager to learn how to get involved in the cause. Since then, she has been able to use her resources and skills to contribute. “[Gift giving is] better than just giving money. Oftentimes you don’t know if your money . . . [is] really making a difference,” says Meunier, “[With Cheerful Givers] you can clearly see the benefits.”

Drawing upon her business background, Meunier is currently working with Karen Kitchel on a new concept to raise money for Cheerful Givers. The plan is to introduce Cheerful Givers into the wedding sphere in New York City; a world in which, thanks to Pippy’s Sweets and Sweet Stuff Designs, Meunier is an insider—making it much more accessible to Cheerful Givers. “[People can make] donations in lieu of favors to Cheerful Givers. Donating instead of buying favors seems to be a growing trend. Couples like to donate a lump sum of money in their guests’ names and leave a little note at their wedding for their guests,” explained Meunier.

Looking ahead, she said she is hoping to provide Cheerful Givers with a chance to receive new donations and has also submitted an entry into her company’s Community Award Challenge. “ I believe they pick five winners in October. The charity gets a $2000 donation and the employee gets $500 to do with whatever they want. I hope Cheerful Givers gets picked . . . I would take that $500 and get my whole department in on making as many gift bags as we could,” says Meunier.

So what drives Meunier to dedicate so much of her time and resources to Cheerful Givers? “I love Cheerful Givers and I think it’s a fabulous organization. They put in an un-ending amount of work and I truly believe they are making a difference in the lives of children.” On a concluding note, Meunier offers a word of advice to people curious about how to get involved: “I think just getting the word out is a great contribution. The word of mouth is very powerful . . . the more people know, the more they can get involved. . . I hope to help Karen get the word out about all the great work Cheerful Givers does.”

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