For days now, the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and surrounding areas have been on watch as yet another devastating hurricane heads their way.

With Hurricane Gustav poised to make landfall in a matter of hours, residents and community officials are been bracing themselves for the storm. Unwilling to watch a repeat of Katrina, Direct Relief International is taking every necessary precaution to ensure the high-risk areas are well stocked with emergency medical materials.

In addition to the 18 hurricane preparedness packs they distributed to clinics along the Gulf Coast this summer before hurricane season, Direct Relief began sending additional materials on Friday to alternate care sites at evacution shelters. Each pack provides 100 people treatment for a range of trauma and other conditions.

It would be truly heartbreaking to see another catastrophy happen, just a few short years after Katrina.

To do your part in helping the communities affected by Gustav, choose Direct Relief International as your cause on SocialVibe today!

For more information on how Direct Relief is taking action to protect against this natural disaster and to see all the latest updates, check out their site.

-SocialVibe

Happy Saturday all! I hope you are enjoying this long Labor Day weekend. I've got a little treat to make your weekend THAT much better. And that treat is... new PERKS from SocialVibe!

For the drawing on Septemer 5, 2008

Juicy Handbag from Juicy

Xbox 360 and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground from Volcom

Free T-Shirt from Dirty Shirty

Not too shabby at all! Remember, to enter, select the brand as your sponsor and add your badge to your social networks. The more days you have it up, the more perks entries you have. Good luck everyone!

Keep a close watch on the Vibe because I'll be announcing this week's perks winners SOON!!

-SocialVibe

We finally got our hands on some video footage of the SocialVibe crew at Warped Tour in Chula Vista! We had such an amazing time meeting all you guys. Not only did we get to spend the day with our members, but we also had the pleasure of hanging out with our good friends at PETA, To Write Love on Her Arms, and Invisible Children.

THEN! The dudes from 3OH!3 let us watch their performance from backstage.

It. Was. Awesome.

To see all the pics from Warped Tour, check out this post. We wish you could have all been there but believe me - this will NOT be the last opportunity! We hope to catch you next time!

See... SocialVibe is EVERYWHERE! Happy Friday everyone. Take your pink balls with you wherever you go this weekend!

-SocialVibe

SocialVibe is EVERYWHERE these days, and today we have a couple of awesome things to show you that will more than prove that point.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, we had some of our friends from Declare Yourself repping SocialVibe at the Democratic National Convention. Everyone's favorite pink ball was seen all over the floor in Denver, and we've got pics to prove it!

On the convention floor...

At the Obama speech last night!

At a gallery show for Shepard Fairey, the guy who designed the "Hope" posters!

Everywhere you go..

Who watched the speech last night? What did you think of it??

Edit: We had some technical difficulties with the last poll, so here is a new one - please vote first before clicking "View Results!"

No pics of Obama with pink ball in hand, but at least we were there! I still think we should make it our goal to get pics of both Presidential candidates with pink balls. Are you with me??

-SocialVibe

Owen Wilson has had quite a rough couple of years, but it seems he has finally found his solace - in buddy Woody Harrelson's eco-friendly, sustainable, solar-powered community in Hawaii!

The 39 year old actor spent some time with Harrelson in Peru last year after being hospitalized for a suicide attempt that summer. The duo spent their time volunteering at an orphanage and getting some major recoup/relaxing time at the Hanaq Pacha Retreat Center, an eco-friendly spiritual center (that looks way cool, by the way).

More recently, Wilson spent a week with his buddy at his completely solar-powered, sustainable community in Hawaii and fell in love. The environmentally friendly lifestyle features organic farming and 100% green living. Apparently he loved it so much he has put an offer on a home there! That should be great, hopefully it will help Owen turn over a new leaf and put all those troubles behind him.

A completely green community. That is SO cool, I would love to visit an eco-village like that and see how it all works. I have this picture of them running around on the island sort of like Tom Hanks in "Cast Away." Do you think they wear rags, grow their beards out, and run around spearing things? I sure hope so.

-SocialVibe

via ecorazzi

I know how much you guys love baby animals, and lets be honest - who doesn't? Even the toughest, manliest men can't resist oooh and aaahing over a picture like this. And although many of our members are vegetarians and support animal rights, I'm pretty sure they would consider chowing down on this animal-influenced sushi. But then again, this stuff is SO cute, you might not want to even want to eat it!

Let me just get right down to it - baby animal sushi. Coo away.

(more...)

Last month, we announced the three winners of our wildly successful Pink Ball Photo Contest. One of our winners, Vietnamita, just sent in a photo of her and the prize she won thanks to her fabulous photo. Check it out!

She won a Canon PowerShot 10.0 Megapixel Digital ELPH camera and Adope Photoshop Elements to jazz up her future pink ball photo shoots.

If you win a prize or perk from SocialVibe, send us pics of you and your loot! You know the address - editors@socialvibe.com. We want to share it with the entire community so that all the members can see just that it IS possible to win something for nothing!

-SocialVibe

Now that the golden boy of the Olympics has had some time to recoup from his winning streak of a record 8 gold medals, Michael Phelps is looking to take his fame into a different arena - entertainment! Totally understandable, considering how in-demand he is days.

First up, the human fish will be coming to you "live from New York" as the first host of the new season of Saturday Night Live on Sept 13. This is only the second time in history SNL has opened up a new season with an athlete, but considering the magnitude of Phelps' celebrity, I'm not surprised in the least. Phelps isn't known for his talking or comedic nature though, so it should be interesting to see what they come up with for his skits!

In addition to that hosting gig, rumor has it that Phelps will also be present at the MTV Music Video Awards on Sept 7! He has mentioned in multiple interviews how huge a fan of Lil' Wayne he is, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was announcing the rapper's performance at the VMAs.

Sports Illustrated has also turned his cover of him with his 8 gold medals into a poster and put up for sale. No SI cover in history has ever had that kind of treatment. Buy yours for only $15 here.

As if that weren't enough - Phelps has also announced that he will be writing a book about his journey to Olympic stardom. This book, working title "Built to Succeed," is said to be available in December - which is a mere 3 months away!! When will he have time to pen this memoir with all these other fabulous events on his schedule?

WOW. Michael Phelps overload! Good for him, though. He has worked his butt off and he deserves a the fame.

-SocialVibe

P.S. I think we need to get a picture of Michael Phelps with a pink ball. This is why we need to carry around our pink balls at all times, in case we run into a celebrity like him!

P.P.S. This just in: PerezHilton just posted that Phelps may be guest starring on Entourage this season as well!!! He sure is making his rounds!