Share and Voice: Meal Time Challenge

Ok, so I realize that spring break was ages ago, but I still want to share with you guys something cool that happened while I was on my trip. Over Spring Break this year, I went to Gulfport, Mississippi, to participate in a service trip doing hurricane relief for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We did this service trip through PDA (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance). PDA has Volunteer Villages that people can stay in. They can hold up to 90 volunteers a week. Since they get so many people volunteering, they decided to do something about their excessive waste.

Their solution to this problem was simple, yet very beneficial. They asked us all to save our plastic cups that we used at every meal, and save our paper bags that we put our lunches in. This made a huge difference. Instead of me going through three plastic cups a day, I only needed to go through a couple during the entire week. The same thing happened with the paper bags. Instead of me using a different paper bag every day, I reused two for the whole week. The amount that I saved doesn’t really seem like a big deal; I saved roughly three paper bags, and roughly five or six plastic cups in that week. But now, take that amount of cups and bags saved, and multiply it by the 80 people who were there with me that week. That is a ton of waste that was saved. And even better, think about how many cups and paper bags PDA saves in a month, or even a year. This is amazing! I was so excited to hear that even though PDA is such a big organization, that they were still concerned about saving the environment.

Now I explained what we did that week…so lets talk about what we all can do to minimize our waste during the meal times.

• Silverwear: You can either use metal silverwear at your meals, or save the plastic silverwear that you get at the food court and reuse them the next time you eat.
• Napkins: If you take too many napkins when you go out to a restauraunt, take the extras home with you to use at your next meal.
• Lunch Bags: If you use paper bags to pack your lunch, reuse them until they rip. Or even better, invest in an insulated lunch box, that you can reuse for an extremely long time.
• Bring Your Own Food to School: The school must repackage everything in order to get them into personal servings. This produces a lot of waste.

Everything that I mentioned above will not only help in reducing waste, but it will also help you save some money; so why don't you try to help the environment and yourself out, and try to do one of the suggestions above to save waste.



To learn more about the organization that I volunteered through, you can go the the PDA website at: http://www.pcusa.org/pda/index.htm


You can also go to My Zero Waste and read the article, "How to pack a reduced waste lunch box". This article has a bunch of really cool suggestions.


Have a Great Day!!!

Advocacy Project: Discovery Health: Stop Smoking Quiz

I have always felt strongly against smoking. I really have no idea how this began, but I just know that it has always been something that I am interested in standing up against. I feel that the consequences of smoking are too destructive for both the smoker, and the innocent bystanders. I feel that it is important for everyone to have a basic knowledge of the effects of smoking, so that us why I chose to do my advocacy project on this issue.

I had a really hard time finding an interactive activity about smoking, and when I did find something, it was for Kindergartners, and asked questions like....is smoking bad for you? I was a little frustrated, but then I found another quiz that was for adults, and it had some really great questions. I learned a lot from taking this quiz, so I felt like it would be a great interactive learning activity. Please take the quiz and read the additional information that comes up with the answers. I bet you will learn something new. Please write down the most interesting thing that you learned by taking this quiz.

To take this quiz go to this link: http://health.discovery.com/centers/addiction/smoking/quiz/smokingquiz.html

For more information on smoking and second hand smoking, please go to....

• What Smoking Does To Your Body: There is another link at the bottom of this website that is about what smoking does to your loved ones. I think that link is really cool as well.
  
• Facts on Passive Second Hand Smoking: This one is intended for youth, but I feel like it has a lot of really good basic informaiton for you to all know about second hand smoking.
• Smoking may be Banned in Cars: I included this link becuase it is the exact focus of my Advocacy Project. This link is really cool because there are extra links that allow you to test your knowledge.
  

I hope you all learned a lot! Thanks for doing my activity!


Have a Great Day!!!

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

May 15th, 2009
Senator Amy Klobuchar
U.S. Senate
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Klobuchar,

I am writing to you because I am concerned about the health of children. Smoking has become a problem that not only affects the person who is smoking, but also effects innocent bystanders. Too often the innocent bystanders are the children of the parents who smoke. Second hand smoke is even more detrimental to a child's health because their developing lungs are more susceptible to damage. I realize that people have the right to smoke, but I feel that they do not have the right to make other people sick from it. According to American's for Nonsmokers' Rights (ANR), second hand smoking can have the following affects on children: low birth weight, higher rates of SIDS, cognitive impairments, respiratory problems, asthma, and other repercussions as an adult. Some even view smoking around children as child abuse. I feel that it is our responsibility to look out for their rights until they can. I read in an article from abc News "that the concentrations of tobacco smoke in cars will frequently be three to five times what they are in offices or in a bar". With this information, it seems obvious that something needs to be done. I feel that there should be a ban on parents smoking in the car with their children.

Other states such as California, Maine, Louisiana, and Arkansas have already passed laws on this exact issue, and it has gone over fairly well, even with parents who smoke. If it can work in other states, I feel that it will be able to work in Minnesota. I hope that you will write a piece of legislation that will ban smoking in cars with children. With your help, children will have a better chance of living a life without the consequences of second hand smoke. You can help make children healthier and happier.

Sincerely,

Sara H


Have a Great Day!!!

Share and Voice: Enviro-Cool Award

I would like to thank Derek for giving me the Enviro-Cool Award for my Share and Voice on the Fourth Annual City-Wide Spring Sweep.

I am excited to pass this award on to Christen for her Share and Voice on the ESG Highway Cleanup. I as well am a part of Eta Sigma Gamma (ESG) and was unfortunately unable to make it to the highway cleanup, so I am really excited to hear that Christen did a Share and Voice on her experience doing it. I think that picking up trash is such a great way to make the environment better. I think that it is very respectful for people to pick up other people's trash. Way to go! Check out her post!


Award Instructions

1. Leave a comment below so that I know you "picked up" the award.
2. Create a Share and Voice post that says you've received the award and indicate who the award is from (be sure to hyperlink).
3. Also indicate to whom you are going to pass on the award and why. Be sure to hyperlink the blogger (use main blog URL) and the blog title (use the specific URL for that blog post).
4. Copy and paste these instructions at the bottom of your post.
5. Publish the post.
6. Visit each blogger you've awarded and leave a comment telling them they've won.
7. Continue the process...


Have a Great Day!!!