Community Book Roundup

I'm happy to post this project from one of my Martial Arts Leadership Students - Jocelyn Hardy
~Mr. Engels

Successful Community Book Round-Up
As a Marital Arts Student at the Leadership Academy in Woodruff, Wisconsin, under the leadership of Mr. Gary Engles, I hosted a book drive for area children. Being the Reading Specialist at the Arbor-Vitae Woodruff Elementary School, I am on a continuous quest to provide the best reading services possible to our children.


One of the most painful notions that cross my desk everyday is the fact that our area children have absolutely no literature in the homes. As I sat back and pondered this unbelievable situation I thought…. How can I hold these high expectations for nightly reading when our children have no access to books? My mind began to race as I pictured all of the books in my own house…thinking now what. How can I be a positive avenue for change in our community? Then I had an idea…I would hold a book drive at our elementary school. I emailed teachers and let them know that during the week of December 3rd, students would be asked to bring in a gently used children’s book.

My thinking was that if every student brought in 1 book, with the thinking of “together we can make a difference” that I would have 567 books to share with area Head start programs, childcare programs, hospitals, and other area agencies servicing families who may not have access to books. I send home a note to remind parents, put an announcement on the morning and afternoon notices to students, and placed a blurb in our parent news. As the week of the drive progressed, I was disappointed that we may not reach my goal of 567 books, however, when Friday rolled around, my classroom was overflowing with books, over 1,600 to be exact.

I was so overwhelmed!

All of the students, staff, and parents at AV-W School unbelievably stepped up to the challenge. One Kindergartener’s comment really summed up the purpose of my project,

“Ms. Hardy, I brought in my favorite book to donate. I know that if it was my favorite book, it’ll now be someone else’s.”

I still am receiving books today, especially with spring-cleaning☺…there is another book round up in the making…again for the weeks before Christmas. The response of the local agencies and programs was overwhelming. There were tears of joy and bewilderment…I received thank you cards from tiny-tots to teenagers, from parents, teachers, and even from a WI state representative, noting how wonderful the project was. The local newspaper had two different articles on the book drive, and the hope for next year, is that we will exceed our goal and be able to distribute even more books to area children. Happy Reading!

If you’d like information about hosting your own book drive, please email me at jhardy@avw.k12.wi.us and I would be more the happy to help you get started!

I Finished My Project,... Now What?

Record It!

I recommend using a couple different methods of recording your projects on the site. It's ok to put your completed project in more than one spot. Be sure to use your...
"MY BLOG"
NLT FORUM
GROUP FORUM

When I post my completed project... what should I say?

Here are a few questions to answer and then put into paragraph form. (it doesn't have to be long but make sure everyone knows what your project was all about.)

Catchy Title: Come up with a catchy title that says what your project was and draws attention.
Project Leader: Your Name.
School: What's the name of your Martial Arts School?
Location: Where did the project take place?
Inspiration: Where’d the idea come from?
Participation: How many people helped with your project? Names if possible... and How did you get people to help you?
Results: What were the final numbers/stats of your project?
Memories: Why was this project special to you? What are some memories or stories you can share?
Lesson Learned: In completing your project, what did you learn?
News Coverage: Did you project get TV coverage? Radio? Newspaper?
Contact Info: You can include as little or as much privacy as you’d like here (remember, people can find you on the site)
Pictures: 1-8 pictures is a great way to visually represent your project.

Parents, of course you can help with this part of the project. Recording it for everyone to see is important. Remember to always celebrate your wins and then build upon those successes. You will begin to build a 'Project Portfolio" that others can see as you worked toward your black belt both on the mat and outside of the dojo.

Nikki Recycling Project - Video

Find more videos like this on The National Leadership Team

Raising Money For Endangered Animals

A few months ago I put together a kick-a-thon to raise money for endangered animals. The students at Leadership Academy joined in my efforts and we raised $625 for the World Wild Life Foundation. Each student who participated in the kick-a-thon raised enough money to symbolically adopt an endangered animal. For their efforts they were send a packet of information about their animal. Some of the students even raised enough money to receive a pack of information and a stuffed animal that resembled the animal that they adopted. All together we adopted 19 animals.

This project was really amazing because we not only donated money to a foundation who is doing positive things in our world, but also we raised awareness of how important it is to help the endangered animals of our world. The students really came together on this project and I'm very proud of them for stepping up and doing something amazing for the endangered animals.


“The environment is a sacred place. Make each day a dedication to keep the world we live in clean. Cut back on waste, stop pollution, and only take from the world what we need.” Nikki Engels

Picking Up Trash = Act of Kindness

Last weekend we went out for a walk to fulfill our commitment to pick up garbage in the community for earth Day. We were all kind of dragging and didn't really want to do it, but we new we had to. So we decided to walk down the alley behind our house to the gas station and pick up garbage along the way. We were AMAZED at how much garbage there actually was. We filled up a couple bags in that little stretch. When we got closer to the highway a woman who was outside with her husband and dog stopped us to ask what we were doing because she had noticed the bags of garbage. We explained the project to her and she got very excited. She explained to us that they had just purchased the house we were standing by, which was near the theatre. She told us that since they had moved in she could not believe the amount of garbage. Apparently most of it was waste products from the theatre ( pop cups, popcorn containers, etc.) After discussing it with the people there she was told they did not feel responsible for the garbage, so she had been making efforts every day to clean it up. She was so genuinely appreciative and excited about our participation and we told her we'd be back the next day to clean up again (which we did). So not only did we complete our project, we discovered that although it may seem like an insignificant effort, it did truly make a difference in someone's life.

~ Devan and Dylan Tessmer

Picking Up Trash - Environmental Self Defense

Last year, right about this time, Zach and his Nana were out for a walk around town and the community. While on that walk, Zach got very upset because of all of the garbage that was on the ground just laying there. He asked why so many people were hurting the earth! We really had no reply for him, well one that made any sense, because polluting doesn't make sense! Anyway, from that walk, he decided to get some friends together and walk through town and pick up trash! Well, getting people out to do it didn't work out very well, but Zach and his Nana did, and the result of doing that they came home with FOUR 30 gallon garbage bags of garbage! And that was just one walk. Each night that they went on their walk, they would pick up more trash! Something very small, but important! :)

~Zach Stough

Plastic Bottle Caps

Hi Everyone....I have a project started that is already going on in my house and around the Boulder Junction Community and I would like to extend it out to everyone else! I would love to take credit for it, but I can't, because to be honest I didn't know about it! We all know about recycling aluminum, old cell phones, ink cartridges, and plastic bottles....BUT...did you know that when we're all doing our part to recycle plastic bottles that the caps are not recycled? Maybe you did....but I didn't! The bottles themselves are recycled, while the caps are discarded. SO...that leads me to the project! Shape Magazine and Aveda Salons have paired up and started a project that runs through May 10th. They are collecting bottle tops from ANYTHING....water bottles, laundry detergent, Soda bottles, Milk bottles....and Aveda is recycling them and using those recycled caps as the caps for their products. So, I have started both recycling bottles AND their caps. For those of you at Leadership Academy, I am putting up a box for caps to go in and would love your help! What we are doing at my house is putting them in a box and then I'll bring them in! I'm encouraging everyone else to do the same, lets see how many we can collect and help save our earth in the process! Sorry guys, there's no real reward for it, other than to feel good about doing something good for the environment! For those of you who are not in the area, I encourage you to do the same thing. For more information about the project and where to go to take in the caps or send them to, log onto shape.com / aveda! That will give the address and also locations!

UPDATE: 5/17
Hi everyone....I just wanted to thank EVERYONE who saved their caps for recycling. On Saturday May 10th, I sent in 755 bottle caps to AVEDA! I also sent in an email to Shape and Aveda and am hoping that they will run some kind of story about it! I did get an email back from Aveda and they stated that they're going to keep going with recycling bottle caps, so that means I am going to as well! I am going to keep this project going through the summer, with the hopes of being able to collect a total of 4,000 bottle caps! We had nearly 1,000 in a month, so why not go for more?

In case I didn't make everyone aware of just what the importance is other than recycling, it's this. When the caps are "cut off" of the bottles that are being recycled, they are thrown into the land fills, oceans and other areas that animals will ingest them. When that happens, the animals "fill up" on bottle caps, and eventually die of malnutrition because their stomachs think that they are full, and obviously there are no nutrients in bottle caps. So, please continue to support my goal and effort in recycling bottle caps! We really can make a big impact!

Thanks everyone for all your help!

~ Jen Stough

Pop Tops

Right now I'm working on pop tops. Which for those who don't know what they are, they are what you use to open a soda, pet food cans, etc. The reason why is that they are melted down and recycled. The money that is harvested from them. Is used to help terminally ill children and their family's pay for their treatment. As well as stay in the area during there treatment. My goal which I have just set is 2000 by the end of May. so I would be thankful if you bring some in!=)

UPDATE: May 17 - We've collected over 11,000 pop tops so far! WOW!

~ Alex Olewinski

Womens Abuse Shelter and Troops Project

On Monday May 5th, I will be bringing in a box for my womens abuse shelter project. Please donate the following: womens and kids, socks, shoes, pants, hats, gloves, boots, and shirts. I plan on having at least 200 articles of clothing by July 1st.

Another project I am working on with Jocelyn Hardy and Sam Berger is we are gathering mens socks, chapstick, notebooks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, pens, batteries, postage stamps, and envelopes. Please bring in as much as you can hopefully we will achieve our goal. Thanks for reading.

- Veronica Laverdure

Recycling Aluminum Cans, Ink Cartridges, and Cell Phones

Wow, what an awesome month! Before I talk about the success of my project I first want to Thank Everyone who helped out. Leadership Academy students, you really stepped it up and showed some amazing results throughout this project! Both myself and Mr. Engels are very proud of you!

Ok, so let's recap and talk about the last month.

My project started out with one simple idea that came from a poster I saw. This poster was hanging up in the Minocqua bowling alley and talked about recycling cans. This really caught my eye and I started to do some research on the idea. One idea turned into many and what I came up with was to collect and recycle aluminum cans, old cell phones, and old ink cartridges.

To encourage students to participate we developed a little competition. I divided the students up into two teams. Each team was decided by the students' ages...that way both teams had an even number of adults, five year olds and so forth. The incentive for bringing in their cell phones, ink cartridges, and cans was a free pizza party for the team who brought in the most stuff. Also, we gave out a $25 gift certificate for the pro shop to the person who brought in the most stuff.

At first people didn't bring in a whole lot of stuff, but with in the second week the phones, cartridges and cans started to roll in! I had everyone give me their items directly. I would count what they had and then put their points up on the Team poster. A cell phone was worth one point, a ink cartridges was worth one point, and 100 cans was worth one point.

At the end of the project I added everything up. I wanted to really make a point of showing the students and the community what a group of people could do in only one month's time when they take action.

Here are the final totals..............

83 Cell phones, 136 Ink Cartridges, and 11,265 aluminum cans!

One cell phone pollutes 132,000 liters of water. 83 X 132,000 = 10,956,000 liters of water
Or if you want to look at it in gallons.... There is 0.264172052 liters in one gallon soooo
0.264172052 X 10,956,000 = 2,894,269 gallons of water.!!!

So 83 Cell phones recycled saved 2,894,269 gallons of water from being polluted!!!! Nice Job

Last weekend we had a recycling party. Students from the Academy came out to help us take the pop tops off the cans. The pop tops went to another project, developed by Alex Olewinski. He is donating pop tops to the Ronald McDonald's Houses that helps terminally ill children. Please check out Alex's post on his project.

At the recycling party we dumped all 11,265 cans onto the parking lot. We had teams set up and had each person at a station. The cans were piled on one side and a few people where in charge of taking the cans and giving them to their team mates in the middle. These people used pliers and took off the pop tops and then threw them into another pile. This pile was the finished cans...ready for recycling. We got through the cans in about 2 hours and we had about 30 people helping. (kids and adults)


We also called the news and they came out to do a story about the success we had. We will also be putting in a press release in the paper this week.

If you would like to do the same project or would like some information on it, please contact me for more information.
There are links below for companies who take cell phones and ink cartridges.

www.phoneraiser.com
www.recycleplace.com


LEADERSHIP ACADEMY STUDENTS!!!!
I do plan on collecting cell phones and ink cartridges throughout the rest of the year. This will be an on-going project and we will have a bucket at Leadership Academy where you can drop them off. Please bring in your items.

The winning team was the RED Team! Congrats!

The winner of the most items was ZACH CARLSON. Good Work Zach!

~ Nikki Engels

Plastic Bags That Keep Your Pizza Frozen?!

Nikki and I have talked about this many times before but I feel it was time to say something about it in a journal.

As a method of environmental self defense and mindful shopping, over the last year, we have stopped taking plastic bags when we go grocery shopping. We don't even take paper bags. We do have 3-4 cloth bags that we try and bring with us whenever possible.

I am AMAZED at peoples response EVERY TIME we don't take a bag. We try and shop light, just for the things we need for the day (or two days) so most cases we will just carry things out in our arms.

Whenever we do this, every bagger and every cashier asks us 3-4 times, "are you sure you don't want a bag" "How are you going to carry that" or my favorite "Your pizza is going to thaw on you without a bag" WHAT?! Someone actually told me that with sincere concern.

We are saddened that people don't take a more conscious effort toward something as simple as using less plastic bags at the grocery store. Many baggers (I used to be one at this particular grocery store) will even double bag your groceries for certain items. That's how we were taught to do it so the customer didn't leave and have a broken bag.

NOTE: Though plastic bags have only been around for 50 years or so, scientists estimate that it takes about 500 years for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill. That's 5-6 life times!

Now plastic bags can be recycled and I'm happy to say that I see plastic bag recycling boxes all over now. I also know that many people will use their plastic bags more than once for additional tasks around the home.

WHAT WE DID ABOUT THIS ISSUE: EARTH DAY April 22nd 2008
I don't want to come on this journal just whining about a problem, as martial arts leaders we should have some sort of proposed solutions right?

The week leading up to Earth Day this year we went to the local grocery store and asked for 300 paper bags. Our students decorated (colored) the bags with messages and pictures that had to do with Earth Day Awareness. Those bags were distributed to everyone that went shopping that day. We were promoting that Paper is a much more environmentally friendly way to shop if you must take a bag and Cloth Bags are best. We also talked to the manager of the grocery store who ordered more cloth bags and they have since sold many more cloth grocery bags in their store. Also, they now give a $.05 discount on your groceries for every cloth bag that you bring in that day. I like to think that we had something to with this although I feel that they may have been moving toward this already anyway. In either case, we took action on this issue. The students at our school learned a powerful leadership lesson in educating the community about plastic bags, they got to participate in an activity that involved our martial arts community, we got exposure for our martial arts school, and everyone felt great when we delivered those bags. (Not to mention the smiles that were brought out as a result of the children's decorations on the bags...Priceless)

Thank You for Reading and Sharing With Me. Bow.