Together We Can

May 12, 2011 by Sara

Last month I told you about a blogger and designer who I find truly inspiring, Dayka Robinson and her team over at Room Service Atlanta. I hope you’ve had a chance to see their team’s amazing transformations of the the rooms at Nicholas House. If you haven’t yet, click here, then come back and read on.

 

This week I was inspired by a short film I saw on helping to feed the homeless.

It was made by a 7 year old.

Um… yeah…a 7 year old…so, I think I was a clown in the ice skating pageant at age seven.

At a PTA lunch, the group honored the local second grader, Zevin Acuña for his original and untitled film.  It was the district and state award winner for the PTA’s Reflections Program, an arts recognition and achievement program for students.  Each year the program has a theme, this year it was “Together We Can.”

While Zevin’s film is untitled, he did add the following:

“Together we can save the homeless. Together we can save the world.”

Here’s his film:

 

So yeah…. after seeing that I was pretty inspired.

I mean, I talk about doing stuff like this with my kids but these families make this happen with their kids every month.

I saw one of the dad’s featured in the film at teeball the next day and asked him about it.  He told me the first Sunday of every month they get together, taking turns in who does the Costco run for supplies, who hosts and who delivers. The kids all have their jobs and it takes about 45 minutes max to assemble the bag lunches. The kids then have a giant playdate.

I absolutely LOVED this idea and was truly inspired. They made it obvious that is truly easy to do something meaningful and have your children be involved too. Something I’ve managed to make excuses for in the past.

Thank you Zevin for your film and for showing my family how together we can come together and make a difference.

FYI – the organization that the Acuna family takes the sandwiches to is the:
Open Door Mission
92 7th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 451-7924 ‎

 

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Soap Box: Educate Our State

Mar 16, 2011 by Sara

Ok, I will admit I’ve gone a little nutty lately and am totally passionate obsessed with what is going on with California’s budget and our state of education. Problem is, I’ve had my head in the sand for the last 4 years and now that my kids are of elementary school age, I see what all the hubbub is about and I’m totally riled up.

In our school district, in order to offset the forthcoming budget deficit, the school board has proposed to cut a whole list of services and activities that in my opinion should never be eliminated. For example, the school board is recommending cutting PE teachers for elementary students.

WAIT… WHAT?! No physical education?

Doesn’t this completely contradict the First Lady’s platform of trying to get America’s youth healthy again with her Let’s Move campaign? My kids are never going to learn a sport in elementary school? Unacceptable.

And that’s JUST the start… there are lots of other proposed cuts on the table to offset the looming deficit: cutting supplies, shortening the middle school day by one period, cutting administrative staff, and it goes on and on…

Now that I’m exposed to it all, I’ll admit that I’m totally overwhelmed. Getting caught up on current events has been challenging, so many headlines, so many bills and propositions. Where to start?!

Luckily, I’ve stumbled onto Educate Our State, a great volunteer led organization that has simplified it all and keeps me informed with what’s going on and what actions I can take.  This is a group of PTA mom volunteers, all with kids currently in the K-12 system across the state, that take turns writing press releases and updating their site to keep the rest of us informed. They post on facebook and twitter and I see their updates as part of my regular stream.

If you care, I HIGHLY recommend you follow them on Facebook by clicking “Like” here. And if you tweet you can follow them  on Twitter @EducateOurState.

Ok, getting off my soap box for the moment but go check them out… Seriously… Go… Now!

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