"For the Kids": THON Documentary
“I’ve been told my generation is selfish, and doesn’t ask what they can do for other people. I hope we’re proving them wrong.”
-2011 THON Overall Kirsten Kelly
I think the purpose of life is to be useful, responsible, honorable, compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.
—Leo Rosten
An Alex Update
Since the days of Afleet Alex I’ve had a special place in my heart for Alexandra Scott and the non-profit named in her honor, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Since I recently moved back to the Philadelphia area and have gotten back into volunteering (I took a few years off because of a busy work/school schedule), I decided to join The Lemon Society, a group of Philadelphia young professionals who are dedicated to advancing the mission of ALSF.
As a new member of The Lemon Society, I’ve set up a fundraising page to raise $150 for my dues. Please check it out and donate if you are feeling generous. I’m already 2/3 to my goal, thanks to generous family members <3
Yesterday I spent my day playing with kids in a huge ballroom in downtown Philadelphia - my first volunteer activity as a Lemon Society member! The kids were there with their parents, who were attending ALSF’s annual Childhood Cancer Symposium. While their parents connected with pediatric cancer experts (including Alex’s parents, Jay and Liz Scott) who educated and equipped them with resources needed to get through cancer treatment and beyond, the kids got to be KIDS. We made crafts, played Head’s Up, 7UP (my favorite!), watched a magician and a movie (Despicable Me) and at the very end, got to visit with therapy dogs! :) It was such a fun (yet exhausting) day. It was nice to be able to distract the kids from the reality of cancer, if only for a few hours.
More awesome Alex news:
On June 1, Toys R Us announced the launch of an eight-week fundraising and awareness campaign benefitting ALSF. To kick off the fundraising drive, Toys R Us held a ‘grand stand’ in Times Square and their Children’s Fund awarded a $100,000 grant to ALSF. Only two weeks into the campaign, Toys R Us has already raised $500,000 in stores and online. You can be a part of the fun - make a donation in honor of your favorite child or baby or send a virtual cup of lemonade on Facebook.
Save London Bees
To stop honeybees—some of the planet’s most important food pollinators—from continuing to disappear at an alarming rate, London has launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign to raise awareness about the problem.
It’s hard to say exactly why honeybees the world over are disappearing. Evidence points to viruses, fungi, cell phone use, pesticides, and climate change as potential causes (or parts of a larger cause). But much of the population still remains unaware of the problem and how dangerous it could be to our food system. London’s solution: a marketing blitz.
The city recently launched a major marketing campaign with the LIDA Agency and M&C Saatchi to encourage community beekeeping and “bee-friendly behavior” like growing bee-pollinated foods (i.e. fruit trees, tomatoes, and soft fruits), buying locally sourced honey, and minimizing pesticide use in gardening.
The Capital Bee campaign, part of a larger push to create 2012 community food growing spaces in the city by the 2012 Olympics, is also training 50 community beekeepers. The city already has 2,500 registered hives, but lost a third of its bee colonies in the winter of 2009—‘10 because of Colony Collapse Disorder.
The city has decided to take a darkly humorous approach to the whole thing, retooling work from artist Magnus Muhr—he’s known for his images of dead flies—to show stretcher-bound bees, bees in hospital beds, and bees on medicinal drips on London Underground billboards starting this week.
While a series of billboards and YouTube videos may not be enough to galvanize the public into saving the bees (especially since no one knows how to do that), it’s a start—and hopefully, just the beginning of more widespread knowledge about how important the bees are.
(Reprinted from FastCompany, June 17, 2011)
If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.
—Albert Einstein
Pollinator Week takes place June 20-26. Buzz into action:
- Send a virtual bloom to a friend on Facebook in celebration of bees.
- Bee charming! Make a $150 donation and receive a Helen Ficalora limited-edition silver bee charm necklace and a Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm.
- Ask your Governor to officially declare it Pollinator Week in your state.
- Attend a bee-friendly event.
- Grow your own food or buy bee-friendly food.
- Plant bee-friendly plants that are unique to your region.
- Garden responsibly with tips from The Honeybee Conservancy.
- Learn more through the Pollinator Partnership.
What will they say about us?
Maybe they’ll call us Generation Love
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
—Albert Einstein
Today, June 5, is World Environment Day.
Who will you support - Don Cheadle or Gisele Bundchen?
Either way, we ALL win.
Show your support by:
- learning specific steps you can take to contribute to a healthier planet
- finding an activity or action that inspires you
- registering your activity or pledging an action with Don or Gisele
- visiting the official WED website
When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.
—Anais Nin
