Over 80% of schools in New Orleans were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. In the most underserved areas, there’s 1 book for every 300 children.

Do Something teamed up with Better World Books to change that . Join the Epic Book Drive. Do Something wants you to run book drives in your schools and communities, and send them to Better World Books (free of charge). Do Something will make sure they’re donated or sold to raise funds for New Orleans’ Recovery School District libraries.

It’s Ludacris if you don’t. Actually, its Ludacris if you do. He’s our campaign spokesperson! What’s Luda reading? Why, the Do Something handbook of course!

http://www.dosomething.org/epic-book-drive

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.

One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future…by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca Public Schools

Dear Nationwide;

Participation… that’s what’s gonna save the human race

            I’ve worked with many groups from around the world. Sometimes it’s like catching cnidarians in a dip net… and sometimes it’s hard work. With Nationwide, it was both of these… and still it was a pleasure.

            We beautified the campus from the front to the back with gardenias, boxwoods, azaleas and cleyera japonica. We built and installed 10… wait… 9 benches around the playground and basketball court to allow the students a place to relax outside. We designed and painted a brand new fierce lion logo on the key of the court. This piece of the puzzle was outside in the heat and it turned out to be the easy part of the day.

            Inside the school we worked with the students of Craig Elementary and discovered that the logo we were painting outside was more appropriate than we could have ever imagined. Children have the hearts of Lions. While reading to them and tutoring them and eating lunch with them and simply spending time with them, we had a chance to see the true depths found in these hearts. I hope you took what you learned that day home to your families and to your schools and to your communities… because I sure did. And for that, I thank you.

            -As Americans, we are the owners of the public school system.

    -As owners, we bear a responsibility to participate in the system.

-Accountability for our public schools, their safety, and its employees and its funding rests with us and the rest of the system’s owners.

            -Our children’s future depends on the improvement of the public schools.

            -And this improvement depends on our participation.

                                                                                                -Woodrow Wilson-

Please come back and we will do it again.

Rock the Drop 2011

Readergirlz and Figment are going to ROCK THE DROP in honor of Support Teen Lit Day on Thursday, April 14th. We can’t wait!

Here’s how you can get involved:
* Snag the banner above, created by the uber-talented David Ostow (who blogs hilarious cartoons here), and add it to your website, linking back to this post to share the love, and proclaiming that you will indeed ROCK THE DROP!
* Print a copy of the bookplate below and insert it into a book (or 10!) that you’ll drop on April 14th. Drop a book in a public spot (park bench, bus seat, restaurant counter?) and you’re done. Lucky finders will see that the book is part of ROCK THE DROP!
* Snap a photo of your drop and email readergirlz AT gmail DOT com with the pic — we’ll be posting lots of pictures of drops happening all over the world at the readergirlz blog, and our friends at Figment will also be featuring the event!

Imagine people around the globe finding copies of amazing books in unexpected places, gifted out of love for YA lit. Everyone can participate to raise awareness of the day!

This is brought to you by readergirlz… read more about them at their website… here’s a little bit about them

* readergirlz is about having serious fun while talking about books with the author and your friends!

* readergirlz is about getting the inside scoop about why the novel was written, the tears and joys and real-world angst that the author has lived and layered into her story.

* readergirlz is about reading great books to get to know yourself, your friends, and yes, even your mother, better.

* readergirlz is about celebrating strong girls in books who’ve got the guts to dream.

* readergirlz is about reaching out to others based on what you’ve read.

* And most of all, readergirlz is about inspiring girls to make history of their own!

John McDonogh Projects:

-          Building 6 Trashcan Covers

-          Building 4 Benches

-          Repainting the entire Cafeteria

-          Painting 12-20 Murals (murals that will represent all the career tracks currently offered at JMcD, i.e. culinary arts, hospitality management, etc., and local colleges available to students on the academic track.)

-          Creating a Garden where the buses let students off

There is enough service for approximately 70-80 people, if Taylor/the RSD comes through with the money.  If not, we have not gotten the necessary supplies to build & paint what Taylor wants from us.

 Armstrong Family Services

Volunteers will be working at a house on St. Claude in which they house temporarily homeless families.  Armstrong will provide supplies.  Service will include painting trim around windows, doors, and base boards; staining a banister; installing cabinet handles and socket covers; outside cleanup. 

 Harmony House Senior Center

This is a senior center located at 2401 Esplanade Ave. 

Service includes painting three entrance ramps to the center.  Center has agreed to provide paint and brushes.  Service for 4 volunteers

 Cindy’s Little Scholars

This is a daycare center located at 1504 N. Broad.  Service includes playground cleanup (primarily raking and planting flowers), and possibly painting touchup if Cindy’s can acquire paint.  Service for 4 volunteers

 Pray the Word, Say the Word

This is a Church located at 2303 Columbus St. Service includes mopping and waxing the floor, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, raking the backyard, moving furniture into two sheds in the backyard, reorganizing two (small) storage closets and a bookshelf, touch up painting (if she can get paint), and helping with the wording on flyers for upcoming events.  Service for 8 volunteers

 Krescent City Kids Learning Academy

A daycare center/pre-school located on 1800 O.C. Haley Blvd.  Service includes painting murals, bike path, signs on the front of the building w/ train logo, picking up trash in parking lot, repainting parking space lines, planting a garden.  Service for approximately 30 volunteers

 Extra  projects include:

-          Making Valentines to distribute to St. Margaret’s Nursing Home and the Children’s Hospital

-          Assembling 200 Hygiene kits for the N.O. Mission

-          Writing “I have a dream” letters to students, i.e. I have a dream for you to graduate high school, etc.

-          We’ll also have volunteers repaint canvas murals, as long as we have the supplies & space to do so.  The murals are already sketched, most are designed for younger age groups.  If we do this, we’ll need schools to give the murals to.

The NO AIDS Task Force HIV testing van will also be available for students, volunteers, and community members to get free HIV testing.  It’ll be parked in front of JMcD.  We’ll probably have a group of volunteers going around passing out flyers day of or doing some kind of public relations activity for the testing services that will be available.

contact Meg for more details

Meg Bertram

 Project Leader

City Year Louisiana

504-339-0920 | mbertram10@cityyear.org

Every day at work, we have our students’ lives and future in our hands. This Christmas, we showed that we are truly a part of something greater. This wasn’t just about Christmas, this was more about Faith. I am once again amazed by the love and generosity of everyone I am lucky enough to work with.

Gifts of every shape and size rolled in from all corners of our schools. Food and penny drives were held at our schools. Our vendors and contractors pitched in as well, matching what we donated here at Central Office. Clothes, jackets,  toys, gaming systems, baby dolls, books, backpacks, bicycles and 2 laptops are just the beginning of a list of presents that would rival one put together by Santa himself.

The donations raised were enough to keep us shopping for presents the entire day of the 22^nd and wrapping the whole day of the 23^rd.

On Christmas Eve, an entire truck bed and cab was filled and a phone call was made. All 8 of the kids went to visit an Auntie at about 3pm and we rolled up in the truck around 4pm to deliver Christmas in a truck.

Under a bare, donated Christmas tree we placed presents picked out for all the kids and Grandma too. There was an envelope under the tree for each member of the family. These were filled with cards and gift cards so each kid could do a little shopping for themselves. One envelope that read Family was filled with enough gift cards for groceries for months to come. The gifts spread out from one corner in the kitchen where the tree stood and quickly began to overtake the room.  Grandma Mary sat and watched… and cried.

The children returned at 5am on Christmas morning.

The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office will host its 36th Annual Sheriff’s Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration, on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. All citizens are welcome to join Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in Hall “D.”

Volunteers need not preregister. Just show up to the Convention Center Hall D between 9 and 9:30. Free parking in the lot across from Blane Kern’s Mardi Gras World with a shuttle to Gate D.

“We encourage and invite people from all walks of life and the surrounding parishes and communities to celebrate this family holiday tradition with us,” said Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman, Orleans Parish Sheriff. “We can come together as a community and give thanks and celebrate what we have, while enjoying a great meal and entertainment.”

Formerly an event for senior citizens, Sheriff Gusman has opened the doors to individuals and families of all ages interested in celebrating the holiday with family, good food, great music and the staff of the Orleans Sheriff’s Office.

The day will feature performances by local artists who are volunteering their time and talents. Citizens in need of a ride to the Sheriff’s Thanksgiving Dinner can call the Sheriff’s office at 504-827-8501.

About the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office

The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO) operates the Parish jail facilities, providing for the care, custody and control of incarcerated subjects. The Sheriff’s Office executes all writs, orders, and processes of the Traffic, Municipal and Criminal courts. Sheriff’s Deputies are peace officers with the full authority to conduct criminal investigations and make arrests within Orleans Parish.

Lisa may not have chosen it. But we love the pulsing rolling bass created by the walking tuba line in a marching band.  I can’t imagine a Carnival parade without it. VH1 and C&M music are helping restore instruments and get them into our schools. They’ve been doing this for quite some time now. Recently, I’ve been focussing these instruments to Lake Area High School. 2 truckloads later and we are on the right track. Mr Allen (also the Social Studies teacher) and Mr Jackson are doing a great job with what they’ve got. It’s a brand new building and a brand new band room and I told them that I would see them march come Carnival (some of you may call it Mardi Gras… well the season is Carnival… the day itself… that Fat Tues Day… that’s Mardi Gras). Tubas (Sousaphones… marching tubas) and 18″ cymbals are proving to be the killers for me. There just aren’t any in my view. I’m looking for ideas. I know, I know… Carnival Season isn’t for a while… But this is me trying to look ahead. Oh… and unifiorms… I am reaching out to you for ideas… C’mon

AS A PARENT, GRANDPARENT, OR CARING ADULT, I hereby give my pledge of commitment to help our community’s children achieve a truly independent future. My declaration of responsibility and commitment to my public schools is stated in these five self-evident truths as spoken by President Woodrow Wilson:

• As Americans, we are the owners of the public school system.
• As owners, we bear a responsibility to participate in the system.
• Accountability for our public schools, their safety, and its employees and its funding rests with us and the rest of the system’s owners.
• Our children’s future depends on the improvement of the public
  schools.
• And this improvement depends on our participation.

THEREFORE AS A PARENT,GRANDPARENT, OR CARING ADULT, I take personal responsibility for my child’s safety and education and the safety and education of the children in this community.

• I pledge to volunteer a minimum of five hours of my time to my public schools each semester.
• I pledge to spend a minimum of fifteen minutes each school night reading with my child or we will work together on homework and enrichment activity.

origionally Posted on 11 August 2009… but i thought you might need to be reminded… i did