Pints for Paws

We are looking forward to supporting the Animal Shelter Foundation and our local home brewers on Saturday at Pints for Paws. From the website:

Join us again, this year, and drink the finest and freshest handcrafted beer in Florida. Experience the taste of home brewed craft beer and talk with local home brewers. All proceeds go to the Animal Shelter Foundation (ASF), a charity that supports the homeless animals in the care of the Tallahassee Animal Service Center. Please visit www.tallyasf.org for more information. 
A donation of $10 includes tickets for six craft beer samples. Additional donations include additional tasting tickets: $1 each or twelve for $10. Each sampling is approximately 3-4 ounces of craft beer.

Pints for Paws sponsored by North Florida Brewers League (NFBL)
Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 4-8pm
Market Square on Timberlane Road
http://pintsforpaws.org/

The Rose - AHMIR cover to Stop Violence Against Women (The Pixel Project)

The Music For Pixels campaign is the first social media-based music campaign to exclusively collaborate with YouTube artistes to raise awareness about Violence Against Women (VAW) through music video PSAs while raising funds for the cause via digital music downloads.

YouTube musicians perform positive, uplifting and empowering songs to boost the spirits of survivors and inspire their fans and global audiences to take action to stop VAW in their communities.

Purchase this song on iTunes now to support The Pixel Project and to stop violence against women: http://bit.ly/TheRosePixel

Learn more at http://music4pixels.thepixelproject.net/

SEPC 2012 Preview

Tomorrow I head to Atlanta for the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference (SEPC). I really enjoyed this leadership conference last year (see preview, day 1 recap, day 2 recap, day 3 recap) and look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones!

The conference kicks off with a keynote from Mari Ann Callais, Past National President of Theta Phi Alpha.

"Using music and storytelling, Mari Ann offers a truly unique keynote about values, ritual and the responsibilities of being a lifetime fraternity or sorority member. For nearly a decade, she has built a legion of admirers with her fun, upbeat keynotes on fraternity and sorority values.
"Fraternity and sorority communities have asked her to campus to discuss the importance of community service and ritual with new members. She is among the most popular retreat facilitators in the country. As the past national president for Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity, Mari Ann offers a unique blend of local and national perspective on sorority issues and has helped numerous Panhellenics deal with the issue of sorority hazing.
"When you bring Mari Ann to campus, you bring a speaker who approaches fraternity education in a completely unique way. She brings her guitar and uses music to create a relaxing environment. Students rate her keynotes highly because she talks with students, not to students. She can lead them in goal-setting one minute, then lead them in a sing-along of Jimmy Buffet songs the next. By sharing her experiences and observations, Mari Ann helps fraternity and sorority members explore their values and their reasons for being part of a fraternity or sorority."

One of my other favorite events of the conference is the Philanthropy Luncheon on Friday benefiting Circle of Sisterhood Foundation for the second year. Circle of Sisterhood has grown a lot in the last year (almost 100 campuses have adopted CoS as their philanthropy!) so it'll be exciting to see what is new with the Foundation and how Panhellenics have worked together to raise awareness and funds for education for women and girls around the world!

In other news, along with Stephanie from Zeta Tau Alpha, I'm presenting on Academic Excellence for NPC on Friday afternoon in a small group Educational Session. It promises to be a very special weekend - I'll be sure to share photos and a full report afterward!

The Year in GOOD Things

Last month, when I voted for Crescent City Cafe* to win a $5000 grant from GOOD, I signed up for the daily email. I've really enjoyed their positive messages.

Our once-a-day email, The Daily GOOD, explores and amplifies the best in grassroots initiatives, up-and-coming organizations, and inspiring ideas making small steps toward a big impact—if you haven't signed up yet, you're missing out. This year, The Daily GOOD unearthed hundreds of "good" things, but we've scaled that down to a few favorites on a variety of topics we love—like food, design, and giving back to the community.

I wish I could embed their "top good things of 2011" slideshow (which you can see here). Since I can't here's an example of the goodness:

This year saw the sustainable food movement taken more seriously than ever by big players in the private sector, most notably supermarkets. One rising star in the industry is BrightFarms, a startup that plans to open three greenhouses on the rooftops of chain supermarkets by the end of next year. The greatest part of this concept? Food miles are reduced to zero when you buy produce where it's grown.

See also:
In.gredients, one of the world's only packaging-free grocery stores, opening soon in Austin, Texas.
Photo courtesy of BrightFarms

See the full slideshow here.
Sign up for The Daily GOOD at http://www.good.is/

*I learned about Crescent City Cafe on Twitter. One of the founders is an Alpha Chi Omega sister from Loyola University in New Orleans. And, yes, they won the contest and the $5000 grant!

The mission of the Crescent City Cafe is to serve breakfast to New Orleans’ homeless and low-income residents with dignity and to connect young adults together in service to our community.... Founded in February 2009, the cafe simulates a restaurant, complete with breakfast specials that change each month.... The Crescent City Café serves people who are homeless with dignity. We greet them, seat them and request their food and beverage order. We demonstrate respect. We transfer hope. And we hope that through our actions, homeless stops being a brand and starts being a circumstance – a real crisis that a real person is currently experiencing.

http://www.crescentcitycafe.com/cafe/

Artopia Recap

Saturday evening, five of my friends and I volunteered at Artopia, the major fundraiser for Big Bend Cares. Big Bend Cares provides education and comprehensive support to people infected with or affected by  HIV/AIDS. Literally hundreds of artists donate pieces of art, and local businesses contribute gift certificates and items. Most goes to a series of silent auctions, but the best of the art (as judged by a jury of local volunteer experts) is sold in a live auction.

 

we all wore volunteer badges

The Director of Development and Support Services, Perry Thomas Snead, is an Alpha Chi Omega alumna. This event was her baby, and it was great to get out and support her as well as a great cause.

here we are at the event: from left to right me, Marc, Jenn, Perry, Britain, Chris & Kate

We were excited to see that local business owner Susan, of Chrysalis (another Alpha Chi alumna) donated this great butterfly pillow to the auction.

   

We all had different tasks while volunteering. Britain, Chris, Kate and I worked to gather silent auction bids after each gallery closed, and placed winning bids on the board for all patrons to view. Jenn & Marc worked the live auction noting winners and the final selling price. Kate worked as a ring girl, notifying patrons when the galleries would be closing, giving everyone a ten-minute warning to get in their last bids. Chris, Kate and Britain worked to display and showcase art pieces during the live action.

When we first arrived, we had a chance to tour all the galleries. Jenn, Britain, Chris and I placed bids on a few items. I didn't win any of mine, but Britain and Chris took home three pieces (see below) and Jenn won at least one gift certificate.

 

Kate admires the art in one of the silent auction galleries

Chris with Accession One - Emergence by artist Peter Barry, which he and Britain won. It is the 3rd painting from a series of 5 and is about the process of personal emotional/spiritual change.

The second piece B and C won is an abstract by Linda Van Beck. The artist noted that originally the billows were to represent water lilies however as the painting evolved it felt more like the wind became more important than the water lilies.

The last piece B and C took home is titled the "Eiffel Tower in Winter." It is a simple but evocative black and white photograph taken in 2005. 

Overall, it was a great event, very well attended, and tons of fun (especially the live auction - lots of audience cheering and encouragement of deep pockets! I saw one piece go up to $2500!). I hope we're in town for next year's event and can attend!

Great New Documentary Short Film

Saw the trailer for this great project from Edge of Seven on The Girl Effect's facebook page:



In case you're not familiar with The Girl Effect, this video tells their story:

100,000 Homes

Via Katya Andresen's Nonprofit Marketing blog I learned about 100,000 Homes. Their goal is to find 100,000 homes for 100,000 homeless Americans by July 2013. Sounds completely audacious, right? But these folks are taking tried and true methods that have worked in New York and helping shelters and communities apply them around the country. The goal is to find the most vulnerable and get them into housing, one person at a time.



Then I found out that Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel did an episode of Bizarre Foods in San Francisco in which he talks about his own bout of homelessness and shares the mission of 100k homes. Travel Channel agreed to donate 10 cents per viewer, up to $100,000 for the project. The episode airs again tonight (April 5th) at 9pm ET - tune in or set your dvr.

http://www.facebook.com/100khomes
http://twitter.com/100khomes

Something to Think About...

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.


Follow them on Twitter @theelders
Like them on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theElders
http://www.theelders.org/

TweetDrive4Japan

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 30th and plan to join us at Siam Sushi for lunch from 11:30am to 1:30pm (treat it like an open house - come and go as your schedule allows).

Spearheaded by Paula (aka @biggreenpen) with help from Alicia @aliciawellman and me, this is a local event to raise money for disaster relief in Japan, and to have some social time with our friends (and future friends) who enjoy Twitter. Everyone is welcome, too, even if you are completely unfamiliar with tweeting. People around the country (and world too) are organizing Tweetdrive4Japan lunches, happy hours, and dinners this month.

See the official event (and make a donation) here:
http://tweetdrive4japantally.eventbrite.com/?ref=estw

Or you can RSVP on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198848546814320

Or you can RSVP on twtvite (our usual tweetup site) http://twtvite.com/tally4japan

We chose Siam Sushi because the food is great, there is plenty of parking, the location is fairly central, and they are considering donating a portion of all their proceeds the day of the Tweetup to Save the Children! See my review of Siam Sushi here.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you next Wednesday!

Update Sunday March 27th:
Thank you to Siam Sushi for agreeing to donate 10% of the proceeds from TweetDrive4Japan to Save the Children AND for donating a door prize: a gift certificate for lunch for 2!!

We're also thrilled that Mashable chose TweetDrive4Japan as one of 8 ways its readers can help Japan! Check out the article here: http://mashable.com/2011/03/25/ways-help-japan/ (To give you an idea how huge this is, @mashable has over 2.2 million Twitter followers so hopefully lots of local people will read the article and come support our Tallahassee event!)

Update Tuesday March 29th:
Door prizes! Did we mention there will be door prizes?
Thank you to these local businesses for their contributions:

Sam Goody, @SubwayTally, Sports Authority, Hunt Club Subs and Grill, @GamescapeTally, Barnes & Noble, and Siam Sushi!!

A New Role Model... and a New University Center

How can you not love a man at age 95 a. plans to outlive his long-lived relatives (100 and 107) and b. has given to the university every year since he graduated... in 1937. Thanks Tink Veale II for making the new university center at CWRU possible.

http://www.case.edu/universitycenter/

Half the Sky

I love this book! I was inspired by the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation (read my post here) to read Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

It would be easy for a book focusing on women's oppression to be bleak and disheartening, but the message of the book is that everyone can make a difference. Even small changes can reap great rewards. The book is full of stories of women who are true heroes in their bravery and steadfastness. But still the statistics and the danger many women and girls face on a daily basis will curl your hair.

I've been marking passages as I go along. Here are some of the most striking:

"The global statistics on the abuse of girls are numbing. It appears that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century."

"More girls are killed in this routine 'gendercide' in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century."

"In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world."

"Studies suggest that about one third of all women worldwide face beatings in the home. Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined. A major study by the World Health Organization found that in most countries, between 30 and 60 percent of women had experienced physical or sexual violence by a husband or boyfriend. 'Violence against women by an intimate partner is a major contributor to the ill health of women,' said the former director-general of WHO, Lee Jong-wook."

I learned a lot from this book and the best part is it gives you lots of concrete things you can do long-term and short-term to make a difference. For example, the book ends with "Four Steps You Can Take in the Next Ten Minutes" that I'll share below... but your first step should be to read the book! Check it at the library, uy it at your favorite retailer or from amazon by clicking here.

1. Set up an account on www.globalgiving.org or www.kiva.org (as you know, I'm a fan of Kiva).
2. Sponsor a girl or a woman through Plan International, Women for Women International, World Vision, or American Jewish World Service.
3. Sign up for email updates from www.womensenews.org or www.worldpulse.com
4. Join the CARE Action Network at www.can.care.org

I'll add one more - follow @NickKristof on Twitter (he is one of the authors; the other, Sheryl WuDunn isn't on Twitter).

Kiva Update

This summer I signed up to a virtual runner in the Kiva New York Run4Kiva. I thought it would be fun to follow up on the original post (which is here).

here's my t-shirt!

The official race report said that "around 200 runners signed up total from the New York area and around the World, which raised nearly $2,600 for the non-withdrawable Team Fund, which will continue to support borrowers on Kiva in perpetuity." How great is that? Here are some photos from race day, see the whole album by clicking here.

staging area (Muscle Milk was a sponsor)

close up of the logo on the t-shirts

getting ready to start - nice to see so many women participating!

the race - doesn't it look like it was a beautiful day?

One of the fun things that came out of my virtual participation in the race is that a fellow Kiva supporter made a loan through Kiva in my honor. Altogether, our group loaned a La Bueno Fe (The Good Faith) of El Seibo, Dominican Republic $2,525 to purchase fruit, vegetables and chickens to grow their businesses. Here are the ladies (and men):

They've already paid back 47%! Learn more about them (and the loan) by clicking here.

Circle of Sisterhood

One more highlight from the NPC 2010 Annual Meeting was the opportunity to learn more about the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. I had seen their video and "liked" them on facebook but didn't really "get it" until this weekend.

The story begins with the book Half the Sky and its call to help provide education and opportunities to women around the world as a means to protect them from all kinds of oppression. A few sorority alumnae read the book and resolved that together, all sorority alumnae could make a huge difference, and thus the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation was born.

I encourage you to read the book - I downloaded it Sunday evening to my kindle and am losing sleep because I'm having trouble putting it down!
 Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Like on facebook.

Follow on Twitter. @CofS_Foundation

http://www.circleofsisterhood.org/

Buddy Walk-ing This Saturday!

We had a great time last fall at the Down Syndrome Association of Tallahassee Buddy Walk and can't wait to participate again this year. The event is Saturday, September 11th at Southwood, and no pre-registration is required - just show up! In addition to the walk there are lots of kid friendly activities and food. It's $15 to register the day of the event and you'll get a t-shirt (if they have any left.... first come, first served).

Here are some of our photos from last year:

Waiting for the walk to start, we sat on a park bench and shared a (free) bagel by this great fountain.

Opening ceremony kicking off the walk, and then a group of personal trainers helped the whole crowd stretch before we started the 1-mile walk. T and Abby raced the whole way!

After the walk, the kids took turns trying to "dunk the doctor" at the dunking booth. This is T's' friend Abigail.

T was thrilled when he "dunked the doctor"!!

More information about the event from the DSAT website:

The Down Syndrome Association of Tallahassee (DSAT) will host our community’s 5th Annual Buddy Walk on Saturday, September 11 in SouthWood Town Center. The Walk, which is a celebration of people with Down syndrome, promotes the acceptance and inclusion of all people with Down syndrome. The event also raises money to increase awareness and education for local families, caregivers, medical and educational professionals in the big bend area.

The money raised will allow DSAT to provide immediate information and assistance to new families, offer assistance to families during times of crisis, expand our lending library, fund educational scholarships and conference registrations and host interactive events for individuals with Down syndrome and their families. Funds are raised through corporate sponsorships, individual and team walkers, and through public or private donations.

For more information about the Walk or how to get involved contact the Buddy Walk Chairperson at (850) 545.8552 or emailbuddywalk@dsatallahassee.org 

To pre-register, visit http://buddywalk.kintera.org/dsatallahassee 
Downloadable Form: Registration Form
To make a donation, visit http://buddywalk.kintera.org/dsatallahassee or by mail a check to DSAT at 2910 Kerry Forest Parkway, D4-212 Tallahassee, FL 32309

The Relay

My hubs and some friends are planning to run in The Relay next spring in California. This is a 200-mile relay race with 36 legs. Each team has 12 members, each of whom run 3 segments. It's the like the CWRU Hudson Relays on steroids! Starting in Napa Valley and running to the Pacific Ocean, The Relay features a run across the Golden Gate Bridge at midnight. It's Saturday April 30th and Sunday May 1st, 2010.

The event races money for Organs R Us which "promotes the need for organ donors. Through walking and running, transplant recipients, candidates, organ donors, donor family members and others have generated $25 million of publicity promoting organ donation. Although started in the San Francisco Bay Area, ORU has grown throughout the US. Through participation in athletic events selected for maximum publicity and fun, this group showcases their fitness proving that organ transplantation saves lives."

Here's a video from the 2010 race - wow it looks tough!!

Dancing Under the Stars Recap

Wow, we had such a fun time last Saturday night at the Dancing Under the Stars fundraiser! My high school reunion planning buddy, Chip, and I went to support our classmate, Roger, who was one of the ten celebrities dancing. (See my preview post here.) All the dancers were great and they performed in a variety of styles and to all kinds of music. And, naturally, since we were in Madison, we saw lots of people we knew! I enjoyed catching up local realtor Mike Warren, his wife Trista, her friend (Rabbit Run Dance Director) Heather Hoffman. It was great to see my Mom's neighbor, Andy, and his girlfriend, Rachel and her family. Rachel's brother was one of the dancers too.

(Andy on left, Rachel in middle, and Rachel's brother, Matt, on right)

Madison Country Club provided a great venue for the event, and the food was really good. We had a plated salad followed by a buffet dinner and a choice of cakes for dessert.

Roger & Carly danced to "My Heart Will Go On" (the theme song from Titanic). I was so impressed! The dance was really moving; they brought a lot of emotion to the performance. My pictures didn't turn out very well but here are a few:

Kudos to the whole team that put on the event, all the details, large and small, were executed beautifully. I recommend attending if you're in the area next year!

Fun Times in the Madison Area - Dancing Under the Stars

Dancing Under the Stars 2010 is a fundraiser for two local agencies serving Lake County and the area around my hometown of Madison, Ohio: Lifeline for the Empowerment and Development of Consumers, Inc. and the Family Planning Association of Northeast Ohio, Inc.

They pair up local celebrities (my high school classmate, Roger, pictured above, is one of the ten celebrities) with professional dance partners, who will perform at the event, which Saturday night August 7th at the Madison Country Club. I'm definitely going to vote for Roger (each dollar donated = 1 vote for him) and I might even check out the event in person. Madison friends, anyone want to go?

Love Kiva

I love it when my friends "live their values" so I make it a point to support their philanthropy projects -- and this is a really good one. For those of you not familiar with Kiva, they grant small loans around the world to alleviate poverty. My (CWRU Alpha Chi Omega) friend Val is a member of Kiva New York. Val shared that they are holding a 5k race fundraiser and what I really love about it (besides that it's a great cause) is that everyone can participate, no matter where they are. Here's the scoop:

Join us in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York for our first ever Run4Kiva 5K on Sunday, August 29th at 10:00am, in collaboration with the Brooklyn Road Runners Club.

This run is open to everyone, no matter your location, or fitness level. All proceeds go to support Kiva entrepreneurs through the non-withdrawable New York Team Fund. Any question – talk to us at run@kivanewyork.com

Only $20 to sign up now. http://bit.ly/Run4Kiva
$25 if you sign up as a Virtual Runner

For every non-Kiva lender that signs up, a loan will be made in your honor by one of our lenders, Vin Vajjhala, to the New York team on Kiva.org, supporting more entrepreneurs around the world and empowering them to get out of poverty.

Sign up by August 7th for a free t-shirt. Trophies/medals will be given for top 3 in each age category, so sign up now. Thank you to our current sponsors: EverGift.org, Hint Water, and Utz(www.utzsnacks.com). Want to be a sponsor? Email us at run@kivanewyork.com

Other Details:
Packet Pick up: TBD
How to get there: F train to 15th street or N/R to 19th street and 4th avenue


This great video explains how Kiva works:

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.