Category: 2009-2010

Benno-3/15/10-Food Bank

Today I went to the Food Bank’s head quarters.  When I arrived I was told to sign in and then sit down.  After waiting for about 5 minutes Heather Joseph came out and greeted me (this was the first time we met.)  As we walked to her office i said good bye to the lady at the front desk whom I had been chatting with.  When we got to her office which was down a long hall  we both sat down and I briefed he on what the school project was.  When that was over I asked if I could record the interview, which she said yes to, then I started asking my questions.  My questions were “when did the Food Bank start?  Answer it started in 1983 as Food for Survival then in the late 1980’s it became Food Bank of New York.  What is the difference in how many meals you have served between then and now?   Answer we have served more because as a company we have grown in our size and the amount of people we can serve also last year we served about  35 million pounds of food and this year we have served about 50 million pounds.What are the different things that the Food Bank does?  Answer the food bank has many different programs including tax aid teaching kids how to eat and cook healthy and there main program is food distribution…  When the interview was over we said are good byes and I later used the information to help me write my investigative journalism paper.  The information that I got in the interview with Heather Joseph was amazing and disturbing, it was amazing to see how much they helped and distubing to hear about how many people are hungry in New York City.

Harry-3.1.10-LESGC

Today at the Lower East Side Girls Club we folded the rappers and then rapped candy bars.  These candy bars went to underprivileged schools that would then sell them in their community.  This would raise money for the school and spread the word about the Girls Club.  In all we rapped and packaged hundreds of candy bars.  Jenny our boss always had more bars to rapped.  Among those were a few “broken” candy bars that then became ours to dispose of.  Afterwards Jenny expressed her gratitude for all the work we had done their and she set up a time for next weeks appointment.  We are extremely excited for our next meeting where we will be working hand in hand with this wonderful organization.

Nora-3/10/10-LINC

Wednesday we made our 4th visit working with LINC.  This was the second time we went to the St Jude school on 207th street in Harlem.  We had an easier time finding this place, because we had been there before.  When we first got there we decided to act like investigative journalists and go around the school for a little bit, while we waited for the program to start.  We took pictures of the halls, and we saw some children in classrooms, doing homework wiht their peers.  I didn’t think the school seemed very bad.  Then we got there we waited for the reading to start, and when it did we joined groups around the room and helped with the reading.  There were a couple of kids who didn’t have groups so we were happy to read to them.  I was reading to one kid who was drawing when I came over to him.  However when I sat down I read him a couple of children books, some of the books I remembered from  when I was in kindergarten.  We did the same thing as last time.  We just read to the children and helped them draw and do some short activities.  Even though we did the same thing as last time we were in different groups and it was just as fun.  The two kids I was reading to left so I went and joined another group.  By the time I joined the next group the reading was over and the program turned into free time.  Two fifth grade girls just decided to talk to each other.  So I watched/helped the kindergarteners color pictures.

This visit was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go on the next visit.  I really like the topic and organization we chose, all of the visits have been a lot of fun.

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A nice little group shot
A nice little group shot

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Viviane – 3/10/10 – LINC

Our very creative drawing
Our very creative drawing

On Wednesday, Kyla, Naomi, Nora, and I went to our fourth LINC visit.  It was another reading program at St. Jude, but in my opinion, it went a lot better this time.  We took the “A” train as usual, but Naomi and Nora wanted to transfer to the “1” at 168th Street because we would only have to walk one block instead of five.  However I thought the “1” would be way to slow, so we decided to race.  Naomi and Nora vs. Kyla and me.  Despite the longer walking distance, Kyla and I won, so next time we would all take our route.

When we got to the school, we were assigned one or two Kindergarteners to read with.  After reading just one book, it was basically just free time for all.  Some kids decided to draw, others just sat, and the rest talked amongst themselves.  Well, that left us 8th graders without much to do, so I suggested we play a drawing game at my table.  We would have one sheet of paper and each person would draw the first thing that came into their minds, even if it’d be something completely unrelated to everyone else’s drawings.  Naomi joined the game and it was a lot of fun.  Once the paper was full of drawings, Naomi, Kiarra (a fifth grader), and I led a couple rounds of the hand game Quackadillioso and all of us had a great time.  The Kindergarteners learned a new game, the fifth grader at my table was very helpful, and we all could’ve agreed that no one was bored.

A nice little group shotNaomi suggested we try to be investigative journalists, so we went around different floors of the school

Third-Visit-Father’s-Heart-Ministry-3-13-10

On Saturday I went back to the Father’s Heart Ministry for a second time. I noticed most of the volunteers were new and the setup and jobs remained the same. We started of bring the pantry bags upstairs so we could make room for the soup kitchen dinning hall. We cleaned and set each table and then we were given a brief orientation on what to do. I was assigned as a cleaner, which is one of the hardest jobs. We were given latex gloves and an apron. I had to run from table to table-taking away peoples trash and cleaning the tables. There were a lot of spills so I had to be ready with a sponge and a bucket. There were 8 cleaners and 12 tables and 120 people in the room. It starts to get harder because they have what’s called a rotation meal. This means they have a line outside and when someone finishes the next person takes their seat. This happens for an hour and by the end they serve 400-600 people. Some people didn’t speak English that was a challenge because you would have to get a translator to see what they needed. Some people were grumpy. So I had to approach them with a smile and be as nice to them as I can. Some people were extremely nice and wanted to talk to me. One guy told me how great that it was that I was helping feed them. I felt good and worked more and more until the hour was over. At the end we were given a group speech on how we did well and how many people we served. At the end I interviewed one of the main volunteers that has been volunteering since 1984. His name is Perry and he plays guitar when the people are eating. My first question was how long he has been volunteering here. He said around when it opened. I asked why he works to volunteer. He said it makes you feel good that you are helping other people and that at the end of the day you feel really good inside. I asked if this was the only place he volunteered at. He said that he worked at many other places before this one. I asked what he though about the food stamp program. He said that it was a good program but it does what it does and nothing more. He also said that not everyone is getting food stamps because of reasons like financial problems. I agreed and though that some people are afraid of helping organizations and what they will do. I finally asked one main question. How do you think the hunger crisis can be solved? He explained that a lot of things could be done. Like volunteering, if everyone were to help that a problem like that one could be solved. Not just volunteering at a soup kitchen, but in other organizations that would help get some people out of that situation. He finally said, since the financial problems over the past year or two, people have been losing their jobs and homes. Making a 52% increase in people just at that specific food pantry and soup kitchen. So solving this problem just got a little harder. Perry is a very dedicated volunteer that people should listen to if they wanted an inspiration for helping. After the interview I thought on how problems like that could be changed. I am excited to come back and visit again to help out.

Matan – 3/4/10 – AIDS Walk Volunteer Work

Thursday night at 6 pm, Jasper, Olivia, Adam, Alma and I went into a building that had organized volunteers to help sort posters, papers, and other work (while eating) for the AIDS Walk. We came into the building and immediately followed a guy named Shaun Shepherd. He told us about how it was the 25 anniversary of the AIDS Walk, and many people were going to participate in it. We went into a room and signed in and sat down at a table. Then, we separated 25 papers into different piles by putting rubber bands over every 25 papers. You could say that we did this to about a thousand papers. After that, we put information stickers on AIDS Walk signs. These signs would eventually hold the 25 papers. Every sign had a different picture on them. We were all amazed at the different people that could be a symbol to support AIDS. On the signs, we saw different types of males, females, families and couples. The whole time we were working, we saw everyone smiling and laughing, and just nonstop working. It was great to see how much joy came out of volunteering for a great cause.

Once we left the building, we started to see a bunch of the signs that we helped put together. In a pizzeria, pastry shop, clothing store, and every store had a different sign cover. Every type of male, female, family and couple. Everywhere we looked there was an AIDS sign, and we would scream in joy once we saw it again and again and again. We were so happy about how much support Manhattan was giving towards the AIDS walk. How much concern it was showing, and how much care it had. This, in my mind, was truly a breakthrough.

Niles-3/9/10-Conference on the Status of Women and Gun Violence at the U.N

Today, we had a very important conference at the U.N.  We were speaking to people who came to this annual event and this was the first time any teenagers or kids had ever spoken at this event.  It was in Conference Room C in the North Lawn Building.  We were all pretty cool before we got to the building.  We had rehearsed the night before and earlier that day.  But, once we got up there and realized how many people would be there, (around 70) and how important it is, (this being the only conference of this type at the U.N every year) my group and i got nervous.  But, we had practiced many times and were very well prepared for the event.  There were 7  people on the panel that we were on.  These people were somewhat  well known and had been working to help stop gun violence for up to 15 years.  The coolest part of our panel was that all of us panelists brought a different perspective to gun violence.  One women was from Congo and talked their gun violence problems, Another women was from Columbia and talked about their problems, Another was from Guyana and talked about their problems.  Then, the U.N Ambassador for dissarmament affairs spoke and he talked on a worldwide and international scale.  Saying stats and views of people in many different places across the globe.  But, even with all of those esteemed professionals there, and the media surrounding them taking pictures, we seemed to intrigue the pople the most.  It was our perspective, our views, our statistics that seemed to hit home the hardest.  When we spoke we got the loudest appalause because the people around us realized how serious we were about gun violence prevention.  Many people, who were from places overseas that had gun violence problems were surprised to hear about America’s gun violence problems but they do exist and is something tha needs to be adressed by the president, by the Senate, the House, our governors and our mayors.  Because if we dont act now soon there will be no hope to act upon.

 

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Written by Comments Off on Niles-3/9/10-Conference on the Status of Women and Gun Violence at the U.N Posted in 2009-2010, Niles Ellis

LES Girls Club 3 Josh Wilson 3/10/10

Today Noel, Harry, and I went to the Lower East Side Girls Club for the third time.  Jenny (the head of the organization) wasn’t there in the beginning but Luna (one of the main workers) was.  She was with a couple of girls that were part of the organization and a director / film maker named Santa.  While the plate of cookies went around the room Santa started to explain what her job entitled her to do and what she was going to do with the girls today.  She was teaching the girls how to make a public service announcement, unlike us though they were going to use video cameras.  We watched the Girls make a draft of there video on paper.  While we were watching them we realized that we knew one of them that was in the seventh grade from Friends.  We talked to her for a couple of minutes and than Jenny came.  She brought us upstairs and we started to talk about the walk-a-thon.

Jenny started talking about the team we started on the Girls Club sight (http://www.girlsclub.org/).  Our team name is the LREI Knights and I am the team captain.  Unfortunately we only have three members right now, Noel, Harry, and I.  Jenny told us that we should hand out the flyers in our school and try to get more people to join.  After Jenny spoke for a while we started to tell her about our public service announcements and our Social Justice Teach-Inn.  After we talked for around twenty minutes we said goodbye to the girls and left.  We are looking for our next visit on Wednesday the seventeenth.

Max Fried-2/21/10-4th Visit-Village Temple

When my group went on our fourth visit to the Village Temple we hoped we would get put to work right away.  When we arrived we already knew the drill.   We ran upstairs and started to bag sandwiches.  Then like always we were sent to Trader Joe’s and Knickerbockers to get bread.  Then we were sent to do something that we have never done before.  We made tuna fish salad.  The Village Temple has had this special tuna fish recipe for many years and the people who come and eat it seem to love it.  We made it in a very large bowl and loaded it with tuna fish, celery, mayonnaise and many other scrumptious ingredients.  On our next and last visit we will be interviewing one of the ladies who work there.  This fourth visit was great and I cant wait to tell you what happens next.

Catherine C – PEN Organization 2/6/10

For our third visit, we arranged to visit the PEN center and help set up for a workshop they were organizing. I wasn’t really sure what to expect we were going to do when we arrived, but we had the chance to do way more than I expected. We set up for the workshop by setting out some notebooks, and then once everyone arrived, we started the workshop. It was basically a meeting with two writers in New York (one of them a famous playwright), two women that worked at PEN (Stacy and Lynn, both very friendly, nice, well-read people), a student a little bit older than I, who said she loved writing slam poetry, and, of course, Danica and I. We started the workshop by discussing the books we were reading at the moment. I felt sort of embarrassed saying I was reading a book called Happyface, when everybody else was reading books like Wuthering Heights, or translations of Chinese books of poetry. The playwright, John, talked a lot about his life as a writer. He mentioned working with actor Lyn Manuel for a few of his plays, whose name, surprisingly, I knew. He had a lot to say about his theory about writing, so for about half the time we listened to what he had to say, and then he had to leave and it was just us girls. We had a nice time.

Noel LES Girls Club Visit #3-3/10/10

For our third visit, Josh, Harry, and I ventured back to the girls club. While there we met some more of the girls that attend the LES girls club. One of the girls was named Meghan and was in 7th grade, she goes to Friends Seminary. Today the girls were getting ready to view a PSA (Public Service Announce) and make one of their own. Coincidentally, we too are making PSA’s. At the girls club there was a director and film maker. She had done commercials before and PSA’s. In the summer she was looking forward to making her first feature film. She was there for the first time with the girls, so she was new to everyone. She gave some background information on herself, telling us this story on why her nickname is “Santa”. The girls then watched a old PSA the girls club had done. During the film, she probably explained some steps she took and gave advice. Though, as interesting as the topic was, we had to go discuss with Jenny the walk-a-than and possible times to meet again. Jenny showed us a calender and for each month there was a different picture of the girls, doing a different activity. One of the girls we had met in the previous week had been in multiple photos since she had been volunteering at the girls club for a long time. We decided we will meet again Wednesday 3/17, the day before our Costa Rica trip.

Naomi-3/10/10 LINC Visit

         From all the visits I have done so far, today was the most exciting visit from the rest.  Once again, we went to an afterschool program at St. Jude School. It was the second time we went to this particular program. We arrived there at 4:00pm and we stayed there until a little after 5pm. Since we had already been there before, we were more comfortable. Luckily the same students were there, so we were more open with each other.

               At first, we roamed the hallways: which were as long as a train platform. The school was three times the size of our school. Their gym was the same room as their auditorium.  The lunch room was basically in the same room too, but seperated by bars. There were less students than before and immediatleythe 5th graders reconized us saying hi as we entered the same kindergarden room as our last visit.

       For about 10-15 minutes I worked with a kindergartener. We read together; him reading one page, me the other. I was shocked when I realized his level of reading. Compared to the kid I had my last visit, he was way behind. He read extremely slow and I struggled to hear him. He sounded out every syllable, he pointed to the words with his pencil and still sometimes lost where he was. I don’t know if they go to the same school but it was still unexpected.

          After he left, Viviane and I went to the same table where there were familar people from the last visit.  Since they were all done with their task, we tried to think of something that everyone at the table could do together. First, we played a small game, where we drew something on a piece of paper and handed it around the table. But it didnt work out very well, so instead we played a handgame. The kindergardners didnt know it, so we taught it to them, had a practice round and then played the game. We didnt have time to finish the game so no one exactly won. Photo0592

We’re not going to St. Jude again, but I would’nt mind going back because already my group and I were becoming friends with the students. This was an unforgettable experience and I hope the other visits we’ll be going to, will be as fun or even better.

Ivo Ilic-3/10/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

Today’s visit was not a long one.  I waited in the school until 3:45 when we were supposed to meet Dennis in the library.  I was the first student there and I arrived just as Carin did.  Dennis was already there.  Before anyone else arrived Carin asked me to show Dennis the PSA I had been working on in class.  It is a gray-scale picture of two hands, one looking as if were holding a pencil over a quiz with no answers.  There is a yellow/orange strip along the bottom (The same color as the logo of Getting Tools to City Schools) with black lettering that reads “How can a child pass a test without a pencil?”.   Anyway Dennis seemed to like the PSA and we started to discuss if I used to little text when Jason showed up.  Dennis asked him to show us the paper he was writing for class about the project and then asked the same of me.  After we printed our papers one of us asked where everyone else was.  I went to look for our teacher to try and get the numbers of the rest of the group and Jason went to find Bryce who was at robotics to do the same.  I was unsuccessful but Jason got Bryce’s paper and told us how Bryce was unavailable.   We then spoke about ideas for both the poster Miral and I had to do for displaying at the school.  Dennis came up with the idea of attaching pictures to use as the bars of our graph to make it clearer.  We also talked about editing the footage Jason got from our last visit and its many uses.  I asked him to email me it and I expect it any moment now.  Next visit I hope to work on the chocolate wrappers for fund-raising as well as have the poster finished.  Please clink on the link in the post and become a fan of the organization on facebook.

AlmaBremond-AidsWalk-3.9.10

Yestirday I went to my fourth visit. I went to the Aids Walk group. I went with Jasper, Lenny and Katherine.When we got there Jennie welcomed us. She is AMAZINGLY nice and funny. Tall Brunette. She said that we should eat and then we can start working. Which we did. The food was Pasta and Bread with sodas. It was a delite. When we were finally done eating we started to sort and move around boxes. When we used up ALL OF OUR MUSCULE she finally told us we could sit down. When seated we did the piles of 25 handouts. After that we put stickers on stands. I asked Jennie if we could interview her, she said, “of course” with a lot of enthusiasm. We did. I will post the interview as soon as I have it. One thing she said that I remember is that Brooklyn is one of the places with the most Hiv and Aids. I am going back there next week, CANT WAIT:)!!

Ruby T. – 2.20.10 Women’s Heart Disease 4th Visit

For my 4th visit, we left school at about 12:00 p.m. We took a camp to the Waldorf Astorian Hotel on 49th Street. When our cab pulled up to the hotel we were amazed on how nice it was! It was beautiful. We then got escorted to the front door and then to gentlemen opened the gold handled doors for us. The ceilings were about 30 feet high and a big chandelier hung in the middle of the lobby. We struggled to find the elevator of the ginormous building but we managed. The hard part was finding the room we were supposed to go to once we got to our floor. we walked up and down the gorgeous hallway and finally came to the room. We were welcomed by a mid twenties look women and she taught us what we were supposed to do. First we had to open literally 1,000 bags (gift bag size), then we had to open 32 boxes of skin care products, then we had to make an assembly line of about 20-30 people (other people also were there) and take 3-4 bags at a time going down the line. We were packing these gift bags for an event the organization was hosting the next day and we were invited but it was canceled because of the snow. We were packing the bags for about 2-3 hours. We didn’t really learn anything about what this organization really did but I know I was helping someone and that’s always a nice feeling.

Niles-3/8/10-IANSA New York City Office

When I arrived at the IANSA offices, i expected to walk into a room with tons of high-tech gear and people working at high rate.  On the phone, typing reports and other office like things.  But, when I went upstairs and walked into the room,  I saw almost the complete opposite.  I saw a man, Mark Marge, dressed in a suit, in front a normal computer at an old-school desk.  There also tons of posters on the walls, talking about peace for all,  human rights, civil rights and many other U.N related issues.  After I settled into the room with my group, we introduced ourselves to Sarah Masters, a woman who is big exec in the IANSA world that works in London but came over for the event that we were going to tomorrow.  My group and I then rehearsed our piece in front of Ms. Masters multiple times so we could do our best tomorrow at our Conference at the U.N.  After we rehearsed, we got to learn a little about Ms. Masters and her work and how she got into gun violence.  She is a person who is well known in the gun violence world, and we were all very lucky to have the opportunity to meet her.

Danica 2/6/10 PEN Organization

Today, Catherine and I went to the Pen American Center offices to help set up  for a playwriting workshop. We were meant to do small odd intern-like jobs to keep the seminar going. (Such as setting up chairs, being in charge of the sign in sheet, setting up a breakfast corner etc.) We were told that a very small group of students were to show up to listen to a famous play write speak and have a crash course in play writing. Stacy ( a wonderful woman I have mentioned several times when posting and a very nice woman named Lynn told us that this workshop does not teach fundamentals of writing but inspires young people to write. I say this is a start to a youth writing revolution. The workshop, in my eyes, was created to not only give a taste of a different style of writing but to discuss topics that are intertwined within a writer’s mind when creating a piece. So you not only get to mix and mingle with interesting people that share a common bond but you can explore who you are as a writer. Catherine and I did all of our jobs and were expecting just to maybe get to eavesdrop on the conversation but we were surprised to find out we got to be a part of the seminar as well. Stacy gave us a notebook and basically said write it down. The first half of the almost 6 hour workshop (some of the coolest 6 hours of my short life!) was with a play writer and actor John Buffalo Mailer. That man is so nice and AMAZING at what he does. A little background on Mr. John Mailer is that he is the youngest son of American Novelist Norman Mailer and Norris Church ( a formal model, painter and writer). he has written numerous plays as well as screen plays and has a strong acting career. The workshop consisted of 6 or 7 people around a table just talking. We talked about everything someone thinks about theatre. It was so intimate and I wasn’t spoken to as a child just here to help, I was talked to as a young adult with ideas and contributions that don’t have to be thought of from a little kid’s perspective. John talked about how he wrote a novela and his first play focusing on a Columbine type situation. Mailer started his own theatre company and helped discover “In The Heights”. We also talked about how plays were written for certain audiences. Mailer also discussed how plays are almost like children and you grow up with them. It may be like a beauty pageant when showing your baby to the world. We also talked about a writer’s process. On how things can go up and down in difficulty, especially when trying to ask tough questions while being entertaining. The other half consisted of reading different excerpts from plays and discussing our thinking as the reader or what we think the writer was thinking. We read some Gertrude Stien and a bit of Suzan-Lori Parks. Not only did we discuss writing style but how race played a role in the piece. But what I think is one of the most important things I learned in this visit was about universal themes and how every writer uses them. We practiced this and I took an Alice in Wonderland theme.

Here is my writing from that day:

Wonderlands? Yes, wonderlands. And you thought there could be just one? One wonderland? A onederland. Wonder doesn’t have to mean amazing or fabulous in opinion, it just has to cause awe. My wonderland resides in a pen. A pen that creates worlds, uncanny to another. This pen holds mystery, suspense, happiness, rage or any type of things that come to the brain. With a pen and paper in posession, I’m allowed to create my own world. You could say that I live in a noebook. Lonely yet completely preoccupied in my own spiral paged world. I don’t know how I get to this world world of ink. It must be that I fall into some trap door hidden beneath the the words I am writing now. See this world dowsed with smeared blue ball point pen remains let’s me live somewhere else. Be someone different. Explore myself while wondering who I truly am. In this wonderland, I can be the main attraction against the gray and white lines. The splash of color or intrest in the book laid to rest on the black wooden table. I dance behind punction and ake shelter under capital Ts. I hide here, the one place I can let go and scream without making a sound, just using multiple exclamation points. I live here, I work here, I love here. This wonderland allows me to a perferrated facade. My second life, a starter wonderland.

Overall this was a great visit!

Lenny Weissman-3/8/10-Gay Man’s Health Crisis

Today from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Alma, Jasper, Katherine, and I all went to the “Gay Man’s Health Crisis” office and volunteered to help them prepare for their much anticipated AIDS walk. The first task that they had us do was to categorize heavy boxes that were full of stands that were advertising the AIDS walk by the letters that were written on them. once that had been done, we had to roll them to the other side of the room where other volunteers and such could work with them. Next, we were given a large box full of cards that were also advertisements of the AIDS walk. Our job was to pair them by 25 with a rubber band and put them lined up in a box. The final job that we were given was to put stickers on the advertising stands and box them back up while collecting and loose paper that was thrown in and putting it to the side. In the end, I would have to say that while the work seemed like a small factor in the big event, I knew that every little effort counted, and even by just filling a box  up with cards, we were doing a good deed. I would have liked to ask Sarah how she got affiliated with this group because she was the one that had set us up with it. I would like to remember a fact that one of the workers their told me. She explained that one of the things that inspired her to be a part of the organization was that she had a great sex Ed class. This was proof that education to the world on a topic such as this was important. The goal that I am setting for myself next time, is to ask any one that works there, if GMHC affiliated with any other charity groups.

Katharine Extra

This weekend a few friends and I went to ‘New York’s Children’s Film Festival.’  The movies at NYCFF are mostly indie movies, which means they are movies, which are made by independent filmmakers. These filmmakers often are from other places than the USA. The one I watched was about a king and a bird, after doing this I got to volunteer with the children who attended this festival. I got to teach them how to create jewelry out of used film and teach them how to express them selves in special new ways they hadn’t thought of before. I thought this was awesome because I got to teach children how to create something beautiful instead of just letting them go around and spray some random wall. I got to teach these kids something, which in some schools is being taken away, art. Most art classes are being taken away from schools, so kids can’t experiment with art! But just by teaching kids how to make jewelry out of film or make a castle out of packing peanuts, I am sure they were grateful!  I was very fulfilled by my completed work because I realized that by doing this I was inspiring other kids to get out in to the world and teach other kids what they are passionate about. And expanding other kids interests and broadening their horizons and ideas about other cultures and feelings and people.

Katharine Gay Mens Health Crisis #3 visit

Today I went to cocktail hour at GMHC. The GMHC is a safe haven for gay men as well as lesbian women to come, learn and express who they really are. GMHC is the owner of ‘The AIDS Walk’, at this cocktail hour we learned a lot about how to interview someone professionally. I learned how to write a list of questions and read them out in a fashion in which the person I was interviewing would not feel overwhelmed. The person I interviewed name was Jenny. Jenny was a young dark haired woman who had a very thoughtful and easily understandable way of speaking. Jenny began working at the GMHC in 2007. She started out learning about women’s health and branched in to AIDS awareness. Jenny was a very enthusiastic woman who seemed very happy that young people came in to help out work with the GMHC. I was talking to her about how in the three years she has been working at the GMHC, how AIDS and the awareness of AIDS has changed.  She told me that the way in which AIDS and the awareness of it has changed was that, with tons of campaigns which help show the risks of AIDS many people have become more interested in trying to educate themselves as well as others about AIDS and the awareness of it. I started branching out my questions about AIDS and asked her if she knew about any of the funding and how much of the money being donated is actually being given to the people who they help. I got to help out as well as asking all of these questions. I got to help Jenny and the rest of the volunteers box flyers as well as lift boxes. Even though it was not the most interesting job in the world, talking to Jenny while doing this about her job seemed to make her very happy. I felt like this visit went well and I was very happy about how my interview went.

Ruby G-3/8/10-HUC-2st.visit (last visit altogether)

hygiene products hot meal donated shoes

Julian and I went to HUC (Hebrew Union College) for our last visit. I felt very satisfied. 1) all completed all 5 visits. 2) I felt like i helped a very important cause. Even by doing as little as saying “hi”, it makes them feel like everyone else. Soup kitchens/food pantries create an equality among people in poverty. When interviewing one volunteer named Nicole Arts who informed us that most of the people who come to HUC aren’t homeless. “They can’t afford both. It’s rent or food.” While volunteering I noticed that most of the people eating are men. “The majority that come here are 99% men. There is a large majority of African Americans. I think we get more men because number 1 they can’t cook where they live. They don’t have apartments, they have a room. They can’t afford both. It’s rent or food.” What Nicole said makes perfect sense but I still wonder how these men got to where they are now. New York City is one of the richest cities in the world. That is why some can’t afford everything they need to survive. They are juggling between rent/food/necessities. When we asked Nicole if New York is doing enough to support the hungry/homeless, she responded by saying “I’m sure they could always do more. I know in this area at least that there is still somewhere for them to go on any given night. They could probably make the shelters more safe for some people to actually want to go in them. There are a lot of people who would rather live on the street.” I always wondered what was wrong with shelters. But there must be some serious problems if people would rather live on the street.

“I like interacting with them. I like that connection I have with them and I just feel like they are regular human beings . Just because they might not have a home doesn’t mean that they should be treated not like our equal…You form bonds with them. It’s great.  You get connections with them. It’s a nice feeling. I think I get a lot out of that. I mean, in a way it’s a little selfish because I get a lot out of it.” – Nicole. I felt the same way as she did. Even though I didn’t really connect with any of the people, I felt like the work wasn’t by force. I actually enjoyed my time volunteering at not only HUC, but Village Temple as well.

Here are some other questions that were asked that I didn’t mention in detail:

How long have you been volunteering here?

“Over 10 years”

What made you decide to volunteer at HUC?

“Well when I first moved back to New York, I was living in Connecticut and that’s where I first discovered soup kitchens and I was helping down in Connecticut. I enjoyed it so much, when i moved back to the city, they mentioned there was a soup kitchen. (This was about 15 years ago)

Why is homelessness/hunger your main interest?

“I don’t know why I started in Connecticut at the soup kitchen. I think someone I worked with was part of a soup kitchen and I just like interacting with them so I like interacting with them. I like that connection I have with them and I just feel like they are regular human beings . Just because they might not have a home doesn’t mean that they should be treated not like our equal…You form bonds with them. It’s great.  You get connections with them. It’s a nice feeling. I think I get a lot out of that. I mean, in a way it’s a little selfish because I get a lot out of it.”

You’ve rarely missed a Monday?

“I mean when I do, you feel guilty. We just feel like it’s our job. It becomes our job… we enjoy it. And I know a lot of times when we’re not here they ask for us. They miss us when we’re not here and we miss them.”

Are there certain of them who have been coming for 10 years?

“On and off for probably as long as 10 years. A lot of them come because they enjoy it. They enjoy the food. They think the food service is higher quality then other soup kitchens. They come because they like seeing us, taking to us. They like the environment. So they come.”

Kyla- LINC- 3rd Visit

Viviane, Naomi, Nora and I went the the St. Judes School in Inwood to assist 5th graders in helping Kindergartners read books such as The Cat in the Hat in celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday which was March 2, 1904.  We first walked into a cafeteria and we needed to separate the worksheets for the ids to do.  After that we went into the classroom where there were 4 tables, each having a few kindergartners and a 5th grader for each one.  Each of us sat at a table and we would either supervise the 5th graders, assist them as they read to the kindergartners or read them a story.  Afterwards, the kindergarteners needed to do the math worksheets that we gave them and then they colored the pictures that we’d given them

Ivo Ilic-2/24/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

On this visit we met Dennis in the school a little time before the end of the school day.  Me and Jason came down a little late from art class.  We knew today that we would be visiting P.S. 335 in the South Bronx.  I don’t think any of us besides Dennis had a complete idea of what to expect.  I don’t go to the Bronx very often and I have never knowingly seen the inside of a Public School where most of the the children are below the poverty line.  Miral and I both brought notebooks and pencil, Jason had also brought his flip camera which was extremely useful.  Thank you Jason.  Some members of our group were chosen during one of our shorter meeting to record our questions for the people we would be interviewing at the school.  Unfortunately since those questions were lost we needed to rethink them again on the train there.  Here are some of the questions: What kinds of families are these children coming from (Who raises them?)?  What are the demographics of your school?  Are the supplies lasting?  How did the children (or you) feel when they (or you) got the supplies?  Do the teachers ever purchase supplies using money from their own pockets?  Were the parents thankful for the supplies?  How did you hear about Getting Tools to City Schools?  Final we arrived at out stop.  After walking down the many stairs of the raised subway platform we headed toward the school.  When we arrived at the school to me it looked like an other public school and when we got inside it was the same.  It looked exactly like any other public school.  The interior decorating done by the city may have not been amazing but the entire school was cover wall to wall in the artwork and projects of students.  It looked like a very happy welcoming place.  While we were there we conducted four interviews, one with a art teacher who could not answer some questions about the materials but was helpful, a student who received materials last year who seemed happy, the parent coordinator who gave us an inside look at these childrens’ lives, and the assistant principle who gave us a lot of information about the school.  Here is a brief summery of the information we got: The students in the school are manly of Latin American dissent. The children in the school come from all different families raised by different relatives and some by foster parents or in shelters. Happily the supplies are lasting and the children are very thankful for them.  The teachers do spend money out of their pockets as apparently according to the art teacher all teacher do.  The school hear of the organization when the vice principle got a weekly letter sent to all public schools about programs and events.  The parents of the student were very grateful many calling in disbelief. Unfortunately some parents are afraid to come into the school or call for such reasons as illegal immigration. Click on the following link for a little video of the school.  PS 335 Video

Kyla- LINC- 2nd Visit

Viviane, Nora and I had arrived at the McDonalds in Harlem at 4:00 pm.  We stood waiting, looking around to see if there was anyone there we recognized from Literacy Incorporated, but there wasn’t.  We walked through the McDonalds and a woman sitting said to us, “Hello.  Why do you guys looked so scared?”  We all looked at each other trying to figure out who she was and why she was talking to us.  “Well, I’m Miss D.” she said, “She’ll be here in a minute she just had to pick up the kids.”  We all stayed standing until the seats around Miss D. were empty.  We sat and waited, were were talking about how long it was going to be until the kids arrived and also about how fat Viviane was because she’d just eaten a bag of popcorn and cookies and she still had food in her bag for later.  The woman finally arrived with the kids and we all went into a room that wasn’t that far away.  We helped Miss D. move the tables into the corner then we set up the chairs for the little kids.  After that we sang  The Wheels on the Busand then we broke up into our groups.  Each of us had about 5 kids to read to.  After each of us read at least 2 books we moved the chairs to the side and we sang some more songs and took a few pictures.  Once that was over the kids started eating and then we left the McDonalds.

Kyla- LINC- 1st Visit

Today Viviane, Nora, Naomi and I went to visit the Literacy Incoperated office to discuss what the goal of LINC was and what we would be doing if we were going to be working with LINC.  We all waited in the office wondering what exactly was going to happen.  We were mostly wondering if we were going to be able to actually work with kids that day or if we were just going to be told information.

Bryce Council-Visit 2

In this visit we basically talked about things we could do to raise money and Carin was there to help us. This time we came up with some artistic ideas, like using photoshop during IWP. That would let us cath up on what we did not have time to do during our meetings.

Violet-2.25.10-Go Red for Women (Visit 4)

Working at Go Red For Women

*Notice how many bags there were in the background. People in photo, from left to right: College student, Parker, Ruby T, Me

On February 25, Cheyenne, Parker, Ruby T, and I all went to the Waldorf Astoria. At first, there was some complications, about me and Ruby coming, because we had a basketball game, and we only knew we were going two hours before it started, so we both had to get people to drop off clothing. Anyways, at noon we left school to go to the Waldorf, we went by cab, split it fours ways, like always. Once we arrived, we went to upstairs, using the specified elevator in the instructions. When we got to the floor, we spent about five minutes searching for the right room, we then finally found someone who worked there, and kindly brought us there.
When we got to the room, we were greeted by Amanda Mercep, we put our coats down, and were given directions. We were told to:

  1. Take a bag
  2. Nautica post-its
  3. Put in a Dr. Copeland Skin Care product
  4. Estée Lauder Vibrating Mascara
  5. Estée Lauder Lipstick
  6. Go Red Stress Ball (in the shape of a heart)
  7. A heart shaped chocolate
  8. Go Red USB drive
  9. Go Red pen
  10. Go Red pin
  11. Go Red informational packet

But, first, we had to unfold the bags, there was 1,000. Cheyenne and Parker unfolded the bags, while Ruby and I stacked them. I am assuming this took about 45 minutes or so, because there was also 6 or more college students helping. Anyways, once all the bags were unfolded, we started packing them, after about 30 minutes or so, Parker, Cheyenne, and I started packing the bags with post-its, so as the line moved along, people could skip a step. We continued doing this until Ruby and I had to leave for a basketball tournament.
Before we left, we were allowed to make a gift bag for ourselves, and take one for our mothers if we wanted to. Even though we did not learn much about women’s heart disease, it was nice to help, and the gift bag wasn’t too bad either.
Lastly, we were invited to the event that they were doing the next day, but since it was a snow day, but sadly, no one could make it.

Violet-2.3.10-Positive Exposure (Visit 3)

On February 3, Parker, Cheyenne, Ruby T, and I went to Mr. Guidotti’s studio again. We arrived by cab. When we finally got there, we were greeted my Miche, and told to get these two wire bins, that were filled with letters. Most of the letters were thank you or holiday cards. Anyways, we were given clear plastic sheet covers, sharpies, and labels. We were told to take each card or letter, place it with the cover facing up, and then put the name, address, and date on a label. We must have done at least 150 of them. Although we didn’t learn as much as the previous visit to Positive Exposure, it is good to know that we are at least helping everything become much more organized.

February 24, 2010-Getting Tools to City Schools- Bryce Council-Special Visit

We left school at 2:20 in order to take a train ride for an hour and reach the school by 3:30. We recorded ourselves walking to the school in the Bronx called P.S. 335. The neighborhood did not seem like the best neighborhood as compared to what the school looked like. The neighborhood had graffiti on buildings and many of the buildings looked very dirty. However on the premises of the school it was very clean. There was no graffiti or gum or anything like that. The inside of the building reminded me of my old school. It had the same look to it. We walked up to the fifth floor where we first interviewed the Art teacher that was in one of the videos on the Getting Tools to City Schools website. We asked questions like, “Did you see a difference in the way the children acted or their grades?” and the teacher along with the other three people we interviewed (the Assistant Principal, a student that received supplies, and the Parent Teacher Coordinator) gave the same response which was yes. “The children seemed more focused” said the art teacher. The PTC said, ” The children and the families were very grateful and the grades have improved as a result of receiving the supplies.” Along with those types of questions, we asked the bonus question which was, what is your favorite type of pizza? When we were on the train coming back to the school, we wrote letters saying thank you to the people we interviewed and signed them.

Bryce Council February 16th, 2010 Getting Tools to City Schools 2nd Visit

In this visit, we basically had a meeting with Dennis on how we could raise money and awareness so that more people could donate. We came up with the ideas such as putting a box in the lobby of the NYU Dorm where Ben lives. Since it is the end of the year, it would be more than likely that college students would have extra supplies. We also came up with a way to raise money in order to buy it from the organization’s supplier. We would make a competition or make a promise such as no Study Group for that day or such things like that.

Cheyenne-Go Red-2.25.10

Making Goody Bags

We left from school at 12:00 and unfortunately had to leave Mirko Ilic’s graphic design presentation to inspire our PSAs. I heard some of it and I saw was amazing. Violet and Ruby had to change in to skirts. Our destination was the Waldorf Astoria, an extremely fancy hotel. We took a Taxi there and split the fare four ways. We arrived in the lobby and it all felt familiar. We went upstairs using the specified elevator as directed. We got upstairs and were turned around by quite a few large mirrored suit doors with chandeliers in the hallway. Though, when a delivery man passed with a cart of packages, I asked where the Go Red packing was going on. We got into the room where a multitude of large boxes lined the side of a wall and a row of tables were set up in the middle of the room. I looked around for Amanda thinking she was a blond woman in her early 40’s. When she did come up to us and introduce herself, I was so surprised to find that she was a peppy young brunette who looked as if she was just out of graduate school. She was very accomplished and hard-working based on when Dr. Lynne Holden had told me. SHe instructed Violet to cut open the boxes with the box cutter and told the rest of us to unfold bags/ There were 1,000 of them and we stacked them up about 5-6 bags high, 10- 15 bags out from the wall and about 20-30 bags across the wall. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to unpack, unfold and organize all the bags. We then started to put items in the goodie bags, down the assembly line. Though after about 6 trips of going down the line, around people, placing items in bags, I got the idea that 2 of us should put the 1st item, Nautica post-its, into the bags and place them on the table, people could then take the bags with post-its and go down the lists of things for each bag:
-Nautica Post-Its
-Dr. Copland Skin product
-Go Red pen
-Go Red stress ball
-Go Red Dress pin
-informational pamphlets
-Estee Lauder Lipstick
-Estee Lauder vibrating mascara

It took us about 2 and a half hours to do about 900 of the bags. We then stopped for a break and Amanda ordered pizza for us. Violet and Ruby left for a basketball tournament, and Parker and I stayed to work until 3:45 and finished all the bags. We ended up with about an extra 50 bags. There were about 6 other college students there. I was surprised that they were the ones messing up the bags and talking most of the time, I feel like the four of us were the most productive except amanda who was constantly in motion, unpacking, organizing, sorting, stacking, labeling, positioning, and wrapping. I was in awe. I want to be as headstrong and productive as she is at such a young age. I felt like at the age of 30 she would be leader of the free world! I could feel her confidence in her strong and powerful, assuring handshake. So I was extremely excited when she invited us to a gala the next day in the ballroom of the Waldorf. Unfortunately the next day was a snow day. Anyhow we went home that day not knowing about the next day. Though I was surprised we finished over 1,000 bags!!

Jasper Stallings-3/7/10- Aid for Aids 2

On Friday I went to Aid for Aids for the second time with Katharine, Lenny and Adam. We left school at two thirty and were taken by a driver named Victor to the Aid for Aids office at 120 Wall Street. At the door there was a little confusion with the security guard but eventually he let us in to the building. We went up to the office and were escorted by Hannah to our usual table. A man named David showed us what work we would do that day and as expected it was the same thing as every time, folding pamphlets. Although we have been ding the same thing each time it is very rewarding seeing that whole box filled with our hundreds of pamphlets, knowing that those pamphlets along with a condom would help educate someone in a third world country about HIV and Aids and hopefully prevent them from receiving the virus. We asked David a few questions about his job like why he chose to work at this organization. David told us that Aids was a subject that he was very passionate about. He also told us about how exactly the organization stays in touch with communities in other countries. Those communities send consulates to New York to talk with the organization and get aid from the organization for their own homes. After finishing our work Victor drove us back to the school.

Matan – 3/3/10 – Aid For AIDS

On Wednesday, the third of March, Alma, Olivia and I went to the Aid For AIDS office in Manhattan. We came into the office and saw dozens of wheelchairs and crutches stacked and covering half of one room. We were surprised to see this because the last time we were there, we saw wheelchairs and crutches just squeezed into one closet. Now that the capacity was well over reached, we were all given a new determination to get things done. We met the usual lady, Hannah, and she led us to the same table we worked at the first time we came. We were given three big stacks of paper, and folded each of them into pamphlets. At first, we did each pamphlet by ourselves, but then I came up with an idea that, I think, bought us a little more time. I said, “Hey, why don’t we make this an orderly process?” So what we did was Alma folded the papers once, and then passed them on to Olivia and I. We completed the folding, and ended up folding a lot. There was never something that did not have to be done in the office, and we were glad to see that this took all of our time, which was roughly about two hours spent there. We folded easily over 200 pieces of paper that would be eventually given to people in 3rd world countries who are too poor to afford things that could help them. These pamphlets were filled with information that they needed to know about AIDS and each of them would come with protection for the male inside. This would help prevent further AIDS cases. After we folded all of the papers, we organized them into a box, and before we knew it, we had finished for the day.

I feel a little regret, though. I thought that we would go in there, feel fine, and talk to the people there. It turned out going the opposite direction. We just sat down, went to work, and did not say or ask much to the people there. There were not many people there, but we still should have asked about the organization a little more than we did. I think that we acted like this because we didn’t feel as comfortable without Sara or the rest of the people there. Despite the fact that we split up our visits, I feel that it went better than it would have with all of us there, or, at least it will go better. I think that we will be fine in the future, and this will work out, if only we would be self-conscience enough. Aside that fact, I like that we were a small group because there were less distractions than usual, and, as a result, an unbelievable amount of work was done. We were quite focused.

Lenny Weissman-3/7/10-Aid For Aids

On March 5th, friday afternoon, Jasper, Katherine, Adam and I, all went to the organization Aid For Aids.  This was the second time we had visited the organization. Sadly, we were assigned the same task that was given to us last time, which was to fold up pamphlets that gave important information about the deadly causes of HIV. Although the work was a little repetitive, in doing so, i realized how important the awareness of the dangers of HIV were. They wouldn’t put so much effort into getting thousands of pamphlets packaged with condoms, if it weren’t for that fact. The building was very clean and everybody seemed to be in top shape when it came to getting their job done. The whole floor was jumping with calm and organized business. My colleagues and I all tried to be fast and efficient while folding our pamphlets, and because of this, we were able to fill a box up with them all neatly stacked. While I am glad to do my part, I hope that next time we visit, i will be assigned to do something else, such as working with the medicine although i wont be surprised if they don’t allow that. I would like to ask my colleagues what they would rather do as opposed to folding pamphlets. Either way, I’m sure we were all glad to do our part.

jasper Stallings-3/7/10- AID’s Walk

This past Thursday Adam, Alma, Matan, Olivia and I went to the Aids Walk office on 119 west 24th street. Matan Adam and I took the subway up and met Alma and Olivia at the office. We arrive and were immediately escorted by Shaun Sheppard (our contact) upstairs to a large room. In the room we were greeted by a woman who gave us stacks of flyers and asked us to put them into groups of 25. We did this for a while until all of the flyers were finished and then the lady gave us boxes of cardboard signs that we had to put stickers on. After working for a while we got some food that the organization was giving to anyone who volunteered there. For volunteering there we were each given two shirts a hat and a water bottle. I had a great time on this visit and I am really looking forward to going back there on Monday.

Adam Hatsav-3/5/10-Aid for AIDS-second visit

On Friday March 5, 2010, our group split up into to pairs.  One which went that day and another which went a couple days before to the New York Aid for AIDS office on Wednesday.  I was among the group that went on Friday. It was Katherine, Lenny, Jasper and I.  At  the building we meet up with a person named Hannah who works there and shows us what to do every time we go there.  We asked someone working there, named David, why he took upon this job.  He replied saying that is was a subject he was passionate about. We also found out that the organization works directly with the countries it sends it supplies by sending people over there. I might have basically just folded condom packaging but i also learned as well.

Jason Boehm-Getting Tools To City Schools- 2/24/10

This past Wednesday Miral, Chase, Ivo, Bryce, Ben, and I met Dennis in the lobby at around 2:20 to travel to P.S 335 in the south Bronx.  I had brought my Flip camera to videotape our interviews with some teachers and students.  We left school only to walk to West 4th street to catch the A train.  We got of at 42nd street and then transferred to the number 2 train (which was a extremely long walk).  There was a brief part of the train ride were it went outside.  It was a very good view of the neighborhood.  When we got out at Intervale Avenue, we walked down the many flights of stairs onto a main the Avenue.  The school was a couple of blocks away so we got some footage of us walking at what the community was like.  It looked like any other neighborhood and so did the people.  I had already had some ideas of what the school would look like.  I thought it would be a little less up to date and maybe less materials and more bland.  These thoughts all were corrected when we walked in though.  The school looked like my old elementary school and I heard a after school class were the children were laughing and looked happy.  As we met the assistant principal in the lobby we introduced ourselves and then preceded up the stairs to get to the art room were we would talk to Ms. Henry the art teacher.  We interviewed her with the questions we came up with the week before.  She couldn’t answer all of them but when she answered the ones she could she gave us a lot of good information.  She had an art class to teach so she let us interview one of the kids in her class that received the school supplies form the previous year.  She was very shy yet very informative.  We then went to interview the parent coordinator.  Walking through the halls I noticed that the children were staring at us, I don’t know if it was because we looked different or we were bigger kids.  They school was very vibrant, for example the walls were painted green and it felt welcoming.  They teachers put up some of the work that the children had done in class and it was very good for 4th and 5th graders.  I even saw some signs saying please donate and help Haiti, which I thought was very cool.  I think this was the most important interview because the parent coordinator really gets to talk to the families and understand what they are going through.  We learned a lot from her, such as most of the children that attend this school are Latin and more Spanish speaking countries.  Some parents are here illegally so they feel they can’t come inside the school and be in touch with the teachers and what the children are learning.  Some kids live in shelters, some live with their grandparents, uncles, and aunts.  She was very informative.  We then moved on to interview the assistant principal.  We asked some of the same questions to her and I feel got some of the same types of answers but again she was informative and we got everything we wanted to know.  We said goodbye and thanked everyone.  On the train home we wrote thank you letters to our three interviewees.  The trip was very helpful and I enjoyed it.  I think it will give us a lot of information for our teach-in and our papers.

Talianak-3.7.10-Huc 1st visit

Today (2/8/10) I visited The Hebrew Union college.  I was actually surprised on the way that they did things.  It was much more relaxed but there were still many people and a lot was done. When we walked in we sat down for about 10 minutes and then julian went up to ask the women in the kitchen if they needed help they said yes.  The women took us into a big room where there was a big bucket of salad and there were a few really loud high schoolers who kept quoting wendy williams taking the salad and dropping it into each individual plate.  Then we joined in and dropped salad dressing on all the plates.

We then waited at the table until people started to come in and sit in a big room.  Then we lined up each with a salad plate and started to take a bit over veggies a bit and pasta and then went around and served it around.  After everyone had there plate of food each person was assigned a task such as passing out coffee or milk or muffins.  I was assigned to pass out cookies after all 5 packets of chips ahoys were finished we said our goodbyes and left. Even though this soup kitchen was different from the other one I enjoyed it all the same.  I really like this one because you got to pass it the food out and see the reactions of the people.  Also some of the people that we were passing them out to were really funny.

JoshC-2/5/10-PEN

When we were first walking up to the building, i had remembered walking but it a lot with my family from Australia, but never really noticing it. As we walk into the elevator, one person joins us. Then, as the elevator’s doors were closing, someone asks us to hold them for her. When we let her in, we realize, hey, it’s Stacy! She had just ran back from getting orange juice for the kids that were coming so that they could write to imprisoned writers. When the kids arrived, we had showed them what they needed to do, and how. We also helped serve both water and orange juice. Since there was a couple of kids there who had already done the activity, there was a long banner which people wrote on their opinion of what freedom of expression is. Danica, Nathaniel, Catherine, and I all wrote what we thought freedom of expression was on the banner once everyone had their drinks and were just putting some finishing touches on their cards.

AlmaBremond.3.7.10.AidsWalk

On Thursday Olivia and I went to meet Jasper, Adam and Matan on 119 west 24th street. Olivia and I got there and we got kind of lost in the building our meeting was at. We arrived at six and left at 8:30. Then this man came and we found our way. He was very nice and welcoming. We introduced ourselves and then we started working. We were all sitted at a table and we were givin pieces of paper that talked about the aids walk. We had to make piles of 25. After that we had to put stickers on the back of posters and sort the posters/stands.There was food there and they had THE BEST corn bread ever. They gave us two shirts each, a waterbottle and a cap. There were other people there to volunteer. They all looked a little older than us but they were in groups to. We worked very well as a team, and the people who worked there were nice and greatful. I really loved this visit and I am going back on Monday.

Social Justice#2 by Katharine Mehta

Dear Blog,

Today I went to ‘Aid for AIDS’ with Lenny, Jasper and Adam. We were picked up in a car and driven over to 110 Wall St. The same place we went to last time! What we did this time was similar to what we did last time, though I realized a few things when I was there. When I was there, it didn’t matter if I actually was getting down, dirty and working with the patients. As long as we could help out some way, more work could get done by the actual employees!  I figured we probably couldn’t really work with the patients because of our age, if I could work with them I definitely would I just think it might be tough to do because I am not sure what big of a difference I could make personally.  I started thinking after I left Aid for AIDS about education about AIDS awareness. I started thinking a lot about this because the only way to really prevent AIDS, is by education. I then decided to look up AIDS awareness organizations.  I then found this one organization called ‘Nine and a half minutes.’ When I first saw the name I was kind of scared because it sounds like kind of a creepy horror movie.  But it turns out this organization is really involved in teaching about AIDS awareness, It is a very informative website because they showed the simple ways that one can protect themselves from AIDS. I think that an awesome slogan is ‘ABC.’ This seems odd because it’s just letters but, ABC stands for Abstain, Be faithful and Condoms. To clarify they are saying abstain as abstaining from sex, being faithful to one partner and condoms are just a good thing to use to prevent many diseases! Why this organization is called nine and a half minutes is because of a very interesting fact. Every nine and a half minutes someone in the USA is infected with HIV. This is shocking, because that would mean 1,400 people are infected with HIV daily!  I started thinking about that I really didn’t know how HIV is transmitted from one person to another. I decided to research it and I found a link, which looks pretty reliable. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_is_HIV_transmitted.  The main ways of getting HIV include: having sex with an infected partner, Intravenous drugs and a few other ways.

My goals for next time include asking the following questions: Do you educate children and adults about AIDS? Do you give out free condoms? How do you suggest our generation prepare for stopping the spread of AIDS? Is AIDS more common in adults?  What is the life expectancy of someone with AIDS? How do you feel the spread of AIDS affects the youth of America? Can you transfer AIDS by making out with someone? Can lesbians get AIDS?  Is it more common for gay men to have AIDS?

I found a few other random links

http://www.avert.org/

http://www.pepla.org/faq.html

P.S  I went shopping after and I was very happy.

Miral Rivalta – 2-24-2010 – Getting Tools to City Schools

Today Jason, Chase, Ivo, Bryce and I went with Dennis on a field trip. We went to a public school in the Bronx, which Dennis’s organization gives tools to. We left school at about 2:30 and took the subway uptown to the Bronx. We actually had to take two trains to get to were we needed to go. The total subway ride was about a half an hour long. We took the first part of the subway ride with Naomi, Kayla, Vivian and Nora. When we got off the train, the school was pretty close to the subway. The first thing I noticed was that there were many kids on the streets with their school bags that were probably going home. Jason brought his Flip with him to film the interviews that we were going to do. Dennis also filmed us while walking to and entering the school. When we entered we were pretty surprised at how big and colorful the school was. Dennis introduced us to the assistant principal and then we took the stairs up to the top floor. There were really a lot of stairs!  When we reached the top we met one of the teachers.  She was the art teacher and she was extremely nice to us. We interviewed her.  When we finished, we interviewed one of the students that got the supplies from Dennis’s organization.  She was kind of shy but very nice. After, we thanked both of them and went back downstairs to talk to the parent-teacher coordinator.  We interviewed her also. Interviewing her made me understand a lot of things that I didn’t know about the school, the kids in the school, and the parents. Lastly, we interviewed the assistant principal who we met when we arrived. 

The interviews we did were not too long, but I was definitely surprised by some of the answers that people gave us. Everybody was really nice.  I was extremely happy about it, and I can’t wait to see the interviews once Jason edits them. 

Next week we won’t all meet together, but Ivo and I  will have to meet on our own sometime this week or next.  We have to make a poster, I think.

Miral Rivalta – 2/17/2010 – Getting Tools to City Schools

Today we were also at the library. Chase, Ivo, Jason, Bryce, Ben and I met with Denis. We mostly talked about the questions we were going to ask when we interviewed the people we were going to meet on our visit to the school in the Bronx. We came up with some very good questions. Bryce recorded the questions in his computer, and I kept notes of them in my notebook. We thought up about 10 questions for our interviews. It was difficult to come up with questions that we wanted to ask so this took up most of our meeting. Denis helped us a lot with this. We also thought about ways to really make people bring in more stuff and raise money for the organization. By the end of our meeting today we were all looking forward to our visit to the Bronx. I think we will learn a lot when we go there. We will learn more about the situation in public school in New York City.

Taliana Katz-2/6/10-Village Temple-2nd.visit

Ruby and I arrived at the village Temple Soup Kitchen at 9 am and Immediately started to stack pieces of bread on to a big tray.  After all the bread was stacked we started to make turkey and mustard sandwiches.  To make the sandwiches it reminded me of what we have been studying in core about how a lot of  the fast food places would have people do one thing repeatedly.  for example one person would take bread and put mustard on it another would put turkey on and then pass it to another person who put the last piece of bread and then turned it to the last person that would bag it.

Before we knew we had already made over 150 sandwiches.  I then moved on to peeling and chopping carrots I did that with josh and a few other people that had started to come in. I thought it was great that josh came especially since it wasn’t even his social justice project.

After Josh and I had finished peeling and chopping all the carrots we said our goodbyes and left the food pantry. I liked being at the food pantry this time better because there were not as many people so it was less crowded.

All together I found this experience extremely rewarding.

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Adam-3/4/10-AIDS Walk

Yesterday on March 4, 2010 I went to the AIDS Walk head quarters on 119 west 24th street with my fellow classmates Jasper, Matan, Olivia, and Alma. Went there fro, six to nine at night meeting up with someone who has connections to our school, named Shaun Sheppard. We meet him at the second floor and then he later took us up to the third floor were we packaged and distributed cards and posters to spread awarness about the New york Aids walk taking place in May after the Social Justice Project.

Olivia-3/4/10-Aids Walk Volunteer Work

On Thursday night, my social justice group and I traveled to West 24th street to help the AIDS Walk organization package posters and fliers for schools and businesses to display prior to the AIDS Walk. The goal was to inspire people in NYC to participate in the AIDS Walk on May 16 and raise money to find a cure for the disease. We were led up to a warehouse on the third floor by Sean Sheppard, the volunteer coordinator, where a group of other volunteers were sitting at tables boxing posters. Sean Sheppard and the other organization leaders were very kind and grateful towards us. My group and I split the work into separate jobs, the way we had on our previous visit, and this was an easy way of completing the job by using teamwork. Though the visit wasn’t long, by the end we were proud that we had helped out to spread the word about an important event.

Nora-3/3/10-LINC

 

With my group
With my group

Today Naomi, Viviane, Kyla, and I went to the st Judes School in Harlem.  We took the A train up and when we got off, honestly, we didn’t know where we were.  We had a little bit of trouble looking for the place.  Sometimes when we tried to ask for directions, some people couldn’t speak English.  When we first got there we sorted math work sheets, and coloring pages that the kids would work on after we read to them.  Shortly after arriving the coordinator Albania told us that we were reading Doctor Seuss stories because we were celebrating him.  We read to kindergarten kids.  There were also 5th graders from the same school her were helping LINC with the reading.  The four of us were split to go to different table where we read to the kindergarten students along with the 5th graders.  I took turns with two 5th graders in my group reading a page each to three kindergarten students.  After we read the kindergarten kids did a math worksheets, we helped them and taught them to count small amounts on their fingers.  Then when they finished they were rewarded and got to color a picture from a Doctor Seuss book.  And while they colored the 5th graders did a word search.  One 5th grader in my group was very curious about the project, she asked me a lot of questions.

 

I thought this visit was a lot of fun.  It was cool that they had a theme of Doctor Seuss, because everyone likes Doctor Seuss.  The kids were very energetic.  I can’t wait for the next visit.

Naomi- 3/4/10 2nd Visit

Yesterday, Nora, Kyla, Viviane and I went to our third visit. It was located at St. Jude’s school and it was an afterschool program. It was my first official visit helping the organization out, so  I was very excited. For an hour, each of us were given tables to supervise that had  a few 5th graders reading to kindergarderners. The coordinator explained how on Tuesday it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday, so the kids were having a small celebration reading some of his books and completing word puzzles and coloring sheets.

The experience was really amazing. It was as if I went back in time to when I was in kindergarden struggling to read and solve simple math problems like 1+1. But this time I was the teacher,  helping them with their work and encouraging them. The kids were really open around me after a few minutes of hesitation wondering who I was. So, it wasn’t ackward sitting there watching them and/or conversating with the them.

 Nora & her group

I wouldnt mind going back to the after school program once more; for I believe it would be better since  I have a better idea of what to do. Even though the hour seemed to pass really quickly, I really enjoyed working with them.

Viviane – 3/3/10 – LINC

Shya the fifth grader and I coloring with Kindergarteners
Shya the fifth grader and I coloring with Kindergarteners

Today Kyla, Naomi, Nora and I attended an after school program at the St. Jude School on 204th St. in Upper Manhattan.  St. Jude is a Catholic elementary school that has a reading program for its Kindergarteners every wednesday after school.  The fifth graders who have to stay late after school on wednesdays are required to attend the event also to help out the  coordinators and the Kindergarteners too.  Our organization LINC, works with schools like St. Jude who have activities and reading programs after school to make them even better for everyone who is a part of them.  So that was what our mission was for today.

At first we got a little lost.  We were unfamiliar with the streets.  There were no numbers.  Instead, the street signs read Port Ave., Sherman Ave., Nagle Ave., and a bunch of other streets we weren’t familiar with.  Plus, to top it off, many residents only spoke Spanish, but believe me, we even tried that.  After fifteen minutes of searching, we finally found the school.

The four of us on the train
The four of us on the train

Once we arrived inside, Albania, the LINC coordinator led us into a classroom where there were four tables of Kindergarteners.  Seated at each of these tables were one or two 5th graders who were to help.  We started by sorting handouts.  Today is the day after Dr. Seuss’ birthday so there was a little theme going on.  There was a coloring sheet of Horton the elephant from “Horton Hears a Who!,” an observation sheet, and a sheet with Kindergarten level addition problems.  Once each child had a handout, the two fifth graders at my table and I read Dr. Seuss’ “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket.”  To be honest, the fifth graders were not interested at all in reading to the kids, which led the kids to not be engaged listeners, which led my table to become a big table of disengagement.  One little boy, Remy even pretended to fall asleep (I couldn’t tell if he was pretending or not).  It only got a little better when the kids started working on their math sheets.  I helped them with their addition, and taught them the finger counting trick (If you have one finger and add another, you get two).  Once the kids finished their math, they started coloring their elephants on their own, not wanting anything to do with the 5th graders or me of course.  So we just sat their saying, “I like that color,” every time they changed crayons.  Needless to say, I had a much better time last visit at the McDonald’s reading.  Overall, I still had an okay time, and it was nice experiencing the two very different programs and being able to compare and contrast them.

Will Balsam-2/21/10-4th Visit-Village Temple

This week I went alone to the Village Temple Soup Kitchen because Max couldn’t come with me.  When I got there at 9:00 A.M. I immediately started cutting bread.  Usually they will have sliced bread, but this week all they had were rolls so me and one other kid cut about 140 rolls.  Probably even more.  Then all of the brown paper bags had to be set up on a seperate table, so we could put all of the sandwiches in them.  While those were being set up I put mustard into two dishes and took salami out of boxes to start making sandwhiches.  I started making sandwiches until there weren’t enough people bagging them, so I started bagging.  After we filled up all of the brown paper bags with sandwiches, we had to fill four baskets worth of sandwiches.  I was amazed at how fast we could do it.  There was a utility line going.  The first person would put mustard on both sides of the bread.  Then the second person would put 3 slices of salami on the bread and then me and 1 other kid bagged the sandwiches and put them in boxes.  And in no time we had 4 boxes of sandwiches.  It probably took 20-30 minutes, but it didn’t feel that long.  After that we took 4 huge garbage bags worth of bread and sorted them into 3-4 rolls per small plastic bag.  The small plastic bags where like the ones and the supermarket where they are around the center of something and then you tear off the bag.  Sometimes there would be a unusually large sized bread and only one peace would fit in the plastic bag.  After that I cut up some corn bread and pastries and placed them out on the table for when people come in to eat.  I had to leave at 11, but I got to help cut up all of the vegetables for the soup before I left.  The soup kitchen ends at 11:30-12:00.