Category: 2009-2010

Josh – 2/4/10 – LES Girls Club

One Wednesday the third harry, Noel and I went to the Lower East Side Girls Club.  We have been contacting them for a while but it was our first time actually meeting in person.  The Lower East Side Girls Club is on East 1st street between 1st and 2nd avenue.  There mission is to give girls who are in bad situations with home life or school life “sisterhood”.  They don’t just take girls from the Lower East Side, there are girls from all over New York that go to their organization. They also have a sister organization further down south.

We walked down there and me the woman that runs the organization, Jenny Dembrow.  At first Jenny spoke to us about what the organization was all about and how it started.  She introduced us to her assistant, some members, and her mom and dad (they used to run the Girls Club and now work there).  We than sat down at a table and talked about what we wanted to do in our next four visits.  She came up with the idea that we could work on the Girls Club Walkathon (a fundraiser for the organization just like the AIDS Walk).  She told us what it was like and how we could help with it throughout our stay.  This picture was taken at last years walkathon (many people dress up and have fun with it):

After Jenny and her assistant showed us a couple of videos we took a walk with them to their cafe.  They have a couple of shops in the city that help raise money for their non-profit organization.  They have a cafe, a arts and crafts store, a gallery, and more.  We entered the Bowery Poetry Club and we met a couple of members from the organization working there.  The workers at the cafe talked to us about their experiences with the girls club for a while and than after i bought a water, we left.  This is what the Bowery Poetry Club looks like:
After we left we talked about the next couple of visits outside of the cafe for about 5 minutes and than we said our goodbyes.  I am very excited about our upcoming visits and it is great to have the opportunity to actually do something important for an organization.

Pictures

These are some pictures of people who have albinism.  Photographed by Rick Guidotti.

The first one is of Lauren from Austrailia.  The second pictures is of Gladismira from Panama.  The last one is Ceara from New Zealand.  Rick and Miche told us about Ceara.  She wanted to become a dancer but because of her albinism everyone said no you can’t your so different but Ceara went against everyones judgement and became a dancer.

Parker-2/4/10-Positive Exposure

February 3rd

Our second Visit to Positive Exposure

Yesterday Violet, Cheyenne, Ruby and I visited Positive Exposure for the second time.  This time Rick Guidotti was not there, he is working in Italy. 

We met Trishka.  Trishka and Violets mom, Miche told us what to do.  So we sorted thank you letters from people all over the country.  The letters dated back 10 years.  From when he had first begun his organization.  There were thank you letters from people who he had helped and photographed.  We sorted through a huge pile that seemed never ending, we were told to put each one card in a plastic sleeve and but the date and the return address.  It was a simple task, which took hours.

When we were sorting we read some of them.   There was one letter from a woman named Kathryn Arnoldi.  Last time I found her quote on the Positive Exposure but I got to read the letter she wrote to Rick Guidotti.  I remembered that I read her quote but she also talked about how she felt different after he had taken the pictures of her. This made me realize how Rick Guidotti is helping people feel so much better about themselves.

I am anxious to complete our next few visits.

Harry-2/4/10-L.E.S. Girls Club

Yesterday we had our first visit with the Lower East Side Girls Club, an organization has been empowering woman and girls for 14 years.  They supply all types of girls, some from bad living situations others not with an with an outlet, an free outlet. The woman in charge gave us an overview of their mission and then took as around the neighborhood, showing us the stores they own, the income of which is used to fund the Girls Club.  We met one of the girls of the past who is now an employee of the Bowery poetry club.  They suggested us getting involved with some of their events like their annual walkathon.  In the past this organization has had much success during these walkathons, and they have often had school groups participating.  Our group has thought of assembling an LREI group for the walkathon.  At the end of our visit we discussed our visits to come and we are to be put to work, at possibly the poetry club or really anything they need help with.  As  a group i think we are all anticipating our next visit.  I suggest visiting their website, http://www.girlsclub.org/.

Josh C-PEN-1st Visit

Our First visit was actually a long meeting in Mark’s office. We had talked about why we had decided to work with the PEN corporation. It was very informational and interesting. Stacy had told us about the the organization and what they normally do. The PEN organization helps writers around the world who have no freedom of speech, get out of imprisonment and gives them a voice. they have rallies, and schools go to their office and send letter to imprisoned writers around the world. Stacy, the women we are working with, told us about what they do with the schools that they meet. They have a banner were students can write what they think true freedom of speech and expression is to them.

Max Fried-1/30/10 2nd visit @ Village Temple

On Saturday Will and I went to the Village Temple for the second time to help make food for the needy.  When we first arrived we where sent to the local Trader Joe’s to get some bread.  When we arrived there we where informed that the Trader Joe’s company gives free leftover bread to some organizations such as the one that we where with.  I thought that it was great that they do this and I hope that they continue to do this for years to come.  When we came back with all of the bread we where sent to Knickerbockers which is a fancy restaurant.  When we arrived there they gave us 3 huge boxes of corn bread.  They are another group who give away food to organizations.  After we got all of the food we made some sandwiches and bagged them.  We set up a table with polka-dot placates and a large piece of paper to put over the table.  I had a great time helping out the Temple and I cant wait to go again next week.


Ruby Thompson – Pictures from Positive Exposure

Max Fried-1/23/10-1st visit @ Village Temple

On Saturday I went to the Village Temple with Julian, Taliana, Will and Ruby G.  We arrived there at 9:00 A.M which was the time that we where told to arrive by one of the owners of the temple.  When we got there we waited a while for a lady to take us up to the kitchen. When we got up their we where immediately put to work.  Some of us where making sandwiches, and others where bagging them.I was very surprised when I got there because it was a lot different then any other food pantry that I had ever gone too.  At the Village Temple there was only one small room full of kids trying to get all of their community hours.  We didn’t want to just go to a place to get it over with.  We wanted to learn about soup kitchens and really make deference in our community.  When we where not working we took short brakes and let other kids make sandwiches and open cans.  Throughout our visit we heard the usual volunteers talking about how this was the most volunteers that they had ever had and how great it is to see children wanting to help out.  The main women who told us what to do were very appreciative of our help.  We told her that we would be coming back which brought upon a smile on her face.  It felt amazing to help put and we will be going back next Saturday to do it again.

Ben-2/4/10-Getting Tools To City Schools

Yesterday, February 4th, Ivo, Miral, Bryce, Jason, and I all met Dennis Kitchen, our contact from the charity we are working for, Getting Tools To City Schools. This organization, headed by Dennis Kitchen, gives free school supplies to poor public school children who cant afford to get school supplies themselves. First, we sat down in the library and introduced ourselves. Then Dennis Kitchen showed us a promo video from the organization. We discussed the problem, and possible solutions. After this, we decided to count the supplies we have already raised in the charity box we have set in the lobby during the past few weeks. This took a good thirty minutes. Once we were done, we found out that we had far more supplies than initially anticipated, but we still need many more supplies to reach our goal. By this time it was 5:10, and we had spent a little over an hour with Dennis Kitchen. Continue to donate in the box!

Benjamin Ross

Jason Boehm-2/3/10-Getting Tools for City Schools

This afternoon Ben, Ivo, Miral, Bryce and I met Dennis Kitchen, the director of Getting Tools for City Schools.  It was our first visit with Dennis.  We met him at the library around 4 o’clock.  He wanted to give us a brief overview of the organization and explained what there mission was.  We learned some interesting facts.  He gets a list of schools that are economically depressed in the city.  The requirement is over 90% of the kids have to be in the “Title 1” program.  This program was put in place to help schools with high numbers or high percentages of poor children to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards.  Tools for City Schools tries to get a 3-ring Binders, paper, pencils and pens, pocket dividers and a pencil cases to students who are in this program.  He then showed us some eye-opening photos of schools that need help and we heard a 7th grade math teacher in Bedford-Stuyvesant talking about the school she teaches in and how Tools for City Schools helps kids stay off the streets and in school.  We then talked about how we can help get “tools” and fundraise.  Many people had creative ideas.  Ben stated that he lived in a NYU dormitory and could place a box in his lobby to collect unused supplies from the collage students.  Ivo came up with the idea of making a goal chart to get about 270 full binders by the end of this year.   After this overview we showed Dennis the box of school supplies we collected at the Middle School Dance.  It was filled to the top.  We decided to get a inventory check to see how much we had actually collected.  For now we are storing the supplies in Sarah’s Room.  The hardest part of the day was trying to bring the box upstairs, it took us about 10 minutes.  Once we started to unpack we had noticed that there were a lot more supplies than we thought there were.  We collected enough pencils to fill the 270 binders but we are short in every other category.  Our homework from now until next time we meet Dennis is to make a goal chart and advertise somehow that we need supplies.  It would be great if every kid brought in 2 three ring binders.

Ivo Ilic-2/3/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

Today Jason, Ben, Miral, Bryce, and me met Dennis Kitchen (Our Contact) at LREI at 4:00.  We spoke awhile about what his organization did and about what we could do.  He showed us this video  Getting Tools to City Schools Video of a teacher talking about her school.  We discussed different ideas for raising money and helping out.  Ben asked if he could place a box like the one in the lobby in one of the NYU dorms because a lot of the students there probably have extra materials.  I suggested we make a poster with a chart to place next to the box in the lobby in order to show what we are missing and what we have collected.  Dennis then told us we needed a place to put all the materials we had gathered so far.  We found a spot in Sarah’s room on top of a closet to store the materials.  We then had to bring the box of supplies from the lobby to the room.  The box was falling apart so for the first part of the move we slid it.  Later we lifted it with the help of the Admissions Office who insisted we were going to hurt ourselves.  We then sorted all the items in the box and counted them up.  I don’t have all the numbers but I know there were around 48 binders, 36 pencil pouches, and enough pencils for over 400 students.   Dennis told us that we needed around 300 binders with 5 pencils, 5 pens, pencil pouches, 50 sheets of paper, and 5 three holed binder dividers.  We have already collected enough pencils but in all the other categories we are lacking.  We are still brain storming ideas for getting more donations.  Please donate supplies by placing them in the box in the lobby.  Thank You.

Bryce Council – February 3, 2009 – Getting Tools to City Schools – First Visit

Today I had my first visit, or rather our company’s first visit to us. We started out learning about Getting Tools to City Schools. We found out that it was a company that gives school supplies to schools in which 90% or more of the student body receives Title 1 Funding.. We also learned that they don’t just give to any school. They only give supplies to schools in which 90% of the children or more cannot afford to pay for hot lunch at school. From knowing that we can pretty much infer that those kids also can’t afford school supplies. LREI is very close with this company as well because the chairman and founder of this company was a former LREI parent. While Dennis Kitchen, the chairman/ former LREI parent came, we also did inventory. Basically we just counted up everything that we had in the box that was out front in the lobby. We had 2,088 pencils which was enough for about 451 binders. We also had many other things and we put them in a chart and we emailed it to Dennis. From came up with the plan that we might visit one of the schools that he donated to, and that we might also keep a goal and try to achieve that goal and present in Middle School meeting. Overall, this visit was fun and I hope that we can do more next time.

Ruby Thompson – 2.3.10 Positive Exposure 2nd Visit

Today was our second visit to  our organization called Positive Exposure. Today, we were there from 4:00 until 6:00 and we had an awesome time. We had fun and we got a lot of work done. Today, when we first arrived, got right to work. Violet, Cheyenne, Parker, and I sat at the table and Miche gave us a huge bin of “Thank You” notes that Rick Guidotti has received in up to 10 years ago. there were so many in there. He would wanted us to sort them so he could keep them but not in a messy pile. He was planning to put them in a big binder so that was our job. We were told to open each card, put it in a clear plastic paper sleep protector, and then right the return address on a label, stick the label on the sleeve, and last but not least, put the year he received it on another label and stick that on the opposite corner. We did that job for about an hour and a half and then we broke down boxes. This may not sound like we did a lot or learned a lot but we got a lot done and we learned a lot. For example, as we were going through the “Thank You” cards, we read through some of them and most of the ones we read explained what Rick had done for them. So, we learned some of the small and big projects that he has done for people in the past for over 5 years now. I had a really fun time on our visit to Positive Exposure again and I am excited for our up-coming trip on Friday for the “Go Red for Women Foundation.”

Danica: PEN Organization 2/2/10

I had my first group visit with the PEN Organization. The PEN organization is a large community coming together to protect free speech and imprisoned writers.  Actually, PEN kind of came to us. We had a meeting with Stacy Leigh who is the director of the Readers and Writers.It was an introductory visit to get us started on our journey with PEN. Josh, Catherine, Nathaniel and I had an hour long conversation with Ms. Leigh discussing topics from imprisoned writers to what PEN does. I think the main topic through our conversation was what PEN does and what we could do as students to help our community. The organization is a community of writers founded in 1921 in London after a large dinner party between German and English writers that found a commonality, they wanted to save their literary voice. Two enemies during the World War I had the ability to act civilly toward one another. After our small history lesson, we learned about what is happening today within the PEN organization. Now, the New York City PEN Center is the largest center in the world and one of the most active. Ms. Leigh spoke to us about the “Power of the Pen”. This statement basically says that writing has significant power in the world. Whether you are writing or reading literature, the “pen” evokes something. It evokes change, freedom of expression and freedom of speech. We also discussed the imprisoned writer. An imprisoned writer is someone who is in jail, a guest to the state, chosen to be in isolation because of an outside threat, or a person who is surrounded by police or military because of what they wrote. But I think the strongest form of imprisonment is restraining or keeping their words confined. The writing was probably controversial or evoked someone or something. Being imprisoned must be torture, especially if you are just exercising your rights, but imprisonment makes controversy which involves publicity. And publicity informs the public of the wrongs within the writing world.  This visit was extremely educational and made all of us more socially aware. I can’t wait for our next visit!

Taliana Katz-1/23/10-1st visit @ Village Temple

We went to visit the village temple soup kitchen at 9 am on saturday.  At this soup kitchen every saturday they work on feeding people that are hungry in New York.

At first when we went we waited in the lobby for a few minutes and then someone came down to bring us upstairs.

When I looked around I noticed a table in the back covered with bread.  other then that the room was quite empty.

we were the first people there other then the people who were in charge of the soup kitchen.

At first we opened up all the packets of bread and piled it on trays while doing this a few other groups came.

After that more and more groups started coming which in a way was good because of all the help but it got overcrowded.

After we piled the bread me and Ruby (g) opened up the tuna cans and put them in a big bowl so it could be prepared with  mayo and chopped up celery that we prepared before.

After the Tuna fish and the bread were both finished being prepared most of us started to make the sandwiches while others cut corn bread.

When all the  sandwiches were made people started to bag them while others prepared the desert and fruit.

After that they thanked us and said that we could leave.

I really enjoyed this experience because we had the chance to help people and it was fun at the same time.

I think that next time we could stay a little longer so that we can see the food being handed out.

Also it would have been a better experience if there were less people but we cant really change that.

I cant wait till next saturday where we can help again.

Written by Comments Off on Taliana Katz-1/23/10-1st visit @ Village Temple Posted in Taliana Katz

Cheyenne-1.25.10-Positive Exposure

I was excited to see what Positive Exposure was like. I learned a LOT when I was there. Violet, Parker and I went to Pizza Box after school on Monday. We were meeting Ruby near Washington Square Park. She had a dentist appointment but she was late meeting us, so we waited outside for her. We waited about 15 minutes and Parker was going bizerk off of a sugar rush, Violet and I begging her for just one more gummy bear.

We got to the studio, Rick was really nice and he had a really playful dog named Buster. He was so fun. Miche, Violet’s mom, mostly talked to us about the organizations and we watched videos of Rick in Tanzania. Rick worked with people wit Albinism and helped them feel beautiful and accepted. There were some terrible things going on in Africa and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, seeing and reading about.

Here’s what I learned:

  1. “Albino” is technically not correct. It’s also a bit rude, like calling an African American the n-word.
  2. There is this new superstition going around in Africa that the limb of a person with albinism in a doctoral potion can help cure people. This is not true.
  3. There are people who have gone to people’s houses in Africa in the middle of the night and cut off a baby’s limbs who have albinism. They tell the mother not to cry, or scream or yet or else they will kill the rest of her children as well. After the limbs are taken, they leave quietly, leaving the rest of the body of the baby on the ground in front of the house to rot.
  4. Rick goes down to Tanzania and educates people about Albinism and tries to prevent things like the above from happening.
  5. A lot of people with Albinism have skin cancer because; the mother would put him/her out in the sun in belief that the kid would “darken up.” Of course this didn’t work and the kid develops skin cancer, which are the darkened splotches found on the faces of those who have skin cancer.
  6. What causes the light skin, is a loss of pigmentation in the skin and partially in the yes which is why some people with albinism are partially blind.
  7. People with albinism have very sensitive skin. If they get even the smallest of a cut, they could bleed excessively.

We are supposed to do another visit for Positive Exposure. I don’t know when but I think we will be stuffing envelopes.

Love, Cheyenne

Cheyenne-1.16.10-Go Red for Women

Hey everyone! My first visit was for the American Heart Association’s Branch: Go Red For Women. My mom got a car service to pick Violet up in Manhattan, and then move on to the Bronx. Parker was unable to become because she had an appointment that day.

I wasn’t nervous. But I had a stomachache. I knew I had to go so I got in the car feeling like I had to throw up. I don’t know why. The same thing had happened the night before in the car. It might have been motion sickness. We met Violet and drove to the Bronx. When we got there, Violet and I waited in the lobby of the Hospital. Dr. Lynne Holden, one of our contacts, gave us stacks of sign-up cars. Along with a couple dozen little red dress pins that one would get free when signing up for their emails. We were given the task of distributing them. It was a very small event that was mostly focused on Lynne’s organization, Mentoring in Medicine. Amana, our Go Red contact, could not make it to the event because she was sick. I think she was supposed to make a speech, but sense she didn’t come; there wasn’t much going on about Heat Disease. There was one game in the beginning. Someone would come up from the audience, and a cause of heat disease like diabetes or gender was held above their heads. The person had to ask the audience yes or no questions about the cause. If they got it, they won 20 dollars. Only 3 people went up. None of them got it. They were all minority students so some of them barely had a high school education. This was why it was a Mentoring in Medicine gathering. By the middle of the event, Violet and I were bored because most of the event was speeches. It was weird because there were a few people who sang. One guy sang something like “Old Man River” or something. I wanted to laugh because he had this regular voice when he spoke, but when he sang his voice was deeper than Barry White’s.  I didn’t learn much, except that Heart Disease can be caused by age, gender, and race and from having diabetes. So Nick Jonas would be at a different chance of getting heart disease than a 40 year-old black woman without diabetes. Different causes have different risks. And heart disease is the number one killer of women in America. We called a cab service instead of a car service to go back and my stomach had dropped to hell. But I think the next visit on February 5th will go better because it’s more interactive and interesting. I have gone to a lot of them before and they aren’t as boring as the speeches. I’m also looking forward to meeting Amanda. I also want to make sure I can take pictures or a video to post!

Love, Cheyenne

Julian-1/24/10-HUC

images

For my second post, I visited The Hebrew Union College, or HUC for short.  Every Monday, from 3 to 6.  While it is at a Jewish college for Rabbis, it isn’t religious at all.  The very first thing that I did was to help out in the kitchen, peeling lettuce and plopping jelly and peanut butter on the plate.  Then, I started to have a little break where I played on my phone.  At about five to five, I started to help setting up plates and serving people.  More than one hundred people came to get a hot meal.  Some of the people were a little crazy, but a few of the others were really nice and interesting.  We served franks, beans, collard greens, carrots and peas.  We also gave out juice, milk, cookies and chocolate muffins.  I really enjoyed it because unlike my first visit, I actually had something to do for almost the entire time.  I really had a lot of fun.  My aim for next time is to help out more and make myself even more useful.

Will Balsam-1/23/10-1st Visit @ Village Temple

On Saturday Julian, Taliana, Ruby G, Max, and I visited the Village Temple soup kitchen to help out.  W e arrived at 9:00 AM where a lady who runs the soup kitchen took us up to help.  We were the first ones there.  When all of us got up to the soup kitchen room there was an entire table filled with loafs of bread wrapped in plastic.  We unwrapped them and put them out on the table so we could make sandwiches with them later.                                                                                                    making sandiwichesopening the tuna cans

At about 9:15 10-25 more people arrived to help out.  A few other kids went out to Trader Joe’s to get tuna, more bread (which I couldn’t believe), and apples.  We all opened huge cans of tuna and made tuna fish salad for sandwiches.  Taliana and Ruby drained the tuna and then Max, Julian and I helped make the tuna fish salad.  Then Ruby, Taliana, and I, and some others made some tuna fish sandwiches.  It was amazing to me at how much of the bread we used.  After we put together a sandwich we would put it on a platter and when the platter was full it would be taken over to the bagging station, where Max, Julian and some others bagged them.  Then after all of the sandwiches were bagged we put them in brown paper bags so everyone who came could have a bag of sandwiches.  Then Max and I brought up two big boxes of apples.  We washed and dried them as well so they could be eaten.

Max with cornbread                                                bagging sandwiches                                                      slicing bread            

 

It was then time to cut the cornbread into small square and rectangular cubes.  Everyone did that.  There were also pastries to organize and put on the tables.  After preparing all of the food, we set the table and put chairs in place so people could come in and sit down to eat there meal.  I believe that even though there were many people there, us being there made a difference and you could tell that the Village Temple Soup Kitchen appreciated us being there.  During this visit I learned that making food for others can make you feel good.  Next week I hope I can do more stuff and be more helpful.

Parker-1/25/10-Positive Exposure

Yesterday Violet, Cheyenne, Ruby and I visited Positive Exposure. We learned a lot of things about albinism and we wrote letters to people.  We started to write letters to people who had a big influence, like the governor of New York.

Rick Guidotti runs this organization.  Rick Guidotti works with people who have genetic conditions.  He works with a lot of people who have albinism.

Albinism comes from the Latin word Albus, “white”.  It is a hypopigmentary congenital disorder characterized by the lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair.  it is an inherited gene defect and not a disease.

People who have it usually have no pigment in them, so they are very pale.  Albinism.  Their skin lack dark pigment melanin which means they are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and they can get sunburnt very easily.  Many of them because of their pale eyes can have vision problems. We asked how a person has albinism.  Rick said that a child would have albinism if both of their parents have to carry it in their genes.  He explained to us that this did not mean that the parents have to have albinism they just have to be a carrier.

People all over the world have this genetic condition.  Rick recently took a trip to Tanzania.  A country with one of the highest population of people with albinism.  We learned that people with albinism are treated like outcasts in Africa. It is also believed that their limbs, in a potion can be used to bring lots of good fortune and wealth. These people go to their homes in the middle of the night and force them not to scream when the cutting of their limbs.  Many attacked people have died, many are living with arms and amputated arms or legs and  many have lost loved ones.  “Since 2007, 53 children and adults with albinism have been slaughtered by people.”  Positive Exposure has taken two trips to Tanzania providing the ground community education to stop these killings.  Rick Guidotti helps teach people not to kill people with albinism.

“Positive exposure provides new opportunities to see individuals living with genetic difference first and foremost as a human being with their own challenges rather than as a specific diagnosis/disease entity.”

“The men, women and children suffering form genetic diseases live trapped in a particular hell-they face ferocious uncertainty, fear of disability and death, and a segregating difference.  Positive exposure not only introduces to the world the stunning beauty of the ‘affected individual’, but also engages the participant in a process that elevates their self-esteem for life.”  Sharon Terry MA, CEO and President, Genetic Alliance.

“I did not see my disease in the photos that Rick took of me.  I did not see devastation, limitations, or deficiencies.  I saw a human being”-Kathryn Arnoldi, Alpha One

People with albinism are often looked down upon or shunned and targeted, so this organization is to help them to believe that they are not ugly, to help them feel beautiful and talented no matter what others say to them.

Here is the Positive Exposure website: http://www.positiveexposure.org/

Benno-1/26/10-Food Bank

Today Logan and I went to the Food Bank of New York’s food pantry.  This is like a soup kitchen at night because they make hot food and give it away for free, but it also serves as a pantry, which is like a grocery store where they give food away to those in need.  Our job was to restock all the shelves of food that people had taken today.  We restocked everything from fruits and vegetables, to canned goods, to whole frozen chickens. We learned that about 150 people come everyday.  We also learned that people get their food based on a point system: the larger the family you have, the more points you get, and each object costs a certain number of points. For example, a whole 3 pound chicken costs 6 points, and a can of vegetables costs 2 points.  This pantry receives its food from a large warehouse that is also owned by the food bank, but also distributes food to other soup kitchens and pantries.  Although we did not participate in handing out food at the pantry (because it closes at 3:30 on Tuesdays), we still helped out a lot and got a great feeling knowing that we helped out in the community.

Here are some pictures that I took at the pantry!


This is me at the food pantry.


This is a picture of Goya cans that I stacked.


These are 3-pound whole chickens that Logan stacked in the freezer.


This is me stacking orange juice.


This is one of the many storage rooms that contains boxes of canned goods.


This is me stacking canned pineapples.


Our last task: to put three fresh oranges in a bag and tie them up for distribution.

Logan-Papp-First-Visit-1-26-10

Today Benno and I visited the food bank of New York City located in West Harlem. We both worked at the pantry. I helped to stock the pantry with all different types of canned goods and fresh produce. I learned many different things from where things are kept to the volunteer work. One fact is that on average they have about 150 people come there everyday. The food bank of New York is only open on Monday through Friday. The way their stock works is that it is shipped from the warehouse to their pantry. Most of their items are put into large freezers and storage. The rest is stacked neatly on their shelves. The system works with points. Each item is a certain amount of points and each person is given a number of points. I learned that anyone could volunteer in the pantry. The kitchen is only open to volunteer for people fifteen and up. I helped stack things like cereal, chicken, farina, canned tuna tomato sauce, oranges, etc. Each item had to be stacked in a neat way so the items are easy to access. The boxes are then taken apart to recycle. I even helped put fresh produce like oranges on the shelf. There are three simple steps to do this. First you take a plastic bag and insert three oranges. Next there is a certain way to twist the bag before tying it to provide maximum room for storage. Lastly each bag is taken to their produce counter, which is then organized onto the shelf. They closed the pantry at 3:30 so we weren’t able to partake in handing the canned goods to people, but we still helped to get their stock on the shelves for the rest of the week. What shocked me were how many people they have to feed and hand out food every day. The volunteers are dedicated to the food bank and they make sure all the work gets done. We were able to ask our volunteer helper, Mike how long he worked at the pantry and why. He said he joined about two years ago and was dedicated to helping people eat everyday. I thought how great it was to do something for less fortunate people. Even though I only got to help in the pantry, I felt good that I was able to take part in this cause. That feeling made me want to come back and help pass out the food to people. It was also amazing how much food they had to move. Imagine a whole warehouse full of food that has to be brought to a pantry, stored, and reorganized on a daily basis. They must need a good amount of volunteers. The setup was like a small grocery store. There were several isles and refrigerators/produce sections. Here are some pictures:

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I am excited to volunteer again at this or another food pantry. This visit has inspired me to help even more with these causes. I am eager to return and I have learned a lot from that one visit.

-Logan

Ruby T. – 1.25.10 Positive Exposure 1st Visit

Yesterday was our first visit to our organization. We went to an organization that Violet’s mom, Miche, works for called Positive Exposure. The guy who runs this organizations’ name is Rick Guidotti. His job is to make trips to far away countries to teach people about albinism and how people who are born with albinism or other birth defects are normal and just the same as us. There is a huge population of Albino’s in Tanzania and that’s where Rick travels the most. In Tanzania, people hunt down albino’s to cut off their limbs or much worse, kill them. When we were at Rick’s studio, he taught us about what his job is and what we can do to help. He taught me that even people with very dark skin, such as people that live in Tanzania, can have babies with very pale skin such as Albino’s as long as both the mom and the dad carry it in their jeans. Rick Guidotti has a website which is: http://www.positiveexposure.org/home.html (if anyone want to check it out). We (Violet, Cheyenne, Parker, and I) were shown a very sad video about how serious albinism has become. In this video, they interviewed an Albino women who had gotten her arms cut off in the middle of the night when she was sleeping, she said, “they came into my house at about 2:30 AM and  said, ‘we need your arms and we are going to cut them off and if you scream or make any noise, we will take your children and kill them.'” Something else I also learned was the when the Tanzanians had their albino babies, they were surprised by the color of their skin so  they attempted to make them darker by sticking them in the sun, but instead, it just gave them many dark marks on their pale skin, and those dark marks were skin cancer.

I am really excited for our next visit because I feel like I want to research and learn so much more. I learned all of that and much more in the hour that I was there. I am so glad I chose this topic! 🙂

Max-1/23/10-1st visit @ the Village Temple

On Saturday I went to the Village Temple with Julian, Taliana, Will and Ruby G.  We arrived there at 9:00 A.M which was the time that we where told to arrive by one of the owners of the temple.  When we got there we waited a while for a lady to take us up to the kitchen. When we got up their we where immediately put to work.  Some of us where making sandwiches, and others where bagging them.

bagging sandwiches

slicing bread

I was very surprised when I got there because it was a lot different then any other food pantry that I had ever gone too.  At the Village Temple there was only one small room full of kids trying to get all of their community hours.  We didn’t want to just go to a place to get it over with.  We wanted to learn about soup kitchens and really make deference in our community.  When we where not working we took short brakes and let other kids make sandwiches and open cans.  Throughout our visit we heard the usual volunteers talking about how this was the most volunteers that they had ever had and how great it is to see children wanting to help out.  The main women who told us what to do were very appreciative of our help.  We told her that we would be coming back which brought upon a smile on her face.  It felt amazing to help put and we will be going back next Saturday to do it again.

Julian-1/20/10-Village Temple

On Saturday, my group took our first visit to The Village Temple.  The Village Temple is a community soup kitchen that helps serve food to people that are homeless or very poor.  It was very interesting as we got to see how much work is put into a soup Kitchen.  When we go to St. Johns, we would only pack bags.  Here, we learned about the community and we got to participate in many different tasks.  I cut bread, made sandwiches, packed sandwiches and unpacked more bread.  Bread was in abundance.  Also, the people were really nice and helped us out a lot.  One other plus was that there were many kids from schools, so we got to talk to them.  I really had fun, and I can’t wait to go next week.

rubyg-1/23/10-Village Temple-1st.visit

Today was my first visit at the Village Temple on 12th street. Julian, Taliana, Max, Will, and I arrived at 9 o’ clock.

Village Temple has a soup kitchen: You are welcome to join us on any Saturday morning – you don’t need a reservation – just show up!  When we arrived at the building, we had to wait a couple minutes downstairs. I wasn’t exactly sure what we were going to be doing but I was excited to help. Once it was time, we went upstairs. It wasn’t how I pictured it. I didn’t think there were going to be many other volunteers but the room shortly was packed with many people.

There were many other volunteers there from different high schools in New York. This made the work for us less so at some points we ended up sitting down, trying to get out of the way. But we still were needed. In the room, there were several “heads” of the temple. I overheard two of them talking about how it usually is much more organized with less volunteers, so today it would be chaotic. The morning first consisted of making tuna sandwiches. The very first thing we did was sorted the sliced bread that was scattered on a huge table. Next, Taliana and I opened tuna cans and drained out the liquid. One of the old women called us the “tuna ladies”. Once we drained the tuna, we waited for some of the other volunteers to get back from Trader Joe’s. Then it was time to make sandwiches.   opening the tuna cansslicing breadbagging sandwichesMax with cornbreadmaking sandiwiches

We also bagged the sandwiches, washed apples, and set up the tables. Over all, I thought the first day was good but I wish there were less people. If there were less volunteers, we would have more work to do.  My goal for next visit is to be more helpful.

Harry-1/21/10-Liam Cohen

I think Liam Cohen’s post on May fifth 2009, was very impressive to me.  He had a great introduction that i think effectively covered all the things he was to say in his post.  He used quotes from his interview with the man in charge of the ski resort he was paying a visit to.  A resort which relied partially on wind turbines to produce the energy needed to run the travel destination.  It seemed like Liam had really absorbed a good amount of information in his visit and that was clearly displayed by his post.

Violet-1.16.10-Mentoring in Medicine Conference (Visit 1)

Last Saturday (January 16th), Cheyenne and I went to a Mentoring in Medicine Conference, which Parker was not able to come to. This conference encouraged people in 3rd grade and up to have a career in the health care. Although one of our main topics is women’s heart disease, this event was a combination of many different health professionals talking about why they chose that certain career, and why they currently enjoy it, etc.

To help with the Go Red for Women Campaign (women’s heart disease) we handed out subscription cards, that once signed up, it would provide one with emails with tips and recipes to help prevent women’s heart disease. When handing them the card, I would give them a brief description of what we were doing. For example, “Hi, I am a volunteer with the Go Red for Women Campaign, which is with the American Heart Association. We are trying to promote awareness of women’s heart disease, which is actually the number one killer of women in the world. By signing up you will receive emails with tips and recipes to help prevents women’s heart disease.” In the end we were only able to collect about 25 cards, as a fair amount of people were 16 and under and men.

We also met with Dr. Lynne Holden, who is one of our main contacts, and is with the Go Red for Women Campaign. Not only did we hand subscription cards out, we also listened to the conference, which had about two or three different lectures about heart disease-we took as many as possible. However the majority of the lectures centered around having a career in the health care profession. Anyways, some of the risks for heart disease that they mentioned are, high blood pressure, gender, and age.

I would have preferred to ask more questions about women’s heart disease, but there was a line to be to talk to Dr. Holden. I plan on asking more questions on our next visit, on February 5th.

Lastly, I would like to sign up as many people as I personally know (including teachers) to sign up for Go Red for Women.