Australian Bush Fire

Today I read about a bush fire in Victoria Australia, where Jenny Luca from Working together 2 Make a Difference lives. It started on Saturday, February 7th and so far authorities have reported 173 people killed. The number of deaths is supposed to rise to about 200 people  because all of the homes and buildings have not been checked yet.

I am hoping to spread lots of awarenessabout this and also to create some support for the people who live there along with Jenny Luca and her class. She is asking that you go here to donate money to help rebuild homes, schools, and the community that were destroyed in the fire.

This means so much to me because last year, I Skyped with Jenny Luca and her class, and made some friends through email and I really hope I can make a difference for them.

PLEASE GO HERE TO DONATE TO THIS CAUSE!!!

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The Special Olympics

“Let me win. But if I cannot  win, let me be brave in the attempt.”- The Special Olympics Athlete’s Oath

I think that quote is important to think of whenever you are competing in something. The Special Olympics is a non profit organization that was founded in 1968 and is held all over the world. They want to help kids and adults with intellectual disbilities to become healthier. I’ll be spending some time this year focusing on this because I was asked to go to Idaho this year, where the Special Olympics World Games are to attend the Global Youth Summit that  is linked to this organization.

One of the things I’ve learned a lot about over the last year is that some nonprofits really try to make a place for kids who want to make a difference. When they do this, it helps us feel more welcome and this way, we might want to help that group for a long time. The Special Olympics is like this, and I am really excited that Andrea Kahn called me and asked me if I would like to join the Global Youth Summit. I get to go there in February, and I plan to spend this much learning as much as I can about how I can serve this organization well. I plan to blog about what I learn here and about my experiences at the Global Youth Summit too.

I also plan to start sharing ideas for how kids can make a difference doing small things as often as I can. I’m learning a lot about this, and I hope that I can learn more but connecting to others who do the same thing.

December 5, 2008

 Laura:

Today I am grateful for Nina’s laugh and smile.

Nina has always cheered me up, especially with her laugh. Her laugh is really small, but it is really nice to hear. For some reason, it always make me feel warm and smile. When she laughs it’s kind of like cold medicine when you have a REALLY bad cold and like music after a deaf person becomes able to hear.

Her smile is really refreshing too. Nina’s smile is like when you finally get to see that pretty night blooming flower come out. I can’t stand it when she is unhappy. I like to see her smile, it is a pink blossom of light into a dark spooky room, it always will show.

So today, because Nina means so much to me, I am going to play doll house with her when I’m done tweeting and blogging for today because I know that she really wants to and I want to give the gift of happiness to he too.

 

Nina:

Today I am thankful for my friends.Today I helped one of them do the baseline for hot cross buns on recorder.

The 2008 Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference Challenge

Happy December 1st! Today marks exactly one year of making a difference and a year that 25 Days to Make a Difference has been around! YAY!  I owe a HUGE THANK YOU to the people that have been through this year with me and have helped me so much. There are really way too many adults and kids and families to name. So THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

This year, I’ve decided that I will do a good deed every day. I invited my younger sister Nina to help. She does a lot of good deeds, but last year, her keyboarding skills made it hard for her to blog about them. Now, she is really excited to post here this month. I’m excited too! Nina rocks.

Please think about doing small things to make a difference every day for the next twenty five days too. Leave a comment here or blog about what you do. The person or family who makes the most difference by December 25th will win a donation to the charity they choose. What’s more important is that people will get to read about all the great things other people do.

This year, we won’t be donating money to charities though. We really like focusing on service work more. So, Nina and I will be donating a month of service work and fundraising to the charity of my winner’s choice. We will also be tweeting about what we are thankful for every day this month. If you’d like, you can follow Nina and I on Twitter at @twentyfivedays. You can tweet about what you are grateful for every day too or what you are doing to make a small difference.

If you are a student, teacher, or school who would like to join in this fun, please consider joining Working Together 2 Make a Difference. This is a ning where classes can show what they are doing to make a difference. It would be really rewarding to see lots of schools doing good deeds and sharing it there. It could inspire other people too!

Today Nina is Thankful For:

My friend Emily. Emily is really nice to everyone. She cheers everyone up, especially me. Emily was in my kindergarten class. Now she is in third grade with me. I see her make lots of people happy every day. I tried to do a good deed today by helping Emily.

Today Laura is Thankful For:

Nina. She is really smart. Today, I helped her with her homework, and this made me feel glad. It makes me feel good that I can help her with something, especially math!

What are you thankful for today and how did you or someone else you know make a difference? Leave a comment and we will start keeping track of all the good things that happen in the next twenty five days.

Count

Count
(inspired by William Carlos Williams’ Poem and Sharon Creech’s Hate that Cat)

As they
counted the
votes

People who
hoped watched
carefully

One then two
two-sixty then two-sixty one

Yesterday
dreams were
achieved.

If you have written something about how yesterday made a difference to you, please let us know by leaving a comment with your link! Or share it below!

November 4, 2008: TIME FOR CHANGE!!!

Now we’re coming to the end of 2008, and I have been thinking about the year ahead. I have decided that I want my readers to visit and want to come back. In order to make my blog more interesting for everybody (including me), I will be changing the style of my posts starting TODAY!

I love writing in all sorts of different and exciting ways. I want to use my writing to notice others who make a difference and pay attention to the small things in my life that are meaningful. I will be writing poems and sharing pictures about these things in my posts, and I want to encourage others to do the same thing on their own blogs or in the comments section of my blog! I will also be doing service work this year, and I plan to write more creatively about this too.

Sharon Creech’s books Love That Dog and Hate That Cat inspired me to do this. Love That Dog is one of my favorite books, and today, while I was off from school, my mom took me to the bookstore to buy Hate That Cat. As we were reading it together, I got the idea to change the way I write on my blog and what I want to spend the next year doing. Sharon Creech teaches us that good writing always starts with things that are meaningful to US, even if those things seem small or unimportant. Making a difference starts this way too.

I think this is going to be a lot of fun!

Working Together 2 Make a Difference and Hints About the December Contest

This month I will be working at Working Together 2 Make a Difference, a Ning for classes to join where all of us can share what we do to make a difference and learn more about what this means from each other! Last month, Jenny Luca created this Ning, and she asked my mom and I to help. It gives all classrooms a chance to show other classes how they do charity work together and begin to get to know each other. If you are a teacher, it would be really cool if you join with your class. My friend Sarah Hanson is leading a project at Alden High School, and I know that some students from Depew Middle will be doing some work with me on this too!

This month, I’ll be working with my mom to help these classes and other local ones make their own pages on the Ning and start sharing ways that they are make a difference. My family and I will also be collecting canned food to donate to area food pantries, because their donations are low at this time of year, I think.

Many people are asking if I plan to do another contest starting December 1st (which is the one year anniversary of my blog). I am, but there are going to be some changes this year, because I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I want to do. One new thing is that this year, I’ll be using Twitter to share the small things that I’m doing to make a difference starting on December 1st! If you have an account, please follow me at @twentyfivedays and I will follow you and then maybe we can get lots of people sharing the good things that they are doing. This will be fun and inspiring to keep up with every day during December, don’t you think?

Books, Books and More Books!

A few days ago, I went to go pick up some books for my book drive from Knox Presbyterian Church. They gave me about 15 huge boxes fullof books that were all packed to the top!

I was really excited to see how many books they gave me! It was almost as many as I got from my street! Maybe even more.

When I went to drop off the books to the library, we had to get a library cart AND a big dolley! It was over whelming to see how many books they gave me, and it was all leftovers for a different good deed.

Also, my cousin Suzanne gave me about 20 big boxes full of books too from Rich Products. They had also been left over from a good deed. She helped have a big book sale there and all of the money went to the Make a Wish Foundation.

I think that it’s really great how we all can make a bigger difference together by doing something small by ourselves first. Suzanne and Knox Church each had their own sales for charity, and then I did a little drive on my street. Because everyone came together our library got A LOT of books.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Okay, so as you may know, my book drive was supposed to be my July charity. But because we got a late start and because the response was so HUGE, I am going to be carrying this into the end of August. We still have boxes and boxes of books in my living room to take to the library. This will be our FOURTH CAR LOAD! All together, my neighbors, Rich Products, and Knox Presbyterian Church must have donated over 1000 books to the library!!!

My new charity will start n September 1st! If you have any charities that I could use, you can contact me at twentyfivedays@gmail.com or leave me a comment in my comment box! I already have some really good ideas, including helping out animal charities and one really cool one for teachers.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A New Month, A New Charity!

The first time I walked into my Public Library, I was really excited. They always have great displays outside. I could already smell the crisp paper inside each and every book, old or new.

When I first walked in, I could see books that were recommended inside a bin. I could see the check out register.

As I ventured to the kid’s section of the library, I saw people looking for movies, on the libraries computers and studying. Then I knew that I had hit the jackpot, BOOKS GALORE!

The whole back end of the Library was kids books. magazines, picture books, videos, tape books, chapter books and more. About every type of book you could think of was there.  Eventually, this became one of my favorite places to be.

Yesterday I called the library to ask if they take book donations. As many of you know, many libraries are in need of books or are underfunded. So, because I think that my library is really great, I want to turn my library into my charitiy for this month.

I think that it would be really cool if I started a book drive. For this month, I am going to turn my book drive into a neighborhood book drive. What I will do is make fliers requesting book donations and tommorrow I am going to distribute them on my neighboring streets. Later on, I will collect books with my sister using my wagon. Then, I’m going to donate them to my public library! If you know me and have books to donate, please let me know! You can also donate them to you OWN library–just call to see if they accept donations!

The person who donates the most books this month will win a twenty dollar donation to the charity of his or her choice! Please email me or leave a comment to let me know what you do to help libraries!

Bake Sales and Lemonade Sales and Badges! Oh My!

A few days ago, Mr. Morris from Wetpaint asked me to think about helping the China Earthquake Relief Fund. This will help rebuild schools in China that were destroyed in the earthquake. The people working for the China Earthquake Relief Fund want to raise $50,000.00 so they can build safe schools for children in China.

So, this evening, at dinner, my mom dad and I talked about what I could do to raise money for this. I thought about doing a bake sale. My mom thought it might be a good idea to try to start a global bake sale or lemonade sale. On July 14, I will be having a huge bake sale and lemonade sale in my yard. We have a block sale that day, and all of the money I raise at my bake/lemonade sale will go to the China Earthquake Relief Fund. If YOU help out, we could raise even more money to donate together. You can participate as an individual, a family, or a classroom or school even. All you need to do is have a sale on your own and donate the money directly to the China Earthquake Relief Fund. I can’t accept any money from anyone myself, but you can send it right to them!

My dad thought about making badges for everyone who participates. If YOU decide to do a bake or lemonade sale to raise money to donate to the China Earthquake Relief fund in the coming months, you will receive a blog badge from me to put on your blog, if you have one. You will also win a magnetic badge too. And if you want, I will even Skype with classes to thank them. Magnetic badges will be sent in the mail. I am looking forward to making all of these. It’s going to be fun! In the future, I hope to support more global causes and to give away different badges for every cause I choose.

I really hope that some different people from all around the world will participate in this global bake sale for the China Earthquake Relief Fund. I hope YOU take on this challange! And if you aren’t able to bake or sell lemonade you could spread the word about this contest. Please consider blogging about it, using Twitter to write about it, or asking someone you know to take part.

DON’T FORGET TO LET ME KNOW IF YOU PARTICIPATE! I WILL SEND YOUR BADGES THROUGH EMAIL AND THE REGULAR MAIL!

And if anyone else has ideas to encourage people to participate, please blog about them too or let me know and I’ll spread the word!

  

Reflecting On the WNY-PLP

A little while ago, I was asked to present at the WNY-PLP celebration. Mr. Richardson and Ms. Nussbaum Beach were here to work with teachers who are using things like blogs in their classrooms. It was a really big honor to be asked to do this!

I learned a lot by giving this presentation too.

I met a lot of people who are interested in technology and who teach with it in their classrooms. Before I presented, my mom and I did an unconference, and I met with people who were interested in learning more about my blog. In class, sometimes, my teacher asks us to read and use post-its to record what we are thinking about, like our connections. The unconference was sort of like having a book talk and sharing all of our thoughts.

There was also a separate room where school teams were showing off how they use technology in their curriculums. People were talking in groups and it was really loud in there because everyone was so excited and talking all about what they were doing! It was really cool to see TEACHERS being students. I’ve never seen this before.

Last night, my mom showed me the book that Mr. Richardson wrote, and the cover is exactly like his blog. It looks the same. I thought it was really cool, and it makes me wonder how they did that.

Giving my presentation helped me organize all of my thoughts about blogging and everything we’ve been able to do–my readers and me–for the charities we help. I never really spent much time doing this. It was both a great opportunity and a good chance for me to think about setting some new goals too.

 

Thank You Kelly Genet!

A few days ago, wile I was at school, my mom and sister went to get bottles from Kelly Genet in Grand Island. She donated $10.00 in bottles! I am going to donate the money from the bottles to Suzanne’s Ride for Roswell. She is doing the Ride for Roswell in memory of my Grandpa Stockman.

We are also going to support Suzeanne in the month of June because my block sale is on June 14. My mom, dad and I have started getting ready for the block sale, and if you live locally, we hope to see you there!

Later on today, I will be doing another blog post with a special guest. Together, we will talk about who made the most difference this month, and I’ll talk about the WNY PLP presentation that Mr. Will Richardson and Ms. Sheryl Nussbaum Beach invited me to do, which was awesome.

Thank You Skype!!!

This week I got a webcam in the mail from SKYPE. My webcam is awesome! THANK YOU SKYPE!!!

So today I want to write down some things about how I can use my webcam to make a difference.

1. I can do webchats with classrooms about small ways to make a difference
2. I can post a video on Artsnacks which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time
3. Spread awarness on the charity of the month by announcing it on my blog
4. Announce  the winners of blog contests
5. Monthly interviews with charity directors in skype. I like to interview the people who I work with during the month sometimes. My webcam will help me do this and see them at the same time!

 If you have any more ideas about what I can do to make a difference with SKYPE and my webcam tell me by leaving a comment!

Skype News!!!

Today, while I was super bored (my little sister is at a birthday party) and leafing through an old crafts book, my mom opened my 25 Days e mail and guess what? I got an email message from Sara Schoenborn. She works for SKYPE !

HER TEAM HAS DECIDED TO DONATE A WEB CAMERA TO ME SO THAT I CAN SEE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SKYPEING ME! I AM LITERALLY JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND DANCING AROUND MY COMPUTER WHILE I WRITE!!!!!!!! SO AS YOU CAN READ I AM REALLY HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom just emailed Mrs. Hernandez at 17 Chances to Help to see if she would like to Skype with me again. Is anyone else out there interested in doing this? I really enjoy blogging and Skyping about blogging and ways that kids can make a difference. This is really cool.

Supporting My Cousin, Suzanne in the Ride for Roswell

This spring, my cousin Suzanne is doing the Ride for Roswell in memory of my Grandpa Al. I am planning to spend this month working hard to raise money for her, and I would like to kick off an even BIGGER bottle drive in order to do this.

If you are willing to help me out and have bottles that you are willing to donate this month, please let me know. I can come to your house to pick them up. If you drop them off, please knock on the door to let us know or leave them next to our side door! Thank you! All of the money that I make on bottle returns will be donated to my cousin Suzanne’s Ride for Roswell!

You can also donate directly to her ride right here or you can send a check to the address below. I am hoping to interview Suzanne this month too, so I will keep you updated on all of her hard work. I think it is really AWESOME that she is doing this.

Make all checks payable to:
The Ride For Roswell
P.O. Box 644
Buffalo, NY 14240-0644
(Please note my name, Suzanne Manning, in your check memo field)