Community Book Roundup

I'm happy to post this project from one of my Martial Arts Leadership Students - Jocelyn Hardy
~Mr. Engels

Successful Community Book Round-Up
As a Marital Arts Student at the Leadership Academy in Woodruff, Wisconsin, under the leadership of Mr. Gary Engles, I hosted a book drive for area children. Being the Reading Specialist at the Arbor-Vitae Woodruff Elementary School, I am on a continuous quest to provide the best reading services possible to our children.


One of the most painful notions that cross my desk everyday is the fact that our area children have absolutely no literature in the homes. As I sat back and pondered this unbelievable situation I thought…. How can I hold these high expectations for nightly reading when our children have no access to books? My mind began to race as I pictured all of the books in my own house…thinking now what. How can I be a positive avenue for change in our community? Then I had an idea…I would hold a book drive at our elementary school. I emailed teachers and let them know that during the week of December 3rd, students would be asked to bring in a gently used children’s book.

My thinking was that if every student brought in 1 book, with the thinking of “together we can make a difference” that I would have 567 books to share with area Head start programs, childcare programs, hospitals, and other area agencies servicing families who may not have access to books. I send home a note to remind parents, put an announcement on the morning and afternoon notices to students, and placed a blurb in our parent news. As the week of the drive progressed, I was disappointed that we may not reach my goal of 567 books, however, when Friday rolled around, my classroom was overflowing with books, over 1,600 to be exact.

I was so overwhelmed!

All of the students, staff, and parents at AV-W School unbelievably stepped up to the challenge. One Kindergartener’s comment really summed up the purpose of my project,

“Ms. Hardy, I brought in my favorite book to donate. I know that if it was my favorite book, it’ll now be someone else’s.”

I still am receiving books today, especially with spring-cleaning☺…there is another book round up in the making…again for the weeks before Christmas. The response of the local agencies and programs was overwhelming. There were tears of joy and bewilderment…I received thank you cards from tiny-tots to teenagers, from parents, teachers, and even from a WI state representative, noting how wonderful the project was. The local newspaper had two different articles on the book drive, and the hope for next year, is that we will exceed our goal and be able to distribute even more books to area children. Happy Reading!

If you’d like information about hosting your own book drive, please email me at jhardy@avw.k12.wi.us and I would be more the happy to help you get started!

Raising Money For Endangered Animals

A few months ago I put together a kick-a-thon to raise money for endangered animals. The students at Leadership Academy joined in my efforts and we raised $625 for the World Wild Life Foundation. Each student who participated in the kick-a-thon raised enough money to symbolically adopt an endangered animal. For their efforts they were send a packet of information about their animal. Some of the students even raised enough money to receive a pack of information and a stuffed animal that resembled the animal that they adopted. All together we adopted 19 animals.

This project was really amazing because we not only donated money to a foundation who is doing positive things in our world, but also we raised awareness of how important it is to help the endangered animals of our world. The students really came together on this project and I'm very proud of them for stepping up and doing something amazing for the endangered animals.


~Gary and Nikki Engels

www.LeadershipProjects.com
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Using Less Plastic Bags

As a method of environmental self defense and mindful shopping, over the last year, we have stopped taking plastic bags when we go grocery shopping. We don't even take paper bags. We do have 3-4 cloth bags that we try and bring with us whenever possible.

I am AMAZED at peoples response EVERY TIME we don't take a bag. We try and shop light, just for the things we need for the day (or two days) so most cases we will just carry things out in our arms.

Whenever we do this, every bagger and every cashier asks us 3-4 times, "are you sure you don't want a bag" "How are you going to carry that" or my favorite "Your pizza is going to thaw on you without a bag" WHAT?! Someone actually told me that with sincere concern. They are simply shocked that we are not taking a bag.

We are saddened that people don't take a more conscious effort toward something as simple as using less plastic bags at the grocery store. Many baggers (I used to be a bagger as a teenager at this particular grocery store) will even double bag your groceries for certain items. That's how we were taught to do it so the customer didn't leave and have a broken bag.

NOTE: Though plastic bags have only been around for 50 years or so, scientists estimate that it takes about 500 years for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill. That's 5-6 life times!

It's also important to note that plastic bags can be recycled and I'm happy to say that I see plastic bag recycling boxes all over now. I also know that many people will use their plastic bags more than once for additional tasks around the home.

WHAT WE DID ABOUT THIS ISSUE: EARTH DAY April 22nd 2008
I don't want to come on this journal just whining about a problem, as martial arts leaders we should have some sort of proposed solutions right?

The week leading up to Earth Day this year we went to the local grocery store and asked for 300 paper bags. Our students decorated (colored) the bags with messages and pictures that had to do with Earth Day Awareness. Those bags were distributed to everyone that went shopping that day.

We were promoting that Paper is a much more environmentally friendly way to shop if you must take a bag and Cloth Bags are best. We also talked to the manager of the grocery store who ordered more cloth bags and they have since sold many more cloth grocery bags in their store. Also, they now give a $.05 discount on your groceries for every cloth bag that you bring in that day.

I like to think that we had something to with this although I feel that they may have been moving toward this already anyway. In either case, we took action on this issue. The students at our school learned a powerful leadership lesson in educating the community about plastic bags, they got to participate in an activity that involved our martial arts community, we got exposure for our martial arts school, and everyone felt great when we delivered those bags. (Not to mention the smiles that were brought out as a result of the children's decorations on the bags...Priceless)

~ Gary Engels

www.LeadershipProjects.com
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Martial Artists Kick Cans for Environmental Self Defense Project

My project started out with one simple idea that came from a poster I saw. This poster was hanging up in the Minocqua bowling alley and talked about recycling cans. This really caught my eye and I started to do some research on the idea. One idea turned into many and what I came up with was to collect and recycle aluminum cans, old cell phones, and old ink cartridges.

To encourage students to participate we developed a little competition. I divided the students up into two teams. Each team was decided by the students' ages...that way both teams had an even number of adults, five year olds and so forth. The incentive for bringing in their cell phones, ink cartridges, and cans was a free pizza party for the team who brought in the most stuff. Also, we gave out a $25 gift certificate for the pro shop to the person who brought in the most stuff.

At first people didn't bring in a whole lot of stuff, but with in the second week the phones, cartridges and cans started to roll in! I had everyone give me their items directly. I would count what they had and then put their points up on the Team poster. A cell phone was worth one point, a ink cartridges was worth one point, and 100 cans was worth one point.

At the end of the project I added everything up. I wanted to really make a point of showing the students and the community what a group of people could do in only one month's time when they take action.

Here are the final totals..............

83 Cell phones, 136 Ink Cartridges, and 11,265 aluminum cans!

One cell phone pollutes 132,000 liters of water. When you do the math, 83 Cell phones recycled saved 2,894,269 gallons of water from being polluted!!!! A little bit of action from a group of people goes a long way!

Last weekend we had a recycling party. Students from the Academy came out to help us take the pop tops off the cans. The pop tops went to another project, developed by Alex Olewinski. He is donating pop tops to the Ronald McDonald's Houses that helps terminally ill children. Please check out Alex's post on his project. www.leadershipprojects.

At the recycling party we dumped all 11,265 cans onto the parking lot. We had teams set up and had each person at a station. The cans were piled on one side and a few people where in charge of taking the cans and giving them to their team mates in the middle. These people used pliers and took off the pop tops and then threw them into another pile. This pile was the finished cans...ready for recycling. We got through the cans in about 2 hours and we had about 30 people helping. (kids and adults)


We also called the news and they came out to do a story about the success we had. We will also be putting in a press release in the paper this week.

If you would like to do the same project or would like some information on it, please contact me for more information. www.leadershipprojects.com

There are links below for companies who take cell phones and ink cartridges.

www.phoneraiser.com
www.recycleplace.com

~ Nikki Engels
www.LeadershipProjects.com
www.LeadershipProjects.Blogspot.com


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Karate School Brings Books and Funds to Boston Schools and Literacy Programs

Boston (Allston) MA — May 16, 2008. Boston's Emerald Necklace Martial Arts recently collected over $1,400 in donations and nearly 1,000 books to benefit the Roger Clap School in Dorchester and the Maurice Tobin School in Roxbury. A 100-book donation was also presented to Everybody Wins, a national literacy and mentoring nonprofit proven to build the skills and love of reading among low-income elementary students.

The book and donation drive was led by karate students Wendy Mailot and Melissa Even, who conceived of and completed the project as part of their test for purple belt. The book donations include award-winning math curriculum based texts, and books from the popular Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Goosebumps, and American Girls series. Delivery was made to the Clap School on April 15; the Tobin School donation drop of will be held on Monday, May 19.

"Unfortunately, too many kids do not have home environments that are conducive to reading, and too many schools do not have the budgets to adequately fill their libraries with books that interest kids," Mailot says. "The books and money we collect will make a huge difference to these schools and to Everybody Wins, as well as to all of the kids."

More information about Emerald Necklace Martial Arts can be found online at http://www.karateinboston.com/. Sensei Jason Gould, Chief Instructor, can be reached at (617) 230-1973.

Karate Students Practice Environmental Self Defense in Namesake Park

Boston (Allston) MA — May 1, 2008. During Earth Day week and in conjunction with the citywide "Boston Shines" cleanup initiative, the students of Boston's Emerald Necklace Martial Arts recently helped to remove trash and debris along the banks of the Muddy River in the Fens Area behind the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Fens area is part of the "Emerald Necklace," an interconnected system of parks and waterways that winds its way through the city of Boston. Emerald Necklace Martial Arts is named after this sprawling urban green space. About 20 students from the karate school participated in the cleanup, along with several other community groups.

"If we don't take care of our environment, our environment will take care of us," says Sensei Jason Gould, Chief Instructor at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts. "So when you think about it, having our members participate in the cleanup is really a lesson in self-defense."

"Besides," he adds, "our dojo (karate school) is named after this park system. How could we not come out and help take care of it?"

The students at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts regularly participate in community service activities as part of their Black Belt training. Past activities include a fundraiser for Allston's West End House Boys and Girls Club, a food drive for the Greater Boston Food Bank, and building housing in Dorchester with Habitat for Humanity.

More information about Emerald Necklace Martial Arts can be found online at www.karateinboston.com. Sensei Jason Gould can be reached at (617) 230-1973.