Sprout are looking for volunteers who would be interested in helping to clear out the garden at the Old Scout Hut on Sherwin Road Lenton on Tuesday 16th March 2010 from 10.00am until 4.00pm.
If you are interested in getting please get in touch with Jabran on 0115 970 8200 or Email: . Please wear tough footwear and old clothes. Gloves and refreshments will be provided.
Directions:
By Car:
From Milton Street head southwest on A60/N Church Street towards Trinity Square continue to follow A60 turn left at A60/S Sherwood Street and continue on A60. Turn right at A60/ Upper Parliament Street. At the roundabout, take the second exit onto A610/ Derby Road and continue on Derby Road. Turn left onto Gregory Street, take second left onto Gregory Street and take the first right onto Sherwin Road. The Old Scout Hut is next to number 29 Sherwin Road.
By Bus:
Get number 35, 36, 37, 34 from Milton Street and get of at Savoy Cinema on Derby Road and turn left onto Lenton Boulevard and cross over to the other side. Walk down Lenton Boulevard until you get to the Old Lenton Primary School and turn right onto Sherwin Road and the Old Scout Hut is next to number 29 Sherwin Road.
The latest book on my reading list is more focused on the challenges faced by the developing world rather than on design. I put a few books on this subject on my reading list partly because I’m looking for opportunities where my skills can be of the most service in the long term, but also because at some point in the next few years I plan to travel in South America and volunteer.
The Blue Sweater is written by Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund. She advocates the use of tools like microfinance as a way to give low-income people around the world access to basic services and opportunities, rather than relying on aid and traditional charity. While I don’t have any first hand knowledge about aid and development in the developing world, in what little research I have done I have sensed a condescending attitude towards low income people from some organizations, most often in the form of low expectations. Novogratz’s philosophy is that, in order to best help poor communities, we should listen to their vision for themselves rather than march in and apply our own solutions. She believes in “the inherent capacity for everyone to contribute,” and that we must partner with communities in helping them provide the basic tools and skills for their people to succeed.
Whether you are a member who’s injured, have never come on a run, didn’t get into the NYC Half, or just love muffins… COME VOLUNTEER AND JOIN US AT THE NBR WATER STATION at the NYC Half on the 21st! It’s going to be a blast, mixing up gatorade and screaming for thousands of runners (and a couple dozen of our own) in Central Park on the first Sunday of Spring.
has promised to bring her world-famous PB+J muffins for all of the volunteers but ONLY if we can get at least 25 people!
So far we have about 10. You DO NOT have to be a runner– so coerce your roommates, significant others, friends who owe you favors, students, and family members to come join us.
This team volunteering opportunity is one of two parts to help us get 2-4 spots for some of our members in THIS YEAR’S NYC Marathon!
Do NOT sign up through NYRR, please sign up here: or — I am submitting a list to NYRR. SIGN UP BY MONDAY 3/15!
The donation drive has started. We are very excited. We have already received blanket kit donations in the mail. We have heard from many that you have either planned to donate a blanket or that you already have done so and it is on it’s way to us. We are so grateful and thank you all.
As we go along with our donation drive we will have suggestions on how you can get involved, and how you can get others involved with you.
The first of these ideas that we offer to you is a great one to bring families together. Next weekend, we are planning a “Fleece Tying Family Fun Night”. My daughter is going to have a few of her friends over and they are going to put several of the blanket kits together along with myself and my husband. We are planning to make it a fun night, we have pizza on the menu and a movie and popcorn also planned. We are going to have a lot of fun together all while volunteering and donating for a great cause.
Keep an eye right here on our blog and and if you haven’t yet be sure to become a Fan on . We will have photographs and updates from our Fleece Tying Family Fun Night for you.
In the meanwhile, be sure to check out our photographs of the No Sew Fleece Blanket kits that have already been donated for us to put together. You can view all our photographs on our
We are very excited and grateful for everyone who is donating to our cause. Your donations are helping all the chemotherapy patients have a special homemade warm blanket to comfort them when they need it the most.
The “B” in my model stands for “benevolence.” This term refers to the act of thinking or doing in accordance with needs of others. Many studies have demonstrated that those that are depressed tend to be more focused on self, continuously monitoring their thoughts, feelings, and worries. While those that are the happiest among us tend to engage in more others-focused behavior.
Last night, I came across the following article, by Lisa Farino for MSN Health & Fitness, to underscore the importance of benevolence in one’s life:
Do Good, Feel Good
New research shows that helping others may be the key to happiness.
By Lisa Farino for MSN Health & Fitness
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Few of us are immune to the frustrations and challenges of daily life—family problems, conflicts at work, illness, stress over money. When we get or anxious, experts may recommend medication and/or . But a newly emerging school of thought suggests that a simple, age-old principle may be part of both the prevention and the cure: Help others to help yourself.
There’s no shortage of research showing that people who give time, money, or support to others are more likely to be happy and satisfied with their lives—and less likely to be depressed. Could helping others be the key to weathering the inevitable storms of life?
Feel-good research
Carolyn Schwartz, a research professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, didn’t start out looking at the value of helping others. Instead, she wanted to see if receiving monthly peer-support phone calls from fellow sufferers would benefit others with the disease. But over time, a surprising trend emerged. While those receiving support appeared to gain some mild benefit, the real beneficiaries were those lending a supportive ear. In fact, those who offered support experienced dramatic improvements in their quality of life—several times more so than those they were helping.
The benefits of giving aren’t limited to those who are ill. When Schwartz later looked at more than 2,000 mostly healthy Presbyterian church-goers across the nation, she found that those who helped others were significantly happier and less depressed than those who didn’t.
This phenomenon is nothing new. Paul Wink and Michele Dillon found a similar pattern when they looked at data collected every decade on a group of San Francisco Bay Area residents beginning in the 1930s. Those who volunteered and engaged in other forms of giving when they were adolescents were much less likely to become depressed, even as they got older.
New research suggests there may be a biochemical explanation for the published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, participants’ brains were monitored by MRI scans while they made decisions about donating part of their research payment to charitable organizations. When participants chose to donate money, the brain’s mesolimbic system was activated, the same part of the brain that’s activated in response to monetary rewards, sex, and other positive stimuli. Choosing to donate also activated the brain’s subgenual area, the part of the brain that produces feel-good chemicals, like oxytocin, that promote social bonding associated with doing good.
In a published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, participants’ brains were monitored by MRI scans while they made decisions about donating part of their research payment to charitable organizations. When participants chose to donate money, the brain’s mesolimbic system was activated, the same part of the brain that’s activated in response to monetary rewards, sex, and other positive stimuli. Choosing to donate also activated the brain’s subgenual area, the part of the brain that produces feel-good chemicals, like oxytocin, that promote social bonding.
Why doing good works
These results may seem surprising, especially since our culture tends to associate happiness with getting something. Why should we humans be programmed to respond so positively to giving?
“As Darwin noted, group selection played a strong rule in human evolution. If something like helping benefits the group, it will be associated with pleasure and happiness,” explains Stephen Post, Ph.D., a research professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University who co-authored the book Why Good Things Happen to Good Peoplewith Jill Neimark.
While evolution may have primed us to feel good from giving, it may not be the only reason helping others makes us feel better. Since depression, , and involve a high degree of focus on the self, focusing on the needs of others literally helps shift our thinking.
“When you’re experiencing compassion, benevolence, and kindness, they push aside the negative emotions,” says Post. “One of the best ways to overcome stress is to do something to help someone else.”
Even better, feeling good and doing good can combine to create a positive feedback loop, where doing good helps us to feel good and feeling good also makes us more likely to do good.
“Numerous studies have found that happy people are more helpful,” says Dr. David Myers, a social psychologist at Hope College and author of The Pursuit of Happiness. “Those who’ve just found money in a phone booth are more likely to help a passerby with dropped papers. Those who feel successful are more likely to volunteer as a tutor.”
When giving isn’t good
While doing good is generally good for the doer, Post stresses that there are two important caveats. First, the caregiver can’t be overwhelmed. There’s ample research showing negative mental and physical consequences for givers who are overburdened and stressed by their duties—or who do so much they don’t have time to have fun and take care of themselves.
In addition, while helping others can be a great antidote to the mild depression, stress, and anxiety that is a normal part of the ups and downs daily life, Post emphasizes that it’s not a cure for . “If you are clinically depressed, you need professional help,” Post says.
But for people who aren’t severely depressed and who give within their limits, helping others can bring joy and happiness—and and longevity too.
Some people wonder if these positive benefits make helping others an ultimately selfish act. “If the warm glow and ‘helper’s high’ that people experience when they help others is selfish, then we need more of this kind of selfishness,” says Post.
How to help others—and yourself
Incorporating kindness into your daily life isn’t difficult. Here are five easy things you can do to help others—and yourself:
Volunteer. Research shows that people who volunteer just two hours per week (about 100 hours per year) have better and are less depressed. To find volunteer opportunities in your area, visit or contact your local church or school.
Informally offer help to family, friends, and neighbors. Lend a needed tool, bring dinner to someone who’s sick, feed pets for neighbors on vacation, or offer a ride to someone who lacks a car.
Donate. It doesn’t have to be a lot of money. Toss change into coffee cans at cash registers or support local organizations by buying a raffle ticket. Look for opportunities to give within your means. You’ll help make the world a better place and make yourself feel better too.
Listen. Sometimes all others need is someone to lend a sympathetic ear to make them feel heard, cared for and loved.
Make other people (and yourself) smile. The easiest way to make other people happy is to act happy yourself, even if it’s not how you feel. “Sometimes we can act ourselves into a way of thinking,” says Myers. “So like the old song says, ‘Put on a happy face.’ Talk as if you have self-esteem and are outgoing and optimistic. Going through the motions can awaken the emotions.”
Lisa Farino is a Seattle-based health and science writer and a board member of the Northwest Science Writers Association. She is a regular contributor to MSN Health & Fitness.
Important* It is always a good idea to ask yourself why you are giving, why you are sharing. If the act is designed to make you feel better about yourself, to control the other person down the road, done out of guilt, or given to get approval- think twice.
When we reap the true rewards of giving, we are doing it when it is sometimes uncomfortable, painful, or against our very nature. We are going out of our way and genuinely thinking about the needs of the other person vs. what we might get noticed for, or how we might look better in another’s eyes.
This week, try and take one day and devote it to the needs of others. Maybe you get a LinkedIn message that someone is looking for a job. Maybe you hear that a friend just got out of a relationship and is having a hard time coping. Maybe its the third time in a row you’ve done the dishes in your household, and you do it again simply because you know your spouse is over-worked this month. Whatever your situation, you can always serve the needs of others by simply listening at a deeper level.
Dr. Colleen Long is the author of “Happiness in B.A.L.A.N.C.E,” and practices in the Los Angeles area under the supervision of Dr. Richard Oelberger (PSY22186) . Dr. Long works mainly from a positive psychology framework as it applies to addiction, depression, relationships, body image and weight loss. Her website can be found at . All public speaking/media event requests handled through (info@FreudTV.com).
With our restricted budget this year, we are buying few new books. If you have recent best sellers that you can part with, could you please donate them to the Library? That will help build our collection with high demand material. You can bring them to the Literacy Office. Thanks!
While I would classify the climb up to the summit of Mount Cameroon as “Caroline pace”, the descent was, well, errr… different. Through lava rocks and sand, we crossed the peaks vast summit plateau and descended towards our next camp. The vegetation reminded me of hiking through Central Washington – dry, rocky, and barren, complete with the Cameroonian equivalent of prickly sagebrush.
The adrenaline rush from reaching the summit dissipated by mid-afternoon. Our guide Samuel tried to push me along. Perhaps if he carried my pack I would go faster. Faster??? Was this a race? I tried to push harder regardless– hiking as fast as my little legs could take me – which, granted, wasn’t really any faster.
An hour before we reached camp, we traversed the craters created by the eruption of 1999. Up close I saw many lava rocks in various pretty colours. My knees were buckling under me and every few steps saw me ungracefully land on my derriere. Bless his heart, Greg didn’t utter one laugh or chuckle. The embarrassment was enough.
Greg got Samuel – our guide – talking about farming, sustainability and eco-tourism – a distraction for which I was immensely grateful. Between the finer points of turning Mount Cameroon into a national park and the opportunities for economic development of the neighbouring villages, I thought about the spaghetti that George was making for dinner.
At camp, wild mint tea and a hearty dinner waited. Sitting around the cooking fire, chatting about how Africa is portrayed around the world and the importance of football (soccer), the evening was perfect. A good night’s rest in a mouse-free tent followed.
Unfortunately, the glow of the morning sun over the trees and the knowledge that just beyond the hills and clouds was the ocean, didn’t improve my speed. One knee started being attacked viciously by unseen daggers. The other knee bent and straightened at random regardless of my brain’s well-intentioned commands. This made any downhill terrain into a painful chore. It was brutal. And slow.
Having lost sight of Catherine somewhere in the thickness of the rainforest, Greg carried my pack and played “keeper of the happy spirits” two steps behind me. Samuel’s confidence in my abilities floundered.
After a couple of hours of straggling and unintentional grunting with each step, he gave me an ultimatum. At my speed, he said, we might get off the mountain by nightfall. But if the porters carried me, we’d be out in two hours.
I failed to see how there was a choice.
I had never NOT finished a hike before. I’ve finished limping, crying, cursing in multiple languages and wishing for death, but I’ve always finished under my own steam. But this is Cameroon and lessons needed to be learned: pride had no place on this mountain. They were going to carry me out one way or the other.
So, shifting their rice-bag backpacks and re-arranging their loads, I was loaded onto George’s back.
If you saw the movie Twilight and thought that it was romantic for Bella to be carried by Edward Cullen at mach speed through the forest, think again. Romantic it is not. While I must admit that flying through the rainforest on the back for a porter, piggy-back style, was impressive at first, it was rather disconcerting. Even at the best of times, I can’t hike at the speed these guys were carrying me!
Down step slopes, around rocks and over branches at a runner’s speed – they were flying!!! Fritz, my second porter/carrier, broke his sandal. I thought that was it. But no, he fixed it with a soft little tree branch and on I jumped for another run through the forest.
After two hours of riding porters – everyone drenched in sweat and exhausted – they deposited me at the edge of the village. It seemed like I would at least get a quarter ounce of pride back on this return journey. The villagers only saw a stinky, wobbly, broken woman strolling ever so slowly through the village.
I had a fresh batch of bruises behind my knees from being carried, a sore back and even sorer arms from holding on. The porters, speed-demon Catherine and I waited for Greg to make his way out of the forest. He wasn’t very far behind at all– slightly worse for wear, but he’d made it. We all did. Mostly.
We each received a certificate to commemorate out successful ascent. Official proof beyond the photos and stories.
We wore big tired grins on our faces on the ride back to Douala where we spent the night in a nice hotel with hot water. And I was wearing something else extra special: “Eau de Porter” – the 3 men edition. Very rare. Very, er, pungent.
After the first mew-ful of owls, the next few were a breeze. The second mew had 3 lovely barn owls in it, a little smaller than the great horned, and a lot more timid. These owls didn’t so much care that we were in their little sanctuary as they just wanted to stay the hell away from us. They huddled together in one of the top-most corners and watched us warily with sleepy, squinty eyes as we cleaned up and laid out fresh food. are by far some of the most beautiful of the owl family, having a white underside and a wide heart-shaped face with startling black eyes. They can be quite intimidating when agitated, but I wasn’t going to find this out until the next mew, so for the time being, I was in awe at their lovely softness.
Claire led me down another pathway of mews holding various types of raptors and orphaned songbirds to the last 4 mews of large owls, two with nesting pairs of barn owls kept indefinitely for raising any orphaned chicks that come in during the spring and summer months and two with nesting pairs of great horned owls kept for the same reason. None of these owls can actually reproduce as one or both of the pairs are infertile or unable to copulate due to age or disability, they are simply kept together because they cohabitate well and have proven to be exceptional parents when it comes to raising chicks and getting them back out into the wild. Occasionally the female will lay eggs, but they aren’t fertilized and usually just rot after a week or two of her sitting on them, but they are left in the nest for this period of time for practice until they can be replaced with a fertile egg or live hatchling found abandoned in the wild. I had no idea that birds of prey, let alone any birds, would take in babies that weren’t theirs, and was appalled at the prospect of getting to see this in action in a few weeks. I had always been under the assumption that once a baby bird was abandoned, lost, or touched by a human, they were doomed. There were many times as a child where I wanted to replace fallen eggs in their nests, but had to leave them to slowly suffocate under the cold of the night and possibly be eaten by the creepy crawlies on the ground because I didn’t want the mother to be mad at me. It is a fantastic revelation, if you ask me, even if it is a bit late in my life to be realizing. There still is a lot of care taken when handling the new eggs coming in for orphan care, as if the egg is moved too much, the chick will die, and the owls may abandon the rest. It’s a touchy subject, for sure.
As we were cleaning out these mews, Claire thought it pertinent to inform me that there would be lots of insects and bugs during the hotter months that would be trying to escape the temperatures and the direct sunlight. Thus, they would be hiding in the mews in droves. Red and black ants would build colonies in the dirt floor, black widows would weave webby nests in every crevice, tarantulas would be sleeping under logs and stones, bees and wasps might build hives in the corners, and there was a strong possibility that snakes might show up every now and then to cool off and find some food. It was beginning to sound more and more like a dangerous dirty job. I wanted to turn around and look for Mike Rowe, ask him if he might take over for me once the bugs showed up. After carefully backing myself out of the darkest and dirtiest of the mews, making sure to look for spiders as my skin was crawling, I continued to the mew I was assigned to take care of by myself. It held a nesting pair of barn owls and the female wanted nothing to do with me. No sooner had I shoved myself inside the incredibly small doorway, she started hissing at me from her perch, which was at my eye level. The male just stumbled over to the nesting box to cower inside while she took care of business. I wasn’t sure how to proceed as I hadn’t yet had any owls hiss at me, so I just kept lower than her and raked out the wet sawdust and shavings used for their nest bedding. The entire time i was trying to clean off the floor and pick rat guts out of their nest, she was sitting there bobbing her head and hissing at me. After a short while of warning me to stay the hell out of her nest, where her wimp of a hubby (who I much preferred) was cringing, she started to wave her wings towards me and clack her beak in anger. If you have never heard an owl clack it’s beak at you, the only way of describing it would be horrific. It’s a loud, sharp and resonating clack that sounds like someone chopping wood with a very sharp axe right next to your head. I finished cleaning slightly shaky and returned to lay down a layer of fresh bedding in their nest, quickly high tailing it out of there once I was done. ”She didn’t sound too happy!” Claire observed. ”No, no she wasn’t”
Onto the last of the big owl mews, the last great horned lair. Before opening the door, I couldn’t help but notice a small sign under this mew’s chart warning “dangerous bird, caution!” Claire explained that the nesting female in this particular kennel was ancient, over 25 years old, maybe 30, and had actually raised the orphan male that was still with her as her non-mating hubby. I wanted to make a joke about a cougar owl, but it just didn’t seem like the place. Apparently this owl was particularly aggressive and would attack with everything she had, claws, beak, and gimpy wing, especially during nesting season. So…now. Claire donned a pair of thick leather gloves that reached to her elbows and headed inside, trying to explain to me how to grab her so she wouldn’t hurt us or herself. The owl had barracaded herself inside the deepest corner of the open box nest, so there wasn’t much I could see, but I could hear her talons trying to rip into the gloves, her beak clacking and scratching the leather. Eventually Claire returned with the owl upside down in her hand, feet secured, beak grasping desperately at her fingers. She laid her on her back in a small doorway used as a catch entrance for two other mews (a small foyer with a door so that when you open one of the mews, the birds can’t escape outside of the foyer) and closed the door before she could struggle to her feet. She sat in there hissing and clacking outraged at her position while we pushed the little male around cleaning the mew. There were lots of rats left in their cage, meaning the crew that fed them the day before had put way too much food out. The owls had shoved the corpses into all of the corners and under the bedding in the nest for later, but in the heat out here, the meat was sure to rot within a day or two. We removed all the bad meat and rounded up the good meat as well as a little bit of fresh rat and laid it out on their feeding platform. Once we were done and the little male was tucked safely behind a log, Claire grabbed the old owl (hehe, I totally get that word now) and laid her back in the mew. I made sure to specify that I would not be doing that until she showed me how to properly handle a bird of that magnitude. To which she replied with a story about how even a year after she’d been handling this bird, the owl still managed to get a leg loose and stick a talon through her shirt, bra and right into her nipple. *wince*
I thought that was a good place to end the evening, and now to end this post. Happy weekend, wish me luck for next Monday!
Does your teenager (18 years old and up) have a passion for their pet? Do they enjoy helping others? If so, offers a rewarding program. (AAT) is a rewarding experience for your teen and their companion animal.
First you will need to attend the Humane Society of Broward County’s Volunteer Orientation. Volunteer Orientation is scheduled through their Volunteer Services Department at 954-266-6814.
The Animal Assisted Therapy Program (AAT) is not only for young adults; parents and people of all ages can help make a difference in many lives. If your teen is seeking a career in psychology, social work or veterinarian, this could be an excellent introduction. For adults, it is a great way to meet others that share your love of animals and helping others.
Once you have completed the Volunteer Orientation, you will be required to attend a 2 ½ hour AAT class without your animal. This class will teach you all about our Animal Assisted Therapy Program and what skill requirements both you and your animal must possess in order to be considered for our program.
After the AAT course is completed, you and your animal might require further training. Training is determined by the type of program you and your animal will be participating in, and what skill sets you and your animal have or need to have in order to participate. AAT Advanced Obedience Training classes are held at the Humane Society and are scheduled once a week for 6 weeks. The Manager of the AAT program will decide if you and your animal require further training before being evaluated for the program. –
If you are interested in joining AAT program, please contact the Humane Society directly at 954-266-6856 or email them at .
Not in Broward County? To find the nearest Humane Society near you, .
Next Wednesday, March 17, St. Edwards University will be hosting the National Symposium on Homelessness: Where is HOME and how do we get there? Events will begin at 8:30 and end at 4pm.
Hear from some of Austin’s homeless about their daily challenges and concerns; Meet service providers in the trenches working tirelessly to improve conditions for the homeless; Learn the results of the first face-to-face homeless survey which draws a true profile of Austin’s homeless population; Come be motivated to implement real solutions; Featuring Keynote Speakers: Steven Bouma – Prediger and Brian J. Walsh – authors of groundbreaking book Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement.
Free parking available onsite. Lunch will be provided by Stubb’s Legendary Foods, with a vegetarian option available at registration. Tickets are $18 per person; $30 includes a ticket and a copy of Beyond Homelessness; $100 includes 6 tickets and two copies of Beyond Homelessness. To purchase tickets and read more about the symposium, go .
To read a heartfelt letter from Tom Spenser, CEO of AAIM, please click
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