Craig Tufts Education Scholarship

National Wildlife Federation, Family Summits Inc, and Craig Tufts Family announce the 2nd Annual Craig Tufts Education Scholarship!

This year’s Family Nature Summit will take place in the Ozark Mountain Region of Missouri, August 1–7, 2011.

“Craig Tufts was the Chief Naturalist for NWF for over 20 years. His devotion to getting children outside – learning from nature and having fun were fundamental for him. In his memory this essay contest was established to provide an opportunity for a child between the ages of 8-18 to have a chance to spend a week experiencing nature and having adventures – canoeing, mountain biking, etc.”

For more information and to download an application, click here!

Applications must be received by 5 p.m. E.S.T. on March 31, 2011, for consideration.

Even if you don’t have kids, consider supporting a great fund – you can make a memorial contribution, as a way of carrying on Craig’s legacy. Donations can be sent to:

National Wildlife Federation
Attn: Craig Tufts Volunteer Education Fund
11100 Wildlife Federation Drive
Reston, VA 20190

Life happens…

Unfortunately, due to health issues and a few major life changes since fall 2009, I’ve had to postpone my philanthropic endeavors. Just as I was transitioning my private 501(c)(3) foundation into a public active charity, things turned upside down. I will be back, though!

In the meantime, I am back to work and trying to recover. So, my blog may reflect new topics. Maybe not. Que sera, sera…

Just keep loving and protecting our children!

National Day of Action

Spread the Word!

Green Wishing

Make a green wish!

Here ye, here ye, tell all students, educators and school administrators in your community about the chance to win cool prizes and to join the new Eco-Schools USA program!

Students in grades 1 through 12 can post their “green wishes” for their school online through September 17, 2009. Just click on the image below!

The National Wildlife Federation teamed up with Warner Bros. and FTL Solar to bring you:

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Recycling fruit pits?

As I was trying to look up problems with peach pits, I ran across an interesting post, How can I reuse or recycle … fruit “stones”? I was expecting an answer to the title, but there are 21 responses by readers. I have to agree with a lot of the other readers, that if it’s from the earth (organic), it should be returned to earth, as compost or buried.

Although there’s a risk in letting people just give advice about something they aren’t sure of (in other words, some people just guess instead of giving advice from experience), for example, one reply said, “Pet toy”, it relieved me that other people will speak up and advise against it. Obviously this person doesn’t have large dogs, because my 70 pound Lab/Shepherd would swallow that “toy” whole. Not to mention, the pits are toxic to dogs.

I think the strangest thing, on the same website, to recycle I found was How can I reuse or recycle an expired menstrual cup like the Diva Cup? Personally, I’ve never heard of those products, but this site is from the UK and so is the Mooncup and the Diva Cup is Canadian, so maybe it just hasn’t caught on in my region?

The website mentioned above, How Can I Recycle This? has some interesting info, but I think they should let readers rank the answers.

I guess the ultimate in recycling fruit pits is using them in flooring, which is what Stone Fruit Floors does. They sell flooring made of peach pits.

The floors consists of peach pips that have been laid by hand and sealed with glue, resin and urethane. The sharp edges of the pips are grinded off to expose the red hue of the pips and to make the floors comfortable to walk on with bare feet. Floors can either be fully installed on site or shipped as pre-manufactured tiles which reduce on-site labour requirements.

Apparently, it’s a part of South African architectural history,

The ready availability of stone fruit pips from the first orchards established by European settlers in the Cape made this durable material an obvious choice to use in flooring.

From a distance, it looks like cobbled stones. Here are a few links to pictures from their website:

• These floors started out mostly used at entrances where feet were wiped and other places with high foot traffic, but now they are used throughout the homes. In this photo, they combined the stone fruit floor with laminate.
• The stairs show off a closeup.
• It can even be installed in the shower!

Pretty unique!

Also on Keetsa, as an eco-friendly flooring for homes, Peach Pit Flooring.

Greening Our Schools, Part IV

Part IV, the last part of this series, has been posted on Climate Community.

I had fun coming up with AEIOU: Advocate, Educate, Initiate, Operate, and Undertake. I think people like having steps or an acronym to be able to live by. I hope this helps people start taking action in their schools.

I wish I had more time to talk to some parents, like Lynn of Organic Mania, whom I used as an example under the Undertake heading. With my various nonprofit projects and with family in town three weeks in a row, I had to set that aside.

I also regret I didn’t have time to add more current concerns being reviewed under the topic of educating yourself about the laws and policies. I will have to create a new post for that soon. In the meantime, here’s something to get acquainted with if you haven’t already, the California Perspective Executive Summary, Investing in Our Children for the 21st Century 2009 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act (pdf).

We’re finally on FB

Well, I finally did it!

I started a group on Facebook to help get more information out globally. I’m embarrased to say that my nonprofit’s website, www.ceraworksfoundation.org, is not even up yet, so, in the meantime, click here to join us on FB!

Tweeters of Interest (Series)#2

I favor some types of alternative medicine over standard medicine, but I believe in an integrative approach of both. I love having a primary care physician in the standard medical system who shows genuine concern and is supportive of my choice. In fact, she’s the one who sent me over to the Integrative Medicine (IM) division. She remembers that I prefer not to inject or ingest pharmaceuticals and is considerate of that when she prescribes remedies. I’ve had doctors who like to push and prescribe pills and shots and procedures, regardless of my preferences. I’ve had other doctors who practically roll their eyes at me when I tell them that I don’t want to take this or that medicine.

One day, via #FollowFriday, I ran across the name @greenhealthspot, who is Dr. Suzann Wang. Dr. Wang is licensed in California as a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and as a Naturopathic Physician in the State of Oregon. Naturopathic Medicine (NM) is about educating patients, helping the body’s innate healing processes, and prevention as well.

I really didn’t know about NM before finding Dr. Wang. The problem is that various terms describing untraditional medicine, such as alternative, holistic, homeopathic, etc. are used interchangeably and thus becomes perplexing. I still am somewhat confused at what they all refer to because of the way I’ve heard them touted. And different sources will use the same term with slightly differing definitions. Since integrative medicine and naturopathic medicine seemed similiar, I had to ask.

Regarding the difference between NDs and IMs, Dr. Wang says,

The [ND] focus is wholistic rather than by body system. I treat the underlying cause and IMs usually treat symptoms.

She writes on some great health topics that can be applicable to everyone, regardless of if you prefer traditional Western medicine or Naturopathic medicine. I especially like her allergy info since I’ve become so allergic to everything!



Follow @greenhealthspot
Her website: http://www.greenhealthspot.com

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DISCLAIMER

This blog is not endorsing nor qualifying Dr. Wang, naturopathic medicine, integrateive medicine, nor any other type of alternative medicine. This content is NOT intended to be used as medical advice and should not to be taken as fact or absolute. All information is provided on an as-is basis. I am not liable for the consequences of how you choose to make use of this information. This is solely my own opinion and interpretation of public information for the purpose of introducing someone on Twitter to follow who tweets topics of interest.

This blog has no intention of injuring, offending or defaming anyone or any organization.

Any pro/con comments regarding naturopathic, alternative, homeopathic, integrative, holistic, or any other type of medical practice will not be posted. This is not the forum for that, this is simply a Twitter topic. Any other unrelated comments will be deleted. Thanks for being respectful!

Greening Our Schools, Part III

Part III is now published on Climate Community’s site. This part is about the green programs that schools have implemented and that have been successful.

Farm-to-school programs are fairly new (not new in concept, but new in being accepted for implementing), and as the concern for nutrition in schools has been rising, so has the program:

The National Farm to School Network is a collaborative project of the Center for Food & Justice (CFJ), a division of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College and the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC). From just a handful in the late 1990’s, Farm to School programs have spread to approximately 400 in 2004, 1,000 in 2007 and over 2,000 in 2009 spanning 40 states.

The most positive changes throughout most of the research is that children tend to choose healthier lunches when they have a connection to agriculture – whether they grow it themselves in a garden or if they participate in the farm-to-school program. (For more research, see the Research page).

The zero-waste lunch programs are fantastic to spread from school lunches to homes to business lunches. I was finally able to convert my household from using single-use water bottles to using BPA free Camelbacks and Klean Kanteen bottles by having lots of bottles conveniently available at home, whereas before I only bought a couple for myself because I didn’t think anyone else would use them. I even send guests home with my reusable bottles filled with water instead of the single-use.

As reducing and reusing is preferred over recycling, I try to reuse a lot of packaging as part of the zero-waste idea. Anything from yogurt containers with lids to deli plastic containers, anything that can be washed is reused.

Part IV of the Greening Our Schools series will be about parent participation, and I’ll go over more green ideas on what families can do for their schools, but the ideas can easily be brought into their homes.

Tweeters of Interest (Series)

140 characters for #FollowFriday is not sufficient to highlight some notable Tweeters. So, I am starting a series on Tweeters of Interest. This is my first one. For future reference, look under my TWITTER catergory for this series.

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I may not always agree with war but I do support our troops and veterans. In fact, after some violent experiences and being the brainy geeky kid, I prefer non-violence and fighting with reason and sense, but I understand that some people can’t hear reason and that war happens. However, no matter how much I or anyone else disagrees with war, I don’t think that anyone should forget or ignore the warriors who sacrifice their lives for what they believe in.

Patriotism shouldn’t end after the fireworks on Fourth of July. “Support our Troops”, “Remember our POWs”, and “Support our Vets” shouldn’t become blanket statements simply uttered on special holidays. I’ve heard many different views and criticisms of our troops on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but we, as any civilian unrelated to veterans or soldiers, have no idea what our troops go through emotionally and physically. It still astounds me that some people judge the troops on the basis of a few black sheep who aren’t responsible enough to grow up.

Here’s one man, Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), who reaches out to improve the lives of our veterans and their families and to educate the public:

IAVA was founded in 2004 by current Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff and his fellow Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. After returning home from their tours, these veterans came together after quickly becoming concerned with the way the war in Iraq was being portrayed in the media and the overall plight of newly returned veterans. There were many policy experts and talking heads on TV, but very few people who had actually served on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no one talking about what our wounded friends needed and the issues they faced. The creation of IAVA allowed thousands of veterans to join the national dialogue, and to explain what was really happening on the ground overseas and back home in the US.

Membership is for veterans, but others can become IAVA Supporters.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) is the country’s first and largest non-profit organization that works to improve the lives of OIF/OEF veterans and their families. We have over 125,000 veteran members and supporters, and are growing rapidly. IAVA members comprise the largest community of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the country.

Some of the things I’ve read are sad, like the statistics of army suicides, but everything I’ve found on the site is interesting and the success stories are heartwarming. Follow Paul if you are a supporter of our troops and veterans, or if you want to learn more. He’s been responsive and personable for someone with 4,000+ followers!

Follow @PaulRieckhoff
Also follow: @IAVA @IAVAPressRoom