Hope 13 Just another Edublogs.org weblog

My Paralympic experence has been amazing, with lots of learning which has lead me to have a great appreciation towords the paralymics and there athletes. I have enjoyed every thing from doing paralympic events on scooter boards in gym and calculating our times to reading and writing about the history of disabled people. Alot of the the history is terribal like making freak shows of the disabled or in the case of nazi Germany when they would poison or starve the disabled. It has really improved over the years and I hope it will keep improving for many more years.

When you look on TV and see things like sledge hockey you think of it as an extremely hard sport but I am assuming that it is even harder than it looks which now makes me look at it as a huge challenge. When we did paralympic alpine skiing blinded with a blind fold with some one else guiding you through cones saying “go right,  a little bit more left there, go, keep going, go go go you are almost there” that was enough of a challenge.  The paralympians did much harder things than we did and what we did was difficult (but it was still really fun). Most paralympians probably have as much fun as we do.

Paralympians are taken for granted because they are different and they should be heroes to people like you and I.  I hope that one day more people would recognize the paralympians as heroes and care more for the paralympics.

I had the opportunity to experience the opening ceremony of the paralympics. It was very busy and I’m glad that that was the case in some ways because it shows that more people are taking notice of the paralympic games. It was even sold out! It was a lot of fun. We had a chance to dance together as an audience and they talked about more heroes with disabilities such as Rick Hansen and Terry Fox. Rick Hansen even gave an inspiring speech himself. Terry Fox’s parents brought in the paralympic flame.

Everything I’ve learned has been very worthwhile. It has given me a better understanding of these great heroes. Without this knowledge I would not think of the paralympics at all. I would think of them as most people do which is not taking much notice of them and only caring about the Olympics, not what comes after.

Last night I went to the Belcarra council meeting feeling a little nervous. I was going to give a presentation on the subject of electronic waste and what I was going to do to help the issue. Everyone seemed very nice when I got there. When I went in I was greeted with a warm smile and a hello. The Mayor of Belcarra introduced himself to me, my Mom and my brother and recognized that it was a very important subject.

There were not very many people in the audience but most of the council members were there and in some ways that was a good thing for me. As  I was speaking my Mom handed out sheets of information. After I was done my speech there was a lot of conversation throughout the council. They gave good comments and asked me questions. Soon it was all over and they moved on to the next subject. It seemed to go by quite fast but that’s probably just me.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to do this and I am looking forward to having an electronics drive throughout Anmore and Belcarra so that e-waste can be recycled in a more friendly way to the environment.

The best part is that they are really thinking about what I said. They might even put in a separate bin just for electronics in Belcarra because right now they have a bin for everything that is electrically powered. I’m glad that they take what a kid says seriously.

To lose a part or become blind would be devastating. It would be like losing half of your life because you would not be able to do so much. Paralympians are heroes. They do everything that Olympians do but with no leg or arm, they might even be blind. Can you imagine going down a hill at extremely fast speed only with one person behind you telling you what to do. They can even go up to 100 km an hour.

I think that most people do not think of Paralympians as heroes and they have been ignored and this really needs to change. Since most people have not been acknowledging these great heroes,  that is probably why the Olympics came before the Paralympics. Alot of the Paralympic events are not on T.V. with waywaaayyyy cheeper tickets than the Olympic events when really they should be more expencive.

To do this you have to have courage and perseverance. These people are truly heroes to look up to They are amazing!

The results are in…me and Kalista went to Share (a local food bank) with a trunk load of food. Once we got there we unloaded it all. The people who run it were very surprised that we had so much food so we explained to them that we had been doing a food drive at our school.

They weighed the food and the grand total was 188.5 pounds. We were amazed. We got so much food that can feed so many hungry people. We thank everyone that donated. Even though we did not get to our goal (200 pounds) we did very well.There is always the chance that more donations will come in after our deadline (and then our goal would be reached).

Actually that did happen! We got more food and it was brought to Share, so now our grand total is 212 pounds of non-perishable food items.  And because of this extra donation we found out that the food bank will accept perishable food items only if they are brought in on the same day they were donated.  We reached our goal with a lot of help which makes me realize that anyone can make a difference.

On March 4th I went to warm place for women.

Warm place for women is a place for pour women to come and have dinner and have fun!
I brought some bags of old clothes and helped set them out on the table. My friends from school were there too!
More and more people started to arrive by the minute and we handed everyone a raffle ticket and brought them some juice, all of them were very nice.

When  everyone was settled we served them dinner (chili),collected their plates when they were done and after that we served them dessert (cake and cookies that two of my class mates made).

We were very lucky this time because there were less people and even though you might think this is a bad thing, we could eat with them (usually we have to sit separately from them at another table because there is no room).

This was a great experience and it left us with a great feeling because we had helped and made a small difference in their life.Even when we are not volunteering we can still drop off donations of clothing for the women and their children.

Have you ever thought about where your electronic waste goes once it has been thrown away or even recycled? Well, I’m Miranda Andersen and I’m going to educate you on the shocking truth behind where your electronic waste, better known as e-waste really goes once it has left you hands

 We have been living a lie by believing we’ve done the right thing when we give our old electronics up for recycling. Actually most of our e-waste is shipped off to places like China, India and Africa where it is broken down.  As one reporter has commented “if dumping e-waste was an Olympic sport, Canada would win silver and the United States would win gold”.

 E-waste is made up of things like computers, TVs and cell phones, which can contain materials like copper, aluminum, lead and gold. The acids used to brake down these materials will find there way to rivers where they have been known to dissolve a penny in a day. 50 to 80% of this e-waste is not recycled at all.

 Even though it is illegal to ship this over seas, people still do it by calling it second hand goods because safe handling is complicated, expensive and enforcement is very weak. We are creating mountains of e-waste.

 Now picture this, children playing in contaminated mud, women washing clothes in a toxic soup and people of all ages breathing in dangerous chemicals all day and every day. Isn’t all this shocking?

 The people who handle our e-waste are not protected from dangers and include women and children. But they will do anything for the money. We need to give our e-waste only to people who handle it without harming others.

 Proper E-cycling leads to no pollution, no landfill waste and valuable materials can be recovered – but is it really all worth it? Well, I am sure you know the answer to that.

Old electronics are hazardous and should not be handed over to just anyone calling them selves a recycler. There is only one place in Vancouver that gets rid of e-waste in an environmentally friendly way and does it locally when they can. It’s called Free Geek.

E-waste was not even an issue ten years ago and now we are faced with the real choice of becoming part of the e-waste problem or part of the solution

So while you are thinking of buying that new gadget, also think of where the old one will go. Ask your electronic recycler awkward questions. As one free geek member told me “it is awkward questions that will change the world.”

In honor of R.A.C. week, me (Miranda) and my friend Kalista are having a food drive for all of the pore people that can’t afford to buy there own food.

Kalista and I put out a box by our schools office, poster up around are school and our principal sent out a email that we wrote to all of the parents!

Because of all this, we now have a full box of food and we hope to get even more! Our goal is to raise at least 200 pounds of non-perishable food items (one pound per teacher and student in our school).

…….To be continued…….

I was very surprised…..

One night, my parents told me that “we are going some where and we might stay over night”. I packed a few things, the next morning I got up at 3:00am. At the airport, I started to think…where are we going and why?  So I got on the plane (I had never been on a airplane). I soon relised that this was the plane leaving for LA and I was told, we were going for the my hero film festival!!! When I got off the plane, it was so warm and sunny with palm trees all  over the  place . 

That night we drove down to U.S.C. (which stands for the Univercity of Southern Californa).I was so surprised  when my name came up on the screen with First place beside it . I was blown away!  It is a big honnor to be chosen first , out of all of those  other amazing  films that are out there. The coolest part was that so many people knew and kept it a seacret. When the film had ended, I got an incredable recycled bird trophy along with a microphone. This was all an  amazing experence.                                                                                                                                                                                 

Christmas is ment to be a happy time of year, it is not for people that are living  with no heat, always wet and has no good place to even call a home.

This year our class is raising money that goes to buying  small things for these nearly homless women and there chidren.Every first  Thursday of each mounth five people from our class will go to the diner and help out at the shelter! I think this is a great way to help all of those nearly homeless women and there children out there. I can’t what to help make a happy Christmas!!!

Remembrance day is with out a doubt, a very sad day.There were so many great lives lost in the war. If only the war, never started in the first place. The Nazis were very tarible people they killed so many innocent Jews for no good reason, they would send them by train to death camps and kill them there.Not very many people ever even knew that this was going on. This should have been stopped much sooner.

On D-day the Canadian soilders came by bout to Juno beach in France. Thousands of Canadian soilders died and many were woonded, not very many ever saw there familys again. More people need to reconize , what these people did for us . So thank you for giving your life for ours and fighting for are country.