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Dear Jennifer,
I want to share how very proud I am of how Houston, our home
city, as well as the country, has pulled together to help our fellow
neighbors from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama begin recovery
from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Our team, in addition to
donating money, toys, clothing and ten’s of bottles of shampoo and
soap, also contributed where we do our best work -- providing
helpful and relative content for kids. We’ve seen an overwhelming
response to our free Hurricane Katrina Resources to aid with the
emotional recovery (see the link to the right). Feel free to forward
them to anyone you know who could benefit.
We appreciate the multitudes of emails of thanks from so many of
you around the country who took the time to write. As a socially
responsible company, thanks enough is in knowing that we could play
our part in joining the already thousands of fellow citizens who are
working tirelessly to aid so many in need.
Enjoy this month’s OH! News. It’s packed with resource
opportunities -- hopefully something for everyone!
Sincerely,
Beth Carls
MindOH! CEO
| Guest Article: Service Learning: Strategies for
Developing Character |
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By MindOH! Guest Author Cathryn Berger Kaye, M.A.,
National Service Learning Consultant
Simply put, service learning connects school-based
curriculum with the inherent caring and concern young people
have for their world—whether on their school campus, at a
local food bank, or in a distant rainforest. With the recent
devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, young students are
especially attuned to how we as a nation, truly rely on the
spirit and actions of volunteers to bring both essentials for
daily living and to restore hope.
The results of participating in service, whether inspired
by tragedies observed on television or developed in a
classroom to establish relevance and meaning to subject
matter, are memorable lifelong lessons for students that
foster a stronger society for us all. When this becomes part
of a school culture repeated in a variety of classes affording
a range of experiences and opportunities, students gain the
intrinsic motivation to participate in community.
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| MindOH! Joins The Houston Independent School District
and Houston A+ Challenge: Reach Out to Dropout
2005 |
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By Kris Hines, MindOH! Customer Support
On Saturday, August 27, MindOH! took part in an
unprecedented volunteer effort sponsored by Houston A+
Challenge to bring dropouts back to school in the Houston
area. More than 1,300 volunteers and HISD officials fanned out
into neighborhoods around 16 high schools with lists of
students who had not come back to school this August. The
effort is believed to be the largest of its kind ever
attempted. According to HISD, 706 dropouts agreed to come back
to school. I would like to tell you about my experience.
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| Fundraising Opportunities With Giveline |
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As part of our mission as a socially responsible company
dedicated to helping kids, MindOH! is working to improve the
effectiveness of fundraising activities for a number of
groups. To do so, MindOH! created a strategic alliance with an
organization called Giveline, which was recently highlighted
in the Houston
Business Journal, to help schools and other non- profit
organizations improve their ability to raise funds.
Giveline is an on-line retailer like Amazon.com or
BarnesandNoble.com, except that any purchase made through
Giveline generates as much as 30% of the purchase price as a
contribution to the charitable organization of your choice.
Their stores yield six (6) times the profit of other
consumption-based fundraising programs and allow consumers to
give back to their communities by merely redirecting online
spending. Giveline works with corporations, charitable groups,
schools and other non-profit organizations, and it costs
nothing to start.
This kind of program is going to revolutionize fundraising
and charitable giving, because Giveline:
- Offers over 1.2 million products at the same prices as
the big online retail stores
- Provides a Client Store Management System to make
administration simple
- Promotes fundraising through fliers, e-mails, and online
campaigns prepared for you
- Allows stores to be individually branded
- Operates the store for you including: hosting, managing
product data, processing transactions, order fulfillment,
shipping and tracking, customer service, and customer
communications.
Take
a tour of Giveline or to sign up your company or favorite
charity.
For an example of how this works, here
is a $5.00 gift certificate to our MindOH! Foundation
Store. This certificate can be used toward the purchase of
any book, audio book, DVD, VHS, CD or software available in
the store.
If you have any questions about this, or would like help in
setting up your own store, please contact us at support@mindoh.com.
|
| Join Us at the Orange County Children's Book
Festival! |
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On Sunday, October 2, 2005, 9:30am - 4:30pm on the campus
of Orange Coast College, The MindOH! Foundation will join
other book publishers at an interactive family festival that
invites children of all ages to experience the magic of books,
encourages literacy, promotes the community and supports
children's charities.
"This is a charitable event, raising funds to help support
literacy, education and programs that encourage the joy of
reading," said Co-Founder Pat Burns. "We strive to be an event
where reading becomes playful and fun. Because of technology,
our competition includes computer games, Game Boys and i-Pods.
We are doing our part to help families find the joy in
reading. We want children to know that these books are written
by real people, not just generated out of a machine."
With numerous book vendors on display, multiple stages for
author and illustrator presentations, entertainment, and panel
discussions - there’ll be something for everyone! An abundance
of children activities such as face painting, clowns,
musicians, readings, drawings, etc. will be offered and there
will be lots of food, drinks and fun for the whole family. The
festival is free to the public and will be held each year.
One of the driving forces for creating the festival stems
from an experience Ms. Burns had when her two daughters were
in junior high school and they went to the Smithsonian in
Washington D.C. for the first time.
"We were standing in front of a Monet, and the girls said,
'this is so different from looking at it in a book.' By seeing
it in person, you get the essence, the feeling, the energy of
the artist. You just can’t get that from looking at a book.
The festival is an opportunity for the kids to meet the
authors, to help them understand -- not just at the brain
level but also the heart level. They get to be in one place
where all of these wonderful, talented people autograph books,
answer questions and create an awesome experience."
The festival this year, also co-founded by Barry Ackerman,
is collecting and donating new and nearly new children and
young adult books to the libraries devastated by Hurricane
Katrina.
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Free Resources to Help Students Reflect on Hurricane
Katrina |
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In light of the recent tragedies endured from Hurricane
Katrina, The MindOH! Foundation has created lesson plans and
activities that can be used in classrooms, youth groups and
families. These tools will help young people explore topics
ranging from finding the good that can come from a bad
situation, to the importance of putting good character into
action by serving those in need. Visit The MindOH! Foundation's
Hurricane Katrina Resources Web Page
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| Sign Up for the MindOH! TeleSeminar on September
29th! |
MindOH!’s TeleSeminars provide parents and educators a
convenient opportunity to learn from experts about issues
facing today’s youth. Each call will be formatted based on
questions you submit prior to the call, and will include a
question and answer session at the end of the call so that you
can speak directly with the experts. In addition, following
each call, we will provide you with free tools and resources
that you can use immediately!
Our next FREE TeleSeminar is "Developing Empathy In
Children And The Role Adults Can Play In Dealing With National
Tragedies"
Thursday, September 29th at 6pm (CST).
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful hurricanes
in recorded history. Find out how to help young people develop
empathy, the importance of putting good character into action
by serving those in need, and what you can do to support youth
in light of the tragedies to which they may be exposed.Our
guest expert for this call will be Janet Pozmantier from
ChildBuilders.
Janet Pozmantier, M.S., L.P.C., L.M.F.T., R.P.T. is a
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Marriage and
Family Therapist (LMFT), and Registered Play Therapist (RPT).
She is the Director of the WHO (We Help Ourselves) Program for
the Mental Health Association (MHA) of Houston and Harris
County, and has trained volunteers to teach over 300,000
children how to avoid becoming victims of physical and sexual
abuse. She created a program designed to teach parenting
skills to children, known as Parents Under Construction:
Building Healthy Relationships Today and Strong Families
Tomorrow. Janet is a founding member of the Child Abuse
Prevention Network (now known as Healthy Families Initiatives)
and Children at Risk, and is co-author of "The First Years: A
Parent and Caregivers Guide to Helping Children Learn", which
was released by DK Publishing in 2001. Janet has presented a
variety of her programs at local, state, and national
conferences all over the country. For more information about
Janet,
read her bio.
ChildBuilders
provides innovative services, programs, education, and
collaboration to promote healthy child and family development.
They are a non-profit organization that has brought education
and assistance to Houston families since 1974 and is dedicated
to making a positive impact on the community. Their primary
focus is to improve the quality of family life by providing
children and their families with valuable resources and
information.
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