See It: The Community being helped

H.E.A.L.T.H

Helping Environments And Learning Through Healthcare

This is an organization that gives students looking to embark on medical careers the opportunity to gain more insight into the diversity of medical professions. Not only will this organization help to broaden students horizons within the realm of healthcare, but also develop an awareness of the need for future generations to focus their attention on the needs of our environment, and to spread the awareness to the community. We plan to gain an understanding, not only about the importance of maintaining health through medical processes, but the impact that our environment can have on our well-being, and how having a healthy environment will help to keep everyone healthier longer.

Hopefully this will produce a group of highly educated individuals who will not only feel a drive to promote wellness among people in the community, but also to promote good health by focusing on the improvement of our physical environment as well. This will be in hope that they will one day be able to use their influences to better the world in a small way.

Since the begining of the anacronym is helping environments, there will be a great emphasis on helping out our environment, and developing ideas of sustainability for the future.

A contest will be organized state wide where highschool and college students will have the opportunity to submit ideas about how they think we can create sustainability in order to preserve the world we live in. There can be a $25 submission fee, and the winner will receive a scholarship in the amount of 2/5 of the submission fee’s ($10 of each submission fee will go towards the scholarship fund.) The majority of the fee’s will be used for the preparation of the event, and the rest will go towards other events for H.E.A.L.T.H . and whatever charity we choose to contribute to at the end of the year.

We will at some point during the year be selling re-usable shopping bags to the public that will not only help promote sustainability, but also raise money to donate to research organizations. Pamphlets will be given out on recycled paper(and using soy ink?) that explain the statistics of out yearly consumption and waste regarding plastic bags, and the damage they do to the environment. They can be produced for roughly 99 cents a bag.

Members of H.E.A.L.T.H will gain knowledge in the fundamentals of healthcare, and have the opportunity to meet one on one with professionals from different healthcare backgrounds through weekly colloquiums. This will include presentations from the guest speakers we will have, followed by an open question session for students to get to know more about the life and careers that our speakers engage in. In some cases, we will have the opportunity to visit areas of interest within the hospital.

Students will also have many community service opportunities. This will include hours working at the hospital, as well as raising money for projects to enhance the well being of our environment. The main focus will to be to use our bodies to benefit the natural world (cleanups, selling eco-friendly products, educating the public on how to be more eco-friendly, etc.) and at the end of the term, use the funds raised to donate to a medical research organization, or charity that we feel needs the most support.

H.E.A.L.T.H will be a valuable opportunity to meet fellow students sharing the mutual ambition for enhancing human wellness, and our ecological integrity. There will also be guidance available for students looking to attend medical or nursing school. It will be an invaluable experience to get to know doctors within the community, and possibly have the opportunity to branch out from the organization, and engage in internships and shadowing experiences within the students field of medical interest.

See It: The Community being helped

• What is the “Sustainability is Sexy” Project?

  The Sustainability is Sexy Project is a collection of students from the University of Washington determined to reduce consumer waste, CO2 emissions, and the use of natural resources on campus and throughout Seattle. Specifically, the objective of the project is to motivate students and coffee drinkers to bring their own coffee mugs from home, instead of using disposable paper cups.

• Coffee Cups? Really??

  Unbeknownst to many, paper coffee cups are extremely wasteful!!!! Because of FDA standards, most cups cannot be made out of recycled paper. Even worse, wax and other non-paper materials in cups prevent them from being recycled after their use. 5000 cups are thrown away at the UW campus EVERY DAY!

• But bringing my own cup sounds like a pain.

  We realize that bringing a cup can take up a little extra space in your backpack. To make the task more worth your effort, many coffee houses offer a discount to customers who bring their own mug. Imagine saving 25 cents on every cup of coffee you drink. Considering how much coffee is consumed by an average java junkie, this adds up to a lot of savings. The discount also works in favor for local businesses, as the cost of paper cups decreases.

• So what is the Sustainability is Sexy Project doing to help?

  Most people simply don't know how much waste their coffee consumption produces. Our group is responsible for educational posters and brochures around campus and throughout Seattle coffee stands. Media coverage through the Seattle Times, Grist Environmental News, and the support of Al Gore has helped spread the message even more quickly.

• What a great idea! How can I help?

  If you want to help, start drinking out of a travel mug. You can also tell your friends and family. The “Sustainability is Sexy” group hopes to launch a web-directory which catalogs coffee houses that support sustainable practices and offer discounts for customers who use their own mug. Coffee houses will be identifiable through a sticker by the cash register or a decal on the window. And of course, keep an eye out for “sustainability is sexy” T-shirts and bumper stickers throughout Seattle.

  As more and more people use sustainable cups, fewer trees will be cut down and CO2 levels from cup manufacturing facilities will drop.

See It: The Community being helped

In 1999, Daniel Ross won a BRICK Award in recognition of his work as Executive Director of Nuestras Raices in Holyoke, MA. Through an urban agriculture initiative, including community gardens, a farmers’ market and a new inner-city agricultural center, Daniel is ensuring sustainable development, community revitalization, and strong and healthy Latino families in his low-income community.

See It: The Community being helped

Today’s Rural Resources staff describes themselves as “a bunch of folks who love to eat!” Their awesome work for sustainable agriculture shows that they must also be firm believers in the “you are what you eat” mantra.

For those of you that are scratching your heads right now, “sustainable agriculture” is farming that doesn’t cause long-term damage to the land or rural communities. The goal is to preserve the environment while maintaining productivity and supporting local farm families. With sustainable agriculture, we can hope to pass on a conserved or even improved ecosystem to our grandchildren, and not one that is destroyed or polluted.

ANYWAY, Karen Childress co-founded Rural Resources in 1996 in an attempt to bring sustainable agriculture to the family farms of Appalachia. The organization is dedicated not only to preserving and improving farm land, they’re also committed to the community: through education about sustainable agricultural practices, preserving the community’s rural heritage, and making locally produced farm products available.

Today, Rural Resources works for this commitment through a variety of programs, including the Farm to Community Food Project, which makes sustainable agriculture programs available to underserved neighborhoods available to underserved neighborhoods, the Farm Day Camp for local kids, and the Downtown Greenville Farmers’ Market.