Something worth doing...

In the past week I have spent much of my days attempting to be useful, with my energy and my time.  These are not necessarily easy things to do while trying to teach full-time and pretend to have a 'life'.  In the past week I have worked about two days for Grand Canyon Youth (my favorite non-profit), bought into the Give One, Get One Program from OLPC and launched a program at school to raise money for Dr. Jessie Stone to purchase mosquito nets for use in Uganda.  I believe strongly in giving when you are able in terms of both time and money.  Although I don't have a ton of extra in either category, I make it work when there is something to believe in, something worth doing.  Yesterday my students watched Nomads: Women of the Wandering Whitewater Tribe in class.  This was one of the films shown at the Grand Canyon Youth Film Festival from last weekend.  In the documentary there is a 15 year old girl, who is a professional kayaker, that talks about giving up roughly $3000 of her winnings to support a doctor's salary and remodel two school rooms in Uganda.  I love watching students struggle to understand that, in fact, the power of a dollar (although worth less in some regions of the world), goes a long, long way in the developing world.  So, our latest project is to raise enough money to purchase 100 mosquito nets to Dr. Stone in Uganda AND look to make a PSA to encourage other teenagers to look outside themselves to see what they have to give... be it time or money!  Stay tuned for PSA's in the near future.