Donate gently worn shoes to Haitian earthquake victims via Sport Chalet

Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by kchristieh in international, non-profits

Hopefully the 28 pairs of gently worn shoes my family and I cleared out of our closets will help make life a little more comfortable for Haitian earthquake victims. I’m just about to drop them off at Sport Chalet, which is partnering with Soles 4 Souls by collecting shoes at all 55 of its stores until January 31st to send to Haiti.

I especially tried to part with sandals and durable shoes and sneakers, since I figure that as a tropical country the people there probably prefer warm weather shoes or shoes that can handle walking over rubble. But I included a few nicer pairs of shoes, since at some point people will be ready to wear more dignified clothing.

I hope that time comes soon.

I pray that my size 7 wide shoes wind up on the right (and left!) feet.

The antidote to “Black Friday”

Posted on 27. Nov, 2009 by kchristieh in non-profits, religion, shopping

I’m burning out on rampant consumerism, and am trying to be more careful about how I spend my money in a tight economy. I found no reason to drag myself out of bed early this morning to join the throngs of people hitting the stores early to take advantage of the latest bargains.

Instead, here’s what I’m excited about: the LCPC Christmas Market. I’ve been helping my church, La Canada Presbyterian Church, with its alternative Christmas market for several years. You’re probably familiar with the concept: instead of buying a physical gift for a relative, teacher, client, etc., you buy something such as a goat, school supplies, tuition, etc. for someone who really needs it in your friend’s honor.

For the past few years, I’ve created a long online list of all the items available, with a PayPal button for each. It wasn’t very elegant, since you’d have to hit “back” every time you added something to your cart if you wanted to purchase something else. But none of the ecommerce packages I’d ever used – Yahoo Stores, GoEMerchant, Volusion, Miva Merchant – were cost and time-effective enough to bother with. This year I finally found the solution I’ve been looking for: BigCommerce. I had a blast creating this year’s online Christmas Market with BigCommerce, and am enjoying using it for other clients. After living through the creation and launch of eToys so many years ago, it’s mind-boggling how quickly and effectively I can now launch an online store.

Please visit the LCPC Christmas Market and put this year’s holiday dollars to good use!

New website launched: La Canada High School 9-12 PTSA

Posted on 13. Aug, 2009 by kchristieh in education, non-profits, work

When I sent my kids off to camp and Costa Rica last month, I finally found time to fulfill my 2008 New Year’s resolution and learn to incorporate a database into a website. You can see the results on the La Canada High School 9-12 PTSA website, lchs912.org. Events and news items are easy to enter and automatically show up on their correct pages and drop off the site when they expire. I’ve even set up sub-categories such as athletics and college recruiting events so that those events also show up on the appropriate pages. Although I took a PHP class last year, I chose to create this website using ExpressionEngine so that it would have a robust content management system that non-professionals would be able to use.

Another great feature of this website is the online One Check Order Form. This form used to be about 15 printed pages that were mailed to every school family. It would take a long time to fill out, as you’d need to re-enter your name and address on each page since they’d be sent to various committee chairs. I used Icebrrg to create this online form, and it takes about 3 minutes to fill out. It then takes you to PayPal to complete your payment. Icebrrg keeps track of all entries in an online or downloadable spreadsheet, so it’ll be easy for our Financial Secretary to pass the information input on to the committee chairs. Over 100 people have already clicked on the link in my Constant Contact email and completed the form.

I’m confident that this will make my job as PTSA President easier, and will make it easier to pass the website on to my successor in a few years when both my kids have graduated.

Discover the World website re-design launched

Posted on 08. Jun, 2009 by kchristieh in international, non-profits, work

I recently had the privilege of re-designing the website for Discover the World, a Christian organization that does lots of great work in Africa, particularly with children whose parents have died of AIDS. They also provide mosquito nets, leadership training, schools, water filters, emergency relief, and more. They make a huge difference in the lives they touch, but there’s nearly an infinite need for more help. I like that their mission is to

“lift up the world’s neediest people so that they can sustain themselves.”

That’s help that will have a long-lasting effect. I encourage you to check out their website and learn about their great work.

Besides enjoying working on a website that will help make the world a better place, I enjoyed working with a nice client that had a full retinue of fantastic photos. While I was working on this site, I heard Greg Mortenson speak and saw the slides he took of the work he’s done in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I was struck by how much more colorful the African clothing and scenery is in the Discover the World pictures, and how much more the people in Africa smile in their pictures despite an equally destitute situation. It’s amazing how different cultures can be.

Los Gringos Locos taste-testing progressing well

Posted on 16. May, 2009 by kchristieh in food, my life, non-profits

Loyal readers will recall that I was the highest bidder on THE coolest live auction item at this year’s LCF Educational Foundation Gala: the opportunity to develop and name a new dish at Los Gringos Locos. Los Gringos will will donate $1 to the Educational Foundation each time someone orders it for the next year.

I’m choosing to develop a new salad. I’ve found that most Mexican restaurants make weak salads that primarily consist of iceberg lettuce, corn, olives, cheese and Italian dressing. Bleah!

Jody P. was at Friday morning’s PTSA meeting, and kindly agreed to join me at lunch that day for the first taste-testing session. It turns out she’s quite a foodie, is very decisive, and has similar taste to mine. The perfect choice! Plus, we had fun talking while Bent H. prepared more items for us to test.

Our first step was to determine which lettuce and salad dressing to use. We quickly ruled out spring mix: even though we like it, we didn’t think it would have universal appeal. The watercress was ok, but too strong for the salad we envisioned. We didn’t have a strong preference for either the romaine or the mixed greens, as both were wonderful. They’re both still in the running.

As for the salad dressings, the tequila dressing in the upper right wasn’t very good, and the one next to it tasted too common. The yellow one on the lower left was tasty but had a little too much kick to it, and needed to be a bit more tangy. Bent’s going to tweak it for the next tasting. The white creamy one on the lower right was very good, flavorful but not too spicy. We’ll compare it to the revised yellow dressing next time.

Next we decided what to put the salad on top of. I was too busy eating and forgot to take a picture of our options before we dug in! Bent made us several versions of sopa, some grilled, some not, some thick, some thin. We liked them, but we didn’t love them. They also didn’t seem very healthy, and we weren’t sure most patrons would know what they were ordering.

On the other hand, the grilled quesadilla was wonderful. Not the most unique base, but it was really good, so that’s what we decided to use. We thought that grilled chicken would taste better and be healthier than shredded chicken, and Bent’s marinated grilled chicken was perfect on the first try.

Our next step will be to determine what to put on top of the salad. We’ll test mango salsa, and see how avocados, queso, tomatoes, olives and other toppings taste on the salad.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Volunteer, be happy

Posted on 09. May, 2009 by kchristieh in non-profits

Stat du jour:

People who volunteer are 42% more likely than people who don’t to say they are “very happy” with their lives.

Does that mean that happy people volunteer or that volunteering makes you happy? I think it cuts both ways, but I think there’s a bigger dose of the latter. Volunteering gives life meaning: you’re making a difference.

It’s very satisfying.

(Source: Oprah Magazine, Nov., 2008, p. 50)

Save the babies + educate the kids = healthy society

Posted on 06. May, 2009 by kchristieh in education, feminism, inspirational people, international, non-profits, quotes

One of the biggest lessons Greg Mortenson has learned since he started to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan is to LISTEN. I think he’s learned it quite well. He’s listened to children, their parents and village elders who have asked him to build schools for their villages. He’s listened to mothers who have asked him to help reduce the infant and maternal mortality rates. And as a result, boys and girls are being educated in greater and greater numbers each year, and those children are coming back and helping their villages escape the cycle of poverty and ignorance that serves as a breeding ground for Taliban extremists.

I had the privilege of hearing Greg speak at the California Distinguished Speakers Series this evening in Pasadena. He’s just like how he describes himself in his bestselling book, Three Cups of Tea: just an ordinary, humble guy. But that’s what makes him so extraordinary. He’s made it his life’s mission to educate the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is particularly interested in making sure that girls get an education. He said that when a girl learns to read, she is likely to teach her mother to read, to read newspapers to her family, and to someday deny her son the blessing that he requires to go on a jihad. Greg is the son of former missionaries, and doesn’t have much money. But he’s determined and passionate, and gets others excited about making a difference in the world.

One of the first slides he showed was of this African proverb:

Teach a boy and you teach an individual

Teach a girl and you teach a community.

At first glance it’s easy to dismiss that as being more applicable to Third World countries, but I found it interesting that he said that many of the American politicians and military readers who say they’ve been touched by Greg’s book say they read it because their wives encouraged them to. I was pleased to hear that the new administration is taking Greg’s ideas seriously. Maybe Barack Obama does read my blog!  ;)

Many thanks to Robin R., who gave me the tickets (my hubby accompanied me – I’d given him the book to read last summer!) since she wasn’t feeling well. I hope she gets better soon! Now I need to sleep and stay healthy to continue making a difference and to have the energy to do even more things!!

The value of volunteers

Posted on 19. Apr, 2009 by kchristieh in inspirational people, non-profits, quotes

One of the things that makes our society great is that there are so many people who are willing to sacrifice their time and energy to volunteer for a wide variety of causes. I heard the following quote from Young Boozer III this weekend as he accepted the Stanford Medal. The originator of the quote is anonymous.

Don’t ever question the value of volunteers. Noah’s Ark was built by volunteers; the Titanic was built by professionals.

Here are some other great volunteering quotes:

A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under which they will never sit. (Greek Proverb)

Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in. (Anon.)

It’s easy to make a buck.  It’s a lot tougher to make a difference. (Tom Brokaw)

Volunteers are not paid — not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.  (Anon.)

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. (Booker T. Washington)

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give. (Winston Churchill)

The miracle is this – the more we share, the more we have. (Leonard Nimoy)

Volunteering is not a choice, it’s a responsibility. (Anon.)

The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.

In every community there is work to be done. In every nation there are wounds to heal.

In every heart there is the power to do it. (Marianne Williamson)

Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart. (Elizabeth Andrew)

The last one is DEFINITELY true! I have a busy week coming up…time to get some sleep so I’ll have the energy to get everything done!

I get to create a menu item for Los Gringos Locos!

Posted on 09. Mar, 2009 by kchristieh in food, my life, non-profits

I won the coolest item in the live auction at this weekend’s La Canada Flintridge Educational Foundation Gala: the opportunity to create a menu item at Los Gringos Locos, our fine local Mexican restaurant. Here are the parameters:

The winning bidder will work with Los Gringos Locos staff to create the beverage, dessert, entree or bar drink of your dreams. Your item will be highlighted on the printed menu for one year, together with your name if you so choose. Los Gringos Locos will donate $1 to the Foundation every time this item is purchased! Receive your item for FREE weekly for one year – up to $500!

Several amigas have suggested that I create a nuevo margarita, but I’m going to create the most bueno ensalada con pollo this town has ever seen. (Isn’t it great that I feel free as a gringo loco to butcher espanol?) Anyway, I figure that if I’m going to eat this every week for a year, it should be healthy. And besides, many of those times will be at lunch, and I’m not decadent enough to have margaritas at lunch. (Except on June 17, 2010)

So far, I just know I want the salad to have tasty lettuce (aka, not just iceberg) and grilled chicken. Perhaps some lime. Probably guacamole.

Any other suggestions???

I’m not blue, but my earrings are

Posted on 06. Mar, 2009 by kchristieh in my life, non-profits, quotes, shopping

It’s Etsy Friday! Today I’m featuring the bluerific earrings from Katie’s Crystals that I’m wearing to Gala tomorrow night. They match my cool blue dress and my surprisingly blue eyes.*

I still haven’t written my speech yet. I could recycle the speech I gave in October, but I don’t want to bore people. Stay tuned. I figure it’ll be a success if I can cut through the chatter and get peoples’ attention. I’m not worried: I’m an alto.

I can’t decide whether to incorporate a Suze Orman reference or include the great quote** I heard this evening while (admittedly enjoying) watching “House Bunny.” I’ll probably go with the former.

*Is it just me, or do you never see blue eyes? I’m always surprised when I actually see someone with blue eyes like mine. Maybe it’s because my husband, kids and dog all have brown eyes, as do most of my friends. There are so many more races here than I grew up with in New Jersey, and most of them aren’t known for their blue eyes.

** “Kindness is just love with its work boots on.”

My basketball wasn’t Magic after all

Posted on 03. Mar, 2009 by kchristieh in my life, non-profits, sports

Back in 1990, one of my co-workers in the Robinson’s finance department had a boyfriend who worked in the Lakers’ marketing department. I took her up on an offer to have a basketball signed by Magic Johnson, and for years I’ve kept this autographed basketball safely tucked away in my closet.

I’m the only person in our family who’s ever played on a basketball team, but my career ended after 8th grade when everyone else grew and I didn’t. I’ve never encouraged my kids to take up the sport, and when we installed a basketball hoop on our garage they both swore they’d never use it. So when I heard that the LCF Educational Foundation was still soliciting items for the Gala silent auction this weekend, I decided to donate the Magic Johnson basketball. I gave it with the caveat that I had no certificate of authenticity to guarantee that Magic had signed it, and hadn’t seen him do it.

Thank goodness for that! It turns out the signature on our ball looks nothing like every other autograph found on Google. Here’s a typical signature:

The Foundation returned the ball to us. Oh well! The first name looks the same, but the last name is way off. I still think it could be real, since I know my signature has deteriorated since I’ve signed so many more things. The “Johnson” on my ball is missing the “s”…but I think that if someone were trying to fake the name they wouldn’t mess that up.

So much for that! Maybe ours is super-valuable since it’s a vintage signature. Or maybe I should just pump it up and play with it.  :)

If he can wind up on Skid Row, so can we

Posted on 14. Jan, 2009 by kchristieh in economy, non-profits, religion

The other day my son asked me whether anyone could wind up homeless. So it was striking yesterday when I received the Union Rescue Mission newsletter, which featured a man living on Skid Row who had lived a solid middle-class life until recently:

For almost 15 years, Colin lived the American Dream. He earned a degree in economics from Westmont College. Built a successful career working in a string of four-star hotels. Started his own coffee-importing business. Got married and fathered a beautiful daughter.

But last spring, Colin’s business collapsed and the home he was renting went into foreclosure. Almost overnight, Colin, his wife, Jackie, and their 3-year-old daughter, Shema, found themselves walking the streets of Skid Row to Union Rescue Mission.

Thankfully, Colin’s hotel background helped him to become URM’s Hospitality Coordinator, so he’s able to help other people in dire straights. Here’s how he describes his experience:

“It just shows how quickly things can unravel,” says Colin. “When we came to Skid Row, we were suddenly surrounded by a lot of hurting people, and we could literally feel the poverty and danger. All I could think was, ‘What am I doing here? This isn’t my story.’

“But our experience is far more widespread than people want to admit. When I started listening to people’s stories down here, I realized anyone can suddenly find himself here. Whether you’re a CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a beggar on the street, things outside your control can quickly change.

“They say an untested faith can’t be trusted. This experience has tested my family’s faith. Faith is no longer an abstract term we just talk about — we literally have to live by faith every day.”

When my son had asked me about who might become homeless, I had told him that the more education a person has and the stronger their support network is, the less likely they are to become homeless. Still, as Colin’s case proves, it can happen when you least expect it.

Just a reminder to appreciate your blessings and show compassion for those who need it.

34″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25:34-40

Why do we treat dogs better than humans?

Posted on 19. Dec, 2008 by kchristieh in economy, non-profits, shopping, things that bug me

When Andy Bales‘ Facebook status said that the Union Rescue Mission urgently needed teen gifts for the last day of its Christmas Store, I kicked into high gear. As the mother of two teens, I’m a pro at shopping for that demographic. So I went on a major spending spree at Target and had fun choosing everything from basketballs to electronics to hooded sweatshirts. I headed down to Los Angeles’ Skid Row, and dropped off the goodies at the Union Rescue Mission loading dock.

On the way back, I passed through some of the worst of Skid Row. My heart broke. There were throngs of people spilling into the streets, including families with little kids. The streets were so thick with pigeons that I had to slow down to avoid hitting whole flocks. Then, just as I thought I was out of the bedlam, there was a body in the road. Dead? I don’t know. But traffic was stopped on the north side of Pershing Square as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. I sat in my car, only feet away, hoping to see some sign of life. I saw none. It was all too much…I cried. I felt so foolish for crying. After all, I used to volunteer at Union Station in Pasadena. I’ve also updated the Outreach portion of our church website for years, and have read many stories about and seen many pictures of Skid Row. But this was way more than I expected.

I had one more errand to run: I wanted to drop off some extra dog supplies at the Pasadena Humane Society. After I made my donation, I walked around the facility. What a contrast to the hell on earth I’d just seen downtown. The dogs, sad as they were to be in pens, were many times better off than the humans I’d just seen 30 minutes before. They were kept in clean cages and were well-fed. Volunteers were going from cage to cage to cuddle them and let them know they were loved. There was only one pigeon.

I bet that many of the people on Skid Row would have been happy to trade places with these dogs.

What kind of society is this that we treat our fellow humans this way?

I’m glad that I brought the gifts down there today, but I feel like it’s just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed. I wish I could make more of an impact, and I wish that our society as a whole cared for the needy better.

PS – I had my camera with me, but I didn’t think it was respectful to take pictures. I looked for pictures on the internet that depicted scenes similar to what I saw today, but I couldn’t find any. There were tons of pictures of Skid Row, but none that were nearly as dramatic as what I saw. I checked Google Street View, and their cameras only show a minute fraction of the number of homeless I saw today. Go to the corner of 5th St. and San Julian St. in Los Angeles and see for yourself. Then do something.

I’m baaaack! The return of the busy blogger, and all that I’ve done this week

Posted on 03. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in education, local news, movies, music, my life, non-profits, social networking

T’was such a busy week that – gasp! – I didn’t even blog. It was all I could do to eat and sleep, but now that I’ve survived, here’s a summary of what I’ve been up to since the last post:

On Saturday, we saw the Angel City Classic at the Los Angeles Coliseum. This annual event features two historically Black colleges or universities (HBCU) who not only play football, but compete in a Battle of the Bands. This year, we got to see Morehouse compete against Prairie View A&M. I was there for the bands: I LOVE innovative and energetic marching bands. Prairie View clearly won the Battle of the Bands, IMHO. It’s hard to beat a band that does :

That evening, we attended the annual fundraiser at the Community Center. I was tapped to roll the dice for the Pinata Race. Seriously. I got pretty good at it, but if I ever get to do it again I have a few more ideas up my sleeve.

On Sunday we attended the premiere screening of the documentary “Viva la Causa.” It depicts the events that led up to the grape boycott, and shows how much of an impact Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Bobby Kennedy all had during that time period. I was really young and on the other side of the country when these events unfolded (late 60’s), so I never realized that the women had to hold up blankets in front of each other since there weren’t bathrooms, and that everyone shared a tin can to drink from the same bucket of water. I’m really glad we brought the kids, and it just confirms our support for the sponsor, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and its Teaching Tolerance project.

Earlier this week, I lived on Facebook as I trolled for class notes. My column was due on Wednesday. I also wrote a speech for accepting my award last night, and bored my dog to tears practicing it. It went well, and I really appreciated all the nice things people said last night.  :)

Smile on the outside and you’ll smile on the inside

Posted on 20. Aug, 2008 by kchristieh in disabilities, my life, non-profits

My mother always told me that what mattered was what a person was like on the inside, not the outside. Yet, when I got my braces off the week before freshman year of high school, I was thrilled. I’d had either crooked teeth or braces for my whole life, and for the first time I actually felt moderately attractive. I gained confidence, and started high school on the right foot.

My son got his braces off yesterday, right before sophomore year of high school. Here’s a before / after pic:

He’s already an attractive, confident guy (yeah, I’m biased!) but I think it’s cool that the smile on the right is so much bigger.

Not only did this remind me of my own braces experience, but it made me think about the kids with cleft palates that are helped by Smile Train. A cleft palate makes it look like the upper lip is attached to the nose. It’s the #1 birth defect in developing nations, and occurs in anywhere from .4 to 3.6 per 1000 births, depending upon ethnicity.

So I was amazed that when my son picked up our mail yesterday, for the first time there was a letter from Smile Train requesting a donation. It only costs $250 to cover the cost of cleft surgery, a FRACTION of what we paid to give my son his dazzling smile, so we’re in. How can you say no to these faces, and who can beat that timing?

“Sometimes just a smile on our face can help to make this world a better place.” (Robert Alan)

I’m making a difference as an international lender via Kiva

Posted on 19. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in international, non-profits

A year ago, I lent María Del Roció González of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico $75 to help purchase a bread machine for her bakery. I did it via Kiva.org, which pooled my money with other lenders’ to loan Sra. Gonzalez a total of $1,200. She’s been paying it back on a regular basis, and made her final payment yesterday.

Instead of withdrawing the money, I chose to lend it to someone else. Whenever I lend to someone on Kiva, the first thing I do is search for a Hernandez. I figure they might be a distant relative. I actually found one yesterday, and decided to lend the money to Francisco Javier Saldaña Hernandez of Acuna, Mexico so that he can expand his small house. He still needs $400 to get to the $600 total that he needs, so click here to donate! At first I was hesitant: after all, he’s not using it to expand a business. But then, I figured that I was lucky to be a Hernandez in the United States, where banks are happy to lend far greater sums to me. Also, the agency that referred him to Kiva has a 0% default rate.

Of the 22 Kiva loans I’ve made, 10 have been paid back in full so far. It’s satisfying to know I’m able to make a difference in peoples’ lives.

Tivo this: “Oprah’s Big Give”

Posted on 03. Mar, 2008 by kchristieh in life lessons, non-profits, tv

Leave it to Oprah to put a fresh and positive spin on reality TV. The kids and I watched the premiere of “Oprah’s Big Give” last night and we’re hooked.

Oprah chose 10 people to compete to most effectively give away money each week. The contestants are all quite impressive. They’ve each got lots of energy and a big heart for helping those in need.

On the first show, the contestants were divided up into five teams. Each team was given $2,500 and the name of someone who needed their help. They were evaluated on the basis of how much of a positive impact they were able to make on the person’s life within a week.

Each team did a great job of using their $2,500 as seed money to generate more money and other important things. I won’t give it away in case you didn’t watch it, but I will say that the sincerity and energy that everyone threw into their challenges was inspirational.

It was great to see something so positive on television, and hopefully it inspired my kids as much as it inspired me.

You can see “Oprah’s Big Give” online at ABC.com.

Practice vocabulary and feed the world at the same time

Posted on 22. Dec, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, education, inspirational people, international, non-profits

Stop wasting your time on Solitaire, Guitar Hero, and Halo. Visit FreeRice.com and test your vocabulary skills. Each time you define a word correctly, 20 grains of rice will be donated to people in need. The rice is paid for by the ads at the bottom of the site.

If you’re competitive like me, you’ll be sucked into trying to increase your vocabulary level score. See if you can beat the 46 I got.

I heard about FreeRice on NPR. The developer, who already operated the website Poverty.com, said he was inspired to start the site by helping his son study for the vocabulary section of the SAT.

All those grains of rice add up. According to the NPR segment,

“FreeRice.com is up to more than 8.2 billion grains of rice, which is one heck of a lot of rice and more than enough to feed 325,000 people for the day,” Parmelee said.

Is this the real life, is this just fantasy? Kids in virtual worlds

Posted on 15. Nov, 2007 by kchristieh in education, non-profits, parenting, startling statistics, technical

Have you ever heard of Teen Second Life? I hadn’t until last night, when I attended the Common Sense Media conference “What are Kids Learning in Virtual Worlds? The Wonders and the Worries” at USC. Teen Second Life is one of several virtual world websites aimed at kids that were discussed by a distinguished panel of guests.

I mentioned the conference at Parent Ed. today, and some of the parents had never heard of a virtual world. A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment where your 2-D or 3-D character, or avatar, interacts with other avatars, earns points or currency, purchases goods, works, plays, and does many other things you can do in the real world.

After the panel spoke, I viewed demonstrations of many of the sites. Here are my biggest takeaways from this event:

• The sites for the youngest kids, Club Penguin and Webkinz, are safe for kids. However, parents should be concerned about the lack of educational value, the emphasis on consumerism, and the amount of time kids want to spend on them.
• Private school kids that live far from each other sometimes “meet” online to play games together.
• Whyville was the most educational site I saw. It makes kids solve science problems to get points.
• Girls greatly outnumber boys in the kid virtual worlds.
• Teen Second Life appears to be safe. I loved the virtual Holocaust Museum that a group of teens created for the site.
• Although Teen Second Life is several years old, it only has about 2,000 members, whereas (adult) Second Life has millions. I was also told that most of the Teen Second Life members also have Second Life accounts.
• The title bar at the top of Teen Second Life says “Second Life.” When I asked how a parent could be sure that their kid was on Teen Second Life, and not Second Life for adults, I was told that the parent should see if there’s cursing going on. “So, a parent needs to look over the child’s shoulder for several minutes to wait and see this?” Au contraire: the cursing is so rampant that you should be able to tell right away. The young man who was answering my questions said that, by his estimation, about 95% of what goes on in Second Life is sexual.

So what’s a parent to do?

• If your child wants to use one of these kid sites, decide whether you think it’s like a “gateway drug.” If they get used to spending time on a youth virtual world site, will they want to move up to a more adult site when they get older? Is that ok with you?
• If you decide to consider letting them on a youth virtual world site, learn as much about that site as possible. Play along with your child so you can see how he or she is interacting online.
• Make sure to teach your child about internet safety, and about what to do about online bullying.
• Consider restricting how much time your child can spend online.
• Most of all, KEEP THE COMPUTER IN A PUBLIC SPACE!!!

My teens said they don’t know anyone who is active in a virtual world. The parents of teens I polled today didn’t either, so I’m guessing it’s not a big issue for teens in our community. I think we wear the teens out with schoolwork and other activities, and the ones who aren’t worn out from those are choosing to do other things. On the other hand, my impression is that many of the younger girls are spending lots of time on Webkinz. Perhaps parents of tweens are the ones who should really get educated on this issue.
Virtual worlds are here to stay, and aren’t all bad. Responsible parents should make sure to know what they’re about before they’re asked to make a snap decision.

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Sleeping is legal once again

Posted on 31. Oct, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, non-profits, politics, startling statistics

Here’s a sad statistic: there are approximately 74,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County’s 4,060 square miles, but only 17,000 shelter beds for them. That means that only 23% of the homeless can sleep in a shelter bed on a given night.

As if that’s not bad enough, lately the LAPD has been cracking down on sleeping on the street. According to today’s NY Times story, Some Respite, if Little Cheer, for Skid Row Homeless,

Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, Los Angeles agreed on Oct. 10 not to appeal a federal court order and will instead allow sleeping on the sidewalk, at least until the city provides 1,250 new beds in low-income housing.

The deal partly rolls back a zero-tolerance crackdown on petty offenses in the Skid Row area, including sleeping in public places, that was undertaken late last year by Police Chief William J. Bratton. The effort has reduced by about half the 8,000 homeless who frequented the area a year ago, according to police estimates.

Gee, wow. Another 1,250 beds will mean that 24.7% of the homeless will have access to a shelter bed. If you’ve got to be homeless, you might as well be in a warm place like L.A., but clearly something’s not working here.

By the way, check out this animated Cartifact map that the NY Times story refers to. It shows how fluid the downtown Los Angeles homeless population is.

One group that is working to help the people of Skid Row is the Inner City Law Center. They help “homeless and low-income clients obtain the housing, healthcare, and government benefits to which they are entitled under the law.”

I just finished re-designing their website. Hopefully it’ll raise their profile even more.

Making childhood memories for kids who need some good ones

Posted on 12. Sep, 2007 by kchristieh in art, international, non-profits

Last night my kids and I had a great time watching old videos of them when they were babies. They were so cute! It was great to see how well they got along even then, and how much my daughter helped her little brother. It was also neat to see our old dog, and to see how little I’ve changed. (haha)

Some kids never get the chance to reminisce like that. If you’re an orphan, or are abused or neglected, chances are good that there’s no one who will remember what you were like when you were little. But the Memory Project is trying to change that. They’re organizing advanced high school art students to paint portraits of these children from photographs of them. Once the kids get them, they send a thank-you picture in return. The project started in 2004, and by the 2006-07 school year there were over 8,000 portraits produced by children in almost every state.

This is a win-win for everyone involved. Not surprisingly, I learned about this from Daryn Kagan’s blog. She’s doing a fantastic job of highlighting uplifting stories of everyday people. Thanks, Daryn!

A great public education isn’t free

Posted on 21. Aug, 2007 by kchristieh in education, my life, non-profits

We’re ready for high school registration next week. Thankfully, my daughter likes filling in forms, so I paid her (!) to spend over an hour completing the registration forms for her and her brother. I wrote nine checks totalling $534, and that doesn’t even include the money we already paid to Boosters, our Educational Foundation donations, or the athletic fees we’ll pay once the seasons begin. And it doesn’t include the $194 in school supplies we purchased at Staples yesterday, or the core literature books we’ll purchase soon.

I don’t remember this hassle and expense when I was in high school. As I recall, we paid for yearbooks and pictures (though I never let my parents purchase mine) and that was it. As for school supplies, I got a new blue binder each year to replace the one I doodled on the year before. I never needed a binder for each class like my kids do.

ADDENDUM: Turns out that the registration forms listed the wrong amount for the ASB fee, and we also need to write checks for sports transportation. So, I wrote four additional checks totalling $350 today. Current total: 13 checks totalling $884. OUCH!

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How do you advertise a youth group home?

Posted on 20. Aug, 2007 by kchristieh in art, non-profits, videos

How would you advertise a youth group home? Because of privacy considerations, you probably can’t picture the kids that live there. Also, it’s a pretty heavy topic, but you don’t want the ad to be negative.

A recent Santa Cruz Sentinel article mentioned talented illustrator Benjamin Arthur, and his breakout animation “.” When I clicked on “More from this user,” I found for Youth Homes, located in Missoula, Montana. It was made using a technique called rotoscoping, a “technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films.”

The ad depicts some of the kids that Youth Homes has helped, and you can hear them telling their compelling stories. It’s very poignant, but upbeat. This sounds like a great organization!

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Take a step to the left

Posted on 15. Jul, 2007 by kchristieh in education, my life, non-profits

My father has often said that men get more conservative as they age, and women get more liberal.

According to The Writer’s Almanac, that’s true in the case of Ariana Huffington. I love this quote it attributes to her:

“One of the definite changes in my thinking was born of the hard reality I confronted when I discovered how much easier it was raising money for the opera and fashionable museums than for at-risk children. So I came to recognize that the task of overcoming poverty will not be achieved without the raw power of government appropriations.”

I’d bet it’s also easier to raise money for well-endowed universities than at-risk children. There’s a great Slate article about university giving, The Old College Try: Why do alumni give to universities? To get their kids in, of course. I gave to my university before I had kids, and will give even if they don’t apply or get in. But I’ll make sure to give to at-risk children and our church also. Don’t count on me for giving to the opera, however.

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Let’s all YAWN

Posted on 15. Jul, 2007 by kchristieh in articles, inspirational people, non-profits

Here’s my favorite new acronym: YAWN. In “The Rich Are Duller: New Class of ‘Yawns’ Spurns Yachts, Wears Dockers in Bid to Be Normal,” the Wall St. Journal reports that,

Yawns are “young and wealthy but normal.” They are men and women in their 30s and 40s who have become multimillionaires and billionaires during the wealth boom of the past decade. Yet rather than spending their money on yachts, boats and jets, yawns live modestly and spend most of their money on philanthropy. In stark contrast to the outsized titans of the Gilded Age and the slicked-back Gordon Gekkos of the 1980s, yawns are notable for their extraordinary dullness.

They are the anti-Paris Hiltons, the demure Donald Trumps. And they are disproving the time-honored stereotype of the nouveaux riches as culturally insecure social climbers who blow their money on excess. If the symbols of the yuppie were Armani suits and BMWs, the symbols of the yawn are Dockers and microcredit.

I’m sure Yawns make some people yawn compared to tracking the excesses of newly-minted billionaires, but it sounds like these people actually are more balanced and more likely to spread their wealth to others in need. Sometimes no news is good news.

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