Blogs

Or as 9 year-old Trev would say, "We are going to beat them in 'Futbol'!" We recently learned the the BriBri indigenous tribe, with whom we will meet, has NEVER LOST A GAME to any visitor! We will be the first visitors to win! Help us get to Costa Rica to help save the sea turtles AND be the first to beat the BriBri! www.cmef.org/eporis

At our last meeting, we decided on our major fundraisers for the trip. A new policy at our school dictates that each club, group, organization, or class can only hold one fundraiser per school year. As such we have had to be very strategic about how we raise money and what fundraisers we use. We decided that our major school fundraiser would be a yankee candle sale, which worked well for us last year. Our other fundraising endeavors are listed below:

- Selling Ads for Senior High District Tournament Programs (doesn't count as a school fundraiser)

The $20 for 20 Campaign is well underway!

Thank you to everyone for your support -- as of January 10, we are 33% of the way to our $15,000 goal!

At our last meeting, we decided on our mission statement, which reads:

"The mission of the Youth Leadership Initiative is to motivate students to reach their full potential by becoming empathetic leaders. We believe that students possess the ability to affect positive change in their own lives and the lives of others. The Youth Leadership Initiative will foment the growth of student leaders through leadership workshops, informative trips, peer mentoring, and organizing student-led outreach programs in the community."

Finally registered with CMEF, and received our very first donation today!  $100 toward the River to Rainforest 2012 trip - M. S. Palmer students are $100 closer to Costa Rica!  Now if we can only get 199 more people to do the same...  Will you be next?

Our students are excited to learn about the diverse group of people who are supporting this trip. In recognition of your generosity, we and our students are preparing the following thank-you gifts.

Today we started our college tours in earnest, checking out the Atlanta University Complex – Clark Atlanta University in the morning, Spelman (for the ladies) and Morehouse (for our sole male participant) in the afternoon.  The consensus: Clark's suite-style living is cool.  It's OK to go to an all-girls' college if you can cross-register and the other campuses are right next door.  

We spent most of today on Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights – experiencing Sunday worship at his church in Atlanta, viewing his birth home and several exhibits at the King Center dedicated to his life.  We also experienced brunch for the first time and watched the sun set from the revolving lounge on the 72nd floor of the Westin hotel.  (The only picture I have of this is on my camera, so it'll have to wait until next week to be posted.  For now, some not-so-great-quality Blackberry pictures.)

We'll be adding more to these pictures when we return.  For now, here are some scenes from Day 1.

Lunch on the road in Jasper, AL

The Helena-West Helena minibus sits patiently on the street at the hotel

Students armed with shovels, trash bags, weed killer and mulch went to work Saturday morning to lend a hand in Helena Beautification Day.  We planted petunias and rose bushes, and picked up trash along the historic Helena levee walk and along Cherry St.

All told, 7 CHS to Atlantans participated in 3 hours of community service.  See some more pictures below!