Old--But Good--Business...
The photo I'm showing here was how Throw Rug's habitat looked on Saturday, October 10, 2009 in celebration of a very new and special holiday called Youth Outreach Day.
I shared it in the Super Poke! Pets forum along with the following message...
The photo I'm showing here was how Throw Rug's habitat looked on Saturday, October 10, 2009 in celebration of a very new and special holiday called Youth Outreach Day.
Invisible Youth Network (http://invisibleyouthnetwork.net) came up with the idea of Youth Outreach Day for the purpose of getting more people to think about the needs of homeless and/or otherwise at-risk youth.
Of course, this is something we need to be doing everyday and not just for one day per year. But there still isn't anything wrong with having a day set aside where more people are thinking about the issues related to invisible youth and how to give them visibility so that they don't fall through the cracks of society.
Our goal is to have this as a widely-recognized official holiday by or before the second Saturday in October of 2010. We're not talking about a paid holiday off from the workplace, but just something right up there with St. Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, etc.
YO-Day is still at a grass roots level, but a lot has taken place on this day even though it isn't official yet.
Some examples of events have been: the placement of collection boxes in stores for the purpose of collecting donations; a run-a-thon to raise money; delicious sack lunches being passed out to homeless kids; crafts being made and sold to raise funds; people writing to elected officials to draw their attention to this situation; and games and a cook-out being held in a park where several street kids camp out--which resulted in not only food and fun for them but, also, drew positive responses from onlookers who ended up taking several of them shopping, giving them their own spending cash, and even taking some of them into their homes!
Please join me in writing to President Obama and other more locally-elected officials (e.g. mayor, town council, governor) to request that the second Saturday of each October be officially proclaimed as Youth Outreach Day!
I hope that you'll also join me in writing to places such as Hallmark and American Greetings to get them to put out cards and other products with a Youth Outreach Day theme. Be sure to give them information about this holiday and that it falls on the second Saturday in October.
Finally, I hope that next October will find Youth-Outreach-Day-related items in the SPP store!
To get more of a feel for what kinds of things people can do to celebrate, go to a blog-entry I wrote in anticipation of our first one...
http://mhhj.blogspot.com/2009/09/youth-outreach-day-will-be-saturday.html
Thanks for reading this and, hopefully, responding!
Blessings!
Ainsley Jo Phillips :)
Throw Rug's Human
and
Co-Founder of Invisible Youth Network
And Now For The New Business--To Be More Specific: Operation Lamp Post!!!
Throw Rug and I are going to use this latest habitat to kick off Operation Lamp Post.
Homeless Kids 10/11/09
Whenever cash donations total up to another $100, a lamp post will be added to this habitat.
Whenever IYN Headquarters five more packages of wish list items (whether they're small packages like large envelopes full of gift cards or huges packages filled with all kinds of food, clothing, etc., they will count as one package apiece), a lamp post will also be added.
After 25 lamp posts have been added, Throw Rug and her friends will be placed in a much more cheery habitat for a holiday celebration!!! Will it be Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas?
Hopefully, it will be by or before one of these three holidays when we reach this goal...
Youth Outreach Day Habitat
Homeless Kids/Operation Lamp Post Habitat
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