Is your home town truly altruistic

• Oct
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After writing the "Greenest place in the U.S." post, I started to ponder where the most charitable place in the U.S. was. Thanks to the world wide web, I was able to find out or at least which places reigned supreme or stunk it up. Men's Health wrote an article called "How Charitable is Your City?" Using IRS Data on individual donations (adjusted for cost of living), number of corporate charitable foundations and the cities per capita contributions, the article graded 100 cities on their charitable efforts. Top of the list were: 1. Atlanta, GA - +A 2. Washington, DC - +A 3. Wilmington, DE - A 4. San Francisco, CA - A 5. St. Paul, MN - A 6. Minneapolis, MN - A 7. Oakland, CA - A 8. Birmingham, AL - A 9. Richmond, VA - -A 10. Charlotte, NC - -A The researcher found a correlation between cities seeing the fruits of their charitable labor and increased charitable spending. Our home town of Dallas did make the list, earning a -B. However, sad to say, our sister city of Fort Worth made the other list, earning a -D. I challenge you to see if your city was on the list, for better or for worse and do your part to raise its grade.

Greenest Place in the U.S.

• Oct
  29
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If I told you that the Greenest place in the U.S. was Burlington, Vermont you would probably nod your head and say that makes sense. Vermont has an abundance of trees, farms, backyard compost heaps, and environmentally aware citizens, and no crowded expressways or big, dirty cities. Sounds Green right? Well, yes, but no. According to a Yale 360 article, "Vermont, in many important ways, sets a poor environmental example. Spreading people thinly across the countryside, Vermont-style, may make them look and feel green, but it actually increases the damage they do to the environment while also making that damage harder to see and to address. In the categories that matter the most, Vermont ranks low in comparison with many other American places. It has no truly significant public transit system (other than its school bus routes), and, because its population is so dispersed, it is one of the most heavily automobile-dependent states in the country. A typical Vermonter consumes 545 gallons of gasoline per year — almost a hundred gallons more than the national average." So now the big surprise, the Greenest place in the U.S. - drum roll please. NEW YORK CITY That's right, the big apple, the city that never sleeps, The melting pot... This hustling and bustling metropolis is harnessing the power of compactness to reign greenly supreme. Don't believe us? Read an additional excerpt from the article, it will start to make sense. "The key to New York City’s relative environmental benignity is the very thing that, to most Americans, makes it appear to be an ecological nightmare: its extreme compactness. Moving people and their daily destinations close together reduces their need for automobiles, makes efficient public transit possible, and restores walking as a viable form of transportation. (Dense urban cores are among the few places left in America where people still routinely go around on foot; in the suburbs, you seldom see anyone walking who is actually traveling to a destination rather than merely moving between a building and a vehicle or trying to lose weight.) Population density also lowers energy and water use in all categories, constrains family size, limits the consumption of all kinds of goods, reduces ownership of wasteful appliances, decreases the generation of solid waste, and forces most residents to live in some of the world’s most inherently energy-efficient residential structures: apartment buildings. As a result, New Yorkers have the smallest carbon footprints in the United States: 7.1 metric tons of greenhouse gases per person per year, or less than 30 percent of the national average. Manhattanites generate even less." And there you have it! We recommend reading the full article to get the whole gist, but, apparently New Yorkers have more to be proud of than just the great food, entertainment and some of the best people watching on the planet. Perhaps we should add a new nickname - The Green Apple!

10.29.09 7 Day – Giddy Up!

• Oct
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Project 7 will be holding an impromptu 7 Day tomorrow, October 29th, at Equest in Wylie, Texas. For more than 28 years, Equest has delivered the benefits of equine therapy to thousands of children and adults with physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities. We will see tomorrow this unique therapy in action as we support our Help Those in Need cause. The P7 team is going to roll up their sleeves, muck out a few stalls and do pretty much what ever they need of us. Stay tuned for our Friday post. We promise some great candid moments and pics.

Disappointing TV – don’t we have anything better to do?

• Oct
  26
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I want to start this by saying, I love trashy TV as much as the next person, and some reality shows I can't miss. This post is intended to be given from a soap box, not a high horse! Enjoy.... After having a wonderful lunch at the Spiral Diner, a walk through the botanical gardens and a stimulating conversation about herbalists, I wanted to continue the positive feel of the day and clean my house. I turned on the TV for background music and was shocked by what I saw. The TV was tuned to one of the non-music music channels (you know who I mean!). I'm sure most of you have heard of this show (which in itself if horrifying), but for those that haven't, the series follows the most outrageous sweet 16 and quinceanera parties, the more outrageous and expensive the better. Entitled teenagers go on and on about how they deserve this party, the ultimate in grand entrances and who is worthy enough to attend. I was "fortunate" enough to catch the top 10 countdown. Not only that, I had turned on the #1 episode (most expensive bash ever reported). Larger than life on the screen was an obnoxious 16-year old boy, complaining about the fact that a certain Grammy-award winning music artist wasn't going to make it to perform at his birthday bash. Oh no! For the next 30 minutes (yes, I watched the whole train wreck) he paraded around as a pseudo-celebrity spending money with sheer abandonment - complaining the whole time. The swanky soiree came out to a whopping $1,384,000. Yup, that is the total for a birthday party for a 16-year-old kid. I don't know what is more disappointing, the fact that this kind of money isn't being put to better use, or the fact that we categorize this behavior as entertainment. You know what I would like to see? This same kid, stripped of his credit cards, fancy clothes and identity for just a week, living in one of the homeless communities in Atlanta. Or, this kid traveling to a remote village in Africa with $1,384,000 worth of medicine for needy children. I want to see that aired on television, but only if the kid learns something. I don't want to punish the kid, it's not his fault he was blessed with an affluent upbringing and every opportunity in life. I just want to impart a little knowledge to him, giving him some extra perspective. Tell him a story he may not have heard first-hand, and hopefully inspire him to use his blessings to also help others. To quote Eddy Murphy (in Coming to America) and of course the original Whitney Houston song, "I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way." I will get off my soap box with this last question... what does a TV show like the one I've described teach our children... and ourselves. More importantly, what does it say about us as a community of people?

The 411 on 211

• Oct
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We have a number to call if we need to know about local traffic We have phone numbers to call if we need to find out a phone number or address. We have a number to call if we need immediate assistance. But, did you know there is a number to call for those looking for training, employment, food pantries, help for an aging parent, addiction prevention programs for teenage children, affordable housing options, support groups and ways of becoming part of your community? Let me introduce you to 2-1-1. 2-1-1 allows people to give help and to get help. Here are the facts: • 2-1-1 is spearheaded by the United Way of America and the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems. • In 2008 alone, 2-1-1 answered more than 14 million calls. • Accessible in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Below is a map of the coverage. So, the next time you are looking for either help or a way to help check to see if 2-1-1 is available in your area and reach out and touch someone.