College is about more than beer.

• Mar
  31
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We all remember our college days - the last stronghold of irresponsible youth. And while my collegiate experience was spent worrying about which boy liked me and where the next social engagement was (and keeping my grades up of course) today's college student is a different breed, a better one. Since 9/11 the number of college students volunteering has risen sharply suggesting the "emergence of a new civic generation." The Corporation for National and Community Service released a report that shows college student volunteering growth more than doubled that of adults. If this trend continues the world will be better for it. Starting this fall, Project 7 will appear on the shelves of college bookstores across the nation. Some colleges have already brought in our products. One of these is the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. By caring our products, UW-Green Bay's Phoenix Bookstore is "allowing students and faculty the chance to benefit those in need on a global level." These are the words of Lukas Willems who wrote a wonderful article on Project 7 being on the UW-Green Bay campus. We appreciate Willems helping to get our story told in the collegiate world. As with most good habits, the younger people are when introduced to volunteering the more prone they are to continue the practice as adults. We commend these driven college students who are making it their mission to create positive change and ask that they carry this message to as many as they can. As we've stated before... in the words of Whitney Houston (before all of the drugs), "We've believe the children are our future..." and these college kids are taking care of theirs.

Hot-Lanta gets its volunteer on.

• Mar
  30
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The Date: March 25th, 2010 The Purpose: Do some good in the city of Atlanta and promote volunteering The Story: Visit, Teach, Volunteer, Enjoy The Details: For those of you that don't reside in the ATL we missed you on the first stop in the Project 7 and Caribou Coffee 7 Cities Tour. The day before our volunteer event we had the chance to visit a few Caribou Coffee locations. The Project 7 team got to meet and greet the employees as well as tell the story of Project 7 to any customers who would listen. We were excited by the warm reception that is so synonymous with the South. It was a busy day but necessary to get everyone as excited about volunteering as we were. The morning of the 25th we rolled out with the managers of the local Caribous for a two part volunteering event. We would be visiting both the Atlanta Community Food Bank and City of Refuge. Both organizations do a ton for the Atlanta Community and we were honored to serve them. We had a good group at City of Refuge – about 14 people. It was a wonderful mix of people from Atlanta that heard about if from different sources. We toured the facility and served lunch. We all enjoyed learning what City of Refuge was doing in their community. At Atlanta Community Food Bank, we had 22 in our group. We all worked together to sort and pack salvage food goods. We packed 6,551 lbs of food & fed 4,367 families! So inspiring and easy to do. To end the day, we put on a concert at one of the local Caribou Coffees and invited all of the volunteers and the community to attend. The artist was the very talented Micah Dalton and the atmosphere was very relaxed and intimate. It had been raining, but the rain held off during the concert so we were able to have it outside. The perfect end to a great day. The next stop on our tour will be Charlotte, NC. Stay tuned for more details. We hope to make it even bigger and better. To learn more visit www.ChangeTheScore.com.

P7 arrives in the ATL

• Mar
  24
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Our 7 Day team has arrived in the ATL! Armed with their wits, guts and a whole lot of good intentions, our team (along with our wonderful partner, Caribou Coffee, and members of the Atlanta community) will be volunteering at two different locations. 1. Atlanta Community Food Bank - This amazing place distributes 2 million lbs of food each month. Our volunteers will be helping to get a small part of this donation ready to be distributed. If you haven't volunteered at a food bank yet, we highly recommend it. They need the help and do some much good. 2. City of Refuge - This much-needed entity provides life saving resources and tools to individuals and families living on what they call the "margin." Our volunteers will be helping out in any way necessary. The Project 7 team consists of: • Ashley Upham, our dedicated Director of Community and Non-Profit Relations • Josh Davis, our hip young man about town (who pretty much does anything and everything at Project 7) • and Jon Michael Jones (no, not Chazz Michael Michaels... but close) our fearless videographer who will help us capture and tell the story of the first stop on our 7 Cities Tour. Tomorrow we will be posting real time information from these team members on how the day is going and what they have learned. So, if you are in Atlanta and looking to do some good tomorrow, check out the 7 Cities Tour site and sign up for one of our volunteer opportunities. Stay tuned for more...

Today is World Water Day

• Mar
  22
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What is World Water Day? Well, we are glad you asked... The UN General Assembly designated the first World Water Day in 1993, and each subsequent year the March 22 event has highlighted a specific aspect of freshwater sustainability. Over the years, World Water Days have focused on transboundary waters, sanitation, coping with water scarcity, and water and culture. The annual World Water Day is coordinated by UN-Water, a coordination mechanism of 26 UN agencies working on water. UNEP with its strong environmental focus was designated the lead for World Water Day 2010.

• Increase awareness to change individual behavior around what we put into our water;
• Promote policies that improve water quality with education and advocacy;
• Increase enforcement of the regulations put in place to protect water quality;
• Put investor and consumer pressure on corporations that pollute waterways

So, why do we all need to do this? Well, the stats are staggering:

• Globally, 2 million tons of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste are poured into the world's waters every day;
• At least 1.8 million children under five years-old die every year from water-related diseases, or one every 20 seconds;
• Every day, millions of tons of inadequately treated sewage and industrial agricultural wastes are poured into the world's waters;
• More people die as a result of polluted water than are killed by all forms of violence, including wars;
• Over half of the world's hospital beds are occupied with people suffering from illnesses linked with contaminated water

So how can we get involved? Check out this great article by the Huffington Post.

On the Ground Post #1- Look Me in the Eyes

• Mar
  3
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We'd like to shake things up a little bit on the Project 7 blog. Our communities voice is so important, you are the reason that we are able to help change the score. With that in mind, we've decided it's time to introduce a few guest bloggers to the scene. We'd like you to meet Abby Wambaugh. Abby is a marketing manager for an iconic, international travel company. She tweets, writes and loves the mountains. Above any professional goal, her heart desires to see justice in an unjust world. Abby will be contributing seven blog posts in a series called "On the Ground." The series focuses on real people making a difference through volunteer work. We're so excited to have Abby contributing to our blog. So, we hope you enjoy the first of seven posts from Abby. With no further ado... Two years ago two friends drove to meet a man they spoke with on the phone about volunteering to help the homeless. He told them he would take them to a soup kitchen, so they picked him up in front of City Hall in downtown Dallas. When they got to the soup kitchen the man sat down with the homeless and began to eat. Ironically, he too was homeless. Haylee Ryan and Amanda Page started ministering regularly to the homeless in Dallas in 2008 and are now living in Bend, OR., working for Icon City in an effort to reach the homeless in a state with one of the highest populations of homelessness in the United States. “The homeless population in Oregon is completely different than Dallas,” Ryan said. “The demographics are young Caucasian people who are sticking it to the man by not getting jobs. Up here the numbers are staggering and it’s almost viewed as cool to be homeless.” For the year and a half that Ryan and Page worked at Cornerstone in Dallas they formed relationships with the homeless. The first real friendship they formed was with a young couple named Shamika and Lydell who had moved into a local shelter newly built by the city. “Shamika kept telling us how horrible the conditions were and that she felt safer on the streets,” Page said. “Finally one day she took us to the shelter and it took Haylee and me about a week to get over the shock of seeing the situation. Men and women are not separated and the women are often raped. It was overrun and we could not believe this was our city.” While ministering in Dallas, they met with an old friend Tim Bach who was moving to Bend, OR, to start Icon City, a church plant and homeless ministry. Bach was once homeless and through the persistent love of a man was able to overcome homelessness and get off the streets. Armed with his inspiring story, overwhelmed heart for the homeless and a string of miraculous events, Icon City was formed and Ryan and Page were brought on as interns. The two women said one of the most important things they learned in interacting with homeless was from the pastor of Cornerstone in Dallas. He told them to always look a homeless person in the eyes and shake their hand because they deserve it. They are people just like you and me. Ryan is an artist and decided that she wanted to start to draw the people she had met and give them the sketches as a gift. “I would take my sketch pad there and I would need them to look at me to draw them,” Ryan said. “They could barely look me in the eyes and they had trouble because they were ashamed. Eye contact is very personal. Eye contact was like they were valued. And then I’d give them the sketch and it was like they’d never gotten anything. It would bring tears to their eyes. I’ve painted multiple paintings of them since because they are the most beautiful people, and friends often ask me who the beautiful people in my paintings are and then they are shocked to hear it is a homeless man or woman.” Page said a lot of the volunteers she and Ryan have encountered are very detached, and they decided from the beginning that they wanted to be different. They wanted to truly form friendships with the homeless. “We didn’t want an us and them situation, but rather an us situation,” Page said. “There were times when we couldn’t give them a dollar since we ourselves were poor, but friendship seemed to be what they wanted more than anything else. We really felt like they were our real life friends.” Due to the overwhelming homeless problem in Oregon, there are numerous nonprofits and individuals committed to helping end homelessness; however, Ryan and Page noticed that they often refuse to work together for religious, moral or simply pride reasons. Icon City exists to help bring all the organizations together in a non-hostile way and to create consistent events to help the homeless. “One thing we’ve noticed is that when it comes to helping homeless there is mostly always one huge event a year or two, but it only helps people for a day or two,” Page said. “Sometimes it forms relationships, but we are trying not to have one big event but to have something ongoing. Something that the entire community and every profession can be involved in, from hair stylists to dentists.” The women recently sent a letter home to one of their closest homeless friends in Dallas, Larry. They didn’t think he was going to respond and then they received a letter in return. “In his letter he included two black beaded necklaces that he usually wears around his neck,” Page said. “We have never given him anything and he mailed us these necklaces with a note saying that the necklaces are a sign of love and friendship until we see him again.”