Wednesday, November 5, 2008

25 Days To Make A Difference

25 Days To Make A Difference tells the story of Laura, an 11 year old blogger who accepted a challenge in December of 2007. She embarked on a journey of completing one good deed a day for every day between December 1st and December 25, 2007. The response to her blog was overwhelming and her good deed a day has not stopped. Her blog has detailed her efforts to raise funds for various charity organizations throughout the year. She has had over 38,000 hits on her blog and has received media attention for her efforts.

Take a look at the very first days of her posts to get an idea how her decision to bring about change inspired a community. Then let us know if you want to jump on board and be a part of our efforts to make a difference.

5 comments:

Ariane said...

Dear Lisette and class,
I am in Singapore, and I am going to Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA, on Saturday, with Georges, who is 14 years old. We will be visiting the school we sponsor (POUR UN SOURIRE D'ENFANT) with the PISTORIO FOUNDATION, and we will also be going to the big rubbish dump, where some of the families live. I will take lots of photos so you can look at them. I hope you can all learn from these and understand how lucky you all are to live in a country which encourages education. These people have nothing at all. No food, no home, no health care, and often no parents. Some lucky ones get sponsored, others keep fighting for their lives. Just learning about them can help. Maybe you can make a difference to someone's life in your own country.
I'll keep you posted on this part of the world.
Ariane

Anonymous said...

Dear Lisette & Class,

Hello from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, a part of the world that receives lots of foreign visitors who come to trek in the forested hills surrounding the city and to ride on our friendly elephants.

Next week we'll all be celebrating the Loy Krathong buddhist festival. Loy Krathong always falls on the first full moon in November, on Nov. 12th this year. It is a festival of lights when everyone buys or makes floral floats (krathongs) to float on the river. Traditionally they are made out of slices of banana tree trunk, which are decorated with folded strips of banana leaves and flowers (marigolds and orchids are popular). Each krathong carries a little candle and 3 joss sticks. In the evening after it has got dark, everyone takes their krathongs to a river, pond or a lake and floats them. The Mae Ping river becomes an enchanting river of beautiful flickering lights.

During the week of Loy Krathong the nights are very noisy because people let of lots of fireworks - frighteningly loud bangers and beautiful rockets that spray the night sky with colour. We also buy hot air balloons made out of strips of bamboo and white tissue paper. These balloons are between 2 and 5 feet tall. They are powered by parafin wax soaked cardboard burners, which heat the air inside each balloon and carry them up into the sky. The balloons keep on rising and illuminating the night sky until the burner runs out of fuel and extinguishes, at which point they slowly float back down to earth. There are so many hot air balloons in the sky at any one time that it is impossible to count them.

If you look up http://www.squidoo.com/loikrathong_festival_Thailand you will see pictures of what I have just tried to describe to you.

Happy Loy Krathong to all of you!

Margaret

Gage's 8th grade page said...

I think that was great... and i like having you as my teacher this year... again good job

Anonymous said...

Hi and thank you for writing such nice things about my blog! It is really exciting to see this post! If your students would like to team up with others from around the world, please visit http://workingtogether2makeadifference.ning.com! It's great!

Unknown said...

I am really looking forward to this! What an amazing idea.

-Emma