Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Service Op: Lambs Farm

3rd Annual Lambs Farm Popcorn Days
Friday, October 1 and Saturday, October 2

Volunteers and Captains are Needed!

Lambs Farm and The Popcorn Factory have come together to raise needed funds to support Lambs Farm’s various programs and services for adults with developmental disabilities. The 3rd Annual Lambs Farm Popcorn Days will take place on Friday, October 1 and Saturday, October 2 in throughout the Chicagoland area.

Volunteers are needed to help collect donations at various storefronts and intersections. In exchange for donations, volunteers will distribute one-ounce bags of caramel corn from The Popcorn Factory. Please consider helping Lambs Farm by volunteering. Click here to download a volunteer form. If you have questions about volunteering, please contact Barbara S. Rudzin at 847-990-3733 or BSRudzin@lambsfarm.org.

Please consider being a Captain for this event. As a Captain, your main responsibility will be to recruit volunteers to collect donations in your community. We have developed a Captain’s training manual and the Lambs Farm staff will be available to assist you throughout the process. To download a Captain’s Manual which explains how you could play an integral part in this exciting event while raising money for Lambs Farm, please click here. Please contact Barbara Rudzin at 847-990-3733 or e-mail with questions.

We hope you will join Lambs Farm on October 1 and 2 and help us make the 3rd Annual Popcorn Days a huge success.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Service Op: Dan Seals Internship

Just got the following in an email. If you are interested in politics this might be a nice opportunity for your service experience:

My name is George Brown and I’m the internship coordinator with the Dan Seals for Congress campaign.  I’m emailing you today because our campaign is going to have an exciting internship program for high school students throughout the fall. I was hoping that you, as a social studies teacher, would be able to pass this information along to interested students or direct me to the proper individuals at Stevenson High School who could. Dan or one of his representatives would be happy to come speak to a group, discuss his positions and answer any questions. It really will be a competitive election this fall, and interns not only play a vital role on our campaign but are also able to learn a great deal about political campaigns and elections.

Feel free to contact me with any questions you have about the internship program or the campaign in general. Thank you for your time and best of luck on a successful school year. --George

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George M. Brown
Deputy Field Director
847-945-8900

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Remembering 9/11


As we remember September 11th nine years after the horrific events, it is interesting to consider where we are now - nine years later, through the lens of sociology. Over the last few months a ground swelling of hatred has been building against Muslims. This has manifested in an opposition to the Muslim community center near the site of Ground Zero, and it has spread to opposition to Muslims across America and even to a Koran burning in Florida. September 11th, 2001 was a terrible day in American history. Thousands of Americans died and tens of thousands were changed profoundly for the rest of their lives, whether it is ptsd, losing a loved one, or any other huge loss or change in their life.
Many Americans rightly feel anger, fear and outrage over these events. But unfortunately, many Americans have confused their categories and their stereotypes (from Joel Charon. Using Charon's discussion of stereotypes and categories we can see that all of the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks were Muslim, but this was a small handful of individuals. It is hard to come to terms with the idea that a couple dozen individuals could so radically hurt this country so badly. However, that is the reality - it was a small group of individuals who could all be categorized as Muslim. But the opposition of Muslims all across America as well as the Koran-burning would have many Americans believe that the category of terrorists being Muslim applies to all Muslims. Thus, the category becomes the stereotype. This view could not be more stereotypical and more wrong. I have students and friends who are Muslim. They are loving, wonderful people. In fact many Muslims were killed during the 9/11 attacks and Muslims all over the world were saddened for America and they came to our aid. Muslims serve in the United States armed forces - on our front lines! Humans can't help but categorize, but when that category becomes a blind judgment, it becomes a stereotype.