DVD Sale - Part 2

If we are able to proceed with this on Jan. 6th, and Jan. 7th, people would need to hang more flyers on Monday (I have them in F206) and we would need to get an announcement to E-administration early on Monday.

DVD SALE - IMPORTANT

Well, good thing we didn't sell the DVD's last week...only one person came to my room to hang up flyers. So, I reserved Jan. 6th and 7th (Tuesday and Wednesday) of the week that we are back to have a table in E-Commons to sell the DVD's. However, because of Friday's snow, we had no meeting and therefore no one is slated to man/woman the table on these days. If we can work this out through the blog, great. If not, we may have to cancel and find new dates.

Also, I think we should have an example of what one of the DVD's would look like, so people can see ahead of time what they are purchasing. Can anyone make a case and label for the DVD?

Please respond if you could sell at the table Periods 4-8 on Tuesday (Jan. 6th) and Periods 4-8 on Wednesday (Jan. 7th). Thanks!

hey guys, I checked out global impact
5.3 percent of every dollar Global Impact spends is for administration and fundraising.
However, the idea of them as a middle man, probably isnt best.

- Danielle

Charity Research

Since no one else seems to have found anything, here are the charities that I have researched.

nothingbutnets.org- $10 buys one mosquito net for a person in Africa. They have distributed nets to refugee camps in Chad, and hope to be able to send some to Sudan as well. According to the FAQ, this organization takes no overhead from the donation- all of it goes to purchasing, shipping, and educating people how to properly use their nets. The nets help stop the spread of malaria.

divest for darfur- i could not find a breakdown of where the money goes.

kidsforkids.org.uk - I found a pie-chart on their website, but was unsure as to whether or not there are any overhead costs. Maybe Mr. Cone or Mrs. Donohue can figure it out? http://www.kidsforkids.org.uk/about_importantinfo.asp

Because of homework, those were the only charities I had time to break down. Of course, we can always send our money to savedarfur.org or the solar cookers again, but it may be nice to do something different for a change. 

Update-Meeting 12-12

Sorry it took so long for me to update the blog! We had a pretty good turnout, but definitely not as many people were there as there has been in the past. Spread the word! Invite your friends to come and remind them of meetings.

This is the meeting run-down:
-We are considering selling the DVDs from the Comedy Hypnosis Show. We were thinking of doing this on this Thursday or Friday, but we may have to change the date if needed.

-Please everyone check out the sites mentioned in previous posts about the charities we could donate to. This Friday we will vote on which one we will give our Comedy Hypnosis money. If you find any information on the charities, please post them on the blog.

-In the Spring we are planning to have our Dine Around and Scavenger Hunt. The Dine Around is tentatively scheduled for and the Scavenger Hunt on .

-We have our display in F tower, but we may need to re-amp it. We also could possibly use the display case in the front or near the library, but we would have to rotate with other clubs. If there are any ideas please post and/or bring your ideas to the meeting.

-We are also looking to other events, but we need ideas. We don't really have anything planned for the Winter/early Spring, so any ideas would be appreciated. Bake sales and pizza sales went well, but did not make much money. But they still are options. Anyone else have other fundraising ideas?

I think that's pretty much it, but if I forgot anything I'll post a comment. Everyone, please start using the blog!!!!! It can help keep communication open. :)

-Erin

Check this out

The new UN Envoy Nominee (Susan Rice) is very intent on helping Darfur. Read or listen to the story.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97661695&sc=emaf

Some More Charities!

Does anyone know if there is a way to make a poll online here so we can decide which charity to donate to? It would be a good way to get people to actually use the blog- and it's more organized than a poll taken at a meeting.

Anyway, here are a two other charities I have found: 

Global Impact's Darfur Crisis Fund 

This group donates to a few different Darfur-related charities, however, I don't know how much we really want a middleman involved.

Kids For Kids

This charity is aimed at improving the lives of children in the remote villages of Darfur. It is unique because instead of focusing on the refugees themselves, the aim is to help prevent people from becoming refugees in the first place. It's a British charity, but they accept donations in American dollars, too.

PS- This article was interesting and yet disgusting at the same time. Louis Vuitton is suing the "Divest For Darfur" Charity for using a bag that resembles a Louis Vuitton design in a highly circulated picture. It's not like this organization was using it to profit personally, you'd think that a company would WANT positive advertising connections to such a great cause. 

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Organizations

Along with the organizations mentioned by Jen and Sharon I found an organization that we could potentially donate to.

Divest for Darfur (http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/index/) is different because the money goes towards encouraging investment firms to withdraw investments from companies that help fund genocide in Darfur.

Donations

Hey Everyone,

I found some organizations that I think we can use to choose from to donate the money:

1. 24 Hours for Darfur - The money will go directly toward Darfur to help the people there and it will also go towards creating videos to help aware more people as to what is going on in Darfur.
Website: http://www.24hoursfordarfur.org/main.php

2. Eyes on Darfur - The contributions will go directly towards the people in Darfur and this organization is linked with Save Darfur.
Website: http://www.eyesondarfur.org/index.html

3. Team Darfur - This organization is an internation coalition of athletes who are dedicated and committed to creating awareness about the actions in Darfur. The contributions will go directly to Darfur.
Website: http://teamdarfur.org/

- Jen Attard

Donations

Hey guys,
I was looking for a few places that we might consider donating the money we raised and I found a few.

1) STAND - It's a genocide intervention network and you can specifically donate money for the crisis in Darfur. (http://www.standnow.org/)

2) International Rescue Committee - The money goes toward providing health care for the refugees, education for them, and they have a large list of the things they have accomplished such as setting up camps, providing clean drinking water, shelter, etc. (More can be found about what they do here, http://www.theirc.org/media/www/how-the-irc-helps-in-darfur.html).
Main link: http://www.theirc.org/special-report/darfur-growing-violence.html

3) Human Rights First: Hope for Darfur - Their campaign is to stop arms to Sudan through the enforcement of embargo's. (http://www.hopefordarfur.org/)

There are a few others that I found but they seemed to be religiously linked (such as Hillel), so I didn't include them.

- Sharon:)

Meeting Summary - November 21, 2008

We had a very serious meeting today....all business! Here's what we discussed:

Comedy Hypnosis Recap/Debriefing:
- We raised $959 (this is the profit after paying Dr. Mike)

- We need to decide where to donate the money. Last year, we donated the money to HelpDarfurNow.org and we have also donated to the solar cookers. Please research potential beneficiaries and post your ideas on the bog. At our next meeting, December 12th, we'll make a decision.

- We also discussed the importance of staying in the jobs that were assigned to you. While the event went very well, there were some instances of people leaving their posts and even leaving money unattended. This cannot happen again.

- Also, for future events, please keep in mind that money is collected in different boxes for a reason. Please do not combine concessions money with admissions money, etc.

New Rules/Procedures:
- We discussed the fact that the club is quite numerous in members and, unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to know everyone. Also, some students may show up for one meeting and then not attend again. When we hold events, we agreed that in order to work the event and/or recieve a "member discount" on admission, a student would need to have attended 50% of our previously scheduled meetings. The "member discount" would be usually half the price of admission (depending on the event) OR a member could contribute by baking, bringing a dish of food, or some other possible way.

Ideas for the next meeting:
- Discuss other people leading the meetings, possible news updates at the meetings, and other people doing these blog summaries.

- Start/continue planning the scavenger hunt, the Dine-Around, and other potential events.

- School Awareness will continue with the display at the next meeting too.

We are not meeting again until Friday, December 12th. That is two weeks away. From now until then, USE THE BLOG!!!

After the Hypnosis Show

Thanks to everyone who helped last night. Things went well and we raised some good money. More details to come.

Whenever anyone sees a Comedy Hypnosis show flyer up, please take it down and put it in a recycling bin! Thanks.

Meeting Summary - 11/14/08

Our primary focus today was to prepare for the Comedy Hypnosis show. We signed up for jobs, made signs for the concession table, etc.

The School Awareness team also worked on the display by the library.

Baking

I thought I'd start a list of who can bake for the comedy hypnosis show. Please comment if you can bring something and what you are bringing. Thanks!

Meeting Summary - November 7, 2008

Here's what we did/discussed:

- Safe Halloween Recap - It went well, low turnout from the community. We did have a presence and got the word out to some.

- Can people please research where to get a banner made? We have the electronic file we just need to get ideas as to size and pricing.

- Erin is to be commended for her work to get a grant through her church. They are awarding $600 to purchase solar cookers. Way to go!

- SaveDarfur.org sent a letter acknowldeging our donation from May of 2006!

- CLUB PHOTOS are scheduled for Wednesday, November 12th at 1:00pm. WEAR GREEN.

- Comedy Hypnosis show is NEXT Friday, November 14th. We need to hype this up all week. Tell your classes/friends/teachers. We decided that teachers should only have to pay $5 admission. For everyone else, it is $7.00. The show starts at 7:00pm but we need to be there by 6:00pm to get ready. At our meeting next Friday, we will have people sign up for jobs. We will need people to work the door collecting the admissions money and stamping hands, we'll need people to work the information table (where we will have the tri-fold board, the pamphlets, and the water jug for donations), we will need people to work the concessions table (bring a baked good!), we will also need people to coordinate the 50/50 raffle. Erin brought in a roll of tickets that we can use and we still have our raffle box from the dine-around. In addition, we need to get someone to work the lights in the auditorium. Plus, Ginny said she'd prepare a speech/introduction and we also discussed having a slide show as the audience is waiting for the show to start. We also need to think about where we want the proceeds to go.

This week to prepare for the hypnosis show we hung up more flyers, the suggestion was made to see if we could leave a stack of flyers at the school store, and there was a mention of the show in the Smithtown News (thanks, Dan!).

The School Awareness group also worked on the display by the library.

So, as usual, lots to do! Baked goods for Friday, research banners, promote the hypnosis show, wear green for club photo on Wednesday, think about organizations/causes to donate money to from the hypnosis show.

Club Photos - NOVEMBER 12th - Wear Green!

We are scheduled for a club photo on Wednesday, November 12th at 1:00pm (toward the end of 8th period). Show up and wear green!

Meeting Summary - 10/24/08

Here's what we discussed/did:

- If you have received an email invite to be able to post to this blog (not just read it), please do follow-through and respond. We have approximately 50 people who have 'open invitations' still!!

- Can someone research where to get a nice banner made? Mary can change the resolution on the poster to accomodate the size of a banner. We should price out a nice, weather resistant one that will hold up well.

- The Comedy Hypnosis show is set for Friday, November 14th. Tickets will be $7.00 at the door. Flyers were made and hung up. Please start talking this up. It is fun for all ages. We will look into getting the DVD of a past performance to play on the TV in the Commons. A large banner was painted today that we can hang up next week to further promote the event.

- Safe Halloween is next Friday from 3:30pm-7:30pm. Our table is right in the main entrance. We will have a tri-fold board (kid-friendly), pamphlets, the water jug to collect donations, a banner that says "Darfur Action Committee," and flyers for the Comedy Hypnosis show. We will also purchase candy. Thanks to everyone who signed up and committed to being stationed at the table. Please wear a costume! If anyone else wants to sign up for an hour at the table, please reply on the blog and/or email me!

- No meeting next Friday - just SAFE HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

Add Your Voice!

I was sent this petition online, and I think everyone should sign. The objective is to compile a list of American citizens urging whoever becomes the next president to consider Darfur as a first-day top priority!

Add Your Voice

This is through Save Darfur, so it is a legitimate petition that actually WILL go to the White House.

Safe Halloween

I just filled out the paperwork for Safe Halloween. We will have our own table directly across from Leadership in the main entrance of the building. This is where parents enter and drop off food donations. Danielle is making a pamphlet so we will have literature, we can put the water jug on the table to collect monetary donations, we should have flyers about the Comedy Hypnosis show, and we should see if we have a kid-friendly tri-fold board....if not we should make one.

We should also look into getting a banner made.....

Uhm.

Well, today I got a letter in the mail from Save Darfur, and I guess I thought it would be informational for those of you who aren't aware of the situation as of right now?

Page Un

Et Deux

...I'm sure the majority of us already receive these, but I figured I might as well. 

Meeting Summary - October 3, 2008

Another nice turnout today. For those that couldn't make it, below is a summary:

- We presented an overview of the origins of the conflict and the current status of the genocide in Darfur for the benefit of new members. We handed out an informational flyer which also had information about 1-800-Genocide. CALL THIS NUMBER!!!!

- We discussed possibilities for Safe Halloween. Since Ms. Donohue nor Mr. Cone will be there, we need to find alternative ways to get the word out. UPDATE: Mr. DeMatteo just agreed to allow us to have information on a table. Woo-Hoo! Danielle is making a new pamphlet that we will get copied.

- We are going to start looking into pizza and bake sales to raise money.

- A tentative date is being looked at for the Comedy Hypnosis fundraiser. We will try for Friday, November 17th. Once confirmed, we will need people to make flyers, spread the word, work the entrance table, the information table, the concessions table, etc. More planning will take place for this event at our next meeting. As a reminder, we raised $1300 doing this last year!

- We took a group photo that will be displayed at the pep rally on Friday, October
17th. When you see it displayed, shout "SAVE DARFUR!"

- At the next meeting, we will form committees. One will work on the scavenger hunt, one for pizza/bake sales, one for the Hypnosis show, one for school-wide awareness, etc.

There is no meeting next week since there is no school. We will meet again on Friday, October 17th (after the pep rally). We have a lot to do at that meeting to get ready for the Hypnosis show.

WEAR GREEN NEXT FRIDAY

Next meeting - Friday, October 3rd. WEAR GREEN for a group photo!

Great First Meeting!

Once again, it looks like we are going to have a nice crew of people to help those in Darfur. Below is a summary of what we discussed:

- For those who are new to the group, next week we will take some time to do an overview of the origins of the conflict and where it's at now.
- We recapped the activities and accomplishments that DAC had last year.
- A poster was made by Jackie that will be displayed in a frame in the hall soon.
- Dan has agreed to be the point person for getting announcements made on the PA.
- Everyone can feel free to make flyers promoting the club and our activities. Just bring one and I'll get copies made. At any point, feel free to stop by F206 to see if any flyers need to be hung up.
- Safe Halloween - Unfortunately, Mr. Cone and I will not be around on Halloween. For next Friday, try to have ideas of other ways to get the word out to the community (pamphlets on a table, in bags, handed out by members in the hall, etc.)
- Last year we had a successful Comedy Hypnosis fundraiser. We will look to do that again soon. Possible dates are November 7th and November 14th (both Fridays).
- We would like to make the scavenger hunt fundraiser happen this year. More to be discussed.
- Ginny mentioned a charity to keep in mind - Nothing But Nets
- We discussed the possible disbursement of funds to help the school purchase a "Visitors" sign. The consensus was that funds raised in the name of Darfur should go directly to charities to help the cause.

We will meet next Friday, October 3rd. PLEASE WEAR A GREEN SHIRT. We need to take a group photo for the Pep Rally.

FIRST MEETING THIS FRIDAY - 9/26/08

Spread the word......

LAST MEETING OF THE YEAR

We will be having a meeting on Friday, June 13th. Please bring food so we can celebrate our accomplishments of this past year and look forward to the next. The meeting will end by 2:45pm.

Hope to see you there!

IMPORTANT!

DARFUR ACTION COMMITTEE MEETING FOR JUNE 6TH IS CANCELLED. I REPEAT, OUR "FINAL" MEETING ON JUNE 6TH HAS BEEN CANCELLED. 

Neither Mr. Cone nor Mrs. Donohue will be able to make it on Friday, so we have rescheduled our meeting/party for Monday, June 9th.  Please spread the word to everyone.

Meeting Summary

Where were all of you today? 8 very cool people came to the meeting but YOU were not here and YOU were missed.

Look out for the Smithtown News - there MAY be an article about the activities that the club did this year. I sent him photos too.

Tuesday, June 3rd is the PIG Credit movie showing of The Devil Came on Horseback. Flyers were hung up today and we are ordering pizza to sell for Tuesday after school.

Next Friday will be our final meeting and we have some work to do:
- Darfur Doors need to be taken down neatly so we can save them.
- Thank you's need to go out to the restaurants who donated food for the Dine Around. Harrini is writing a letter and we will sign them next Friday and get them in the mail.
- We will also discuss plans for next year and ways to organize what we did this year (binders).
- Bring food and we will eat! Post here on the blog what you are bringing.

Advertising The Movie and Pizza event

I finished the edited version of the flyer for the Devil Came On Horseback. We just have to make copies of it and have people hang them up around the school.

Scott

Pictures Are Up

The pictures from the Dine Around can be viewed on Photobucket.

The link is here.

Donation Update

Thanks to Scott for getting us the information for where to send the donation. A check for $900 (30 solar cookers!!!) is being sent to the Darfur Peace and Development Organization.

http://www.darfurpeaceanddevelopment.org/

Notes from meeting on May 9th

Hi everyone,

Today's meeting was short, as many people were missing due to the AP U.S. History Exam. Here's what was discussed:

• The Dine-Around was a huge success, raising close to $900.
• Thank you's need to be signed that are to be sent to companies and people that donated food or goods for the event (Danielle is writing the thank you letters).
• If you have pictures from the Dine-Around, please bring them to school or send them to Ms. Donohue or Mr. Cone so they can possibly be used to accompany the write-up for the newspaper.
• An address for the company that we will purchase the solar cookers from needs to be passed along to Ms. Donohue or Mr. Cone so a check can be sent out (Scott will do this).
• Scavenger Hunt has been postponed until the fall.
• Pangea Day, "a global event bringing the world together through film in a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict" is taking place at HSE on Saturday, May 10th from 2:00-6:00pm. Go to www.pangeaday.com for details.
• A showing of the film, The Devil Came on Horseback, will be offered as a PIG Hours opportunity on Wednesday, June 4. The film will be shown in rooms F205 and F206 (Scott is making a flyer for the film).
• Next meeting is May 30th.
• End of the year projects, book keeping, and taking down Darfur Doors will be done in mid June.
• A party will take place during one of our last meetings.

Money Raised

We raised $911. This figure is before we reimburse those who have expenses/receipts but it will be pretty close.

CORRECTION - Scavenger Hunt Date

The scavenger hunt is scheduled for May 20th.

Wonderful Night!

The Dine-Around was a great success. I am very proud of everyone who followed through and pulled this all off! The cafeteria looked great and those in attendance did a fantastic job of fulfilling the roles needed throughout the night. Ginny, Daniella, Harrini, and Danielle represented us through presentations and speaking well, and creating an amazing pamphlet. We had a great turnout, raised money (we'll count it this week), and most importanly raised awareness for the cause. I am also proud of all of those who stuck around to help clean-up. This was truly a team effort and I was very pleased!

I am also thankful to many of your parents for helping so much! Please thank them from all of us!

We will meet this Friday where we will count the money raised, write thank-you's, and get back into planning our next event which is the scavenger hunt scheduled for May 23rd!

Update

My dad will be making a tray of ziti and one of his signature crumb cakes. He's going food shopping tomorrow for the ingredients, so I asked him to pick up the stuff I discussed today with Mrs. Donohue.

Also, I will be able to stay after right away tomorrow because our field trip was cancelled because of the liability involved with taking a large group of seniors and juniors on a train to Manhattan.  I'll go home right after 9th and get my car so that I have it just in case we need last minute things!

New List

Here's where I think we're at now:

Food
Villa Napoli - 1 tray (of what?)
JTs Corner Cafe - 20 wraps
Buena Sera - 2 trays (of what?)
La Familia - 1 tray (of what?)
Monte's - 1 tray of Penne ala Vodka
Salsa Salsa – Chili
Acropolis – two trays of Greek salad
Tray of something - Ginny
Salad courtesy of Erin's mom (now that we have the Greek salad, should this be removed?)
Rolls/bread bought by Slattery

Desserts
Flories Finales - 1 tray of cookies
Sheet cake – Erin
Watermelon – Erin
3 pounds of Cookies – Alpine
Crumb cake – Ginny
Chocolate chip cookies - Ben

Beverages
Starbucks - 2 bags of coffee beans
2 cases of water (courtesy of Dan Emerson)
Frank and Ben - buying soda??
Dessert drinks - Danielle
Tea, milk, sugar, stirrers

WE NEED:
ice
and ????!

Cool!

Sounds good everyone...good updates!!!!

DINE-AROUND

I got alpine to donate a three pound cookie tray and I am getting the table cloths and centerpieces, I also have desert drinks and my mom offered to help pick up food. I'm thinking that if we can all come on friday we can make e-CAf look great...If there are any last minute restuarants let me know so i can add them to the brocheure...

_ Danielle

Stuff I Can Bring

I can definitely bake a crumb cake and bring one tray of food. I am not sure exactly what I'll bring, but it will be some type of pasta (made by my dad). Also, tomorrow I can go food shopping if we still need tea bags and stuff- I will speak to Mrs. Donohue 2nd period to find out what needs to be done.

Keep your noses to the grindstone, everyone, we CAN pull this off!

-Ginny

Tray Specifics

If anyone knows what the food item of any of the trays are please post that ASAP.

ALSO NEEDED

Tea bags
milk
sugar
stirrers

URGENT - DINE AROUND

The Dine Around is this Friday. We had a meeting after school today and only a handful of people showed up. The string quartet is confirmed, Ginny will be speaking, we have paper goods but as of two days before the event, here's the list of food we have:

Food
Villa Napoli - 1 tray (of what?)
JTs Corner Cafe - 20 wraps
Buena Sera - 2 trays (of what?)
La Familia - 1 tray (of what?)
Monte's - 1 tray of Penne ala Vodka
Salad courtesy of Erin's mom
Rolls/bread bought by Slattery

Desserts
Flories Finales - 1 tray of cookies

Beverages
Starbucks - 2 bags of coffee beans
2 cases of water (courtesy of Dan Emerson)
Frank and Ben - buying soda??

WE NEED:
ice
desserts (bake stuff please)
more food

If anyone knows of any other donations, please see me first thing Thursday morning in F206.

Dine-Around

Has anyone else gotten any food or drinks donated? I think one thing we really need to focus on is making sure that there is enough food and drinks. If anyone can get anything else donated that would be great. Maybe we can each make something and bring it along if we don't have enough donated? Just an idea.

Dine-Around Update

Hey everyone,
Just confirming that the Utopia Strings will be playing. I will also be bringing wraps from JT's Corner Cafe and desserts (cookies) from Flories Finales.

Balloons

I know at the last meeting there was talk of having helium balloons. I bought the balloons, but I wanted to see if anyone knew where in the school we can fill them up. I know it was said at the meeting that somewhere in the school there is a helium machine, and if anyone has any info on that it would be great. If we are going through with the balloons, we will have to make sure we find out where the machine is and ask permission before the Dine-Around. We also need to have someone (or some people) blow them up on Friday before the event. I was thinking of making crayon hot rocks for balloon weight (heat up rocks in the oven and melt some green crayons on them--they look pretty in the end). If anyone thinks this is a good idea let me know!

Dine-Around

Hey guys its Danielle. Ben and Jerry's has offered ice cream but needs a flyer, could someone upload one or give me the info on it. Also for center pieces I was thinking candles of different colors sourrounding the balloons, there really pretty and cheap. Respond back my aim is Curseofcurves567

Thanks

Dine-Around/Meeting Update

This past meeting, Friday 4/18, we focused on the Dine-Around. We need to do lots before the event as it on the Friday we get back from break, May 2nd. It will be from 7-10pm and will be held in F-Cafeteria. It will cost $15/person on $10 for kids 12 and under. We need lots of help to make this possible so please help out if you can! What we need done is the following:

-We need food and drinks. Lots of it. If you have already been to a place and asked for donations and they said they thought it was ok but they haven't given you a definite approval, please contact them over break. We really need to make sure that there will be enough food so please contact as many places as you can!

-We also need people to pick up the food. I know that some people already have arrangements, but if anyone can step up and pick up any other food that gets donated that would be great.

-We also need decorations. I'm already going to Party City over break to pick up some ribbon and balloons, but we need more. There will also be centerpieces made. If anyone can think of any other decorations (green and silver are the colors) that would be great. We want to make it look as little like a cafeteria as possible.

-One very major point is advertising! Spread the word about the Dine-Around. Hand out any flyers that you have. Ms. Donohue has some flyers that you can pick up in F206. We also need to hang up flyers around school on Monday. If you have a free period, it would be great if you go to F206 to pick up flyers and hang them up. Dan is going to put in an announcement for all next week over the PA.

-We are still looking for a speaker. Ginny has volunteered to speak, but if we can find someone who has been to Darfur that would be great. It is short notice so this may be difficult.

-I don't remember if someone said they were doing this already or not, but we also need pamphlets that need to be made up about the genocide in Darfur. They will be placed on each table setting.

-I'm going to Costco this week to pick up table settings (silverware, plates, cups, napkins). If anyone can think of anything else that is needed from Costco, please let me know through the blog ASAP.

-If we can get enough donated things to raffle off, we will have a raffle. I think the 50-50 raffle is a go. We can always make money off of that to donate!

-Please make every effort to attend this event. If you are coming, please try to wear green (or a Save Darfur shirt if you have one).

I think that is it. If I missed any information or messed up somewhere, please correct it through a post. Please remember to keep in contact during the break through the blog. There's a lot of work to be done, but I know we can do it.

-Erin

Darfur Doors

Hey guys,

We are looking for volunteers to stay after school on Monday to help put up the Darfur Doors. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks :)

Summary of April 4th Meeting

- Bake sale update - we raised $115.54!!!!!!! That's huge money for a bake sale!

- Dine Around committee is now pushing full speed ahead. They've compiled a list of restaurants and will be hitting the town. This committee really needs to reconvene BEFORE next Friday though to update us and each other as to the progress. With a date of May 2nd we really don't have that much time so we need to be realistic about the ability to make this happen and to do it well.

- Darfur Doors - the printing and pasting of pictures is taking place at the moment and the posters for the doors are scheduled to go up on Monday after school.

We do have a meeting next Friday.

Scavenger Hunt Prizes

I wanted to toss it out to the group on what could possibly make good prizes for the scavenger hunt. We were thinking about making the ticket prices at about $7 so the prizes should be a little better than that. The prizes need to be good for everyone and will be given out to the first place winners (a group of no more than 5 or 6 people). Gift cards were mentioned as a possibility--any suggestions as to where would be good. Please comment with any suggestions or bring them to the meeting Friday. :)

-Erin

Attention: Dine-Around Committee

Hey guys,

I'm pleased that we have a date and a place now for our dine-around in May but we really need to get into contact with restaurants around the area so we are not letting them know at the last minute. I think it would be best if we start to make contact with these restaurants this weekend in order to give them a fair amount of notice. Is anyone willing to go to certain places and tell them about our dine-around? I'll certainly help out but I think it would be best if we went as a group so we can cover more area but also make a more convincing case together. Comment if anyone from the committee is free the next few weekends to do this.

Thanks,
Ben

Upcoming Dates and Information

The Dine-Around date of May 2nd has been approved. Dine-Around committee, please be working on getting committments from restaurants.

The Darfur Doors campaign is shaping up nicely. We have agreements from 10 of the 13social studies teachers to use their doors. We'll follow up with the other 3 next week. The 'doors' should be unveiled either Friday, April 4th (our next meeting date), or earlier that week if that committee plans to do so. Totally their call and either way is fine. If they go up April 4th that still gives us a full week before the Holocaust Rememberance and Genocide Awareness Day and a full week that they will be up after the event.

The scavenger hunt date is also confirmed for May 20th. I followed up with the alternative school issue we discussed and amde sure that we would not have a conflict with library use. We are all good! Someone from that committee should speak wth Ms. Geldmacher when they get a chance to find out how she does registration for dodgeball through the computer.

Again, the bake sale was fantastic. Congratulations to all involved....good planning and follow-through!

Next official meeting will be Friday, April 4th.

Bake Sale

How did the bake sale go???? I stopped by there inbetween 5th and 6th and there was still a bunch of stuff left. Thanks to anyone who baked anything and/or sold today! :)

Meeting Recap

I don't know if anyone was assigned to the blog for this past week, but I remember most of what we did, so I'll summarize for those who weren't there.

First, Mr. Cone discussed the need for student action in planning activities. After having to do pretty much all of the work for last week's pizza sale, he and Mrs. Donohue decided that they would not enter forms for any events unless the students had already planned and worked out details.

Next, we had updates on the current situation in Darfur. The Janjaweed has returned to it's scorched-earth bombing practices, displacing over 75,000 people since the start of the new year.  I will post the New York Times article later tonight.

Everyone should go on http://purpleforpeaceintl.bravehost.com/

On this site, you can sign a petition to the White House in order to pressure the Sudanese government into allowing UN Peacekeepers to take action in Darfur.

Mrs. Donohue also told us that there is a student group at Stony Brook that has just formed which plans on raising awareness and funds for the crisis, much like we do.  We discussed the possibility of collaborating some events together.

Finally, we broke into committees. The bake sale is planned for March 17th (St. Patrick's Day) as long as the date is approved by administration.  See Mrs. Donohue or Mr. Cone if you would like to sign up to sit at the tables or bake something to sell. That is our closest planned event, but a Dine-Around in May (I think- correct me if I'm wrong!) and a Scavenger Hunt are both in the works, along with the PIG-Hours movie showing, the Doors For Darfur activity, and more pizza/bake sales.  

If anyone has any more ideas for activities we can sponsor (and is willing to plan/organize the event- ideas without people willing to work on them are pointless), he or she can speak to Mrs. Donohue or Mr. Cone, or come to our meeting this coming Friday.

Meeting Summary - February 15th

Good meeting. Below is an overview:

- I recapped the previous meeting and the progress that was made by each committee. I also spoke about the plans for this year's Holocaust Remembrance and Genocide Awareness Day. There will be a big focus on Darfur this year so 800 10th grade students (West and East Campus) will be educated about the issue.

- Scott informed the group that Congressman Tom Lantos of California has died. Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress and was active in speaking out about Darfur.

- Danielle updated us about some current events. One of the stories she spoke about was Steven Spielberg stepping down as artistic director for the Beijing Olympics due to China's connection with the government in Khartoum. Harrini will provide the update at the next meeting.

- Committees met and we have some dates announced:
* Feb. 28th (the Thursday we get back) - pizza sale after school
* March 17th - Bake Sale (on St. Patrick's Day - think GREEN!!!)
* March 31st (or so) - Unveiling of the Darfur Doors
* April 10th - Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Day for 10th graders
* May 2nd - Dine Around
* May 20th - Scavenger Hunt
* Date Pending - PIG credit after school movie
* Date Pending - Battle of the Bands

Mark your calendars!

China

I think you guys should check out this link http://news.bbc.co.uk:80/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7242016.stm its about Steven Spielburg stepping down as "Artistic Director" of the Beijing Games.

Meeting Summary- February 8th

Today's meeting started out with a few words from Ben on the current situation in Darfur.  We all agree that Africa seems to be spiraling out of control into a cycle of tribal conflicts and civil wars, based on the fighting that is now breaking out in Kenya, which is historically one of Africa's most stable countries, and in Chad, Darfur's neighbor that is getting "too involved" in the current Darfur crisis, according to the Sudanese government.  The fact that there is fighting in both Kenya and Chad is making it very difficult to get relief supplies to the people in Darfur, as these countries were both commonly used to channel supplies through.  Additionally, the fighting could turn into a full-scale crisis, such as the one in Darfur, creating the need for even more supplies and further pressuring the UN to more assertively deploy peacekeeping forces.

The articles Ben referenced can be found at these links: "Darfur Force May Take All Year", "'Janjaweed Leader' is Sudan Aide", and "Fighting Resumes in Chad's Capital".  

Before breaking into committees, we also discussed recent developments by the various groups in the past week.  

First, Mrs. Donohue read us excerpts of a letter from Senator Hillary Clinton in response to a letter written by one of the students in the Holocaust/Genocide Class.  Senator Clinton described the steps she's taken in getting our government to pressure the Sudanese government into allowing UN Peacekeeping forces in.

The Battle of the Bands Committee has found a possible venue that would only want a small percentage of the ticket money, but Mrs. Donohue was concerned about the liability of holding an off-campus event.  She is looking into other options this week.

Marissa has been searching for postcards to use at the "Sand and Sorrow" showing for PIG hours.  Mrs. Donohue has reviewed the websites that Marissa provided, and most of the postcards seem a little too expensive.  If anyone can find any postcards that have pre-written messages about Darfur and can be sent to senators and government officials, but are free or extremely cheap, please contact Mrs. Donohue or someone in the Darfur Action Committee with information on where and how to get these cards.

After this, we broke into committees and everyone worked out details for planning our various events this year. So far, we are planning on a "Doors for Darfur" fundraiser, a Dine-Around to raise money for solar cookers, our "Sand and Sorrow" PIG activity, a Scavenger hunt, and a Battle of the Bands if we can work the details out.  Our Public Relations Committee is considering having a bake sale or another pizza sale to raise awareness and funds.  If anyone has any other suggestions that they are willing to help plan for, ideas can be posted on this blog or brought up at our next meeting on Friday, February 15th.

All in all, even though many people were not able to make it to this past meeting, it was very productive.  I am excited to see the results of all of these ideas once put into action. Keep up the good work everyone!

-Ginny

Meeting Recap - February 1st

We are back in action and plan to meet regularly - every Friday foreseeing other issues! Here's what we discussed today:

- We recapped the last meeting (did the bulletin board, did the paperwork for the donation to HelpDarfurNow, etc.)

- We discussed moving forward with the Sand And Sorrow movie showing after school for P.I.G. credit. We would have a pizza sale that day as well. People are looking into getting postcards to representatives that students could fill out after watching the movie.

- We brainstormed a list of fundraising/educational ideas that we could focus on. We generated a nice list and then decided to form committees. The committees are as follows: Public Relations (they will also organize a bake sale), Dine Around (with money going toward the purchase of solar cookers), Scavenger Hunt (similar to how students pay to participate in the Dodgeball Tournament), Battle of the Bands (held at 3MB rather than the auditorium, Darfur Doors (decorating classroom doors to raise awareness), Penny campaign (400,000 pennies/water jugs).

- We also discussed starting each meeting with an update on the situation in Darfur to better educate ourselves. Ben has volunteered to do the first one next Friday. Thanks, Ben!

- Lastly, we are getting rid of the leftover candy from the Comedy Hypnosis event. Many members took bags of candy (10 pieces each) and will sell each piece for $1.00 and come with the profits next Friday.

Great meeting and I am looking forward to next week for when the committees meet and start making things happen!!!!

January 18th Meeting Is Cancelled

I apologize, but this Friday's meeting, January 18th, cannot happen. I have another committment that I must fulfill. Sorry!!!! We WILL meet on Friday, February 1st.

Last week was very productive - we did the bulletin board in the F-Tower, did the paperwork to make the donation to Help Darfur Now, wrote a letter to accompany the check, wrote an update to Mrs. Elias, and hung up a lot of flyers. Nice work everyone!