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Friday, July 5, 2013

What A Difference a Dollar Can Make!

So I must admit, I treat myself once a week to some kind of greasy, fattening, delicious breakfast before work.  When I roll through the Starbucks drive-thru, I leave with my hot chocolate and cinnamon swirl coffee cake.  If I hit up the Chick-fila , I’ll leave with my chicken mini meal complete with hash browns and orange juice.  At either restaurant, I’ll drop anywhere from $3-5 bucks each time.  Now, that $3-5 buck breakfast is not a necessity by any means.  I choose to indulge because I feel like I “deserve” it, like I worked hard enough to “earn” myself a little fattening goodie, a guilty pleasure, if you will.  As I check my account balance each month, it seems that I tend to spend roughly $25.00 on “fun” food.  That’s roughly **GASP** $300.00 a year!  Try as I might, sometimes that McDonald’s jingle “Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba I’m lovin’ it” just pulls me in! 
I connect my personal choices for breakfast “treats” each week to the choices that my students get when they get off the bus, van or when they arrive by car each week to school.  From August-June students in my school system have access to free-or-reduced breakfasts and lunches.  It’s amazing to see how many students participate in these programs.  I offer my kiddos time in the mornings to have a healthy snack as we work on our math lessons or reading lessons.  I feel that each year, more and more students will bring their breakfasts from the cafeteria in the mornings as their “snack”.  This is alarming, because it leads me to believe that students aren’t being fed at home before school.   It also causes me to wonder, “Are they getting the necessary meals that they need at night?” I think the scariest thing of all is what these particular kids do to get their meals in the summer.  How do these children eat when school is out for the summer?  Two meals that are usually prepared for them aren't as available in the summertime, unless parents can provide their children transportation to locations that prepare summer meals.
In response to this issue, a friend of mine and Cruz’s, Ray Wright, has spearheaded a campaign to combat against childhood hunger.  Ray is a pit crew coach, and member for RCRRacing in Welcome, NC.  Although I don’t know what Ray’s day looks like from the time he arrives to work until the time that he leaves, I do know that he spends a great amount of his own time promoting Pit Stops for Poverty (PSFP)on Facebook, on Twitter and at the track each weekend.  Alongside Ray is Cruz.  He has taken the initiative to help out with Pit Stops for Poverty digging through his closet, finding old crew shirts, gloves and other pit crew items to sale to raise money.  He helps Ray on the Pit Stops for Poverty Twitter and Vine accounts.  Together, they have really worked to organize a wonderful project to provide needy children with meals.  For those of you who watch NASCAR every week, it’s not just the drivers that make the sport what it is.  It’s the pit crews and the race crews who work the behind-the-scene magic as well.  On top of all of their current responsibilities, many of the RCR Racing pit crew and race crew members have taken their time to sale some of their old gear at the track to raise money.  They have tweeted and re-tweeted Pit Stops for Poverty tweets, promoting this organization’s excellent message to virtually anyone in the world.  They have gone above and beyond the call of “duty” if you will, and have put their own money into this great cause.
Well, because I'm a past math teacher, I have to throw in a tiny math lesson.  If you go back to my **GASP** roughly $300.00 per year that I tend to spend on breakfast "treats" I could have been giving just half of that to organizations like Pit Stops for Poverty.  If I donated $150 over the course of the year, I could provide funding for 1,050 meals for needy children.  How in the world would $150 make that many meals?  Well according to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, only $1 can provide enough funding to prepare 7 meals.  Take my $150 and multiply it by 7 and you have 1,050 meals! 
Not only do race fans have the ability to donate, but anyone can!  I know some folks aren’t into the NASCAR, but would still like to donate, you can access the link to Pit Stops for Poverty below and check out the details on childhood hunger statistics, interviews/videos of Ray Wright discussing Pit Stops for Poverty(PSFP) and how one dollar can truly make a difference!
The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC: http://www.hungernwnc.org/
Twitter handle @stops4poverty
Vine: Pitstops for Poverty
Pit Stops for Poverty(PSFP): http://www.pitstopsforpoverty.com/#

Article on PSFP from PitTalks: http://www.pittalks.com/2013/05/21/pit-stops-for-poverty-rcr-crews-looking-to-help-second-harvest-food-bank/

Article on PSFP from RCR Racing: http://www.rcrracing.com/news/index.cfm?cid=51961

WXII12 Video: http://www.wxii12.com/news/local-news/piedmont/Pit-Stops-For-Proverty-raising-funds-for-food-bank/-/10703612/20288548/-/oq391/-/index.html

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Music


Music.  The intentions of music probably date back to pre-Biblical times that provided believers to a gateway to communicate with God, or whatever higher being that was believed to be.  Now, music seems to encompass multiple forms.  Some music is written to purely entertain.  Beats are created and mixes are stirred up to catchy rhythms that get people moving with friends, family or just by themselves…in their underwear…dancing in front of the mirror.  Other music is used with children or young adults to learn new concepts in a classroom.    For whatever reason music exists in history, I personally find music to be somewhat of a way to get my thoughts out of my head without juxtaposing the words and transposing the meanings of what I’m thinking, feeling or wanting to say.

I ramble on about music to set a point, I promise!  This past weekend, I spent a lot of time painting doors at our new home.  (By the way, for those of you who want to hang out this summer and I don’t answer your calls or texts on the first try, it’s safe to say that I’m covered in primer or latex paint at the time.  Not trying to screen a call, I swear!)  I spent most of that time by myself.  I don’t mind my “me” painting time.  It allows me to mindless brush (or slop) the paint on the door and to focus on the strokes.  Vertical strokes go UP the beadboard inserts while horizontal strokes go ACROSS the headers and footers of each door!  I was listening to the new Q104.1 and there was the weekend countdown from current country singles.  Starting at #30, the DJ’s worked their way down to #1.  Honestly, I stayed and painted the entire time, and heard all thirty songs.  There were some fun snippets of  “Guess that Year!” in between the countdown.  One particular song popped up that I haven’t heard in quite some time.  But as soon as the song came on, I pictured myself back to the last place I had been when it came on and I truly listened.

May 1999.  I’m at my 8th grade graduation dance dressed in a hunter green, floor length gown that I had worn in my first cousin’s wedding.  I remember my hair was literally stacked on top of my head, chocked full of bobby pins that found their way out down in my dress and on the floor the entire night.  The stylist had put baby’s breath in my hair and created a shelf with my ridunculously-thick bangs.  I’m pretty sure I snuck on some mascara, although I am fairly certain I hadn’t started wearing make-up yet.  My school’s theme was “I Hope You Dance” and on that first song, it was obviously important that Lee Ann Womack belt out her top single as daughters danced with dads and sons danced with moms.  I remember this experience, because I got to dance with my dad.  This was something I don’t think I had ever done before, and it was a truly wonderful experience.  The lyrics and music blared in the background of that poor acoustic-deprived gym.  Balloons dotted the ceiling and a white handmade-bridge invited guests and their families into the gym over a makeshift stream.  Fans dabbled with twirling ribbons and those ribbons danced as long as the families did that night.  I don’t remember seeing anyone around my dad and I as we danced, but I remember crying like a baby because the lyrics to a song touched my heart. 

In the future, once Cruz and I finally set a date for our wedding, there will be more music to think about.  I know I’ll be choosing some awesome Pop2k hits from my “prime” as well as some good ol’ country that gets the boots a-stompin’.  There will be some oldies, but goodies, and of course the “Cuban” (Cupid) Shuffle will be thrown in there too.  But there’s one song that I am pretty sure of that my dad and I will dance to, and that’s Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance”

I’ll leave you with the lyrics to this special song.  I love you dad!

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'
Don't let some Hellbent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
(Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder, where those years have gone?)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

Dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
(Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder, where those years have gone?)