Holiday Spending to Help Others: A giving guide

Make a difference with the money you spend on gifts for others! Here is a list of websites through which you can buy gifts for others and give money to a good cause at the same time. Please feel free to contribute if you know any other good sites I may be leaving out!

This is a site I really love because there are many different causes to which you can send the proceeds of your purchase. If the person your giving your gift to feels passionate about reading or animals then the necklace you're buying for her can help buy books or animal food. The jewelry isn't that expensive and it really is good quality, I have a ring that I got from this site that I wear everyday!
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

If you know some one who is passionate about funding the fight against HIV/AIDS, this is a great site! There are a lot of really fun pieces of jewelry that look great on guys and girls. I especially like the jelly bracelets because they are affordable and very versatile!
http://www.until.org/

For animal lovers, this is a wonderful resource. If you're stumped on what to get them, sponsor a manatee! Who doesn't love manatees? There are also a lot of little gifts on this site that would be cute stocking stuffers for brothers or sisters.
http://www.savethemanatee.org/

This is a wonderful blanket that is a great holiday gift. Part of the proceeds from it benefit and organization called Project Linus, an organization that donates blankets to children who need them.
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&navAction=jump&id=12633103&search=true&color=45

Lastly, I recommend donating money in someones name to Heifer International. You could send chicks or a share of another animal to people who can really use them (don't worry they are not eaten).
http://www.heifer.org/

Happy shopping!!

Desperate Measure and Sigma'Capella Featured in 2nd and 3rd Hofstra/HUHC Feed the World Videos

As promised, here are the second and third in the series of videos highlighting the amazing performances at the recent Hofstra/HUHC Feed the World Benefit organized by HUHC students Annalise Ellis, Caroline Kirkwood, and Katy Hylton.

Sigma'Capella


Desperate Measure

These videos feature the a capella groups Sigma'Capella and Desperate Measure. After the Desperate Measure performance Katy fills us in on the amazing work done in the United States by Heifer International. Consider making a contribution by clicking here. You'll be taken to the Heifer International page for this project.

HUHC Students Organize Trip to MOMA

Editor's note: Last Wednesday Emily Meithner and Caryn Johansen asked if HUHC would sponsor a trip to MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum. We agreed to provide trainfare if the trip was advertised to all HUHC students. This post contains Emily's and Caryn's reflections on the trip. W.F.

Emily Meithner:
Since the HUHC trip to the city last Friday was last minute, it was a small
group of us, 7 in all. We only made it to MoMA, but it was fantastic. There
was a special exhibit on Seurat which was great. When I finally saw the
artist I was there to see, Kandinsky, I almost cried! I've been reading all
about him and his work since the beginning of the semester. Seeing his
paintings in books and on-line was nothing compared to seeing them in
person. I stood with my nose up to Panel #4 for about 15 minutes, writing
about it. I'm sure the people behind me hated me, but that's what I love
about MoMA, they won't yell at you for getting close! It was great that
Honors College helped us get into the city, and I hope we can take advantage
of their help again soon!

Caryn Johanson:
I want to start off a description of my trip to the Museum of Modern Art with one very basic idea that you should know: I am not a fan of modern art. In fact, there are times when I down right feel no emotion about it what’s so ever – I look at some lines and shapes and feel…nothing.
I say this is so you will hopefully find it odd when I say that the MOMA is a fantastic museum.
I went to MOMA, not against my will, but out of curiosity and an excuse to go into to city. Being from New Mexico, I will grab any chance I get to go into New York City, and make a few changes of my own (Thank you Dean Frisina!).

Back to the MOMA. As Matt and I wandered about, starting from the fourth floor and working our way down, I encountered the basic off-the-wall, sometimes literally, so-called art that one would expect to see in a modern art museum. However, I was also delighted by the odd appearance of a characteristically charming van Gogh portrait and a spectacular three-paneled Monet water-lily scene. And in a corner that I almost missed, I found Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World,” which haunted me when I first saw it in a book my sophomore year in high school.

There is nothing quite like a museum full of modern art for discussing the nagging and untiring question “What is art?” The question can never really be answered because it is so subjective. But as I sat and looked, indifferently, at the red canvas with orange lines called “Man, Heroic and Sublime,” the wall panel of red with lines, I realized that looking at something I cannot consider art only enhances my appreciation for what I do consider art.

All in all, go to the MOMA, even if you cannot find the meaning of life in rawhide on the wall. It’s is much easier to swallow than the Met, and there is something there for everyone.

Hofstra/HUHC Feed The World Benefit videos

When it comes right down to it, there's a connection between enviromental studies and ending world hunger. That connection was demonstrated on Monday 11/5 in the Cultural Center Theater at Hofstra, where two dance groups and two acapella singing goups came together to help three HUHC students complete their class project in Professor Margaret Hunter's HUHC seminar in environmental studies. Hunter challenged her students to form up in groups and commit to putting together one conrcete project that would have a postive impact on enviromental issues and require them to negotiate with stakeholders and manage the logistics. This was not supposed to be another paper. Students had to come up with the idea, plan for it and then pull it off.

Three HUHC students, Annalise Ellis, Caroline Kirkwood, and Katy Hylton, came up with the idea of holding a Hofstra Feed the World Benefit concert which would raise money for Heifer International, a relief agency founded on the notion that it's better to provide people in need with the means of production than simply handing out bundles of food. To that end, they work to provide livestock so hungry people can feed themselves and others in their villages and towns. Annalise, Caroline and Katy aimed high, they wanted to raise $500, the cost of providing one family with a cow. They asked for donations at the concert. They gave away little rubber toy cows to anyone who gave $5. They asked HUHC for help with refreshments publicity and other logistics. The participating groups included: Sigma Capella, Strictly Steppin, and Drastic Measures, and a dance troupe. All are Hofsta-based performance groups. This is the first in a series of posts that will give HUHCConversation viewers a chance to see what they missed. Each video contains a minute or two of the performance, and a bit of information about Heifer International. Our hope is that it might inspire some of you to go to the site and make an additional contribution. Having met the goal - we're now wondering how much further we can go. Consider making a contribution by clicking here. You'll be taken to the Heifer International page for this project.

HUHC Book Club

Hey everyone,
I'm starting a book club! The first meeting will be on Thursday, November 15th at 7:30 in the back of the Main Student Center Cafe (where the couches are). Please join me to talk about the best book you've ever read or if you have suggestions as to what books you would like to see a book club read.
Annalise

Sputnik Is Now Officially "Over The Hill"

It's amazing to think that exactly 50 years ago, humankind sent their first victory into space. Failure had struck so many times and finally (ah!) success. What an amazing day for every adventurer.

I can almost imagine what it must have been like: a piece of carefully prepared technology being launched into the unforgiving depths of space. How small it must have seemed against the massive landscape of space! That poor little Sputnik had to fight the forces of nature: those dueling pressures of the great masses that make their homes in the ocean of stars and vacuum. It's amazing that it survived. Space is so alive and turbulent. How could such a tiny piece of humanity's handiwork survive such a wilderness? It is a miracle. Every successful mission into space is a miracle. Perhaps miracles are not as rare as we think.

It must have been very much like the day Columbus finally saw the shores of the Americas (even though he was a bit confused at that time and didn't know it was the Americas). Space is this century's Atlantic; we have ventured, slowly but steadily, into it and gone a bit further each time. Sputnik was only the beginning. We have yet to write the end of the story. We've circled the Earth, landed on the moon, and sent probes into deep space. I guess our next stop is Mars. It's only a matter of time!

Today's the day to celebrate good old Sputnik. He's 50 this year and that's quite an accomplishment: half a century! What will we have done when he's 100 years old? Only time can tell us that.

Black Ball

A week ago today I was able to attend a celebrity benefit concert titled "The Black Ball" held in Hammerstein ballroom in the city. You would think the entertainment and the purpose of going would lie with the big names in attendance such as Jay-Z and Jessica Alba with performers including Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Bono, and Cheryl Crow. However, it was the precious little five year old singer with the other African kids that really stole the show. They truly brought the message home, the message that the foundation "Keep a Child Alive" sends to every one of its supporters.
Keep a Child Alive is a program that invests in the spreading of education on AIDS and the dispersing of AIDS medication to the poorest and most highly effected areas of India and Africa. These singers had family members and friends die from AIDS much sooner than they had to, and now they're living their life under the authority of older siblings or remaining parents. "KEEP A CHILD ALIVE is an urgent response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa. With more than 25 million already dead, the disease continues, wiping out whole societies, threatening economic infrastructure and creating tragic devastation in the family structure. Our work makes it possible for children and families to obtain life-saving AIDS drugs and support for survival, where without it, they would die. Keep a Child Alive gives 100%* of donations to our cause." Cited from the Keep A Child Alive website, keepachildalive.org. They also state on the website that a dollar a day is enough to buy the amount of drugs needed to save a life. http://keepachildalive.org/kcaAtWork/index.php?p=BlackBall2007 Click there to find a better description of the Black Ball.
How did I find myself at such a life changing event? Through our campus ONE chapter. I saw it advertised in the chronicle and signed up one the one.org/campus website. Hofstra happens to be first in the ranking of points. We won the 140 tickets to the Ball by being the college with the highest amount of registrations in a week. This was part of a weekly challenge, which, by the title, changes weekly. This past week it was who has the best ONE picture, which we won again with a picture of a dog in a ONE t-shirt. By winning these challenges we also win points. Currently, we are number ONE in the standings (no play on words intended), and we would like to keep it that way. Simply by writing this in a blog, I am winning Hofstra 75 points!
The best part about it all? No need to donate money. Simply by spreading awareness of their causes and the foundation, we get points and prizes like the tickets to the Black Ball, which you could take advantage of simply by registering! The point is to get the word out to people who do have the money, even if it's a relative or someone randomly on campus the day we're holding a ONE event.
I tried posting a couple videos helping explain the experience. One was of the African kids singing, and the other was of Alicia visiting a town in Africa. But the internet connection isn't fast enough, so that will have to wait and maybe I can find an easier way. However here are some to hold you over, http://keepachildalive.org/media/index.php?p=AKBAC, this one is of Alicia explaining her buiding of a clinic.
Needless to say, Alicia Keys and Bono are my new celebrity heros, not to mention they produce good music too. They really put the faith back in me that there are celebrities out there that spend money on more than just buying huge mansions and spending their time solely at parties. If I had one goal in life, it would be to become rich just so I could donate my money. Maybe a little paying off of school would be in order first, but if I coud build a clinic like she did, I would be in heaven. This event was very touching and I am truly glad I spent my night before two C&E midterms there, it was sincerely worth it. Please take a second just to look at what the foundations are doing for the world, and take two to sign up. If you see the ONE campaign anywhere, take a second look before simply walking by, and please contribute. Thanks! Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience, I didn't want to go into too much detail to bore you about the night, I am sure I've made you jealous enough, haha just kidding.