Animal Shelter Donations

There are many animal shelters that need as much help as they can get due to the high amount of animals being housed there. Due to the fact that there are countless homeless dogs, the largest and most important demand for these shelters are food to provide for the animals. They often have food drives for the pets but not many people know about them. It’s always a huge help and much appreciated if people donate any amount of food whether it be a tiny can or a huge bag, any amount helps out a lot. You can also help out by donating other items such as treats, blankets, beds, towels, toys, anything a dog can use. It’s very easy to set up supply or food drives in your community as well. Once you gather all the supplies, a driver will come pick up the goods from you. There are many different ways you can help out your local animal shelter.

Saving a Dog's Life is Literally a Walk in the Park.

Every year, thousands of dogs and other domestic animals are treated very poorly and can often result in death. Some animals are trained to fight to the death, some are beaten, some are never fed, and some are just simply abandoned on the side of the road. It’s the animal shelter’s job to find and rescue these poor animals but what happens once these dogs and animals are rescued? They’re kept in a shelter kept inside small cages, crammed up which can cause health issues or behavior problems which can affect the chance of life or adoption. In order to prevent this, the shelter needs volunteers to walk a few of their dogs for them. Due to the over crowded shelter, there are just simply too many dogs and too little workers to get the whole job done. You can volunteer at your local animal shelter and help provide daily exercise, affection, and socialization for a homeless puppy who desperately needs help in order to survive. It’s amazing how saving a dog’s life can be so simple and effortless.

Lindsay Wildlife Museum Volunteer Service

The Lindasy Wildlife Museum has tons of different species that live inside the exhibit and sometimes it's too much work for all the employees. This forces them to rely on the 500+ volunteers that volunteer each year, For my senior community service project, I decided I wanted to volunteer somewhere I actually took passion in and would enjoy doing. At first, it was hard to think of a place but then my friend told me about the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. As soon as I heard about this, I instantly knew that’s what I want to do. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved animals but could never own any because my mother is allergic to almost any animal you can think of besides fish. I figured, while I was helping out with the animals I would also be helping teach families and children about the animals and helping promote the beauty of wild life and all the different species that may live there. I hope I get to work with some of the animals but if not, I’ll still feel accomplished to know that I helped the Wildlife Museum as a whole.

Mental Health Break: Lucky Escape

Rebuilding Relations with Japan

            As we all know, about a week ago Japan was hit with an enormous earthquake followed by a 30 foot tsunami. Ever since Japan has been struggling from this unfortunate natural disaster, the United States has begun what it calls Operation Tomodachi (Friend in Japanese), one of its largest relief effort in years. This operation consists of the U.S. Military and Navy constantly dropping off supplies such as food, water, and clothes to survivors on a school in a ruined Japanese village. At first, the survivors “looked hesitantly from the windows” but soon realized what was going on and rushed out to help unload all the supplies. All the survivors were very grateful and some embraced the Americans. One 37-year old secretary named Junko Fujiwara said, “They are like gods descending from the sky.” At this point in time, approximately 20 American ships have been sent off as well as the Ronald Reagan(“a nuclear-powered carrier whose helicopters are busily ferrying supplies to survivors”)to Japan’s northeastern coast and will continue to help Japan during its struggle until the country can get back on its feet.

Space Shuttle Discovery Completes Its Final Flight.

Today, at 11:57 A.M. eastern time, the shuttle Discovery had a "picture perfect landing" at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This landing symbolized the end for America's shuttle program after completing its 39th flight. The shuttle was commanded and guided by Steven W. Lindsey and Colonel Eric A. Boe through a partly cloudy sky. The landed on Runway 15 and "floated" down to the ground to complete an extended 13-day space station assembly mission. Once the shuttle came to a complete stop, Discovery's odometer read at about 5,750 orbits around the earth which equals out to nearly 150 million miles during its entire career. These statistics turn out to be a total of a full year in space, which is a record "unrivaled in the history of manned rockets." Once someone buys this peice of history, the destination will be announced by NASA and the Discovery will be sent on its last piggy-back flight on a 747 airplane.

Chris Brown Serves 1,400 Hours of Community Service

Due to the horrible assault of Chris Brown on Rihanna, Chris is forced to do community service in the state of Virginia. On Wednesday, September 19th, 2009, Brown was spotted cleaning the grounds of a Virginia police horse stable after tweeting "On my way to community service." in the morning before he left. While he was working, he was seen wearing a neon orange reflective vest as well as a red baseball cap. This is a small part of his six-month community labor sentence along with graffiti removal, washing cars, and cleaning/maintaining other grounds. His entire six-month community labor sentence will amount to over 1,400 hours total of community service. On top of his community labor sentence, he will serve a five-year probation sentence, attend domestic classes for a year, pay fines, and is forbidden from contacting Rihanna for the next five years. If he fails to do so, it will result in his arrest and possible downfall of his entire carreer.

Mental Health Break: Charlie Sheen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aSa4tmVNM

(Wouldn't let me embed)

Food Banks

There are thousands of food banks all over the world on six continents that are distributing literal tons of food to thousands of non-profit community or government agencies such as food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, orphanages, schools, etc. Food banks are typically located in cities “which run a centralized warehouse.” How do these food banks donate all this food free of charge? People from all over the place donate food they don’t need, canned goods, vegetables, anything you can imagine. They even get a lot of donations from growers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. Each food bank has multiple donation places set up and then they go around and collect the donations. After this, they sort all the donated food and distribute the food to the needy. Almost all the workers at the food banks are volunteers as well so the entire operation is non-profit; they do all this hard work for free in order to help feed the hungry. You too can help feed the needy by volunteering at your local food bank. You’d be surprised how easy and rewarding the work is; even an hour or two helps out a lot.

Space Shuttles Retire

NASA has officially announced that their space shuttle Discovery, as well as it’s brother and sister the Endeavour and the Atlantis, are retiring. What will NASA do with these old giant space shuttles? They could sell them but who would want a 27 years old, dinged up space shuttle with 150 million miles under its belt? Museums. There is a burning desire for museums all over the country. It would cost approximately $28.8 million just for “dealer preparation and destination charges” yet many museums can’t wait to get their hands on these three shuttles. The Discovery is expected to return from orbit on Wednesday, March 8^th completing its 39^th flight in its career with one last scheduled flight to it’s final destination making it its 40^th flight. It is unknown where these space shuttles will end up but NASA will announce these locations on April 12^th, the 30^th anniversary of the first space shuttle launching.