Nature Deficit Disorder…

This is a quote by Aileen Murphy-Swift, a director at Operation Breakthrough. She is using Richard Louv's book:

Last Child in the Woods

"Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder"

People need nature - really need nature, not merely enjoy nature or benefit from nature. Children need experiences with nature just as they need sleep or healthy food. Why? Richard Louv spends much of his book Last Child in the Woods explaining exactly what nature offers children:

• Emotional well being
• Spiritual sense of perspective
• Observation skills
• Cognitive abilities
• Creativity
• Healthy risk taking
• Observation skills
• Balanced sense of humility
• Stress management
• Increased attention
• Lowered depression

How can nature offer all of these advantages? Primarily because it involves all of the senses. He contrasts it with television and computers which are mainly dual-sensory, appealing only to the eyes and ears. And what if we lack this time with nature? Louv calls the result nature deficit disorder. Unfortunately, our culture has created this disorder with a criminalization of natural play. An irrational fear of the woods and the things that go on there, a general mistrust of strangers, a sense of panic over crime, and a fear of litigation all work against children's delight in the outdoors. Parents simply are afraid to let their children play, unfettered in nature which is exactly what Louv says they need. Free, unstructured time to explore, pretend, and create outdoors is the antidote to nature deficit disorder. And today's families are far too fearful, too busy or are lacking access to spaces in which to provide this freedom.

The remedy? Read Louv's book, and you will realize that we truly need nature as we need water and shelter. When it is no longer a leisure pastime but a life's necessity, most parents will make time to enjoy nature alongside their children. There is no substitute for direct experiences in nature. No books, online course, website, or lecture can take the place of touching, seeing, smelling for yourself. Those indirect methods of learning about nature, versus experiencing nature, lead to a "know it all" state of mind. But time spent entranced by nature's spell generates a sense of wonder, awe, and humble perspective.

Call for Volunteers!

The Warming the Homeless team has two SEWING EVENTS coming up! Two Olathe middle schools have opened their sewing rooms to us, and volunteered the help of their Family & Consumer Sciences (FACS) students. We can use your help, even if you can't sew! There will be cutting, pinning, ironing and other general tasks to perform. Please email me at jjecker@burnsmcd.com for the Outlook invite with more details.

Saturday, January 31st at Prairie Trails

Saturday, February 7th at Frontier Trail

When are the next round of meetings?

Warm the Homeless: Monday, January 26th: 11:45am - 12:45pm, location: TBA
Feed the Hungry: Wednesday, January 28th: 12:00 - 1:00pm, lcoation: SCR 2528
Save the Planet: Wedneday, February 4th: 12:00 - 1:00pm, SR 3525
Nurture the Children: TBA

Feed the Hungry Update

At the meeting on January 14th we got many things accomplished. We were able to finalize the menu, make a list of everything we needed and came up with names of companies we thought might be willing to donate them.

The Event

The tentative dates we have are March 4th or 11th, 2009. That day we will be getting together at around 3am to cook the meal. Once it's all done, packed and ready to go we will divide into two or three groups and go to various locations to hand everything out. I created a map with the locations that we are looking at for now visit this link to view the map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112052920669081083431.000460eb2d292f16df67b&ll=39.104755,-94.575119&spn=0.199545,0.307617&z=12&iwloc=000460ebff0656a5202e8.

The Menu

1. Breakfast burritos
2. Bread
3. Donuts
4. Coffee
5. Orange juice

Donations

1. Tortillas and Salsa by Lil' Guys.
2. Sausage, eggs, potatoes and cheese, orange juice, aluminum foil - will be asking Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Costco.
3. Bread by Panera/Einstein Bros.
4. Donuts - will be asking Krispy Kream.
5. Coffee
6. Coolers - will borrow from our members!
7. Thermos and plastic cups - will be asking B&M.
8. Business cards by Spaces Inc.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday January 28th, noon - 1pm. Location TBA.

That's all for now, if anybody has any ideas of places to check out to hand out the food or stores who might be able to help us with donations please make a comment on this post!

Save the World - Pictures of the Site

The following pictures are from the site where we will be making the green classroom for Operation Breakthrough.

The 2009 Burns & McDonnell/Spaces Project Change Team...well, some of them anyway.

April - Save the World Subcommittee

Please come join the April subcommittee working on the “Save the Planet” project! The project involves, making additions to an existing an urban nature park for the children of Operation Breakthrough. We will be meeting in Conference Room SR 3525 (Raptor) on the 3rd floor of the Burns & McDonnell State Line Building Wednesday January 21st from 12:00 – 1:00 PM. Bring your lunch, ideas, and excitement for this great project with Operation Breakthrough! Please email snorton@burnsmcd.com if you plan on attending.

We will begin with a thorough background of the project and site which will lead us into a discussion of the vision that Operation Breakthrough has given us on the project. We will describe the various components of the project that we will be focusing on and initial plans for those areas.

The second half of the meeting, we will be discussing various ways to obtain donations for the main components of the project:

· Securing the site (fencing)
· Beautifying the site (plants)
· Controlling Storm Water on the Site (rain garden)
· Using Recycled Materials on the Site (tire planters, seating, etc.)

This meeting will really focus on using our contacts and resources to find donated and recycled materials. Please come with a list of contacts, resources, and ideas of getting materials donated for the main components mentioned above.

This project has the opportunity to be very creative and touch the lives of tens to hundreds of children who participate with Operation Breakthrough. This project will to be very exciting, challenging, and fun so we hope to see many of you on the 21st!!!

- Stephen Norton and Greg Stark

Feeding the Hungry Subcommittee Meeting

If you would like to help with the March event of "Feeding the Hungry" please join us! We will be meeting in conference room SCR1548 on the first floor of the Burns & Mac State Line building Wednesday January 14th 12:00 - 1:00. Feel free to bring your lunch.

At this meeting we hope to get some details figured out, such as:

• What food do we want to give
• Where can we get donations
• Where can we cook
• How to keep the food warm through the morning
• and more..

I have come up with a temporary menu which includes:

• Cinnamon Rolls
• Hard boiled eggs
• Coffee/Orange juice/hot cocoa
• Breakfast Burritos : Eggs, Sausage, Salsa, Cheese, Potatoes, Tortillas, Muffins, Bread
• Non-food needs: Aluminum Foil, Cups

We will be taking a break during the meeting to join the rest of the group and taking the group picture for the Project Change website.

Come join us with some ideas and hopefully we will have things narrowed down more by the end of the meeting. Hope to see you there!

Logistics...

Thanks to all who attended a very productive and enthusiastic Team Meeting #5 yesterday. Great to have each of you onboard for this exciting 4 month experience. In the short-term, I want to let everybody know some things we need to take care of.

At next week's Warm the Homeless meeting (Wednesday 1/14), we will be taking a team photo, posed with the patchwork blankets. This photo will be posted on the Project Change website!

We also need to come up with a team name, so please offer any suggestions...

Here are our 4 monthly project ideas:
February = patchwork blankets for the homeless
March = on-site hot breakfast for the hungry
April = sustainable rain garden for the planet
May = outdoor adventure classroom for the children

For each project, we are asked to submit 10 pictures and a project narrative to be publicized and judged by Project Change.

Here are the contest categories on which we'll be judged:
-Largest number of participants at service events
-Best challenge submission
-Most innovative project
-Greatest opportunity for sustainability (continuing work)
-Greatest impact
-People's choice award

This is the first and last time that I will mention these judging categories. Our projects will be organized and executed with only the following criterion: to focus and amplify the efforts of our peers and coworkers on behalf of the people that we aspire to serve.

Thanks everyone, let's get busy!

Warming the Homeless Subcommittee Meeting

Anyone interested in serving on the subcommittee for February's Project Change activity, "Warming the Homeless", is invited to attend.

Truman conference room (SCR1562), first floor of State Line office
Wednesday, January 14th
11:45 - 12:45.

Feel free to bring your lunch, along with the following:

-patterns or examples of dual-purpose blankets (keeping in mind they must be easy to assemble, durable and portable)
-your agenda/planner so we can nail down some sewing dates
-any additional sources for batting/thread/material donation

A few people mentioned they had contacts in area schools. Please call the teachers that may be interested before our meeting. Be ready to give us a report on how many blankets they estimate they could contribute, whether we would need to supervise an activity outside of classtime, and what documentation we need to provide for tracking student volunteer hours.

See you there!