They make up 70% of the world’s poor. They are the majority of the hundreds of millions living on less than a dollar a day. They are often the last to eat, yet the first to face the brunt of the consequences of their poverty. In many countries their rights are virtually non-existent, and yet […]
...continue readingArchive for April, 2009
Mexico Hero Holiday - April ‘09 - Havin’ a Time!
Published by April 13th, 2009 in Student Zone. ClosedOh my goodness. What an amazing 3 days we’ve just had. After traveling for what seems like forever, we finally arrived to Mexico and I’m so glad we did.
This is our third working day and it was the best so far. All four walls, a roof and the windows are in! We even had time […]
...continue readingThis morning we were all so anxious to begin work we were up and ready long before we had to be. We quickly boarded the bus and set off to pick up Rita and her five children for what turned out to be our very own version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition! The white school […]
...continue readingYouth Making a Difference Fund Raiser JUNE 4, 2009
Published by April 9th, 2009 in Mainpage and Featured. Closed
Last summer, my brother Sean and I visited the Dominican Republic with Hero Holiday. It was an amazing, life changing experience!
Using only pickaxes and shovels, Sean and I, along with another 120 teenagers and adults, worked on building a school and the foundation of a new house. On other days we worked alongside refugees at a dump collecting garbage. We wore long pants, ankle-high boots, and thick work gloves while the majority of the locals rummaged through filth in sandals and without gloves. We were able to double some of the workers wages for the day and their gratitude was more than evident on their smiling faces.
The day we visited the orphanage for the physically and mentally handicapped was the hardest emotionally. With one caretaker for every five children, there is barely enough time to provide even the basic needs for these children.
One little boy made a profound impact on me. I went to his crib and said “Hello”. When he did not respond I tried singing to him. I started quietly, with “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” He began to move his arms and legs slightly. Before long his arms were wrapped around me. He touched my face and encouraged me to keep singing. It’s true… “All you need is love”.
There’s no feeling quite like waking up every morning knowing you’re going to spend your day making a difference in people’s lives. After having experienced this feeling, there is no way I could NOT go on Hero Holiday again.
The “Youth Making A Difference” fundraiser will help make it possible for my brother, Sean, and I to relive this life-changing opportunity. A large portion of the proceeds will also go to the Absolute organization to assist them in continuing to take others like my brother and I on Hero Holidays, just one of the ways in which they are helping to make this world a better place.
We hope to see you there!
~Melissa
Our friends from the other side of the country have arrived yesterday in one piece. Tina Smith and her group of students from Newfoundland’s Booth Memorial Secondary School arrived safe and sound after 12 plus hours of traveling. One of their first requests was to put their feet in the Pacific Ocean. So, […]
...continue readingOur friends from All Left Out, who toured with us from Jan to November 2008, are looking for some votes to help them get into a rock festival called Cornerstone. These Kiwis (a.k.a. New Zealanders) helped a lot of youth as part of our Think Day presentations, so lets give back by supporting them with […]
...continue readingThe Curious Case of the Black Eyed Peas and the Easter Eggs
Published by April 5th, 2009 in Newsletter. ClosedFinally, they had arrived…all 107 of them. We had waited all day to get to this point, and in typical style, they were 2 hours later than we had agreed upon! But, we reasoned with ourselves, the point was that they were here now and all that hard work was definitely going to be worth […]
...continue readingThe idea is to try and get a slight glimpse of what living is like for most of the world. TJ, Nikki, Tara, Josh and Kristi have created a scenario that they are willingly putting themselves though in a desperate attempt for better understanding.
The shack is made of cardboard, plastic, and an old truck canopy and has a dirt floor. Their ’shower’ is an old torn blue tarp, a pail and a small cup.
Each student will stay in shack for four days. While there they will be:
- working hard labor jobs for nine hours a day
- making 100 pesos ($8) per day
- buying all their water and food
- cooking everything on an open fire with wood they find in the neighborhood
- paying rent and other misc bills like (repaying a loan shark and medical expenses)
They have no electricity, no entertainment items, some simple dishes and one luxury item… a small can of bug spray just in case the earwigs, spiders or snakes decide to move back into their shack with them. They will be ’showering’ at least twice in the four days as well as doing their laundry by hand on the final day.
This morning at 6am was Kristi and TJ’s departure to the shack. What you see in their hands was all they were allowed to take with them.
Here they are settling in to their new home! And look… a stray dog has all ready befriended them.
Their first job of the day was to clean up all the garbage around the property where they are staying.
Stay posted as we will update their progress a couple of times each day. I am looking forward to seeing what supplies they will buy tonight with thier first day’s wages. Stay tuned later today, we will check in with them around supper time again.
What’s Going on in Adam’s Head?
Published by April 2nd, 2009 in Team 1, Think Day and Featured. 3 Comments
Hope, value, dedication, purpose,and love.
To accomplish anything great in this life, all of those character traits are needed. The funny thing about those character traits is that you never really know you have them until challenges arrive!
Team One has had some challenges recently. As many of you are aware, we didn’t make it out west for our tour. On March 3rd, in Minnesota, our tour bus hit some black ice driving along the I-94. We flipped, rolled and destroyed our bus. Thankfully, none of us were seriously injured and we can go back to life as normal- if we want to.
This accident has thrown us some challenges- the band we were touring with, along with our sound guy decided to leave after the accident to spend time at home. The rest of us decided to keep going. For Team One, we believe nothing worth doing comes easy and we believe in the message we share with students all across Canada. We can’t stop now - there is too much to do!
So here we go… we have a new tour and a new team. The Ocean Buried is now touring with us. They have done a great job so far in the shows we have had here in Ontario! We are all super pumped to have them with us! With a band, we also need a sound man; so now we have Jesse. Jesse literally dropped everything he was doing to join our team! He is an amazing guy and has been a great help these past few weeks.
Hope, value, dedication, purpose, and love.
In Absolute, we share a message that we get to choose who we become. Every day, life gives us opportunities to become who we want to be. Those choices rarely come through easy events. Growth comes through the difficult times, and we all have them. How we respond shapes who we become.
And…that is why we are all excited to get back out on the road!
See ya on the road!
Adam Churchman, Road Team Manager, Team One
