Volunteers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas
12. Starting a Volunteer Program
Want to start a volunteer program? Check out
www.idealist.org/kt/youthorgs.html for some ideas.
Concerned about alcohol use in your school? Check out the “Every Fifteen Minutes” program and ways your school can take part. Visit
www.every15minutes.com.
13. Stamp Collecting
American Numismatic Association:
www.money.org.
14. Coin Collecting
Coin Collecting Made Easy: Basic Knowledge for the Coin Collector and Investor, edited by William T. Gibbs (Sidney, Ohio: Amos Press, 1981).
Fell’s Official Know It All Guide: Coins, by Roderick P. Hughes (Hollywood, Fla.: Frederick Fell Publishers, 2002).
Collecting Coins for Pleasure and Profit: A Comprehensive Guide and Handbook for Collectors and Investors, by Barry Krause (Whitehall, Va.: Betterway Publications, 1991).
How to Get Started in Coin Collecting, by Bob Lemke (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1983).
15. Mars Space Settlement Program
If you are interested in participating in the Mars Settlement Design Competition held at Johnson Space Center for high school students, check out these contacts:
If you live in: Iowa: JSC Design Competition,
www.marsbase.org/settlement.html.
Southeast Texas: JSC Design Competition,
http://marsbase.jsc.nasa.gov or
contact Norm Chaffee (281-483-3777,
Norman.H.Chaffee@jsc.nasa.gov).
New Mexico: The White Sands Settlement Design Competition,
www.wstf.nasa.gov/Associ/Mars/default.htm.
Nationally: The International High School Space Settlement Design Competition accepts teams from any school in the country with finals at Kennedy Space Center,
http://spaceset.org/.
Individuals anywhere can go to the competition at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
http://home.earthlink.net/~spaceset/.
Hosting: Want to have a design competition where you live? Anita Gale has put together a “Competition-in-a-Box” for those that want to host their own. Contact her at
anita.e.gale@boeing.com.
16. Making a Difference
Help stop smoking with Get R!EAL. For more information, log onto their Web site,
http://www.getrealcolorado.com/, or call 1-800-886-7689, ext. 2512.
Want to promote drug testing? To find out more about DrugTestYourTeen, see
www.drugtestyourteen.com or call 214-797-TEST.
To learn more about the Fatal Vision program, check out:
www.fatalvision.com.
17. Studying
Studying tips: Visit
www.gmu.edu/departments/csdc/study.htm. For more info, check out
www.primaryfocus.org.
Learn Your Netiquette:
www.albion.com/netiquette/ for some helpful tips.
Playing to Learn Health Connection offers The D. W. Eyes Game Kit (item codes 38040 and 38050) as well as the “Drunk and Dangerous” Glasses Package, which includes a remote control car (item codes 38030, 38020, and 42230.) The D. W. Eyes Game Kit can be viewed and/or ordered via the Web at
www.healthconnection.org. To place an order or request a free Health Connection catalog call 1-800-548-8700, ext. 3177.
18. Civil Air Patrol
Want to learn about the Civil Air Patrol? Check out these sources:
Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters
105 South Hansell Street
Building 714
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6332
Cadet Programs: 334-953-4238
Membership Services Division (toll-free, for membership applications): 1-877-227-9142
Joining CAP contact number: 1-800-FLY-2338
On the Internet: Civil Air Patrol (CAP) cadet program e-Services:
http://level2.cap.gov/index.cfm?nodeID=5177. This includes a CAP unit locator for all states and Puerto Rico.
19. Donating Your Hair
If interested in donating your hair to Locks of Love, first visit their Web site at
www.locksoflove.org.
20. Supporting the Military
Don’t have family in the military but still want to support the troops? Check out
http://anysoldier.com and send mail and/or goodies to soldiers who don’t get mail from home.
21. Blogging
Interested in blogging? The biggest host of Web logs, a company called Blogger (
www.blogger.com/start), lets you run a Web log at no charge. Since it is free, your site will be pretty plain, and sometimes you have to wait a long time before you can post something. But since it’s free, you can hardly complain. Bloggers who want to pay for a little faster performance can try Typepad (
www.typepad.com/).
22. Feeding the Hungry
Want to help feed hungry people? Check out Heifer International. Call 1-800-422-0474 or go to
www.heifer.org.
23. Starting Your Own TV Station
Ever thought of starting your own TV station? These kids did. For more information, log onto
www.sweptawaytv.com.
24. Doing Online Rehab
Want to go through rehab online? For more information or questions about teenGetgoing’s programs, call toll-free 1-866-435-7999. The next step is to find and call a local drug treatment center. The easiest way to find a good facility is to go to
http://dasis3.samhsa.gov/. This Web site helps you find all the treatment centers that are close to you. It also tells you what kind of treatment each facility provides and how to contact them.
25. Kicking Some ButtsFeel like kicking some butts? Try our Kick Butts Day activities (excerpted from “Kicking Butts From Coast to Coast,” by Elisabeth Deffner, Listen magazine, April 2006). Organize your own Kick Butts Day activity! Be sure to check out
www.kickbuttsday.org, where you’ll find lots of tips for planning fun activities that will help your community see the hazards of tobacco use. In the meantime, here are a few ideas to get you started:
*Ugly Face Contest: Tell the contestants about the hazards of smoking, then ask them to make a face in reaction to the ugly truth.
*Cigarette Butt Clean-Up: Get a group together and go to a park, playground, or other part of your hometown littered by butts—and get rid of them.
*Anti-Tobacco Track Meet: Include events like the “Smoker’s Jump,” in which participants jump up and down on one foot while breathing through a straw, so they can feel how difficult it is for smokers to breathe.
*Numbers Campaign: Go to
www.tobaccofreekids.org and find out how many people in your state die each year from using tobacco. Then ask your principal and teachers for permission to put that statistic on every classroom’s board. You may also want to create a T-shirt with that number on it to wear on Kick Butts Day, or hand out fliers explaining more about the dangers of tobacco.
*Logo Lampoon: Organize a contest where kids can make fun of actual tobacco industry advertisements.
26. Knitting
Only the truly cool knit. Here are some tips excerpted from “It Takes Wits to Knit,” by Sarah E. White (Listen magazine, October 2006). If you don’t have a friend or know an adult who knows how to knit, check out these resources:
*Learn to Knit:
www.learntoknit.com/home.html. The Web site of the Craft Yarn Council of America has a bunch of great resources for learning how to knit.
*Knitting Help:
www.knittinghelp.com/. If you learn better by watching than by looking at pictures, this site has free videos that outline the basic techniques.
*Teen Knitting Club, by Jennifer Wenger, Carol Abrams, and Maureen Lasher, tells you all you need to know about knitting. It includes tons of easy projects and information about how to start your own club.
Crafting for a Cause: Here are some sites where you can find out about donating knitted items:
*Project Linus accepts blankets for children in hospitals:
www.projectlinus.org/.
*Afghans for Afghans takes blankets and wool clothes, which are sent to Afghanistan:
www.afghansforafghans.org/.
*Caps for Kids provides hats and scarves to children with cancer:
www.capsforkids.com/.
*Charity Connection: Lion Brand Yarn offers a searchable database, so you can find a charity near you to help:
www.lionbrand.com/charityConnection.html.
*Global Health Ministries gives directions for making knitted or crocheted bandages for tropical ulcer patients:
www.ghm.org/resources/hands-on/knittedbandage.html.
