Sam and David Blog from May 22-25

So it turns out we missed quite a few blog posts, so here is one extra long one for the past week:

On the night of last Sunday, we pulled into Sara's grandmother's home in Charleston, SC. During our planning stage, our agenda in Charleston was more organized and planned than any other city on our trip, so we were able to get to work early in the morning. David and I set out from Mrs. Huser's house at about 8 or 8:30 in the morning to head to the Sea Island Habitat for Humanity ReStore (Sea Island Habitat is the branch of Habitat for Humanity on John's Island, slightly south of Charleston. Charleston has its own branch but they weren't very cooperative). The ReStore in Charleston was much more impressive than Savannah's ReStore - it had a lot of different rooms with different genres of items, a large warehouse of larger things, and then a whole outdoor section full of delightful treasures that would make wonderful additions/replacements in homes. It was boiling hot on this day, but we still managed to get more than our share of excellent footage.
The following day, David and I got up really early in order to get to Sea Island Habitat's build site in some tiny development. We were the first volunteers there, so we walked down the street to look at the houses. It turns out that of the 12 or so houses that were on the street, 3-4 were finished and inhabited, the rest of which were being built by our favorite organization. After introducing ourselves to the people in charge (we learned that two of them were from Ohio, and one went to school at Kenston), two white vans full of volunteers from a local church organization arrived and everyone piled out. We got into a little circle/crowd and the man in charge started to talk to us about what we were going to do, what we should be aware of, safety, etc. Everybody then prayed because Sea Island Habitat is apparently a Christian organization. David is devoutly Buddhist so he didn't pray. After that, people got assigned to tasks. David and I volunteered to go with the guy from Kenston. The three of us mixed cement in a giant rusty, clanky machine using shovels and brute strength. We then spent hours tediously putting down part of the cement and cinder block foundation for the house. It was incredibly hot and humid and the sun was directly overhead, but we managed. It was interesting to see how the foundation of houses were actually made, but it was a pain to line everything up using levels and tape measures, then make markings, move everything, lay down cement, put everything back, try to line it up with the markings then use levels and tape measures to make everything straight and even, and then repeating the process for the next cinder block. It was hot.
After that, we went home and took showers to get all of the dirt off of us, and then we relaxed for the rest of the night. The next day we left from Charleston and got home by nightfall. Since then we have been working on our presentation/documentary.

The end.

Taylor - Blog #12

The rest of this week was pretty busy because of some upcoming events. Part of the time, I worked on compiling the information about approved photographers (Natalie, the Manager of Images and Photographer Relations, has to approve a photographer who would like to volunteer at a shoot by browsing through the photographers personal website and portfolio) for every chapter. By creating a Word document of approved photographers for every chapter, the chapter directors can easily keep track of available photographers for upcoming photo shoots, and can have photographers’ information readily available in case of a late cancellation. It was interesting to browse the approved photographers’ websites to find information because I got to see and learn what qualifies a photographer as approved or capable of photographing at a Flashes of Hope photo shoot.

I also worked a little bit with Kick-It to help organize the upcoming Chagrin Kick-It event on June 10. The Chagrin Kick-It events are typically the biggest out of all the events, so it requires a lot of preparation. So, I was in charge of organizing and compiling all of the supplies needed for the events, such as t-shirts, signs, raffle tickets, kickballs, donation boxes, bases, wristbands, buttons, etc. This took awhile considering the quantities of all the supplies needed were huge and the t-shirt folding was painfully time-consuming.

On Thursday, when Ms. Gray came to visit, I learned from Allison that they would like me to work as a paid intern with Flashes and Kick-It during the summer, which was pretty exciting news. That afternoon, Natalie, Hannah, Jessica and I went to Yogurt Vi since it was Jessica’s last day working with Flashes of Hope/Kick-It for her senior project.

Taylor - Blog #11

Tuesday was actually a pretty exciting day because of some surprising news that Flashes of Hope received. In the middle of the day, Allison got a call from an ABC representative who explained an upcoming ABC reality television show called “Everyday Health Heroes.” Started by the producers of “The Biggest Loser,” Everyday Health Heroes is a show around people “who are making a difference in the world of health throughout their community.” After hearing about Flashes’s work, ABC called Allison to discuss the possibility of focusing the new show around Flashes of Hope. Obviously, this would be a huge breakthrough for Flashes. In 2007, People Magazine did a long article on Flashes of Hope, which led to the donation of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the organization from people who read about the organization in People, and were touched by its work. However, since then, Flashes has not been hugely publicized, which means less and less donations have been made in the past years. So, if ABC were to choose Flashes for their show, more and more people would be educated about Flashes and its work in the health community, which would consequently bring in more donations once again.

Hypothetically, ABC would attend and magnify a number of Flashes of Hope photo shoots around the country. For example, if a patient being photographed dreamed of being a Nascar driver, Jeff Gordon would suddenly appear at the photo shoot to surprise the patient. Also, many of the girl patients talk about how they learned how to pose for the camera from Tyra Banks and her show, America’s Next Top Model. So, hopefully, because of her relationship with ABC, Tyra would also appear at some photo shoots to instruct and pose with the patients who are being photographed.

So, on Tuesday, we basically brainstormed these preliminary ideas for the show for Allison to share with the producers during her Skype conference with them on Monday. Hopefully ABC will decide to focus their new reality show on Flashes and share the incredible impact that this organization has on the lives of these pediatric cancer patients.

Kyle- Week 4

The last few days have been a little slow, but enjoyable, nonetheless. I have been working on sending out more emails to the Class of 2012 outside of the state of Ohio. I am essentially seeing kids that are qualified to play football for case and sending them out introductory letters on what to do from here. Essentially, they must then send in highlight videos of themselves which me and the other coaches have been watching and, also, fill out a questionaire. I have also been helping prepare for the recruiting camp tomorrow. We have started setting up but I will be at Case at 8 o clock tomorrow to continue. Tomorrow should be the most interesting day of my project, thus far. I get to see the recruits in action and maybe even play a little myself.

Taylor - Blog #10

On Monday, Jessica and I finished the video about Quinn that we are submitting in the Invacare Real Life video contest. We uploaded the video to YouTube, submitted it to the Invacare Real Life YouTube channel, and then began to work on spreading the news about our video. In order to advance to the second stage of the competition, our video must be one of the top 15 videos with the most YouTube views. The 15 with the most views are then watched, analyzed, and judged by a panel of judges, who then decide which three videos will receive the grand prize. We sent emails to a ton of people, sent the link to all of the Chapter Directors, and did everything possible to get people to watch our video. By the end of the day on Monday, we were close to 200 or 300 views, which was awesome. Now, we are close to 1,500. So, it would be great if you guys (whomever actually reads the blogs) would watch the video. In order for your view to count, you have to watch the entire video, start to finish. It’s only 5 minutes though, so it’s not too long. Here is the link:

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

Thank you!

Week Three of My Project (Xiaoran)

Week three is an important period of time of my project because I have to decide what kind of computer I want and choose the proper components on the market after comparing the prices. Originally, I thought it would be an easy week. However, it turned to be the hardest one. One thing that really struck me was that the compatibility of different components. As a matter of fact, everything I chose has to be compatible with other things. I didn't pay lots of attention to the compatibility in the beginning, so I have to give up many parts I found because they are not going to function together. Since there were only two weeks left, I can't wait for the shipping from online store so I looked up the components I want on internet and bought them at the local store. I have no previous experience about making a computer, therefore, read some online articles and watches couples video that are related to the process of making a computer. In order to make a computer, the first thing is to choose the three most important parts in a computer which are CPU, motherboard, and graphic card. Expecially the motherboard, which combines every other parts together, has to have a great compatibility in term of its advanced Expansion Slots, memory type support, and Panel Ports. As soon as I decided what motherboard, CPU and graphic card, the rest of the components came to me much easier. Nevertheless, I still need to compare the price and find and best deal that is available on the market. On weekend, I went to the MicroCenter and spend $700+ purchasing everything I need. I am ready to start the work of making a desktop and that is what I will do in week four.

Kyle- Project Start of Week Four

To be honest, I've been doing a lot of the same stuff this past week. I have changed the whole ranking system because, before, it was too broad. I have now added 5 levels to each player's ranking. After they are ranked based on their skill level, they must then be ranked on test scores and GPA. I then went back in the computer and changed all those rankings. I have also been doing some more mailings. I have also continued to do film work, organizing plays by the defense it's being run against. Finally, I have helped them prepare and plan the recruiting camp coming up this Friday. I will be there all morning on friday helping out with registration and other things of that sort. I am really excited to get a chance to see recruiting live and in action.