Global Flip Side

In recent years, mainstream companies and large businesses have been collaborating in order to help reduce the ever rising level of greenhouse gas emissions.

In order to provide incentive for their work in preserving the environment, mainstream investors and insurers are rewarding companies with improved risk management. Risk management, a required policy among most companies, is intended for reducing vulnerability by applying cost effective controls and selecting alternative responses to risk.

A company very familiar within my family, Shaklee, is one of the top leaders in environmental safety. The company has created  environmental initiatives  to address greenhouse gas emissions, global reforestation, and education about the environment. Some of their projects include:

• -Construction of The Rosebud Sioux Tribe Wind Turbine, the first large-scale Native American owned and operated wind turbine.
• -Transferring buses from diesel to bodies fuel in California and pushing for progress in other states.
• -Launching “A Million Trees. A Million Dreams.™” tree planting campaign, with the goal of planting a million trees in North America and Kenya. (Still in progress)

The Climate Leaders program is an industry-government partnership that works with a variety of companies, developing long term green house gas reduction strategies. The program involves taking inventory of the sources of greenhouse gas and within their own company,  taking steps to reduce and most importantly, elating them.

Climate Leaders Partners represent a variety of areas, from heavy manufacturing to banking and retail. These companies all strive to set the standard for greenhouse gas management in their area and more broadly in the U.S. economy.

You can learn more about these programs by visiting www.shaklee.net/liberty.

Sources for article:Google Image Search,  Lynn Morrisey-Forbes Magazine, Shaklee Corporation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

A Marathon Great

Sorry this has taken so long to get out, I’ve been quite sick with some kind of flu bug. Thanks to technical difficulties, I was also unable to insert the pictures, so here is a link to my album.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/556961287PduSLJ

This past Sunday, January 7th, I had the honor to be on 55KRC radio, beign interview by Olympic runner Julie Isphording.

As it seems to go, it was a rainy day here in Cincinnati. Dad drove me (yes, working on getting the license, I swear!) to the Clear Channel studio, located near the downtown area.

As you can kind of see, it’s quite a building.  Absolutely gorgeous inside, with a nice fountain and front desk. Just as I arrived, Julie walked in behind us. I can’t say enough how much of a sweet woman she is, absolutely amazing! Any nerves I had before were gone as soon as we started talking. We went up to the hall where the recording studios were, and they lined the entire hallway. We met with her producer, whose name escapes me but he was a very nice fellow. Then she took me into the green room (yes, it was actually green) and basically ran through the outline of the interview. I was also fortunate enough to get marathon advice from her and probably the best advice I’ll ever get- don’t make the marathon serious, have fun. Run for mileage, not speed. Since formulating proper sentences failed me, I didn’t squeak out more than a “thank you”. Here I was, in a green room, with an Olympic runner. Just chatting. Who’d of thought it?

We then headed into the recording studio, which as you will see in the picture below, is a decent size.  Julie sat in front of Rick and I and immeditely let us both know that we needed to talk to the mic, not to her. From there, the interview went as you can/have heard. I didn’t entirely know what Julie was going to ask me, but it wasn’t anything that threw me off guard, obviously.

The power did go out during the interview, which had all of us looking at eachother like, “OH CRAP.” I was figuring we were on dead air, but Rick kept the interview going just in case. As it turns out, the backup generators kept us on air. Whew. Once the interview was over, I hugged Julie, thanked her again, and was on my way home-after making a detour at The Pancake House, of course.

Insulting Twist

Oprah Winfrey is infamous for her generous donations to charities and work in the local community, but now, she’s pushed a little further and landed in Henly-On-Klip, Africa.

Africa in itself has been bombarded with red carpet personalities in the last few months-Bono, Madonna, and Bradgelina. But while they adopted and talked, Oprah helped create The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls.

The academy furnished with luxurious fireplaces and large closets, gives admittance to 12-13 year old girls, for free. 3,500 young African girls applied for 152 spots, the 500 finalists interview by Ms. Winfrey herself.

But controversey surfaced from a statement made by Oprah during her trip.

“Say what you will about the American educational system-it does work. If you are a child in the United States, you can get an education.” Winfrey goes on to insist that American children simply can’t appreciate what they have. “I became so frustrated with visiting inner city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.”

Hello Oprah! Did you ever consider that perhaps the inner city school kids in America need to be taught the difference between what they do and don’t need? Oh, no? Figured as much. Have you visited every single inner city school in the United States, talked to every student? Did they ALL really say the same thing? Is that a no? I thought so.

I realize the good Oprah has done for these 152 girls. I really do. It’s a fantastic thing that I’m sure will bring great benefits to the country in the long run, hopefully. But Oprah’s narrow minded comments about the American education supremely upset me. Her comments are general and completely off base.

Perhaps it is because I have pledged to help inner city schools that I find her comments so bothersome. Or because she scorns her own country when it isn’t needed at all. One can do good without having to bring another down.

But I guess she’s assuming that those she offended won’t even understand what she said.

It’s official-this kid is going to college.

Since early November, I have been silently agonizing over when my college acceptance letters would arrive. I electronically sent them out and it really became a hurry up and wait kind of situation.

 Even as I sent out the applications, I found myself nervous-ing over where I’d end up. Would it be well credited Ball State in Indiana? Or chic and modern Northern Kentucky? Or would I stick with my roots, my hometown, and go to the University of Cincinnati? That became my own personal $64,000 question.

It seemed as I become more insecure about my choice, the more people felt the need to ask me. When time allowed I was on each individual schools site, browsing the latest, hoping that I’d find that spark of hope, perhaps even an answer. Part of me even felt that as long as I got accepted, where I went meant only a bit.

Somewhere in late November, before Thanksgiving, my first letter arrived-it was from Northern Kentucky. I was in Florida at the time of its arrival and wasn’t all that excited when told it had arrived. But I’d been accepted on conditions, which basically means that I had to attend a transition course. It was then that NKU was no longer an option. I wasn’t excited about going there, it wasn’t my glass slipper to wear.

More time crawled by, but then,Ball State sent an envelope. Part of me hoped it’d be a rejection letter, so that my choice was no longer a source of inner turmoil. But that turned out to be false-I had been granted full acceptance to Ball State University. BSU and UC where my two main schools from the start and as luck would have it, they still remained as such. My decision was at a complete standstill.

Weeks and weeks went by, yet no word from UC. Every day, without fail, I checked the mail, hoping for a letter. As each day passed, I became more impatient, more on edge, and dangerously close to going completely bonkers. As people around me got accepted, I could only wonder why my letter hadn’t arrived. And then, as if a gift, I received my letter the day before Christmas Eve. At last!

It didn’t take me but seconds time to decide where I was going to school. My top choice all along. The most obvious of answers.

I will be a freshman at the University of Cincinnati this Autumn as a Journalism major. Now, due to my math disability and not so hot SAT scores, I will have to go through a transition program, but that’s no sweat.

Mainly out of loyalty and appreciation of the new and improved campus, UC was really always my choice. BSU was more of a fall back, in case I didn’t get accepted at all. Now that my decision is made, I get to worry about financial aid..and where to shop to decorate my dorm room.

A good outcome.

 As many of you  may or may not know,  I have decided to run the Flying Pig Marathon this Spring in honor of my Mom and other cancer patients/caregivers. I also decided that I will/am trying to raise a minimum of $5,000 dollars for the Wellness Community here in Cincinnati, a local cancer care center.

 I spoke at the Wellness Community’s board meeting this past Wednesday and it’s produced amazing results. Julie Isphording, an Olympic marathon great, has offered an amazing invitation for me to speak on her show here on 91.7, on January 7th. Words cannot express what an absolutely amazing experience this is going to be and what an impact it’s going to have overall.  Julie is also the powerhouse behind the Thanksgiving 10k Marathon I ran in November.

If you’d like to find out more information about Julie, you can read a very good interview here:

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/11/18/loc_loc1boly.html

  Also, I would like to extend the opportunity to anyone who stumbles upon this, friend or family, or generous stranger, to give a donation or help out this Spring, if you’d like. Simply shoot an email or comment my way, and I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I can.

Email: Stephiie@gmail.com