| Family Friendly Resource Guide
Local students learn of efforts to help Haiti
The 7th and 8th grade French language and culture cl ass at Crossroads Christian Academy welcomed Dr. Burt Purrington, retired anthropologist, who has made more than twenty-five trips to Haiti as part of a memorial to his late daughter, Laurie’s Fund for Haiti’s Children.
Dr. Purrington presented his work in Haiti, aspects of Haitian culture and similarities and differences between French and the Creole French spoken in Haiti.
Laurie’s Fund is about both relief and sustainable development. Relief efforts include mobile medical clinics, a children’s nutrition program, helping children come to the U.S. for surgery through Atlanta-based Childspring International, HIV/AIDS education for youth, supporting a small clinic run by a local nurse in an impoverished mountain community and emergency food and rebuilding after the 2008 hurricanes and the 2010 earthquake.
Sustainable development includes scholarships for children from poor families, support for a women’s sewing co-op and a chicken and garden project. For details or to contribute to Laurie’s Fund, contact Purrington at blp331f@charter.net or 225-5453.
Flexibility and strength important to bounce back
This is the final article in a series on protective factors that strengthen families; the fifth factor is resilience. No one can eliminate stress from life, but a person’s resilience can affect how he or she deals with it. Resilience is the ability to manage and bounce back from all types of challenges. Recognizing the signs of stress and knowing what to do about it can help parents and children build their capacity to cope with day-to-day challenges.
Multiple life stressors, like a family history of abuse or neglect, health problems, marital conflict, or domestic or community violence—and financial stressors such as unemployment, poverty and homelessness—may reduce a person’s capacity to cope effectively with the typical stresses of life.
Life is a package deal. Everyone is confronted with both good and bad times. Facing the joys in life is easy, but facing difficulties isn’t as easy. The endearing smile of an infant warms our hearts and lights up our spirits. But trying to console a seemingly inconsolable child can be difficult and stressful. Moving into a new home can be wonderful, but losing one’s home due to foreclosure or loss of employment is tough, and becoming homeless can be devastating. Landing a new job is often a cause for celebration, yet losing a job can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Resilience is having the flexibility and inner strength necessary to bounce back when things are not going well. Those who can cope with the stresses of everyday life, and an occasional crisis, have resilience. They are able to maintain a positive attitude, creatively solve problems, and effectively rise to challenges. Parents with good resiliency skills are less likely to direct anger and frustration at their children.
Children learn good resiliency skills by observing their parents and other caregivers. When children learn acceptable ways of expressing anger and frustration, they will be less likely to lash out at others.
Everyone has inner strengths or resources that can serve as a foundation for building resilience. These may include faith, flexibility, humor, communication skills, problem-solving skills, mutually supportive caring relationships, or the ability to identify and access outside resources and services when needed. These strengths can be nurtured and developed through concrete activities or through interactions with others.
To increase parental and child resilience:
• Meet and develop caring relationships with friends.
• Attend parenting classes through the Women’s and Children’s Center at MGH or though Teaching Family Homes.
• Learn stress management techniques such as counting to 10, meditation, prayer, relaxing with music, and getting regular exercise.
• Seek help from your doctor, pastor or a counselor when stress becomes unmanageable.
• Contact community supports such as Pathways, substance abuse counseling, domestic violence programs, and self-help support groups.
• Find meaning and develop a sense of purpose in your life.
• Start laughing and find humor in stressful situations. If you can’t find humor in a situation, read a funny book or watch a funny movie.
• Learn from experience by thinking how you have successfully coped with hardships in the past.
• Remain hopeful. You can’t change the past, but you can look toward the future.
The Great Start Collaborative and Promising Futures have collaborated to share the Protective Factors series.
For more information about the Great Start Collaborative, contact Kathy Lammi at 226-5157 or go to www.greatstartma.org. For more information on the Promising Futures Partnership, contact Chris Zenti at 226-5138.
Great Start Collaborative revamps Web site
The Marquette-Alger Great Start Collaborative recently relaunched its www.greatstartma.org Web site.
The updated Web site has many new resources, Including the strategic plan of the collaborative, up-to-date statistics on the young children in Marquette and Alger Counties, and how to find childcare though the Great Start Connect portal.
Lake Superior Youth Theatre performs Annie Jr.
More than eighty-five actors from the Lake Superior Youth Theatre are hard at work putting together the popular musical Annie Jr. for mid-winter family fun.
Nikke Nason, LSYT Artistic Director, is directing the production ten years after first directing it in 2001, the beginning of the youth theatre program in Marquette.
Annie Jr. opens Friday, March 9 with an evening performance at 7:00 p.m. and runs until Saturday, March 10 with a matinee at 1:00 p.m. and evening performance at 7:00 p.m. at Kaufman Auditorium.
Tickets are $13.00 per adult, $8.00 per child or student and all seats are reserved. Tickets are on sale at all NMU EZ Ticket Outlets, online at www.nmu.edu/tickets or by calling 227-1032.
For more information, log onto the Lake Superior Youth Theatre Facebook page, email lakesuperioryouththeatre@gmail.com or call 362-6453.
8-18 Media plans training for new members
8-18 Media, the youth journalism bureau of the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum, will be holding a training session for new members of its Marquette and Ishpeming bureaus at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, February 25.
The session will be held at the 8-18 Media Bureau in the Children’s Museum in Marquette and will last until 2:00 p.m.
8-18 Media is a youth journalism, empowerment and leadership program open to all kids ages eight to eighteen.
The members work in teams to produce stories on youth-related issues for Marquette Monthly and for radio stations Q107-WMQT and WNMU Public Radio 90. Members choose and research topics, conduct interviews and write the stories.
The Marquette Bureau holds one monthly meeting for all members and schedules work on stories on an appointment basis.
The Ishpeming Bureau meets each Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. in the basement of the Ishpeming Carnegie Library.
The program is free and there is no academic prerequisite to join. Preregistration for the training is strongly encouraged. For details, contact Dennis Whitley at 818mediaupcm@gmail.com or 226-7874.
Feeding and exercising your heart
Like a magnet, sodium draws water to it, creating fluid retention in the body. Too much retained fluids raises blood pressure. Heavily salting your food increases your risk for having high blood pressure. The average person consumes seven times more salt than the body requires.
Sodium plays a vital role in heart muscle contraction. When dietary sodium is reduced, the heart does not have to work as hard. Therefore, a person should limit his or her intake of sodium to less than a teaspoon of salt a day (2,300 mg), but if high blood pressure is a problem, then it should not exceed 1,500 mg. The added benefit of reducing salt in your diet is weight reduction.
The heart needs to be exercised on a regular basis. The heart pumps close to a gallon and a half of blood each minute, or 700,000 gallons per year. Aerobic exercise strengthens the heart, improves circulation, lowers blood pressure, and promotes a feeling of well-being through the release of endorphins.
Every day, get out and play – take a walk, go sledding or skiing or snowboarding, build a snowman, or any way to be active for thirty to sixty minutes.
For more information on heart health and sodium, go to ChooseMyPlate.gov and consult with your physician or provider before attempting an exercise program.
Sherry Miller-vonSKynell
MSU Extension volunteer
New crib exchange provided to childcare centers
More than 900 lic ensed childcare providers had the opportunity to trade in old cribs for new federally approved cribs as part of a free crib exchange from January 7 to 14.
The exchange is the second of two such events made possible by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and involving ECIC and Lowes’ stores.
3,500 cribs were issued to early learning and development programs that are caring for infants less than one year old whose families receive subsidized childcare payments from the Michigan Department of Human Services.
GLCYD offers winter workshops
The Great Lakes Center for Youth Development is offering several workshops across the U.P. designed to help nonprofit leaders, staff and volunteers strengthen their organizations and ability to benefit the communities they serve.
In February, to kick off the workshop series, Amy Quinn, vice president, will present The Many Roles of Fundraising. This workshop will examine the different responsibilities that go into completing a successful fundraising campaign. Attendees will learn how to tap into their supporters to extend fundraising efforts. The Many Roles of Fundraising will be held on February 7 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Peter White Public Library.
Judy Watson Olson, president, will present Assessing Your Board on February 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the PWPL. Participants in this workshop will review assessment tools, how to evaluate the results and look at the next steps for your board.
Family-friendly events
Family square dance classes held
Parents, grandparents, kids, grandkids and children of all ages can learn a skill that has been enjoyed by generations.
Weekly square dance lessons are held on Fridays from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Dance Zone, 1113 Lincoln Avenue in Marquette. The cost is $5.00 per family per evening; children are free. For details, call 225-5702.
Gwinn Area Community Schools meetings planned
On February 13, Sawyer Elementary Countdown to Kindergarten will take place from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. for children, and their parent or guardian, who will be attending kindergarten at Sawyer Elementary in the fall of 2012. Contact the school at 346-5567 for more information.
On February 23, Gilbert Elementary Countdown to Kindergarten will be held from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. for children, and their parent or guardian, who will be attending kindergarten at Gilbert Elementary in the fall of 2012. Contact the school at 346-5726 for more information.
Date set for 2012 Kaleidoscope Educational Fun Fair
This year’s fair will be held on Saturday, March 3 in Marquette’s Superior Dome. The deadline for registration is February 10.
Kaleidoscope organizers reserve the right to close registration if space runs out in the dome, but all efforts are made to accommodate vendors as space allows. Questions regarding set up should be directed to Carl Bammert of the Superior Dome at 227-2465.
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