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By DJacoby, January 26, 2010 12:15 am

In the Landmark Self-Expression and Leadership Program, Vernon LaVia created the idea of Aurora Green Lights to educate others on the environment, and then turned the leadership of his project away to Mavis Bates. Aurora Green Lights is putting on an environmental fair this summer on June 12, which has attracted the attention of The Beacon-News newspaper.

The green fair created by Bates is titled “Summer Solstice Celebration – Growing Greener Every Day”, and is being held at the Prisco Community Center in Aurora, Illinois. A full-fledged, all day environmental festival is being planned, with music, food, vendors with environmental products, demonstrations, educational workshops, and more. The fair is being modeled off Elgin, IL’s ECCO Green Expo.

To get involved with Aurora Green Lights or to find out more information about it or the Summer Solstice Celebration/environmental fair, call Bates at 630-605-9244 or go to www.auroragreenlights.org.

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By DJacoby, January 22, 2010 6:54 pm

Susan Trost created an extraordinary event to help 38 women from the Denver, Colorado area in difficult situations kick off the new year in style. Trost’s ‘New Year, New You’ event, her project in landmark education’s selp program, treated 38 women to pampering such as massage, hair cuts, manicures/pedicures, body wraps, yoga and pillates sessions, acupuncture and other supportive services. All the women were nominated for the event for having had a difficult 2009 – having lost a job, had a major illness, divorce or other serious issue.

Trost says she believes women often put themselves last when they are going through times and she wanted to do something that really empowered those women in what they were dealing with – women who weren’t on public assistance but didn’t have the capability assist themselves as much as they needed. One woman attendee who had been unemployed for over a year got a new job immediately after the event, attributing this success from the confidence she received from being there.

Trost was also amazed and gratified by the huge generosity of local business owners who gave their time and services to make the event happen – to see a complete list of businesses who contributed and read the complete story, read about it at the Living Healthier Now web site.

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By macaniff, January 13, 2010 5:26 pm

Rich Jochum harnessed the power of the internet to make his “Adopt-a-bed” project a reality, raising over $8,000 from friends, family and concerned strangers for First Step House of Orange County, a non-profit which helps local homeless men with severe drinking problems.

Specifically, much of the money went for badly needed supplies for the Charle Street short term residential facility, which starts homeless men on the road to sobriety free of charge by having them stay there and take part in a twelve-step program. The facility is volunteer run, all of whom are sober but many of whom were former residents.

Money raised also goes towards the Hamiltom House medium-term facility for 12 newly recovered alcoholics. All of the money for the organization comes from private citizens.

Jochum, who took on the project in his Landmark Education self-expression and leadership program, accomplished much of the fundraising simply through Facebook and other simple means. His latest post indicates $8200 has been raised.

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By DJacoby, January 12, 2010 12:21 am

Karen Fletcher says she was looking for ways to bring families together to form real communities. In the Landmark SELP program, Fletcher created “Our Dancing Village”, a family dance jam get-together designed to help do just that – give parents, children and families a place to come together to dance and be together. The North Seattle Herald-Outlook wrote a story about the program, which now takes place in Seattle on the second Sunday of each month.

Fletcher says she was inspired by the saying that “it takes a village to raise a family”. A Qigong instructor and dance facilitator, Fletcher passionatley believes that dance is “one of the most powerful ways to build a strong and loving family”.

The first event took place in November, and another followed the next month. The dance jam starts with an opening dance with everyone in a circle, which Fletcher leads. Freeform dancing takes place the rest of the evening.

To get involved and see the schedule of upcoming Dance Jams, which take place from 4-5:30pm at the OmCulture dance space in Wallingford, WA, go to Fletcher’s QiDancing blog.

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By Julia Taylor, January 7, 2010 1:42 am

The project created by Srinivasa Rao in his Landmark SELP programme to identify and restore neglected historic monuments in the Indian province of Karnataka (which includes Bangalore) has been recognized with a major feature article in The Bangalore Mirror.

Rao teamed with six other colleagues in the tech industry to work with him in pooling their time and money to restore dilapidated ancient monuments. His project, first titled “Unseen Karnataka”, began when he wrote about these monuments and the benefits it would bring society for them to be restored. But when he talked with his friends, they all decided that more than writing was called for. Rao relates that they decided that taking direct action was a once in a lifetime opportunity to contribute to their homeland.

They worked with the Archaeological Survey of Indian, identifying different sites and spending their weekends investigating them. They visited twenty-five locations and began work at three of them. In doing so, they both educated local communities and tourists online about the different sites. In the months that followed, they worked with local citizens and college students to unearth a number of ancient temples.

The costs of excavation are of course very high. Go to the Unseen Karnataka website to get involved.