Gwendolyn Crews works to help toddlers learn far beyond their grade level.   She started out by babysitting a friend’s child and eventually created and built ’Juniorversity’ with 50 students.

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Roughly 17 years ago, a friend of Crews’ began working two jobs and needed care for her daughter. The woman asked if Crews would babysit her child for a while.

“That’s when I started keeping her kid, and from that point other people heard about me and I started keeping their children,” she said. “At some point I caught the bug.”

In 1994, she launched her home-based child care business, Little Lambs Training Center, which served infants to middle-school children. She began an early-readers education program for her preschoolers and introduced infants as young as three months to bilingual immersion. In addition, she added a component to train clients to become better parents.

As the number of children in her charge grew, Crews made sacrifices. She traded in her SUV for a 15-seat van; partnered with her new husband, Bobby Crews, to oversee the center; and hired her daughter, Sabra Smith, to run a nearby branch for middle-school children.

Crews also returned to college — first attending Harbor Community College — after the age of 30. She walked away from the then-Compton Community College in 2000 with an associates degree in child development.

By 2000, the business had outgrown Little Lambs, leading Crews to set her sights on a vacant, 7,200-square-foot commercial building just blocks away in Carson. Three years later — while working on her bachelor’s degree in childhood education at Union Institute University — she received a First 5 LA grant in the amount of $25,000, which she used to acquire and renovate the building. With the change came a new name: Juniorversity.

source:  http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/Preschool-Teacher-of-the-Year-Gwendolyn-Crews-102041778.html

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Players from each team will hold a football clinic for local children. They’ll also stay after the game for community service projects, including work on an orphanage, and to hike Mount Kilimanjaro.

The school announced Wednesday that the Bulldogs, who compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, will play on May 21 in Moshi, Tanzania, in the inaugural Global Kilimanjaro Bowl.

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Dr. Danley’s goal is to look at all their areas of concerns. “I take a holistic approach to the life of a black girl – not just their mind, body and soul but culture, health and education.” She brought Black Butterflies to several schools in Chicago and has been the speaker at countless events. She was recently approached by Chicago Urban League to collaborate on initiatives for African-American girls. Pending the Metro Board’s approval, those programs will begin this fall.

She is a board member of Chicago Youth Initiating Change (CYIC), a student-led organization supported by adults. This summer she headed the first ever African-American Adolescent Female Summer Literacy Institute at the University of Illinois, where 16 girls, age 11-17, spent five weeks expressing themselves through writing. The institute focused on identity, resiliency, advocacy and solidarity to nurture the next generation of socially conscious writers. The girls were urged to use their pens to change the way black girls are portrayed in the media.

Danley hopes to take Black Butterflies nationwide. She believes everything from curriculum to providing safe environments for children is important. They need to be given opportunities and access, she says, citing her own test-taking experience. “Those tests that I took were not reflective of my community. We have to have curriculum that reflects our experiences.”

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Q: Give us a sense of what is going through your mind? Making a difference in the community, what does that mean to you?

VINCE WILFORK: That’s the only way you can give back. The first thing I thought about was my parents and it was like I was looking right at them in the crowd. We all do things not expecting to get anything in return. There are a bunch of guys on this team that deserve this award and I am just happy … but everybody does a lot of things in the community for the Patriots or for their own [charities]. It is not just me, it’s everybody and I am going to accept the award on all of our behalf.

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In 1950, Alf Landon gave a malfunctioning radio transmitter to Andrew “Skip” Carter, who was in pursuit of his dream to start a radio station. Carter drove to Leavenworth, retrieved the transmitter and hauled it back to Kansas City on a flatbed truck.

Carter repaired that transmitter and went on to launch his radio station in 1950. That radio station, now known as KPRS, would grow and exceed expectations.

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Because of his severe dyslexia, Meek doesn’t read his speeches or even use notes. He memorizes his speeches. He is proud of having been a Florida state trooper, but he recently told an interviewer that he almost flunked out of the trooper academy when, due to his dyslexia, he mixed up the numbers on a math exam. He said he finally passed because, after lights out at the academy, he sat in a bathroom stall for hours, memorizing numbers for a math test.

“That was the first time in my life that I was really faced with a wall and saying, regardless of what the reality may be, I’ve got to figure out how to knock through this thing,” Meek told The Washington Post. The 6-4 congressman’s voice broke and tears filled his eyes as he spoke, The Post reported.

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In January, Wilson was honored by the team as the franchise’s NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year winner. The award is given for a player’s combination of on-field and off-field contributions to the Western New York community. Among his good deeds were his “George’s Jungle” sessions for Buffalo public high school students.

Bills coach Chan Gailey uses two words to describe Wilson.

“Unbelievable guy,” he says.

 In 2008, the White House presented Wilson with the President’s Volunteer Service Award for his support with fitness programs for youth. Last spring, he hosted a life skills camping retreat in Nashville that promoted self-esteem and leadership.

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A field of 30 minority drivers will be narrowed to 10, who will live together for a month as they compete on the track and prepare in the classroom for the chance to race in a high-profile event and ultimately succeed in Nascar.

The series is the brainchild of Max Siegel, a former music industry executive and global president of Dale Earnhardt Inc., who became involved with Nascar’s diversity effort in 2003 when the Hall of Fame football player Reggie White tried to start a minority-based race team. White died in 2004 before seeing his dream come true, but the effort to draw minorities has continued.

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John­son has watched Jefferson County administrations come and go, but the abandoned houses and overgrown lots of her New Castle neighborhood have stayed the same.

One of those dilapidated houses is located right across the street from where Johnson has lived for more than 60 years.

“The roof collapsed a few years ago,” she said, pointing to the debris. “That stopped people from going in there and drinking and gambling all hours of the night. But an­imals still go in there. It smells awful. There is an open sewer right there be­side the house.”

New Castle is a neigh­borhood caught in the middle — split between the city of Gardendale and unincorporated northern Jefferson County, leaving residents feeling as if their historically black community is ignored by local government.

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One evening last week I began thinking about the meal I had just purchased on the way home from work.   My dinner had been prepared by a person I did not know and will never meet. That person did not select or buy the items in the meal and had to prepare the order according to company rules.  In most cases, the meals at this establishment were organized using a step by step process to meet the needs of people like me who are always on the move, totally stressed, definitely exhausted, and in a hurry!

I thought to myself; I drive up to a sign, decide what I want, order from the stranger talking from a headset, pay the next stranger or the same stranger at first window and pick up my dinner from the unknown person at the last window.  Or, I go inside and wait in line with people staring at their cell phones. Wow!

I asked myself a very simple question.  How many times have I done this in the last month? Better yet, how many takeout meals have I purchased during the past year? Past five years?

What has happened to me? What has happened to all of us? We have become completely dependent on national food franchises to give us the nutriment our bodies so badly deserve.  And to make it worth our while, these corporations are now serving us all types of “guilt based” healthy meals. There are salad entrees pasted all over the super sized, brightly illustrated main menus.  Ahh, we smile at the salad pictures and continue to order the burgers and fries or chicken and tater tots.

Now I’m asking myself, “Who selected the lettuce for this situation?”  Who decided which tomatoes were best for Combo Nos. 1 though 10 or was it just the luck of the draw? How old is that ketchup in the little plastic envelopes. I’ve never seen an expiration date on those little things.  I just tear them open and squirt!

My conscious has finally caught up with me.  It’s time to go to a farmer’s market (if I can find one), buy some fresh veggies and fruit, find some quality fish or fowl, prepare a healthy meal with ingredients that I selected, and get my eating act together.

I’ll get started as soon as I use that last 2 for 1 coupon from the pizza place around the corner…

Resources

Health & Fitness Section, Today’s Drum

Minority Women’s Health womenshealth.gov

Diabetes and African-Americans minorityhealth.hhs.gov

Dr. Lynda Mubarak is a Texas educator and a contributing writer for Today’s Drum.

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Stretching, or flexibility training, is an essential part of a complete workout program. The term flexibility is defined as range of motion within a joint and should be included in EVERY workout session. The benefits include increased physical efficiency, decreased risk of injury, increased blood supply and nutrient exchange to working muscles and improved muscular balance and posture.

The two basic types of flexibility: Static and Dynamic flexibility.

Static flexibility involves holding a stretch or position for a specific amount of time, like a dancer maintaining a split.

Dynamic flexibility is movement through a range of motion with an emphasis on maintaining speed and force. Imagine the same dancer performing split leaps across the floor. The three most common techniques used to achieve flexibility are: static stretching, ballistic (or dynamic) stretching, and active isolated stretching (AIS).

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Letter from the President:

Good evening,

Tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. EDT, I will address the nation from the Oval Office about the end of the war in Iraq.

We are at a truly historic moment in our nation’s history.  After more than seven years, our combat mission in Iraq will end tomorrow.

As both a candidate and President, I promised to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end.  Now, we are taking an important step forward in delivering on that promise.  Since I took office, we’ve brought nearly 100,000 U.S. troops home from Iraq, millions of pieces of equipment have been removed, and hundreds of bases have been closed or transferred to Iraqi Security Forces.

Our combat mission in Iraq is ending, but our commitment to an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant continues.  As our mission in Iraq changes, 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq to advise and assist the Iraqi Security Forces as they assume full responsibility for the security of their country on September 1.  We will forge a strong partnership with an Iraq that still faces enduring challenges.

For nearly a decade, we have been a nation at war.  The war in Iraq has at times divided us.  But one thing I think all Americans can agree on is that our brave men and women in uniform are truly America’s finest.  They have put their lives on the line and endured long separations from their family and loved ones.

All Americans owe our troops, veterans and military families a debt of gratitude for their outstanding service to our nation. Over the past few days, thousands of Americans have taken part in our Saluting Service in Iraq effort on WhiteHouse.gov, sending their messages of thanks and support to our troops.

Take a minute right now to see what your fellow Americans have to say and add a message of your own:

Supporting our troops and military families is the responsibility of all Americans.  My Administration is doing everything in its power to ensure that our troops, veterans and their families have the support they need as they serve, and the care and opportunities they need to realize their dreams when they return home.

I hope you will join me in welcoming our troops home and showing your gratitude for their heroic service.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

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E-Prep students had some of the highest state achievement test scores in Ohio in April, 2010, far outpacing the average for African-American students around the state, and mostly exceeding the average scores of other public schools.

About 95 percent of the school’s enrollment is African-American, with 82 percent coming from families under the poverty line. Both Village Prep and E-Prep are open to any student in Ohio.

“Just think about all those kids that now have a future in front of them, due to the generosity of Cliffs and other fine organizations in Cleveland,” Zitzner beamed, as he led company executives on a quick tour of the exceptional school.

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