oneGirloneRide
May 31, 2008 at 7:00 am | In Person of Interest | Leave a Comment
E’leese Madgett-Manrique is a 12 year-old girl that is doing something really cool.
She is riding her horse (and Arabian named Chip) in a loop through the state of Minnesota.
It’s going to take her entire summer to do. Her big departure date is June 7. She leaves from the town of Buffalo, Minnesota. As her map stands right now, she won’t get back home to her Minneapolis suburb until August 31.
But this isn’t just some sort of horseback joy ride. E’leese is actually a girl on a mission.
She wants to raise money for an organization she started called oneGirloneRide.
After she collects enough dough, she wants to buy a 3,000 acre ranch in rural Minnesota and turn it into a resort retreat for members of the military and their families.
As E’leese pictures it, the resort (which she wants to call The Ranch Minnesota) will be a place that is staffed by volunteers willing to clean cabins and cook meals so that soldiers can vacation for free.
I met E’leese, her mom Kerry and their dog Lucky the other day. I didn’t meet Chip, though. He was off in a barn somewhere. They were excited, nervous and ready to get on their trip underway.
As the summer days tick by, I’ll be checking in with E’leese to see how her journey is going. But if you want to follow her trip on your own, you can check out her oneGirloneRide blog.
O Ambassadors
May 26, 2008 at 6:00 pm | In For Teachers, Person of Interest, Teen Travel | Leave a Comment
It was only a matter of time.
Oprah Winfrey has encouraged Americans to lose weight, read books and give away money. Now, she wants Americans to go abroad. Specifically American kids.
It’s not every day that I watch the Oprah show. But I happened to be home, and I happened to turn on the TV, and it just so happened that Oprah was there on the screen talking to groups of teens about their experiences doing mission work in other countries.
After talking to the teens, the show would play a video clip of the kids out and about in the world doing their good deeds. Again and again the show returned to a particular group of American teens who’d spent time in Africa building a school for local children.
The American kids were often teary eyed talking about their experience in another country, helping other people. They were proud of themselves — as they rightfully should have been — to have traveled so far from home, made new friends in another language, and built a school from scratch with their own hands.
Heck, I was even teary eyed watching the show. These kids had gone off and done exactly what I want Global Roam ink to encourage teens to do: go travel, go get smart, and return home changed and determined to be active, educated, and global in their outlook. I KNEW I was on to something when I hatched my Global Roam ink plan!
At any rate, Oprah is going to get American teens out there and doing good by starting a new organization aimed at supporting parents, teachers and students interested in the idea. Her new initiative, O Ambassadors, supports the whole thing.
There is even a whole section of the site devoted to teachers who want to start an O Ambassadors after school club at their school.
Or, click here if you want to watch excerpts of the O Ambassador kick off episode.
Lisa Ling is Doing Good
May 7, 2008 at 7:00 am | In Person of Interest | Leave a Comment
Last night, Lisa Ling made a stop in Minneapolis and I went to hear her speak.
Ling is probably most recognized as a former host of The View. She gave up that gig a while back, however. Now she works for Oprah and National Geographic.
She travels the world doing investigative journalism. She delves deep into topics and subjects that make most of us squirm. For example, she has investigated female suicide bombers, puppy mills and gang rape in the Congo.
Ling credited her first trip abroad as a pivotal experience in her life, as an experience that pushed her over the edge and convinced her that traveling and telling stories was for her.
At the age of 21, Ling went on assignment to Afghanistan for Channel One, a news source that brings current events into high school classrooms. After that trip, she was never the same.
Traveling, Ling said last night, makes a person more intelligent, more curious, and more human. I agree with all of that!
Last night, Ling shared a poem she wrote after traveling to Africa and investigating the lives of child brides, of girls who are married off to much older men when they are just 6 or 7 years old. Her poem was both touching and tragic.
After passing two hours listening to her speak, I was so intrigued with her life that I sought out her web site this morning.
While there, I ran across a report she did about forced child labor in India. It’s quite a long video clip – an hour – but it’s very interesting.
The report focuses on the forced labor of girls and it reminded me of the interview I did with Patricia McCormick, the author of the young adult novel Sold that is featured in this premier issue of Global Roam ink.
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