Wheel Life by artist Charles N. Roman is a new laugh and learn Action Online feature for the young and young at [...]
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KIDS IN ACTION | Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com By Kathleen M. Muldoon People around my state of Texas are excited. A woman claims to have found the body of a genuine chupacabra. What’s that, you ask? You don’t know what a chupacabra is? I didn’t either, until I moved to San Antonio and began hearing tales of this strange beast. Although they were first spotted by sheep farmers in Puerto Rico, the nighttime creatures seem to have migrated to Mexico and parts of the United States. I’ve never seen a chupacabra (it’s pronounced choo-puh-KAA-bruh), except for its image on T-shirts. But those [...] KIDS IN ACTION | By Kathleen M. Muldoon Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com
When my eighth grade class returned to school after the holidays, we were surprised to find a substitute teacher at Miss Anderson’s desk. “I am Sister Gertrude,” she said. “I’ll be with you for the rest of this week while Miss Anderson recovers from the flu.” Then she stood and walked to the front of the desk. I gasped. She was the biggest nun I’d ever seen! Her voice matched her size as she boomed, “I am here to tell you that in this new year, each one of you will do something [...] Space Rabbits and Underwear has author Kathleen M. Muldoon pondering the challenges of writing thank-you-notes for those “Unique” [...] By Kathleen M. Muldoon The other day I was surfing the ‘net for information on a new type artificial foot I thought might suit my prosthesis. In the middle of my search an article popped up titled “Feline Receives First Ever Paw Prosthesis.” Whoa! I had to read that one, and when I did a whole new scientific field was revealed to me, that of animal prosthetics. I forgot all about my own body parts and read every article I could find on the amazing work veterinarians are doing to afford comfort and mobility to critters of many types. The cat whose [...] Boundless Playgrounds® give children of all abilities a place to play and learn together. By Tom Scott Shouldn’t playgrounds be for everyone? That’s a question Amy Jaffe Barzach and her husband Peter had asked as they sought a meaningful way to honor the memory of their nine-month-old son Jonathan who had passed away in 1996 after being diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare motor neuron disease that affects one in 6,000 births and causes severe muscle weakness. “We had met with a hospice counselor who asked us to think of something we can do in memory of our son,” Amy says. [...] The 2008 Kids Sports Spectacular was a truly spectacular event. Over 160 participants came together to make this a special day that one child called “One of the best days in my life.” Read the entire story and view the heartwarming event slideshow.
By Kathleen M. Muldoon Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan Ah, June! A whole two months ahead with no school, no tests, no teachers. But is there a teacher, a special teacher, you’ve had this past school year who you’ll miss? I remember some summer vacations when I actually regretted the fact that I would no longer have a particular teacher, and I couldn’t imagine that the new teacher I’d have in the fall could be as good as the teacher I’d left behind. Before I ask about your favorite teachers, I want to tell you about one lady who [...] By Kathleen M. Muldoon Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com When I was in junior high and high school, not quite as far back as the Dark Ages, my schoolmates were divided into two groups-cool and uncool. I don’t know when this division started or who started it, but I know from my teaching experience that students today still fall into one of these two groups. They might have different names-maybe the cool kids are “popular,” “in,” or “hot,” while the un-cool are “dorks,” “nerds,” “dweebs,” or worse. But no matter what each group is called, all students fall into one or the other; no one [...] By Dr. Richard L. Bruno The Centers for Disease Control has reported that 92% percent of US toddlers are vaccinated against polio. Ninety-two percent sounds good, until you realize that leaves more than one million US children unvaccinated. Between 2005 and 2006, polio vaccination dropped in 20 states and in 10 large cities. While any reductions in polio vaccination are troubling, the location of the cities and states where vaccination dropped is frightening. The cities are major points of entry into the US-New York, Philadelphia, Houston, and Seattle-where a nearly 4% drop was reported. It’s no surprise that toddlers living in poverty [...] By Kathleen M. Muldoon Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com It was the first week of December and my seventh grade home room teacher, Miss Cox, had promised a special announcement. “Regardless of which holiday your family celebrates, winter is a time of giving,” Miss Cox said. “So I decided to assign each of you a Secret Pal.” She held up some folded slips of paper. “I will give each of you the name of your Secret Pal as you leave. Starting tomorrow, you will become a special, secret friend to the person whose name you have. Maybe you can leave [...] By Kathleen M. Muldoon Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com Every November I think back to one of my favorite high school events, the Sadie Hawkins dance. The difference between it and the other dances was that girls invited guys to be their dates. Now, this might not sound like a big deal today, but back in the “Dark Ages” when I was a teen, boys did all the asking. So my girlfriends and I would dare one another to ask a guy to the Sadie Hawkins dance, and then we’d report back on our success (or failure). I hate to brag, but I [...] By Tom Scott PepsiCo Hosts “Sports Spectacular” for Youth With Disabilities PepsiCo’s campus in Purchase, New York was the most recent site of United Spinal Association’s “Kids Sports Spectacular”—a fun-filled and exciting event for children with varying disabilities that teaches the importance of self-esteem, teamwork, and friendship through participation in wheelchair sports including basketball, softball, tennis, and handcycling. The event, held on Tuesday, October 16th, was hosted by PepsiCo and its in-house enAble Leadership Council—which puts a focus not on the person’s disability, but rather on the individual’s different or varying abilities, whether it is as an employee, a supplier, [...] By Kathleen M. Muldoon Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com Happy Halloween! Now, I’m sure that most of you reading this column think you’re past the “kid stuff” of Halloween-the costumes, the trick or treating- all that’s for little kids, right? Well, yes, maybe that part of it. But I’ll bet few of you know that for us “older kids,” Halloween offers the opportunity to find romance. Yes, romance! I was surprised, too, when I read some of the love opportunities available only on Halloween. I’m not sure I believe them, because I’m not superstitious-knock wood. But, for those of you who have yet to [...] By Kathleen M. Muldoon It’s only September and already I’m excited about the 2008 Olympics. I love everything about the Olympics, not because I’m a jock-in fact, I’m an athletic zero-but because I admire those who are. Even more inspiring for me are the games that begin after the Olympics, the Paralympics- international athletic competitions for athletes from six different physical disability groups. These games follow the closing ceremonies of the Olympics and are hosted by the same country that hosted that year’s Olympics. Not to be confused with Special Olympics, which are for athletes with developmental disabilities, the Paralympics are competitions [...] The 2007 United Spinal Navigators United Spinal Association Helps Give MLB Fans a Showcase of Wheelchair Softball On July 7 and 8, United Spinal Association helped promote the game of wheelchair softball during the Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Fan Fest, which was held this year at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco, California. Wheelchair softball athletes from around the country participated in several games at the venue to demonstrate to MLB fans that you can compete in the great game of baseball even if you use a wheelchair. Thirteen players from various MLB-sponsored wheelchair softball teams were represented at Fan Fest, including [...] By Kathleen M. Muldoon Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com The summer between eighth and ninth grade, I had one thought in mind-I wanted to scale Mount Franklin. Wait, don’t run to your globe and try to locate it. Mount Franklin was the name of a fictional mountain, the symbol given to the teen summer reading program at my public library. Named for Benjamin Franklin, founder of the public library system, those who had registered for the program and who scaled Mount Franklin by reading 30 books would be awarded a T- shirt, a $50 savings bond, and a book of free pizza [...] by Kathleen M. Muldoon July brings to mind my attempt to get a new bicycle during my summer vacation before starting seventh grade. I wasn’t able to do the jobs my friends could, such as walking dogs or mowing lawns, so I had to be more creative. I needed a job I could do at my own pace, and that summer I thought I’d found the ideal situation, advertised on the back page of my comic book. Sea monkeys are nature’s wonder! They’re the perfect pet. Little to no maintenance. Create instant life when your package of magic crystals arrives containing hundreds [...] By Tom Scott and Celina De León United Spinal Association Yankees Assist in Teaching Softball Skills to Youngsters with Disabilities for Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation Future Derek Jeters on wheels? Some, perhaps, but all of these New York City kids will surely be healthier after participating in a program the United Spinal Yankees wheelchair softball team conducted with financial support from Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation. Members of the United Spinal Association Yankees wheelchair softball team in conjunction with the City of New York Parks & Recreation ran a wheelchair softball clinic for kids ages 8-18 with Derek Jeter’s [...] by Kathleen M. Muldoon Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com Dear Gran, I hate summer camp. Love, Kathleen That is the letter I sent my grandmother after my first night at summer camp. It was during the summer that I turned 13 and my grandmother and I had been living with an aunt in New York City. I’d never been to camp before, but toward the end of the school year, I was selected along with a [...] |
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