Young World Foundation:
Feed Your Soul & Style Your Sole Event 2013

Young World Foundation kicked 2013 off in style. To start the year off, YWF celebrated its first year anniversary by hosting the ‘Feed Your Soul & Style Your Sole Event’ at Methods Men Clothier located in downtown Kansas City.  Supporting the One for One Movement, guest who purchased a ticket received a pair of Toms shoes and scored a pair of Toms for a child in need. Not only was that exciting, in addition, using a fabric maker,  guest used their creative side to bring their desired pattern to life on their blank pair of Toms. On site were two incredible artists to assist those who wanted a creative idea to get them started. The pair of Toms each artist created was given to raffle winners at the end of the night. It was soooo much fun! Who would have thought that support causes…supporting a MOVEMENT could be that exciting! The music was blaring, pens moving, we wore birthday hats and celebrated the One Year Anniversary of a great new organization, Young World Foundation…while bringing awareness to others.

To show appreciation for supporting all three causes, YWF surprised guests with an event tee, A Cup on a Hill mug, and other goodies.

Young World Foundation will host another Toms One for One Movement in April. This event will be held at a local high school. If your school would like to participate, please feel free to contact Ms. Virginia Downing at (913) 240-7824 or Young World Foundation at
(816) 709-9814 for more details.  www.youngworldfoundation.org

Jerrika Washington, Young World Foundation

Kansas City is one of the most beautiful cities in the nation, known for its entertainment, performing arts, shopping centers and amazing landscape. There are hundreds of things one could possibly brag about on the behalf of Kansas City. However, for some teens, who reside in the heart of the city, couldn’t give two facts regarding the city they’ve been raised in. To change this, Young World Foundation was established to cultivate young minds to explore not only their backyards, but the backyards of neighbors: locally, nationally and internationally.

As a Youth Advisory Council member, I am pleased to introduce Young World Foundation to the world!  Young World Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving back through community service/outreach. Founded in January 2012, by the Co- Founders, Debrina Wright and DeOtis Williams Jr., two bright scholarly minds collaborated to introduce adolescents to the culture of philanthropy via community service projects, volunteer opportunities, and exposure to different regions around the world. The goal of YWF is to bridge the achievement gap and innovate cultural experiences, by allowing the participants to grow as global community leaders.

The organization was inspired on the behalf of teens. Ms. Wright and Mr. Williams recognized that there are teens who are hard-working, goal-oriented individuals who could use a helping hand to make their dreams become reality. Not only did the Co-Founders want to help the teens they already knew, but open a door for teens all around the area. The wonderful young people of YWF will range from ages 13-18 and reside within the Kansas City Metro Area. There will be three different groups, 6^th-8^th, freshmen/ sophomore, and junior/ senior (rolled out in phases).  The participants will learn to make healthy life choices while traveling and helping out others around the globe in different communities.  Also, YWF participants will learn a lot about their inner-selves and build functioning relationships within their own community.

As a participant of the organization, there will be plenty to do! The participants of the organization will reach out to their communities in addition to communities nationally and internationally. Such projects will consist of “Christmas in July” at the Ronald McDonald House for patients and their families in Orlando, Florida. Super exciting! Another project on YWF agenda is the monthly cleanup and landscaping of a highway, recently adopted by the foundation, and distribution of Lasting Ubiquitous Value Packs (L.U.V Packs) to people in need. The packs consist of everyday necessities. Such as non-perishables food items, hygiene products, inspirational readings etc.

“The future of the world rest in the gentle hands of today’s youth. The most brilliant ideas are envisioned by young minds. We want to nurture and cultivate our youth”. This statement speaks for itself as to why the organization was an idea in the first place. Youth Leadership Conferences have been set in place to allow YWF participants to interact with people of different races, ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds and more, to experience something new outside of their comfort zone. With this, it is bridging the achievement gap which is a part of the goal.

Debrina Wright, Co-Founder of Young World Foundation, took the time out of her day to answer a few questions I had in mind about the organization.

Q: How do you go about deciding which locations to visit for service-learning/outreach?

A: Decisions for traveling is primarily decided based on what the youths want to experience. As a group, there is open discussion as to what activities each individual wants to do. From there we find community service projects in the area and locations of communities that we want to reach out to as well.

Q: Do you plan to have Young World Foundation in other locations throughout the nation?

A: Absolutely! We plan to have locations in various cities such as:  Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, Boston, Baltimore, and Oakland…and that list WILL grow.

Q: In what ways do you hope to see the organization flourish?

A: Growth. I am anxious to see the impact YWF has on the youth, volunteers, communities, and other organizations. The level of involvement from these groups of youth will have a tremendous effect on their outlook of sustaining a community, a beneficial aspect to YWF.

With the mission in mind:  to cultivate global community leaders by having youth consciously connect to their communities and communities abroad can continue to happen with the help of supporters. Donations are greatly appreciated and valued by all members. For more information visit us at: www.youngworldfoundation.org and sign up for one of the different sponsorship levels or make a donation which may be repeated! Your support is just the beginning of new beginnings!

We’re currently accepting submissions for official iTeenKC bloggers.  Just email a sampling of your writing so we can get a feel for your style to info@iTeenKC.com, be sure to put “Blogger” in the subject line.  The more voices the better!

What do you know about Greek Mythology? Oh, that Zeus guy, right? And then… Hercules!

But Greek mythology is really complex and interesting. I’m not going to go off on some tangent about how we all should learn more classics, blah blah blah but I think that learning the stories of the people who founded society like the Ancient Egyptians and the Ancient Greeks is pretty important!

That’s why today, my friends, I am not going to talk about one book, but instead six, all by the same author. I know, so ambiguous! …sure.

The first book is Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This book is about Greek mythology. I know there’s a movie, but the book is so much better and the movie isn’t slightly accurate. (For example, Percy is supposed to be 11, Annabeth has BLONDE hair, and Riptide has a CAP!) If you can’t tell, I didn’t love the movie. They didn’t even get the plot line right! Which is why you should go read the book. Even though this seems like a little kid book, my sophomore friends and I still get excited about it. The only reason I would recommend seeing the movie is because the special effects are pretty cool and the guys are superawesomemegafoxyhot! (Points for whoever e-mails me with what that’s from.)

Before you go get this, though, you may want to know what it’s about. Percy Jackson is just misunderstood. ADHD and dyslexia – it’s not his fault! His mom has always supported him and found him new schools when he gets expelled from the old ones, but his stepfather sees Percy as a no good loser. Then Percy is told something – his real father is a Greek God. I really suck at writing summaries, so you may want to look some up. But I can assure you that this book is super fantastic!

The next book is The Cane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid, also by Rick Riordan. This is about Carter and Sadie Cane, who are siblings that have been separated forever. Their father is a world renowned Egyptian archaeologist, and Carter has grown up with him while Sadie lived with their deceased mother’s parents in England. But after a terrible accident with their father, they find out lots of secrets about their family and themselves. I didn’t like this as much, but then again I haven’t read it as many times. But I would still definitely recommend this to anyone.

I don’t think I can fit all of my reviews on this one post, so you should go check out the rest on my blog http://www.SMWGraceR2013.blogspot.com or if you want to e-mail me, it’s SMW.Grace.R@gmail.com. I definitely treasure your comments/questions!

<3 you if you exist!

Hey, fellow readers!

So today I was at the movies and I saw iTeenKC and I thought “Oh crap, I haven’t blogged in awhile!”

So, I’m blogging! Yay!

Today I had to clean out my bookshelves. Clean out as in get rid of books! It was very traumatic. But when deciding what books to keep, I also came across my blog topic.

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen is the story of Ruby Cooper, a girl with an alcoholic mother. When Ruby’s mother abandons her, Ruby decides to live on her own. And succeeds!… For a few days. Then, the landlords find out that Ruby, only 17, is living alone and Ruby is sent to live with her big sister Cora, who Ruby hasn’t seen in years.

There’s a lot of long standing tension between Ruby and Cora, especially because of all the changes going through Cora’s life. She’s now married, lives in a HUGE house, and has money to spare.

This story, as cliche as it sounds, comes alive through Ruby’s sarcasm and skepticism. Being a pretty cynical person myself, I found it very easy to relate to Ruby. But if that’s not really your type, check out Sarah Dessen’s other books. I’ve read almost all of them, and I have never been disappointed.

I definitely want to hear your thoughts. You can either e-mail me at SMW.Grace.R@gmail.com or check out my blog at www.SMWGraceR2013.blogspot.com. Or both!

Leaving Paradise is the latest book i’ve read. It was phenomenal and I sugest that you all read it! Simone Elkeles is a wonderful auther and has written some other really good books you should try like Perfect Chemistry. But Leaving Paradise has two main characters. Throughout the book  each chapter takes place from Caleb or Maggie’s point of view. Caleb is just coming home after spending a year in a juvenile correction facility for a year over a drunk driving incident. He was coming back from a party when he hit no other then Maggie our other main character.

The accident has left Maggie with a crippiled leg. It completley changed her life. She stopped going to school for a year, lost her best friends, her popularity, and her place on the Tennis team. Tennis was Maggies whole life before the accident. It dosen’t help that she has to live next door to the family of the boy (Caleb) who did this all to her. Throughout the book you go through amazing emotions and see how their lives come together now that Caleb is back. You can practically feel the emotions Maggie goes through when people call her names like “retarded” and “cripple”. And Caleb hurts just as much when people are always refering to him as “dangarous” and a “criminal”. Even his whole family is diffrent. He realizes how much life can change in a year.

The book is phenomenal and  I suggest you all read it!

The Time Traveler’s Wife is now most famous as a major motion picture. But before all of that began there was a book made by Audrey Niffenger. I had seen the comercials for the movie and it looked interesting but I have never really been a fan of the whole time machine thing. Its just too sci-fi for me. But I decided to pick up the book anyways. And I am very glad I did. The book is about the main characters Henry and Clare. Henry is a time Traveler and the way he time travels has never been done before. He compares it to having the disease epilespy in the book. He can’t control it. One day he is working at his job in the library and the next minute hes taken to the scene he wishes more than anything he could leave behind.

The time Traveling has its benefits and pains as everything does. But its also a story of an epic romance that started from awhile back and continues on in different time periods. The two are in love and are fighting more than anything to make it work and make the relationship worthy of the notebook. Will it last? Will time traveling have after effects? Details on the romance? You can find all of this out by picking up a copy of the Time Traveler’s wife at your local library! Peace!

Hey everyone! Hows the world treating you? A personal belief of mine is that too many people have given up on reading. I have a ton of friends who always say, “well I’ll just wait for the movie to come out… ” . What a lot of people don’t understand is that there is something great about reading a good book. I personally am not a fan of the classics. Although i’ve read some Shakespere and all that stuff I perfer modern day books. Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite series. The Luxe Books by Anna Godberson/

A lot of people know the books by their covers. You may have seen them around or at Borders. The books have different girls on the cover with huge, old fashioned dresses that have a certain class to them. If your not into dresses, dont judge a book by its cover. These books take place at a period from long long ago, but unlike the old books their written in a modern language. The books are about the main characters who are living in the nice areas of New York. They are old, rich families that take pride in their lady like ways and the handsome men that steal their hearts.

What you dont expect to come out of the book is suspense, love triangles, pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn, iresistable boy characters that you wish your boyfriend would be like, white lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hookups. There are four books in the series so far and they are definitely worth your time! Go check them out at the local library, or buy them from the nearest Barnes and Noble. Can’t wait to hear what you think about them!

Heres the link to the website: http://www.theluxebooks.com/series.vm

So there’s an earlier post about the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on here. I just want to reiterate what an AMAZING book this is. Mrs. Collins astounded me with her uncanny description about what life as a teenager caught in an awkward position was like. I’ve read many of these “dramatic” novels, and have been steadily unimpressed, but this shocked me. I started this book at 3:00 in the afternoon and sacrificed my viola playing, my homework, and, sadly, my poor dog’s walk just in order to figure out “what happens next!” (Oh, I finished at sometime that evening.) Then, I had to figure out someway to get the next one, pronto. So for those of you who haven’t read it, get your mom to take you to Borders RIGHT NOW! Be sure to get Catching Fire while you’re there, also, because you will surely want to read it. The next book in the trilogy comes out August 24th. I hope I’ve occupied you for several hours!

Can a teenager really write a book? The answer is a resounding YES!

There have been many famous and not-yet-famous teen authors.

Have you read The Outsiders? S.E. Hinton (Susan Eloise Hinton) wrote that book when she was 16.

Anne Frank received a diary for her 13th birthday and a few weeks later went into hiding from the Nazis. Her words have been read by millions of people.

On a lighter note, the author of the Captain Underpants series, Dav Pilkey, held the classroom record for the number of crayons he could stick up his nose. A diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity didn’t stop this guy from writing his first book at age 19. It was called  World War Won.

Christopher Paolini, a homeschooled teen, wrote Eragon when he was 15.

Estevan Vega wrote Servant of the Realm when he was 15.

Since then he has written two other books: The Sacred Sin and the soon-to-be published Arson.

Teens have a lot of say, so if you want to write a book, go for it! These authors did.