Strollerderby : Philadelphia

Kids' Art Adorns The Corner Suite

Amy Kuras — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:01:00 GMT

The art in your average corporate office ranges from bland to, well, kinda scary. Rarely do you see something in an office and think “wow, that’s cool.”

But if that office contributed to a Philly nonprofit that trades kids’ art for corporate donations for art supplies, you’d be pretty impressed.

Fresh Artists works like this: students give permission to have their art reproduced for he program and it goes into a digital gallery. Donors to the program can choose a piece or several as a thank-you gift. The art then hangs in the headquarters of some of the city’s biggest companies.

Donations are returned to school art programs in the form of grants for art supplies. More than $40,000 was raised in the program’s first year alone.

This is so awesome. Not only is it a self-sustaining way to provide much-needed art supplies to city schools, but the kids (who attend disadvantaged schools throughout the city) get the serious self-esteem boost of knowing their work, with their name on it, hangs proudly someplace other than the school hallway, were people can see it and remark on it.

Founder Barbara Chandler Allen says, "Most charities are top-down: 'the haves' giving to 'the have nots,' This is totally different. We have created a lateral philanthropy. It is vulnerable children giving to other vulnerable children. The adults are there simply to grease the wheels."

What a great idea, all the way around.

News from the Duh Department

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Don't get me wrong. I love a bag of Cheetos as much as the next blogger. I come not to bury junk food but to set limits on it. Now I have more actual science to back me up.

A recent study conducted in Philadelphia schools found that eliminating soda, rethinking snacks and educating kids almost halves the number of kids who are obese by the sixth grade.

Color me stunned. Turns out that when you give kids information and stop easy access to corn syrup and salt, you can actually make a difference. Butter my butt and call me a biscuit. It's a miracle.

The study's authors are quick to point out that more research needs to be done. Also, they mention that it might be better to start all of this before sixth grade.

Still, it's a good step toward offering proof for something that is intuitively clear.

Photo credit: Stephen Alvarez at art.com

Daily Duh: Less junk food leads to weight loss

Brett Singer — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:00:00 GMT

This is a new occasional feature where I'll highlight studies that seem to confirm the obvious.

In Philadelphia, land of the cheese steak, five elementary schools participated in a program where candy and soda were eliminated from the vending machines, and kids were rewarded with raffle tickets for "making healthy food choices." And guess what? If kids eat less sugary snacks, they gain less weight. Astonishing stuff, this.

One interesting finding was that kids spend $2 per day on snacks that add up to about 600 calories, presumably of the junk food kind. Those things come from the corner store, where there may not be a lot of options besides Drake's cakes. The group that conducted the study, The Food Trust, says that they are "working with" local shops to get them to stock more fruit, vegetables and water. Because storeowners love it when people who aren't their customers tell them what to sell.

The language used in the story is very interesting when you consider the climate of weight loss. The writer refers to "kids who got fat" and then switches to "obese" and "overweight". This doesn't give you much information. If a kid is 2 or 3 pounds overweight, is that fat? When does overweight become obese? (I personally prefer the term "fatty-boombalatty", but that's just me.)

Getting kids to eat healthy is important, and it certainly would help if the food offered in school were better for you. My school lunch choices were pizza, hamburger, or cheeseburger, all of which came with French fries, or the disturbing looking hot lunch of the day. The fries were -- and this is not a joke -- "vitamin C enriched," which probably was meant to meet some sort of mandate. A study like this at least calls attention to the issue, which is great, but the conclusions aren't exactly earth shaking.

image: Yahoo.com

Mom Arrested In Columbine-Like Attack Plot

Kelly Mills — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:30:00 GMT

Police in Philadelphia have a 14-year-old boy in custody who told police he was planning a "Columbine-type attack" on a suburban school. The boy, whose name isn't being released, is being charged with criminal attempt and possession of a criminal instrument. The police picked him up following a tip from another student and his father, and found a scary big arsenal, including home-made hand grenades, knives, swords and about 80 pellet guns. He also had a pistol and a rifle at the home of a family friend. And yes, he was being homeschooled after being bullied. Police say he planned to drive his car through the front door of the school and open fire.

So, why was his mother also arrested? When the story first came out, the D.A. said "I think that it would be impossible for both parents to be totally in the dark." I can imagine that yes, it would be hard to completely conceal your homemade grenade supplies and your mountain of guns. And as it turns out, the mother bought him a rifle at a gun show. She is being charged with providing a firearm to a minor and contributing to the corruption of a minor.

When these school tragedies explode, people often ask where the parents were in all of it. In this case, I'm not sure I want to know.

Jackass Kid in Critical Condition

Patti — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:00:00 GMT

I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, there's something to the idea of censoring what your children watch. Or at the very least, taking some responsibility for making sure your kids can read and understand the disclaimer at the beginning of a film like "Jackass: Number Two" before you let them watch it and then eave them to their own devices. Such thinking is a little too late for whoever's responsible for eleven-year-old Wallison Costa, who is in a Philadelphia intensive care unit after throwing himself out a second-story window in an attempt to mimic a scene featuring Bam Margera. To be fair, it worked out fine the first time Wallison tried it.

He was found on the pavement by the mother of his friend Bruno Potoozny, who is described as having watched the defenestration with "bemused trepidation", and taken to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children for treatment.

Wallison and Bruno are known around the neighborhood for "tomfoolery", including such shenanigans as cutting school, jumping around on the roofs, and shooting BBs at their neighbors' homes in the wee hours of the morning. But this newest trick has lost them at least one cohort: "My son won't be going up there no more," said Harriet Lincoln, mother of 13-year-old Jahlil, a friend of the other boys "Oh, no, playing a stunt like that, oh, no! I'm so glad my son wasn't there."

Bam Margera's spokesperson declined to comment.

Man Kills 17-Month-Old Daughter Because He Thought She Broke His Xbox

Dad Gone Mad — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 20:10:00 GMT

Some Einstein from Philly "allegedly" killed his 17-month-old daughter because he thought she had broken his precious Xbox. He was playing Ghost Recon, a violent combat game, which he will no doubt try to blame for motivating his despicable deed.

"She pulled the cord and the whole game console fell over," Tyrone Spellman said in a statement read by a homicide detective. "I thought it was broken. I popped her in the face. I picked her up and tossed her in a chair." Later that day - at 12:37 p.m. - Alayiah was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital.

In his statement, Spellman said that after he tossed his daughter in a chair, he put her on a bed. He then went to tell the girl's mother, Mia Turman, who was eight months pregnant and sleeping in a different bedroom, that he was going to a store to get "something to smoke and something to eat."

According to an autopsy, Alayiah's skull was fractured to the point that a piece of bone had fallen out.