Holidazzle Parade & Emergency Foodshelf Network

The 2008 Holidazzle Parade was in full swing tonight as hundreds of onlookers lined the streets of Minneapolis. The holiday spirit brings out the best in people as they bundle their families in snow pants, hats and mittens to enjoy this annual tradition.

Ameriprise Financial provides volunteers each night to support the Emergency Foodshelf Network by encouraging monetary and food donations. Tonight four Sojourners volunteered to be in the parade and experience holiday gift giving from inside pinstriped overhauls.

Nathan Worrell, an Ameriprise employee and PLAY it Forward "favorite", was the mastermind behind this experience. His wife, Kacie, looking ever so glamorous in her stylish winter boots and polka-dotted scarf shook her bells and collected cash donations in a bucket along the way. Justin sported his Janet Jackson microphone as he lead our team (and the parade) down Nicollet Mall informing onlookers of foodshelf statistics and encouraging them to give, give, give! And I, in my small overhaul knickers, was designated as one of the two three-wheel-bike-riders who got to drive a donation "train". Seeing my cousins face on the sideline as I unexpectedly passed her on my train-bike was pretty amusing. "Jodi?!!" she shouted as she scrambled for the camera she wasn't even carrying. I didn't have time to explain what she was seeing as I rolled on by wearing an engineers attire, driving a train, waiving and shouting Happy Holidays to the crowd. How exactly did I get here? The spontenaity and surprise associated with volunteering is fantastic!

Foodshelf Facts:
* 56% of foodshelf visits are made by families with children
* the number of families visiting local foodshelves in the metro area has increased 20-30% in the last year

For every dollar and pound of food donated, Ameriprise Financial matched the donation up to $20,000!

Make a cash or food donation by contacting the Emergency Foodshelf Network.
www.emergencyfoodshelf.org

Be the Change You Want to See In the World

I think a pretty smart and inspired person once said something like this.... "be the change you want to see in the world."

In Guatemala, Jodi challenged us with daily insights....

BE PRESENT will forever be etched in my memory, and may it also be a constant reminder to listen, not only to others, but to nature and ourselves.

To REFLECT was for me a difficult challenge at a time when all I wanted was to give of myself, to be active, and to seize the day.

Where do you look when you're walking? It seems like some days I'm trudging through the day, navigating cracks in the sidewalk. Other days, my head is in the clouds. To BE PRESENT and REFLECT are two challenges that have stuck with me.

Question: How do you STAY PRESENT and REFLECT daily?

Life is a game. PLAY it Forward . You're it! :-p

Justin Fleming
Sojourner
Guatemala Fall 2008

Leave Your Mascara At Home

Leave your mascara at home boys and girls, PLAY it Forward is not for pretty boys although we had several on our sweet trip.

I looked most enticing with my fingernails caked with grit and my hair coiffed in the sweat shaped squashed down style of my purple bandana. I would have had to search for a mirror to see this but I didn't because there were too many other really cool things to see and do. Possibilities for that include riding your trusty mountain bike with the necessary shock absorbers down a rain slick mountain path or man-handling your kayak over the beautiful Lake..... as the waves slap you across the face and soak your brand new water resistant gear. Give up your worries, it is time for fun.

And fun it was, whether we were carrying heavy panels up the mountain to build a house for a hard working family or my first shot of tequila, salt and lime. (Loved the tequila but go easy on the lime.)

You will find yourself reflecting on the great issues of poverty, fairness, equality and the like unless you are made of stone and if you are made of stone you must take this trip. Tough veneer crumbles pretty easily when you need to sprint to the hole in the ground toilet with an audience of fellow sufferers. Connection with the big wide world happens naturally when after two days of hefting, hammering, measuring and mitering you present a new house to a family of five. They thank you in Spanish seventeen different ways and you "Ah shucks it was nothing" right back at 'em, but it was something, it is something to have a home that keeps you out of rain, home that lifts you from the muddy floor at night, a place to be safe, place to be proud of.

So contemplate all of that while hiking a steamy path through the forest and watch young girls in native dress chop firewood with a machete and boys fly kites made of black plastic bags and women wash clothes in the town square and men carry fifty pound bags of cement on their backs two miles up a rocky path.

Look inward, act outward, play hard, laugh mightily. You deserve it. You owe it to yourself to find your strength after a physically exhausting day, to use your wisdom while bartering in the market and while trying your wobbly Spanish.

You must experience this. Afterward you will feel deep gratitude for your life. You will cherish the gods who created health insurance and inhalers for asthma and a stove that doesn't blow smoke into your lungs. You will feel joy listening to your tour guide Juan play his drums and croon a sexy Led Zepplin tune at Cafe NoSe late in the evening. You will be ravenous after a day of play and devour plantains and beans and rice, tasty spicy sandwiches on pillowy bread from the market and delicious coffee and if you play your cards right a shot of mezcal.

Try PLAY it Forward - Guatemala. Because don't you want more at the end of the day to reflect on than your own pretty face in the mirror. Don't you want it all?

Linda Kantner
Sojourner Fall 2008
Guatemala

Reunion at the Kantners

Sojourners from the Guatemala tour this past October reunited for an evening of pasta, wine and reminiscing.

Making connections during your travels is inevitable, but staying connected after you return is truly special. Something tells me this group will be connected for a long time to come.

Holiday Giving at Feed My Starving Children

Twenty kind-hearted Sojourners turned out for the PIF holiday "giving back" event at Feed My Starving Children this month. Volunteers hand-packed meals designed specially for starving children; Feed My Starving Children ships the meals to more than 50 countries around the world. PIF holiday meals will be distributed to children in Haiti sometime in the next two months.

www.fmsc.org