Spur the Cancer Out of Montana

I read about this effort in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and was excited to donate.

Spur the Cancer is a non profit organization designed to help cancer patients and families pay for medical expenses, testing and family support. Everything is based around a horseback ride that will take place from the end of May through June, and end on the fourth of July. The ride begins at the Eastern border of Montana and end in Arlee, Montana. Before and during this ride we will try and raise as much money as possible to donate back to the fight.

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Back in the game....

Well, we fell behind for awhile, but I love this project and want to get back in the game!

I'm choosing a cause today and getting this project going again.

Year 2, Week 4: Doctors Without Borders

Year 2, Week 3: Partners in Health

We first learned about PIH through the "One Book, One Bozeman" project last year. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, supporting PIH is a great way to help.

Year 2, Week 2: Parents of Irving Children

The Parents Council at Irving Elementary School in Bozeman helps kids in so many ways ... from field trips, to teacher supplies, to art programs, to our community garden. We love Irving School!

Year 2, Week 1: Gallatin Valley Food Bank

We thought the start of a new year would be a great time to remember our local food bank. A lot of people give at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but families have needs all throughout the year.

Gallatin Valley Food Bank

Week 48: Gallatin Valley Land Trust

We LOVE the trails in Bozeman! Whether biking on the Galligator or hiking the M or Drinking Horse, there are so many great places to go in Bozeman. We were inspired to choose GVLT because our friend Marla and her employer, Mercury Advertising, gave a great donation to GVLT as part of their holiday project.

Thanks for all you do, GVLT! And Marla and Wally, I hope it's OK to steal your photo!

Week 47: Milford Utah Public Library

We chose Milford, Utah because we stopped through this tiny town while flying across the West in our tiny Cessna. The people in Milford were so kind -- including Swede at the airport and Shannon at the motel -- that we decided to send our gift for this week to this town. Thanks for your hospitality! Maybe we will see you again soon.

Milford Public Library

Map of our projects

View 52 Gifts in a larger map

Week 46: Tibetan Childrens Education Foundation

This started as a class field trip to a sand mandala at MSU. And it was really cool. We saw it getting started, and I wanted to come back again, so my mom and I came the day it was being destroyed. So we saw it finished! And, I got to take a little bag of sand home, and my mom bought me a purple scarf.

The children in Tibet were being forced to go to Chinese schools quite awhile ago, and now they're trying to fix it. What we're doing is so the children are able to go to school.

This foundation is based out of Helena, Montana

Week 19: UNICEF

I like how UNICEF helps kids. I like that it does it even though it doesn't have to. It's doing something extra. It's going the extra mile. We listened to a radio interview from a girl in Kenya.

UNICEF

Week 18: Thrive

We went to a Kentucky Derby Party at our friend Cali's house. We tried to pick the horse that would win the race, and half of the money would go to Thrive. Molly picked the horse that came in second, but nobody picked the winner, so Thrive got all the money. That is great, because Thrive helps kids and families in so many ways.

Visit Thrive

Thrive helps CAP mentors at Irving School. YAY! Also, my mom is going to play in the Thrive golf tournament again this year. It is really fun.

Week 17: MSU Recycling Club

MSU Recycling Club came to my school last week and taught us about garbology and how to save the planet's environment.

Every day they weighed our garbage that we threw away at lunchtime, and the first day it was 82 pounds. The second day it was 73 pounds. The third day it was 83 pounds, and the last day it decreased so much it was only in the 50's! We got all excited about that and that day, we had a big assembly to see who was the Recycling King and Queen. A whole bunch of people saw that and we thought that the 6 (they added the milk that we poured out, too) was a 0, and so it looked like 03.4 pounds that we threw away and we were totally freaking out! But then we realized that it was 63.

The Recycling King was Kyle Steen, and the Recycling Queen was my best friend, Mari Aoki, and I got mentioned because I helped my friend Ally Bauerle collect biodegradable things to put in her grandparents' compost pile.

I like the MSU Recycling Club because they are really nice and they seem to know what they're doing.

Thank you, Kevin, Zach, Maddie, Kari, and Kina.

Here's an article about Kevin!

Week 16: SaveACulture.com

I learned about this from a Tibetan lama who came to my classroom. His name was Tenzin Konchock.

He told us about how Tibetan lamas live and how China was taking over Tibet and how Tibetan families escaped to Nepal and India to try and make schools and keep their religion alive. In the schools in Tibet, they did the Chinese history and the Chinese religion, and so they wanted to keep their religion alive.

Visit the Antahkarana Society International

Week 15: Greenscool

Greenscool is a non-profit organization that installs renewable energy systems and educates children in impoverished schools around the world.

We read about Greenscool in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, and we think it is really neat!

Visit Greenscool

Week 14: ROC Wheels

ROC Wheels is a group right here in Bozeman that makes and distributes wheelchairs for kids in developing countries in Africa, Iraq, Peru and other places.

I chose this because if the kids in these developing countries didn't have these wheelchairs they would just be lying around in the dust with everyone ignoring them, and they would get painful sores on their bodies.

Visit ROC Wheels in Bozeman, Montana!

Week 13: Literacy Through Photography

I wanted to do Literacy Through Photography because my class did it, and for the first time this year, we actually got to take the pictures instead of my teacher, Mrs. Sutton taking them. And this year, Rachel Cudmore helped. We each picked a part of our body that we thought represented us best and we wrote poems about it and took pictures of it with the help of our parents.

We finished that a little while ago and soon we're going to have an art show at Rockford Coffee, which is a local coffee bar, and now the other third grade class is going to do LTP.

I learned so much about photography and now I am such a better photographer! I think I did some pretty good writing, too. My poem was called "Rainbow Eyes" and I took many pictures of my eyes, but only one is shown here.

Week 12: Heard Museum Native American Student Art Program

I wanted to choose this because they bring out the art in all the Native American kids, and I like that, because I love to do art and my school always does something with ArtSplot and each year we have a different theme. One year it was birds, one year it was dragonflies and this year it was fruit trees.

My Aunt Tink volunteers at the Heard Museum gift shop and she helps with this project, and I like that, because I like Aunt Tink and she is really nice!

Art by Heather Kee, Navajo, age 10

Visit the Heard

Week 11: Phoenix Zoo

I wanted to choose the Phoenix Zoo because there are a ton of animals to look at, and I liked looking at the baby orangutan because he reminded me of my brother, Cam. He seemed like he got into mischief, because he always ran away from his mom and he kept going upside down and kissing her (kind of like Cam).

And, I liked going to Monkey Village at Phoenix Zoo where we saw little spider monkeys and I got a lot of pictures of them. They are just so cute!

Visit the Phoenix Zoo

Week 10: Audubon Society (for elf owls!)

I want to help the elf owls because in school not too long ago we were reading a story and it was called "The Living Desert" from National Geographic Kids (I think) and it had a picture of a tiny little elf owl and it was just so cute. And I wanted to help elf owls.

The elf owls live in saguaro cacti and I wanted to help save their homes.

Illustration courtesy of paulmirocha.com

Visit the Audubon Society