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(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) Carbondale, CO - December 2, 2009 - Community service is a core value and has been a way of life at CRMS since its inception in 1953. John Holden said, “It is my firm belief that the happiest people in the world are those who serve their fellow man.” Our students have always been compelled and encouraged to go beyond the robust academic and active offerings, and to become productive, engaged members of our society. One such opportunity to contribute in a greater and meaningful way is through our student clubs. On a daily basis, CRMS students, despite their hectic school schedules, are reaching out and helping those less fortunate or simply in need of assistance. From Operation Smile and Face AIDS to Soles 4 Souls and Random Acts of Kindness, CRMS student-initiated clubs and efforts are raising funds and awareness in our community and beyond. Most recently there has been a tremendous amount of student interest in global humanitarian causes, and our clubs reflects this social awareness.

OPERATION SMILE
Two years ago, seniors Olivia Mertz and Mima Strong began an Operation Smile fundraising chapter on the CRMS campus. Operation Smile is a global organization that provides free surgeries to cleft-palate children around the world. Since its inception in 1982, Operation Smile has given over 135,000 children a new chance at life by providing them with safe, effective reconstructive surgery to correct their facial deformities. Utilizing All School Meetings as a platform to raise awareness surrounding this organization and bake sales as their key fundraising mechanism, their club enjoys 11 student members, has raised over $2,200, and has funded eight cleft-palate surgeries.

FACE AIDS
Last year, junior Katie Grant was inspired by a passage she read in her sophomore history class from Mountains Beyond Mountains, which chronicled Dr. Paul Farmer’s decades of service in Haiti and Africa treating patients with tuberculosis and AIDS. After much research and thought over the summer, Katie discovered Face AIDS, a student-based organization dedicated to mobilizing and inspiring students to fight AIDS in Africa, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to Dr. Farmers non-profit organization, Partners In Health (PIH). Since 2005, Face AIDS has raised over $1.4 million for PIH to fight AIDS in Africa via their income generating projects with HIV associations in Rwanda.

Katie debuted the new CRMS Face AIDS chapter at the beginning of this school year, and recently gave an inspiring all-school presentation encouraging our community with the following advice, “Sometimes what stirs your passion doesn’t have a pre-existing structure. Sometimes you have to be the one to begin. When you find a cause that touches you, it becomes easy to dedicate yourself to it.” She finished her presentation with the following advice, “With the coming holiday season, and a seemingly endless supply of food and gifts, it can become easy to forget how fortunate we are. This can be a time when we take our good fortune for granted, or we can use the holiday spirit to appreciate what we have, and to share it with others.” To-date the CRMS Face AIDS chapter has raised over $500 and recruited 23 members.

SOULS 4 SOLES
This past summer, juniors Kesley Bohanon and J.J. Worley decided to help needy people around the world by collecting 500 pairs of shoes for the Souls 4 Soles organization, which ships shoes to villages in third-world countries where people cannot afford to shoes. Kelsey and J.J. were drawn to the project because the donations didn’t involve cash, but rather discarded shoes. Thanks to the Aspen Skiing Company, which paid to cover the shipping costs to the distribution center, the project was a big success and involved the CRMS community and beyond.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS (RAK)
The newest club to debut at CRMS is RAK, a national non-profit created as a resource for people committed to spreading kindness. Senior Grady Lenkin learned about RAK while visiting a college campus. Upon further research he decided it was exactly the type of club he would like to initiate at CRMS. The entire premise is to simply ask “how can I help” and to keep that question at the forefront of your mind as you move through the day. By encouraging members to reach out and make a small difference each day, an entire community can be uplifted. While Grady would like to see the club continue after he graduates, he is grateful for all that CRMS has given him and is excited about an opportunity to give something back. In typical CRMS style, upon introducing his new club at an All School Meeting a few weeks ago, 47 students and 14 faculty/staff members signed up on the spot. With over a third of CRMS spreading Random Acts of Kindness, the groundswell movement is well underway. For more information contact lraleigh@crms.org

Meaningful work is a way of life at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. This independent day and boarding high school was founded in 1953 based on this principal. Today the students participate in two afternoons a week on a campus work crew. This can be anything from organic gardening and ranch work to glassblowing and electrical. Today we meet the Recycling Work Crew. For more information please go to www.crms.org.

Colorada Rocky Mountain School Blog

 "The fight for health as a human right, a fight with real promise, has so far been plagued by failures. Failure because we are chronically short of resources. Failure because we are too often at the mercy of those with the power and money to decide the fates of hundreds of millions. Failure because ill health, as we have learned again and again, is more often than not a symptom of poverty and violence and inequality." In a recent "This I believe" archive Dr. Paul Farmer one of the founders of Partners in Health spoke to the notion that, health care should be a human right. Paul is a man that has the potential to make millions of dollars a year, and yet he has chosen, a modest life traveling the world ensuring that people receive health care. He does all of this not for money but, simply because he is passionate about it.

This  is what really drew me to Partners in Health, and through them, the FACE AIDS cause. Trying to make a positive contribution in the world seems overwhelming, yes the saying "one person can make a difference" is uplifting but how can we as students in Colorado help make that difference?  I was talking to teacher Amanda Leahy today expressing how I felt that CRMS represented a world of its own, there is diversity in ethnicity, race, culture, and economic status, each person here has different strengths and weaknesses that they bring everyday. Through our experiences with school trips, work crew, and active we have the opportunity to discover our own strenghths and weaknesses. We learn to trust one another, and most importantly help one another. Wouldn't it be great to take the lessons we learn through  helping and apply it to the world at large.

During the past week it has been  really amazing to hear all the stories that have evolved from our Cake Walk fundraiser. Operation Smile not only raised money to help those less fortunate but, has also created many memorable moments with family's and friends at CRMS. Teacerh Kayo Ogilby shared his daughter's excitement while making a princess cake, and the Head of School Leahy house was filled with fun and memories as they made a cake together for this charitable cause. Experiences like these are what  truly inspire us. I think  often times we gain more then we ever imagined by simply giving what we can.

Find what you are passionate about and dedicate yourself to the cause. CRMS offers a wide range of ways to help and give back: Work crews, Face Aids, Operation Smile, Peace Jam, Random Acts of Kindness club. Possibly  these organizations are not what inspire you. Sometimes what stirs your passion doesn't have a preexisting structure, sometimes you have to be the one to begin. When you find a cause that touches you  it becomes easy to dedicate yourself to it. Dr. Paul Farmer does not do what he does for recognition, he simply does it because it is the right thing to do. By joining something bigger then yourself it gives you a sense of purpose, a sense that you can make a difference.

With the coming holiday season and the holiday spirit in the air, with a seemingly endless supply of food and gifts it can become easy to forget just how fortunate we are. It can be a time when we take our good fortune for granite or.... we can use the holiday spirit to appreciate what we have,..... and share it with others.

A Haitian proverb says "Beyond mountains there are mountains." In other words as you solve one problem another one often presents itself, one of the great things about CRMS is they shine a light on a lot of the world's problems and give us the tools to problem solve. Before we leave tonight I encourage all of us to take a couple of moments to reflect on a problem  that you are passionate about, and think of ways that you can help that cause. -- Katie Grant, 11th grade, Colorado Rocky Mountain School presentation to the entire student body at an evening program

 

From Jeff Leahy, CRMS Head of School: Last night I had dinner in Tokyo with Taro Tomisawa, who graduated five years ago. Taro works for the Tokyo Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on "developing policy, investing in people, and transforming society". During dinner Taro shared with me that over the course of his time at CRMS doing community service became somewhat of a habit for him. He thinks that this is one of the main values that CRMS has to share with the world, and that this sense of supporting others is not readily found elsewhere. During his time in college and his year in Tokyo he has struggled to find the same amount of opportunities that he felt were so available at CRMS. Today he works in the government area of downtown Tokyo and has taken on an important role in the Foundation - keeping his CRMS legacy alive.

Post Independent (John Stroud) Glenwood Springs, CO - CARBONDALE, Colorado — Friends and fellow Colorado Rocky Mountain School juniors Kelsey Bohannon and JJ Worley recently found a way to help needy people around the world, and keep what otherwise would be trash out of area landfills.

Through the Soles4Souls shoe charity, they collected some 500 pairs of used shoes from throughout the Roaring Fork Valley. The shoes will be sent to a warehouse in Nevada, and eventually shipped to villages around the world where people cannot afford to buy shoes themselves.

“I heard about it and it just interested me as a way for people do something for those in need without sending money,” said Bohannon, 16, who lives in Glenwood Springs.

“Some people don't like giving money, because they're not sure what's really going to happen to it,” she said. “There's not much else you can do with used shoes, though. You know someone is going to be wearing them who needs them.”

Worley, also 16, from Carbondale, looks at it as a “one person's trash is another person's treasure” sort of approach to global charity.

“People really do get tired of donating money. This is a way to get rid of something you'd be throwing away anyway, and for a good cause,” she said.

Bohannon and Worley put up flyers around the valley and set up collection boxes at Summit Canyon Mountaineering in Glenwood Springs and at Dos Gringos Burritos in Carbondale.

“They asked me to come empty the box at Summit because it was overflowing,” Bohannon said. “The shoes filled up my car.”

Once they collected all the shoes they realized it would cost $230 to ship them to Nevada, even after the 80 percent charity discount from UPS. So they approached the Aspen Skiing Company, and it covered the shipping cost.

“We didn't even think about the money part of it,” Worley said. “We really want to thank the Skico for helping us out.”

They received some interesting shoes along the way, including some Go-Go boots, a pair of snowboard boots, and ballet slippers.

“Some of them are pretty fancy shoes, and not very used at all,” Bohannon said.

Miser's Mercantile, a local second-hand store, also donated some of the shoes it had in stock, and the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary collected a box of shoes as well.

The students may do another drive in the future, but their collection efforts are done for now. However, Independence Run and Hike, a local running and outdoor gear store, is also a collection location for Soles4Souls.

The store, located in the Gateway Plaza at Highway 133 and Cowen Drive in Carbondale, is collecting “gently worn” footwear and/or monetary donations to help ship the shoes.

The shoes sometimes go to victims of a natural disaster, or who are subject to living in extreme poverty, according to the organization's website, www.giveshoes.org.

“It is estimated that Americans have 1.5 billion pairs of unused shoes lying in their closets,” it notes. “The charity can use each and every one of these pairs to make a tangible difference in someone's life.”

Independence Run and Hike owner Brion After said he is glad to contribute, both in the charitable sense and because of the reduced environmental impact of recycling used shoes.

“We believe in taking care of the land that takes care of us,” he said. “Partnering with Soles4Souls enables the local running and hiking community to be environmental stewards and assist those in need throughout the world.”  jstroud@postindependent.com

For more information on Colorado Rocky Mountain School please contact lraleigh@crms.org

Problem: On average each of our high school day students drives approx 13.4 miles per day coming and going to campus getting approximately 27.2 miles to the gallon. Will all 67 day students combined, we are using over 80 gallons of gas each day and spending over $350 daily. While those numbers may not sound that significant, when you calculate them out over the course of the school year, it results in 13,200 gallons of gas being consumed costing over $59,000.

Solution: Since many of our day students live close to one another (whether it be in Glenwood Sprigs, Aspen, Basalt or Carbondale) if they would all pair up and carpool to and from school together it could save over $30,000 in gas consumption annually.

For more information go to http://www.crms.org/culture/sustainability/

Colorado Rocky Mountain School Work Crews provide an avenue for students to take leadership roles and initiate change on campus toward creating a more sustainable life. The Recycling Work Crew maintains recycling stations in all the dorms and major buildings. They collect recycled materials and take them to the local recycling center. In the Garden Work Crew, students work to provide the school community with healthy organic food that is grown in a manner that minimizes the toll on the land. The Sustainability Work Crew brainstorms and problem-solves ways to improve our school’s efficiency. From educating the campus to adding weather stripping to all the obscure doorways on campus, the Sustainability Work Crew takes a variety of steps to minimize needless electrical, food, or heat waste. This Work Crew program allows passionate students to initiate change. Various student-led ideas have included: creating a sustainability dorm competition, a sustainability newsletter (humorously named The Toilet Paper), and a weekly “Green Tip” announcement to the entire school; changing our cleaning supplies to all-green products, measuring the campus energy usage, insulating the windows and doors, and researching better methods to improve our sustainability. While this work crew’s primary goal is to focus on sustainability, the rest of the work crews on campus (from Ranching to Electricity) also act under the green umbrella of sustainability.

Local conservationist and pilot Bruce Gordon gave up on politicians when former Speaker of the House Tom Foley fell asleep in his co-pilot seat. Gordon had been giving the congressman a bird’s-eye tour of tree stands killed by mountain pine beetles when he nodded off.

“This big fat guy fell asleep right in the airplane,” Gordon said Monday.

So the longtime Aspenite has since turned his attention — and his six-seater Cessna — to a younger, more engaged crowd. On Monday morning, Gordon and two other volunteer pilots took to the sky with 50-some local teenagers, flying above beetle-killed lodgepole pines on the flanks of Mount Sopris.

The sky tours kicked off the fifth annual “Flight Across America” for EcoFlight, a local non-profit conservation tour outfit. It included students from the Colorado Rocky Mountain School along with Basalt, Bridges and Glenwood Springs high schools. This morning, EcoFlight is flying four students to Jackson, Wyo. to tour the forests there infested with the white bark pine beetle.

For the complete article please go to http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/137033

For more information on Colorado Rocky Mountain School go to www.crms.org or contact lraleigh@crms.org

Corporate Social Responsible News: Mary Kay + Mary Kay Foundation's "Outdoor Nature" Classrooms; Colorado Rocky Mountain School's Grant from Captain Planet

Captain Planet cartoon, is proud to announce that Colorado Rocky Mountain School has recently been awarded an educational grant of $2,500. These funds will be used towards the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Organic Garden Learning Center project.

“We are thrilled to present this award to Colorado Rocky Mountain School,” says Taryn Murphy, Programs Director. “We receive thousands of submissions each year, and therefore have to be very selective to whom we award funding. We feel that this project deserves exploration and attention and wish Colorado Rocky Mountain School the best of luck. It is our hope that our combined efforts will educate, empower, involve and invest today’s youth to cultivate a better tomorrow.”

The Colorado Rocky Mountain School Organic Garden Learning Center is a great asset to not only the school and our students, but the community as well. CRMS is committed to teaching our students and other community members how to grow and harvest organic foods in a sustainable, and energy and water efficient manner. “We are thrilled that a national foundation is partnering with us on this project,“ says Linda Halloran, Director of the CRMS Organic Garden Learning Center.

The CRMS Organic Garden Learning Center expansion project will allow the school to double the amount of food produced to 40% of the produce consumed on campus (30,000 pounds annually), while decreasing the school’s carbon footprint. The project also includes a remodel of the recycling center and the Recycling Program.

About CRMS

Colorado Rocky Mountain School, located in Carbondale, is an independent high school founded in 1953. The school combines college preparatory academics, outdoor and work experiences, arts, community service and campus life in a comprehensive educational approach that develops strong students who are engaged global citizens. For more information visit www.crms.org

About The Captain Planet Foundation

Captain Planet Foundation is located at 133 Luckie Street NW in Atlanta, Ga. They can be reached by phone at 404.522.4270. Founded in 1991, The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) was created to support hands-on, environmental projects for youth. CPF is committed to making a global impact with projects throughout the United States and around the world. In 2007, CPF funded 138 hands-on, environmental education projects spanning across 38 states and internationally in Canada, England and Costa Rica. We have done projects in all 50 United States. For more information visit www.captainplanetfdn.org.

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