Give the Gift of Love!

It seems that my blog post from November never posted to the site…interesting, so bear with me as I attempt to recollect the events of November.

In conjunction with the V-Warriors and Allies, we sponsored the Safe-Sex Campaign/Kinky Crafting two weeks in to November. Going along with our theme for our Panthers for Planned Parenthood, we wanted this event to emphasize our attempt to remove the taboo associated with the usage of contraceptives. To effectively convey this, we allotted students condoms, along with art supplies such as paint, feathers, sequins, and glitter to create safe-sex themed art. I was worried we wouldn’t have much of a turnout, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! We had at least twenty or thirty students come out to support our cause. To say the least, the event was a success. Also, I’d like to thank you to our architecture pal Nick Fish for tagging our Safe Sex photo backdrop.

I can’t say we had the same success with our Juno movie night in the last of November. Our turnout totaled three. Quite disappointing, really. I’d say we probably should have advertised a bit more, because I feel like our free condoms, Twizzlers, and Sunny D would have drawn in quite the crowd. And it probably didn’t help that we held the event the day students returned after Thanksgiving Break. But this was only a minor setback; we’ve learned that we need to prepare more in terms of advertising our events and next time, the same won’t happen.

Alright. On to December. World AIDS Day served as this semester’s final event. We wanted to celebrate the holiday season, so we thought it’d be neat to make those close pin reindeer like the ones everyone made in elementary school for Christmas ornaments. The reindeer were our cutesy was of hanging the condoms from our Christmas tree in commons. I’m fairly certain everyone got a kick out of them. I think a few of my housemates even made a few clever slogans for the condom reindeer like “Give the gift of love this holiday season” and “Wrap your Christmas presents”.

Anyhow, Wiemar proposed we answer some questions in response to this semester is Summit, so here it goes:

Q: What events have taken place at the agency have you have volunteered for and how have you assisted this month?

A: Our events this semester haven’t been directly through Planned Parenthood, but rather and extension of their message, and ours, to remove the social stigma associated with sexual education and the use of contraceptives. In November and December our events – the Kinky Crafting/Safe Sex Campaign, Juno movie night, and World AIDS Day all communicate our emphasis upon this theme.

Q: As we end the semester, what have been your best experiences and toughest experiences with your partnership agency?

A: It has been exceedingly difficult to communicate with Planned Parenthood throughout the semester. At the same time, I feel they are very excited that we have created a chapter of Planned Parenthood on Drury’s campus.

Q: How do you see your group project evolving into the spring semester now that you have one semester under your belt?

A: I think that in the spring semester we will be more involved in off-campus events with Planned Parenthood, especially with the Roe vs. Wade anniversary fast approaching.

Q: What skills have you gained or improved this semester that came directly out of being part of the Summit Leadership Experience?

A: My confidence in speaking with strangers has definitely been influenced by our on-campus events, particularly the lunchtime Ovarian Cancer Awareness and World AIDS Day booths.

Q: As we end the Wellness Program, and Stress Free Now, what have been the highlights –low and high – of this program and what would you suggest for the future if this is continued?

A: I especially enjoyed the weekly events – the yoga, tai chi, and massage session. On the other hand, the online meditation work was quite cheesy. I’ve done meditation work before, and have never found it quite this ridiculous and laughable.

Q: What are you looking forward to over the winter break?

A: Sleep. Quite the original answer, yes, I know. Actually, I took a glassblowing classes over the summer and would very much enjoy taking a few more over break. Also, Elyse and possibly Stephanie will be visiting St. Louis for New Years to hang out with Amanda, Kevin, and me. It should be a great time.

Have a Happy Holidays everyone!

Laura Jean

Do Panthers Hibernate, Or Is That Just Bears?

What events have taken place at the agency you have volunteered and how have you assisted this month?

To kick off the month, we hosted an event for World AIDS Day on the first to promote awareness of the dangers of AIDS. At the tail end of November, we also hosted a Juno movie night to inform our peers of life as a pregnant youngster. Complementary Sunny D and Twizzlers were provided.

As we end the semester what have been your best experiences and toughest experiences with your partnership agency?

Among the best experiences were our opportunities to actively communicate with the Drury community about the goals of Planned Parenthood. We were met with difficulty when our resources were tampered with, but nonetheless, it has been a positive experience to grow with my fellow Summit members in our efforts to promote sexual health on campus.

How do you see your group project evolving into the Spring Semester now that you have one semester under your belt?

In our first semester of working with Planned Parenthood, our main goal was to promote Drury awareness of the organization. I feel that we have now planted the seed in the minds of Drury's students, leaving the next semester open to promoting the services Planned Parenthood offers. Next semester, we would like to provide more useful and interactive information to the student body while continuing to break down the stigma of Planned Parenthood.

What skills have you gained or improved this semester that came directly out of being part of the Summit Leadership Experience?

I feel as though I have improved in working as a member of a team and adapting to the needs of others.

As we end the Wellness Program and Stress Free Now Component, what have been the highlights (low and high) of this program and what would you suggest for the future if this is continued?

I recognize the concern shown for our well-being. However, I already have a firm grasp on stress relief. I am a realist, and tend to put things in perspective, thus cutting stress off at the pass. I also found the yoga, tai chi, and acupuncture classes to be almost frightening in their methods. If anything, they only lessened my view of Eastern medicine. On top of that, I feel the time could have been put to more constructive use.

What are you looking forward to over the winter break?

I look forward to taking part in activities cherished as a child, spending time with family and close friends, and celebrating the Christmas season in true South Dakotan style.

BBBOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!

Christmas break is almost here!!

SO Planned Parenthood has been working pretty hard to spread sexual awareness. Unfortunately our Juno movie night was not a great success but I would like to thank the two people who did show up. At the movie we made little reindeer christmas decorations out of close pins. In the reindeers mouth was a condom. We put up a christmas tree in our living room and decorated it with the reindeer.

World Aids day went very well. we passed out a lot of condoms and we also got a lot of signatures. I spent a day this week at Planned Parenthood entering the names and information we got into a computer. I was amazed at how many there were. our presentation is going to go really well friday night during class. Andrew Wiemer is going to be amazed.

Massage week was this week! I did not get one however because I do not like strange people touching me. i was not the only one though Elyse didnt get one either. over all I did like the relaxation program. it did help me with my stress and I hope to carry some of it with me after the class has ended.

Planned Parenthood and You

Yesterday I wrote an article to the News-Leader on behalf of the Planned Parenthood 'Birth Control Matters!' campaign, which is trying to establish a 'grassroots' sort of thing to have birth control included in the coverable treatments in the new healthcare laws. Nicely enough, my article was written because of an unaffiliated columnist who of his own volition wrote an article in support of the Birth Control Matters campaign tenets without knowing a single thing about the campaign. Awareness was raised.

The article-writing was a pretty decent experience. World AIDS Day was also fun as we had a Christmas tree covered in prophylactics. Perhaps the toughest was simply arranging times for meetings and such as all parties involved had very different and chock-full schedules.

In the next semester, I can see the group doing more 'big' events for holidays and causes like our Juno night and World AIDS Day stuff.

This semester has, if nothing else, taught me how to better function as a little cog in a group that is itself a little cog in a group that is itself a little cog in a group.

The highlight of Stress Free Now was probably the yoga classes. I enjoyed those heavily, though I could do without the daily 360-5 check-ins.

It's especially strange when meditation is required daily—I think putting a sort of schedule on something like meditation cheapens it.

I would suggest cutting down on the frequency of the 360-5 things.

Over break I have tentative plans to turn into a large slug thing, covered in mucus, that moves only a little and is only record-able with heartbeat monitors and accepts food through a proboscis.

December

Our goal as Panthers for Planned Parenthood is to bring Planned Parenthood on to our campus. So we worked with the agency to plan events here on campus. We did an Ovarian Cancer Awareness event, a Halloween event, Kinky Crafting, Juno, and World AIDS Day. At each event we’ve handed out information on Planned Parenthood and condoms. Also we have had our petitions on hand if people have felt inclined to sign to make birth control free as preventative healthcare. This month we volunteered by setting up a tree and a table outside of the commons for World AIDS Day. We passed out condoms and had people sign postcards to their representatives.

My best experiences in Summit have been volunteering and living with my closest friends here at Drury. I have learned a lot more about each of them over this year. Also putting on events with them has shown our true colors. On the other hand the toughest experience has been putting on events together. Stepping back from the friendship and being professional is complicated. In addition we are all very busy with our own commitments outside of Summit and it is hard to balance them all. So we have had to work together and rely on each other to get things done.

I see our group project evolving beautifully. We will hopefully continue to pass out condoms and information. But more than that, we will work more on breaking down the stigma associate with Planned Parenthood. We would like to have a specialist come to speak about problems people our age might experience and the importance of getting test. We shall see and I am excited to!

I’ve gained event-planning skills. I learned how much needs to be planned ahead and how flexible I need to be the day of the event. Also I have improved my teamwork skills, living and working with house of 8 is not easy.

The highlights of the wellness program were yoga and trying out the different techniques. However, the rest of the program is too complicated. With my schedule I was more stressed out about completing the program than I could even relax. The meditation seemed hokey and almost comical. I did enjoy the other aspects and believe that they should be continued.

This break I’m going to enjoy not having Organic Chemistry or Physics. I am going to relax and just enjoy the season!!!!

ho ho ho.

hey everyone! hope you had a fantastic month. :)

it's christmas time!!

so for my last blog of the year, i will continue the little tradition of "q&a with wiemer"

1. What events have taken place at the agency you have volunteered and how have you assisted this month?
we have made condom reindeer that we put on a christmas tree in the commons, this was a huge success people (including myself) loved them :) i am currently working on a huge project that will help transition us into a new semester (more details later).

2. As we end the semester what have been your best experiences and toughest experiences with your partnership agency?
best experiences- getting to spend time doing fun projects with my friends/housemates, condom reindeer :)
worst experiences- the lack of communication that i felt for part of the semester with planned parenthood, people not showing up for some events.

3. How do you see your group project evolving into the Spring Semester now that you have one semester under your belt?
i am working on getting business support for our roe v. wade event in the spring. that is a big undertaking. i am working with rachel, who is the representative from msu to contact 66 businesses. it'll be a great event!

4. What skills have you gained or improved this semester that came directly out of being part of the Summit Leadership Experience?
i've learned how important teamwork is. i am so busy that i can't make every event. so it's important to work with my team to make sure all of our events are successful.

5. As we end the Wellness Program and Stress Free Now Component what have been the highlights (low and high) of this program and what would you suggest for the future if this is continued?
the wellness program was a great experience. i loved yoga especially. getting to dabble in things i wouldn't normally do was really a great opportunity. i think it should be continued!

What are you looking forward to over the winter break?
spending a week with my family at home. then going to europe for 3 weeks to spend time with my friends in germany and check out german universities.

ich wünsche euch ein fröhliche weihnachten und ein glückliches neues jahr!

austin :)

Last blog of the 2010 year!

Events we participated in with Planned Parenthood are the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month along with World Aids Day. We passed out teal ribbons along with information packets for the Ovarian Cancer Awareness. We also baked cookies and gave them out as well in order to remind everyone on campus to be aware of Ovarian Cancer. For World Aids Day we got a Christmas Tree and decorated it with reindeer ornaments that held condoms. We had information on how to be safe and also cards for people to sign and send to our Senator about sexual education in schools.

The best experiences I've had this semester are bonding with Drury students and teaching my fellow man about sexual responsibility and the importance of testing. I really enjoyed interacting with students on campus and sharing Planned Parenthood goals and causes. On the other hand there were some tough experiences as well. Mostly it was difficult getting started and being aware of how to help and how to market Planned Parenthood. We had some difficulty jumping into the semester, but once we had a few events under our belt it because much easier for us to coordinate.

Our group projects will become easier to handle and coordinate in this upcoming semester. I feel that we will continue to work well together and have interesting events planned. Also as time goes on more organizations seem to learn about what we are doing here at Drury and have approached us to join with them in a few events. If this continues to be the trend, we will be involved again in projects closely related to Planned Parenthood with other groups again next semester.

I have learned how to coordinate events as well as how to speak with others and talk with them about Planned Parenthood and all the events they have. It is also good for me to have to go up to people I do not know and start a conversation with them. It is not something I would normally do, so taking myself out of my normal comfort zone has been good for me.

I feel like the Stress Free Now Component is not something that needs to be continued with Summit students. We are all extremely busy and the Stress Free component seems to just be stressing us out even more. I really enjoyed all the activities but especially yoga and acupuncture.

What are you looking forward to over the winter break?

I am looking forward to not having classes, mainly. And also making money as I will be working most of my break.

Elyse

AIDS free December

What events have taken place at the agency you have volunteered and how have you assisted this month?

- To end November and welcome Drury students back from Thanksgiving break on a relaxing note the Panthers for Planned Parenthood held a Juno night in Lay Auditorium where we served Sunny D and Twizzlers while handing out condoms, lube, and general information about Planned Parenthood. We also had a copy of their most recent petition for free and prescription free birth control. Then December 1^st was World AIDS Day and Planned Parenthood contacted us telling us that if we were planning an event they would send us 1000 condoms along with post cards for students to sign and fill out that would be sent on their behalf to their government representative stating that safe sex education is a priority and should become one within school districts and that we care that the youth are being educated. They also mentioned that available contraception was a priority in keeping the world AIDS free. We successfully got 50 postcards signed and will be continuing to have those at our events as well as the petition. At this event we made reindeer to hang on a Christmas tree with condoms in their mouths for people to take. Overall the event was very successful.

As we end the semester what have been your best experiences and toughest experiences with your partnership agency?

- I think that one of our best experiences with our agency has been the most recent World AIDS Day campaign where we were able to respond to Crystal’s needs instead of hosting an activity we planned on campus. So far the difficult part of our summit house is that we are not an organization that can simply head over to Planned Parenthood and volunteer several hours and come back. We joined Crystal as Drury members trying to get the stigma with Planned Parenthood settled on Drury’s campus. This means that we have to plan the activities, get the supplies and figure out a way to make it work smoothly. When Crystal was able to get us involved with all of the other Planned Parenthood education groups on different campuses to spread awareness on World AIDS Day it felt extremely rewarding.

How do you see your group project evolving into the Spring Semester now that you have one semester under your belt?

- I believe that next semester now that we have figured out some effective ways to get students attention and have obtained some petitions involving planned parenthood we can working toward creating larger events and possibly creating a student body group so that Planned Parenthood will continue to be supported by the Drury community.

What skills have you gained or improved this semester that came directly out of being part of the Summit Leadership Experience?

- I have gained important time management skills. This semester it has been imperative that I balance my homework with my volunteering. It would be awful if I was given a responsibility and let down my entire summit house. I was also able to step forward and contribute useful ideas as well as watch these plans become realities. It really helped me to see the amount of work it takes to not only be the group planning activities but also putting them on.

As we end the Wellness Program and Stress Free Now Component what have been the highlights (low and high) of this program and what would you suggest for the future if this is continued?

- The Stress Free Now Wellness Program has added a good amount of depth to my knowledge of distressing. Prior to the classes my methods were to pause for a second, and maybe go for a run. I had never explored message, acupuncture, tai chi, or yoga before. Some of the online activities were considerably lengthy to practice five times a week. When it has come down to the week before finals I am going to have a hard time finding thirty minutes to just meditate. While this has made me realize that meditation can be extremely helpful in de-stressing, it has also moderately stressed me out trying to find a full 30 minutes to dedicate to meditation. I responded really well to the yoga exercises as well as acupuncture and am excited about the message. Tai chi did not make a terrible amount of sense to me and was not as rewarding as the other activities because we were given such a short period of time to learn it. However, even if it did continue I think that it wasn’t something I was passionate about or believed I enough to continue doing.

What are you looking forward to over the winter break?

- Over winter break I am looking forward to sitting down without a text book or laptop in my lap. Having zero homework seems impossible as this semester comes to a close and I am looking forward to a couple days of not thinking and making Christmas cookies. I’m also excited to catch up on sleep and do some reading.