“I am so proud of our artists who are uniting to help teach tolerance and acceptance while promoting a healthy community through the Chair-ish The Kids Art Auction. In an ideal world, no child would suffer and charitable instincts and education would prevail with global acceptance of all different types of people. Our community is so lucky to have Kids On The Block to help make our world a better place,” Rudloff said.

Andee has done an amazing job in helping to recruit a collection of impressive and award-winning artisans we are calling our “invitational artists” including “Lost Boys” photographer Jack Spencer, concrete artist Sherri Warner Hunter, media dimensional artist Don Evans, photographer Stacey Irvin and crayon sculptor Herb Williams.

Today, Don Evans and his wife, Sheryl, came by our office to deliver his creation and we had the opportunity to visit with them.  His art explodes with connection and happiness and something playful.  Clearly, I am no art critic.  This is just how his art struck me. (Check it out for yourself in our Silent Auction Preview photos on our Facebook page -  STARS (Students Taking A Right Stand) Nashville or http://www.facebook.com/STARS-Students-Taking-A-Right-Stand-Nashville/.

What struck me even more was Don’s ability to make connections with those of us whom he met.  He truly wanted to know about each of us….why we chose our line of work, were we happy with our work.  How often do you meet someone genuinely interested in what makes you tick?  He cared.  This kindness immediately brought to my mind the beautiful words of Andee Rudloff I mentioned above.  And, she is completely right that “our community is so lucky to have Kids On The Block to help our world a better place.”  Our community is equally as “so lucky” to have artists, like Don, Stacey, Sherri, Jack and Herb who care about keeping our community one of acceptance and kindness. 

And it struck me how much unity is created when true care is involved.  This event is so much more than a fundraising event.  It is a community-care raising event.

As Don and Sheryl were leaving he asked me if I was an artist.  I stumbled.  “Well, I do like to paint.”  I felt sort of like a ding-dong for even saying this.  I quickly added, “My children really love to paint.  Their works are incredible to me.”  He nodded.  “Yes, each child is a great artist.   Somewhere along the way it gets shaken out of them.  It is my job to shake back.”

Please join us on March 25^th.  Don will be there.

“Your legacy should be that you made it better than it was when you got it.”  Lee Iacocca

This past week I saw a wonderful story on News Channel 5 about a group of local high school students who truly are leaving a part of their world much better!  Students from Ravenwood High School are working with Habitat for Humanity to improve the quality of life for one homeowner in Franklin, Tennessee. They have raised over $60,000 and are working with Habitat each weekend in February and March to complete the home.

Another story about a Ravenwood High School student had appeared just a few days earlier before this great story of students involved in such a wonderful act of service. The earlier story reported that a handgun had been found in a backpack at the school. What a contrast in stories about young people.  Too often it seems that the news we hear about young people is not great.  Behavior problems, acts of violence, use of alcohol and other drugs, and the pain often resulting from their poor choices seem to dominate the coverage of young people. Good news stories such as this one about the students at Ravenwood often go untold. In fact, as Colin Powell has been quoted, “More young people are at promise than at risk.”

What’s most amazing to me is that if we listen to young people we can find solutions to the problems and challenges they face … maybe even solutions to the problems of violence, guns in school, as well as the absence of empathy and concern for others. Youth Voice is important! When students and adults partner together in true, meaningful conversation and commitment to action, solutions are discovered.

Karen Pittman, the co-founder and President and Chief Executive Officer for the Forum for Youth Investment says, “The best way to “fix problems” is to engage youth as problem-solvers.  And all young people need and deserve access to opportunities to learn, make a difference, and overcome the problems they face.” One of the ways young people overcome is through service. They want to give, serve, lead and love. Their empathy and good will can be contagious, as is evidenced by the spirit of these young people at Ravenwood High School..

At STARS we are committed to programs and services that foster meaningful relationships with young people where adults and students partner to make their schools and communities better. Together we can and do leave things better! If we can help your school develop strategies to capture youth voice please contact us at 615-279-0058.

This is the title of a public service announcement that will be used to bring attention to the celebration of millions of children of alcoholics who will participate in National Children of Alcoholics Week beginning February 14.  Many organizations, schools, community agencies, faith-based communities and individuals all across the country will do whatever possible to bring attention to the issues that families impacted by substance abuse face each day.

The National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) is the sponsoring organization of this important work in our nation. Since 1985 STARS Nashville and Kids on the Block have been committed to delivering important information to the community on the impact of addiction in families. According to information from NACoA:

•        Children with a biological parent who is alcoholic continue to have an increased risk (2-9 fold) of

developing alcoholism even when they have been adopted. This fact supports the hypothesis that

there is a genetic component in alcoholism.

• ·        Children of addicted parents are more at risk for alcoholism and other drug abuse than are other children and  Children of addicted parents are the group of children most at risk of becoming alcohol and drug

These are but a few of the important facts that communities across the country need to know about families impacted by addiction. Each week in local schools across the Middle Tennessee area, STARS Staff work with young people helping them understand the effects of living in families concerned about family addiction. In some cases, the family member impacted by substance abuse may not be a parent. It might be a grandparent, a close family member, or even a sibling, who causes disruption and that, contributes to the unhealthiness of the family system. Kids on the Block conduct wonderful presentations on the impact of substance abuse on families and provide younger children the opportunity to ask questions of the puppets bringing about hope and encouragement in what can be a very difficult situation.

One of the adages that STARS has tried to help young people understand about the issue of substance  abuse in their family is that that there are some simple yet extremely profound statements that can really help them navigate the maze of family addiction. Children living in substance abusing families did not cause it, they can’t control it, they can’t cure it, but they can learn to cope in more positive ways. The important work of STARS is to help young people, through small group work and educational presentations, understand these very basic principles and find a safe place to address this very sensitive issue with adults and peers who care.

If you are having problems as a result of living in a fairly impacted by addiction there are wonderful resources all across the country and right here in our backyard. Alateen and Al-Anon are community resources where families can find help. Many adults who have been impacted by substance abuse can also find support and help through Adult Children of Alcoholics. And if alcohol and drug abuse are concerns please contact Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous for help and assistance.

As the saying goes … You Don’t Have To Drink to Suffer From Alcoholism and you also don’t have to suffer alone. Join with many across our nation this next week in celebration that there is hope and recovery for families impacted by addiction. If we can help call STARS at 615-279-0058. 

Seems that there has been a bit of a buzz about Megan Fox and her commercial which aired during this year’s Superbowl.  Megan Fox appeared in an ad for Motorola advertising a new phone. Seems the buzz centers around Megan’s thumb. Evidently someone else’s thumb appeared in the ad.  Megan has a genetic condition, brachydactyly, which refers to clubbed thumbs.

If you didn’t see the ad, Megan appears in an outside bathtub playing with the phone. She takes a picture of herself in the tub and ponders what might happen if she sends it into cyber space. She sends it … the results … a guy falls off an unsecured ladder because his spotter is looking at the picture, partners slap each other, an electric company employee working on power lines causes shorts to occur, while Megan says … “probably nothing” would happen.  The fact is things do happen when people send provocative photos via their phones. The buzz about the commercial is misplaced. It’s not whose thumb that matters! What matters is the issue of sexting.

Sexting is when someone takes a naked or suggestive digital or cell phone photo of themselves, or someone else, and then shares the photo via cell phone. A December 2008 report conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies revealed that roughly 20% of teenagers between the ages of 13-19 had sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves. Thousands of young people have been deeply harmed by emails and postings on social networking sites that were provocative, and in many cases pornographic. The results can be horrifying and life changing for everyone involved.  Recently three Middle School students in Washington State were charged with felonies for sharing photos of a nude 14 year old student. This is a class C felony in Washington and carries a penalty of juvenile detention and if convicted can lead to the individuals being required to register as sex offenders. Somehow I don’t think students have really considered all the consequences of their choices when deciding to either send or forward photos of this nature. If they have considered the consequences and chosen to do it anyway, this raises an entirely different set of issues.

Young people face enormous pressures to conform, appear progressive and cool. They certainly don’t need any encouragement to find ways to get into deep trouble … sexting is one of these trouble spots and Megan Fox, who is attractive, a well known star in her own right, young and visible, and Motorola could really have had an impact if she’d said, “Maybe I shouldn’t send the photo.” The example she and Motorola could have set would have been powerful for a generation of young people who are looking for leaders to follow, and the real issue … sexting … not using a thumb double for the ad would now be the buzz.

At STARS we try to helps students and school personnel deal with the pressures that they face each day. Sexting is just one of them. If we can help call us at 615-279-0058.