True Activists (original) (raw)

	[01 Sep 2005|06:01pm]
Hey, I started a community to swap ways to aid all those affected by the hurricane. Please visit save_nola and help out.Thank you!
taking action.

	[27 Feb 2005|03:41pm]
Hi everyone,I wanted to tell you all about the Grassroots Animal Rights Conference coming up at the end of next month. It's from March 31-April 3rd in Manhatten, New York. Now is the time to register. Check out info about the conference at garc and The Grassroots AR Conference.Hope to see you there,t
taking action.

Gay marriage!	[29 Jan 2004|12:42pm]
I have GSA meetings every Wednesday at my school, Bronx Science. Seeing as I'm the president of the gay straight alliance, I'm usually the one who has to come up with stuff to discuss/do. In the past, this club has been used mostly for discussion and debate, but I've been transforming it more into an action club, raising money, writing, doing stuff to raise awareness in and out of school, etc. I was brainstorming what to do this coming week, and thought it would be awesome if we wrote letters of support/encouragement to the officials in Massachusetts in light of their decision in November to possibly deal with a civil union/marriage for the LGBT community. I really need help finding the addresses of these officials...I have yet to do a websearch, and I will...but I was wondering if any of you knew an easier way to get these addresses, or maybe already know them or can access them for me? Also, do you guys think this is a good idea? I know a few letters won't make a difference, but I want to keep people in my club aware of what's going on, and how the world is rapidly changing and becoming more accepting of the gay community. I want them to realize it's up to US to keep that change happening, keep pushing our states and our country and our world to make these changes.So whaddya think?thanks for your help in advance!love, and !peace!!Kitty! X-posted to : bubbleofthought dragqueenlovers gay_marriage gay_news_ gay_teens_in_ma i_kiss_girls queernyc realbushes riot_grrls transyouth and true_activists
2 care | taking action.

volunteering with pediatric oncology patients	[13 Jan 2004|08:50pm]
[ **mood** | contemplative ] I posted this the other day in my journal, but throught I'd cross post it here, just because some of you may be interested in volunteering with cancer patients... And to clarify, Carissa was my best friends daughter who died in 1999....me and carissa in june '99 at my high school graduation party 3 months before she died.Childhood cancer is something I've gotten used to seeing. After knowing Carissa for several years, meeting other patients she was hospitalized with and volunteering with pediatric oncology patients seeing a bald kid, or a child bloated from the effects of chemo and immunosuppressant drugs it's almost nothing out of the ordinary to me. I've worked in the medical field long enough to learn to see beyond the 'medical issues' or disability a person has and see the spirit of the individual housed inside of a sick body. Children with cancer amaze me for how strong they are, they fight in a way just to live that most of us cannot imagine. I admire them.I sit at the desk at Ronald McDonald House week after week watching as young cancer patients come and go. Some I've gotten to know well over my months of volunteering- they are frequent visitors at RHMC, others come briefly for follow-up appointments in Boston and then quickly return home. I remember being with Carissa in public and people would point or stare at her because she was bald. they'd give her a sappy sweet smile like they pittied her or something. That used to annoy her so badly. She just wanted to be treated like a normal kid. She was a normal kid- she just had a challenge that many of us have never had: childhood cancer. I'm always catious in approaching a kid with cancer. I don't want to come across like I pity them, or ask them how they are feeling until I know them well. I don't want to focus on their illness, I just treat them like everyone else. I've learned that in treating them 'normally' they respect me more and often will open up over time about how they feel, how they handle their disease, and even their fears. Some kids are just 'matter-at-fact' or open about their cancer, chemo or radiation while others seem to hold their feelings deep inside... every kid handles their stuggle so differently. It's tough at times being around the kids. I always worry in the pre-op clinic when a cancer patient is going into surgery. it is a big ordeal, whether it is to remove a brain tumor, or cancer from other parts of the body, or even part of a bone... I often sit and color with them or socialize with them before surgery... it amazes me how calm a kid can be before a surgery that will determine thie kids life expectancy... but it amazes me more when an older child who understands the procedure sits and comforts his parents... Some of these kids can live to be 80, while others might die next week... For me, there's something sobering about being around kids undergoing stem cell or bone marrow transplants. BMTs are a 'last resort' after a kid has had several relapses of leukemia, lymphoma and other types of cancer or anemia. They have to undergo extensive chemotherapy and immunosuppressants before transplant, and then spend a year in total iscolation. BMTs for children are high risk than for adults. Very few hospitals will do pediatric bone marrow transplants. Boston Children's is one of the few. The first few weeks-months are spent in an inpatient iscolation unit on 6W at Childrens Hospital. They are allowed no visitors, no outside objects, no volunteers, and the staff that can enter the rooms is very limited due to the fact that the child- a cancer patient is on immunosuppressants to prevent rejection and has no immune system- the littlest germ can kill him because he is so weak. I always feel sad walking by that unit when I'm volunteering because of all the kids, these kids are the lonliest in the hospital and they can't have visitors and the rooms don't have TVs. I remember talking to Carissa's mother in the phone and hearing her say over and over how bored Carissa (then 3) was. As a parent, she really couldn't leave the hospital because she could be exposed to germs and bring them back onto the unit- in many ways the parents is in 'iscolation' as well- they are at the hospital while the rest of their family is at home or their other children are left in the care of friend or relatives for several months. When the child has had enough stable weeks (no fevers, signs of rejection, complications, good bloodcounts) following the BMT or stem cell transplant they are then relocated down the street to the Ronald McDonald House where I volunteer. There we have 14 studio apartments set up for stage 2 in the iscolation period. The patient either stays in the iscolation apartment (where healthy adults can visit with their doctors approval) or they spend their days at the Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana Farber Cancer Institute which is located across the street from Children's Hospital where they go for daily checkups and blood counts. Every where they go they are required to wear a paper mask to prevent exposure to germs. It is like these kids live in a bubble. Younger Children don't understand the whole procuedure and why they can't touch things that other people touch (like toys etc) and why they have to always wear the mask. Older kids are pretty serious about it. they know it's life or death. They've battled cancer long enough to realize that. The older kids know better than to tough the doorknob to the front door or ring the doorbell. they stand and wait for their parent to come and open it, or for the volunteer to see them and get the door. It's the same look I see over and over- a bald head with a mask-covered face with eyes peeking out over the top. Sometimes it's hard to tell the kids apart. Once the mask is on, they all start to look the same- it's hard to tell the girls from the boys- unless I know the kid by their eyes or their height, it's difficult unless I see the parent nearby. The kids know the routine. I open the door. they walk through and straight to their iscolation room. When they first get released from the hospital it's like that are so eager to see new surroundings. on the way to their room they look around curiously. they want to see what the rest of the house is like that they are staying in. but over time that gets old too. When I look at these kids, their eyes seem so empty. they must be so depressed. Battling cancer is one thing, losing an entire year of your life to an iscolation peiod must be so tough especially for a pre-teen or teen. It's like being completely cut off from society. It is tough on the parents too. Often they are married or in a commited relationship- and seperated from their partner. Typically there are other children staying with friends or relatives. It must be tough to be seperated from the other half of the family. Some parents occasionally leave their sick child at RHMC with a friend for an hour to go to a grocery store. for some, thats the first time they've gotten out in months. They have to be cautions about what they get exposed to as they will soon return to their iscolated child. If the child develops a fever within a day, the parent often blames themself... even though the fever may have had nothing to do with the parent's trip to the store... in many ways it's like the parent is iscolated from society too for that year. Some transplant kids stay at Ronald McDonald House for that stage of iscolation for just 6-8 weeks while others remain there for 3-8 months... it all depends on how they do post-transplant, whether their blood counts are consistant, how far they live from the hospital and what the home situation will be (germ exposure/ number of siblings etc). When they return home, they are once again homebound in iscolation. they are allowed very few visitors, they must have the house cleaned daily, sometimes things like carpets and bedding must be completely new, and pets may need to find a new home. Iscolation cannot be broken typically til at least 1 year post-transplant- until the amound of immunosupressants (drugs used to reduce the risk of rejection) are reduced. It's a tough procedure. A tough life. If a kid makes it past 1 year post-transplant then their prognosis is good. If they relapse before the year, then the chemo given pre-transplant iasn't enough to kill off the cancer cells and they started reproducing again. After a BMT a relapse is considered terminal. Other kids die from complications after rejecting the transplant and some from getting a virus or bacterial infection because their immune system can't fight it due to the medications. Carissa died 12 months after hers due to relapse of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) followed by more brain tumors. I was looking at the board with the list of familys staying at RHMC yesterday when I realized that the name of one of the patients that had been there since June was gone. Surprised to see her name erased after she had been the patient there the longest I asked my supervisor if she got to go home. "No Crystal. The little girl died." was the response I got. I didn't know her well. she never talked to anyone. She kept tp herself- her face always hidden under the mask. I knew her mom. She typically came through the house looking about ready to fall over from exhaustion. I hardly seems fair that after all that family went through for the little girl to just pass on anyway. She fought so hard. She followed the strict restrictions. She was just a kid. Two weeks ago I stood with a father holding his toddler- a cancer patient. we were looking at the pictures of other patients that have stayed at RHMC. He pointed to one. "That was my daughter." He said. I looked at the picture. It wasn't the daughter he was holding. The child in the picture looked older. I wasn't sure how to respond. Especially since he said "was" and not "that is my daughter." We stood in silence staring at the other pictures as he rubbed his little girls bald head. He broke the silence with, "she died after her Bone Marrow transplant. she survived her relapses. She survived the transplant itself. It wasn't even the cancer that killed her. It was a virus. She couldn't fight it because her immune system was weak." Tear rolled down his face as he held his only other child- also a cancer patient- diagnosed with the same cancer her sister had and now awaiting a match for a transplant as well.Sometimes I wonder how I do it. I wonder how I manage the emotions of seeing this stuff over and over. Losing Carissa was tough enough. I wonder why I put myself through the pain of seeing it happen to others. But then I remember- I'm doing it for the families. They need somebody to listen. Somebody to answer the door and the phone at RHMC. Somebody to show them around the house on their first stay, or to get them toiletpaper for their room or to sort the incoming mail and somebody to talk to after a tough day at the hospital. I don't mind doing it. Someone else was there for Carissa's mom when she needed these things done. It was that person that made life easier in small ways for Carissa's family in her last months, why shouldn't I be willing to do it for someone else? If I'm not there those 1 or 2 days a week I'd just be bumming around at a homeless drop-in anyway. I might as well make myself useful. Despite how emotionally difficult it is, it helps keep my problems into perspective- they aren't as badas what these families face daily. Yeah, i might not have a home. And I might be a brain injury survivor- but I survived. Things won't get worse for me- they will stay the same or get better. I'm not going to be homeless for ever. And being homeless isn't exactly lifetreatening- it's just tough. These kids don't know that they will survive another week or another month. They don't know if their fight will pay off. I know mine will. It's not until you look around at others problems that you realize how lucky you are. For More Information on Bone Marrow Donation: Click here (National Marrow Donor Program) For More Information on Cord Blood Storage or Donation: click hereFor More Information on Bone Marrow Transplants: click hereTo donate Blood or Platelets to Cancer Patients ar Dana Farber: click hereFor More Information on or to Donate to Boston Ronald McDonald House: click here
1 care | taking action.

hi!	[13 Jan 2004|08:45pm]
[ **mood** | calm ] hello. I'm new. I thought I'd introduce myself...I'm crystal, I'm 22, and I'm on my last 48 hours of being homeless! (yay- I'm gettin an apartment!) I'm from Cambridge-area-ish, MA. I'm a student at Harvard Extension School, Feminist, activist, yada yada yada. yeah. okay. and I like to make a difference... (thats why I'm here... duh!) I currently volunteer at Ronald McDonald House, Children's Hospital, and other random places... I do things to help the other homeless people I'm around, I started a non-profit org. when I was 19 (technically when I was 17 but didn't register it immediately), I sponsored a kid for the Make-A-Wish foundation when I was 17... I volunteered at an after school program for a while, um, I went to mexico on a mission team in 2000, and stuff like that...I'm currently very tired and I'm rambly so I'll come back and say more when I'm better rested...I guess thats your summary of me. :)
1 care | taking action.

helllo!	[27 Dec 2003|01:19pm]
[ **mood** | creative ] hi! my my name's hopeful and i'm joining this community because i want to get intouch with some youth in my area into activism... because frankly, i can't find any. i'm only fifteen and my parents are hardcore conservatives so i don't get to go out and acutally do alot until i'm eighteen. but it's my goal. i want to change the world. the world needs a change. orginazations are amazing at what they do, like food not bombs... any way, i'm also running a community if your interested. it's just an information based sharing community. that's one of the keys to changing the world, spreading information. i invite all of you, including the admin. to join. i want both of these communites to grow, because with a strong supported base, we can change the world. resistancex much love to all.never stop fighting.
2 care | taking action.