Share and Voice: Highway Cleanup

Hey bloggers! Well, this is going to be my proudest share and voice yet! I am currently a member of Eta Sigma Gamma which is a national professional honorary for men and women in health education in case you didn't know. We had the opportunity to participate in the highway cleanup the other day. It was a very interesting experience to say the least. I was suprised to see how many animal bones we had found throughout the cleanup. We found a large group of deer bodies along with a dead duck and skunk. I'm not going to lie, I got scared a couple times as I grabbed for a piece of garbage and saw a dead animal right in front of me. Haha!! I'm sure people in a 1 mile radius could've heard me scream! and Here are some of the pictures....











I thought this was a very great activity for us to do since we're learning about the environment around us so much in this course. I feel like everyone should take part in cleaning up highways and other areas in their community to improve the appearance and well being.

Share and Voice: Tips for Going Green

Hey Bloggers! Since this school year is soon to be over, many of you are probably considering moving to another house or apartment. It can be quite a stressful event going through all your "junk." I have become a huge pack rat this last year since I have an interest in refurbishing my old junk and making into something useful. Spring cleaning is one of the most irritating things to do especially in a house of 6 people (my house). We all are planning on working as a team to get the job done. That's when I realized all the alternatives you can use instead of using harmful chemicals.


Home cleaning supplies
Baking soda and hot water can get your house sparkling clean at an affordable price. The chemicals in something such as Windex glass cleaner are very harmful to your respiratory system when breathed in. It's a better idea to use cloth material to clean verses paper towels as well.When going through things such as magazines and clothes, there are many alternatives to dealing with them. You can recycle, donate, sell, or reuse them instead of throwing them away.

Click on PLANETGREEN to get more tips around the house! This website is amazing and offers other alternatives for topics such as: Ways to green your fridge, keeping paper towels out of your house, how to go green spring break, eating green, and also offer news articles about people going green. I really like this website and plan on looking at it on a regular basis to improve my ability to go green!

Advocacy Project:

Hey Bloggers!
Well, since my topic discusses Health Insurance, I found it difficult to find an interactive way for you to participate. I hope you like what I've come up with. I found a clip for you to view and let me know how you feel about making health insurance more affordable. I just wanted to refresh you on what I've been doing my Advocacy Project on....

Overview of Issue:
The issue in my advocacy project is to increase the amount of people with health insurance. Many lower class individuals are faced with problems affording the proper health insurance for their families. Health insurance is a often offered through employment but not all the time. What about families that have no job? Not only the parents, but the children are greatly affected. How can we make health insurance more affordable for these individuals?

There are currently 44 million Americans are living without health insurance. There are many consequences involved if people continue to live without health insurance. Many individuals with health conditions will begin to avoid going to the doctor if they cannot afford the care necessary creating more severe problems in the future.Uninsured children are more likely than insured children to not receive medical care for common conditions like ear infections- illnesses that if left untreated can lead to more serious health problems. If children are left untreated, more problems may arise causing life-long conditions.I have the freedom to go to the doctor if I have any concerns regarding my health while people have to live with their health conditions due to financial reasons.

Instructions:
Click on this link to tell me what you felt about the Health Insurance Game shown. What do you think about the way the video was demonstrated? Do you think they portrayed the information bias or equal? If you have any additional information to add that you felt the video should have been presented, please feel free to do so.

Additional Information:
The information below was provided on the link above
This humorous video was written by supporters of HR 676, the single payer national health care bill in Congress (John Conyers - Michigan). All other industrialized countries have universal national health care. They spend half as much as we do in the United States on medical care but their health outcomes are as good or better. Americans have seen their health insurance premiums increase by 87% from 2000 to 2006 while their earnings only increased by 20% and the average rate of overall inflation was 18% during the same time period (Kaiser Family Foundation). Why does your health care cost so much? 30%-35% of each dollar of your premium goes to pay for: executive salaries, administration, lobbying, marketing and other non-health care related costs. It's time to eliminate the for-profit private health plans who take up to 1/3 of each premium dollar but add no value to our health care delivery system. It's time for HR 676.

Why is this important?
Many of us are currently covered by our parent's health insurance. I don't think we really know how important it is that we are covered. If you didn't have health insurance, would you go into the doctor for any injuries or illnesses you may have? Would you get your yearly checkups? It is known that people who are uncovered are less likely to go to the doctor or local physician. That's why I believe that health insurance should be more affordable for everyone so that we are not faced with these issues in the future.

Sources:
Source 1: Healthcarenow.org
Source 2: Health Crisis
Source 3: Esurance