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The USD SEED PROJECT and the Inspirational Story of Skip Gleavey

Posted by Joe | November 6, 2009 | 0 Comments

The University of San Diego School of Business Administration, and Dr. Barbara Withers (one of my old college professors), have come up with a very powerful community service program they call SEED - Sustainable Environment Enterprise Development.

The goal of this program is to "teach business students how to use project management tools, inspire students through community service, and promote the use of sustainable building materials and design." Students are tasked with the job of managing a building project incorporating sustainable materials and design principles. The project can be either the remodel of a home for someone in need or the revitalization of a public space.

When I first heard of this project I thought of it as a smaller scale Extreme Makeover Home Edition. A disabled person or someone in great need is selected as the beneficiary of the project. Students, faculty, sponsors and volunteers then work over the course two "work-weekends" to get all of the work done. Because this is all part of a Project Management course in the School of Business Administration, the students must also plan, execute, promote and collect donations to successfully complete the project.

Last year, USD and the Thanksgiving House helped Rosalie Cardenas by making her house wheelchair accessible. This Fall, the team is remodeling the home of triathlete Skip Gleavey, who is paralyzed as a result of injuries sustained during a devastating bicycling accident. After reading his full story I could not think of anyone more worthy of being featured on LIVESTRONG.COM as an inspirational story.

Skip has been faced with multiple setbacks but he kept a great attitude throughout it all and not slowed down. Skip was has been battling a rare, stage four lymphoma, and trying to recover from heart surgery. After all of this Skip was injured during a Century bike ride on August 16, 2008 and is now paralyzed from the waist down.

Adjusting to life in a wheel chair is difficult enough but when the transition is further hindered by the physical and structural limitations of your house, that adjustment can become overwhelming. With the help of donors, sponsors and other partners, SEED’s goal is to modify Skip’s house to allow him safe and easy access to those amenities the rest of us take for granted.

If you are interested in learning more about the project you can go to the website here. If you are interested in participating you can get more information here. If you are interested in donating funds, building materials to the project click here.

Check out their LIVESTRONG.COM profile, the SEED Facebook Page, and follow them on Twitter here @seedsandiego

History of SEED

The origins of SEED began in 1997. That year, Dr. Barbara Withers’ graduate and undergraduate Project Management students at the University of San Diego's School of Business Administration began an annual commitment to improve the living conditions of residents of San Diego's Linda Vista neighborhood through the Thanksgiving House project.

The cornerstone of SEED is to have students learn the tools and techniques for managing projects by applying these skills to a real-world project, the renovation of the house of a deserving person or revitalization of a public space. Students in the course are responsible for planning and implementing the work. Students must complete the construction-related work over the course of two consecutive weekends and must find all of the resources themselves. Besides learning valuable project management skills while helping someone in need, students also learn the value and role of social responsibility.

Santa Monica Mustachionados

Posted by Krisserin | November 3, 2009 | 3 Comments

Wanted to post a team picture of the Mustachionados in Santa Monica.

Our team with 82 members all over the country--Santa Monica, Bellevue, Austin and even somewhere in the depths of New Jersey--have already raised $1500 in just week one of Movember!

You can still join our team and help us raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Join our team here: http://us.movember.com/register/29297

Or send us a donation here: https://www.movember.com/us/donate/your-details/team_id/29297

More pictures of our other team members to come.

Oh, and here is Lex coming to us from New Jersey:

He's raised the most so far out of all the Mustachionados. And he's doing fairly well on his 'stache too.

Curious Joe Wants to Know: Are you going to get a flu shot?

Posted by Joe | October 29, 2009 | 90 Comments

Do we really need it?

I should start this blog with a warning: If you can get the flu vaccine (both the seasonal and the Swine) then get it. However, with the recent craze around the vaccines, most doctor's offices and pharmacies have it on back order…for several weeks. With this said, people are beginning to wonder if receiving the vaccine is really necessary.

According to a Newsweek article published in September, many will get the swine flu but only those with high risk of complications will be dramatically affected by the illness. For the rest of us healthy citizens, it's just like any other flu and will pass with proper rest and medication. Still, isn't it better to be safe than sorry?

So what I want to know is: Have you received your flu vaccines? Are you going to? If not, why?

Grow a 'Stache, Fight Cancer

Posted by Krisserin | October 26, 2009 | 9 Comments

Hello Beloved LIVESTRONG.COM Members,

Movember is the month formerly known as November where men grow a moustache for 30 days to raise awareness and funds to help find a cure for prostate and testicular cancer.

The money raised by Movember in the U.S. is split between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

What we are asking you to do, is to take the Dare to Movember, and join our team, "The LIVESTRONG.COM Mustachionados."

You don't have to have a Y chromosome to participate, "Mo Sisters," as us ladies are called, are encouraged to the join the team and help with fundraising and recruiting as well.

Any help and support is greatly appreciated! We need more than just your donations--join our group (it's free to join The LIVESTRONG.COM Mustachionados) tweet about our efforts, share with your friends on facebook--help us build our group and aggregate donations for this amazing cause. Any moustache helps!

If you have been affected by cancer, or want to live in a world where your friends, family and children won't have to be affected by these terrible diseases, then show your support by joining our team.

Dare to Movember

Join The LIVESTRONG.COM Mustachionados

Sincerely,

Krisserin

LIVESTRONG.COM Mustachionados Team Captain

Curious Joe Wants to Know: Why is wheat bread better?

Posted by Joe | October 22, 2009 | 17 Comments

As a child, I remember downing Wonder bread like it was candy. Today, with society becoming more health conscious, certain foods we cherished as children have been relegated to the end of the line.

Wheat or white?

According to an article on HealthGuidance.org there is a significant difference between wheat bread and white bread. Wheat is made up of flour called wheat berry which contain a combination of bran, germ, and endosperm. White bread only contains endosperm, the starchy inner layer, and lacks 30 additional nutrients that are found in wheat bread.

The difference is significant. White bread lacks the nutritional supplements that help prevent a variety of diseases like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. According to the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition, it is important to eat at least 20 grams of fiber to help prevent such diseases. Whole wheat bread is a great source for our daily fiber intake.

Still, I often crave a nice loaf of white bread and cave in at the grocery store.

So what I want to know is: Have you transitioned into the whole wheat world? Or are you still lingering in the wonder years of white bread?

Share your LIVESTRONG.COM Story

Posted by susysez | October 19, 2009 | 4 Comments

Hello LIVESTRONG community,

Have you seen success using LIVESTRONG.COM?

We want to hear your story!

Please tell us how LIVESTRONG.COM has had an impact on your life.

We are looking for members who have success stories to share from these areas of the site:

Weight Loss using The Daily Plate

Fitness with the help of a Dare or a Group

Diabetes Management using The Daily Plate

Quitting Smoking using the Dare to Quit Smoking

Are you a Cancer Survivor who is inspired by Lance’s story

Addiction using the help of a Dare or a Group

Recipe Maven

Running/ Cycling using LOOPS

Dieting using the Daily Plate

Drinking Water using the Daily Plate or the Dare to Drink more water

Mobile Calorie Tracking have you seen success using the BlackBerry or iPhone application

Write to us here:

Please be sure to put My Story in the subject line.

Be sure to include your user name and email address for the site, along with your contact information including city and state.

We look forward to hearing from all of you!

Best,

Susysez

Austin Here We Come!

Posted by Krisserin | October 16, 2009 | 0 Comments

Six members of the LIVESTRONG.COM team will be going to Texas next weekend to participate in the 2009 LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin.

Help us meet our fundraising goals by donating money for our team to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

LIVESTRONG.COM Team Members from left to right:

Content Editor Krisserin Canary, Senior Marketing Manager Christine Fleming, Product Manager Serena Burton, SEO Manager Preeti Dalwani and Community Manager Susy Sedano.

We'll be running and cycling to help fight cancer. Help us make a difference by lending us your support.

Make a donation by visiting our team page.

Thank you all for your support!!!

2010 Tour de France Route Announced

Posted by Krisserin | October 14, 2009 | 0 Comments

Next year's Tour de France will take place in the Pyrenees in celebration of the first time the tour passed through the mountains 100 years ago.

In 1910 the tour passed through four of the most daunting Pyrenean Passes -- Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque with the Tourmalet, one of the toughest climbs in cycling to be scaled twice.

The 2010 Tour will start in Rotterdam, travel through Brussels and will spend the rest of the route mostly in France.

Lance will be racing in the 2010 Tour with team Radioshack.

Read the full article.

Get the full route map.

Curious Joe Wants to Know: Do you want access to your health records online?

Posted by Joe | October 13, 2009 | 9 Comments

I recently attended the USC Body Computing Conference, which was hosted by Dr. Leslie Saxon, Professor of Clinical Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine.

That's me with Ed Saxon, producer of films such as "Fast Food Nation" and "Farlanders".

Dr. Saxon's speciality is in Cardiology, and she deals often with implanting devices, such as pace makers and defibrillators. Many of these devices have networking capabilities that allow doctors to monitor the health of their patients while they are away from the office. Dr. Saxon's goal is to empower patients by giving them access to personal health information, so they can make contributions and participate in their health care decisions. When speaking of implanted devices she said, "I don't know what's more yours," than the information that device transmits.

Patients rights to access their health information was a huge topic at the conference, stemming from an article Dr. Saxon recently wrote in the Huffington Post titled, "Owning Your Health Information: An Inalienable Right."

And she makes very valid points. I've never seen the contents of that mysterious file with my name on it. I can't check what my blood pressure was the last time I visited the office, or even how much I weighed.

Dr. James Mault, who is the director of Health Solutions Group, Microsoft Inc., responsible for Microsoft's Health Vault, made a very clear example. He asked the audience to raise our hands if we knew that we could track a recent credit card purchase online, and nearly 80 percent of the room raised their hands. Then he asked us to keep our hands up if we could go online and look up our cholesterol records--there was only one individual with his hand still raised.

Dr. James Mault on patients' right to access their health records online.

So what I want to know is:

Do you want access to your health records online?
Do you think it is your right to own that information?
Are you surprised that we don't already have access to our records?
What are your concerns?

Sound off in the comments.

Get Lance's New Book and Donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation

Posted by LIVESTRONG_Team | October 12, 2009 | 0 Comments

RadioShack is selling a special edition of "Comeback 2.0, Up Close and Personal" by Lance, with photos by Elizabeth Kreutz.

The book chronicles Lance's first year back to professional cycling with a first personal photo-journal and exclusive photos from the 2009 Tour de France.

For a limited time, $10 of every book sold goes to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. That's up to $500,000 going to support the fight against cancer.

Visit RadioShack to learn more about the book, and what you can do to join the fight.

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Joe Perez

Co-Founder of the The Daily Plate and Head of Product, Marketing & Community - Demand Media

susy sedano

Krisserin Canary

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