shameless soliciting...for a good cause

I have been getting much more involved with SHH this semester, including going up to the yearly summit at GMU last weekend to kick off the semester's fundraising campaign. We are shooting for $200,000 as a whole organization, with the Virginia Tech chapter pledging to raise $25,001 (that extra $1 is to best William and Mary, who only pledged $25,000...losers!).

Here's the breakdown of where the money will go: the first $100,000 is going to an education and empowerment fund, to keep kids in school and help them succeed. The next $50,000 will go towards building a business center in Villa Soleada, so the village will become self-sustaining and be able to support all of these various projects that we've been working on. The final $50,000 and any extra money we hope to get will go towards starting a new children's home project, to give orphaned and abandoned kids in the area a better place to live. If you read that novel down below that was my trip recap, you know how badly orphaned children can be treated, so this is something we are all very passionate about starting. So we really want to get to that $200,000 mark!

To help reach our fundraising goal, I have set up a webpage: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/shh/participantpage.asp?uid=3147&fundid=1678

Please donate if you can! It would mean so much to the kids of Villa Soleada, and it would make me very happy too. I love you all.

[Here is the general fundraising website, with a video and a running total of all the money raised by the different chapters: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/ ]

oooooh canada we stand on guard for thee!

I always forget how much I love the Winter Olympics until they start. I've become obsessed. I will watch any sport they decide to show. My favorite (of course) is the hockey, but speed skating, snowboarding, skiing of all types, and even figure skating and curling have all made it onto my watch list.

And because I am a girl with a serious weakness for athletes, I have also found some new Olympic loves.

1) Alexandre Bilodeau, the first Canadian to win a medal this year:

Yes, I think the French Canadian accent is cute. Don't judge.

2) JR Celski, the adorable pint-sized speed skater who nearly sliced his leg off with his own skate last September:



3) Zach Parise, NJ Devils (boo) player unfortunately, but a bit of a hottie:


Also the hero of today's quarterfinal game against Switzerland. I couldn't watch because I was in class taking a test, but he scored both goals.

4) Aksel Svindal, 6'5" Norwegian alpine skier:


5) Evan Lysacek, although this is mainly for Vanilla Bear's sake because he looks a bit like Gonzalo Higuain:

And this last one isn't an Olympian, but I stumbled across him when I was googling goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Ladies, I present to you Swedish model Alex Lundqvist:

I have a feeling Stephanie and Callie might agree with me on this one.