The National Gardening Association

The National Gardening Association was founded in 1973 as a non-profit organization with the goal of educating people about different types of plants and shrubbery. The National Gardening Association is headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont. The National Gardening Association provides the majority of plant-based educational to most schools with grade levels ranging from K-12. The National Gardening Association teaches health and well being, helps develop communities, home gardening and offers various programs and activities.

The programs and activities run by the National Gardening Association are the Adopt a School Garden, the GROW Program, Vermont Garden Park, Teacher Professional Development, National Youth Garden Grants and many, many more. Aside from the programs listed here, the National Gardening Association also offers a variety of other grants and awards.

The National Gardening Association feels that children should be taught on a daily basis about plant life and how to run a garden properly. The NGA believes that gardening can strengthen a child emotionally, mentally and even physically. Teaching gardening helps students understand the natural way of life for plants and better understand where their food comes from. Not only do students learn where their food comes from but it also provides a look into healthy living; such as how to eat a proper meal to live a healthy life.

The National Gardening Association began their Adopt a School Garden program to aid in the instruction of students across the country when it comes to a healthy life and learning about the natural plant like around the world today. When someone adopts a garden for a school a representative from the NGA will complete a list of items for the adoption to get off the ground running. The list includes finding some to become the garden team leader, what area of plant education the school will focus on, send the school educational materials and literature for the teachers, finding a way to get the surrounding community involved and ways to encourage long term sustainability of the garden.

For the awards and grants that the National Gardening Association gives out, there are requirements that need to be met. They are pretty simple too. The requirements are that the school interested in receiving a grant must be teaching and gardening with students between the ages of 3 to 18 and the group can consist of no less than 15 students at anytime. Any school that wins a grant or scholarship from the National Gardening Association must fill out a survey at the end of every year that explains the impact of the program on the students. Each individual grant has a different type of impact report to file with the association at the end of each year.

Finally, the GROW Program is an ongoing project run by the National Gardening Association advocating the importance of gardening at schools, home and in communities. The GROW Program also provides year round gardening tips to beginners and experts as well as national gardening events and conferences. The National Gardening Association: "When you garden, you grow."

McCain TV Ad: "JD Huckster"

So-called conservative JD Hayworth filmed bogus "free government money" TV infomercial in November 2007. Get full story here: bit.ly Watch highlights from full infomercial here: bit.ly WSJ John Fund column, "JD Huckster" here: bit.ly



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jF6KU_PWlU&hl=en

Midweek Politics with David Pakman - JD Hayworth in Infomercial Scam, Gretchen Carlson on Her Job

--Former Arizona Congressman JD Hayworth participates in an infomercial for National Grants Conferences, one of the free government money types, and even the most cursory internet research quickly turns up that it is a scam. --Gretchen Carlson on the Fox News Channel morning show hilariously suggests that her job as a new anchor is the same as President Obama's. Broadcast on June 30, 2010 Midweek Politics with David Pakman is a nationally syndicated talk radio and program. 24/7 Voicemail Line: (219)-2DAVIDP www.midweekpolitics.com http www.facebook.com www.twitter.com



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vDJ9dOwueY&hl=en

OFA - 2009 OFA Annual Meeting - Day Three - Closing Plenary

More info at (www.acf.hhs.gov) We allow comments according to our comment policy newmedia.hhs.gov



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqfXCn1zVPE&hl=en

Bessy Reyna, Award-Winning Poet

Bessy Reyna is an award-winning Latina poet. Her latest book, The Battlefield of Your Body, a bilingual poetry collection, was released in June, 2005 by the Hill-Stead Museum. Her first poetry collection in English is She Remembers, published in 1997 by Andrew Mountain Press. Ms. Reynas Spanish language writing, published in Latin America, includes a poetry chapbook, Terrarium, and a collection of short stories, Ab Ovo. Reyna's poems and stories are found in US and Latin American literary magazines including the award-winning "Connecticut Review" and online in the Global Media Journal.She has also been published in numerous anthologies including El Coro: A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry, In Other Words: Literature by Latinas of the United States, The Arc of Love: Lesbian Poems, and The Wild Good. Ms. Reyna's awards include First Prize in the Joseph E. Brodine Poetry Competition and artist award grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Greater Hartford Arts Council. In 2001 she was named Latina Citizen of the Year by the State of Connecticut Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission. In 2006 she received the Pioneer Award at the Inaugural Diversity Awards presented by the Vice Provost for Multicultural and International Affairs at the University of Connecticut and a Living Legend Award from Saint Joseph College Department of Social Work. In 2007 she received the One Woman Makes A Difference Award from the Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5KyP9c5tC4&hl=en

Advancing Scholars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eV1pw8MQyQ&hl=en

Caring For an Elderly Parent? Watch For These Early Warning Signs of Alzheimer's

Stroke cause my mother's dementia. She did not have Alzheimer's, but her doctor said the diagnosis did not matter; the results were the same. I moved my mother to Minnesota and was her family caregiver for nine years. Though she had an apartment in an assisted living high rise, I had daily contact with her.

I also had regular conferences with the staff. My mother's increasing memory problems worried me. At each conference I asked, "Is it time to transfer my mother to nursing care?"

"Not yet," was the answer. "We will tell you when."

Caring for my mother became increasingly difficult. She was angry all the time, kept getting lost, threw out two sets of hearing aids, stole from other residents, hoarded food on the window sill, and became an addictive spender. All this while I was trying to make her meager funds last. Sometimes I thought I would die before my mother.

One winter evening, when the wind chill was 70 degrees below zero, my mother decided to leave. Mom called to tell me the news. "You don't want me any more," she shouted, "so I'm going to visit friends on Long Island." But the friends she mentioned had all died. I called her physician and he wrote orders transferring her to nursing care.

Observing my mother's steady decline taught me about Alzheimer's and other memory diseases. What are the early warning signs? The Alzheimer's Association has 10 warnings on its Website. They include problems with short-term memory, difficulty with problem-solving, losing the ability to do familiar tasks, time and space problems, inability to read, speech problems, losing things, poor judgment, social withdrawl, and personality changes.

Mom had all of these symptoms, but changes in her personality were hardest for me. During my childhood years we were more like sisters than mother and daughter. Dementia made us adversaries and it broke my heart. Your heart may be breaking now if your loved one's personality is changing.

The National Institute on Aging lists other symptoms of memory disease. One, asking the same question over and over again, made me think of my mother. Her recurring question: "Will you take me shopping?" Every time I heard the question I winced. Telling Mom she she was out of money had no effect at all. She kept opening charge accounts and I kept closing them.

The problem with early warning signs of Alzheimer's is that many of them are characteristic of normal aging, according to a World Science Website article, "Alzheimer's Warning Signs Show Up Years Before Diagnosis." The article notes that Alzheimer's "causes general deterioration and tends to follow a stable preclinical stage with a sharp drop in function."

You may already know this. One thing you may not know -- people with Alzheimer's often plateau for a while, and then cognition drops again. This may cause you to question your observations, and indeed, your sanity. So when you see an early warning sign of Alzheimer's write it down and date it.

Knowing the early warning signs of Alzheimer's helps you, the caregiver, and other family members prepare for what is ahead. You may have to sort household goods, arrange for smaller living space, update a will, track investments, change banks, get Power of Attorney, and take other steps to protect your loved one. These are hard times, but they are loving times. You are returning the love you were given so long ago.

Copyright 2009 by Harriet Hodgson