Duluth Soup -- Creative Fundraising Helps Address Community Needs

This week I got invited to Duluth Soup, a fundraising event that took place at Clyde Iron Works this past Thursday evening. I didn't really know much about it except that five dollars would get me a bowl of soup and a salad, and a vote. The soups were being provided by the New Scenic Cafe & The Amazing Grace, so how could you go wrong. There were also salads and other delights presented by Pizza Luce, 3rd Street Bakery, Lake Superior Bakehouse and the Rambler Foodtruck. I just didn't know what the vote part was about.

A relatively long line was being patiently processed when I arrive close to the six o'clock starting time. I paid my five spot and was handed a ballot. Upon entering I saw the entire room filled with tables and chairs, a small stage set up below the big screen. Inside the door there was a table with flyers about the program along with miniature handbills describing the various groups that would be presenting, four in all. On the perimeter of the room tables had been set up for artist displays along with presentations by these same four groups.

Lake Superior Flow Art

As it turns out, Duluth Soup is modeled after a Detroit Soup fundraising system, of the people, by the people and for the people. Essentially, before we ate the four teams presented their proposals. Using the ballots that had been distributed as we entered, we cast our votes on a ranked ballot system, 1, 2, 3, 4.

What's cool is that you got to engage the various presenters both before and after. Thus the event not only raised money for these various philanthropic efforts, it also raised awareness for the same.

Proposal 1 was titled Let It Grow. The presentation by the Junior League of Duluth was quite excellent, and I wondered if the best idea would win or the best presenters. They explained that they were raising money for a deep-winter greenhouse to be built on an underutilized lot near Denfeld High School adjacent to a food-damaged lot upon which a community garden nd edible forest would grow. The floor was open for questions after the timed presentation and the presenters indeed fielded many questions.

Proposal 2 had the clever title Hart and Soul. They desired to promote an annual music festival in Lake Nebagamon in memory of Alex Hart, who took his own life. It's aim was suicide awareness.

Proposal 3 was a very cool outline of the Tragic Tale of the Timber Beast by Lincoln Park Haunted Happenings. For Halloween they are transforming the Harrison Community Center into an abandoned north woods logging camp to bring families a ghost story that deals with the issue of bullying. This proposal looked interesting as a written paragraph, but was brought to life in a very intriguing manner by the presenters. I thought, "Well, that's pretty neat."

Proposal 4 featured Lake Superior Flow Art, a collaboration of individuals whose mission is to give back to the Twin Ports by fundraising, teaching and performing. They shared how they craft and sell hula hoops and other items to raise money for the Duluth homeless.

After the presentations, everyone lined up for soup.

During the course of the evening there was musical accompaniment by Keir of Lay Low & Bender, Chase Down Blue & the Clover Street Cronies. After the meal there would be a presentation by last year's winner as well as Fair Vote MN, a group advocating a ranked choice voting system for Minnesota with the aim of raising awareness about voting systems.

Thank you to Clyde Iron for hosting this event and to all the volunteers who made it happen.

Next time you hear, "Soup's on!" check it out.

See it. Say it. Stop it.

Over the past ten years I've had the privilege of being involved, to varying degrees, with a high school program called DECA in which kids learn through experience the various aspects of marketing, from market research to fund raising and PR. Projects involve collaboration, extensive research, writing and the honing of presentation skills.

The teacher who recruited me to assist his Proctor DECA students in 2002 was Jay Belcastro. The things I saw him achieve with these kids each year was nothing short of amazing to me. The long hours and personal sacrifices they made was impressive. Likewise, the kinds of projects the kids embraced were important. It wasn't make-work. They were learning valuable lessons for life.

Jay moved on to the Two Harbors school district last year, but his passion for the DECA program hasn't dissipated. This week he asked if i would read on of the projects and make comments or suggestions. The students, in an effort to tackle the problem of bullying, created a PR campaign called "See it. Say it. Stop it." I asked permission to share a portion of it here on my blog.

Here's a statement that made me sit up: "On any given day 160,000 students stay home from school because they are afraid of being bullied. That is twice the population of the city of Duluth, Minnesota. Bullying is one of the biggest issues in our nation’s schools today."

The Two Harbors DECA kids were aware of the problem but were not aware of how extensive it was. In order to address bullying they also had to learn about and understand its various forms.

"After researching the topic and talking with those with personal stories to share, we discovered that bullying happens in a variety of ways; but, those who target others do so in such places as locker bays, locker rooms, on the bus, and online where adults cannot witness these activities.

"Being bullied has a negative effect on students’ lives. Bullying can lead to students failing classes, dropping out of school, hurting themselves, committing suicide, or committing violent acts against others. In 1990, 12 of the 15 school shootings occurred by someone who had a history of being bullied."

Here are some other thought-provoking stats these youth noted in their presentation.

"One of four students in the United States reported being bullied on a regular basis. Seventy-seven percent of bullying is done verbally. Eighty-five percent of the time bullying occurs without any intervention from teachers or administrators. Suicide is the 3rd largest cause of death for teenagers and victims of bullying are 9 times more likely to consider it."

Bullying takes many forms including name calling, taunting, swearing, spreading rumors, gossip, note writing, whisper campaigns, laughing at someone's mistakes, making up stories to get someone in trouble, insulting nicknames, hate speech, mocking or imitating, sexual bullying, threats, and prank phone calls are all issues students deal with each and every day in each and every school across the country.

Children at risk of being bullied:
• Are perceived as different from their peers, such as being overweight or underweight, wearing glasses or different clothing, being new to a school, or being unable to afford what kids consider "cool"
• Are perceived as weak or unable to defend themselves
• Are depressed, anxious, or have low self-esteem
• Are less popular than others and have few friends
• Do not get along well with others, are seen as annoying or provoking, or antagonize others for attention

The solution these DECA youth proposed was not only to educate the community about the harmful effects of bullying, but to also have young people themselves speak up when they see it. Because most bullying happens where teachers and adults are not, the young people need to say, "Hey, that's not cool. That's not right."

There were other recommendations as well, beginning with increased awareness of the problem, which is the reason I am sharing this here. Our schools need to be safe. Kudos to the Two Harbors High School DECA team for their efforts here in Northern Minnesota.

The source for some of the stats cited in this article can be found at bullyingstats.org

Have You Written a Book on Bullying?

Last year I was going to interview a fellow from New York who had written a book about bullying. Things didn't come together at the time, but here are some of the questions I prepared. If you've written a book, send me your answers and I will put a link to your site her on my blog. If you haven't written a book, and want to answer a few questions, feel free to comment below.

1. How serious is the problem of bullying in America’s schools today?

2. How did you personally become interested in this issue?

3. It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to not only write a book, but to attempt to lead a movement like this. To what do you attribute this high degree of motivation?

4. This is your first book. How long did it take and was it easier or harder than you expected?

5. I read through your ten tips to overcome being a victim of bullying. It made me think of some personal experiences in this arena. Briefly, how does a kid learn to not allow his buttons to be pushed? Isn’t it easier said than done?

6. At what point should kids appeal to a higher authority (teachers, parents, etc.) for protection from bullies, in your opinion?

7. A few decades ago I read a new age book (a NY Times bestseller) stating that today’s kids are more enlightened and wonderful than in the past. You point out that we’re actually going backward when it comes to the problem of bullying. Do you have documentation? In your heart of hearts, do you think it will turn around? How and when?

8. Bullying is only one problem in our modern education system. What are some of the others you see as you work within our school systems to resolve the bullying crisis?

Bullying takes all kinds of forms. If you do not feel safe, you need to find a way out of your situation... my heart goes out to you. As Robert Burns aptly noted, "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn."

Bullying

I returned home from a trip to Ohio yesterday and found a front page story here in the Duluth paper on the role of bullying in four suicides at a small Ohio school. Writing about the bullying issue has suddenly become all the rage this week, and it brings a number of thoughts to mind.

The first is Steven Levitt's and Stephen Dubner's chapter on the shark attacks of 2001 in their super sequel, Superfreakonomics. The authors point out that though the media wrote hundreds more shark attack stories than in the previous or following years, even dubbing 2001 "The Summer of the Shark", there were in fact the same number of shark attacks on humans as always. The media essentially terrified the public about a risk that has always existed but is minimal.

Bullying, like shark attacks, has always been with us. Is it worse now?

When my kids were in school they used to bring "the Peace Lady" into the class rooms to teach about getting along. This was elementary school, and the schools did recognize that there were problems, but the Peace Lady did not stop certain kids from picking on other kids.

Now we have people calling for the government to fix the problem with legislation. Are laws going to make bad people good?

Some idealists believed that the New Age was going to result in everyone being nice. Charles A. Reich's 1970 NYTimes bestseller The Greening of America went to great extremes announcing the coming of a new generation with a new consciousness unlike any of its progenitors. He called it Consciousness III. This new generation of enlightened youth were going to change the world through love and compassion and a new set of values in opposition to the power games that led to Viet Nam. Kids in school would all get along, and be nice. Reich has evidently drunk a little too much of Ken Kesey's kool-aid.

With all the publicity surrounding the pervasiveness of bullying, it is even becoming an election issue. Here in Minnesota this weekend the gubernatorial candidates were asked what they would do about schoolyard bullying. In typical fashion, the Democrat Mark Dayton said we'll pass laws to deal with it. The Republican candidate Tom Emmer said we have too much government and more laws aren't the solution. He said that what we need is "more understanding" which unfortunately does not sound strong enough, or a very easy target to achieve.

In fact, some bullying may be the outcome of having too many laws already. Teachers are handcuffed against taking action when it might result in a lawsuit.

Independent candidate Tom Horner sides with Mark Dayton on this one, stating that we need more laws. But what will these laws look like? Don't we already have laws against hate crimes and invasion of privacy and libel? Where do the lines get drawn, and how will they be enforced? When it boils down to "he said, she said," does a tie go to the victim?

Bullying is a terrible thing. I doubt that anyone who ever went to school could have avoided seeing some measure of it. I saw it in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Kids can be cruel and merciless, even in the "good" schools.

I once had a long discussion with a fellow who murdered someone when he was fifteen. The other kid had been picking on him and picking on him and picking on him. One day he took the kid out. Twenty-five years later he still seethes about this other kid's bullying.

For sure, children must be kept safe in our schools, since for that period of their lives they are wards of the state. Parents are required by law to entrust their children to the supervision of the schools for three-fourths of the year. Will new legislation improve the school district's ability to eliminate this problem? What will that legislation look like? And who will write it? And, like the health care bill that was passed, will our elected officials vote for it without ever reading it, hoping that it will ultimately make a difference?

I'm not very optimistic about this issue.