In Lieu of Flowers, Consider Memorial Seed Cards As a Funeral Gift

Perhaps there is a reason that the term, "in lieu of flowers" has gotten so popular. The trend seems to be that families direct well wishers to putting that money towards something more lasting and meaningful. Often people say, "in lieu of flowers please make a donation to..." and they list their loved one's favorite charity. While it's been a tradition at weddings to provide a little something such as a keepsake gift or wedding favor, now funeral favors or gifts are becoming a popular option to sending flowers or making a donation.

Instead of or in lieu of flowers, I recommend memorial seed cards. The cards are eco-friendly and instead of sending flowers that die, friends and family can grow flowers in memory of the departed. The seed paper is handmade and in the paper making process a variety of wildflower seeds or forget-me-not seeds are added to the paper. When the paper is planted the flowers grow. The most popular memorial card option is plantable heart seed cards. The top of the card says, "Plant this card and wildflowers will grow" and the bottom is personalized with, "In Loving Memory of...... Always in our Hearts." Cards are often purchased by family or friends and the cards are handed out at the service. There is a growing trend in office coworkers sending these plantable seed cards as an appropriate funeral gift to family members of coworkers or if the coworker passed then the office gives the cards to the family to distribute at the funeral. We suggest that a child or young adult hand each person who enters the service a card. Sometimes the cards are handed out with a memorial folder or program.

It's also becoming popular to send a memorial seed card before the service as an invitation to people who may want to attend the service. The card is custom printed with the time, date and location of the service. That same type of card has also been used after the funeral as an eco-friendly thank-you note to those who may have sent a donation or provided a meal for the family. Another use for the flat memorial seed cards has been for class reunions. A card is handed out to each of the attendees saying, "In memory of our following friends from the class of 1979 who are gone but always remembered", and the names of the departed are then listed on the card.

In Lieu of Flowers, Consider Memorial Seed Cards As a Funeral Gift

It's common in the Catholic church to provide a prayer or mass card at a funeral. A more modern memorial card choice is a plantable cross seed card. The cards can be printed to say, "God called her home, and now heaven's gardens are more beautiful. Plant this cross and wildflowers will grow in loving memory of......" Another option is to use more of a celebration of life focus for someone who may have been more spiritual than traditionally religious.

Another option is the butterfly seed cards that contain forget-me-not seeds. This option is a folded card and allows you to add a poem or verse on the inside left side, and the loved one's name on the right side.

Hopefully, now when you see "in lieu of flowers" you'll know there is an option to send a gift of keepsake cards as a funeral favor that grows wildflowers or forget-me-not flowers in memory of your loved one.

In Lieu of Flowers, Consider Memorial Seed Cards As a Funeral Gift
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Memorial cards and Funeral Gifts

Plantable Memorial Seed Cards

Mary Hickey is an urn designer and thought leader in the funeral industry. For some drastically needed new life celebration ideas, contemporary memorial poems and verses visit her site Next Gen Memorials. She is co-founder of Renaissance Urn Company, based in San Francisco.

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Green Service Projects - 20 Service Project Ideas That Help the Planet

Here are several ideas for Green Service Projects:

1. Energy Audit. Use of electricity and gas is a large driver of greenhouse gas and cost. There are many good energy audit forms available on the internet. Download some, modify for your needs and audit the school and other large businesses. Make specific recommendations to reduce usage with sensors, timers, ballst, light bulbs, insulation and other methods. Consider volunteering to do audits for older folks in your community and try to get funds from the community or sponsors to help them reduce their energy usage.

Wildflower

2. Compost. Large portions of landfill garbage can be composted. Start one at home and then work with institutional and restaurant kitchens to develop compost processes and recipients. Consider selling compost to gardeners. Measure the amount of compost generated in a week and extrapolate to show the annual impact per house or per school/institution.

Green Service Projects - 20 Service Project Ideas That Help the Planet

3. Plastic Bottle Recycling. Many millions of soda bottles are landfilled each year. Many schools still sell drinks in plastic bottles. Consider building or obtaining plastics-only recycling containers and contacting your community recycling center to arrange for pickup. Don't forget the concession stands and other outdoor areas. Measure and communicate the amount of bottles saved and show some items made from the bottles.

4. Compact Flourescent Drive. Work with a local hardware or department store to offer special sales on compact fluorescent bulbs and sell them as a fund-raiser. The recipients get a deal on the bulbs and support a good cause, and they will save energy for them. Make some conservative calculations of the dollar and electricity savings from each kit sold, and show it as a graph or thermometer.

5. Metals recycling in the kitchen. Many cafeterias use large cans for food. Put a bin to collect rinsed cans and either recycle them or use them for planting in other projects. The metal has good recycle value.

6. Plant Trees. You can either sprout your own seedlings or contact a nursery to see if they can obtain and donate them. Contact landowners for permission to replant, and calculate and show the carbon offset you will generate in the next 1,10,20 years from your planted trees. Get lots of others to participate in an event, perhaps on Earth Day or Arbor Day.

7. Urban Recovery. If there are areas in your town or city that are abandoned and unused, do some research to find the owners and determine if it can either be cleaned up, torn down or made into a park or green space. Do some community organizing and make a large project to create a playground or other space that the community will appreciate.

8. School Carpool Club. Many teens drive to school. Try to organize them into groups so that they can share rides with each other and save some gas and emissions. Do the math on the average car, miles to school, mileage and the monthly pocket impact to each student that drives if they carpool 1 day/week.

9. Computer Recycling Drive. Make contact with a firm that recycles old computer equipment, research that their disposition is environmentally secure and protects the old user's data, and organize a drive to collect old machines. You may also be able to cobble together a few machines that you can reformat and load Linux and free, open-source programs to donate to neighborhood clubs, churches, homeless shelters and similar areas.

10. Environmental Awareness Education. Put together a slide show and some fun experiments for elementary-age kids and do a road show in your school district. Keep the ideas clear and get the kids excited about what they can do to save the earth.

11. Green Rooftop. A flat roof covered with plants will lower heating and cooling losses and will better use rainwater. Research "Green Roof" and construct and maintain one at a school, nursing home or other similar operation.

12. Reduce Garbage Toxicity. Research and understand which items are dangerous in household and institutional/industrial waste streams. Produce guides, hold informative sessions, and provide means for people to separate and collect these toxic items instead of discarding in their garbage.

13. Cell Phone and Battery Collection. A subset of the tip above, cell phones can be collected and repurposed to crisis shelters and other uses with no impact to the original owner. Batteries can be collected and returned to a center that can recycle the components.

14. Make A Wild Space. Take a portion of the school or other grassy area that is currently mowed and treated, and make a wildflower or other planted space that requires less water, chemicals and care, and is beneficial to local or migratory animals. Add a bench and walkway and you have created a garden sanctuary! A local garden center may donate or sponsor the park in exchange for some signage or other consideration or recognition.

15. Produce Some Produce. Build a community garden, perhaps at a nursing home or community building. Involve others and set up a community structure that will care for the garden when your project is completed. Participate in the care and harvest of the bounty. Consider donating some of the produce to the food bank or shelters, where fresh food is rare and always appreciated. Consider planting and maintaining an orchard where peaches, apples, pears and other fruits will grow for years to come. Large cans (see #5) and buckets can be used to grow plants in urban settings.

16. Create or Maintain a Hiking Trail. If you have green space nearby, consider trying to develop a public trail. Landowners may be willing to support this action if there is also financial and/or support from the local government. You may have to do more political and financial organizing than actual hoe and shovel work up front, but the resulting peaceful trail will be a great testimony to your dedication and effort.

17. Plastic-Free Dining. Take a survey of the garbage created in your school cafeteria. Try to find ways to reduce the environmental impact (carbon cost, weight, decomposability, etc.) See if you can transform plastic items to paper or metal that can be either reused or renewed without fossil fuels. Work with the procurement group to obtain the new items at lower cost, and determine if the total "life cycle cost" of dishes and silverware is lower than plastic.

18. Mileage Audits. Develop an audit tool to help people maximize their auto mileage. From tire pressure to weight reduction and driving habit changes, you can make a good guide for people to use. Set up an event, perhaps in concert with a car show or car wash, to perform mileage audits for people, pump their tires and give them a guide to keep in their car. Do a before/after road test on a few cars to gather some hard data.

19. Solar Rooftop. Obtain funding and/or supplies to install a pilot solar cell on a rooftop. Connect it to a unique object inside the school such as a moving sculpture, fountain or light display, or light a hallway. Calculate the cost of operation vs the energy cost saved and make a recommendation to the school for larger scale implementation.

20. Green Careers Research. Do some jobs research on the top 20-30 careers that impact Green. Develop a list of degrees and skills which would be needed for these jobs, along with projections of the growth and the economic and geographic locations of the jobs. Work with the guidance conselor to publish this and make available to students as they make decisions about careers. Consider building a slide show or video composite of interesting jobs in Renewable Energy and other areas.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas on good service projects that will have a positive impact on our environment. Have fun and stay green!

Green Service Projects - 20 Service Project Ideas That Help the Planet

John Huegel is a photographer in the Erie, Pennsylvania area who specializes in Seniors, Dance Studio, Families and other groups. He is active in many charitable and volunteer activities in the Erie area. His work can be seen at http://jhphotomusic.com

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Off-Ice Ice Hockey Training Part 3 - Speed, Agility, Quickness and Conditioning

 Most youth hockey programs get 1-2 hours a week for off-ice training.  In the last two articles I've gone over dynamic warm-ups and core training, the most important two forms of training that every hockey player should be doing.  Taken together, the warm-up and core training generally takes the first 15 minutes of each session.  That doesn't leave much time for everything else.  This makes it that much more important that hockey players don't waste their time with garbage training.  

While speed, agility, and quickness training and conditioning are generally viewed as separate entities, they can be combined in the interest of saving time.  The key is to really understand the demands of hockey.  Speed is one of the most important skills of the game, but top speed is rarely reached and when it is, it's almost never maintained for very long before a player will need to change direction.  As a result, the abilities to start explosively, stop quickly, and change direction rapidly are much more desirable than simply being fast in a straight line.  To be overly simplistic, hockey-specific speed is really just well-designed agility training.        

When designing hockey-specific agility drills, you'll want to:
 
1) Include what I refer to as proactive and reactive drills.  Proactive means that the path and direction changes are pre-determined.  The player must move through the drill as quickly as possible.  Reactive means the player's movement is in response to some other stimulus, usually in the form of a partner (mirror drills) or coach (command drills).

Off-Ice Ice Hockey Training Part 3 - Speed, Agility, Quickness and Conditioning

2) Include movement changes specific to hockey.  Hockey players often have to transition between forward, backward, diagonal and lateral movements.  Agility drills should reflect these movement changes.  For instance, you could design a circuit of agility drills that involve a 5 yard back pedal to a 5 yard sprint in the diagonal forward direction (45° turn); then a 5 yard back pedal to a 5 yard sprint in a lateral direction (90° turn); then a 5 yard back pedal to a 5 yard sprint in the backward diagonal direction (135° turn); etc.  You could also mix in shuffling, crossover steps, and different starting positions (forward, backward, lateral, push-up position) to maximize the on-ice carryover.    

3) Include speed changes specific to hockey.  While I made it a point to acknowledge that top speed isn't maintained for long, it's important to understand that many of the direction changes in hockey occur at near-top speeds.  Also, many max effort sprints don't begin from a stationary position.  Your off-ice training should reflect this.  Include longer range accelerations (20-30 yards) with a quick deceleration and direction change (similar to a pattern a wide receiver may run).  Include agility circuits that start with a speed build-up.  This allows the athlete to practice accelerating from a moving position, which is usually the way it happens on the ice.  

If you consider all of these things while designing your agility drills, you should be able to maximize the effectiveness of your speed, agility and quickness training while minimizing your training time.  Switching gears a bit, a lot of these same concepts can be applied to a hockey specific conditioning.  Again, analyze the demands of hockey.  Do hockey players skate at a low or medium intensity for several minutes at a time?  Not if they're any good! 

Most players and coaches recognize that the average shift is 30-60 seconds, followed by atleast twice that much time of rest.  This means that hockey specific interval training would involve work to rest ratios of 1:2 at the low-end and 1:6 at the high end.  However, while a shift may last 60 seconds, shifts almost NEVER involve maximal effort skating throughout the entire duration.  Usually there's a quick sprint, then a glide, then lighter skate to a new position, then another quick sprint, etc.  In other words, most shifts are characterized by multiple short, high-intensity sprints followed by brief resting periods.

To maximize the hockey specificity of your conditioning, high intensity multi-directional movements should be used.  As an example, I've used 10-yard repeat sprints from a push-up starting position as a conditioning exercise.  The athletes explode up from a push-up position, sprint 10 yards, then walk back and immediately repeat for 4-6 reps.  Then they take a few minute break before repeating the interval.  That's just an example.  You could also use a partner mirror drill as a conditioning tool.  Have one player be a leader, another a follower. 

The leader can move within a pre-determined area or along a pre-determined path and the follower must mirror the movements exactly.  Let them go for 15 seconds or so, rest 15 seconds, then switch roles for an interval, then rest for a couple minutes before repeating everything again.  Depending on the length of the work intervals, I generally keep conditioning down between 3-8 work intervals.  I may use 3 work intervals for something like a 300 yard shuttle run with cones at 0 and 25, and 8 intervals for something like 20s lateral mirror drills (4 repetitions as the leader and 4 as the follower).  Starting to get the picture?  The idea is to build a higher work capacity by maintaining a high workload, while still providing adequate rest to maintain a high intensity.  Usually conditioning should last about 10-15 minutes.

If you follow all the principles outlined in this article, you can effectively improve hockey-specific speed, agility, quickness, and conditioning in less than 30 minutes.  By incorporating a well-designed dynamic warm-up and core training program, you can drastically improve on-ice performance in less than two hours a week.  Now with all the tools, the only missing ingredient in the success formula is your unparalleled determination to outwork your opponent.  Keep working hard.  Your results will speak for themselves. 

Off-Ice Ice Hockey Training Part 3 - Speed, Agility, Quickness and Conditioning
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Kevin Neeld, CSCS has helped athletes of all ages fulfill their athletic potential. Through the application of functional anatomy, biomechanics, and neural control, Kevin specializes in guiding hockey players to optimal health and performance. To help hockey players and coaches develop their own off-ice programs, Kevin wrote Hockey Training University's Off-Ice Performance Training Course, a must-have resource for every hockey program. For a FREE copy of "Strong Hockey Core Training", one of the sessions from his course, go to http://www.KevinNeeld.com. To learn more about how Kevin can help you achieve your training and performance goals, contact him via email at kn@kevinneeld.com.

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