Blog Assignment #3. Free The Children - Corporate Social Responsibility and your Citizen Journalism

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Ellysse Lindley supports Doctors Without Borders and The Smile Train.  Both charities help millions of very poor children in developing countries who are suffering from deformities.
Ellysse is combining her artistic talents with her academic abilities to fulfill her life goal of becoming a plastic surgeon devoted to helping children with burns and cleft palate deformities.

I was so excited when the final blog assignment came.  Advocating and helping children worldwide is one of my platforms.

Both charities together are united by a single cause.
T0 GIVE EACH AND EVERY CHILD A CHILDHOOD.
And both charities benefit each other.  Free The Children supply more than 1,000,000 children with clean water and schools.  World Medical provides the vaccinations, medical supplies/equipment and dental supplies/equipment that is so desperately needed.  Both charities empower children to help children.

Blog Assignment #2: Who’s That Girl?
I would definitely host a TV talk show dedicated to “Being Your Own Kind of Beautiful.”    My show would be divided into a series fast paced, compact , informative segments that raise awareness of how to live a healthy, environmentally conscious life style.  Inner beauty and outer beauty would be the theme.
I would open with a brief question and answer segment.  This would give my viewing audience the opportunity to express their views and concerns.

 
The first segment would focus on raising awareness on how maintaining a healthy body and mind is more vital than being able to fit into a smaller dress size.  We all differ when it comes to our minds and bodies and these differences should be nourished and celebrated.  Being physically active and in shape helps to give us the mental and physical discipline to face challenge in our everyday lives.  This segment would feature Okiki Akinremi, the fitness director of XPLOSION Fitness Resolutions and Olympic Medalist.  XPLOSION Fitness Resolutions focus on a personalized, results-orientated approach to working out.

 
 
We live in a stress filled world and need to make healthy choices. We need to nourish our bodies with healthy, sustainable foods.  We need to eat locally grown and harvested produce, dairy, poultry, meat and fish products.   In addition to taking care of our internal bodies we need to take care of our external body.  Green Beauty is bringing to North American beauty products from cosmetic, skin care, hair care and body care lines that are eco-conscious.  The focus of Green Beauty is to make your beauty decisions easy, responsible, good for you and good for the environment.

Another segment would focus on how being environmental friendly and reducing our carbon footprint leads to a healthier you.  This can be accomplished by changing our day to day habits.  Small changes such as taking the bus, subway, train or car pooling to work; using cars for longer distances and choreographing various tasks into one trip to avoid last second runs keeps our wallets happy and protects our environment.  Use a “green” coffee mug instead of paper cups, recycle water bottles, use eco products and turn your heat down.  This segment will give my viewing audience simple, everyday ideas for “greener” living.

 
The final segment would focus on fashion.  And “green” fashion choices would be emphasized.   Aritzia, one of my favourite stores, emphasizes an environmental footprint that is as light as possible. They focus on the little things that add up to a big impact.  Aritzia stores use low-energy lighting, earth-friendly paint and cleaners, and wood-free shopping bags.  Their clothes use sustainable fabrics where possible and are made by vendors that maintain high social and environmental standards.
 

The show would star me, Ellysse Lindley, being her own kind of beautiful.

The City of Rain and the City of Rainbows, Prince Rupert, is where I live and is one of the most remarkable tourist destinations making up the Skeena Bulkley-Valley region. The region includes the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) , Terrace, Hazelton, Kitimat, Vanderhoof, Port Edward, Stewart, Houston, and the villages of Burns Lake, Masset, Telkwa, Granisle, and Port Clements. This region is famous for the dense green forests, exotic birds, wildlife, sport fishing, trails, and camping destinations.

The wildlife on the northwest coast is wildly populated by Grizzle Bears, wolves, BALD EAGLES, seals, sea lions, deer, blue heron and much more. Prince Rupert adventure tours has many different boating experiences where you can go to the famous Khutzeymateen, which is the “Valley of the Grizzly”.This is the largest Provincial Grizzly Bear Park in the world! This is where you can see the grizzly bears in their natural habitat and can take beautiful pictures of the magnificent animal. Along the way you may even see some seals, sea lions, and blue herons.

One of the other most popular attractions in the region are the whale watching tours where you can see Killer Wales jumping out of the ocean, Humpback whales flashing their enormous tails as they dive to feed, Gray whales gliding through the kelp beds, and Orca whales chasing the migrating salmon.http://www.adventuretours.net/index.php to book your trip now!:)

The Skeena Bulkley- Valley region is famous for their Sport Fishing. Prince Rupert is excellent for accessing the salmon runs. People can catch all five species of salmon, Chinook, coho, pink, sockeye, and chum. We are renowned for our 43 pound steelhead which we access directly from the runs going through the open ocean route to the Skeena. To fish you can bring your own boat, charter a boat, rent a boat, go on a guided tour, or go to the many fishing lodges around the region. Prince Rupert is the halibut capital of the world so make sure you grab some fish and chips!

The First Nations people and their history is very important to the people who live in Prince Rupert and their towering totem poles and long houses are scattered all over the region. You can take a trip to Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) and visit the mini museums about First Nations culture. The scenery is breath taking and the land is practically untouched making it an attraction for all ages. There is even mini deer all over the island that look like babies but their all grown up. Isn’t that cool! Visit their website at http://www.haidagwaiitourism.ca/ . Around the Skeena Bulkley- Valley area there are numerous museums full of the antique art. Which includes First Nations carvings, masks, paintings, button blankets, traditional clothing wear and more to purchase or just take a look at. Come and check it out.

One of my favourite places to go and hang out and grab coffee with my friends is in Cow Bay. Cow Bay is in Prince Rupert and in 1909 the boats didn’t have anywhere to dock so the cows that were being shipped in had to swim ashore hence the name Cow bay. The best coffee and homemade desserts are at Cowpaccino’s. Everyone who visits my city has to go visit this little coffee shop which has pictures of locals and out-of-towners with different cows from all over the world. Cow bay also has great gift shopping and general shopping as well as wonderful cafes and restaurants to grab lunch. To find out more visit http://www.tourismprincerupert.com/cowbay.

The Skeena Bulkley-Valley region is one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever see and the people are great. I would know hehe I live hereJ

 COME VISIT ME!!

Hey everyone!

Has everyone been having a good summer?! I have and I hope you all do too. I am getting so excited about Toronto, it is so close now. I can’t wait to meet all the amazing girls! I recently made an appearance at the BC Annual Dance Competition and spoke a blurb about the pageant and my platform. You can check out the dance competitions website at http://bcadc.com/. I have danced in the competition for as long as a can remember this was the first year I wasn’t a competitor. I was so excited to be back at the dance competition supporting my town and Spectrum City Dance which was the dance studio I attended in Prince Rupert. You can check out their website at http://www.spectrumcitydance.ca/. The adjudicators are always excellent and dancers from Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Burnaby, and Australia have all come to the competition to compete. Everett Smith, who is from So You Think You Can Dance Canada Season 2, was one of the adjudicators this year alongside Charlaine Katsuyoshi who has danced on Broadway as a Cheetah in The Lion King.

I have been getting ready for the launch of the Miss Teen Canada World website and I had to summit a photo as well as a biography about myself and some fun facts. However my photo wasn’t the right size so it was a real adventure in making it the right size. I was getting so frustrated and was in a panic because no matter what I tried I couldn’t get the photo in the correct dimensions. So I emailed Frank Ideas and Execution team, which is a great creative agency in Toronto, and Cora Nijhawan was a huge help! She helped me get a solution and recommended a website where you can resize your image. www.resizeyourimage.com It’s this great site and all you do it upload your photo and zoom/crop to the required specifications. It was super fast and easy and you don’t need any special or intense tools on your computer. I would totally recommend it to anyone looking to change the size of their photo. I will notify everyone when the website is up and you guys can go look at my profile and the picture that gave me so much trouble! J haha. Once the website is up you can sign up to become a VIP! Please don’t forget to vote for me in July to help me get fast tracked to TOP 20!<3

So the funniest thing happened and I thought I would share it with you all. I was in my house enjoying being home from school and my mom asked me to clean the kitchen and load the dishwasher. Well I’m not really the best person to ask to clean. I’m not very good at it. Anyways, so I went to clean the kitchen and I loaded the dishwasher. I did not realize that I loaded it wrong. Take a look!

Can you guys all believe I made such a silly mistake because I can't haha I put in the glasses the wrong way so they filled up with water! I couldn't beleive I did that. I havn't heard the end of it from my parents or my brother for days. I've definitely been the target for all their jokes after that but I definitely know how to load a dishwasher now. :)

This is my first blogging experience as MissTeen Skeena - Bulkley Valley World 2010 and it’s so exciting. As you all know I will be representing the Northwest Coast region in the Miss Teen Canada - World Pageant in Toronto July 10th - 18th. The Winner of last year is Siera Bearchell who was crowned July 25th in Toronto at the John Basset Theatre. You can look at her blog http://sierabearchell.onsugar.com/  where she gives updates on all her adventures as the reigning Miss Teen Canada - World 2009. I am ecstatic so be going to Toronto to compete. The girls I met at the Miss Teen British Columbia - World 2010 Pageant in Kelowna February 21st were so nice and welcoming. They are all great and I can't wait to meet girls from other provinces in Toronto!

 I recently finished my first year in the pre medical program at the University of Victoria and what a year that was. University is so much different than high school. I learned I have to go to the library every day and study hard because no one is telling me what to do and when to do it. I met so many great people and made a really good group of friends. :) I thank my parents also because I could not have made it without their help and support.

 The official charity for Miss Teen Canada- World is Free the Children. This charity is all about kids helping other kids in less fortunate countries by organizing schools and water projects in these much needed areas. You can get more information at their website www.freethechildren.com . I will soon be starting my 6 week fundraising for Free the children. I will keep you all updated when I know the date at which I will start. Last year the girls of 2009 raised over $49 000 for the charity and hopefully the 2010 girls can beat that.

 I recently participated in McHappy Days at McDonalds in Prince Rupert, BC. A dollar from every McDonalds Big Mac, McMuffin, sandwich, and Happy Meal bought that day was donated to children’s charities across Canada. I had so much fun helping the McDonalds team by making drinks. I was so embarrassed though because every time I was told to fill up 2 medium cups of diet coke I would always end up filling it up with regular coke. OH SNAP! It only happened twice though and I learned my lesson. I saw so many great people come in that day with their children and almost every child asked me if I was a “real life princess.” They were adorable. Thank you McDonalds for letting me help!