Our 2012 Anti-Cabin Fever Dinners start on Wednesday, January 4!  Robert Meyers and chefs from Three Tomatoes Trattoria will prepare a fabulous kick-off meal. Our 2011 dinner season was our best ever, and this year’s will be equally as stupendous!  These dinners offer a great way to get out of the house, break up the week, and see friends on long cold winter nights. Each Wednesday until the end of March, a local chef, many from the area’s best restaurants, prepared a delicious meal. We had a full house for almost every dinner of the season.

Thanks to our incredible 2011 chefs: Michael Bellefeuille, Charlet Davenport, Nick Mahood, Brandon Little, Jason Merrill, Michelle Harris, Brian Allen, Sophie Starr, Edie Crocker, Change The World Kids, Alphonse Harris, Dan Croft, and Dennis Vieira.

These dinners are FUN, plus they subsidize costs for our annual work trip to re-forest Bosque para Siempre, the migratory rain forest habitat in Costa Rica that we are helping to conserve and reforest, and that supports our Vermont neo-tropical migrant birds, as well as native rain forest species.

Dinner is at 6:00 in the North Universalist Chapel dining hall in Woodstock, VT and costs $9.00 for adults and $5.00 for children.  Seating is limited, so reservations are suggested.  Please call (457-2622) or email us(changetheworldkids@yahoo.com) to get weekly menus. Come dine, laugh, and beat the winter blahs and blues!

Check out our galleries for more fun and interesting photos from the 2011 Anti-Cabin Fever Season.

We raised over $14,000 during para la Tierra 2011, our annual fundraiser benefitting our Bosque para Siempre project in Costa Rica and Vermont! Bosque para Siempre is our flagship project, providing migratory corridors for neotropical birds (our migrating songbirds) and native rain forest species. To date we’ve helped purchase 72.3 acres of conserved land, and have partnered with other organizations and families to create hundreds of hectares of safe rain and cloud forest for these birds.

Para la Tierra is a series of events, usually on one weekend, but Hurricane Irene changed the schedule this year! We held our first two events to give a voice to the benefits of conservation and the power of creativity and community. Bonk for the Bellbirds, a sidewalk chalk drawing extravaganza in downtown Woodstock, VT enabled people of all ages to beautify the village sidewalks of Woodstock. In the midst of flood relief, drawing on the sidewalks was a fun and beautiful way to raise awareness about international environmental efforts and raise spirits during a stressful time in the community. Some drawings advocated for a reduction of
carbon in our atmosphere, which we contribute to through our reforestation efforts.

Beauty for the Bellbirds, a fun booth full of award winning youth art with a focus on the environment, also was held as scheduled. Change the World Kids members and Alums created a variety of pieces for the show, including photographs and a large scale piece titled “Migration” that utilized handmade paper. In addition to the artwork, we featured Fair Trade Costa Rican coffee, our signature homemade Plastic Bag Dryers, and other goodies.

Our gala dinner was held at the Woodstock Inn and Resort Country Club where guests enjoyed a five-course gourmet meal prepared by Chef Greg Farrell, a full silent auction, and an exclusive presentation of CTWK reforestation efforts. It was an awesome evening. Check out our photo gallery!

If you were unable to attend but wish to still contribute to our efforts to improve biodiversity, please feel free to donate via PayPal on our website.

Please help! From an impoverished school in Uganda, where she is administering our Teens Connecting Continents Uganda project (see Walk the Walk and Global Work) Change the World Kid Alum Alanna proposed that would help make a dramatic change for the health of the schoolchildren. Help start a small farm to create a reliable source of food! Some days the children have no food at all, and when there is food, their diet is meager.  People in the community are anxious to grow crops, and some have offered to donate animals to the school, but land is expensive.  If many of us contribute even a small amount, we can purchase the land and help with start-up costs.

Come join Margaret Gish of The Sharon Academy and the Change The World Kids on the Green in South Royalton on Sunday, May 8 (Mother’s Day!) for an empowering IMatter Rally.  The event will run from 2-5 pm, and will feature an open mic, live music, and refreshments, as well as a platform for youth and community members to voice their thoughts on climate change.  The event promises to be exciting and inspiring!

On Friday, May 27, we held our second Great Garments for Global Good clothing sale, followed by our annual yard sale on the lawn on Saturday, May 28. Shoppers declared that they found quality items, bargains, great finds, and had fun! Both events offered a creative solution to get things out of your home, and make a positive difference for our communities and planet.  This is an annual event put on by the Change The World Kids, so look for it again next year in May!

Walk the Walk 2011 was a huge success! Part of our Teens Connecting Continents Uganda project, this effort raises funds to support the education and health of children in Uganda who suffered during its twenty-year civil war. Child soldiers. Girls and boys beset by violence of many types. We cannot take away their histories, but we can make a difference for their futures.

During the Ugandan Civil War, thousands of children walked and ran miles each night to escape the atrocities of the war. Now these displaced children – many orphans – walk miles each day seeking food, education, and shelter. 

Walk the Walk 2011 encouraged people to go beyond “talking the talk” and take steps to action, metaphorically representing the nightly wartime walks of these children. Over 150 people participated, and we raised over $2,000 support sustainable quality education for this rising generation of impoverished Ugandans, abandoned through conflicts and diseases of war!

Last year one of the Change the World Kids went to Uganda and helped put the Walk the Walk 2010 funds to work building and supporting schools. That money provided:

• New books, pencils, pen, paper, and soap to 200 students
• New uniforms (sewn by a village tailor) for 2 schools
• New shoes for 2 schools
• Medic first aid kits for 2 schools
• The repair of an old well so an entire village can have clean water
• Renovation and building supplies for 2 schools
• Bunk-beds, with sheets, pillows, toothbrushes, a new book and stuffed animal for each child at a new school
• A month of a breakfast/lunch program for 47 the students in that school



Our 2012 Anti-Cabin Fever Dinners start on Wednesday, January 4! Robert Meyers and chefs from Three Tomatoes Trattoria will prepare a fabulous kick-off meal. Our 2011 dinner season was our best ever, and this year’s will be equally as stupendous!  These dinners offer a great way to get out of the house, break up the week, and see friends on long cold winter nights. Each Wednesday until the end of March, a local chef, many from the area’s best restaurants, prepared a delicious meal. We had a full house for almost every dinner of the season.

Thanks to our incredible 2011 chefs: Michael Bellefeuille, Charlet Davenport, Nick Mahood, Brandon Little, Jason Merrill, Michelle Harris, Brian Allen, Sophie Starr, Edie Crocker, Change The World Kids, Alphonse Harris, Dan Croft, and Dennis Vieira.

These dinners are FUN, plus they subsidize costs for our annual work trip to re-forest Bosque para Siempre, the migratory rain forest habitat in Costa Rica that we are helping to conserve and reforest, and that supports our Vermont neo-tropical migrant birds, as well as native rain forest species.

Dinner is at 6:00 in the North Universalist Chapel dining hall in Woodstock, VT and costs $9.00 for adults and $5.00 for children.  Seating is limited, so reservations are suggested.  Please call (457-2622) or email us(changetheworldkids@yahoo.com) to get weekly menus. Come dine, laugh, and beat the winter blahs and blues!

Check out our galleries for more fun and interesting photos from the 2011 Anti-Cabin Fever Season.

Chins up! Measurement of growth rate took a new perspective at the sold-out grand finale of the Change the World Kids’ Let It Grow Wild! facial hair contest last Wednesday evening. Since January, members of our community, including teens and gentlemen who had been shaving for decades, took a break and grew for green. The evening was wildly fun.

The ten contestants — Ed Doton, Billy Gault, Jim Grossman, Doug Johnson, Ben Kaija, Howard Mayhew, Dave McFarlin, Alex Melville, Andy Townley, and Rich Vanderweit — excelled in world-class style and creativity. 60s wide goatee. Bushy lumberjack. Soul patch. Mountain man. Virile Italian crisp style.

The judges, Kent McFarland, Anne Dean, and Alison Clarkson, measured and deliberated for an hour. Facial hair was judged by three criteria: length and mass; style, and popular vote. Equipped with calipers, measuring tapes, tweezers, and magnifying glasses, they scrutinized each contender. Guests watched the proceedings while enjoying a fabulous dinner prepared by Michael Bellefeuille of the Movable Feast.

Change the World Kids declared everyone a winner and presented each contestant with a home-baked burly man’s pie. The final decision of the judges? Change the World Kid Alex Melville took the prize for style. Billy Gault took the length/mass prize with his massive beard. Howard Mayhew won the popular vote. Ed Doton was the runner-up and won double dessert.

When the contestants paraded into hall, the audience cheered. Each contestant had put his face forward to help make a positive difference in the world. The community supported them and a group of local teens that works hard to help individuals and our environment. The evening raised over $1,400 and will help to send us on a work trip to our Bosque para Siempre corridor.

Walk the Walk is a Change the World Kid effort to raise funds to support the education and health of children in Uganda who suffered during its twenty-year civil war. Child soldiers. Girls and boys beset by violence of many types. We cannot take away their histories, but we can make a difference for their futures.

During the Ugandan Civil War, thousands of children walked and ran miles each night to escape the atrocities of the war. Now these displaced children – many orphans – walk miles each day seeking food, education, and shelter.

Walk the Walk 2011 encourages people to go beyond “talking the talk” and take steps to action, metaphorically representing the nightly wartime walks of these children. In its second year, the event raises awareness in our community and funding to support sustainable quality education for this rising generation of impoverished Ugandans, abandoned through conflicts and diseases of war.

Walk the Walk 2011 takes place on Saturday, April 30, 4/30, at 4:30 in Wilder, VT. Participants can chose a 4 mile running course or a 3 mile walking course, which both start at the Dothan Brook School.

Last year over 150 people participated in Walk the Walk 2010, which involved a walk, simulated refugee camp to raise awareness of various issues facing the children, live music, speakers from Uganda, and an overnight. Over $4,000 was raised from sponsorships and donations! One of the Change the World Kids went to Uganda and helped put these fund to work building and supporting schools. That money provided:
• New books, pencils, pen, paper, and soap to 200 students
• New uniforms (sewn by a village tailor) for 2 schools
• New shoes for 2 schools
• Medic first aid kits for 2 schools
• The repair of an old well so an entire village can have clean water
• Renovation and building supplies for 2 schools
• Bunk-beds, with sheets, pillows, toothbrushes, a new book and stuffed animal for each child at a new school
• A month of a breakfast/lunch program for 47 the students in that school

Please join us this year or make a donation to make this event an even bigger success.