The wedding dance starts early at this St. Paul wedding

Weddings are a time for celebration.  Perhaps never as the celebration started so soon as at this St. Paul wedding.  Making the rounds at youtube, this feel-good video will undoubtedly be watched by millions.  The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” (JK for Jill & Kevin) will make young couples rethink traditional wedding entrances.

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The Power of Play

In parts of Africa, it’s not uncommon for girls and women to spend as much as three hours a day fetching water. Over 50 percent of Africans in rural areas don’t have access to clean water.  In schools, it is usually girls who are sent to fetch water, taking time away from their studies and playtime.

Making clean water available closer to homes and schools significantly increases the time that mothers have available to care for their children and girls have to attend school.  It also reduces childhood illness.

To help address this problem, a series of merry-go-rounds, powered by kids playing, brings much-needed water to many parts of Africa.  Each spin of the merry-go-round, help powers a pump to bring up clean water.  Five minutes of play can result in a gallon of water ready for use.

PlayPump® Water System is working with governments, foundations and companies to bring clean water to up to millions of people over the next several years.

“The aim is to bring water and sanitation to all our schools, and PlayPump {water systems} are an important step in that direction,” according to Aires Aly, Minister of Education and Culture of Mozambique.

PlayPump Water System, and other non-profits, are featured on GlobalGiving.com.  GlobalGiving is an online marketplace that connects visitors to the causes and countries you care about. You select the projects you want to support, make a tax-deductible contribution, and get regular progress updates – so you can see your impact.

Currently, Global Giving is featuring their “Ready, Set, Give” program.  “Ready, Set, Give showcases projects that are using sport to address challenging issues and bring positive social change in countries all over the world. Whether building women and girls’ strength and self-esteem, inspiring and energizing homeless individuals to change their own lives, or producing soccer balls that carry awareness messages about malaria and HIV/AIDS – these projects are employing sports to positively affect communities in an engaging way.

From July 1 – 22, sports-related projects on GlobalGiving will compete to attract donors and generate donations for their projects. The top three projects (in terms of number of unique donors) will earn additional bounty prizes of $2,500, $1,500, and $500, respectively.

Today is the last day to support the “Ready, Set, Give” program and the bounty prizes.  But, if you’re reading this post later than July 22, you can support PlayPump Water System, and other great causes, by going to GlobalGiving.com at any time.

National Geographic video

Lost Generation

This video is based on the Argentinian Political Advertisement “The Truth” by RECREAR. Make sure to watch from start to finish.

The National Spelling Bee

Round one of the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee begins May 26 with a written test. The purpose of the Bee is “to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.” The finals, where contestants compete on stage, are May 28, 2009.

1997 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion Rebecca Sealfon finds it hard to contain her enthusiasm spelling her winning word:

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008), a professor at Carnegie Mellon, gave his last lecture on September 18, 2007, before at McConomy Auditorium. In his “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” presentation, Pausch reviewed lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their goals.

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Sound of Music + Flash Mob = Quite a Performance

In a promotional stunt for a Belgian television program, more than 200 dancers performed a version of “Do Re Mi” — Flash Mob- style — in the Central Station of Antwerp. They were able to pull it off with just 2 rehearsals.

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