Completed.

Happy and Sad at the same time to say that my Gold Award Journey is complete. On Monday, February 20th we did the book-nook install at TREE House of Greater Saint Louis. 

After a 240 hour book drive, we collected 207 books total. We made 70-something educational bookmarks, We even had some donated by my Creative Writing class, as mentioned in a previous post.

The project took an overall 88 hours.

TREE House was BEYOND THRILLED when we installed the shelf this past Monday, and are so excited to use it as a therapy tool this year.

(Setbacks...)

**As a small side-project, with the leftover materials from making cushions for the book nook area, my team and I made dog toys for the local animal shelter. This Generated 14 dog toys for homeless pets!! However, the only thing that went wrong was when I broke my fabric scissors in half. (HA HA)**

"FINAL REPORT"
My Project addressed the issue of the diminishing love for reading in children, as well as lack of educational materials for kids to utilize while in waiting rooms at Therapeutic Horsemanship. I hoped to harbor a love for reading within young children, while also helping them pass the time while their siblings were in horseback therapy sessions. The siblings of riders benefit from this because they now have something to do. Parents benefit because they don't have to entertain their kids, and riders benefit because they can use the shelf to help with speech and audiology therapies.
The root cause of the issue is that there were no activities for children in the viewing room at all, so to address the issue, I provided a book shelf for children to utilize, which doubles as a therapy aid.
My project will be sustained beyond my involvement. It has a "Take a book, leave a book" concept, so that it is constantly circulating new books. At the same time, TREE House has agreed to keep the shelf forever, so it will forever be kept going as a lending library.
"Study of young American readers shows a fall of nearly 10% since 2010 of young readers doing so ‘for fun’" . Reading is declining in children all over the country. By providing a fun, visually pleasing book shelf, it attracts kids to the idea of reading for fun. At the same time, 1 in 12 children have some sort of speech-related disorder. Reading aloud from books can help these children tremendously. Though the book shelf is only in one location, it is a start to help children all over the world that have disorders to read as therapy.

"Never stop doing little things for others. Sometimes the little things occupy the biggest part of their heart"

Getting Work Done!

With only a month left to finish and do a write-up for the project, we've been working super hard! Today, I made a formal survey online, so that parents can explain how they feel about the book nook, once it is finished. 
You can check out the survey at this website. 

With the book shelf, we are almost finished building it, and are working on the roof currently. It's looking really great, and we couldn't be happier with how it has been turning out!

So far, so good, but still working super hard to get it all completed and turned in by March 1!
Next Steps:

1. Complete Bookmarks
2. Bookshelf roof
3. Sand and Paint shelf
4. Shingles and Finishing Poster on the shelf
5. Pick up Donated Creative Writing Books
6. Donate extra-fabric dog toys to Five Acres Animal Shelter

"We're gonna do what they say can't be done. We've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there." - Jerry Reed

Iced-In = Progress

Iced-In today, so I made some progress! I got some new books, and now I have a whole 206 books! I laminated 27 of 72 bookmarks today, and also cut and laid out all the yarn to tie onto them. Unfortunately, I didn't have a hole-punch, but I'll be getting one soon to cut holes for the yarn. Can't wait until they're done! They're so cute. 

I also made a little "About the Project" sign to put on the shelf when it's finished. I'm thinking about putting said-sign under a flap on the roof of the barn bookshelf. I think it'll go well there, but I can't be sure until I'm completely finished building the shelf. Icy conditions kept us from doing just that today, but it'll be completed within the next two weeks. Procrastination is not an option anymore! (haha)

Also got an email recently that my project and final report are due on March 1, to be approved by March 31, to be eligible for the Gold Award. Then, if I actually meet all the requirements, and everything goes well, I'll be able to participate in the 2017 Showcase on April 9th, and I'll be invited to be recognized on June 11th at the Reflections ceremony.
But of course (wow, lucky me.) I will be at Army Basic Training and will not make it to the Reflections Ceremony. (Who needs to be recognized anyway, am I right?). But I'm already so honored to have gotten this far with the project, and to have met so many incredible people along the way.

"Your life is a reflection of your thoughts. If you change your thinking, you change your life." -Brian Tracy

Total Project Hours: 65 hours and 19 minutes

BoOkMaRkS

Since my last post, I've been able to design and lay out 72 book marks. One for each chapter book that was donated to the project. Each book mark features a grammar, figurative language, or reading statistic. I put a lot of thought and time into these, and I hope that kids get to actually use them one day.
I've also gone through my notes and time sheets, and realized that I was missing A TON of hours when updating my blog, so after this post, the posted total hours will be correct.
I can't wait to get further on with the project.

"The biggest adventure is what lies ahead"-JRR Tolkien

TOTAL TIME: 60 Hours 19 minutes

New Idea.

I was online today and saw a campaign to "make bookmarks and donate them in old books" on DoSomething.org and in my head it translated to "MAKE BOOKMARKS FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF BOOKS"
Maybe not for all of them, but for some, like Percy Jackson, the longer books would need page markers. Maybe it would be fun to have a get-together for my friends to make some! We could even make them informative, maybe with little grammar reminders or quotes.
I'm so excited about this project, and every time we have another little thing to add to it, it just gets better. Bought red paint today, hopefully I can start painting the shelf soon!

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions"

 -Oliver Wendall Holmes

Start of Something New

New year, new accomplishments. 
Today my father and I worked very hard in the garage as we started to build the actual book shelf. It took a while to sit and calculate dimensions and angles, but when we got going, we ended up with some pretty great progress. We built the walls, learned how to cut angles, cut all of the shelves, and researched, then started working on our Gambel-style roof. We found a few finish pieces of board that we will be able to use eventually as well. Can't wait to get back to work on it this coming Saturday! Then we'll finally be able to paint it. Though I don't have photos of what we completed today, I have a few before my phone died...

"The worst thing we can do is make a mistake"

"Then what do we do?"

"We try something new."