Vote Sam Ethridge for UVM Feel Good President 2011-2012!!!

Vote Sam Ethridge for UVM Feel Good President 2011-2012

*I know all of you are crazy awesome busy Feel Gooders so I’ll make this blurb short and sweet!

                                                 

Who am I?

-Current Junior, class of 2012

-Environmental Studies Major, Community & International Development and Dance double minor

-Active member of UVM Feel Good for 2 years

-Currently serving as UVM Feel Good’s Community Outreach Coordinator

-Running for UVM Feel Good President for next year!!!!

My thoughts for next year…

1. Increase Member Retention through...

                        -Member meetings

                        -Retreat for ALL UVM Feel Gooders so non-officer members feel more engaged in Feel Goods projects and mission. This retreat will bring our community closer together, be a melting pot of incredible CHANGE-MAKING ideas, and gives members the opportunity to set achievable goals and deadlines for projects of their own in line with the Feel Good vision

                        -One-on-one sessions with FG officers and other members on a regular basis in order to check-in, keep the communication lines open, nurture ideas, link ideas and people together, and learn from the amazing changemakers I will be leading in order to be the best facilitator, communicator, inspirer, and FG President I can be

                        -Feel Good Rewards Card system that works like a “buy 10 coffee cups get one                         free” but for hours worked at the kiosk

                        -More peak experience opportunities for members to see the “bigger picture” of                         Feel Good like the Hunger Summit

2. Build strong Feel Good community of Changemakers!!!

            -->Nurture relationships with...

                        -DC, Sodexo, UVM, Community Partners

                        -Feel Good World, Alumni, Other Chapters, members abroad for other valuable                         sources of information, ideas, and inspiration

                        -Admissions office to ensure FG name is getting out there on tours and                                     potentially give visitors FG coupons to increase sales and awareness

                        -UVM academic departments (for catering opportunities)

                        -UVM clubs and organizations

             -->Use skype in meetings to connect more with Feel Good/THP family

**My experience as Community Outreach Coordinator has prepared me well for these tasks

3. Encourage new ideas, partnerships, and projects by all through OPEN communication and positive dialoguing!!!

Why me?

-Define myself as a passionate optimist with ENERGY (wanna know the real me? Watch these silly videos!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ovUWWUna8U&feature=player_embedded#at=115 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fs9saTrlu0 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRonKvcrTm0; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeICAk_I7nY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IYmWW6nOrQ

-I am extremely motivated, organized, flexible, creative, and compassionate individual

-I love people more than anything and am good at linking people up who would work well together, inspiring people to do a project idea they have, and being completely open and accessible to all…that’s the Presidents job

-Great listener…in fact Samantha means listener!!!

-I have extensive knowledge of how The Hunger Project works, how an Epicenter works, where exactly or money goes and what is done with it because of my work WITH The Hunger Project-Uganda, and hunger and social entrepreneurship (doing Senior thesis on these topics with D.C. Central Kitchen) that I would like to share

-I have had many experiences within and outside of Feel Good that have prepared me so well for this leadership position

            -Feel Good World Big Cheese Summer Training Camp

            -4 months abroad in Uganda, 6 weeks working on the ground with The Hunger Project-Uganda about leadership, working together, and Vision Commitment and Action workshops

            -Public Relations chair for Orchesis Dance Company

            -Leadership team for the Advocat Tour Guide Program at UVM

            -Community Outreach Coordinator for UVM Feel Good

-Great organizational skills such as communication and planning

-I believe leading by example is extremely important so I will carry myself with all the characteristics and values that Feel Good is built upon (patience, love, compassion, enthusiasm, responsible social leaders, changemaker)

-I live my life according to the VCA strategy, which is having a vision, setting achievable, realistic and exciting goals/commitments, and taking action on those commitments towards positive social and environmental change (visionary, committed, action-oriented)

*This is my last year with UVM Feel Good and I would love the honor of getting to lead next years group of epic UVM changemakers towards our ACHIEVABLE goal of ending chronic persistent world hunger and extreme poverty in our lifetime. There is SO MUCH potential in UVM Feel Good and our members and if you give me this incredible opportunity I will get the job done. Thank you for your time, PASSION, and awesomeness for participating in the elections process!!!! You rock changemaker…

*Please e-mail/call with any questions before you vote! sethridg@uvm.edu; 914-522-7503

Presenting certificate of appreciation from Feel Good World to THP-Uganda! Made a partner across the world!!!!

Last day of work with THP Uganda 

First ever flash mob for UVM Feel Good!!

Watch my elections video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRTa4z3CG9o

1. 

Speech for Community Outreach Coordinator for FG!!!! Vote for me Pwease!

Name: Sammy Ethridge

Position: Community Outreach Coordinator

Speech:

Hello my Feel Good partners and lovers of grilled cheese! My name is Sam Ethridge and I am running for the position of Community Outreach Coordinator for this coming spring semester with UVM FG! Whoo! Unfortunately I can’t give a real face-to-face speech since I’m abroad in Uganda right now, so for those who don’t know me I hope this speech and online video give you an idea of what I’m all about and more importantly why I am so amped and ready to commit to this position with Feel Good.

The community outreach coordinator sounds like such a broad position and to be perfectly honest…it is! But that shouldn’t be looked at in a negative light or as completely overwhelming. I see it as such an incredible opportunity to tap into the vast amounts of human resources we have at our own FG chapter, other FG chapters, other UVM clubs, and even more potentially great partners in the greater Burlington area. Everyone has something to add. Nobody knows everything and nobody knows nothings so why not harness the incredible amount of potential out there to link up, to partner, to exchange knowledge, and to share in this beautiful vision of a world free from chronic persistent hunger in our lifetime? We first just need to realize we actually can do it, despite various challenges, including that darn winter slump, that can make us distracted from our common vision and mission at UVM Feel Good.

When I talk about this seemingly endless amount of potential we can utilize in our own community, I see it in different partnerships, events, and continued coordination and collaboration between FG members and officers. The community outreach coordinator position is still very new to FG and this past semester has been focused a lot on partnering with the Burlington farmers market and creating even more partnerships for food donations. I definitely think this work is important to continue and that even the outgoing and incoming community outreach coordinators need to work closely, especially in the transitional stage so make sure nothing falls through the cracks. I also think it is very important to work closely with all of the officers in UVM FG since community outreach encompasses so much. Working closely on Jammin’, working closely with Trisha on reaching new audiences and making new connections, working closely with the deli managers when making new food donations and sustaining current donor relations, and especially working closely with the treasurer to be constantly aware of what funds are available for new potential events or partnerships. I would also like or mobilize another flash mob next semester, but this time work more closely with all the officers and partners to make the dance more focused on FGs message than just a show stoppin’ number. This will take collaboration with funds, advertising, mobilization of volunteers to accomplish this and really show our vision to the UVM community. I would like to do a lot of work with linking up with other universities in two ways. The first being with our University Chapter family across the U.S. Creating more opportunities to exchange valuable knowledge and feedback more frequently could help give us more guidance, more ideas, and continued excitement about creating lasting change. The second way would be through starting to ignite, empower, and equip other universities in the area to fall in love with Feel Goods mission. Feel Good World is trying to hard to start up new chapters and members and there’s no reason why we can’t help in that process since there are so many universities just in the Chittenden County area. We can do this by coordinating with their campuses to talk about FGs work, inviting interested persons to a meeting, and coordinating with their schools to maybe have a UVM FG sell day to get our name out there. Ultimately getting 2-3 people amped about ending chronic persistent hunger to start their own chapter is the goal and we can then act as mentors as we add more to the FG family. Finally, linking up with our own UVM clubs is very important in getting more to work towards this common vision and make it easier for all of us. Finding more opportunities to sell at campus events and even using those who aren’t in FG as back-ups for those dreaded slow days where sign-ups are low is a very realistic possibility. There have been multiple persons who have come up to me just wondering how they can sell grilled cheese. We just need to find them and the best way to do that is through partnering! It is also just important to be present around the kiosk a lot in order to chat with people and discover those potential link ups. As stated by many THP members here in Uganda, “you can’t do anything alone. Together it is simple.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Now I know exactly what you’re thinking…that’s a whole lot for just one semester and one position. But that’s just it. It’s not just one semester or just one position. The work of the community outreach coordination is to continue old projects and find opportunities for new ones. It is to constantly be in the know of its member’s skills and talents and to figure how to best utilize them towards the vision. The main reason why I see so much potential in this position and in UVM FG is because I know from my experience right now with The Hunger Project Uganda that is never is one person’s job or one aspect. We all supplement each other. We all have to work closely with one another to support one another to meet our individual goals that are in line with our common goal: ending hunger. As community outreach coordinator I see my in three parts. The first is the mobilizer. It is my job to find people, find the human resources, and empower and mobilize them to get a certain task completed. Whether it’s finding enough dancers for a flash mob or finding 2-3 people at St. Mikes to start a FG chapter, it is my role to get people amped and organized to initiate their own projects to end hunger. Basically I’m the UVM Feel Good animator for the Burlington Epicenter. The second role is the matchmaker. It is my job to find new opportunities, new partnerships, and new programs that are in line with Feel Goods mission and available resources. It is my job to be the liaison between the FG members, UVM community, FG chapters, and Burlington community in order to constantly be aware of what UVM FG and our FG family needs supplementing in. I need to listen to everyone and have a keen ear for new ideas and then communicate such ideas to the proper FG officer for further implementation. This leads me to my third and final role, the carrier pigeon. It is without a doubt my most important role to communicate with everyone on a daily basis. Without communication, there are gaps, and when here are gaps the vision becomes much harder to reach and not as clear.

Again, for those of you who don’t know me I’m Sam, or Sammie the Samwich. As I’m sure many of you are, I am also in love with Feel Goods mission and even more with our own UVM Feel Good family. I have been working with UVM FG for a year and half now and have had a lot of experience with mobilizing people and looking for new opportunities. I organized two Fee Good flash mobs last year to Single Ladies (fabulous I know) to spread the word about FG and Jammin’. I created partnership with various dance groups and acapella groups to get them to perform at Jammin’ last year, and also created a new partnership with said dance groups, namely Orchesis, to sell at their events. I attended the Big Cheese Summer Camp this past July and learned an invaluable amount about partnership and our common vision, but more importantly what effective tools to use to accomplish said goals. I absolute love working with people and have realized while away that it is really the only requisite I have for any future jobs. I’m a dance teacher (teach and work with people), tour guide (talk with people all day about how awesome UVM is), and have been doing research in Uganda with THP about what are the necessary tools, characteristics, and attitudes to have in every partner involved towards achieving this common vision (I just get to talk to people all day about how amazing they are). So from all that, I know I just want to work with people. I am a good listener, in fact (fun fact) Samantha means listener! I am good at keeping timelines and finding the right people to talk to. I am addicted to checking my e-mail. I like seeing things done to the finish line and am very flexible and adapt easily when challenges arise. Honestly, I am without a doubt a passionate optimist. I am visionary and I am exemplary and those are two qualities that literally every person of the 60+ people I’ve interviewed while here have said are necessary to be an effective actor in ending hunger.

In short, I want to develop an open and close relationship with all partners, members and who familiar and unfamiliar with ordering a grilled cheese sandwich. Most of all I just want to get down to business and get up to date with everyone at UVM FG. One women I interviewed who has only worked for THP Uganda for a month so far said that what has influenced her the most from THPs ideologies is “the fact that I can initiate my own ideas and be able to achieve my goals.” I felt like the words were taken right out of my mouth when she said that. I have a vision, I am so ready for the commitment of this position, I just need the opportunity to put it all in action by working in partnership with each and every one of you.

Thank you. Love and SO much Grilled Cheese. (seriously…there’s no grilled cheese in Uganda so I have a lot of love for it right now).

Eastern Excursion Uganda (71 photos), by Samantha Ethridge

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Eastern Excursion Part 1 (48 photos), by Samantha Ethridge

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Success!!!! Yay THP Uganda!

So! Sorry I've been so horrific lately at keeping up with this blog but you can blame The Hunger Project! They're working me hard and it's been awesome so far!! I've interviewed about 30 people and will be going on an overnight this week to Kiboga for two nights to talk to a TON of people since my sole person for being all the way over there and staying overnight is to talk to EVERYONE for 48 hours more or less aha. YES.

The reason I entitled this success is because some the THP Uganda staff has been doing some amazing stuff and I've got to witness it! There is an Epicenter called Wakiso near Kampala that is in stage four: Self-reliant, however, a lot of the members of that epicenter have to travel VERY far and transport is expensive and not easy so they decided to start another epicenter for their community called Namayumba where I've been spending the bulk of my time cause they are really getting down to work! Right now they are in phase one, which is mobilization, of people AND materials. The local government must first approve the THP methodology and project before anything can start and they have. They must also commit some money and materials to the building of the Epicenter which is the central part of THPs approach, gives the villagers ownership of it, and acts as a symbol to the government that their community is ready and willing to work hard to improve their quality of life. The epicenter includes a medical clinic, meeting space, pit latrines, rural bank, farmland, water tanks, nursery school, food bank, and other stuff. So right now the THP field staff, Joel who've I've mainly been working with, has been going around to different villagers and groups learning about THP or already associated with THP to get them to commit to giving money to the building project and/or materials such as lake sand, hardcore, stones, river sand, truck transport, etc. In just a week we have 260,000 shillings committed, about 140 trips of river sand, bricks, and hardcore. Now they just need to get river sand and more stones but its amazing how generous these people are towards this project. One man contributed 100 trips of river sand from his pit for free, as well as his own labour. The entire staff has been humbled by this communities commit to THP and their vision.

Speaking of being humbled. Today I was talking with my colleague Paul who works in Monitoring and Evaluation and he asked how I heard about THP and THP Uganda, so I began to explain to him about Feel Good and what we do and how it started and its ideologies and what not and he was literally in awe. He was so touched and excited and happy that there were these "very young" students in the U.S. all just selling sandwiches to give money to The Hunger Project. He couldn't believe it. We then proceeded to watch some FG videos and another THP staff member came to watch too and he just kept saying "I am so humbled." I wish there was a way we could talk to all the staff members across the world about what we do and thank them because it honestly made their day to find out about these American students who are ending world hunger one grilled cheese at a time and it also made MY day because 1) I got to talk about FG and how awesome it is and how much I love it and 2) It was even more exciting to see their positive responses to FG and it just made me so happy and so excited. I just wanted to watch FG movies with them the rest of the day. Paul even said he wants to write a letter to FG thanking them and says I have to give it to them! YES!

Anyways, as you can probably tell I love working with THP Uganda, it's literally a dream come true. It's a TON of hardwork and I'm working 10-12 hour days but most of the time I'm just talking to people about their lives and their work and how amazing they are so it's really fun! I'll keep you updated on what I found out!!! Isn't it great to see how everyones working together towards the same vision??? YES...it's happening people...we're ending chronic persistent world hunger in our lifetime. More than EVER I am so convinced of that.

p.s. check out feelgoodworld.org and/or thp.org

peace, love, and grilled cheese
Sammy Mac

Uganda: First 7 Weeks! (132 photos), by Samantha Ethridge

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Finally!!!!

So.

yesterday.

epicness finally ensued.

for the first time in what has felt like FOREVER...

I had...

pizza!!!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOO

and best of all it was good!!! which is just such craziness considering pizza isn't really too big here in Uganda

my friend Tim and I were on a mission yesterday afternoon to finally find some glorious pizza and we found it in Wandegeya (which is the town next to Kamwokya where our SIT school is) and it was called Mambas Point. What was even stranger was it was like an actual legit restaurant, or at least the kind of restaurant we muzungus are used to. There was hostess who sat us down, these pretty tables with everything already set up, they took our drink order and then later food order andneither time were breathing down our necks to make a decision.

what was our pizza decision? oh, don't worry, it was a lovely choice.

a large pizza (which was really more of a medium size in my opinion) with mozzarella, green peppers, salami (we thought it was going to be pepparoni but still good), and cooked pineapple....OMG. so good.

we demolished the pizza within minutes and i don't think i've felt quite that satisfied after eating since I've been here. awesomeness.

(p.s. for family and friends who have known me for a long time and are probably very confused by the blog post...yes. it is true. i now eat pizza. it was a long time coming, but now i am full into it. im still not really that into the whole tomato sauce thing, but pizza? it is a definite yes on the sammys favorite foods list now. applause please?)

All in all, it was a good day yesterday. Hopefully there will be many more pizza exhibitions to come.

Until then, please, appreciate the glorious pizza you have at your fingertips because it is SO GOOD back home, alright here, but still nothing compares...especially to American Flatbread Pizza. (hint hint, wink wink)