Newsletter

 

Protecting Your Child's Portable Property

National Crime Prevention Council

Does your child own a cell phone, an ipod or mp3? How about a high tech calculator, digital camera, or popular brand of clothes? Does he or she take these items with them to school and leave them in a backpack or locker while they are in class, at lunch, or in the gym?

If your answer to these questions is yes then it is essential for you to teach your child how to protect these valuables.

Statistics show that young people ages 12 to 17 are far more likely to be victims of property crimes than adults, and most of the crimes occur on school grounds. The majority of these thefts are never reported to police or school officials.

How to Prevent Theft

It's unfortunate, but some people steal. Yet protecting your portable property doesn't mean you can't have it with you or enjoy it. You must take steps to ensure that personal property is secured or watched at all times. Here are some approaches that will help keep you from being a victim of property crime.

Don't Bring Valuables to School

If you don't absolutely need something during the school day, leave it home. Keep only as much cash in your wallet or purse as you need in one day. In most schools there is an "at your own risk" policy when it comes to bringing money and expensive items to school.

Avoid Calling Attention to Your Valuables

Showing off your new cell phone might impress your friends, but it also attracts unwanted attention from people you don't know. If you listen to an ipod or mp3 player, tuck it in a pocket and keep it out of sight when not in use. And don't brag about how much you new basketball shoes cost at the mall.

Never Leave Your Valuables Unattended

Most items are stolen because they are left unattended. If your backpack is tossed on a table while you get in the lunch line or you leave it on the bench in the locker room, either your backpack or an item inside may be missing when you return. If you must leave your belongings, even for a minute, ask a friend to watch them until you return.

Secure Your Locker at all Times

Many students report that their belongings are stolen from lockers. Lockers can be broken easily especially if they are not properly closed. Make sure your locker works; if not, request on that does. Always keep it locked and do not share your combination with anyone. Gym lockers are most vulnerable to theft because they are often left unlocked, and locker rooms are most often completely vacant.

Hide Valuables That You Leave in Your Car

If you drive to school, never leave valuables in plain sight of people outside your car even if you keep it locked. Put them in your trunk, glove box, or center console. Remember, school parking lots are often deserted during the day and car thieves know this.

How to Recover Stolen Items

Although many stolen items are never recovered, there is always a chance that the thief will be apprehended and his or her stash of stolen items will fall into the authorities' hands. If you take certain measures before and after a theft, you just might get a prized item returned to you.

Keep a List of All Your Valuables

One of the best ways you can assist the police in recovering your stolen property is by keeping records. Make a list of all of your valuables including a full description, color, make, model, serial number, and any other identifiers. Pictures are also helpful. Make several copies of this list and give one to your parents.

Take Part in Operation ID

Operation ID is a nationwide theft prevention program that involves marking property with an identifying number to make it less desirable to thieves, who will have trouble selling it, and to help police identify the owner if found. You can have engravings done at Neighborhood Watch programs free of charge.

It also helps to put your name on school supplies, textbooks, clothes, and accessories. Many items are lost rather than stolen and an identifying name will help them find their way safely back to you.

Immediately Report a Theft to Authorities

Remember, being robbed or having your property stolen is not your fault. Even if you left your valuables unattended, no one has the right to take your things. If something that belongs to you is stolen, report the theft immediately to school authorities, your parents, and the police. Be sure to note the date, time, and location of the incident. Also, look for witnesses. Prompt reporting is and important factor in recovering stolen items.

Like your stuff? Your not the only one.
Remember to keep your things safe.
Lock them up.

 

Earth Saving Tips
from Earth Share

"Earth Share, a federation of America's leading non-profit environmental and conservation charities, promotes environmental education and charitable giving in workplace employee giving campaigns. For more tips and to find out how your workplace can help the earth, visit www.earthshare.org or call 1.800.875.3863"

Bring Your Own Cloth or Fabric Bags When You Shop

Many grocery stores have implemented bag recycling programs, but transportation of these bags to and from stores requires valuable resources. And 99% of the 100 billion plastic shopping bags used in the U.S. are never recycled, with a single bag taking up to 1,000 years to fully break down. What can you do?

If you grocery shop once a week, in five years you’ll have kept about 250 to 1,000 grocery bags out of our landfills. When one ton of plastic bags is reused or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil is saved! Look for Earthwise reusable bags in more than 2,000 retail locations across the country.

Re-use the Plastic Bags You Already Have
- Old bags make great in-car trash containers.
- Use them as shoe protectors in the garden.
- Re-use them to clean up kitty litter, or to pick up dog droppings when walking your pet.
- Use them in your smaller waste bins around the house.
- Fill a few with shredded paper and tie them off for cheap, reusable packing materials. They’re also a handy way to maintain the shape of your favorite tote.
- Cut a slit in your bags and use them to protect clothes from dust, moths, and other pests.
- Take them with you for easy disposal of diapers.

Did You Know?
The United States is 5% of the world’s population but we’re consuming
30% of the world’s resources and creating 30% of the waste.

Don't Wallow in Water Waste

In the shower - If you have to mix your hot water with cold, your thermostat is up too high and you are wasting energy. Why heat up water just to cool it down? Simply adjust the thermostat in your water heater to your perfect temperature.

In the washing machine - Using cold water instead of warm cuts down on energy use by 90%! In fact, using cold water is often better for your clothes.

In the bottle - Buy a water filter and drink water from the tap in a reusable bottle — that’s where 40 percent of all bottled water comes from anyway. The average American drinks 22.6 gallons of bottled water a year. Making all that plastic releases over four pounds of carbon dioxide per person and consumes a surprising amount of petroleum (.005 barrels, or nearly a quart of oil per person).

 

Cut Down Your Carbon Clutter

Modernize your life by taking control of your stuff. Monitoring the mail you receive is a great way to cut down your clutter. You’ll have less to dispose of, you’ll feel less overwhelmed, and you’ll take a step towards helping to save our environment.

41pounds.org will contact 20 to 30 direct mail companies on your behalf to stop the majority of your bulk mail. With just a few minutes and $41, you’re finished — for five years! You can sit back and enjoy the benefits —

Save trees. More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail. 42% of timber harvested nationwide becomes pulpwood for paper.
Reduce global warming. The energy used to produce and dispose of junk mail exceeds 2.8 million cars.
Save water. About 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk each year.
Save time. You waste about 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail.

Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers. Catalog Choice reduces the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, by freely providing the Catalog Choice services to both consumers and businesses.

Sign up. Fill out our online registration form using your name and primary mailing address.
Find your catalogs.Find and decline your catalogs, using the Catalog Choice search facilities. We'll then contact the catalog providers on your behalf, requesting that your name be removed from their mailing lists.
See the results. It can take at least ten weeks to process your request, after which time you should no longer receive your declined catalog.Catalog Choice is designed for your continued use. Upon receipt of additional unwanted catalogs, return here to decline them.

Ways to Shorten the Office Paper Trail

Copy on both sides of the paper. This is especially efficient for internal documents and drafts.
Reduce documents to fit two pages onto one. Use for circulating rough drafts or file copies of documents.
Use lighter weight paper. Lighter paper requires less energy and fewer raw materials when it's manufactured.
Consider purchasing ecoEnvelopes. These envelopes were recently approved by the United States Postal Service and can cut your mail costs 15% to 45% -- by eliminating the need to print, store, handle, insert, track and include a separate reply envelope. Reusable envelopes send an important message that you care about the environment. Learn more: www.ecoenvelopes.com
Use your e-mail and other tech-savvy alternatives whenever possible. Instead of printing out e-mails, organize the folders in your inbox for good record keeping and easy access.

Team Sports Can Boost Kids' Health

Fond memories of "cannonballing" into the lake and playing sandlot baseball games with the neighborhood kids waft through our minds of summers past. Nowadays, kids are involved in more sedate activities, like browsing the Web or channel surfing the TV, as ways to pass the dog days of summer. With school bells ringing once again, however, kids need to be involved in more active pastimes than dodging detention.

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is urging children of all ages to show their school spirit by joining a team sport -- not only for its exercise benefits, but to develop healthy habits that will continue throughout their lives.

For many children, team sports like field hockey, soccer, and basketball enable them to stay physically active on a regular basis. The current trend of adolescents toward a more sedentary lifestyle could contribute to such future health problems as heart disease. And there are psychological as well as physical benefits to keeping fit. Building self-esteem and camaraderie and developing problem-solving skills in a team setting are a few of the bonuses kids receive through team sports.

Starting At An Early Age

Parents play a vital role in teaching kids, especially young children, about the importance of regular physical activity. According to the recent U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health, half of all kids between 12 and 21 are not physically active on a regular basis, and daily enrollment in physical education classes has declined an astonishing 41% among high school students in the last five years. Team sports can combat the downward spiral of an increasing population of inactive kids.

"Parents need to encourage young kids to participate in sports," says physical therapist Lisa Jesberg, M.P.T., at the Atlanta Sports Medicine Center in Virginia Beach, Va. "However, when introducing them to team sports, parents should de-emphasize competition and emphasize having fun. If their first sports experience is positive, kids are more likely to pursue other physical activities throughout life. And if the first exposure is negative, they may end up choosing a sedentary lifestyle instead."

Getting The Ball Rolling

Before "Junior" takes to the field, parents should consider a few things. First, your child should have a physical exam before playing any sport to make sure there are no conditions that would preclude participation. Second, if your child has spent the summer as a couch potato or lacks physical conditioning, inform the coach. Coaches should develop training programs for their players that are tailored to the sport, the age group and the physical levels of the children. Questions regarding physical conditioning programs can be directed to your local physical therapist. Finally, you can help keep children physically conditioned by encouraging them to remain active year round, not just during the sports season.

" My family played a big role in introducing me to team sports," says Laurel Martin, a member of the 1996 U.S. Women's Olympic Field Hockey Team and coach for women's field hockey at Cape Henry Collegiate in Virginia Beach, Va. "I've always been excited about participating in sports, but they provided the extra encouragement. Now, I try to pass that knowledge to my players and their parents, so that they can play to their potential, as well as continue with healthy habits well after the season is over."

Getting In Shape

To fully enjoy a season of sports, kids need to properly condition themselves. Performing extracurricular physical activities such as bicycling or raking leaves can help kids to keep their muscles limber before donning a team uniform. Good warm-up and cool-down sessions also help growing muscles avoid injury and strain.

Sometimes, however, injury does occur. "Parents should remember that children are not small adults," explains Lisa Jesberg, M.P.T. "Because kids are more susceptible to injury, what might appear as a sprain in adults could be a fracture in a child's growth plate." No matter how small the sports injury, children should be checked out thoroughly by a physical therapist or physician.

APTA offers an activity book called "Fit Kids" that helps children learn about physical fitness through puzzles, cartoons, and stories. "Fit Teens," a magazine with fitness tips and interviews with famous teen sports figures, is also available. For a free copy of either, write to APTA, P.O. Box 37257, Washington, DC, 20013.

The American Physical Therapy Association is a national professional organization representing more than 70,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and students. Its goal is to foster improvements in physical therapy education, practice, and research to enable provision of the highest quality physical therapy care to consumers.

Daily Updates | Brochure | Newsletter | Forms | Schedules
Pool Schedule | Photo Gallery | Registration