The first ever Change for Change was on Tuesday November 16 in the JDUC and what a great day it was!!!!!!!! We collected tons of change and if you noticed we had it all on display on the "Wall of Duct Tape" behind the booth. We also had an awesome bake sale with some extremely delicious baked goods that were definitely hard to resist. Last but not least, we had the adorably cute Bruce, the undeniable centre of attention who knew how to work the crowd. Check out the the wonderful "Wall of Duct Tape" and QFTCers at work:

We raised close to $200 and we would like to thank each and everyone one of you who came out and supported QFTC as this money will go to a school-building project in Kenya, and every cent counts. We'd like to thank the Events team who helped created, organized and planned this event and everyone who was involved. We look forward to having another great Change for Change next year!!!!!

Stay tuned for our concert in February!!!!!!

Change for Change!

Hi everyone!

After much anticipation QFTC is here to announce their brand spanking new event, drum roll please.............. CHANGE FOR CHANGE!!!!

It will be taking place this Tuesday, November 16, 2008 from 10 am to 4pm to compete with other Queen's organizations for your change. All change collected by QFTC will go to a school-building project in Kenya. A booth will be set up in the lower caleigh in the JDUC, along with collecting change we have some more awesome things happening. Delicious baked goods, and an adorably cute puppy will be on hand to take a picture with, and to top it all off we will be raffling off a copy of "Me to We" signed by Marc Kielberger and a Me to We t-shirt.
So if you're in the JDUC neighborhood and have extra change in the deep corners of your pocket drop by our booth to help and to learn more about Free the Children.

See you there!

Hey everyone, this is your brand spanking new first year rep about to make his debut blog post so please bear with me. Since all this is pretty much new to me, I figured I'll just wet my feet a bit and post this depressing video of child labour (it was very depressing for me =( )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8ajmDxRHZQ

This video was compiled by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and after some more digging I found some additional stats from their site:

• Globally, 1 in 6 children work
• 218 million children aged 5 - 17 are involved in child labour world wide
• 126 million children work in hazardous conditions
• The highest numbers of child labourers are in the Asia/Pacific region, where there are 122 million working children
• The highest proportion of child labourers is in Sub Saharan Africa, where 26% of children (49 million) are involved in work.

Check that out.. 218 million children are involved in child labour world wide. That's like... (gets calculator) almost 7 times the population of Canada!! The thing to remember is that some of these children are lured by the prospects of job opportunities which they can't afford to ignore if they want to put food on the family's table. Unfortunately, child labour is merely the tip of an enormous iceberg of a whole slew of child rights problems that are common today: child soldiers, physical/sexual abuse, child refugees, substandard education just to name a few. As an FTCer, this was a good wake up call for me to continue pushing forwards in our goals and I hope it's done the same for you. All right, that's all the spiel I've got to share for now, I'm looking forward to continuing work with you guys in the future and you're all awesome. Peacee

Daniel

Happy November!
Happy Belated Halloween! Queen's Free the Children teamed up with Meal Exchange and Students Against Poverty for Trick-or-Eat on Friday to collect non perishable food items for local food banks and shelters. Luckily for us the weather was awesome and QFTC were all dressed up as hippies and we were rockin' the peace signs. We got a lot of support from the Kingston community who were more than happy to donate. Being able to work within the Kingston area allows us to lend a helping hand while interacting and understanding the issues that the community faces. In total, 80 volunteers collected approximately 800 items to help those in need, which makes a huge difference. Check out some photos of QFTC at work:

We'd like to thank all those volunteers who came out it as it was greatly appreciated we're looking forward to your support and enthusiasm for next year.

Stay tuned for exciting events in November!

Trick or Eat!

Did you know that every month, over 720,000 Canadians receive food from a food bank and 39% of them are children?

To end the month of October with a bang, QFTC is working with the Meal Exchange for their annual Trick or Eat! This Friday, October 31 we will be collecting non-perishable food items for our local food banks in an effort to address the local concerns of hunger. To get into the Halloween spirit we will be dressing up in costumes. The theme for the QFTC group will be...... Hippies! We will be meeting at 6 pm on Friday in the JDUC Breezeway (near the ATMs and food court) with our full out costumes. Remember to bring a backpack or reusable bag to carry the donations that are collected!

If you are interested in Trick or Eating with QFTC visit http://my.e2rm.com/TeamPage.aspx?Lang=en-CA&TSID=213668 to sign up ASAP! And if you'd like to know more about Trick or Eat and the Meal Exchange Program check out this YouTube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWy_jUt_cAk or their website http://www.mealexchange.com/trickoreat.
See you on Friday!!!!!

We're back! Let's recap the last month...

Hey QFTCers!

After a looong absence since our last post, we're back! Many apologies to those that have been checking to website for updates, but we've had an extremely busy past month which included the hiring of our new executive team and Me to We Day @ Queen's. So let's cut right down to the chase and find out what we were up to for the past month or so.

QFTC Executive (2008-2009)

Congratulations to all our new executive team members for being selected to form QFTC '08-'09. An incredible number of qualified, intelligent, and passionate individuals applied for a position and we're so grateful to all applicants. The decision was not an easy one (that's for sure!) but we feel like we came up with a group of people that will be FANTASTIC in leading QFTC to even greater heights. So, without further ado, here they are:
Administrator - Avanthi Tudor
Community Relations Coordinator - Tyler Barrack
Events Coordinators - David Pardy, Sabrina Rubli, and Warren Duncan
First-Year Representatives - Daniel Law and Kathleen Boyd
FTC Liaison - Alex Pattee
Promotions and Publications - Sacha Stein

Congratulations team!

Me to We Day @ Queen's

This year's national Me to We (M2W) Day was on October 17th. Thousands of students, teachers, and volunteers gathered at the Ricoh Coliseum to celebrate a new way of living - Me to We. For those that don't know what M2W is, here's a little blurb from FTC:

At heart, Me to We is a life philosophy: it offers us a way to live life, and its wisdom is the kind developed over the course of a lifetime. At the most basic level, it embraces the idea that we can all build a better life-and our ideal world-through reaching out to others. In practice, it involves focusing less on "Me", and more on "We"-our communities, our nation and our world as a whole. Today, Me to We is a worldwide movement of people finding purpose through living with compassion, strengthening community and making a commitment to our shared humanity.

In celebration of M2W Day, QFTC and our friends at Queen's Oxfam, decided to hold our own M2W Day @ Queen's! On Friday, October 17th we handed out FREE hot chocolate. Not just that, but we also had a silent disco right infront of Stauffer Library. In the end we handed out over 100L of hot chocolate and everyone had a fantastic time! Here are some pictures:


M2W celebrations didn't end there! On Saturday, October 18th QFTCers and Oxfamers helped serve Thanksgiving Dinner at the Salvation Army, prepped Dawn House Women's Shelter for the winter, and sweeped through the streets of Kingston for a community cleanup. It was an eye-opening experience for all of us and we certainly lived out the M2W philosophy. Here are a few photos from the community cleanup and the Salvation Army:


Thanks so much to all our passionate volunteers that came out, and special thanks to Oxfam for their support throughout the event-planning process. For more information on M2W, please visit www.metowe.com.

Peace and respect,
QFTC

Info Session Recap

Hey you!

Didn't get a chance to come out to the info session last Tuesday or Wednesday? No worries, here's a link to the slide show that we presented. A lot of the information was presented verbally so don't be afraid to email us to ask any questions about certain slides.

We had a great time at both sessions, but in particular, we received a lot of feedback during the Wednesday session. One of the main suggestions/concerns we discussed was "keeping people involved who aren't on the exec team." We realized that there was so much passion and enthusiasm in the room that it would be a utterly wasteful act to not tap into it. So, next Wednesday at 7:00 PM, Amy and I will be hosting a round-table discussion about keeping people involved. We will be discussing the potential of setting up sub-committees, weekly general meetings, and more. Should you be interested in attending this session, please RSVP with us at queensfreethechildren@gmail.com and we will send you more details about the "round table."

Cheers!
QFTC

Executive Applications - Due October 3rd!

Hello!

Are you interested in applying for a position on QFTC's Executive Team? Then check out our available positions and complete the application! Applications are due on Friday, October 3rd at 4:00 PM. Please email it to queensfreethechildren@gmail.com and 5pn1@queensu.ca. You will receive a confirmation email saying that we've received your application within 24 hours.

Finally, please read the instructions carefully and only complete the sections that apply to you. Should you have any questions regarding the application or the application process, don't hesitate to email us.

Good luck!
Amy and Peter (Co-Chairs, QFTC)

Information Sessions - TWO of them!

Hello!

Next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be holding information sessions about QFTC. We will be going over some of the events and ideas that we have planned this year and you can find out how to get involved. These sessions will be particularly useful for those interested in applying for a position on the executive team or traveling abroad with Free the Children.

The sessions will be held in Room 411 of Goodes Hall. If you don't know where Goodes Hall is, you can check out the map below. The sessions on both nights will begin at 7:00 PM and will probably run for 45 minutes to an hour.


Hope to see you there!
QFTC

PS. Please note that you do not have to attend both of them. Just the one that works with your schedule!

Clubs Night!

Hey everyone!

Visit us at our booth this Tuesday and Wednesday for Clubs Night! Clubs Night is an opportunity for those interested in joining a club this year to browse through all that Queen's has to offer. This year it will be held at the BioSciences atrium from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM on both Tuesday and Wednesdays.

If you have any questions regarding our club or would like to join our mailing list, please drop by! We also hope to have some goodies available. :)

Peace!
QFTC

Club Constitution

Want to learn more about QFTC and what we're about? Then check out our Club Constitution! In the document, you will find information about our Vision, Mission, Objectives, Structure of the Executive Team, Hiring Process, Funding, and a lot more. Although it is a bit wordy, it might be worth a look through for you hardcore FTCers :)

Please note that the Structure/Positions of the Executive Team is not final. We may add more positions in depending on the response we get during our hiring process. Anyways, check it out!

OK, so the QFTC Constitution wasn't written in 1787. Nor were there the likes of Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson at the signing of the document but we'd still like to think it's something special.

Sidewalk Sale - Success!

A big thank you to all of you that dropped by our booth yesterday at the Sidewalk Sale. We collected over $100 in donations through our freezies fundraiser and a TON of emails for our Email List. Please keep checking this site for more information regarding future events and our executive hiring applications.

Cheers!
Team QFTC


PS. Thanks to all our 2007-2008 Executive Team Members that helped out with the booth! You guys were AMAZING. :)

Sidewalk Sale

QFTC will be at the ASUS Sidewalk Sale tomorrow (September 5th). Come check us out at our booth. We will also be selling freezies to cover the booth cost and raise some funds.

Welcome!

Welcome to qftc.blogspot.com! This is where you'll find the latest news, event/fundraiser information, and whole lot more about Queen's Free the Children. We also hope to have some of our executive members post their experiences from volunteer trips with Free the Children or opinion pieces on hot topics. We'd like this blog to be as interactive as possible so if you have an idea, thought, or opinion - please post, we'd love to hear from you.

For those who are new to Free the Children, here's a quick overview:

Free the Children, or FTC, was founded by 12-year-old Craig Kielberger (you may know him) in 1995. It all started with a newspaper article on Iqbal Masih, a former child-worker who spoke out about the human rights violations being committed in factories and sweatshops in Pakistan. Craig saw this article and felt like he needed to do something. He gathered 11 school friends to begin fighting child labour and FTC was born.

Thirteen years later, FTC has over 1 million young people in 45 countries participating in its innovative program. It is the world's largest network of children helping children through education meaning that its funds come from grassroots groups in schools and communities led by young people. Through this world-wide effort FTC has built over 500 primary schools providing education to 50,000 children every day. For more information about FTC, visit www.freethechildren.com