Recycle Love Festival

Hello,
Our names are Fran VandenBos, Caylan Wagar, and Jennifer Jordan. We have become aware of some disturbing FACTS about Human Trafficking and World Hunger. Learning the truth about human trafficking and its gut-wrenching exploitation, especially of children, has been appalling and disturbing. Many innocent lives, especially of young children, are being used and abused for the sake of MONEY and self-gratification. Knowing this happens around the world is a travesty but knowing it happens in our local community and State as well is very frightening. (for information on trafficking specifically in Oregon go to our partnering team Oregonians Against Trafficking Humans ~ http://www.oregonoath.org/ - Please watch video at end of this web page.)
Highly Sought after, world wide Speaker Bill Hillar, whose personal story inspired the movie Taken, is known as the "Human Trafficking Guru." His passion to end this atrocity has caused him to devote years to working against trafficking and educating others - in college courses, law enforcement trainings and inspirational talks - about how others can work against trafficking as well. Come learn how you can make a difference, and why you should.
It's also surprising and eye-opening that so many are hungry or in need of clean water or medicine throughout the world but the simple and inexpensive solutions are not available to them. This information has stirred us, and a team of friends, to ACTION!!! We are partnering with Show Mercy International who are already being the hands and feet of change and we want to join the team of something bigger than ourselves.



On August 21, 2010 (5-10pm) we will be hosting a FREE "Recycle Love" Festival at Heath Football Stadium, next to Lebanon High School, with live music, local vendors and artists, and much more. This event will be like nothing Lebanon has ever seen. We have already partnered with Show Mercy International, The Hope Center, and OATH (Oregonians Against Human Trafficking). Each of these organizations will be sharing about their visions and the resources they offer, and also helping to spread awareness. (Please see below for more information on these organizations.)

"Power at it's best is love implementing the demands of justice.
Justice at it's best is love correcting everything that stands against love."
Martin Luther King Jr.

We have a desire and a purpose to be a "Voice" to our community-to inform, equip, and prompt action. It is up to us to stand in the gap for the sake of JUSTICE, of many innocent and hungry people throughout the world. Let us as a community LOVE others as we love ourselves.
We want to partner with you to put on, as a community, an Awareness Event to bring us all together in ONE place, to be ONE voice that will speak up and be the voice for those who have lost theirs. To challenge and encourage each other to take action in responding, by giving and actively working as ONE towards the goal of bringing JUSTICE.

All proceeds from the event will be donated to the 3 organizations we are partnering with. We would love vendors joining us that night to donate what they wish and to the organization(s) of their choice, or maybe have a tip jar for donations. Thank you and we look forward to working with you!

For information on how to be a part of this event please contact Caylan at caylanwagar@gmail.com or phone 541.223.3237 or contact Fran at 541.990.7259 or email fvan@centurytel.net

Also check out the website at www.recyclelovefestival.com

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*** Additional Information ***


The Hope Center Website: http://sweethomehopecenter.com/
Hope Center is a long-term women’s shelter/transitional housing offering women longer stays in order to make changes that are lasting in their lives. They offer longer stays because they know it can take longer than just a month or two to make lasting LIFE changes. The staff and all workers at the Hope Center are 100% volunteer. The Hope Center provides information and direction toward agencies able to help with education, job training and other life skills that are vital to help these women truly make a change in their lives.

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OATH - http://oregonoath.org/

Oregonians Against Trafficking Humans (OATH) is the OHTTF (Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force)statewide campaign to encourage citizens to Take The Oath to help combat the growing scourge of human trafficking within the state of Oregon.

"It's as if Oregon was designed with Human Trafficking in mind."
Chris Killmer, Program Coordinator -Outreach and Support to Special Immigrant Populations (OSSIP)-

If you are not clear on what exactly sex trafficking is, watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTN0TbsRYA&NR=1

Girls as young as 12 are sent out to sell themselves in Portland, Oregon.
(http://www.sentinel.org/node/9786 read whole article here)

Please watch this short video at the bottom of the web site:
This web site is specificially made for Oregonians againist sex trafficking.
http://www.oregonoath.org/
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Show Mercy International: Locally based out of Albany, Oregon
http://www.showmercy.org/
Can you hear the cry of injustice? A child is left alone with no parents to comfort them. They are being exploited and abused with no one to protect him or her. Can you hear the cry of the lonely, hungry and neglected children of the world? We have heard their cry!
Show Mercy International has heard the cry of injustice and we are responding to that cry. It is our desire to express God’s love in both word and deed. In many practical ways, we provide a home, food, education, clothing and medical care to orphaned and abandoned children living primarily in Uganda. With our words, we encourage these children and others to believe that they too were created for a special, unique purpose in this life.


Video from Show Mercy International: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZQxmUdBYRo


Orphan Statistics-
Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQYm5LNTzvg&feature=related

*Every DAY 5,760 more children become orphans
*Every 15 secs another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa
*If 1 family out of every 4 churches in America were to adopt, there would be no orphans in America.
*If 8% of the worlds Christians adopted one child, there would be no orphans in the WORLD!
*Annually 250,000 children are adopted BUT...annually 14,050,000 orphans AGE OUT of the system.


Hunger Statistics-
*Every year 15 million children die of hunger related causes...that is one child EVERY 5 seconds.
*Someone dies every 3.6 seconds of hunger related causes.
*The worlds agriculture produces enough food to provide the world with a daily diet of 2,720 calories

Flame-what?

Flame-retardants are in widespread use in both the U.S. and Canada, primarily in carpet padding, foam cushions, polyester bedding and clothing, wallpaper, and the plastic housings for computers, faxes and other electronics. Most are made from variations of a chemical known as PBDE, which stands for polybrominated diphenyl ether.

According to the Washington State Department of Ecology (WSDE), in laboratory studies some PBDEs have been shown to cause problems in rodent brain development. “Most of these problems stem from pre-natal exposure and exposure soon after birth. The health effects appear to be permanent,” says WSDE. They are quick to point out, though, that levels in humans have not (yet) reached the levels that cause problems in lab animals, but that scientists are concerned because the levels in humans keep rising.

PBDEs are “persistent” in that they don't break down but remain active in our air, water, soil and food. WSDE says that PDBEs are building up in animals throughout the food chain, even turning up in orca whales in Puget Sound in Washington and in the bodies of polar bears in the Arctic.

PBDEs also stay in our bodies, accumulating in our fatty tissue. The U.S. is the world’s largest maker and user of PBDEs, and levels found in Americans are as much as 100 times higher than in Europe, where most PDBEs were banned in 2001. North American levels, say scientists, are doubling every two to five years. Primarily, human exposure has been through eating fish, though babies can be exposed by drinking mother’s milk. Children are also exposed when they wear polyester pajamas treated with flame retardant. Indeed, PDBE chemicals easily “off-gas” from the very products they are designed to make safe.

Consumers can take precautions and avoid products that contain PBDE. Among other cautions, the Healthy Children Project recommends buying clothing, bedding and furniture made from natural fibers, such as cotton and wool, which do not melt near heat and as such do not need to contain flame-retardants.

Another way to minimize exposure is to stick to a diet low in animal fat, since the chemicals accumulate in larger amounts in animals higher up the food chain. Joyce Newman of the Green Guide recommends vegetables, fruits and whole grains over meat and fish. When choosing meat and fish, she suggests cutting away as much of the fat as possible, and choosing leaner cuts overall.

As for consumer goods, WSDE says that industries need to re-think their product designs whereby highly flammable materials are avoided and ignitable materials are separated or shielded from heat sources. Some mattresses in use now in nursing homes and hospitals, for example, employ a “barrier layer” of durable material between surface fabric and interior foam and meet stringent fire safety standards without the use of chemicals. But until the Canadian and U.S. governments begin to take PBDE dangers more seriously, it will be up to individual consumers to look out for the health of their children and families.

Originally posted by Dominic Muren