【推荐2】Community partners need you!

●Swissvale Farmers Market

We’re looking for students to help us set up and take down our tent and spend the morning under the tent with us. Activities include some heavy lifting (optional), engaging with community members, picking up litter, handling small sales and lots of breaks!

Time: September 10, 8:30 am—1:15pm

●Food Pantry Distribution

The CHS Food Pantry needs volunteers to assist during preparation and distribution each week. This involves sorting food, stocking shelves, preparing the outdoor market and assisting families. Customer service skills are important as volunteers may be assisting families directly. Understanding different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds is helpful.

Time: September 1—December 22, Wednesdays Thursdays: 1:30pm—6:00pm

●Garbage Olympics

Join us for the Garbage Olympics! A Pittsburgh wide competition between neighborhoods to see who can get the most litter and garbage off our beloved city streets!

This year, we are competing against each other as well as the entire city! Teams A. B and C will race to see who can get the most garbage collected!

We’ll have all the supplies ready, and will explain the rules to everyone before the event starts.

Time: September 17, 8:00 am—11:00 am.

●Tutoring assistant

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is actively seeking tutoring assistants for the 2023-2024 school year. As a tutoring assistant, you will offer a positive attitude and coaching to help children to stay on track during the in-person tutoring session. Additionally, you will help provide academic assistance in the form of reading, writing, grammar, pronunciation and math to school-aged children. Volunteers should be able to commit to eight weeks in the fall and may sign on for an additional eight weeks in the spring.

Time: September 28—November 16, Wednesday from 4:30 pm—6:30 pm

【推荐1】Adopt, don’t shop

Come to our pet adoption drive and meet our adorable residents. Help us find these animals a home! If you would like to find out more about adopting our animals, please visit our website @www.adoptadog.org.sg.

Activities

Talk by SPCA (12pm to 1pm)

Find out if you have what it takes to adopt a pet and why adopting is better than buying a pet.

Dog Show by K9 Club (1pm to 2pm)

Be amazed at the tricks performed by dogs from the K9 Club.

The story of Kit Kat the dog

The first time the rescuers met kit Kat, we recalled in shock and our hearts instantly went out to him. At his tender age, life had already dealt him so many harsh blows. Not only was he left to care for himself in the wild, but he also suffered pain with a horrific rash (皮疹).

Kit Kat was first brought to our attention by Anna, one of our volunteers. Kit Kat was said to be frightened of people and we eventually managed to put a leash (皮带) on Kit Kat and take him to the vet after a few days’ effort of tricking him with treats. He was well padded and his coat, though matted (无光泽的), was in good condition. Kit Kat also had good oral health.

Now on the mend, Kit Kat boasts a coat of soft, glossy fur and shows no signs of the pain he suffered from. While we have managed to heal his body, we have not been able to do the same for his broken spirit. However, we believe that with the right family and the right environment, Kit Kat will be able to flourish and shake off his sad past.

【推荐2】The millipede (千足虫)

    1     We enjoy watching television programs about bears, bats or monkeys. We knew a lot about their lives: how they find food or what they do at different times of the year. But what about smaller animals that are more difficult to see or film?

    2     A French scientist, Francois-Xavier, Joly, is studying one of them — the millipede.

When leaves begin to die in autumn, they turn from green to yellow and fall from the trees.

    3     Life in the forest needs these nutrients— without them, plants could not grow and so there would be no food for other animals.

Some living things, like mushrooms, break the leaves into smaller pieces and eat them. In a few months there is nothing left of them. But for mushrooms, not all trees are the same. Mushrooms prefer some types of leaves to others. This means that some leaves take much longer to break down than others, sometimes years. So what happens to these?     4    

More on the menu

The millipede also likes leaves and it eats any type. But when it has finished, it produces waste. This waste then becomes the food of mushrooms. When mushrooms eat leaves they choose only certain types — But when they eat waste, they will eat any kind.     5    

So next time you are walking through a forest, remember that something may be having a meal right under your feet!

【推荐1】BEIJING — A bullying incident at a primary school in Beijing should not be bushed off as “a joke that went too far”; rather, faces should be dug out and action should be taken to prevent similar events from happening on campus again, according to experts.

Huang Zifang, a psychologist specializing in children's growth issues, said schools should be careful about taking bullying incidents as mere pranks.

“Instead, they should work to find out the root cause of the incident in a timely manner, guide the children involved to face and handle the incident in a correct way and teach them to behave properly to avoid-similar situations,” Huang said.

She made the comments after a mother in Beijing posted a description online on Thursday of how her 10-year-old son was bullied at Zhongguancun No 2 Primary School, a top school in Haidian district.

The mother wrote that her fourth-grade son was the target of bullies who threw a toilet wastepaper basket at him, striking him in the head. The boy was also mocked by his classmates, she said, bringing on acute stress disorder — a mental illness triggered by severe anxiety.

The mother also wrote that the school described the incident as “a joke that went too far” and that the parents of the boy who threw the basket believed their son was “just being naughty”.

The article went viral, with many internet users recalling being bullied at school.

Shen Xua, a volunteer from Beijing who has traveled the country for several years to work with schools to reduce bullying, said schools should take responsibility for such incidents and try to make the bullies understand that their behavior is “vicious and harmful” and “not allowed”.

“In the long run, a reporting system should be established to root out bullying on campus. Students should be given specific channels to report what they experience to teachers before further measures are taken to deal with incidents,” Shen said.

Huang, the psychologist, said that schools and parents must pay more attention to the ethical development and mental health of children, rather than just looking at their academic performance.

On Saturday, Zhongguancun No 2 Primary School released a statement on its social media account saying that it had talked to the parents on both sides and would make further efforts to achieve an outcome satisfactory to all parties.

【推荐2】Three brown bears in the distance catches Charlie Russell’s eye. When they get a metre or so away from him, the huge animals slow down. The leading bear holds her face very close to Rusell’s. She touches his nose with her own and Russell breaks into a smile. “Hey, little bear,” he says.

Rusell, now 70, has spent more than ten springs and summers living with brown bears in the   eastern-most part of Russia.“No question, bears are dangerous,” says Russell, but he also argues that fearing them prevents us from recognizing their intelligent, playful and peaceful nature. “They attack us because we abuse them.” he insists.

“What I want to do now is work on the human side of the problem,” Russell says. In Canada —a country where cities spread deep into the rural landscape and hunters kill about 450 bears annually, he is determined to change the way we treat our neighbors.

Russell was raised with the idea that “the only good bear is a dead bear.” His father, a hunter, shared stories of cruel brown bears with his five children. However, when the family’s hunting business declined in the early 1960s, Russell joined his father on an expedition to film brown bears in Alaska. Russell couldn’t help but wonder why bears behaved aggressively towards people carrying guns, but left the film-makers alone. “I suspected they didn’t like cruelty,” he says.

In 1994 he tested out his theory in British Columbia’s Khutzeymateen Inlet, where he took tourists on bear-viewing tours. One afternoon, while resting on a log between guiding trips, Russell sat still as a female brown bear casually approached. “I knew if I did not move, she would keep coming,” he later said. “I had decided to let her come as close as she wanted.” Russell spoke to the bear in gentle tones and she sat down beside him. She put her paw on his hand and Russell responded to the gesture, touching her nose, lip and teeth. These were the iron jaws featured in his father’s campfire stories, now no more threatening than the nose of a little dog. If he could repeat similar moments, Russell believed he could prove that “just by treating bears kindly, people can live safely with them”.

【推荐3】Located deep in the mountains of Chong yang county of Hubei province, the Qingshan Reservoir (水库) looks like a river with many twists and turns.

For Wang Zhijun, a primary schoolteacher who has served the villages near the reservoir for 28 years, the river is an obstacle (障碍) to be overcome. He doubles as a ferryman to help students shuttle (往返) back and forth via boat.

A recent video of Wang went viral on social media and moved many.

He became a teacher at the primary school in Panshan village in 1995. With water in three directions, the village occupies a sort of peninsula (半岛), even though it’s high on Qingshan Mountain.

Wang travels 500 meters of mountain roads to carry water to the school for the students. He rows a boat to pick them up for school, and then he takes them home afterward. Wang said he had suffered many falls with the water buckets, but the ferry trips have always been safe.

With development of the local economy, Panshan Primary School merged with the Chichong Primary School on the opposite bank of the reservoir in 2017. Wang could drive to pick up most of the students, but a few depend on his boat.

He said he had been given several opportunities to get out of the area for better career development, but he felt responsible for the kids and stayed.

Panshan and Chichong villages together have more than 1, 000 residents. Wang is proud that 40 of his students eventually entered college. “My ultimate dream is to send them out from the mountains through education,” Wang said. Meanwhile, he is proud that six of the 40 college students returned to their hometown and became teachers themselves.

【推荐1】Best Tours in Auckland

Waiheke Island

With the best of the island’s two selling points — nature and wine — this tour will have you cross through the island’s bushland, and drink award-winning wines. You’ll see New Zealand’s famously shy wildlife and native plants.

Tour: Waiheke Island Vineyards and Bush Walk

Money: $ 130 for a family of three

Coromandel

This day tour allows you to get to some of the area’s places far away. Your guide will drop you off at Stony Bay where you will begin the 10-kilometre hike to Fletcher Bay, where you will be collected. You can enjoy its natural beauty, with the shining ocean alongside you. Don’t forget your bathing suit to make the most of the place at the end of the route.

Tour: Coromandel Coastal Walkway Day Tour

Money: $ 45 per person

Hamilton

Explore endangered species of flora and fauna at Sanctuary Mountain. It’s a place where at-risk species can grow without human nearing them. Your guide will explain the species and the reasons they’re endangered to you.

Tour: Guided Forest Tour of Sanctuary Mountain

Money: $ 42 per person

Waitomo

Put on your boots and helmet, and prepare to go down underground, hiking among rocks and streams. The tour is limited to six people, allowing you a much more comfortable and personalized experience.

Tour: Glow-worm Caving Adventure

Money: $55 per adult &. $ 25 per child

【推荐2】Jayce began noticing when he was in kindergarten （幼儿园）that he looked different from his classmates. They had two arms. He had only one.

"It started when some classmates laughed at him.” said his mother, Lewis, "He would return home with questions: 'Why am I different? Why me?'" His mother admitted that she didn't know what to do at that point because she had never found those answers herself.

One day, Lewis came home from her job and turned on the TV happening to watch a news story about an eighth grader from Washington, Trashaun Willis. He became an Internet hit after posting videos of his slam dunks （灌篮），and like Jayce, he lost most of his left arm. Lewis called Jayce, in. To her surprise, Jayce was immediately attracted by the videos.

At the time, it seemed that watching Trashaun would simply be an inspiring moment for Jayce — he saw a role model with a similar problem. If it had stayed just like that, Lewis would have been happy enough. But little did she know that a family friend, Jack had already reached out to the local newspaper to help set up a meeting with Trashaun to encourage Jayce to live more optimistically （乐观地）.

The boys met at Washing Middle School on a Saturday afternoon several months later, and they became friends at once. Instead of spending the whole day feeling sorry for themselves, they had a lot of fun. They rode bikes around the school, took photos, played hide-and-seek and shot basketball on the court. They talked about their lost arms. Trashaun told Jayce, "The way God made us was perfect Do not let anyone discourage you and do not let others' words shake your confidence （自信）

Since that meeting, Lewis has seen a noticeable change in her son. As for Trashaun, his relationship with Jayce made him look forward to helping more kids. "Honestly, it means a lot to know that I can change Jayce's life." Trashaun says. Still, he never dreamed that his videos would have such an effect.

"I just thought my friends would see them, and be like, 'Oh, he dunked it!'" He certainly did.

【推荐3】There are so many websites to help you plan trips and book trips and save money.

1. Dishtip.com

If I had to pick just one site to help with restaurant recommendations around the US, it would be Dishtip.com. Dishtip organizes the information of eating out in the United States in a whole new way: In other words, the site sorts through reviews across the web, such as the best dishes in Denver or the pizzas in Portland or the fried food in Phoenix.

2. Skypicker.com

Skypicker.com basically helps you figure out where you can fly within your budget. It’s sort of like the “explore” page of Kayak.com, but focuses mainly on Europe, and on very, very cheap flights.

3. Stay.com

I usually doubt the sites that claim (声称) they can plan your trip for you. But for a quick agenda with a few useful extras, Stay.com is not bad at all. Here’s what you do: Choose one of more than 100 destinations, from Provence to Marrakesh to Lake Tahoe. Then go through their listings of top attractions, museums, shopping, restaurants and something else, clicking on whatever appeals to you. Those choices magically turn into a personalized plan that you can either turn into a pdf file and print or send to your smart-phone, where with the Stay. com app you can use it, and the city map that comes with it, even when you’re offline.

4. Staydu.com

A neat site that matches hosts from around the world with travelers looking for unique local experiences. That can mean volunteering to teach English or doing farm work in exchange for staying and meals, or simply paying a small fee to move in with a local family.