America Recycles Day
November 15
The Basics, The Benefits
With the involvement and enthusiasm of people like you,
recycling is back! And so are thousands upon thousands of recycled products made from materials that would otherwise be piling
up in our nation's landfills. It doesn't just make sense. It makes a huge difference to our environment, our quality
of life and our country's future.
How It WorksThere are three parts to the recycling process;
each essential to making the system work: collection, manufacturing and buying. These three components are so important that
they are represented by the three “chasing arrows” of the recycling logo.
Collection: Don't Send Recyclables to the Landfill
In
this phase, materials are separated from the waste stream and prepared to become raw materials. Different cities and municipalities
have different systems for sorting and collecting materials that can be recycled. Most communities now have recycling bins
for curbside collection, or recycling stations where materials can be taken.
Manufacturing: Using Recycled Materials Instead of Virgin
Raw Materials
Recovering the materials is just the first step. There must also be a market for
it—companies that want the materials and are able to remanufacture them into consumer products. Sometimes these companies
have to invest a significant amount of money to adapt their manufacturing processes to accommodate the use of recycled materials
in their products.
Buying:
Close the Loop by Buying Products with Recycled Content
In order to make recycling economically
viable, there must be a market for recycled products. If people buy them, companies will be encouraged to make them, and the
whole system works.
For more information please visit:
America Recycles Day
Links of Interest for the Houston area:
Keep Houston Beautiful
Conversionator (Recycling Calculator -Turning Recycyling Facts into Fun)
Thanksgiving
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged
today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation
and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first
Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for
a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many
others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of
Europeans in North America.
Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks
among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near
the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged
"Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged
by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley
Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy
of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family,
friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.
For further reading:
The First Thanksgiving
Interesting Links:
"Thank You" in 465 Languages
President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Procolamation
Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle
Thanksgiving Printables for Children
Most Websites used here are compiled
by
Sue LeBeau
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Veterans
Day - Remembrance Day
November 11
In 1918, on the eleventh hour of
the eleventh day in the eleventh month, the world rejoiced and celebrated. After four years of bitter war, an armistice was
signed. The "war to end all wars" was over.
In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Similar ceremonies occurred earlier in England and France, where an unknown soldier
was buried in each nation's highest place of honor (in England, Westminster Abbey; in France, the Arc de Triomphe).
These memorial gestures all took place on November
11, giving universal recognition to the celebrated ending of World War I fighting at 11 a.m..
Armistice Day officially
received its name in America in 1926 through a Congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar
Congressional action. If the idealistic hope had been realized that World War I was "the War to end all Wars," November
11 might still be called Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday was proclaimed, war broke out in Europe.
For further reading please visit:
Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, Armistice Day
Links of Interest:
Disabled American Veterans
The Story of Veterans Day
Veterans Day Word Find  JFK Assassinated - Nov. 22, 1963
On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office,
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was
the youngest man elected President: he was the youngest to die. Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29,
1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer,
Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety. Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman
from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955 while
recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1956
Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President.
Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the
popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.
For further reading please visit:
John F. Kennedy, The White House
Interesting Links:
John F. Kennedy Photo History
Happy Thanksgiving
From
The
WGHOA
Board
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