For nine years the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) has been presenting films from more than over 100 countries to Calgarians of all ages. This year, the festival celebrates its 10th anniversary, and as part of that, the Youth by Youth Cinema Competition (which we mentioned to you earlier in the summer) will be running for the 3rd consecutive year!

The Youth by Youth Cinema (YYC) is open to youth from grades 4 through 12 who have made a film in the past year. Prizes and awards will be given out in three categories – Best Short: High School, Best Short: Elementary/Junior High, and Young Renegade. After the films have been judges and reviewed by a panel including local experts from the film industry, the top films will be screened and the awards presented at a special event at the CIFF, hosted by Child and Youth Friendly Calgary’s very own Andrew Phung.

The CIFF will be running September 25th through October 5th, with tickets already available. There are student discounts on tickets, so there is no reason you shouldn’t make it down to the festival this year to help celebrate the best of youth filmmaking at the YYC!

-Sarah

Have you ever lost a camera before? A memory card? A photograph?

Well, don’t lose faith. There actually ARE nice people out there who wish to return them to their rightful owners!

Found Cameras and Orphan Pictures is a blog that updates every Thursday, posting photos from the cameras or memory cards that people have found all over the world. If you’ve lost your camera, keep your eye on the site. You just might spot a photo that you took! Then all you have to do is contact them about it and shortly afterward, you’ll get your camera (or memory card) back. Or maybe a friend of yours lost their camera and you happen to recognize the people in the photograph – you can even help your friend get their camera back too.

On the other hand, maybe you’ve found one of these lost items. Don’t hesitate; email them four pictures from your found camera or memory card and tell them all you can about where, when, and how you found it. They welcome you to share your own thoughts about the found camera or the photos you chose to send in.

If you’re really keen on this idea, you can even keep up with them on their own Facebook Group.

But all in all, this is a neat idea, no?

–Eva–

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. Over the years, UNICEF has evolved from an organization that rescue children in danger to an organization that empowers the voice of youth.

Under UNICEF starting 2005, an annual event called Junior 8 Summit is being held around the world, giving a chance for young people to debate issues discussed by the G8 and make recommendations to the G8 leade.

The past Junior 8 Summits had been held at many countries such as United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan and Italy.

The beauty of Junior 8 Summit (J8) is that every youth has the chance to participate, all you have to do is gather your classmates to think through your ideas about issues the G8 will be discussing and submit those ideas to J8 via their websites: http://www.unicef.org/voy/ and http://www.j8summit.com/.

Here is a short clip introducing the J8 Summit this year at Italy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBH6smFYzhI

Finally, here is a link that will give you even more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICEF

– Bo

September is nearly upon us, and with only a few weeks left until you’re back chatting in the halls and studying for math tests! Naturally, it’s time to start keeping an eye out for the back-to-school/university trends. If you’re tightening the belt a little this year, that’s okay, because there is a super-cool site (youth run, of course!) that can help you save a little dough and even become more eco-friendly!

Enter Threadbangers.com! It’s a huge site dedicated to Do-It-Yourself projects –everything from home decor, to jewellery, to clothing, to stationary and eco-home projects. There are extensive forums and tutorials, as well as weekly videos featuring a fellow DIY-er and their signature project.

Rabid blogger? Don’t worry, they have one of those too!

Love video tutorials? They have a extensive YouTube channel.

Take a few moments to try out some projects, customize some recyclable notebooks, be a little more eco-friendly, and save some money this school year!

-Sheena

This year’s Reggae Fest is on Saturday, August 15th!  There is a popular belief that Reggae Fest is only for people who love reggae – that is not true. Reggae Fest is a day when people can come together and listen to live reggae music, while experiencing Rasta food and culture for themselves.

Reggae music is peaceful, happy, and a lot of fun. It may take a bit of getting use to, but can turn out to be quite enjoyable.

Reggae Fest is located at Shaw millennium park (1220 – 9 ave SW) and I thing that everyone should go there and enjoy the show.

-william-

 Each year, the Marda Loop community celebrates an annual event known as the Marda Gras festival!  This year the festival was on August 9th. The festival is composed of a street market, bands + live music, a children’s area and a huge amount of people.

I was there as a YVC volunteer and I must say that it was – though tiring – a very rewarding opportunity.  I urge who ever is reading this to sign up for it next year!

-william-

Then this might interest you…(and by short, I mean short…)

These short stories are actually just six-words long. No joke! They’re called six-word memoirs at SMITH Magazine, a home for all forms of storytelling. What they are most known for is their Six-Word Memoirs series.

In 2008, they published Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs By Writers Famous & Obscure. The title is self explanatory, no? Personally, I love the book — I bought it a while ago and it’s absolutely brilliant! I really recommend giving this book a quick flip through.

Part of the SMITH Magazine site is SMITHTeens. This site is dedicated to all teens and young adults who have stories they would like to share in just six words! They can be about everyday events, “Baked Cookies. Looked Terrible. Tasted Amazing,” passing thoughts, “I’d love getting socks from Santa,” or maybe even a special someone, “We cuddled; shirt smells like him.”

Try writing a few and submit them here. You may even get a chance to be published in their future book, Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure!

…Can you tell a six-word story?

–Eva–

Have you ever noticed that when you look at watch advertisements and store displays that they all seem to have the same time–10:10? Kind of unfair to the other times, don’t you think?

There are many myths behind having watches in on the shelf set to this time. Many people believe that it has to do with the times of President Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassinations. However, those assumptions are false. Lincoln was shot at 10:15pm and died at 7:22 am the following morning; JFK was shot at 12:30pm and died at 1:00pm; and MLK Jr. was shot at 6:01pm and died at 7:05pm.

Others believe that the time 10:10 has to do with the time that the bomb was dropped at either Nagasaki or Hiroshima–the time set in memory of the people who died. However, the Fat Man bomb (Nagasaki) was dropped at 11:02am and the Little Boy bomb (Hiroshima) was dropped at 8:15am.

None of the above are the true reason of having 10:10 on clocks and watches everywhere.

The true reason: Aesthetic Appeal. The time 10:10 is symetrical!

♥~Sam

It’s time for Globalfest once again!! Globalfest (August 14th – August 29th) is a multicultural, world-class, multi-faceted arts and cultural festival that takes place annually in Alberta.

Volunteers have a chance to help out with Globalfest by creating unique art pieces with children through CYFC! If you do help out, you will be allowed access to the amazing fireworks show that night, and be invited to a volunteer party following the festival!

Globalfest is going to be amazing and this is YOUR chance to be a part of helping out and experiencing this festival. Don’t hesitate before signing up because this is a very popular volunteer activity and spots go fast!!

To sign up, just go to CYFC’s volunteer projects page,  scroll down to Globalfest, and sign up! You can volunteer on August 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, or 29th from 5:30-9!

For more information on Globalfest, go to www.globalfest.ca.

– Kaiz

If you love orchestra music , you oughtn’t miss this amazing performance by The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, a group of the best musicians from high schools in Venezuela. This is made possible by a publicly financed voluntary sector music-education program called El Sistenma , its offical name in English is  the “National Network of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela”.

This performance was made for an episode of TED talk, a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minute. In the performance, the youth orchestra played Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement, and Arturo Márquez’ Danzón No. 2.

Anyways, here is the performance…enjoy!

 Well, if you like what you saw and heard and would like to know more about this awesome youth orchestra, you can visit their site at: http://fesnojiv.gob.ve/.

Or if you would like to see more of TED talk, where they have similar types of video and more talk about issues and amazing findings around the world, visit www.ted.com.

– Bo

It’s that time of year again – your opportunity to join the Mayor’s Youth Council!

The Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC), is a partnership between Child and Youth Friendly Calgary and The City of Calgary, and represents the voice of Calgary’s youth. 

Each year members of the Mayor’s Youth Council (ages 13-18) choose topics relevant to youth and report their findings to the City of Calgary.   This year Mayor’s Youth Council underwent restructuring, we currently have three committees, each with a different focus; community events/meetings with Alderman, research and education surrounding a youth issue in Calgary (last year it was homelessness) and a media committee, who do bimonthly podcasts (cool!) on topics of relevance to youth in Calgary, and this year will include blogging (on YAA!).  Plus…you may even get to meet the Mayor!

This structure may change slightly this year and we’d love to have new members on board with ideas about activities and issues we can take on.  

 Large group meetings with all MYC members usually happen once a month (although this may change) and committee meetings are usually twice a month (sometimes more) – so you would end up having around 5-7 hours a month of volunteer commitment.  When choosing members we consider age, what ward you live in, community and volunteer activities. 

Check out the application form here, and if you have any questions, email myc@cyfc.ca

“Change the world” is something you probably hear on a regular basis – now, here’s your chance to actually help change someone’s world around. Kiva is an organization that is helping to eliminate poverty by connecting people all over the world through the process of micro-lending.

Through Kiva’s website, you can lend your money (as little or as much as you would like), say $20, to an entrepreneur in a third world country to help them get their personal business off the ground and make their way towards financial independence.  Your money goes toward the larger loan that that person needs to purchase supplies and other necessities for their business.

The most interesting part about the process is that you can search through profiles of different entrepreneurs and actually select who you would like to loan your money to.  After this, you will get updates on how your entrepreneur is doing and what your money helped them do.  For example, Amada is an entrepreneur in the Dominican Republic who used her loan to purchase the supplies to make her own recipe of sweet bread to sell, along with vegetables she was already selling.  Her income increased as a result and now her family eats healthier and put a cement floor in their house to cover the dirt they were previously living on.  Pretty cool, hey?

After your loan is repaid, you can re-lend it to another entrepreneur of your choosing, and the cycle continues…like having a pen-pal, except way more life-changing!

We know that most of you are probably pumped to see the new Harry Potter flick this weekend, but there’s an event starting Friday with way more flavour that Bert’s Every Flavor Beans…

 Fiestaval Latin Festival runs from July 17 – July 19 (this weekend!), and it’s the perfect way to celebrate Latin American culture through arts and entertainment.  Created to encourage multiculturalism in Calgary and support the city’s Latin community, Fiestaval happens at Calgary Olympic Plaza this year, and will include some pretty wicked Latin dance and music performances from all over Calgary.  The coolest part?  It’s FREE!

 Even more cool is that you can sign up to volunteer at Fiestaval through Child and Youth Friendly Calgary’s Youth Volunteer Corps (YVC) – just click here!

Need more info?  Check out www.fiestaval.ca to see what else you can expect…