Hello to all!

When I went to the conference in DC, I had two ideas in mind for my Blueprints. The first was a river-bank clean-up. The Green Team at my former uni has one every semester; they're tons of fun and it's always exciting to see what people can find. Plus you're allowed to keep whatever you find, and there's a contest for the most interesting garbage. The first semester I participated, I found a roll of film and got it developed. I've also excavated a submerged couch, carried a living room back up a cliff, and rolled a 60-pound semi tire several hundred feet up a steep hill.

Hey Fellows, hope all is well.

I was wondering if any other fellows were planning on addressing HIV/AIDS, whether it be raising awareness, combating stigma, testing, prevention or any other related topics in their YP4 Blueprints. I am still in the process of piecing mine together and would love to get in touch to discuss and perhaps even collaborate and bring this project to a national level. If you are or know anyone else who may be interested, please send them my way.

Hope you are all having a safe and relaxing spring break!

I first read about Erin Davies and her FagBug on the YP4 blog and thought what she was doing was really cool. Erin's VW Beetle was vandalized with the words "fag" and "u r gay" last April because she has a rainbow sticker on the car. Rather than remove the graffiti and stay silent, Erin decided to leave the spay paint on her car and spend her summer driving across the country raising awareness about hate crimes. Check out her website www.fagbug.com. You can also befriend the FagBug on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fagbug.

Why not combine the fun of summer block parties with passion of social justice!

This unique and exciting concept was the basis of the blueprint from the 2007 Howard University Fellows--Sable Nelson, Kari Fulton, Itohan Osaigbovo.

To address health and environmental issues on their campus and in the community, they developed an annual block party called Loving Our City, Loving Ourselves