Happy New Year!

We hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday!

Holidays Away From Home

Are you staying in your apartment for the holiday break?  Take a look at these ten ways to have a great holiday even if you are away from home.  You can learn more at Yahoo.


Tip #1--Remember the real "spirit of Christmas" is one of giving and sharing.

Nothing gets you in the "Christmas spirit" more than being able to help someone else and make their day a little brighter. Just because you can't share Christmas Day with loved ones doesn't mean you can't send cards, letters and packages that let them know you care.

Tip #2--Call home.

Yes, it isn't the same as eating a piece of mom's Christmas pie, but calling and visiting over the phone, or on-line, is the next best thing to being there.

Tip #3-- Attend a Christmas church service.

If you are away from home at Christmas, you may enjoy attending a Christmas church service. Use the local phone directory to find churches in the area, or ask someone for recommendations.

Non-Catholics may even enjoy attending a traditional mid-night mass on Christmas Eve. Most Christian churches of all denominations have special services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. It serves as a time to celebrate Christ's birth, the true purpose for the Christmas holiday.

Tip #4--Contact the United Way and volunteer for community service.

If you are in the United States, there are local United Way Agencies that can provide you with information on non-profit groups in your area needing Christmas volunteers. Many non-profit groups will gladly welcome you to help with various Christmas activities. They might even find a family to "adopt" you and invite you for a traditional Christmas dinner.

Tip #5--Visit a local nursing home or assisted living center.

Many elderly residents in these facilities are lonely and alone at Christmas time. It can be extremely hard for them to watch other residents being picked up and taken home by their families for the holiday, while they are left behind. From personal experience, I know many would love to have you visit and warmly welcome a little conversation and company.

Ask a nurse or the facility's activities director who could use a little one-on-one attention. If the facility is having a Christmas party, volunteer to help with the festivities. It will help you, and the residents, both feel less lonely making Christmas more joyous for all concerned. If you are going to be in the same area for awhile, you might even choose to "adopt" a foster grandparent to regularly visit during your stay.

Tip #6--Volunteer at a Homeless Shelter or Soup Kitchen

Many non-profit groups need extra help with serving Christmas dinner to the homeless. It would give you an opportunity to stay busy, spending the holiday with others doing a community service that is much appreciated. It also will make you a little more thankful for the blessings you do have.

Tip#7--Postpone traditional Christmas celebrations until you can return home.

This might be an option for those working away from home, but returning soon. Just because the calendar says December 25th doesn't mean you can't wait and practice your own family traditions and celebrations later.

We once postponed Christmas until my husband, who was working and going to an out of state training program could return home. I made a video tape Christmas morning of the boys opening presents in front of the tree and we each recorded a message for him. We sent him the tape to watch, but left the Christmas tree up for two more months until he returned home. Then we had a second celebration when he returned home.

Tip#8--Visit shut-ins.

One of my more memorable Christmas Days was spend four hour's drive from home. My sister-in-law belonged to a community service organization that cooked and delivered free Christmas dinners to the community's shut-ins. The "Meals-on-Wheels" Christmas made us feel better knowing we spent the holiday helping make others' Christmas just a little brighter.

Tip #9--Adopt a child or family for the holiday

If you can afford the added expensive, a wonderful Christmas gesture is to provide Christmas dinner fixings and gifts for a struggling family, especially a single parent with young children.

The Salvation Army and other community service organizations often provide this community service from their donations, but might still need help packaging and delivering these items and might welcome your assistance.

#10--This Christmas, reflect on your blessings

Rather than feel sorry for yourself because you are away from your home and family this holiday, stay busy and count your blessings. You'll feel less blue if you have something constructive to do.

It really doesn't matter where you are or how you choose to celebrate Christmas. It's really a celebration of love and sharing. Its personal significance depends a lot on the traditions you grew up with or practice in your home; they aren't set in stone. Build your own traditions and make Christmas a holiday of love celebrated in your heart no matter where you may be this Christmas Day.

Homemade Gift Wrap

Do you want your presents to be special this year?  Check out this homemade gift wrap.  It is super festive, and easy to make.  Follow the steps below to add something special to your holiday gifts.  You can learn more at HeyLook.

I got a little crafty today and put together a few ideas of how to use mini foil baking cups for party decor and packaging. None of these projects require special skills or a lot of time or money. Hope you get a little inspired.






A really simple way to make shiny, shimmery garlands is to flatten the baking cups, fold them in half and   attach them to some string with paper glue. If this is too shiny for you, use some regular baking cups and just a few foil ones to add some sparkly highlights to your garlands.








I wanted to make a photobooth or desert backdrop, but only had the mini cups, so I just made this little mock-up. Use large or medium sized baking cups for the full-size version - otherwise it may take you a loooong time to finish a large backdrop.

To put this together, you need baking cups (straightened out and cut in half), large paper sheets as the backdrop base and paper glue. Just stick the half round cups on layer by layer starting from the bottom row. In the end cut off the overlapping cups on both sides of the backdrop and you're done. This mock-up version took me about 25 minutes, so I reckon a large version with bigger baking cups could take around 2 hours.








For some shiny pink and gold packages, find some golden gift wrapping paper, a few sequins, some washi tape in the matching colors, string and whatever else you've got lying around. Then just get creative. Add sparkly sequins to a ready wrapped gift and add a paper pin wheel or some candy cups in different sizes. Squish the centers of baking cups to make mini flowers, thread them onto some string using a large sewing needle and decorate the package with it. Make little prize ribbons with two half opened baking cups - one cut slightly smaller, attach a little round piece of paper to the middle and write a small message on it.

ECU Receives A Research Grant

East Carolina University has received a grant to aid in type 2 diabetes and depression research.  According to studies, the illnesses could be connected.  The research team at ECU hopes to investigate this further to find out what is behind these two illnesses.  You can learn more at ECU.

East Carolina University has received a grant of $450,000 to help people with type 2 diabetes and related depression or distress manage their illnesses.

According to ECU researchers, more than half of their patients with type 2 diabetes also suffer from related behavioral conditions including depression and distress. Those conditions are often undiagnosed and untreated.

In an earlier diabetes trial involving 200 African-American women with uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes mellitus, ECU researchers found 40 percent feel distress about their illness, 56 percent have increased distress about managing their illness, 20 percent have depressive symptoms, and 60 percent don't use their medication as prescribed, possibly as a result of distress or depression.

To address the diabetes-related behavioral conditions, ECU researchers, along with community partners in rural eastern North Carolina, will combine medical and cognitive behavioral treatment with community-based support to assist patients.

"These patients are much more likely to end up in the emergency department, and it's been shown that they are dying earlier," said Dr. Lesley Lutes, an associate professor, director of clinical training in the ECU Department of Psychology and one of the researchers leading the project. "Even though diabetes itself is very serious, these other chronic conditions make its impact on patient health much worse."

The project will use a care manager linked to medical, pharmacologic and behavioral colleagues. The community component will also use community health workers to provide support and improve access to resources.

Researchers plan to make the interventions culturally relevant in trusted primary care and community settings. Partners will include the health system, health departments, churches, federally qualified health centers and people with type 2 diabetes.

In addition to Lutes, ECU researchers involved in the project are Dr. Doyle Cummings, a pharmacist and professor of family medicine; Dr. Kerry Littlewood, an assistant professor of social work; and Dr. Kari Kirian, a health psychologist and assistant professor of family medicine.

People with diabetes often have other conditions, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, along with medications and doctor's appointments for those conditions.

"At a certain point, it becomes overwhelming," Lutes said.

Researchers will measure the success of the project, estimate its financial impact and build a sustainable business model for replication.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 10 black women age 20 and older has diabetes, and the rate might be higher in eastern North Carolina, Cummings said. After age 55, the rate more than doubles to one in four. Blacks also suffer high rates of diabetes' most serious complications, such as blindness, kidney failure and amputation.

ECU was one of four recipients nationwide to share in $1.8 million in grants from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation in this grant cycle. The grants are part of Bristol-Myers' five-year, $100 million "Together on Diabetes" project to improve health outcomes of people living with type 2 diabetes in the United States by strengthening patient self-management education, community-based supportive services and broad-based community mobilization.

The University of Michigan, University of Colorado and Health Choice Network of Florida also received grants in this cycle.

This grant is ECU's second in the Together on Diabetes project. Two years, ago, Lutes, Cummings and Littlewood received $300,000 to implement a "small changes" approach to help black women with type 2 diabetes improve their health and better manage their disease through the use of community health workers to deliver the treatment program. The project, still underway, hopes to demonstrate community support and interaction helped women manage their diabetes better than educational materials alone.

This summer, Cummings and Dr. Dennis Russo, a psychologist and clinical professor of family medicine, received more than $1 million in grants from other agencies to develop a program that will support collaborative diabetes care in rural areas via telemedicine. In that project, secure two-way audio and video links will connect experts at ECU to seven rural primary care sites.

Together on Diabetes is a five-year, $115 million project launched in 2010 by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to improve health outcomes of people living with type 2 diabetes in China, India and the United States by strengthening patient self-management education, community-based supportive services and broad-based community mobilization. More information is online at http://TogetherOnDiabetes.com.

To date, the United States program has committed $53 million to 25 grantees working in 60 communities across the country, and the China-India program has committed $4.4 million to 9 grantees with strong networks to reach, educate, serve and mobilize heavily affected communities. China, India and the United States have the most people living with diabetes.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is an independent charitable organization whose mission is to reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes around the world for patients disproportionately affected by serious disease.

November is American Diabetes Month.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope you have a great time with friends and family!

Alternate Thanksgiving Plans

Are you not going to be able to go home on Thanksgiving break? It is ok.  Check out these great alternate Thanksgiving ideas that you can do on campus.  You can learn more at collegelife.

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1.   No matter where you live, there are undoubtedly places nearby that could use volunteers on Thanksgiving Day. Check out women's shelters, homeless shelters, places that serve veterans, hospitals, and even local foster homes. Giving back can make you feel great while providing you with some great companionship -- and grub, of course!
   
   
   
   


2. 
   Go home with a friend. If you live too far away to head home, try heading home with a friend or roommate. You can see an entirely new part of that person's life, have fun, and still get that fantastic feeling that comes from being "home."


3. Organize something on campus. Chances are, you aren't the only student on your campus not planning on heading home for Thanksgiving. Organize an event that includes a nice dinner, volunteering, or even a movie-watching marathon. It can be a great opportunity to meet new people and enjoy yourself while still feeling relaxed and like you're on vacation.


4. Offer to housesit for friends or others. Know someone -- a friend, a faculty member, an administrator -- who is going to have an empty house? Offer to housesit over Thanksgiving. You can enjoy the comforts of being out of the residence hall without having to deal with the inevitable drama that comes from having family running around. Additionally, you can always cook a nice Thanksgiving dinner in a great kitchen and have a few friends over for a nice, relaxing meal.


5. Take the day for yourself. There are some of us out there who enjoy being alone from time to time -- which is nearly impossible as a college student. Spend the day sleeping in, catching up on homework, watching movies, and doing whatever it is you wish you had time for when your schedule is crazier. Just make sure to treat yourself to some slow-cooked turkey and cranberry sauce in there somewhere!

Thank You Veterans!

We just want to take a moment to thank all the Veterans that have served our country.  Thank you to everyone past and present that was a member of the armed forces!

Homecoming Week at ECU

It is time for Homecoming at East Carolina University. How are you celebrating Campus Towers?  Check out the complete Homecoming schedule below!  You can learn more about this great week at ECU.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013
5:00-8:00 p.m.	Freeboot Friday Uptown Greenville Come by the Alumni Association’s table to mingle with your fellow Pirates and grab a few spirit souvenirs!
6:00-8:00 p.m.	Black Alumni Chapter Jazz Mix and Mingle Courtyard by Marriott Hospitality Suite Special entertainment by ECU Jazz Ensemble director Carroll V. Dashiell, Jr. This is a free event.
6:30 p.m.	Black Alumni Chapter Scholarship Presentation at the NPHC Step Show Wright Auditorium Tickets can be purchased at ECUArts.com.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2013
9:00 a.m.	Alumni Homecoming Breakfast Taylor-Slaughter Alumni Center Lawn Enjoy a complimentary breakfast sponsored by ARAMARK and visit with fellow alumni. Take a front row seat to watch the Homecoming Parade.
10:00 a.m.	Homecoming Parade Fifth Street Get "Shipwrecked in Pirate Nation" as you enjoy the many sights and sounds of this year’s parade.
1:15-3:15 p.m.	SOLD OUT: Alumni Tailgate ECU Soccer Stadium Gather with fellow fans for a buffet lunch sponsored by Abrams and ARAMARK, Pirate beverages, live music, games for children, and a chance to win door prizes. $10 for Alumni Association members; $25 for nonmembers; free for children 12 and younger. Registration required by calling the Alumni Center at 800-ECU-GRAD or online at PirateAlumni.com/Register.
3:45 p.m.	Pirate Football: Tulsa vs. ECU Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Tickets can be purchased from the ECU Athletic Ticket Office online or over the phone by calling 800-DIAL-ECU.
10:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m.	Black Alumni Reunion Party The Martinsborough With special invitation to Coach Ruffin McNeill ’80, dancing with music by B. Paiz, and heavy hors d’oeuvres buffet by Scarborough Fare Catering. $30 for Alumni Association members and $40 for non-members.

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HOMECOMING BASKETBALL DOUBLEHEADER

Friday, November 8 in Minges Coliseum

12:00 noon

Women's Basketball vs. Virginia Intermont

8:00 p.m.

Men's Basketball vs. North Carolina Wesleyan

Basketball game tickets can be purchased from the ECU Athletic Ticket Office at 800-ECU-GRAD.

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone at Campus Towers has a safe and happy Halloween!

10 DIY Halloween Decorations

Check out these great Halloween decorations that you can make yourself.  Here are ten great decorations that are affordable and fun!  There are outdoor and indoor options that will sure to make your guests enjoy the party.  You can learn more at Money Crashers.

1. Backyard Cemetery

This classic Halloween decoration idea turns your yard into a creepy cemetery. Use reclaimed materials to create a free graveyard. To create your haunted cemetery, cut different shapes out of cardboard and paint them to look like aging tombstones. Once they dry, you can arrange them on the lawn to look like a miniature graveyard.
You can also use the tombstones to denote a haunted pathway for trick-or-treaters. As they approach your front door, they have to pass by the tombstones, making for a thrilling Halloween nighttime walk.
Directions

1. Flatten several shipping boxes.
2. Use a Sharpie to draw tombstone shapes. I made a few rectangular, cross, and oval tombstones to give my graveyard some variety.
3. Cut the shapes out of with a pair of scissors.
4. Paint the shapes a dark grey and allow the paint to dry.
5. Once dry, add on sayings like “R.I.P” to the front of each tombstone. Glue a wood or plastic yard stake to the back of the tombstone and plant it into the ground.

By using real wood, you can partially waterproof the tombstones, so they last for more than one Halloween season. The project works best if you use thin pieces of composite wood, which you can buy at any home improvement store. The thin pieces are easier to cut and stand up better in the grass.
Pro Tip: You can blend white paint onto the edges of the tombstone, or glue on some artificial moss, found at craft stores, to make them look more aged and authentic.

2. Haunted Trees

Make your yard come alive with this spooky craft. If you have trees in your yard, you can use oven-baked clay to give the trees spooky faces. Simply create a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth for each tree, and attach them to the trunks.
Place a portable radio or speakers near the tree and play your favorite eerie soundtrack to draw even more attention to your haunted trees.
Directions

1. Purchase oven-baked modeling clay, like Fimo or a similar brand. You can buy modeling clay for about $12 a pound online. Buy colored clay, such as green, brown, or black, to give the face more character and to make each face more noticeable.
2. Create basic shapes for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Use a butter knife to carve out more details like eyelids or teeth, and bake them in the oven.
3. Use removable putty or double-sided hanging tape to arrange the face on the tree.

Pro Tip: You can purchase a clay glaze at most craft stores that prolongs the life of thes faces. The glaze adds a protective coating, which keeps them safer in the rain.

3. Reusable Jack o’ Lanterns

Jack o’ lanterns are staple Halloween decorations, but some of us would rather not deal with cutting and carving pumpkins every year. Hobby and craft stores sell artificial pumpkins you can carve and light. Best of all, you can store them for next season.
Directions

1. Purchase an artificial pumpkin from a hobby store. They come in several different shapes, colors, and styles, so pick one you think will look best at your front door.
2. Use an Exacto knife to carve a small hole in the bottom of the pumpkin, and to create a design on the front.
3. After you finish the design, use a small piece of sandpaper to gently sand down any rough edges.
4. Place a small flashlight or electric candle in the bottom to make your design glow, and pop your Jack o’ Lantern on the front porch.
5. If you use small reusable jack o’ lanterns, you can place them in the windows of your home, to cast an eerie light on your front yard.

Pro Tip: If you’re not artistically inclined, you can use a stencil to create a Jack o’ Lantern design. A few websites offer free stencils you can print.
Places to get free Jack o’ Lantern Stencils:

• Celebrating Halloween has a selection of traditional Halloween designs you can print.
• Stoney Kins has an eclectic mixture of stencils, offering everything from Cookie Monster to Humphrey Bogart, and they’re free to print and use.
• Pumpkin Glow has a large selection of “un-Halloween” stencils, which includes everything from commercial icons to famous people.
• Better Homes and Gardens has a large selection of free stencils, ranging from the classics to different breeds of dogs.

4. Coffin Cooler

With a little imagination, and some wood and nails, you can create your own life-sized coffin, which you can use in a dozen different ways. I turned mine into a cooler to hold drinks for an outdoor party. My neighbor used his to create a gravedigger scene in his front yard on Halloween. You can also use your coffin for a spooky planter or as a table during a party.
For Halloween, use the coffin to strike fear into the hearts of your neighbors, by hiding someone inside, who pops out from time to time to spook the older trick-or-treaters. Talk to friends and family members to find free 4×4 boards for this project; someone you know likely has a stack of these boards collecting dust in the garage.
Directions

1. You need seven 4×4 boards, varying in length depending on the size of coffin you want. Two boards make up the sides, one board makes the bottom, and you’ll cut the other four to fit the shape of the coffin.
2. Cut the bottom board into a coffin shape. You can use Google images to get an idea for the design.
3. Cut two boards to fit the length of the coffin. The boards should extend from the first angle on the top to the bottom.
4. Cut two smaller boards so they fit at an angle on each side of the top.
5. Cut the last two boards to fit the top and the bottom.
6. Nail each piece to the bottom board, starting with the sides.
7. Paint the finished product black, brown, or grey to make it look more authentic.

Pro Tip: If you plan to use the coffin as a drink cooler, line the inside with black trash bags. The trash bags help make the coffin more waterproof when the ice starts to melt.

5. Giant Spiders

Spiders fit right into a spooky Halloween theme. You can transform a few black trash bags into a giant spider that fits on your front porch, or up in a tree. You can also make multiple giant spiders and cluster them across the front and sides of your home.
Directions

1. You need nine black trash bags and stuffing such as newspaper, left over packing materials, or even leaves.
2. Fill one trash bag with stuffing and tie it closed to create the spider’s body.
3. Hold the second trash bag on its side and fill the length with stuffing.
4. Wrap the empty bag around the stuffing several times, so that it looks like a spider’s arm, and secure it with a tie. Repeat this for the other seven legs.
5. Use a glue gun to secure the legs to the body.

Pro Tip: You can cut off the bottom of Styrofoam cups and glue them onto the body to make eyes.

Giant Spider – WatsCraft

6. Ghost-Lit Walkway

If you have a collection of milk jugs in your recycling bin, you can create a ghost-lit walkway that your trick-or-treaters will love. Look online to get inspirations for designing your ghosts’ faces. The Scream mask makes an instantly recognizable, scary ghost face that you can easily replicate on your milk jugs.
Directions

1. For this project, you need several milk jugs, some black construction paper, and enough artificial candles to fill the jugs.
2. Wash and dry each milk jug.
3. Once dry, use a knife to cut a small hole in the bottom of each jug.
4. Make ghost faces for each jug by cutting out a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth from the black construction paper.
5. Turn the jug so that the handle faces the back. Glue the faces onto the front of the jug and place an artificial candle inside.
6. Line the jugs along your walkway and turn the candles on. The jugs light up, illuminating the faces.

Pro Tip: You can also use white Christmas lights to light up the ghosts. Line the ghosts along the pathway, and insert a handful of the string lights inside each jug.

Spirit Jugs – eighteen25

Indoor Halloween Decorations

Indoor decorations are great way to make a Halloween party feel more authentic. In one afternoon, you can turn the inside of your house into an eerie mansion.

7. Floating Hands

You can turn clear plastic gloves into severed hands, and then place them around your house, sneak them into a chip bowl, or even make a garland out of hands. Whenever possible, use a fake hand to shake hands with arriving guests, and then release the hand and feign dismay.
Directions

1. Fill a plastic glove with tissue paper, popcorn, or small shredded paper waste. You can also open up the gloves and fill them with freshly mixed JELL-O, for jiggly, realistic-feeling hand.
2. Tie the open end of the glove with a clear elastic band to secure its contents.
3. If you want to hang your hands, slide a paperclip through one loop of the elastic band.

Pro Tip: You can fill the plastic glove with shredded red scrapbook paper to create a “bloody hand,” or tan or brown scrapbook paper to create a more realistic-looking hand. You can also fill these hands with candy corn to create Halloween-themed treat bags.

Candy Corn Popcorn Hands – Kimbo’s Crafts

8. Halloween Garland

A simple Halloween banner is an artsy and cheap way to add some festive decorations to the inside of your house. Depending on the look you’re going for, you can make your garland eerie or more fall-oriented and cheery.
These instructions focus on making a garland with a message, but you have unlimited options when creating your Halloween garland. String paper pumpkins, ghosts, and vampires to make an eerie garland for your party. Use oversized paper cutouts of candy corn, candies, and popcorn for a garland over the snack table.
Directions

1. Decide on a saying for your garland. For example, you can do a simple “Happy Halloween” or “Trick or Treat.”
2. Select a color palette for the paper. If you want an eerie look, black, red, and green work well. If you want a festive look, brown, orange, red, and purple work nicely.
3. Cut the paper into small squares or triangles, until you have one piece for each letter of your saying.
4. Use paint markers or a sharpie to draw each letter on to the paper.
5. Punch a small hole in the top with a hole punch. Slide a paper clip through each hole.
6. Attach the letters to a long piece of twine.
7. Hang your garland over a doorway or a mantle.

Pro Tip: You can add decorations between each letter block to give the garland more detail. For example, I wrapped artificial spider webs between the letter blocks on my garland.

9. Specimen Jars

With a few leftover glass jars, you can convert a table into a scientist’s lab. By tossing just about anything you can imagine into a glass jar with some food coloring, you can quickly create a cheap Halloween decor piece. Look online for craft ideas for fingers, eyeballs, and other body parts to fill your specimen jars. Make the jars and the rest of your decor seem even creepier by using mood lighting. Turn off overhead lights or switch them out with colored light bulbs, to increase the creepiness factor in your home.
Directions

1. Collect a few glass jars in different sizes, such as mason jars, spaghetti jars, or old baby food containers.
2. Find an object to place in each jar. For example, I popped the head off an old doll and stuck it inside a mason jar.
3. Wash and dry the jar. Place the object inside.
4. Fill the jar with water and drop in two drops of food coloring. The food coloring will make the object look like a specimen at a lab.

Pro Tip: Around the Halloween season, hobby stores sell small, plastic party favors. These party favors, including miniature skeletons, eyeballs, and severed limbs, all work well in specimen jars.

Specimen Jars – Paper Dolls for Boys

10. Flying Bats

With a few pieces of felt and some tape, you can have a gang of bats flying around your living room in no time. You can easily make bats and put them up just about anywhere.

Person First Campaign at ECU

 Occupational therapy students at East Carolina University have started a “Person First” campaign to encourage health care professionals to avoid labeling people as their disability or condition.

ECU’s Delta Beta chapter of Pi Theta Epsilon, the national honor society for occupational therapy, is asking students to sign a pledge that they will refer to people with disabilities as a person first and not their condition.

ECU chapter president Laurie Armstrong said members discussed the need for the campaign.

“In working in the community, reading articles from popular media sources and seeing people converse on social media sites, we have read and heard instances of non-person first language being used to describe individuals,” Armstrong said. “While the speakers did not intend to be derogatory, we hope to make people aware that using person first language is a more empowering and appropriate way to refer to individuals than to identify them by their diagnosis.”


Bracelets distributed in the campaign raise awareness about person first language in health care.



Occupational therapy students will distribute flyers and pledge cards and will collect donations for the national Person First campaign at a kick-off event and bake sale from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Sept. 26 outside The Wedge in the College of Allied Health Sciences and at other events this year. Those who make a $2 donation will get a blue awareness bracelet.

The American Occupational Therapy Association and other professional organizations have taken steps to encourage health care providers to use person first language but the practice isn’t routine, said Dr. Denise Donica, assistant professor and graduate program director of occupational therapy and Delta Beta chapter advisor.

“It is commonly found that people refer to individuals as their disability first which is impersonal and demoralizing to individuals with disabilities,” Donica said. “Our organization is striving to increase awareness on the medical campus of the importance of person-first language to demonstrate respect for all people. That is the reasoning behind this pledge.”

ECU occupational therapy graduate student Elisabeth Sitton shared a quote by Dr. Robert Marion, author of “Genetic Rounds: A Doctor’s Encounters in the Field that Revolutionized Medicine,” that illustrates the importance of the Person First campaign.

“When I speak with families of children with Down syndrome, I take great pains to use this terminology: they are children first, children who happen to have Down syndrome. They are not Down syndrome children, a label that implies that everything they are is a consequence of the condition,” Marion said. “Although this difference may seem subtle, it is vitally important.”

The ECU chapter started last October and is the only one in North Carolina. For more information, go to http://www.ecu.edu/ah.
Check out this amazing campaign by three East Carolina University students. It is super important in the medical industry to remember it is always the person first.  From your apartment complex to your classes, you interact with different people everyday. Make sure to always refer to them by their names, and not a characteristic or attribute that they have.  Keep reading and check out ECU to learn more.

Budget Saving Tips

Are you living on a budget in college?   Check out these great tips to save your budget week by week!  These tips will help you have a great semester financially at East Carolina University.  You can learn more at Kiplinger.

--Keep your budget and your goals simple. What is the one thing that you most want to accomplish? See where your money is going? Pay off credit card debt? Find spare cash to start a college fund for the kids? Zeroing in on your main objective will help you stay on course.

--Know your plastic personality. Do you prefer using a debit card or a credit card? Each has its advantages (and disadvantages), and there’s no right or wrong answer for everyone, as long as you know which suits your spending habits.

--Don’t discount cash. Along with debit cards, hard currency has gained fans post-recession because it literally helps you stay in touch with your spending -- when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, studies show that when no physical currency changes hands, consumers are likely to spend more and have less sense of buyer’s remorse.

--Limit your trips to the ATM. To make sure you don’t lose track of all that cash, make just one ATM withdrawal per week, and make your money last till the next time. Another trick: Pay with the small bills first; it’s painful to break the big ones.

--Track your spending. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming, and you don’t have to do it indefinitely. Tracking it even for a month or two should be enlightening. Use your debit and credit card statements as guides, and toss cash receipts into a container in your kitchen or office.

--Pinpoint the one area where you’re leaking cash. Maybe it’s restaurant meals, the computer store or, as in the case of a friend of mine, something as mundane as dry-cleaning bills. My friend habitually neglected to hang up her suits after work, so she was racking up a big tab sending them to the cleaners to have them pressed.

--Use any budgeting tool that works for you. It could be one of the top budgeting Web sites, such as Mint.com, an Excel spreadsheet, or even paper and pencil. And don’t dismiss that old standby, the envelope system: Divvy up your cash, and put the amount for each expense into a separate envelope.

--Give yourself a grace period to pay your bills. This trick comes courtesy of the father of one of my co-workers, who makes it a habit to pay his bills ten days in advance of when they’re actually due. He’s always on time, and never incurs a late fee.

--Don’t shop alone. If you lack self-discipline, go with a list, a plan, a buddy -- anything that will make it tougher for you to spend impulsively. And leave the credit or debit card at home, or carry a limited amount of cash. I once interviewed a self-employed young woman who carried an American Express card that she paid off every month and left her other credit cards with her accountants. “If I want to use one, they ask me if I really want to spend the money. That makes me stop and think.”

--Be positive. Don’t think of a budget as a straitjacket that limits your spending and takes the joy out of life. Think of it as a way to control small expenses now so that you can buy bigger stuff -- and have more fun -- in the future. Allow yourself a little splurge. If you decide to brown-bag your lunch at work, treat yourself to a fast-food Friday.

--Keep your budget and your goals simple. What is the one thing that you most want to accomplish? See where your money is going? Pay off credit card debt? Find spare cash to start a college fund for the kids? Zeroing in on your main objective will help you stay on course.
--Know your plastic personality. Do you prefer using a debit card or a credit card? Each has its advantages (and disadvantages), and there’s no right or wrong answer for everyone, as long as you know which suits your spending habits.
--Don’t discount cash. Along with debit cards, hard currency has gained fans post-recession because it literally helps you stay in touch with your spending -- when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, studies show that when no physical currency changes hands, consumers are likely to spend more and have less sense of buyer’s remorse.

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T007-C015-S001-10-tips-to-build-and-stick-to-a-better-budget.html#CSHatJ5wXbjudF7j.99

--Keep your budget and your goals simple. What is the one thing that you most want to accomplish? See where your money is going? Pay off credit card debt? Find spare cash to start a college fund for the kids? Zeroing in on your main objective will help you stay on course.
--Know your plastic personality. Do you prefer using a debit card or a credit card? Each has its advantages (and disadvantages), and there’s no right or wrong answer for everyone, as long as you know which suits your spending habits.
--Don’t discount cash. Along with debit cards, hard currency has gained fans post-recession because it literally helps you stay in touch with your spending -- when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, studies show that when no physical currency changes hands, consumers are likely to spend more and have less sense of buyer’s remorse.

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T007-C015-S001-10-tips-to-build-and-stick-to-a-better-budget.html#CSHatJ5wXbjudF7j.99

--Keep your budget and your goals simple. What is the one thing that you most want to accomplish? See where your money is going? Pay off credit card debt? Find spare cash to start a college fund for the kids? Zeroing in on your main objective will help you stay on course.
--Know your plastic personality. Do you prefer using a debit card or a credit card? Each has its advantages (and disadvantages), and there’s no right or wrong answer for everyone, as long as you know which suits your spending habits.
--Don’t discount cash. Along with debit cards, hard currency has gained fans post-recession because it literally helps you stay in touch with your spending -- when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, studies show that when no physical currency changes hands, consumers are likely to spend more and have less sense of buyer’s remorse.

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T007-C015-S001-10-tips-to-build-and-stick-to-a-better-budget.html#CSHatJ5wXbjudF7j.99

--Keep your budget and your goals simple. What is the one thing that you most want to accomplish? See where your money is going? Pay off credit card debt? Find spare cash to start a college fund for the kids? Zeroing in on your main objective will help you stay on course.
--Know your plastic personality. Do you prefer using a debit card or a credit card? Each has its advantages (and disadvantages), and there’s no right or wrong answer for everyone, as long as you know which suits your spending habits.
--Don’t discount cash. Along with debit cards, hard currency has gained fans post-recession because it literally helps you stay in touch with your spending -- when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, studies show that when no physical currency changes hands, consumers are likely to spend more and have less sense of buyer’s remorse.

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T007-C015-S001-10-tips-to-build-and-stick-to-a-better-budget.html#CSHatJ5wXbjudF7j.99

--Keep your budget and your goals simple. What is the one thing that you most want to accomplish? See where your money is going? Pay off credit card debt? Find spare cash to start a college fund for the kids? Zeroing in on your main objective will help you stay on course.
--Know your plastic personality. Do you prefer using a debit card or a credit card? Each has its advantages (and disadvantages), and there’s no right or wrong answer for everyone, as long as you know which suits your spending habits.
--Don’t discount cash. Along with debit cards, hard currency has gained fans post-recession because it literally helps you stay in touch with your spending -- when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, studies show that when no physical currency changes hands, consumers are likely to spend more and have less sense of buyer’s remorse.

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T007-C015-S001-10-tips-to-build-and-stick-to-a-better-budget.html#CSHatJ5wXbjudF7j.99

--Keep your budget and your goals simple. What is the one thing that you most want to accomplish? See where your money is going? Pay off credit card debt? Find spare cash to start a college fund for the kids? Zeroing in on your main objective will help you stay on course.
--Know your plastic personality. Do you prefer using a debit card or a credit card? Each has its advantages (and disadvantages), and there’s no right or wrong answer for everyone, as long as you know which suits your spending habits.
--Don’t discount cash. Along with debit cards, hard currency has gained fans post-recession because it literally helps you stay in touch with your spending -- when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, studies show that when no physical currency changes hands, consumers are likely to spend more and have less sense of buyer’s remorse.

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T007-C015-S001-10-tips-to-build-and-stick-to-a-better-budget.html#CSHatJ5wXbjudF7j.99