Biography #2: Zac Efron

I read a book about one of my favorite actors, Zac Efron. Zachary David Alexander Efron was born on October 18, 1987, in northern California. His character, Troy, is the main character of the High School Musical movies by Disney.

Zac Efron starting acting at age 11 when his mom and dad noticed that he was a good singer. He was in many plays and then on TV.

Efron graduated high school for real in June 2006. Efron’s favorite sports include golf, skiing, rock climbing, and surfing. Zac lives at home with his parents and his younger brother Dylan. They have a dog, Australian shepherd and a Siamese cat named Simon.

Zac was always a good student in school, and says that if he did not get an A in a subject, he would be very upset. After high school, he was accepted into the University of Southern California, but did not attend college at that time so he could continue to act. He did attend a smaller college though at that time and he says he will return to college when his acting career slows down.

One of the lessons of his character and real person is that hard work and attitude can lead to great things.

Taekwondo Tournament

My final Taekwondo tournament is coming up on Saturday. I will do sparring! I am nervous about it but I am sure it will be fine. This tournament is in Atlanta, so it is close. I hope I get a kid who is my same age! 

Karate Kids Project: Nothing But Nets

My Dad and I came up with a Real Karate Kids Project for the Ultimate Black Belt Test. Here is what we came up with and my dad sent this out to friends and family.

Audrey’s Kicking Out Malaria Project

Background: We recently put in a very small fish pond (originally a small lined trench we were going to plant rice in, but the rice didn’t sprout). So we filled it with water to try to have a little fish pond. A couple weeks went by with me travelling for work, and one day I noticed that there were thousands of mosquito larvae in the pond. We quickly went to the pet store to buy some gold fish to eat the mosquito larvae, and that worked great. We then got some plants to add to the ecosystem, and it has been a learning experience for our family.

This got us to thinking about mosquitoes. Audrey is sensitive to mosquito bites, and we talked about mosquito control, and diseases caused by mosquitoes. This led us to start to think about malaria in places like Africa. We learned that 18% of deaths in children in Africa are caused by malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes.

We also learned that one of the best ways to prevent mosquito bites — typically occurring at night — is to sleep under mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide. We found a number of very good charities that educate people in Africa about malaria, and also distribute mosquito nets. One charity called Nothing But Nets uses 100% of the donations for mosquito nets and education in Africa.

The project: Every 45 seconds a person is killed by malaria in Africa.  The project is to raise money so we can donate funds to Nothing But Nets so they can distribute mosquito nets to children in Africa. Nothing But Nets estimates that it costs $10 for every net put in place in Africa. The nets come with a person to teach about malaria and how to use the nets. Each net is usually used to protect 3 children on average. Audrey’s project has a goal to raise $500 so 50 nets can be put into place in Africa, and protect up to 150 people. These nets can be used for 5 years, providing a long term way to protect people from malaria.

Audrey proposes that awareness will be raised in a few different ways:

• soliciting funds from family and friends, so they can donate funds to nets (suggested donation: $10)
• creating a poster presentation for her class and karate studio, including a net demonstration
• writing to local newspapers to raise awareness
• raising and stocking special “mosquito fish” (species Gambusia) for local standing water ponds and those interested in mosquito control in their backyards

With every donation, no matter how small, people will receive some education on malaria and the importance of helping stop malaria.

Timeline: November 3, 2012 (Audrey is on track to receive her Taekwondo black belt then, after training since she was 3!)

For more information, check out the following links:

http://www.nothingbutnets.net/

http://www.imaginenomalaria.org/

Thank you for your attention! If you live within 50 miles of Audrey, expect a request for a donation to Nothing But Nets. If you wish, you can contribute to Nothing But Nets in Audrey’s name by visiting the link above.

 

Start of School and 3rd Grade

School starts on Monday, August 13th. Everybody says that 3rd grade is harder than 2nd grade! But I am ready to start school and see my friends. I am a little nervous but mom says that everyone is nervous before school starts, even the teachers! I will let you know how it goes!

Trip to Farm Country!

Every August, my family travels to southern Illinois, where my dad’s family is from. We visit my great aunts and uncles and cousins there. There are lots of farms there, and sometimes we get to visit the farms to see cows getting milked. Here is my great uncle Jerry and me picking apples. We made lots of apple sauce with these!