Pass The Bucket with Crys Worley

Crys Worley, founder of A.Skate Foundation, mom to Sasha, an 8-year-old boy with autism works full time in the dental field, goes to school, and hosts the A.Skate clinics all over for families who have children on the autism spectrum.

The A.Skate Foundation is a non-profit that allows children with autism to be a part of the social world through skateboarding. They hold clinics for children with autism at no cost to the families, give grants to children with autism for skateboard gear, as well as promote awareness and educate families about the skateboard industry. Five years ago 1:150 children were diagnosed with autism. Today 1:91 children are diagnosed with autism, 1:58 of those being boys according to the statistics on TACA now. Autism, like skateboarding, can be unpredictable and often times unruly. A.Skate embraces the parts of autism that are hard to understand and gives these kids an outlet that is free of rules or judgment, and allows them to be social without being “social”.

For more information and to get involved log onto askate.org/

Pass The Bucket with Ryan Hudson

Ryan Hudson, 22, spent most of his life in homeless shelters and on the street. At the age of 15 he found the Toussaint Academy in Downtown San Diego, a homeless shelter for at risk teens. It was here that he was introduced to Chris Rutgers and the Outdoor Outreach Program. Outdoor Outreach has taken more than 5,000 youth on over 1,500 outings including snowboard trips to Big Bear. Ryan's first trip to the snow was transformational to say the least. After experiencing what Ryan calls "the greater things in life" he became a snowboarding prodigy, immersing himself in the sport and competing professionally. Ryan currently lives in Utah where he works and rides every day.

Five years ago he was given the opportunity to participate in the Leadership Program for Outdoor Outreach and has dedicated his down time to providing similar opportunities to the homeless and troubled youth of San Diego. His goal is to create more opportunities for kids stuck in the same place he was.

For more information on how you can help go to outdooroutreach.org

Pass The Bucket with Dennis Martinez

One of the original Vans sponsored skateboarders (1977 World Freestyle Champion / 1978 U.S. Champion) Dennis Martinez,
has dedicatd the latter part of his life to rehabilitating the marginalized, institutionalized, and forgotten people of our country. 
His largest success has been establishing the Training Center in San Diego,
a drug and rehabilitation center in Spring Valley, CA. He also works as a volunteer prison chaplain at Calipatria State Prison.
Of recently, Dennis has teamed up with the San Diego SWAT and Police forces to attack the major gang and drug problem that has arrised along the border, by implementing a youth diversion program. In the past 3 years crime has decreased by 47%. 


For more information on the Training Center go to www.sdtrainingcenter.com

Moments with Aloe Blacc, Mihalj “Miki” Kekenj and Jaybo

If you remember this song Aloe Blacc "I Need a Dollar", this is what happend next. During a visit to Berlin Aloe Blacc colaborated with musician and music-maker Mihalj “Miki” Kekenj and artist Jaybo. How? Miki took Aloe Blacc songs and rearrange them into a string-quintet composition and recorded, sending the CD to Jaybo the painter so he can be inspired by the music and created a beautifull piece of art, and in the end they performed a live show. Inspirational.

www.made-blog.com

Pass The Bucket with Stephen Murray

June 22, 2007 marked a day that the Action Sports world will remember for a lifetime. A day that has forever changed the life of professional BMX rider & three time U.S. Gold Medalist, Stephen Murray.
In the midst of doing a double back flip, Stephen Murray crashed while competing in the BMX Dirt Finals at the Dew Actions Sports Tour, in Baltimore, Maryland. It was quoted as being “one of the worst crashes seen in BMX” and one that would ultimately be career ending for this incredibly talented, 27 year old athlete. Fully paralyzed, Stephen now lives a different reality, but see’s it as a platform to help others. Through his "Stay Strong" foundation and missioner determination, Stephen surprisingly finds a powerful way to pass the bucket.

For more information on Stephen’s foundation go to www.staystrong.co.uk

Flour Bakery

"Make life sweeter... eat dessert first." This is the motto of Joanne Chang, pastry chef/owner of Flour Bakery in Boston. She has written a new book about her favorite dessert recipes. Working with Joanne and her staff was a breeze. And the fringe benefits were SWEET! I was fed sample treats throughout the day during the shoot! The book is called “Flour” and this is her story.

Pass The Bucket with Amy Purdy

Amy Purdy is a snowboarder, skateboarder, makeup artist, actress, model and is also a double leg amputee. At the age of 19, she contracted Neisseria meningitis, a form of bacterial meningitis. Due to the disease, which affected her circulatory system, both of her legs had to be amputated below the knee. Her spleen and a kidney had to be removed as well. Two years later, she received a kidney transplant from her father. Her friends now refer to her by the nickname Lucky.

Amy's most significant accomplishment to date is in the creation and development of the action sport athletic organization; Adaptive Action Sports. In 2005 Amy and her partner Daniel Gale founded the non-profit organization to help adaptive athletes get involved with action sports, art and music.

As of 2011 Amy is currently ranked #1 in the world for Adaptive Snowboarding and recently got adaptive sports into the 2011 X-Games. Amy's future goal is getting adaptive sports into the 2014 Olympics.

For more information on how you can help support Adaptive Action Sports go to www.adacs.org

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

www.khanacademy.org

Frank Chimero - The Shape of Design

To really think about design, you need to learn and think about everything other than it. Design is a vessel: the most important part is what it holds. As makers of things, the work gets better from outside influences, and gives us clarity about the purpose of the work: to inform, to persuade, and to delight. We'll spend some time ruminating on what it means to delight our audiences, think of different ways to do so through mechanisms like storytelling, and realize that the real benefit of making anything is to nourish lives.

Frank Chimero is a graphic designer, illustrator, teacher, maker and writer hailing from Portland, Oregon. He also teaches graphic design & typography to eager minds at Portland State University and is managing partner of graphic design blog, Thinking for a Living.

Use art to turn the world inside out

JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. At TED2011, he makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. Learn more about his work and learn how you can join in at insideoutproject.net.

www.jr-art.net