Ellen Fowler

From JBPedia

Contents 1 CISV History 2 A Note From Ellen 3 Getting to Know Me 4 Upcoming and Current Events that I am Pumped About 5 Recent Events that Went Really Well 6 The Quote Box

CISV History

Somewhere Over the Rainbow Village (Cortina, Italy) - Summer 2005

Take My Hand Summer Camp (Lisbon, Portugal) - Summer 2007

NBM 2008 (Waterloo)

SpBoTrFo 2007 (Ottawa) - with Erin!!!

JB Waterloo Exec - newsletter & merchandise 2007 - 2008

JB Waterloo Exec - written & online communications 2008 - 2009

Been involved in CISV since 2004! Hooray!

A Note From Ellen

All Ellen breaks loose...

~ a quote from my delegation-mate, Tess, who travelled with me to my summer camp in Portugal. (I have always loved this one!)

Hey everybody! Ellen here. I am one of the two newly elected written/ online communications person for JB Waterloo this year, and I am really looking forward to the task. I am so pumped about CISV and all the possibilities it has in store for the world, and I am sooo excited to continue doing great CISV activities here in Waterloo and across the world! It's really exciting to be starting off a brand new year of CISV Waterloo, with all sorts of ideas about how to make our JB better and more exciting just waiting to be put into place. We've got a brand new Executive and all sorts of creative melding going on, and I think we're all really glad to be getting back into the CISV groove once more!

Peace!

Ellen = )

P.S. The picture above is of me proudly displaying my art sketch. I am very covered in pencil lead but I am pleased with the results nonetheless - I had to cover the paper in graphite and then do the sketch entirely with an eraser!

Let me tell you, it took me a while. = )

Getting to Know Me

Favourite Ice Cream on Toast: Chocolate Fudge Crackle on a maple waffle. Mmmmmm...

What Floats My Boat?: Just some sweet and simple WATER!!! - It's the beverage of life!!!

Favourite...

Colour: Blue

Animal: Dogs!! I have wanted one ever since I was a little kid, but, alas, we have never been able to get one... :(

Sport: Hmmm... either kung fu or swimming, both of which I enjoy quite a lot.

Food: Chocolate. But you've probably already picked up on that... I'd also say that I like fruit a lot - anything from apples to pears to grapes to melon to berries to bananas to kiwis to...

Energizer: Oh, man! There are so many to choose from! But I must say that the moment I heard El Poillo, I fell in love with it... even if I don't really know the words...

A few quick facts...

- The countries in the world that I have been to (outside of Canada) are Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Japan, and the USA. Before I die, I want to go to Greece (the coolest culture EVER), Africa (don't care where, anywhere on the continent is fine by me), and Spain - Spanish is by far the sexiest language in the entire world!!

- I have played the cello since I was 4 years old.

- I love to sing... just not when anyone's around...

- I act, I sketch, I write... are you getting the artsy vibes yet?

- I love to write - poetry, fiction, creative writing, newspaper articles, you name it! One of the career options I have thought about before is to be a journalist and write about humanitarian issues like Stephanie Nolen, but I'm still really not sure what I want to be when I'm older.

- I am like those 3-D shapes that have, like... 500 sides. No one knows the full extent of my personality, not even me! I have so many sides... giggly and immature, solemn and thoughtful; loud and outgoing, quiet and shy. I am an artist, a student, a thinker, a philosopher. I am a poet, a clown, an actress, a film director. I am an athlete, a writer, a friend and a daughter. I am a leader and a follower... and I am proud to be me.

- The reason that I love CISV is that it gives me the power to make the change I want in the world around me. It is a sad world we live in, full of war, prostitution, slavery, and injustice, and sometimes it feels as though there is nothing I can do about it. I get so angry that I am so powerless to stop these things, so angry that no one around me seems to care. CISV gives me the opportunity to share my feelings on these issues, to teach young people about what is going on in the world around them, and to make a difference in the world. It is my way of making my life meaningful, and I am so grateful for the way this organization has shaped who I am and who I want to become.

Upcoming and Current Events that I am Pumped About

Hey hey hey! We've got a meeting coming up tomorrow night, and then we will know for sure what our next activity holds for us. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be fun and exciting, and I'm really looking forward to some more CISV action after our fabulous Fall Mini Camp!!

Recent Events that Went Really Well

1. We've just held our very first activity of the year, our Fall Mini Camp!! What a great way to start off a brand new year in CISV Waterloo! The weekend was a huge success, with great activities and fabulous discussions, and it was a great way to introduce our new Exec members to the way we run. Everyone involved in the camp had a ton of fun, and we're all looking forward to our next activity later this month! For more information on how the camp went, and to see some participants' thoughts on the activities, check out the link above.

The Quote Box

OK, so here's the deal. I keep finding all sorts of inspirational, funny, and downright wierd quotes that I want to share with you guys, so I've decided to make a little "Quote Box" on my page dedicated to the many quotes I want to share with you all.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." ~ Jimi Hendrix

"Our lives begin to end the day we stay silent about things that matter." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

"Thoughts blossom in my mind like flowers and trees... and elephants. That thought there was an elephant." ~ words from my own mouth after our last Exec. meeting.  :)

"We all have a dinosaur inside of us, just trying to get out." ~ Colin Mochrie

"Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. A rubber room. Filled with rats. Rats? I hate rats! They drive me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. A rubber room..." Ha ha. It just goes on and on and on and on...  : )

"Let's put down our weapons

And pick up our pens

And draw up a world

With no strangers -

Just friends."

~ This is an excerpt from a poem I wrote a while ago. Maybe someday I'll post the entire thing...

"CISV is everything. If you want to be silly, you can be silly. If you want to be deep, you can be deep." "You can feel totally comfortable with yourself and with everybody else, you can be yourself and everyone will love you whoever you are. Yeah."

~ a conversation between me and Erin. Aaw Erin. I love ya!

"Remember that no one is silent, but many are not heard. Work to change this."

~ How to Build Global Community, a poster I have up in my bedroom

"A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition." ~ Anonymous

"After all is said and done, a lot more will have been said than done." ~ Author Unknown

"If you do not hope, you will never find what is beyond your hopes." ~ St. Clement of Alexandra

"Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change." ~ Andre Gide

"If it were any easier, it would not be worth as much." ~ Karen Conelly

"We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?" ~ J. Ramsay MacDonald

"World peace... coming soon to a planet near you." ~ This is the slogan on a button I have taped on my bedroom wall. Catchy, non?  :P

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." ~ Percilus

"Money is like manure: in a big pile it just sits and stinks, but spread it around and it makes things grow." ~ Anonymous

"Activism is our rent for living on this Earth." ~ Anonymous

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A hug is the best gift you can give someone; one size fits all and no one ever minds if you return it!" ~ Anonymous

"Every time we open our mouths, men look into our minds." ~ Anonymous

"Isn't it funny that I seem to thrive off the things that hurt me the most?" ~ Me. Ellen. Up to you to guess what that one means.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." ~ Lao Tzu

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." ~ Henry Miller

"Let your memory be your travel bag." ~ Alexander Solzhenitsy

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than in miles." ~ Tim Cahill

"The world is a book, and those who don't travel read only one page." ~ St. Augustine

"Strangers are just friends waiting to happen." ~ Unknown

"To have a friend, be a friend." ~ Proverb (Author Unknown)

"Peace begins with a smile." ~ Mother Theresa

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." ~Albert Schweitzer

"Enthroned upon the mighty truth,

Within the confines of the laws,

True Justice seeth not the man,

But only hears his cause.

Unconcious of his creed or race,

She cannot see, but only weighs;

For Justice with unbandaged eyes

Would be oppression in disguise."

~ "Justice", by Paul Laurence Dunbar. I am honestly in love with this guy. He overcame racism and poverty to become one of the best-known writers in American history, and his poetry is so intelligent and thought-provoking, it really should be law that everyone read it.