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L'Hapoel Ramat Gan è una squadra di pallamano maschile israeliana con sede a Ramat Gan.

Palmarès

Titoli nazionali
  Campionato israeliano: 2
 1968-69, 1970-71.

Ramat Gan
Sport a Ramat Gan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Ardmore Legacy « lightly peated » High..
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Here is the list of ads from category Prime Tech john Deere forest equipment and others coming from Latvia. You may sort used Prime Tech john Deere forest equipment and others by price, year of manufacture or model. Please use the left-hand side navigation to narrow your search. You can also expand your search to Prime Tech john Deere forest equipment and others coming from other countries.
We also encourage you to visit the Prime Tech john Deere forest equipment and others page in the Brands section.


Amber Riley has confirmed dates for her annual leave from Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre. Currently performing as the iconic Effie White, the Glee actress recently picked up the gong for Best Actress in a Musical at the 17th annual WhatsOnStage Awards, beating out West End heavyweights such as Glenn Close and Sheridan Smith.
Making her London debut, the actress had a rocky start with the musical, taking time to rest after she was diagnosed with a bout of pneumonia. Alternates Karen Mav and Ruth Brown stepped in, both earning praise from audiences. Since then, Riley has come back with a bang, reportedly earning a nightly standing ovation for her performance of "And I Am Telling You".
Marisha Wallace, Karen Mav and Ruth Brown will alternate the above performances.
Producers cannot guarantee the appearance of any particular artist. Amber Riley is currently scheduled to play the role of Effie White for 7 out of 8 performances per week. One of the alternates will perform on 1 out of 8 performances per week, currently scheduled on Monday evenings. This is subject to change and can be affected by holiday, illness or events beyond the producer's control.


Suit of Wands represents the element of fire associated with the summer season and is connected to the South direction. Like wands, this is indicative of expansion, great primal energy, and determination in full-swing.
This suit signifies Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius and people under these zodiacs are often spiritual in a deeper sense of his being or existence, charismatic, creative, energetic, and passionate.
Several Tarot reading experts consider Suit of Wands as the most individualistic suit.
Two of Wands: You have a distinct advantage at work because of your dominant skills and unbreakable determination to move forward.
Three of Wands: It indicates creativity. It reflects your inner peace and predisposition to propel in your career and other life aspects.
Four of Wands: It depicts nice relationships. You have the right mindset for establishing and maintaining close partnerships.
Five of Wands: This depicts your preparation to common life struggles. You are able to find ways to surpass the challenge through pattern analysis and testing the waters.
Six of Wands: This indicates acknowledgment and recognition.
Seven of Wands: This card speaks of competition and it is rampant. This indicates continued success and fulfillment within you despite the stress your rivals may throw at you.
Eight of Wands: It indicates that something great is about to blossom. A swift change.
Nine of Wands: This speaks of persistence and faith. The card encourages resiliency to overcome life obstacles.
Ten of Wands: Carrying ten wands apparently speaks of your struggles in life. This card means that you have gone through a long, hard journey and reaping of your rewards is now just within your reach.
Page: It depicts a new phase in your life and so this card encourages true passion and enthusiasm.
Knight: It speaks of impulsive acts. While this can be very hard to resist when you take immediate actions to your personal issues, this card encourages you to consider long-term solutions with patience and confidence.
Queen: This card speaks of strong leadership, talent, and focus. You radiate into the world of success and overcome the face of adversity.
King: You have the power to solve problems rationally and logically. You are visionary and goal-oriented.


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The Government Affairs team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) supports the efforts of clinicians, staff and leadership to educate public officials and influence public policy on matters impacting CHOP and our patients. These efforts take place at the local, state and federal levels of government. We are advocates on both the legislative and regulatory fronts in Harrisburg, Trenton, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., focusing on numerous issues that impact children, clinicians, the Hospital and the Research Institute.
Follow @CHOPAdvocacy on Twitter for the latest regarding our advocacy efforts on public policy issues impacting children.
Learn more about the Government Affairs
NJ Medicaid Plans No Longer Contract with CHOP for Complex Patient Care
Learn what you can do to advocate for families in New Jersey.
Programs Important to Kids
Public insurance programs serve as crucial safety nets for children and families across the country, providing access to essential preventive services and healthcare.
Public programs for kids
Children need advocates like you to be their voice. Here's how you can affect change. (Hint: Vote!)
Become an advocate for kids
Issues that Matter to Children
When advocating for children on a local, state and national level, there are many key topics and issues you can focus on. Every day, these policies, budgets, health concerns, research efforts and legislative topics are shaping the future of our children. Learn more about these issues that matter to children and how you can get involved to speak now for kids.
Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME)
Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement Program (CURE)
Covering Children with Serious Chronic Health Conditions
Injury Research and Prevention
Medicaid, CHIP and SSI
NIH Investment in Pediatric Research
Pharmaceutical Access and Pricing
Poison Control Center Funding
Our team members serve as liaisons between Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and local, state and federal government officials.
Watch: Better Together
CHOP offers many programs that promote health and well-being for children and families in our communities.
Grand Opening in South Philadelphia
The new South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center provides health and wellness services, as well as literacy and recreational programs.
CHOP at the White House
CHOP leaders advocated for children while meeting with Vice President Joseph Biden and his staff about the "Cancer Moonshot Initiative."
Government Affairs Home
Important Programs
Follow @CHOPadvocacy on Twitter
Across the nation, shortages of #mentalhealth professionals leave communities without services to rely on. Rural communities face even greater challenges to accessing care.
How could this be impacting rural youth who face #depression & suicidal thoughts?https://t.co/vcUGLVRPnB
— PolicyLabCHOP (@PolicyLabCHOP) January 8, 2021
Follow @CHOPadvocacy
Learn about the projects we're implementing in our communities: 2018-19| 2017| More
Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA)
Download the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) report and implementation plan to learn about how CHOP is addressing the health needs of our community.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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OSTINATO
Black History Month Florence VI ED.
Mercoledì e giovedì 14.30 - 19.30
Murate Art District
exhibition, residency
Arte Visuale, photography, Literature and Human Science
HOURS AND MORE
La sesta edizione di Black History Month Florence sarà organizzata sotto il tema Ostinato. Il tema è simultaneamente un invito e una critica. L'invito è di ostinarsi nel lavoro socio-culturale di cui abbiamo sempre più bisogno. La critica riguarda l'ostinazione della resistenza del riconoscimento della lotta degli afro-discendenti riguardo l'accesso alla cittadinanza, ai diritti dei lavoratori e all'inclusione sociale nella definizione di italianità. Ostinato è una riflessione sull'ostinazione necessaria per affermare strategie proattive di organizzazione culturale su un lungo arco di tempo, come manifestazione di una visione non indifferente ai tempi attuali e alle sfide del presente.
L'edizione del 2021 si collocherà sulla scia delle proteste di lotta contro il razzismo diffuse in tutto il mondo. Nonostante il momento di crisi, riteniamo fondamentale "ostinarsi" in un programma completo e ampliato attraverso il coinvolgimento di nuovi partner, come forma di resistenza attiva.
Dal 2021 al 2024 Black Archive Alliance prende casa al MAD in una residenza di lungo periodo che porterà questo importante archivio, con i progetti di ricerca e la biblioteca tematica di 500 volumi, in residenza al MAD, per continuare e moltiplicare le occasioni di collaborazione e co-progettazione tra MAD e BHMF.
Le tre mostre proposte quest'anno alle Murate sono state co-prodotte e realizzate in una stretta collaborazione tra Murate Art District e BHMF
The Isle of Venus | Kiluanji Kia Henda A cura di BHMF, Sala Anna Banti
The isle of Venus | Kiluanji Kia Henda A cura di BHMF 2021
Isle of Venus is a site specific installation by Kiluanji Kia Henda conceptualized during the artists sojourn in Florence as a reflection on the city, its history and its relationship to transitory people whether tourists or other seemingly impermanent residents.
Island mentality refers to the notion that isolation and lack of consideration for all beyond one's borders produces a sense of superiority that is insular in its desensitization. This notion is not reserved for those geographically cut off from others but spills over onto those societies so habitually engaged in establishing the terms, norms, canons, borders and values that they thrive on, that they rarely take notice of the labor intensively constructed fiction or the painstakingly preserved facade.
Isle of Venus is a meditation on the socio-psycho and self imposed short sightedness produced by the transformation of cities into theme based museum sites, whether anchored in the romanticism of the Renaissance or in the gritty appeal of the medieval. Part and parcel of this veneer is the distancing of all things unaligned with, or that effectively, evoke the social underpinnings of this consistent barrage.
Curated by BHMF in collaboration with MAD Murate Art District;
MAD Murate Art District, Sala Anna Banti 03/02-28/02/2021
Black History Month Florence.VI Edizione. OSTINATO
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Luanda-Angola, 1979, Kiluanji Kia Henda is an autodidact which a profound springboard into this realm comes from growing up in a household of photography enthusiasts. His conceptual edge was sharpened by immersing himself into music, avant-garde theater and collaborating with a collective of emerging artists in Luanda ́s art scene. Kia Henda participated in several residency programs in cities such as Venice, Cape Town, Paris, Amman and Sharjah, New York and Arles.
... class="p1">Kia Henda´s selected solo exhibitions includes Something Happen on the Way to Heaven, at Museo di Arte di Nuoro (2020), The Isle of Venus at Museum of Leuven in Leuven (2020), A City Called Mirage at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York (2017), In the Days of a Dark Safari at Galeria Filomena Soares in Lisbon and Goodman Gallery in Cape Town (2017) and Self-Portrait As A White Man at Galleria Fonti in Naples (2010).
Kia Henda has participated in group exhibitions at numerous institutions, amongst which Barbican Art Center in Lonodon (2020), Migros Museum in Zurich (2020), Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2020), Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town (2019), Tate Modern in London (2019), MAAT in Lisbon (2018), the National Museum of African Art – Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. (2015) and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (2015).
His work was shown at the Gwangju Biennale (2018), Bergen Assembly (2013), São Paulo Biennale (2010), Venice Biennale (2007) and the Luanda Triennale (2007). In 2017, Kia Henda received the Frieze Artist Award. He presented his work The Fortress in the Somerset House courtyard (London) in 2019. The artist won Angola's National Culture and Arts Award in 2012. His work can be found in public collections, including Tate Modern (London), the Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw), Centre George Pompidou (Paris), Pérez Art Museum (Miami) and Coleção de Arte Moderna Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon).
Gettare il Sasso e nascondere la mano | A cura di BHMF, Piano Primo, Celle
Gettare il Sasso e nascondere la mano | BHMF 2021
Gettare il sasso e nascondere la mano is a collective exhibition dedicated to the artists of the first edition of the YGBI Research Residency developed in collaboration with OCAD and The Student Hotel in February 2020 under the mentorship of Andrea Fatona and Leaf Jerlefia. The residence reflected on spaces of non-performativity, collectivity and the notion of diaspora. Bringing together five Afro-descendant artists under 35 and residing in Italy, the resulting exhibition designed for the cells of Murate Art District embraces a series of narratives that link spirituality to education and colonial history and its materiality to historical activism.
The exhibition is rooted in an experimental approach to the collective sharing of space.
The phrase Gettare il sasso e nascondere la mano (throwing a stone and hiding the hand) was voiced by Cécile Kyenge as a description of a futile attempt at not being held accountable for the enactment of blatant and intentional violence. Her's was a response to the hands hidden in plain sight responsible for social damage and the sustenance of fractured values. This exhibition engages the socio-spiritual obstinacy that recognizes the obvious yet is cognizant of each of us as keepers of under-acknowledged agency.
The works form an invitation towards a collective capacity for developing strategies of resistance but also a critique in relation to the shortsightedness of self-aggrandizing individualism. The project comes in the wake of a series of solo exhibitions that were held at the MAGA Museum within the research project The Recovery Plan that was put on pause by the second phase of lockdowns in Fall of 2020 which is accompanied by five monographic online volumes each on dedicated to one of the artists involved.
Curated by Black History Month Florence
In collaboration with Murate Art District
MAD Murate Art District, celle, piano 1
Binta Diaw
Binta Diaw born in1995 is a Senegalese-Italian visual artist based in Milan, Italy.
Her research is aimed at the creation of installations of various dimensions and works commenting social phenomena like migration and immigration, anthropology as well as her body in relationship with nature and notions of identity. Defying the Western gaze through a subverted reality, her practice questions perceptions of Italianness and Africanness in relation to her... own cultural heritage and upbringing.
Embracing visual art with a strongly intersectional, afro-diasporic and feminist methodology based on a physical, personal experience, she is ultimately able to explore the multiple layers of her blackness, her self as a social body and her position as a black woman in a Western context. She studied Fine Arts at the Academy of fine arts of Brera in Milan and obtained a MA at ESAD Grenoble-Valence, in France. In 2018 she moved to Germany for an internship at SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin. In 2020 she debuted with her first solo show at Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio in Milan.
Raziel Perin
Raziel Perin was born in 1992 in the Dominican Republic. He received a BFA in Visual Arts at Naba Milano. Drawing upon his personal experience, mental associations and cultural references, Raziel Perin creates mysterious, unexpected and direct works of art that recall precise moments of clarity and dense memories that evoke the complexity of the process of reconciliation of the diasporic identity freed from Western stereotypes. Perin was born in the hinterland of the Dominican... Republic, where he lived until the age of four. In 1996 he moved to Northern Italy with his mother. His artistic production takes shape between two very distant realities, rooted in the need to be accepted as "the Other" and at the same time feeling the duty to suppress the sensitive part of his personal history, which constantly re-emerges. The introspection and reconnection with the echoes of those ancestral bonds that seemed to have been severed in this process of 'whitening' are the result and are channeled into drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations that unite and synthesize a series of recurring elements. His body of work conveys a compelling visual metaphor of the layers of personal memory and cultural history that inform and intensify his experience of the present.
Francis Offman
Francis Offman (b. 1987, Butare) lives and works in Bologna. In 2021, Offman took part in a workshop project for Valentino's Autumn/Winter Haute Couture Show 2021-22. 2022 group shows include: Expressions. The Epilogue, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Italy; YGI-Group show, United States; The 3 ecologies, MACTE, Italy; The Tending of the Otherwise, Italy as well as the second iteration of Throw the Stone and Hide your Hand at the Italian Cultural Institute in... Paris, France. In 2021, Offman had solo exhibitions at P420 Gallery, Italy; Baleno International, Italy; Herald St | Museum St, United Kingdom and MA*GA Museum, Italy. He also had a two-person show with Christian Offman at The Garage Lab, Italy. Previous group exhibitions include The Geological Viens, Palazzo D'Accursio, Italy; Painting in Person, Castello di Rivoli Museum, Italy; Italy at Frieze, Italian Embassy, United Kingdom; MEDITERRANEA 19 Young Artists Biennale: School of Waters, Republic of San Marino; Painting Stone, Villa Lontana, Italy; Throw the Stone and Hide your Hand, Murate Art District, Italy (2021); Premio Combat Prize 2020, Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum, Italy; Premio Zucchelli 2019, Zucchelli Foundation, Italy (2020); Open Tour 2019, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy; Rundgang 2019, Art Academy, Germany, Art White Night, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy (2019); Decoration between history, nature and poetry, Zucchelli Foundation, Italy; Open Tour, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy; Rambling rides, distractions from a destination, P420, Italy; Art white Night, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy; Scrap-Collective, Monumental Complex of Baraccano, Italy; Monsters-phenomena, Monumental Complex of Baraccano, Italy (2018). Awards received include: Agitu Ideo Gudeta Fellowship – Performance Act Award (2021); Emilia-Romagna Region Award in support and dissemination of Contemporary Art; 9th edition of the Francesco Fabbri Award for Contemporary Arts (finalist); Premio Combat Prize (honourable mention) (2020); Eighth edition of the Francesco Fabbri Award for Contemporary Arts; Zucchelli Prize Scholarship; Tree Time workshop with Massimo Bartolini; Contemporary Minds Prize (finalist) (2019); ArtUp Collectibles Award; Switch The Rules, curated by the Elica and the Ermanno Casoli Foundation (finalist) (2018).
Victor Fotso Nyie
Victor Fotso Nyie was born in 1990 in Douala, Cameroon and lives and works in Faenza. In 2018 he attended the Biennium of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. He attended the Istituito Tecnico Superiore Tonito Emiliani / Diploma of Superior Technician for the design and prototyping of ceramic products, Faenza, IT in 2015. His artistic research leads him to explore human variety and beauty, without forgetting a spiritual dimension. He creates works that recall his... homeland, Africa, which merge with others that metaphorically describe the globalized world in which we live. He has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions including The Armory show, New York city 2020, Stand P420 gallery,(2020), III Biennale d'Arte don Franco Patruno, curated by Gianni Ceroli, Museo MAGI '900, Pieve di Cento (BO) (2020).To be going to, curated by Francesca Bertazzoni & Davide Ferri, P420, (2019) In 2020 he participated in the project Research Residency for BHMF, OCAD University, (Florence). Winner of various awards including the Roberto Daolio Prize, 2018 the III Art Biennale Don Franco Patruno, Museo MAGI '900, Pieve di Cento (BO), (2019). His next exhibitions include Museo MAGI '900, Pieve di Cento (BO), IT (only) (2020) and the Biennale del Mediterraneo, Republic of San Marino (2020).
Emmanuel Yoro
Emmanuel Yoro is an Italian visual artist of Ivorian origin working between Vicenza and Milan. Adopting an artistic practice that embraces collage, design, fashion, graphics and photography, he breaks down into images the questions of the multiple facets of his cultural identity and different nuances of queerness.
An Afro-diasporic sensibility and a raw and monochromatic aesthetic characterize his research and recent artistic production, always in the... attempt of a wider redefinition of the self that dwells in the symposium between past and present, between memory and imagination.
Black Archive Alliance Volum III | Black History Month Florence, Sala Emeroteca
Black Archive Alliance | Volum III
Launched in 2018 Black Archive Alliance is a research and training project that aims to highlight investigations rooted in documents that reflect the realities and histories of African populations, and of the African diaspora and their representation in public and private archives and collections in the Italian context.
The first edition created a virtual map of this archival presence in the city of Florence with a catalog that aims to support future research and provide alternative perspectives. The second edition was also carried out in Florence by international students from various disciplines and institutions, tutored by a group of local researchers and scholars. The third edition, presented as part of BHMF 2021 in this exhibition, was born from a collaboration between five Afro- descendant researchers working in different fields and the artists of the first edition of YGBI Research Residency. Working in pairs, through an experimental approach based on dialogue and exchange, they have explored tangible and intangible archives rooted in Italy. Providing contextualization and a wider reflection on the art works produced by the YGBI members, the project is intended to reflect on alternative ways of activating and presenting archive-based research, beyond the academic realm.
The full texts produced by the researchers will be featured in the latest Archive Journal publication, developed in collaboration with Archive Books and launched 24 February at 5pm. As part of this exhibition opening, we are presenting our collaboration with Postcolonial Italy, which introduces their mapping project inserted within our space and exhibition.
Curated by BHMF with Alessandra Ferrini
In collaboration with Archive Books, Museo MA*GA and Villa Romana
MAD Murate Art District _Emeroteca
Researchers: Simao Amista, Jessica Sartiani, Angelica Pesarini, Jordan Anderson, Patrick Joel Tatcheda Yonkeu
Angelica Pesarini
Professor of Sociology at New York University in Florence
Angelica Pesarini is Professor of Sociology at New York University in Florence where she teaches "Black Italia", a course dedicated to the analysis of the intersections of race, gender and citizenship in Italy. She holds a Ph.d. in Sociology and Gender Studies in England and worked as a professor of Gender, Race and Sexuality at Lancaster University before returning to Italy in 2017. Pesarini's research focuses on the performativity of race in colonial and... post-colonial Italy and the racialisation of contemporary Italian political discourse. Pesarini has previously investigated the relationships between gender identity and economic activities in some Roma communities living in Rome, analyzing risk strategies, survival and opportunity in the context of male child prostitution in Rome. She has published several academic essays and participated in various collective publications.
Jessica Sartiani
Coffee trainer and coffee expert
Jessica Sartiani is a Florentine coffee trainer and coffee expert. With an Italian father and a mother who is half Filipino and half African-American, it is from her origins that her journey as a woman of coffee starts. As someone trained, operative and attentive to the recent sub-cultures of coffee, she started her work in one of the pioneer coffee shops of this selected product, Ditta Artigianale, ten years ago, studying and discovering all the work that precedes the service in... the coffee shop, giving importance to the producing countries. Her experience evolved with the opening of the first Speciality coffee in Italy, dealing with the training of baristas and customers. She has participated in various competitions such as the Brewers cup, to improve her contact with the public and enrich her background, and has been part of training projects in Honduras, Lithuania and several local coffee start-ups.
Simao Amista
Anthropologist and doctor
Simao Amista is an anthropologist and doctor of Italian-Afro-Brazilian descent. A scholar of African and Afro-descendent religions and spiritual philosophies, he has been working for years in the field of hospitality and education.
Patrick Joël Tatcheda Yonkeu
Giornalista di moda e cultura e direttore creativo
Patrick Joël Tatcheda Yonkeu was born in Cameroon in 1985, lives and works in Bologna. He moved to Italy in 2009 where he obtained a scholarship for the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and obtained a Master's degree in Visual Arts in 2016 with a research project on the theme of Zen in the arts. His interest in metaphysics remains the basis of his practice, which concerns the relationship between human beings and nature and our place in the universe, and he searches for... forms of spirituality more suitable for our times. His research is based on the idea of existence as a harmonious flow whose balance must be preserved and often refers to themes of life and death, the visible and the invisible and energy in its infinite forms. He deepens this research through numerous collaborations between Africa and Italy and by creating seminars on intercultural painting with schools and associations in Emilia-Romagna.
Born and raised in Kingston Jamaica, Jordan Anderson is a fashion and culture journalist & creative director who is currently based in Milan. His work often magnifies & explores political themes in and outside the fashion industry including race, gender, sexuality, identity & cultural ethics. He contributes to a variety of publications including Document Journal, Teen Vogue, Vogue Italia, The Face and is currently online editor & editor-at-large for Twin Magazine and nss magazine respectively.
Black History Month Florence
Curatorial team
Black History Month Florence was founded in 2016 is a cross institutional network for Black cultural production that celebrates Afro-descendent Cultures in the context of Italy. The initiative is engaged in programming, advising and co-promoting over 50 events annually within the month of February, through a network formed and supported by the Comune, foundations, institutions, cultural associations, museums, schools and venues dedicated to art and to music. BHMF as a curatorial team is headed... by Justin Randolph Thompson and Janine Gaelle Dieudji.
Justin Randolph Thompson
co-founder and director Black History Month Florence
Justin Randolph Thompson is a new media artist, cultural facilitator and educator born in Peekskill, NY in '79. Living between Italy and the US since 1999, Thompson is Co-Founder and Director of Black History Month Florence, a multi-faceted exploration of African and African Diasporic cultures in the context of Italy founded in 2016. Thompson is a recipient of a Louise Comfort Tiffany Award, a Franklin Furnace Fund Award, a Visual Artist Grant from the Fundacion Marcelino Botin, two... Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants, A Jerome Fellowship from Franconia Sculpture Park and an Emerging Artist Fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park. His life and work seek to deepen the discussions around socio-cultural stratification and hierarchical organization by employing fleeting temporary communities as monuments and fostering projects that connect academic discourse social activism and DIY networking strategies in annual and biennial gathering, sharing and gestures of collectivity.
Janine Gaëlle Dieudji
Janine Gaëlle Dieudji is a bi-national French and Cameroonian graduate of Culture and International Relations from Lyon 3 University in France. She also holds a Master Degree in Political Science from Paris 2 Panthéon Assas University.
She's been living in Florence, Italy, for the past six years, a city she has since fallen in love with. This is how Florence became home to her and the place where she started to build her career as an art professional. She considers herself as a... 'multilocal' by believing that we belong to all the places we have lived in. Home is where the mind can create and feel rested at the same time. This is what the life journey is made for, exploring to become the person we decide to be.


Get the ladies smiling at your next event with a unique favor. These hot pink Hello Gorgeous glass coasters are flirty and fun!
This is the perfect favor to get the ladies smiling and is ideal for showers, lunches, sweet 16's and other ladies events.


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We help ensure that your company has the right foundations for business success. From defining your mission and vision, to strategy execution and implementation, we support your company in achieving its full potential.
We help your business build the right strategy for your chosen category. We enable your business to clearly understand the opportunities of each strategic option, as well as the key risks.
Expanding beyond your local market is a great way to increase your sales potential and expand your revenue sources. Certius work with your business to build a winning export strategy and ensure you have the partners and capabilities you need to succeed.
Working closely with your business, we establish a market entry strategy which plays to your strengths, whilst also being highly suited for Iran's unique business environment.
We help your business identify and implement a best practice supply chain and logistics network for Iran, educating you on the unique challenges posed by this country, and identify the solutions which best fit your business model.
Certius helps you identify and assess optimal investment decisions, whilst helping you form strong partnerships with local Iranian businesses.
As a full service consultancy, we have provided solutions and customised services for a wide variety of clients, including both local Iranian businesses, and international businesses looking to expand their operations in the region.
A multinational beverage company was considering entering the Iranian market. As a first step they wanted to gain a strong foundational knowledge of the business environment and common practices in Iran, as well potential market entry strategies, and as the beverage market specifically.
Ramak recently launched Labneh cheese with doubled Protein and Calcium.


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EP035 – Jeff Platt, President, Sky Zone Franchise Group
Strategic Clarity + Verbal Clarity + Visual Clarity
My guest today is Sky Zone's President, Jeff Platt, who has grown the beloved indoor trampoline experience founded by his father into more than 200 franchises across the world.
I recorded my session with Jeff on March 2nd when life was still relatively normal. Fast forward to today, March 20th, where I record this introduction from a makeshift home studio and all of Sky Zone's locations are closed due to the coronavirus. Just another example of how every entrepreneur today is faced with an unprecedented challenge.
It is bittersweet to listen to Jeff, but I urge you to soak up his wisdom, to apply it to your own brand, to follow Sky Zone on social media and to add it to your list of to-do's to visit one of his indoor trampoline experiences when we are allowed to do so.
Learn more about Sky Zone.
Due to COVID-19 we are no longer asking for financial support for the show, instead you can now join free mentorship group calls with Fabian to get through this together. Join here.
F Geyrhalter:
Welcome to the show, Jeff.
J Platt:
Absolutely. Look, I usually only have founders and cofounders on Hitting The Mark and your company Sky Zone which a lot of people listening know very well, it was technically founded by your dad, but it was you who actually came in and pivoted it. You are now considered a cofounder at this point because you really made the company what it is today. Tell us a little bit about that pivotal moment of what actually happened when you came in or what you realized.
I definitely got to get my dad credit. He is the visionary behind it. He was the one who founded the business. I was lucky enough for him to bring me involved and get me involved in a way listened to directionally where I wanted to take the business, but he, by all means, is the real founder, if you will. When we first started the business as a professional sport, which was a crazy idea at the time, we decided to pivot the business into what it is today. It's nothing that he should take credit for or I should take credit for. It really came from listening to our customer at the time which were some neighborhood kids who wanted to just come in and play.
They saw our R&D center that we had in Las Vegas. They peeked their head in the door because there was an indoor skatepark next door to us. These kids were constantly coming to the center and they'd look through the windows. They used to bang on the doors and just ask my dad, "Can we come in here and jump around?" He'd let them. Then one day, instead of training athletes to launch the sport that was going to be played on trampolines, the decision was made to start charging them money to just jump around and play. We did and then the business took off from there. We opened a couple locations. I approached him one day and said, "Let's start franchising our business." In 2009-2010, we began to franchise. That's when the growth really started to take off.
Have there been any companies at that point that did something similar when you guys decided, "Hey, let's have these kids come in and let's just start charging for it"?
Yeah, it was that simple. I think in business in general, it's super important to listen to your customers. In our world, we call them guests. We've learned a lot from them over the years. When I think back at really how this whole thing started, it was, it was listening to these neighborhood kids.
That's so great. I'm a brand consultant and the beauty of my job is that I come into companies as the outsider looking in which makes it so much easier to see what is actually going on and what brand wisdoms and values deserve to be uncovered. You were the Undercover Boss in the season finale of the show by the same name. Now, I have a good amount of former Shark Tank contestants on Hitting The Mark, but you are only the second Undercover Boss. I had Shelly Sun of Brightstar which is also an amazing franchise on the show prior and she was an Undercover Boss as well. How was that experience and what did it teach you about your brand that you did not know before?
It's a pretty incredible experience. I'd like to say it's probably the most exhausting 10 days of work I've ever had between traveling every day and you're up early and you're working late and that wasn't the issue. The issue is that there's a camera in your face 24 hours a day pretty much. And so you really have to watch what you're saying because you have no editing rights and they're going to put on that show what they want to put on. You're also lying all day long about who you are. You're pretending to be someone you're not.
Tell me more.
That is exhausting. You really have to watch everything you say. Those were grueling days. I think one of the thing, and it's interesting because it doesn't get talked about a lot around that show, one of the things that was so interesting for me is when you have a title as president or CEO or cofounder, whatever it may be, when you have a big title, you don't get to talk to people the same way as if you were just a friend of theirs or maybe just a director level or manager level, but when you have that title people, they look at you differently and they talk at you differently.
It's unfortunate, but it's just people can sometimes be intimidated by the role. I try and go out of my way to be very approachable, but you don't get to share the stories that you do with someone when you're the CEO or the president. That show, because I'm just a contestant on the show, a made-up show that, of course, they don't know it's made up, but I was able to engage and talk with our frontline team in a way that I would not have been able to if I wasn't this fake character.
I was able to learn from them, engage with them and frankly just get to know some people that I would have never gotten to know if it wasn't for that experience. I think one of the things that made me realize is really the incredible diverse team that we have around the country and these stories of these team members and what they've been through and the role that Sky Zone has played in their life, mainly good thankfully in helping them and setting their careers off and learning and development for them.
That was the most, and I guess in a selfish way, it gave me a lot of pride and a lot of enthusiasm and really a lot of energy around continuing to grow the brand to say, "How can we create more stories like these individuals?" It was really a humbling and rewarding experience all around.
That is really, really great to hear because very often with those shows it's all about drama, and like you said, you have to be at your very, very, very best behavior, but that idea where a founder, a president, the CEO, it's easier for you to suddenly take over a customer service line and listen to what people actually have to say on the other line, but it's really hard to do that internally, especially if you have franchises. I don't know how many locations you have. I think the last I checked it's like 210 or so locations. I'm sure it's been growing, right?
It's really, really difficult to tap into that. I totally get it. That must have been an amazing experience and just high fiving with those people that usually would stare at you when you walk into the room.
Exactly, not want to speak to you. It's interesting because it doesn't get talked about enough around that show, just that you can engage in a totally different way because you're just seen as another person to them. Unfortunately, again, when you put a title on yourself, you automatically have some stigma attached to you or stereotype if you will because you're the "boss."
Totally. Absolutely. A typical Sky Zone location hosts about a thousand guests a day according to Wikipedia. You have expanded through the franchising model. I had 1-800-GOT-JUNK founder, Brian Scudamore, on the show which sadly only resulted in a transcribed interview due to technical difficulties that day. That was one of my first episodes and he was kind enough to be on it. He's obviously a very well-respected entrepreneur in the franchising world. It was interesting to hear him answer this question. I'll ask you the very same question because you are deep inside the franchising world.
What were some of the key steps that you had to go through to create a platform of brand rules and guidelines to empower franchise owners rather than solely restrict them? It's still true to the brand and they have rules to follow, but it still feels like they've got to say in their own location and then shape something and be a cocreator.
It's a good question and it's always a tough balance in franchising.
Oh, I'm sure.
We tend to use this saying a lot that we want to give freedom within a framework because I firmly believe and it's my leadership style that you've got to give your team or people you work with freedom. If you give them enough freedom, then that's where real creativity and innovation can happen. Allow them to try things and allow them to fail. It's talked about a lot in business and I wholeheartedly believe it. I think it's the same with franchise owners. You've got to give them a certain amount of freedom because some of the best innovation comes from them, but it's got to be within a framework.
You got to some guardrails around it, the magic of enough freedom but a framework that is wide enough to truly let them try things but not so wide that they go outside the boundaries. I think like anything the key is making sure they're involved in the process. From the time we did our first real branding exercise, hired the third-party consultant, brought them in, really gave ourselves a look, a feel, talk about what our brand is. We did those exercises. God, this is dating back I think the first time, maybe six or seven … Well, the first time we did it was 10 or 11 years ago, but I'd say the first time we did it in a real methodical way with a professional was seven years ago.
We had franchise owners sitting in that room with us and the senior leadership of the team. They were sitting in there with us going through the exercises and doing all of it, A to Z with us. Every time that we've done some form of refresh, they've been along the journey with us. Not all of them because you can't have 120 franchise owner sitting in the room with you, but you find a couple who are passionate about branding and know it and you invite them and you make them part of the process. Make them part of a process so they feel like it's theirs and then define that framework, make sure it's got enough freedom within it for them to make it their own, but also make sure it's still us, those guys.
Consistency because that's the lifeline of any brand, especially with the franchise. Very, very cool the way that you do that. I think that's very smart. How do you deal with core values? Because core values are so important to any company, but you're across continents, right? Sky zone is not only in the US. You're global at this point. How do those core values translate? How do you deal with that?
Fortunately for us, we kept ours pretty simple, so they do translate across countries. They're not overly complex. Actually for the first time, this has been going on for about a year or so, we're actually looking at making some updates to those. Core values are not things that should be a flavor of the year, that you change often at all, but we're actually looking at doing a bit of a refresh on them because we recently, as you pointed out before we started talking, you saw that we've done a little creative refresh on the brand and so we're looking across all aspects of our business, core values being a part of it and looking to do a refresh there too.
I think what's key with … Brands get into a lot of these concepts and mission statements and vision statements and purpose statements and core values and brand tenets. They all want to define them. You have so many things that you can't remember, "Is that a mission statement or a purpose statement? Is that my vision? Wait, what are my core?" I think the key with all this is keep it super, super simple. I think brands tend to, and you probably know this better than I do, overcomplicate all this stuff.
Thank you. Hallelujah. I'm so happy to hear this from a founder's viewpoint because for me it's all about simplifying, simplifying. I even simplify it so much that at the end of my branding sessions with clients, we have one word, right? It all comes down to that one word. You and I talked about that a little bit in the prep that that's a question that's coming up. I didn't even do mission and vision statements with my clients because I felt that, a, it's two extra statements and, b, aren't you on a mission to fulfill your vision? Isn't it one statement? Now that too many of them asked me after workshop, they're like, "But Fabian, we didn't do a mission statement and a vision statement." I'm like, "All right." Now, I'm doing a mission/vision statement which is a combo plate between the two and that just makes it simpler. I agree. The more statements, the more stuff around your brand, the harder it is to remember and follow any of it. Isn't that the core purpose of all of that? I believe you've got some pretty cool little pieces of brand communications like small gestures of brand delight that turned into customer favorites. I think when you enter a location, you get a sticker, which I haven't because no one invited me to check it out prior to this interview, but whatever, anyway ; ) so I haven't but I heard that these orange stickers, they turn into a recognizable brand element for you, right?
Yeah, the orange stickers and actually even more so than the orange stickers is our socks.
That's right. How has it always been around the socks? Is that a common-
The socks we introduced maybe six years ago or so now. Sometimes, I lose track. Sometimes, I still think it's 2018, but the socks, we introduced six or seven years ago. For a very long time, and it might still be the case actually, it was the most Instagrammed thing part of our brand. If people would post images of themselves at our parks, usually it's them and the sock is the hero of the shot because it's like a badge. It says, "I am at Sky Zone," or, "I love Sky Zone because I've got my socks."
That's super cool. You did the socks obviously for hygienic reasons, I suppose, and for people, to make sure that they have socks on because a lot of them might just walk in with their sandals. Hold on second. There's a lot of ambulance action out there or something. Super cool. By the way, the whole socks thing. I just thought it Ion the site now when I looked at it. I didn't even pick that up when I prepped for the interview the last time, so it's pretty neat. All right. I guess the ambulance is dying down over there. No pun intended. That was horrible. It didn't mean it though.
Cool. Perfect. Let's talk about the socks for a second little bit more. Was it intentional that you thought the socks would actually become a brand element or did you just need the socks for a reason and afterwards you just said, "Well, let's color it in our brand color"?
Originally, the socks started for two reasons, one, hygiene and the second one is they have a grip on the bottom of them. It's easier for you to grip the trampoline and you're jumping on it. We didn't decide to do the socks. It was, "Oh, this would be an amazing brand element." As we started introducing them into our operations and then we made them orange because that was a main color for us and they really popped and we noticed people really like them, we thought, "Okay, this is a great opportunity that becomes a badge of honor that you love our brand if you have our socks." It's one of the things that I always say to … People say to me, "Oh, what do I do?" I say, "Have you ever heard of Sky Zone?" Eight out of 10 times, the first thing someone says to me is, "Yeah, I have six pairs of your socks."
That was my next question. Do people steal the socks or do you actually own them afterwards? How does that work?
No, they own them. They own them. They're all-
Which makes it so much easier for you because what are you going to do with them?
Yeah, much easier. We're not going to get into machine washing business. That's what we do. We branded them. Now interestingly enough, people bring their socks back because they own them. We said, "Okay, people really love these. Now, we need to make them different and let's expand the design and the color of them." We've now introduced, God, maybe a dozen different design socks, ankle socks, high socks, camo color, different funky designs. We even post our new designs on our Facebook page, asked people to vote on which ones they want us to roll out. It's become a big part of our brand now, socks.
That is so smart. That's super, super smart. I mean that can grow into all kinds of different directions, but it's so cool because it's a merchandise you don't have to buy. You just get and the idea of anything that's being limited edition or anything that changes, that's what people want to post. That's what people want to own. Super, super cool. How do you talk to your different customer segments? You've got toddlers and their parents and then you've got amateurs, like you said, just kids that want to jump around and I mean kids of any age really, but all the way to professional dodgeball players, which yes, that's definitely a thing. Do you segment your channels such as Instagram and YouTube by those groups?
Segmentation has become … As we've gotten bigger and a little bit more sophisticated, at least I'd like to think, we've started to do a lot more segmented marketing. It's just like just as you nail one platform, the next one pops up that you've got to learn like TikTok, but we do a lot of segmentation and it's not necessarily by age always. We've recently launched memberships. We're gaining a pretty big membership base across all of our parks. We have very targeted communication that goes just to our members.
We obviously know a lot about those members and who they are, who's buying these memberships and what's important to them and why they're buying memberships and what offers they want to see as being a member that's going to entice them to want to continue to come back. We're not just segmenting based on a teenager or a toddler. One thing is for sure is we're talking to mom a lot. Mom is a big decisionmaker. We're definitely talking to mom in a lot of our communication, but we want to be cool, we want to be relevant, we want to be, to a degree, edgy and up with the latest trends.
One of the things we just did from a branding perspective is we just refreshed our creative. We talked about this a little bit earlier. We brought in a lot of pattern and some softer colors. At first when I saw it, it felt kitty to me, but if you go out and look in the world today, especially fashion, this is what is on trend right now. I'm not talking about fashion for six, seven, eight, nine, 10-year-olds. I'm talking about fashion for teenagers, people in the early 20s. It is what is considered cool, if you will. We're constantly talking to different audiences and figuring out a way to target messaging, but at the end of the day, mom is one of our biggest customers.
Totally. Then, the kids need to find that their experience with the brand is hip as well and then they grow out of mom being a decision maker and you feel like readying yourself for the entire customer journey which is very smart. The big question is do members get special member socks?
It's funny you said that because it's something we're actually working on.
We have a concept of potentially giving them different socks and those socks based on visit history and such, like belts in karate …
Badge of honor.
… that you would earn. Yeah, exactly.
Super cool. We talked about dodgeball for a second, I just mentioned it, but let's talk about the Sky Zone Ultimate Dodge Ball Championship because it's easy to poke fun at sport because most know it as a kid's game, but you did something quite amazing by creating this league and having it air on ESPN2. I think it earned something ridiculous like over 200 million media impressions. How did that brand extension of sorts come about?
Oh, you know what? I've got to give my father credit really there. He was always very passionate about doing something involving sports with our brand. Originally, as I mentioned, that the whole concept started out as it was going to be a sport played on trampolines and that game was actually called Sky Zone and it was a crazy game, but that never really took off. What people did love to do was play dodgeball on trampolines. He really wanted to legitimize that. So many, many years ago, he had this dream and wish to just make a real concerted effort to try and make dodgeball something big.
We started out doing tournaments at all of our locations and tournaments were popular. Then we said, "Wow, what if we make those tournaments regionally based and then the regional base tournament, there's a winner. Then what if the regional tournament winner gets to play into a national tournament? Then everybody flies to Vegas, but then how are we going to convince people to fly to Vegas to play for this national tournament?" We actually used to do it in Torrance many, many years ago. We started doing in Vegas recently.
Then, we threw cash prizes on it and people then really wanted to come because there was a big cash prize and it gained a huge following. Somebody here internally in our team ran the whole thing and did a great job with it and started getting sponsors involved. The next thing you know, ESPN2, they want to show a profile of it. It's a really fun content, so it started getting a lot of hits on YouTube. It just organically happened. It was sort of this total … Talking about segments, it was this total subsegment of our business that that really was never about how much revenue can we generate from this.
It was more fun and a different angle on our brand. It was about sport and competition and a super, super passionate group of players that help grow this sport organically. It was fascinating the way it all happened.
It's so great because it reminds you of the roots of the company, right? As you start spreading into all these different directions, there's still this core which is really neat. You use the word organically a lot. In a way, I'm sure a lot of it spread organically, but I think it's also because you're most probably humble about it. I think you've got a pretty good idea of how to grow a brand. What is an advice that you would have for a young company that maybe has one or two locations and they want to turn into a franchise? How would you spread the word and find brand growth to follow your lead?
What are some of the things that you feel like made you successful in the beginning that might be something that people might be able to replicate in a totally different industry?
Well, I think one thing that's really important, if I was starting from scratch today, something I would do from day one that I think it wasn't until we were maybe four years in or so that we did this, but it's hire a brand consultant and create what many people in the industry refer to as a brand book. What truly is your brand? What is the identity? What are your core values? Do you have a vision statement, which I don't think you need to have a mission statement, but if you do define it? You don't have to have a mission or purpose statement, but if you do define it.
What does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it not that's important? Who's the customer? What's important to that customer? How is your brand speaking to that customer, but really define what your brand is? We did that for the very first time. I want to say maybe it's five years after we launched. It might've been five, it might've been six, I don't know. It was not at first. I can tell you that. I think that there's no question that I would do that from day one now because what that does is it aligns people around an idea.
Your brand is your identity and it's how the world will perceive you. It's important that people that are running the business if you will or will be getting involved in the business, understand what that idea is and make sure that they're communicating the same thing because brand is not just about the colors on your website or the way your brick and mortar location looks, your tone of voice, but brand is also the people that work for you and how they represent themselves. I think having that book is that unifying document that says, "Here's who we are. Here's what we're about. Here's what we're trying to achieve. Here's what's important to us. Here's the customers that we're trying to attract."
You got to be aligned around that from day one. You don't have to be, but I'd recommend you be.
Absolutely. I'm so glad that you say that. That's literally what I do for a living is coming with early stage startup founders. Usually, they have funding, one way or the other. Some of them already did the beta product for a year or so and then I come in and I do exactly what you're talking about. I refuse to work with them if I don't get an entire day with the core team with the founder, cofounder, any VP level, maximum eight people, but minimum the founders because if it is being derived from within and if everyone is working on it together, like you said, so much happens, right? It builds internal culture. It builds that, whatever, North star, whatever it is, like that big idea.
You said, "Well, there's colors and there's all of that stuff too," and you're right. It is secondary when you build a brand, but also after that, you call it a book, we actually do it in one long page. It's actually like a six-foot poster of like, "Here is the brand," which we like because one page is easier as a PDF for people to quickly scan through in the book, but that idea that it's written down and it's in front of you, if you then work on the brand, you can always go back to it and say, "Look, it doesn't matter if orange or you like blue. Would our customer like orange and blue? Does it go back to who we want to be and how we want to be seen?"
Not needing to repeat anything that you already said, but I'm glad to hear it from you. I'm glad that you'd say that now looking back, actually you would do it early on and that you recommend people to do it early on because a lot of startup founders who don't understand the idea of branding that it's something much bigger, they feel like branding is the last thing they should focus on, right? It's product, product, product. That's how people feel. You can add 10 more features to your product, speaking tech talk, whatever it is, additions to your service. If no one cares about it and if no one sees it as being attractive, then you have nothing, right?
I could go off on tangents about that, but since we already talk about it, after everything you've been through with Sky Zone, creating this conglomerate of locations and being a leader in that industry, what does branding mean to you today?
Fortunately, I think the same thing it did before which is to me, it's how a customer feels when they hear or see or interact with your brand, what is the emotion, the response that, that you get from them. I don't think our brand is about what I say it is. I think it's about what is somebody else because I might have a perception of what it is, but it doesn't mean that we're articulating that well as a brand or communicating that well as brand. I think it's about what is your customer see, feel, believe, what comes to mind when they experience or interact with your brand.
I think brands, they do it really well. I think we do this well, but we can definitely always improve, is that experience or feeling is consistent across, they use that term omnichannel, but it's just a cross platform. Whether you're interacting on social, whether you're interacting on the web, whether you're interacting by picking up the phone and you're calling and you're talking about booking a party or you're trying to get information or when you're actually physically inside the location itself. I think that's the hardest thing for brands is consistency across channels.
You might do social media really well, but then when someone comes in store, it's a terrible experience or the way your online presence looks is very different than the way the physical store looks or you might have this brand that's super fun and engaging and exciting, but the team inside the park is not that way at all and ruins it. How do you have consistency across all those channels to me, that's brand.
Absolutely. It's already so difficult to have consistency across locations, just that people feel the same thing and agree to the same way and it's the same vibe, but then across channels is a totally different story. I always feel like it's fascinating to me how restaurant chains or hotels, how they either nail it or they totally can't get it together. That is such a multinational experience there. There's one restaurant chain, you might know them, they're called The Hillstone Group. They've got Houstons and all of that.
I ate at R+D last night. I went to the Hillstone Restaurant.
Well, there you go. Perfect. The one in Brentwood, Santa Monica up there, right?
I am obsessed with that brand because they give you a fairly upscale experience, not really upscale prices. Regardless of where you go, it is so consistent, the service and the way that you're treated and the way that you feel especially when you go to the Hillstone's and Houston's Steak, the way you fall into this brand and it's dark, it's quiet, it's super professional, you're attended to. To me, it is so fascinating and people think it's silly because it's Houston's. It's a steak, whatever, kind of chain, just an American restaurant. That to me is always fascinating because I know how difficult it is to pull that off.
Talking about difficulties, brand difficulties, I know we talked a lot about what Sky Zone is doing right and has been doing right, but you're doing your entire history of growing that brand. Was there enormous brand feel that you went through where something totally went the wrong way, where you thought your customers would act a certain way and then they acted totally differently or where you chomped onto some hip bandwagon and then afterwards you realized it's just a fad and you should have never done that? Anything negative that you want to share, so people can learn from it?
Nothing I would say overly negative. I will say that at one point we started pivoting our creative a little bit to go a bit edgier, a bit sportier. We used some darker images and coloring, not a skater feel, but almost like that in a way. I think we took it a bit far frankly. This didn't really come from research or anything, but I think we took it a bit far and we had to tone it down a little bit because what I think we became was a little less inviting to the masses. It's almost as if you saw our marketing or creative, you would have said, "It feels like sport to me and not entertainment."
There's still some elements of our brand that feel that way, but we've started to tone that down a little bit, and after you've seen some of the creative refresh on our website for example, we're now being a little more colorful, a little more pattern oriented. Really what's at the core of all of that is being playful. That's what we want to be about. We want to be playful as a brand in the way we communicate, in the way we look and feel. We are all about play and our brand should be playful. It's not really serious.
Exactly and it makes so much sense because in the end, if you're on the height of your game and you're actually in the league, it's still playful. You're still enjoying it. It's still a game, right? For everyone else, it's aspirational if there's a little bit of that competitive tone to the brand or a little bit of that athletic tone to the brand, but you must probably went into the athletic tonality so much that the other customers were left a little bit behind. Now with your refresh and looking at the way that you look at the segmentation's obviously, it's a much bigger exercise to find that perfect in between and having that guiding word, that guiding idea behind it. That's actually my next question. What is one word that can describe your brand overall, which I call your brand DNA? Is it actually playful?
Yeah, I think so. We are all about promoting play. We want to be playful in everything we do. You can use a lot of different words and you can say it's about fun and freedom and activity and adventure, but at the end of the day, who does not like to play? If we could just be playful all day long, I don't care if you're young or old, you're going to be happy. I've got a 16-month-old now, my first and all day long this kid just runs around and he just wants to play and he's so happy. I just think like, "What if I could live like that?" How much happier would the world be if we could all just be like a 16-year-old, totally present, in the moment, only caring about what's right in front of them? I realize it's not realistic, but how nice would it be?
I think your brand is going to change a lot in the future.
I just want to play.
Look, when you mentioned it could be a lot of words, I think that actually defining that one word. It is very peculiar, right? It's particular. It's like there's nothing else that can say playful the way playful can see it, right? I mean freedom and all these other words, they come through different images. I think playful, having that as the guiding light, it's different. I think it's important to have that down because I think everyone internally needs to feel like, "Yeah, that's our brand." Then, everyone externally will sooner or later feel that. What's next for Sky Zone? What's in the future? What can you talk about that is not to secretive?
More growth, more toys, more attractions. I think the one that we're really super excited about right now that we're just starting to roll out is we're incorporating a lot of slides into our locations. These aren't just normal slides. These are a new spin on slides. Everyone hears slides and you think, "Oh, that sounds really fun. I'll do them at the park, but what's so great about a slide? These are going to be totally different and really big. I'm talking 15, 20, 25 feet and they've got a surface on them that puts you at a totally different speed than if you were just going down a normal slide and you're going to fly off them, of course.
You're not going to just drop down, but you actually get launched off these slides and a have to land into an airbag. That's an attraction that we're really excited about pumping out here very soon. There's a lot we're doing in the tech space. I think that a year from now you'll see our parks team pretty tech enabled that will be an enhancement to the guest experience and then a lot of international growth getting into new countries and seeing further expansion that way.
Very exciting, very exciting. Talking about expansions, I have listeners from all across the world. I think there are a few countries where I don't have listeners, but it's a very international podcast. The majority is still in the US, I think about 48% and then it's all across the world. Listeners who want to get into the Sky Zone, where can they find you?
skyzone.com, easy as that, our website. It's got all of our locations listed and that's the best place.
How many countries are you in right now?
Oh, we are in 12 countries.
Total countries and hopefully expanding. We're very focused on Japan hopefully being the next country we launch.
Great. Very cool. Well, listen, Jeff, I hope that the craziness with the coronavirus is not going to affect you too much in what you do and how you expand. It's affecting everyone right now, but I really, really wish you the best. We got some amazing insights out of here today. I love your story. Thank you for taking the time in your busy schedule to share this with myself and my listeners.
Appreciate it having me on and hope to chat soon.
Absolutely. Thanks Jeff.


Distinct Markings (Freckles, scars, birthmarks, etc.): she has a mole on her neck, two inch long scar on her jawline.
Personality (Friendly, mean, different, violent, etc.): She is nice, talkitive, and friendly, she loves laughing and enjoys life but she cal be sarcastic, tell a person off when she's in a bad mood and get's smart to people on her bad side.
Other Flaws (at least two others): her mouth gets her into trouble alot and she fears very powerful gots, she thinks she can do everything on her own, sometimes thinks she's immortal even though she's not.
RP Example: Briella jumped back as the monster swung at her. This wasn't first time it happened in school. Her being attack, and everybody sees it as if they were talking, no she's not being attacked. Briella took her fist and swung at the monster's hard stomach her arm breaking in a minute, but it didn't really matter. But she still felt the pain as her hand snapped, it hurted badly; but if she stopped now he could knock her head off and that was the end of her. That couldn't be healed. He finally swung and Agenia attacked the monster having it disappeared. She sighed in relief.
Biography: Noel and Werethekau actually didn't get along at first. Noel use to study Egyptian artifacts coming across Werethekau. She didn't like his attitude to it but still she had to deal with them. Once they finally talked without spitting insults at eachother, Werethekau liked Noel's sexual side, she liked the way he made her feel and on that same night they became friends, Werethekau became pregnant. Noel returned to America by then, moving to New Jersey. And Werethekau was always on his mind and once she knocked on the door and handed him Briella Mariah Kahn, he was disappointed. He didn't really want a child and he didn't like her leaving, but still he raised Briella only wanting Werethekau to come back. Briella is biracial ( African american and Puerto Rican). She also raised herself. Her dad stopped showing her affection at the age of nine as he started drinking and inviting five prostitutes a night into his house.. paying them all afterwards. Once when he was drunk he told Briella how much he hated her and how she was only there so he could see her mother again. Another time he was drunk he threw broken glass of a bottle at Briella, causing a big gash on her jawline that eventually healed and became a scar. And that's when Briella walked out on her own, at the age of eleven. And the whole time she is out by herself, she was being attacked by monsters.
Appearence: Agenia has the face and features above, the first one is her normal form, a Mau cat and the second one is when she transform into Agenia the brave. She just grows into a bigger cat that stands on two and wears fine jewlry that is made into her outfit.
history: Agenia is a really old cat, that was born as a cat. She was worshipped like other cats and wanted something bigger, she wanted to be like humans. She prayed to the gods for it and soon got her wish but she wasn't aloud to speak and she would work for a human. Luckily she was the house cat of good people, protecting them and being by their side but each time one died, she was to be ent to another and another after that just to get depressed and feel down. A war came up and the gods needed someone else to help fight, they asked Agenia who told the gods( not speaking still because she does not speak, can't speak) if she did this, she would be enslaved by humans and they agreed. Agenia was free... free for years, roaming around as an alley cat. And more until she ran into Briella. And Somehow Agenia knew Briella just needed a friend and on her own; she became Briella's companion.
I'd be fine with her cat turning into a bigger cat, but not a humanoid, warrior one. .
When you say all of her powers are limited to five, do you mean five uses each or five uses overall?
I don't think telepathy is allowed, except in some transfers, which this isn't. .


A group of prominent film and TV actors including Ralph Fiennes have joined a campaign to block a radical development project in Hammersmith's King Street.
A group of prominent film and TV actors including Ralph Fiennes have joined a campaign to block a radical development project in Hammersmith's King Street.
The star of the Harry Potter series and The English Patient said he is 'strongly opposed' to two 15 storey blocks of luxury flats next to the town hall, which have been put forward as part of a council-led regeneration plan.
Fellow thespians Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott and David Threlfall have also added their backing to the Save Our Skyline campaign, which was launched by residents and community groups to fight the King Street Developments scheme.
The actors are urging all those who are concerned about the project to voice their objections before January 4, when a formal consultation on the planning application closes.
Mr Fiennes said: "Hammersmith neighbourhood is low-rise and historic, with a number of Grade II listed buildings, and therefore high rise tower blocks are completely out of character with the surrounding area and historic waterfront.
"Any development would not only lead to an irrevocable loss to the spirit of the area, but would also be a blemish on the landscape."
Ms Richardson, who grew up in the area and stars in the forthcoming Hollywood remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, said escaping to the Cineworld cinema in Hammersmith had 'played a big part' in her decision to become an actress.
"I have always considered the river at Hammersmith to be one of the loveliest parts of London," she said. "It should not become yet another homogenized civic environment as it is an important part of our heritage."
Mission Impossible II villain Dougray Scott said he was 'appalled and quite frankly furious' about the proposals, which were drawn up after the developers won a council competition to reshape the western end of King Street.
As well as the 15 storey towers, the plans include the creation of a new public square in place of the current town hall extension, new council offices, a supermarket and a footbridge over the A4 to Furnivall Gardens.
Shameless star and local resident David Threlfall said he was 'staggered' by the development and slammed the 'greed' of the developers, who want to double the height of the existing skyline.
He added: "To demolish a mainstay of the community such as the cinema, for the sake of yet another unnecessary supermarket, while offering no concessions to what residents want is insensitive and dictatorial."
A spokeswoman for King Street Developments, a joint venture between Grainger and Helical Bar, said the project would be a 'fantastic development of the the highest quality' of which Hammersmith and Fulham would be proud, securing the future of Hammersmith Town Hall, saving taxpayers money through reduced operating costs for the council, and driving more business down King Street.
She said: "As with any regeneration scheme there are many challenging factors, it is therefore essential that local people understand the impact of delivering these regeneration plans and the impact of doing nothing.
"We have engaged in significant consultation with local residents over the past three years, and our door remains open to any local group which wishes us to explain in more detail the issues driving the need for regeneration in this part of Hammersmith, and how this scheme addresses them."
The planning application will be considered by Hammersmith and Fulham Council in the new year.


text:
<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

class DisplayAdopterDocuments extends CI_Controller {

 function __construct()
 {
   parent::__construct();
   $this->load->model('adopter_document','',TRUE);
   $this->load->model('history','',TRUE);
 }

   function _remap($method,$args)
  {

  if (method_exists($this, $method))
  {
  $this->$method($args);
  }
  else
  {
  $this->index($method,$args);
  }

  }

 function index($id)
 {

    if($id == null){
      show_404();
    }

    $data['adopter_num'] = $id;
    $data['documents'] = $this->adopter_document->getAllDocuments($id);

     if($this->session->userdata('logged_in'))
   {
     $session_data = $this->session->userdata('logged_in');
     $data['username'] = $session_data['username'];
   }
   else
   {
     redirect('login', 'refresh');
   }

$this->load->library('form_validation');

    if (!empty($_FILES['documents']))
   {

    $config = array(
    'upload_path' => "uploads/",
    'upload_url' => base_url() . "uploads/",
    'allowed_types' => "gif|jpg|png|jpeg|pdf|doc|docx|txt|rtf"
    );

    $this->load->library('upload', $config);

    $files = $_FILES;
    $cpt = count($_FILES['documents']['name']);
    for($i=0; $i<$cpt; $i++){
        $_FILES['documents']['name']= $files['documents']['name'][$i];
        $_FILES['documents']['type']= $files['documents']['type'][$i];
        $_FILES['documents']['tmp_name']= $files['documents']['tmp_name'][$i];
        $_FILES['documents']['error']= $files['documents']['error'][$i];
        $_FILES['documents']['size']= $files['documents']['size'][$i];

        $fileName = uniqid() . 'file_' . $files['documents']['name'][$i];
        $fileName =  urlencode($fileName);
        $config['file_name'] = $fileName;
        $this->upload->initialize($config);

        if ($this->upload->do_upload('documents')) {
            $this->upload->data();
             $url = base_url() . "files/" . $fileName;
             $this->adopter_document->addDocument($id,$url);
           $this->session->set_flashdata('results', 'Document(s) successfully uploaded to the database.');

        }

    }

     $data['documents'] = $this->adopter_document->getAllDocuments($id);
     $data['title'] = 'Display All Documents for ' . $id;
     $this->load->template('displayadopterdocuments_view', $data);

   }else{
     $data['title'] = 'Display All Documents for ' . $id;
     $this->load->template('displayadopterdocuments_view', $data);
   }

 }

  function remove_document($vars)
 {

  $id = $vars[1];
  $adopter_num = $vars[0];

    if($id == null){
      show_404();
    }

    if($adopter_num == null){
      show_404();
    }

    if($this->session->userdata('logged_in'))
   {
     $session_data = $this->session->userdata('logged_in');
     $data['username'] = $session_data['username'];
   }
   else
   {
     redirect('login', 'refresh');
   }

         if($this->session->userdata('superuser') != 1){
        $this->session->set_flashdata('results', 'You do not have the correct permission to modify an animal.');
        redirect('/displayadopter/'.$adopter_num, 'refresh');
     }

   $this->adopter_document->removeDocument($id);

     $date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
      $sd = $this->session->userdata('logged_in');
      $user= $sd['username'];
      $this->history->addHistoryEntry($user,$date,"Removed an adopter's document with the ID of : " . $adopter_num[0]);

   $this->load->library('form_validation');

   $this->session->set_flashdata('results', 'Document successfully removed from the database.');

    redirect('/displayadopterdocuments/'.$adopter_num, 'refresh');

 }

}

?>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Captain Rosalie
By Timothee de Fombelle
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Category: Children's Middle Grade Historical Books | Children's Picture Books
Jun 11, 2019 | ISBN 9781536205206 | Middle Grade (8-12)
Jun 11, 2019 | ISBN 9781536205206
*This title is not eligible for purchase to earn points nor for redemption with your code in the Reader Rewards program
Buy the Hardcover:
About Captain Rosalie
Timothée de Fombelle and Isabelle Arsenault capture the heart-wrenching cost of war for one small girl in a delicately drawn, expertly told tale.
While her father is at war, five-year-old Rosalie is a captain on her own secret mission. She wears the disguise of a little girl and tracks her progress in a secret notebook. Some evenings, Rosalie's mother reads aloud Father's letters from the front lines, so that Rosalie knows he is thinking of her and looking forward to the end of the war and to finally coming home. But one day a letter comes that her mother doesn't read to her, and Rosalie knows her mission must soon come to an end. Author Timothée de Fombelle reveals the true consequence of war through the experiences of small, determined Rosalie, while acclaimed artist Isabelle Arsenault illustrates Rosalie's story in muted grays marked with soft spots of color — the orange flame of Rosalie's hair, the pale pink of a scarf, the deep blue ink of her father's letters. All the more captivating for the simplicity with which it is drawn and told, this quiet tale will stay with the reader long after its last page is turned.
Also by Timothee de Fombelle
See all books by Timothee de Fombelle
Hardcover | $15.99
Published by Candlewick
Jun 11, 2019 | 64 Pages | 6-1/8 x 7-5/16 | Middle Grade (8-12) | ISBN 9781536205206
People Who Read Captain Rosalie Also Read
The bright red hair of Rosalie and her mother seems to glow in the gray, wintry light of Arsenault's village scenes, likewise offering hints of life and warmth even in the face of terrible loss…A spare tale likely to engender deep, complex responses.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
De Fombelle (Vango) sublimely crafts a taut story with expansive spaces between words, inviting readers' creative interpretation. In similarly open-ended and emotion-charged art by Arsenault (Colette's Lost Pet), Rosalie's luminous, carrot-hued hair and determined expressions interject a promise of hope amid the darkness. A heartrending portrayal of resilience in sorrowful times.
—Publishers Weekly Online (starred review)
Isabelle Arsenault's watercolor, pencil and ink illustrations are stark, primarily black and white with small bursts of color, capturing the bleakness of Rosalie's village and the pain at the heart of the story. De Fombelle's brief tale is wildly successful in demonstrating that, when war is a reality of our lives, children can't be shielded from it; Captain Rosalie shows the heart-wrenching experience of a child growing up during war and the true cost of knowledge.
—Shelf Awareness for Readers (starred review)
Rosalie's innocent but determined narration is delicately supported by Arsenault's atmospheric gray-toned ink and watercolor illustrations touched with fiery rust orange that associates Rosalie's hair with quotidian items that affect her interior life. The tale, a version of which appeared in The Great War (BCCB 4/15), is ultimately about children's need for and resilience in the face of truth, and it should inspire thoughtful middle-grade discussion.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Young Rosalie narrates this poignant story (which originally appeared in the 2015 short story collection The Great War) of war, loss, and resilience—and a child's need to know the truth, even if painful…The book's small, square format creates intimacy, reinforced by the open page design and frequent watercolor-and-wash illustrations. De Fombelle's (Vango, rev. 9/14) text is spare, allowing Rosalie's fierceness to shine through. Spots of color in Arsenault's (Louis Undercover, rev. 11/17) emotive art focus viewer attention on significant details: Rosalie's glowing red hair, the fateful blue envelope.
This eloquent, heart-wrenching story, of a little girl whose father is away fighting at the front in The Great War, comes from French playwright Timothée de Fombelle, author of acclaimed "Toby Alone" and its sequel and other novels for children.
De Fombelle quietly but movingly evokes the complicated emotions of both Rosalie, who's proud of and scared for her father, and her mother, who's struggling to keep it together…Arsenault's soft, shadowy illustrations, both spot and full-bleed pages, cultivate a rich sense of place and contribute to the thoughtful emotional tenor of this WWI story.
Captain Rosalie is an extraordinary story that deftly yet deeply conveys the tumultuous emotions of a child, family, community, loss, and the glimmer of hope for tomorrow.
—Reading Eagle (from Kendal A. Rautzhan's "Books to Borrow…Books to Buy")


Building on the foundation of commitment is communication. Communication represents a player's ability to relate to others (e.g., teammates, coaches, parents) through how they send and receive information to and from each other. It is an interpersonal quality that is characterised by players who share information, praise their peers, ask helpful questions, listen respectfully, and accept feedback. Players with good communication skills strive to be highly coachable as well as being able to communicate non-verbally, alongside encouraging and instructing their teammates clearly and confidently.
Click on the download below for a a brief insight into communication and how you can help your child.


Dr. Mark Hawk, MD is a neurosurgery specialist in Marysville, CA and has been practicing for 25 years. He graduated from University Of California, Davis, School Of Medicine in 1994 and specializes in neurosurgery.
How was your experience with Dr. Hawk?


text:
My Australian Story Diary collection Seven 7 new softcover books
Each book in the My Australian Story series is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young p...
Store Home > My Australian Story Diary collection Seven 7 new softcover books
MY AUSTRALIAN STORY Diary Collection
Seven books in the series
by various well-known Australian authors
See other children's fiction click here
New softcover books. Please note that some of the titles may be different to what's shown in the photo - read below for the actual titles in this set.
My Australian Story is a series of historical novels for older children published by Scholastic Australia which was inspired by the Dear America series. Each book is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young person living during an important event or time period in Australian history. Distinguished authors lend their voices to these extensively researched novels written in intimate diary format and inspired by letters and diaries of the time. Australian history has never been more accessible for Middle Primary to Lower Secondary students
* My Father's War: The Diary of Annie Cliff, France 1918 by Sophie Masson (2011)
'It scares me a lot, thinking of Dad out there, far away in that dangerous, terrible place, wondering how it will be when he comes back - if he comes back, that is ... '
Marie's dad has been away for two years, fighting on the Somme battlefields in northern France. For months there has been no word from him, no letters or postcards. Marie and her mother are sick with worry, so they decide to stop waiting - and instead travel to France, to try to find out what has happened to him. There she experiences first-hand what war is like, as she tries to piece together the clues behind her dad's disappearance. Will Marie ever see her father again?
* Outback: The Diary of Jimmy Porter, Central Australia, 1927-1928 by Christine Harris (2005)
Jimmy Porter has moved to the middle of nowhere. His uncle's family live in a wattle-and-daub hut, days' walk away from even the nearest neighbour. Life in 1927 in the outback is tough - but the people who live there can cope with just about anything. But when disaster strikes, how can they get help?
* Our Don Bradman: The Diary of Victor McDonald, Sydney, 1932 by Peter Allen (2004)
Victor McDonald is cricket mad. He plays for his school team and his dream is to meet his cricketing hero, Don Bradman. But Australia is in the grip of the Great Depression. Work isn't easy to come by. Victor's father has lost his job and the family is moving to Sydney. Despite the daily struggle of life in inner Sydney, Victor not only gets to see Don Bradman in action, he even gets to meet him. With the England cricket team coming to Australia, Victor knows it's going to be a great cricket season. But England has many nasty surprises in store. This will be one cricket season the Australians - and Victor - will never forget.
* Who am I? The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney, 1937 by Anita Heiss (2001)
'I woke up this morning and I couldn't stop crying cos this place is not my home, even though everyone says it is. I miss Matron Rose and all the kids and now I miss my real mum more than ever. When I was a little girl Mum would always hug me when I cried and tell me everything would be all right. Who's gonna hug me here?' Mary Talence was taken to Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home when she was only five years old. Now she's ten years old and living with a white family in Sydney. She doesn't fit in and starts to question why.
* The Bombing of Darwin: The Diary of Tom Taylor, Darwin, 1942 by Alan Tucker (2011)
'More bombs exploded and within seconds several ships were on fire. Japanese planes flew so close to me that I could not only see the red circles painted under their wings, but I could see the pilots' faces.'
It only took a moment. It was a moment that Tom would always remember-that morning of 19 February 1942, when everything changed . . . changed from peace to war.
* Cyclone Tracy : The Diary of Ryan Turner, Darwin, 1974 by Alan Tucker (2010)
'Darwin's almost completely destroyed; buildings, shops, houses, cars. Whole streets are gone, even the signposts. And now the people are going.'
Evacuations started today. Ryan just wants to hang out with his mates, go fishing and avoid being hassled by his dad, the super-strict deputy principal. But troubles with his dad are nothing compared with what lies ahead: Cyclone Tracy is about to hit Darwin.
* Refugee: The Diary of Ali Ismail, Woomera, 2001 - 2002 by Alan Sunderland (2010)
Ali Ismail is a refugee. Fleeing persecution in Afghanistan, Ali is smuggled away from his family. He eventually finds himself on a ramshackle boat bound for Australia. But instead of winning freedom, Ali and his companions are taken to a detention centre in the South Australian outback.
For twelve long months, as he waits to find out whether he will be allowed to stay, Ali must endure the hardship and despair of mandatory detention. He briefly experiences life outside the razor-wire fences of Woomera - but all too soon he must return to await his fate.
See more children's book bundles and box sets click here
My Australian Story Diary Collection softcover book set
Retail: AUD 118.93
John Marsden - The Complete Tomorrow Series All seven 7 softcover books - NEW!
The complete 7 book set of the Tomorrow Series, the most popular book series for young adults ever written in Australia. New softcover books, a must-read for everyone over the age of 12!
Our Price: AUD 132.95
John Marsden - The Ellie Chronicles 3 softcover books - NEW Trilogy
The complete 3 book set of the Ellie Chronicles, the trilogy sequel to the perennially popular Tomorrow series. New softcover books.
Rangers Apprentice Books 1 - 5 John Flanagan New boxed set Gorlan Icebound Oakleaf
Brand new softcover boxed set of the first 5 books in the Ranger's Apprentice series. The Ruins of Gorlan, The Burning Bridge, The Icebound Land, Oakleaf Bearers / The Battle for Skandia & The Sorcerer in the North


text:
New Chicago Compost Ordinance Eases Restrictions for Urban Farmers and Gardeners
Editor's Note – I guess here's some good news from Chicago–community gardens can now receive food scraps produced off-site for composting. But the fact that they couldn't is pretty absurd and makes me wonder how many other cities prohibit this. More reason why we need to develop the field of urban ag law.
This article was originally posted on Seedstock and written by AJ Hughes.
Composting bin (Photo Credit: solylunafamilia)
The Windy City took another step toward sustainability on July 29, 2015 when Chicago's City Council approved a new compost ordinance.
The new regulation will allow community gardens in Chicago to compost various types of organic waste, including food scraps such as vegetables and eggshells. Previously, only landscape waste was permitted for compost, such as grass and shrubbery clippings.
Formerly, community gardens and urban farms were only allowed to compost items that were produced on-site. Accepting donations of food scraps was not permitted, and permits were required for all compost containers measuring more than five cubic yards.
Under the new ordinance, compost containers can measure up to 10 cubic yards without needing a permit. And farms generating less than 4,000 tons of compost annually will only have to pay $300 for a permit, as opposed to the previous fee of $3,000.
Besides fostering the expansion of composting operations at community gardens and urban farms across the city, the ordinance also creates a citywide community garden registry and a streamlined urban farm composting operation permit process.
The ultimate goal of the ordinance is to expand the type of permitted compostable materials at urban farms and gardens throughout Chicago, while implementing measures to ensure that public health standards are met, according to according to Jennifer Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council.
Several of local urban agriculture organizations helped draft the ordinance. Chicago has been behind other cities leading the way in urban agriculture, according to Walling. (The Illinois Environmental Council was one of 20 groups spearheading this effort). But she believes this ordinance helps Chicago progress by leaps and bounds in fostering a culture friendly to urban farming.
"New York City is doing well with this, but the City of Chicago's ordinance is even better," says Walling. "Chicago should become tops in the nation."
Now that the ordinance has passed the Chicago City Council, it is now in the rulemaking phase. This means that agencies, such as the Chicago Department of Public Health, work to add detailed regulations to the ordinance. Walling expects the rulemaking process to conclude by the end of October or early November, with the entire piece of legislation officially taking effect in time for spring gardening season.
Worm bin (Photo Credit: Root Simple)
Currently, the state of Illinois has an amalgam of composting rules. With the exception of Chicago and its suburbs, most of Illinois is rural. Due to a state statute, rural farms are exempt from composting regulations, and Chicago's suburbs have a variety of composting laws. Walling hopes the new city ordinance will serve as an example to other Illinois cities and towns.
"The City of Chicago will be a good test case; this is a great first step," she says.
Walling predicts the ordinance will prove beneficial to urban farmers in the city, and will improve soil health.
"This will be helpful to urban agriculture since one of the costs of urban agriculture is soil," she says. "Most of Chicago soil is contaminated, so that compost will help."
More composting of organic materials will also help keep organic materials out of landfills, she notes.
The ordinance is part of Chicago's effort to support urban agriculture in the city. In 2011, the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel passed an urban farm ordinance, which expanded the size limit of community gardens and allowed for more hydroponic and aquaponic operations. Since that ordinance passed, acreage in the city devoted to urban farming grew from 1.4 acres to about 18 acres.
"The city now has one of the best ordinances in the country," Walling says. "It provides more options and opens up compost sites to the community."
November 11, 2015 Posted by Farmer Emily Tagged with: Chicago, compost, environmental law, organic material, urban farming
The Rise of the Farmers' Market in America Website Fights 'Local-wash', Reveals Which Food Retailers Truly Serve Up Local