by Sheila Lowe, MS, CFDe

Every January 23^rd, National Handwriting Day is celebrated by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA), educators, and handwriting analysts throughout the United States and the world. Beginning in the early 1980s, the date was chosen by WIMA because it is generally accepted as the birthday of John Hancock—Remember the Founding Father whose big, bold signature graces the bottom of the Declaration of Independence? Although the story may be apocryphal, rumor has it that Hancock wrote it that way so Mad King George could see his signature without the aid of his spectacles (glasses).

Today, many young adults are unable to read Hancock’s signature or the Declaration of Independence because they were never taught to read cursive (joined-up) writing. Grandparents are often shocked to learn that since 2009, when the Common Core Curriculum was produced, the requirement to teach cursive handwriting in public schools was left out. Consequently, many states simply stopped teaching it. After a few years of seeing the negative aftermath of this omission, the states began to add cursive back. To date, twenty-five of them have returned the requirement to the curriculum and five more have legislation pending. Some leave the decision up to the school districts, and only ten states have absolutely no requirement to teach cursive. California simply requires children to learn to write legibly. However, prior to the onset of the pandemic, the LA Unified School District had a plan to re-introduce cursive to public schools. Hopefully, VUSD will soon see why it should follow suit.

Maybe you’re thinking ‘what’s the big deal? Why bother when everyone uses keyboards these days?’ It would take a much longer article to answer that question, and if you are interested, you are invited to download a free white paper on the current research into why handwriting is still important in a cursive age. It is available in seven languages here: http://ahafhandwriting.org/publications

Bottom line, research confirms that children who learn cursive, do better in spelling and reading, and they retain information better than those who just learn printed writing or keyboarding. Handwriting also helps the young brain develop self-discipline, combatting the effects of video games and TV.

One Ventura school teacher has a strong belief in the benefits of learning cursive. Laurie Curtis Abbe, who teaches 8^th grade at Anacapa Middle School, makes sure that by the end of the school year, every student who entered her classroom will know how to write in legible cursive handwriting and be able to sign their name. Laurie is also an exceptional role model, preparing her students for real life by teaching them good manners and other skills that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. As Laurie says, “all of them know that it will improve their brain’s abilities, help them in reading primary source documents for Language Arts 8 and U.S. History 8, and give them an advantage over their peers for their future in many other ways.”

What can you do to participate in National Handwriting Day? You might want to make a “pencil toast.” Join with the non-profit educational organization, the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation on their Campaign for Cursive Facebook page. It’s easy. On January 23, write a few words and your autograph on a post-it note or other piece of paper; take a photo and post it here: https://www.facebook.com/CampaignForCursive

Below is my pencil toast:

Harrison Industries continues to lead the ecological charge, achieving a noteworthy 12 years of Climate Registered™ Gold status for its ongoing efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Registry is a nonprofit organization that operates greenhouse gas reporting programs globally and monitors emissions; using an independent review process, the registry assists companies in measuring, reporting and verifying the carbon in their systems in order to manage and reduce it. Carbon greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for trapping heat the Earth’s atmosphere and causing climate change.

In a recent letter, Climate Registry officials thanked Harrison for opening its corporate books to again complete the registry’s emissions inventory report and congratulated the Ventura-based trash and recycling hauler for its 12th consecutive year of top-level recognition on the elite registry.

“We thank you for your exceptional climate leadership,” the registry’s Ryan Cassutt, manager of verification and registry services, wrote in the Oct. 22 letter. “Harrison Industries will receive a Climate Registered Gold physical certificate and will enjoy enhanced eligibility for a Climate Leadership Award.”

Earlier this year, The Climate Registry rewarded Harrison for surpassing net zero in emissions by a remarkable 21 times.

“As you can imagine, any company just trying to get to net zero is hard,” said Bill Camarillo, CEO of Harrison partner Agromin, “but the Harrisons have been able to average, over 10 years, 21 times greater than net zero, which is a tremendous accomplishment.”

“The numbers are remarkable but not unexpected,” said Nan Drake, Harrison’s director of governmental affairs and public relations. “Harrison has a well tracked history of avoided emissions – including a fleet of trucks that run entirely on clean fuel – and of following all the protocol. At Harrison, we see this as our greatest responsibility and our foremost success as a trash/recycle company.”

In 2019, Harrison was honored to be the only waste hauler to ever be distinguished with The Climate Registry’s Member of the Month commendation.

Throughout its nearly 90-year history – since long before global warming became a sweeping social issue – Harrison has strived to reuse waste material and avert it from the landfill, where methane gas emissions have caused the atmospheric warming that’s led to climate change.

In 1990, at the dawn of the recycling movement, Harrison launched its Gold Coast Recycling facility. Using state-of-the-art equipment – which has been updated several times over the decades, including in 2019 – Gold Coast has remained consistently at the top of national environmental performance rankings.

Among the company’s proudest achievements has been its annual high ranking on the prestigious Climate Registry, which has been governed by U.S. states and Canadian provinces and territories since its design and creation in 2007.

Since joining the registry in 2008, Harrison has remained far ahead of the clean-air curve every year, proactively and voluntarily reporting the company’s greenhouse gas emissions annually through The Climate Registry.

Details on these avoided emissions from recycling, composting and averted landfill use are available in the full report from The Climate Registry, at www.theclimateregistry.org.

A holiday event for families was held at the Arise Ventura church building located at 831 N. Olive on Saturday, Dec.18.  Pre-registered families picked out a toy for each child, a gently used coat, receive a new pair of shoes for each kid, a lunch, a visit with Santa and a pair of custom made earrings for mom. From 1:00-3:00 pm, there were toys and coats for walk up families with lunch.

This event included Arise Ventura ,Boys & Girls Club of Greater Ventura ,Rotary of Ventura ,Rotary of Ventura – Coats for Kids ,CHP and Kicks for Kids.

Patti Birmingham, CEO Boys & Girls Club of Greater Ventura stated “We served over 300 kids at the event. Each child or teen was provided with a gently used coat, a visit and photo with Santa & Mrs. Clause, a plush toy & candy cane from Santa, Moms and some teen girls got to choose a pair of home-made holiday earrings, pick out some Christmas wrapping and or bows, given a Christmas story book and was able to choose a couple of toys for each child (including teens). Two CHP vehicles and officers were onsite in the afternoon for photos and interaction with the kids. Kicks for Kids also made soft tacos for everyone and families were given a food box, provided by Food Share on the way out.”

“In addition to providing some much-needed relief to West End families, it was an incredible example of what can be done when non-profits pull together and pool resources. There was such a feeling of warmth and comradery. Between Ventura Rotary, BG Club and Arise Ventura, we had about 50 volunteers throughout the day.”

“As we pooled our resources and partners together, the Boys & Girls Club brought Rotary of Ventura, Interact (the High School arm of the Rotary Program), Coats for Kids (Rotary Ventura Program), SoCalGas (who provided a $5,000 grant for Coats for Kids), and Kicks for Kids (a program that provides new sneakers and education programs to underprivileged youth).  Arise Ventura had connections with CHP Chips for Kids, City Kids and Spark of Love who all provided toys for the event and Food Share provided food boxes.  Members of the Arise Ventura church also provided coats and some gift cards for families.”

The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Ventura will be opening a Teen Center on the West End in January.  The new center will be located in a building owned by Arise Ventura Church at 831 N. Olive Street and will provide critical mentoring, homework and job readiness, life skill and social wellness programming to middle school and high schoolers on the West End.