Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray are lifelong friends who have “pushed” the boundaries of friendship.

Justin, who helps and inspires others with disabilities through his website, The-Disabled-Traveler.com, has a rare, progressive autoimmune disorder that’s left him wheelchair-bound. But it hasn’t stopped his passion for travel.

“I’ve found that traveling is THE BEST way to experience other cultures, forge new and exciting relationships, and gain a greater understanding of yourself,” says Justin. “Yes, there are many challenges that come with that but, in the end, the experiences and memories my family and I now share has made all of my efforts worth it!” In the last 20 years, Jason has visited Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Canada, as well as many states throughout the U.S., Hawaii, and Alaska. Justin, who lives in Meridian, Idaho, with his wife and three children, has dedicated his life to sharing practical “how-to” information with other disabled travelers.

Patrick is a registered nurse and Program Manager for St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise, Idaho. Patrick and Justin were born just one day apart and have been best friends for more than 38 years. “We travel together; we live life together through our ups and downs; and most importantly, will do anything for each other,” says Patrick.

photo, IllPushYou.com

When Justin saw a travel show about hiking the mountainous 500-mile El Camino de Santiago Trail in Spain, he approached Patrick with the idea. Patrick’s immediate response? “I’ll push you!” Watch a beautiful, inspiring, 6-minute video about the journey to the journey (warning: hankie alert!):

And because they believe “there’s more to life than just sitting around complaining about the challenges we all face,” they partnered with a documentary crew who came along on their journey, capturing “every joy, struggle, challenge, landscape, and the AMAZING people we met along the way!” They’re now raising funds to finish and distribute their film at IllPushYou.com with the goal of inspiring others to realize that nothing is impossible.

“Our journey showed that if you jump out in faith, then with the help of community and with love, amazing things happen.”

Earlier this year, spurred by proposals to build new marine mammal parks in the country, India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests banned the use of dolphins as public entertainment, citing:

“Cetaceans [dolphins, whales, and porpoises] in general are highly intelligent and sensitive, and various scientists who have researched dolphin behavior have suggested that their unusually high intelligence as compared to other animals means that dolphins should be seen as “non-human persons” and as such, should have their own specific rights and it is morally unacceptable to keep them captive for entertainment purposes.”
– Ministry of Environment and Forests, India

India has a history of making legal commitments to the animal world. In 1976, it not only added an article to its constitution “to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country,” but the article also instructed the public to “have compassion for living creatures.” In one court case about the rights of circus animals, the High Court of Kerala said, “If humans are entitled to fundamental rights, why not animals?”

India is the fourth country to ban captive cetacean shows, joining Costa Rica, Hungary, and Chile.

Scientists have studied dolphins extensively and have concluded that they exhibit self-awareness, use tools, cooperate to solve tasks, recognize themselves in mirrors, and even possibly communicate to each other using individual names.

In 2011, the American Association for the Advancement of Science authored a “Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans”:

1. Every individual cetacean has the right to life.
2. No cetacean should be held in captivity or servitude; be subject to cruel treatment; or be removed from their natural environment.
3. All cetaceans have the right to freedom of movement and residence within their natural environment.
4. No cetacean is the property of any State, corporation, human group or individual.
5. Cetaceans have the right to the protection of their natural environment.
6. Cetaceans have the right not to be subject to the disruption of their cultures.
7. The rights, freedoms and norms set forth in this Declaration should be protected under international and domestic law.

“This is a huge win for dolphins,” says Ric O’Barry of the Earth Island Institute’s Dolphin Project. “Not only has the Indian government spoken out against cruelty, they have contributed to an emerging and vital dialogue about the ways we think about dolphins: as thinking, feeling beings rather than pieces of property to make money off of.”

Sign the declaration and join a global call to have rights formally declared for cetaceans at cetaceanrights.org.

Jeans designed by lions, tigers, and bears?

Oh my!

Just watch …

Well, I’m sorry to say that you won’t be able to buy a pair of “Zoo Jeans” any time soon, but I couldn’t resist telling you about this unique idea for “giving back” devised by the Mineko Club, a group of volunteers who joined forces to support the Kamine Zoo in Hitachi City, Japan.

“Zoo Jeans are the only jeans on earth designed by dangerous animals,” boasts the project’s website. “We first take their favorite playthings—old tires and giant rubber balls—and wrap them in sheets of denim. Then we return them to the animals and let nature run its course. The animals roar, gnaw, and claw at their toys, and when they’re done, we gather up what’s left of the damaged denim. It is from this unique fabric that we make the jeans. So, the wild rips and tears in Zoo Jeans have been created with pure animal instinct.”

How chic is that?

Unfortunately, for those of us who would love to sport these killer knickers (I mean, who wouldn’t want to brag about the tiger bites in her jeans?), the three original pairs were auctioned on Japan’s Yahoo Auction site earlier this month, raking in over $1000 per pair.

Photo by Keven Law via Wikiemedia Commons

All profits from the sale are slated to support Kamine Zoo’s efforts to preserve the captive animals’ habitats as well as the World Wildlife Fund’s campaigns to conserve lions, tigers, and bears in the wild.

If I hear of a second Zoo Jean sale, though, I’ll be sure to share!

horses? That’s right. Miniature horses are the newest trend in guide animals.

Photo by DanDee Shots via Wikimedia Commons

Guide horses have an average lifespan of 30 years, making them a good alternative to dogs in some cases. Although they necessarily live outside the house, they have superb eyesight and traffic instincts that make them good companions for sight-challenged rural folks.

The idea hatched in 1998, when Janet and Don Burleson of Kittrell, North Carolina, were riding horses in New York City and Janet noticed how traffic-savvy the horses were. At home, they had a miniature horse, Twinkie, who followed them around like a dog and even rode in their minivan. She thought to train Twinkie, and has since developed a rigorous, eight-month training program that results in the little helpers being able to go into shopping centers and grocery stores … virtually, everything a guide dog can do. They’re even taught to respond to 23 voice commands.

What’s next … miniature Jerseys?? Come on Etta Jane, I know you can do it!

Wiki.

Lest you think “leaks,” let me clarify …

“Wiki” is the Wikimedia Foundation (nope, no connection to Edward Snowden). In case you haven’t had the opportunity to experience its wonders, Wiki offers a range of services, including Wikipedia, an exhaustive encyclopedia that is free to use for any purpose without the clutter of advertising, and Wikimedia Commons, a vast collection of images that are also free to use (you may notice that I use them in my Raising Jane entries).

Just look at the gorgeous photo I found on the front page of the Commons a few days ago …

Photo by Jorge Royan via Wikimedia Commons

Are you beginning to understand my wild affection?

According to the Foundation, Wikipedia contains more than 32 million volunteer-authored articles in over 287 languages, and is visited by more than 490 million people every month, making it one of the most popular sites in the world.

“Wiki is a collaborative creation that has been added to and edited by millions of people during the past 12 years: anyone can edit it, at any time,” explains Executive Director Lila Tretikov. “It has become the largest collection of shared knowledge in human history. The people who support it are united by their love of learning, their intellectual curiosity, and their awareness that we know much more together than any of us does alone.”

I can vouch for that—I’m happy to support Wiki financially because I strongly believe in keeping this incredible resource free (and ad-free) for all. So I encourage you to donate, too. Check out Wiki’s Ways to Give site to learn how you can support the hardworking volunteers who have revived and revolutionized the concept of “encyclopedia.”

Photo by Joi Ito via Wikimedia Commons

The Village Bicycle Project is changing lives in Africa. VBP is a non-profit corporation founded right here in Moscow, Idaho, by David Peckham in 1999, with the goal of making bikes affordable and sustainable for people in remote areas of some of the poorest places on Earth. In Africa, a bicycle can make all the difference. Riding a bike is four times faster than walking, the only choice for millions of Africans. Improved mobility is a key to reducing poverty, and in Africa, a bicycle can take a person from poverty to prosperity.

Meet Harriet …

photo courtesy Village Bicycle Project

Harriet lives in Ghana’s Brong-Ahafo Region. She now rides her VBP bike to collect water from the village standpipe. Each of those jerry cans weighs 40 lbs when full, and previously, Harriet would carry each can on her head, one at a time. Now she can carry two on the back of her bicycle.

“I had long wanted to bring bikes to Africa,” says Peckham. “When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon, it surprised me there were hardly any bikes. Bikes are so practical for moving people economically. They’re easy to work on, environmentally friendly, a transportation no-brainer in poor countries. I wanted to do something enduring, and knew that education and working within the market were key components of sustainability. I thought I’d try to send one shipping container, contributing a few hundred bikes, and try teaching a few dozen farmers a little about bike repair. I was also convinced that the best way to teach Africans was to engage African teachers, in this case, bike mechanics … We began working with Peace Corps Volunteers, scattered in small villages throughout Ghana. Gradually, word spread about the program that brought bikes and training to villages, and by 2007, VBP had reached all four corners of the country.”

To date:

• 85,000 bicycles have been shipped to Ghana and Sierra Leone
• 14,000 people have learned to repair and maintain their bikes
• 50,000 specialized bike tools have been distributed in 14 African countries

The Project makes a special effort to get bicycles to women. “In 2008-09, 1,150 girls and women received bikes in our programs, over one third of the total participants,” says Peckham. “However, we found that some women didn’t know how to ride and weren’t learning quickly. If a woman gets a bicycle and cannot ride it, she is unlikely to maintain control over the use of the bicycle.” So VBP developed a program in which a female leader teaches riding skills along with repair skills in a safe, encouraging setting.

Check out this 2-minute video about the Village Bicycle Project:

1. Donate your bike.
2. Donate your time.
3. Donate your dollars:

• $30 provides a bike and repair training to people in Ghana or Sierra Leone
• $50 provides 6 sets of the 5 most popular bike tools to village mechanics
• $120 sponsors Learn-to-Ride programs for Sierra Leone schoolgirls
• $600 sponsors a one-day workshop with repair training for 20 people who receive discounted bikes
• $1,000 helps with everything we do at VBP, bringing bikes and bike repair skills to people who need transportation to improve their lives
• $6,000 pays the shipping costs for a container of 500 bikes

To find out how you can donate your bike, your time, or your money to support bicycles in Africa, visit VillageBicycleProject.org.

“I Love My Farmers Market” is a summer-long celebration sponsored by American Farmland Trust.

American Farmland Trust is the only national non-profit dedicated to saving America’s farmland (5 million acres to date) and keeping family farmers on their land. The land that family farmers cultivate to grow fresh food for our families is disappearing from under their feet. One acre of farmland has been lost to unchecked development every minute of every day in the U.S. At that rate, all the farms at your farmers’ market could be wiped out in less than an hour.

Farmers’ markets provide a vital link from farmers to shoppers. AFT’s I Love My Farmers Market Celebration works to raise national awareness about farmers’ markets. Participants pledge dollars they intend to spend at their farmers’ markets each week, then the Top 100 most celebrated markets will receive a special logo honoring their achievement, AFT’s “No Farms, No Food” gear, and recognition on the Celebration’s website.

Pledges can be cast at LoveMyFarmersMarket.org. And, if you make a donation to American Farmland Trust during the I Love My Farmers Market Celebration, AFT board member Tom Gallo will match it dollar-for-dollar, making your gift go twice as far to help family farmers.

Here’s my husband, Nick, and son, Brian, in 1996 manning our Farmers’ Market booth in 1996. Markets are such a great place to launch your farm dreams—mine were a tad elaborate as it turns out:)

Nick and Brian at the Moscow Farmers’ Market, circa 1996.