Latest news with #Landreth
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
YMCA raising awareness and supporting Water Safety
HONOLULU (KHON2) – It was last year when Gov. Josh Green had established Hawaii Water Safety Day. Honolulu park video surveillance could expand This year, we are acknowledging it once again because we have very uncomfortable statistics. Hawaii has the second highest drowning rates in the nation. Drowning is the leading cause of death for Hawaii children 1-15 years of age. So, to learn more about this and to see what is taking place to improve these stats, we are hear at YMCA Nuuanu branch with Leigh Ann Landreth, VP of Marketing & Healthy Living and Aquatics Expert at YMCA of Honolulu. Being that this is Hawaii Water Safety Day, what is YMCA doing to help to bring awareness to this and to hopefully better the statistics? 'Well, as you know, water safety is a year around priority but during national and local water safety awareness month, its a great time to elevate and uplift this topic,' says Landreth. 'Another statistic is that nation wide, 88% of child drownings happen with an adult nearby. And in response to that, YMCA launched its 'Phones Down, Eyes Up' campaign. You can find out more at We are asking folks to go to the website, take the pledge, and when you do, you get to access to free resources including Water Watcher badges as well free graphics for your phone screen lock to just help remind parents to stay vigilant around the water.'Bringing back to swimming lessons, I didn't know that YMCA was the one who created group swimming lessons back in 1909 and you continue to do that. So, what are you doing today? 'That's right, we have been teaching people how to swim for over 100 years now at the YMCA,' says Landreth. 'We offer swim lessons for ages 6 months and up and financial assistance is available. People can find out more and sign up for a swim lesson at I understand, too, that there has been some recent donations which will help financially for some families, but tell us a little bit about this because its good to know that through negative circumstances, something positive comes from it. 'Absolutely, so the YMCA offers a unique program and its called 'Safety Around Water,' the SAW program and that program is designed to, within 5 lessons, help a child know what to do when they fall in the water unexpectedly and the skills include floating and getting back to the wall safely,' says Landreth. 'So, we did have a very generous donor who came forward to help fund a SAW session right here at our Nuuanu location this summer in July. Unfortunately, this family lost their niece at just 3 years old. Her name is Juliette Ortega and they lost their niece years ago in a drowning accident at her birthday party, so this family just wanted to help prevent that tragedy from happening to other kids by sponsoring a SAW program and to inspire others to make a donation if they are able to do so.' Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Click here to learn more about Hawaii Water Safety Day. Click here to learn what other opportunities and services are available here at the YMCA. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Literacy professor wins award for service
Apr. 15—When UTPB Assistant Professor of Literacy Shelly Landreth isn't teaching, she's busy giving back to the community. Her work both at the University of Texas Permian Basin and in Odessa have earned her the President's Award for Service. Although she knew she had been nominated, she didn't find out she'd won until the night of the event. They read a little biography and she thought some of it sounded familiar. "It was really exciting and such an honor to be recognized in that way," Landreth said. The literacy program is small, so she teaches a wide variety of literacy courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Landreth has been at UTPB for six years but was in public education for 23 years, even serving as a librarian. She has a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in reading from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Landreth also has a master's degree in library science and a doctorate in literacy, both from Sam Houston. "When I moved into higher ed in 2019 it was a big transition. I was really naive about a lot of that. ... I've kind of learned over time how that works, but it's a different world for sure," Landreth said. Her background is in secondary education. Before moving into higher education, she spent a number of years as a middle school and high school English language arts and reading teacher. In higher education, she has taught a little bit of everything. "I teach children's and young adult literature courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level," Landreth said. She also has worked closely with UTPB's teacher residents in Ector and Midland County ISDs. Some of her community service is connected to her background as a librarian. She is on the Friends of the Ector County Library Board and served as the Texas Library Association District 9 chair for a couple years. That district goes up to Lubbock, down to this area. "In that capacity, we hosted the District 9 fall meeting a couple of years ago," at the Midland County Public Library downtown branch, she said. For the last three years, Landreth has served on the Texas Library Association Topaz Committee, a non-fiction reading list. "I read a lot of non-fiction the last three years as a member of that committee," Landreth said. She's on the Service Learning Advisory Committee at UTPB and they do a lot of service learning projects with students. "Dr. Tara Wilson, my colleague ... kind of heads up the Service Learning Advisory Committee, and she sort of encouraged me to incorporate service learning into my coursework. ... What it does is it connects what they're learning in the classroom to some type of service," Landreth said. This fall, she taught a children's literature course and wanted to connect what she was doing with her students to the STEM Academy. They had a Bluebonnet contest at STEM. Several ECISD campuses had the contest previously, but STEM Academy hadn't participated. Landreth was teaching her students to read aloud effectively and so they read Bluebonnet books aloud to third through fifth grade students there. She was able to go with them and coach them. A native of La Grange, she spent most of her years teaching in rural areas before moving here. When she was a young teacher, Landreth never dreamed she would be teaching at a university. She said her professors had a huge impact on her and somewhere along the line, she began wondering about going into higher education. "My husband actually encouraged me to consider going back for a doctorate, but I really didn't know what for and I wasn't really interested so much in educational leadership, being a principal, superintendent, that kind of thing, because I consider my home the classroom. "That's my favorite place in all of education, is in a classroom with students. ... In exploring, I found a literacy degree at Sam Houston State University. I went back to Sam Houston to work on my doctorate while I was working as a teacher in a district," Landreth said. That's what led her thoughts to going into teacher education. Sometimes she stops and thinks how lucky she is. "You get caught up in all busyness of your day and all the meetings and all these things you have to do, and you can forget. But sometimes I ... stop and just think, wow, I get to work with people who are going to be in classrooms, teachers, future teachers. ... It's an amazing thing. It's very humbling, because I think teaching is one of the most important things a person can do," Landreth said. It's very challenging, as well. She tells her pre-service teachers it's not easy especially in the current climate in schools. "I feel like it's become increasingly more challenging, and that's evident in the number of teachers who leave the field. However, I tell them that if you're really passionate about it and you really want to do it, it's the most rewarding career you can have. Every day you walk into a classroom, you have the potential to impact lives for better or worse ... We need people who are impacting lives for better. ... While it is challenging, and there were times in my career where I thought, What am I doing?" Landreth said. She could do something else and make more money, but she's in year 29 of her teaching career. "And I would not have made a different choice. ... I still have some good years ahead of me, I think, to continue to make an impact," Landreth said. Clark Moreland, UTPB Lecturer of English and director of The Heimmermann Center for Engaged Teaching, said Landreth was the perfect choice for the 2025 UTPB President's Service Award. "She is a key driver for many of our service learning initiatives, leading her students to volunteer at local libraries and schools to help bolster our community's literacy rates. She is also part of our Open Educational Resources leadership team, supporting faculty who are creating more affordable and relevant course materials. She's got that can-do, wildcatter spirit that is representative not only of our faculty but of West Texas as a whole. We're lucky to have her on our team!" Moreland said.
Los Angeles Times
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Oscars flashback: Animation — and Pixar — have an ‘Incredibles' night
Starting in 2002, feature-length animated films were included in awards season in the same way their short animated film compatriots had been since 1932 — with their own dedicated Academy Awards category. The new category was a breakthrough at the time, though in the years since it has also been controversial: Does having a dedicated animated feature category exclude worthy films from being included in the best picture discussion? That discussion has swirled annually since the late 2010s — but it wasn't part of the discourse on Feb. 27, 2005, when the 77th Academy Awards were held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles and 'The Incredibles' took home Pixar's second of a series of Oscar wins in the category. Director-writer Brad Bird won for 'Incredibles' with his first nomination. It was Pixar's second film to earn the feature Oscar; 'Finding Nemo' had won the previous year. Bird was also nominated for the original screenplay but didn't win; in 2008, he would win again in the feature category with 'Ratatouille.' Pixar films have won 11 of the animated feature film awards that have been given out. Disney would go on to acquire Pixar in 2006. Accepting the award from Robin Williams, Bird (who wore an oval-shaped 'Incredibles' themed pin on his lapel) noted, 'I don't know what's more frightening, being watched by millions of people, or the hundreds of people that are going to be annoyed with me tomorrow for not mentioning them tonight.' He added that 'Animation is about creating the illusion of life, and you can't create it if you don't have one,' then went on to thank his wife and children. There were only two other nominees in the category, each on their first and (thus far only) nomination: Bill Damaschke ('Shark Tale') and Andrew Adamson ('Shrek 2'). 'Shrek' was the first winner in this category in 2002, with the award given to Aron Warner. For the first 50 years of animated short films receiving Oscars, the awards were given to the producers of the films, but current rules give the award to the person most directly responsible for the creation of the film — usually the director. In 2005, animated short film winner Chris Landreth wasn't just the director of the documentary 'Ryan,' he was also a co-star. The film focused on Landreth's interview with Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who'd been nominated for his own Oscar in 1970 for 'Walking,' and who fell on hard times in later years. Landreth, who had also been nominated in this category in 1996, dedicated the award to Larkin. 'I am here tonight because of the grace and humility of one guy watching from Montreal,' he said. Larkin died in 2007. The other nominees represented a wide spectrum of animation styles and largely leaned on humor and animals — or both. 'Gopher Broke' by Jeff Fowler and Tim Miller looked at the frustration of a hungry, ambitious gopher; it was their first and so far only nomination. Bill Plympton received his second nomination (his first came in 1988) for 'Guard Dog,' which provided insight to the canine mind and why some dogs bark at everything. 'Lorenzo' was nominated for director Mike Gabriel (who co-wrote the script with Joe Grant) and producer Baker Bloodworth and was about a cat whose tail develops a personality of its own. It was their first and only nomination. 'Birthday Boy' took a different turn, looking at a young boy during the Korean War who roams his town to collect the remains of battles around him. The nomination went to first-timers Sejong Park (writer-director) and Andrew Gregory (producer).
