question: This week is National Volunteer Week, a time for the Canadian Red Cross to recognize our dedicated volunteers who devote their time and talents from coast to coast. Over the course of the week we will use this blog to share stories about our volunteers and the amazing work they do --- a small part of the outstanding individuals across the country.

Take Saskatchewan for example. Last year that province was hit by wide-spread flooding, a hurricane and forest fires. Canadian Red Cross staff and volunteers went to work right away and helped more than 2,100 adults and 775 children recover the basic necessities of life.

It's important to share stories from volunteers to truly appreciate what they do. Christine Hoffman is a Disaster Response Volunteer in Canadian Red Cross in Saskatchewan. She's a _ Red Crosser for about 16 years. Still nothing could have prepared her for the call she took in the Recovery Center last year in response to flooding in Maple Greek. This story is best told in her own words. This is what she said:

"I will never forget the first phone call I took in the Recovery Centre. A young man called asking what services Red Cross was offering in town. As we were talking, he told me he had a rope in his backyard but he thought he would be using it for other reasons. _ I told him to come to see us so we could work together on a plan to improve his situation. He came in a little while later. Nearly two hours later he left standing straight up with tear- filled eyes. He thanked me for convincing him to come in. His home had been destroyed, but together we put together a plan and he was eventually able to move back into his own home."

During National Volunteer Week 2011, let's thank Christine, and the many other volunteers like her. Thanks for making us proud!
1. Who celebrates National Volunteer Week?
2. Where will the put stories during the week?
3. What will they be about?
4. Why is it important to do this?
5. Who is one volunteer in particular that they would like to thank?
6. How long has she been helping?
7. What's her title?
8. where?
9. What happened there last year?
10. How many adults were assisted?
11. How many children?
12. What year was she thanked?
****
answer: 1. Canadian Red Cross
2. This blog
3. stories about our volunteers
4. to recognize our volunteers
5. Christine Hoffman
6. 16 years
7. a Disaster Response Volunteer
8. in Canadian Red Cross in Saskatchewan.
9. flooding in Maple Greek
10. One
11. unknown
12. 2011

question: Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. With around 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, it is the largest college in either of the Oxbridge universities by number of undergraduates. By combined student numbers, it is second to Homerton College, Cambridge.

Members of Trinity have won 32 Nobel Prizes out of the 91 won by members of Cambridge University, the highest number of any college. Five Fields Medals in mathematics were won by members of the college (of the six awarded to members of British universities) and one Abel Prize was won.

Trinity alumni include six British prime ministers (all Tory or Whig/Liberal), physicists Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr, mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, the poet Lord Byron, philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell (whom it expelled before reaccepting), and Soviet spies Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt.

Two members of the British royal family have studied at Trinity and been awarded degrees as a result: Prince William of Gloucester and Edinburgh, who gained an MA in 1790, and Prince Charles, who was awarded a lower second class BA in 1970. Other royal family members have studied there without obtaining degrees, including King Edward VII, King George VI, and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.
1. What kind of school is this?
2. A constituent of what?
3. What is the name of the school?
4. Has anyone important attended there?
5. Any scientists?
6. Like who?
7. Any literary geniuses?
8. What about politicians?
9. Have any members of royalty studied there?
10. Who was the most recent one to get a degree?
11. What degree did he get?
12. When?
13. Who else from that family got a degree?
14. When did he get his degree?
15. How many total students are there?
16. What is the one school with more students?
****
answer: 1. a constituent college
2. the University of Cambridge in England
3. Trinity College
4. yes
5. yes
6. physicists Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr,
7. the poet Lord Byron
8. six British prime ministers
9. yes
10. Prince Charles
11. a lower second class BA
12. in 1970
13. Prince William of Gloucester and Edinburgh
14. A MA
15. 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 180 fellows
16. Homerton College, Cambridge

question: On a busy Friday morning in Manhattan, nine pedestrians suffered bullet or fragment wounds after police unleashed a hail of gunfire at a man wielding a .45 caliber pistol who had just killed a former co-worker.

The officers unloaded 16 rounds in the shadow of the Empire State Building at a disgruntled former apparel designer, killing him after he engaged in a gunbattle with police, authorities said.

Three passersby sustained direct gunshot wounds, while the remaining six were hit by fragments, according to New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. All injuries were caused by police, he said Saturday.

One officer shot nine rounds and another shot seven.

Police identified the gunman as Jeffrey Johnson, 58, who was apparently laid off from his job as a designer of women's accessories at Hazan Import Co. last year.

Johnson, who served in the U.S. Coast Guard in the mid-1970s, had two rounds left in his pistol. It holds eight, Kelly said.

Police identified the slain co-worker as Steven Ercolino, 41, who had apparently filed a prior complaint against his assailant, claiming that he thought Johnson would eventually try to kill him.

Both men had filed harassment complaints against each other in April 2011, Kelly added.

Ercolino was listed as a vice president of sales at Hazan Import Corp., according to his LinkedIn profile.

"It's not something that should happen to a loving person like that," said his brother, Paul. "He's going to be so missed by everybody. He was a light of so many lives."
1. Who was the gunman in this story?
2. How old was he?
3. What happened at his clothing designer job?
4. How many of his co-workers did Johnson kill?
5. When the officers opened fire, how many rounds did they unleash/
6. What city did this happen in?
7. What famous building was it near?
8. How many innocent people were injured by the police?
9. How many were shot?
10. What happened to the other six?
11. Said who?
12. Who's he?
13. How many officers fired on Johnson?
14. What had the co-worker Johnson killed done to anger him?
15. Had the co-worker predicted he'd be killed by Johnson?
16. Had both men complained formally about each other?
17. Who was co-worker that was murdered?
18. What was his position at work?
19. What kind of gun did Johnson have that day?
20. How many rounds were still in the gun after the incident was over?
****
answer:
1. Jeffrey Johnson
2. 58
3. he was laid off from his job
4. One
5. 16
6. Manhattan
7. Empire State Building
8. nine
9. Three
10. they were hit by fragments
11. Ray Kelly
12. New York Police Commissioner
13. Two
14. unknown
15. Yes
16. Yes
17. Steven Ercolino
18. vice president of sales
19. .45 caliber pistol
20. two