Participants Karen Frankel and John Schreiber went to National ME TO WE Day last week. Held in Toronto’s Ricoh Coliseum, over 8000 youth came together to celebrate the power of young people to change the lives of others. You can watch the event on CTV this weekend.

Here are some pics from the event:

The Canadian Tenors

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A Fresh Pack of Gum Blondes is a new exhibition from artist Jason Kronenwald featuring portraits of world famous blondes constructed entirely from chewing gum. Kronenwald, a native of Ontario who resides in Toronto, has been working with gum as an artistic medium since 1996 and has honed his craft to the point where his images come near photorealism in their likeness of his subjects. This show is his second for LE Gallery in Toronto.

All of the portraits are made of 100% chewing gum affixed onto a plywood backing. No paints or dyes are added to gum with all colors and tones coming from the chewed gum itself. Kronenwald smooths the chewed gum onto the backing creating the lifelike skintones and hair colors of his star subjects. The artist uses an enormous variety of gum brands and flavors for his palette, however he prefers not to chew the gum himself unless he has to, having a team of chewers he works with regularly to prepare the medium for him. Once the portrait has been completed in gum, Kronenwald seals it with epoxy resin to preserve it. Subjects cover a cross section of blonde women ranging from the likes of the tabloid trinity of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan to respected politicians like Hillary Clinton (seen after the jump).

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Brigitte Bardot Fine: Top 5 Bardotisms That Got Hot Sex Symbol In Hot Water

Obama Pound: In Historic Moment, White People Exposed To Fist Bump For First Time

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Nicole Hughes:

Get a Job: Top 10 Guides to Finding the Perfect Eco Career

Schwarzenegger Declares Drought in California

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Andy Kondrat:

Barcelona Fines Citizens for Using Drinking Water in Pools and Gardens

Coal Power Plants Waste Two-Thirds of Energy Input

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Jon Popham:

Megabus Expanding to the East Coast

Egyptian Blogger Freed from Prison

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Giulia Rozzi:

Diamonds In The Rough: A Ugandan Hip Hop Revolution

Cluster Bomb Ban

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Gina Telaroli:

Interview with Nina Davenport, Director of Operation Filmmaker

KidZui : Internet for Kids (and Those Young at Heart)

Megabus.com is bringing its highly affordable ground transportation operation to the East Coast of the United States. Starting Sunday the British-founded bus operation began running routes from a New York City hub serving Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Washington DC, Toronto, Atlantic City, NJ, and Buffalo, NY. Megabus is offering online bookings for free for its first week of operations, through June 5th. After that advance online bookings can be as low as $1 for certain routes, with a 50 cent booking fee.

How do they do it? Megabus.com operates under the same model as low cost European air carriers such as EasyJet and RyanAir, with the earlier the ticket booking the cheaper the fare is. Also, the fare is just the start, with additional charges being levied for various extras on the bus. However there are free services on the bus as well including video and WiFi starting June 9th.

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On March 10th, the 2008 International Documentary Challenge wrapped up their timed filmmaking competition! 122 filmmakers from 16 different countries participated in the challenge ” to make a documentary film in five days. Each documentary filmmaker was assigned a different genre, including music, politics and character studies, all embodying the theme of “Change.”

The 2007 Doc Challenge was a big success, with ten of the twelve filmmaking teams attending the sold out screening in Toronto. Additional screenings took place this year at the Northwest Film Forum and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Check out what some of the filmmakers had to say about their experience from last year’s event.

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