Joshua Pastore Discusses Snowboarding Safety

In 2007, Joshua Pastore completed an intensive class and became a certified snowboarding instructor. Much of the class revolved around snowboarding safety. This makes perfect sense. Snowboarding may be incredibly fun, and it may be an excellent way to enjoy the slopes on a cold winter day, but the sport is far from benign. Snowboarders who do not follow the rules do so at their peril, and they can face serious injuries as a result.

For example, according to Joshua Pastore, many resorts don't require snowboarders to wear helmets. The resorts might strongly recommend that riders wear helmets, but many people choose to ignore those recommendations and they head down the slopes at break-neck speed with nothing to protect their heads from injury. This can be an incredibly dangerous idea. Snowboarders, properly strapped into their boards, can fall backwards onto the back of their heads, and a fall like this can be deadly. Head injuries can also occur during a turn or when one rider collides with another. It's not a risk worth taking, according to Joshua Pastore, so he always recommends that riders wear helmets.

Wrist injuries are also common in people who are new to snowboarding, as they may attempt to break a fall with their hands held at 90 degree angles from the body. This sort of hand placement during a fall can result in a broken arm or wrist, according to Joshua Pastore, and those injuries can be incredibly painful. To help reduce this risk, many manufacturers include wrist guards in the gloves they sell to snowboarders. These guards can significantly reduce the risk of injury, and Joshua Pastore recommends them for his students.

And finally, snowboards aren't designed to pop off in a fall. Instead, when a person falls, that person's feet stay locked in a stable position while the body continues to move. These falls, if done improperly, can place great strain on the knees and ankles. Some people have even broken bones after falls like this. In order to help his students, Joshua Pastore sometimes asks them to practice falling, over and over, just to ensure that they know the steps to take to protect their knees and ankles.

Snowboarding can be dangerous, but fear of injury shouldn't keep people from trying the sport. Taking a course with a qualified instructor like Joshua Martin Pastore can help aspiring snowboarders to tackle the sport safely.

Joshua Martin Pastore Discusses the Benefits of Key Club

When he was in high school, Joshua Martin Pastore was encouraged to enroll in as many after-school activities as possible. High school counselors often provide advice just like this to students who hope to attend prestigious colleges and universities. By focusing on their extracurricular activities, these students are learning new skills, and they're adding value to their education. When college application time rolls around, they'll have valuable experience to highlight in their essays.

Out of all of the activities he performed, Joshua Martin Pastore may have received the most benefit from Key Club. Here, he was given a chance to hone his organizational skills, and he was encouraged to help others at the same time.

Key Club is a high school organization sponsored by Kiwanis International. Key Club participants are encouraged to "lead through service," looking for volunteer activities that can directly contribute to the health and well being of children and adolescents. The clubs are run at the local level, meaning that each club has its own funding and its own board, but the clubs are expected to focus on philanthropy above all else.

In his experience with Key Club, Joshua Martin Pastore was asked to coordinate volunteer activities with a health care center. He had to look for volunteers, develop a schedule for those volunteers and ensure that they adhered to that schedule. It was a difficult task, to be sure, but Joshua Martin Pastore learned a significant amount about the power of staying organized, and the importance of reminding people of their promises. These are tasks that are certain to come in handy when Joshua Martin Pastore enters the workforce.

Through his experience with Key Club, Joshua Martin Pastore also developed a deep and abiding love of volunteering. By donating just a few hours of his time, he found that he could make a big difference in the lives of people in his community. He felt good whenever he gave back in this way, and as he has progressed through his college career, Joshua Martin Pastore has continued to volunteer on a regular basis.

Building Sets With Joshua Martin Pastore

When Joshua Martin Pastore first became involved with the Ridgefield Theater Barn in 2005, he considered himself an ASPIRING actor. Over the next two years, he would audition for and capture roles in musicals and comedy shows, and the heat of the lights and the sound of the audience seemed to spur him on to greater and greater excellence on stage. But while the actors and actresses often get the most credit for the success of a play, there's much more to a production than simple acting. In fact, behind-the-scenes players make a huge contribution to the success of a play. This is a lesson that Joshua Martin Pastore would learn on a first-hand basis.

In 2007, rather than auditioning for a role in the play and preparing to perform on stage, Joshua Martin Pastore chose a completely different role altogether. This time, he would work to build the sets that make up the background of the play. He would have a hand in almost everything, from building and painting, to lighting, to rigging, to safety. He even had a team of younger students to supervise and keep safe on the job.

Building a set is difficult work, even for someone who has done so for years. Each element must be lightweight and easy to move from place to place. Sets are never permanent, so they must be easily manipulated without the use of heavy tools or machinery. In addition, sets must be durable, so if a door slams or an actor knocks into an element, the whole piece hangs together.

People like Joshua Martin Pastore, who work on sets like this, claim that they never look at plays or movies in quite the same way again. Each time a new scene is unveiled, they find themselves looking at the windows or the floor or the lighting, wondering how it was done and how long it must have taken. It's a complete change of perspective.

As his high school years ended and the college years began, Joshua Martin Pastore found he had less time available for the theatre. Learning lines and building sets both take huge amounts of time, and he found he must devote all of his energy to study. But, the love of the theatre that was firmly planted when he was a boy continues to live with him to this day.

Why Joshua Pastore Believes in Drama Programs

When he was a student in high school, Joshua Pastore developed an abiding passion for the theatre. He enjoyed being on stage, soaking up the spotlight, but he also enjoyed building sets and just being in the presence of a live audience when the curtain went up. It was a visceral feeling, and it's not something Joshua Pastore will ever grow out of. But while plays can be entertaining, they can also be quite instructive and helpful for people who want to have successful careers. In fact, according to Joshua Pastore, his participation in drama programs is likely to be key to his success in the work of business as an adult. To be successful in business, a person must have an inner sense of confidence. People who seem calm and collected are reassuring, and it's easier to work with them, buy from them and trust them. While some people may be born with this sort of confidence, other people can learn it through drama, Joshua Pastore says. Each time they're on stage, they're selling their own skills to an unwilling audience. They must learn to project confidence and likeability. These are skills that will be invaluable in business. In addition, modern business executives are expected to be articulate. They mustn't mumble and mutter, and they absolutely cannot swear or stutter. In the past, people learned these elocution lessons in school as part of their English classes. Now, according to Joshua Pastore, they learn them in their drama classes. By memorizing lines and delivering them well, they master the public speaking skills they'll need in their careers. Participating in a play also means learning the finer points of teamwork. Players can't step on each other's lines, stand in the wrong place, demand attention when it isn't needed or hog the spotlight. They learn to share, and while they could learn this in sports, not all kids do well in sports. Drama provides another venue for those lessons, according to Joshua Pastore. So while plays might seem fun and entertaining, they're also a way to learn valuable skills, says Joshua Pastore, and more kids should be encouraged to participate.

Joshua Martin Pastore Discusses Musical Theater

Joshua Martin Pastore on Musical Theater

In the 1980s and 1990s, many people claimed that musical theatre was dead. Big productions such as "Phantom of the Opera" contained singing, of course, but they also contained very little dancing, and television shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" only used musical numbers to convey irony. It was all too easy for experts to look at these trends and claim that the musical was gone and it was never coming back. Then, a new crop of actors began to appear, and everything started to change. Joshua Martin Pastore has been a direct beneficiary of this movement.

Television shows like "American Idol" began to gain in popularity, and judges begin to talk about the need for modern musical stars to have the so-called "triple threat" of skills: acting, singing and dancing. Suddenly, musicals were back, and it seems that they were truly here to stay.

So it's no surprise that Joshua Martin Pastore, attending high school in the MID 2000s, would be exposed to musical theatre. And when his family discovered that he could act, sing and dance, he was encouraged to audition for roles and perform in a few musical productions. He got his start with a local theatre group in 2005, performing in the group's annual production of "Broadway, Our Way." It was an intoxicating experience for Joshua Martin Pastore, and since he performed well, he felt brave enough to audition for plays in his own high school. He landed roles there in both 2006 and 2007.

Joshua Martin Pastore would never go on to great fame as a musical actor. It's been said that people who do succeed in this career have a significant amount of talent as well as connections needed to promote that talent, and Joshua Martin Pastore's true strengths lie in other areas. But, he continues to have a deep fondness for musical theater. He attends performances in his community whenever he can, and he is an avid promoter of participation in musical theatre. Performing had a huge impact on his life, and Joshua Martin Pastore would love to see other youngsters develop a passion for musical theatre. It's the best way to ensure that the art form doesn't run the risk of dying once more.