Thought for the Day

“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.”
-Audrey Hepburn

Peter Pan

“Now, think of the happiest things. It’s the same as having wings.”

Today’s date in history marks the monumental event of the release of the film Peter Pan. In Edwardian London in the neighborhood of Bloomsbury, George and Mary Darling’s three children are visited in the nursery by a magical boy named Peter Pan. Peter teaches them to fly with the help of his pixie friend, Tinker Bell, and takes them with him to the island of Never Land.

At the end of the film, we look out of the Darling’s window, along with the children’s parents, and see what appears to be a pirate ship in the clouds. Mr. Darling, recognizes it from his own childhood, as it breaks up into clouds itself.

Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated film  produced by Walt Disney and based on the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up by J.M. Barrie.  It is the fourteenth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series  and was originally released on February 5, 1953 by RKO Pictures.

“Second star to the right and straight on till morning.”

7-Year-Old Boy Raises $200,000 for Haiti

Seven-year-old Charlie Simpson has raised more than $195,000 for the Haiti earthquake.

Money raised by Simpson will go towards UNICEF’s Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal which will provide water, sanitation, education, nutrition as well as supporting child protection.

Simpson from Fulham, West London, had only hoped to raise $800 for UNICEF’s earthquake appeal by cycling eight kilometers (five miles) around a local park.

“My name is Charlie Simpson. I want to do a sponsored bike ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives,” said Simpson on his JustGiving page, a fundraising site which launched his efforts. “I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti,” he said. And with that simple call, messages of support flooded the site.

More donations began pouring in after the story caught the attention of the British media – with many cheering Simpson past the £100,000 mark. Even the British Prime, Minister Gordon Brown, is spreading the message. His “Downing Street” Twitter alias said: “Amazed by response to the great fundraising efforts of 7-yr-old Charlie Simpson for the people of Haiti.”

David Bull, UNICEF UK executive director, described Simpson’s efforts as “very bold and innovative…On behalf of the many children in Haiti, I thank Charlie for his effort.”

Source: www.wyclefjean.wordpress.com

Escaping Through Education

"I'm going to be the first one in my family to get a secondary education." -Chancey

A high school honor student and the NFL’s highest-paid defensive back stroll down the destitute streets of Skid Row. Seventeen-year-old Kenneth Chancey is giving a tour to Nnamdi Asomugha, Oakland Raiders’ All-Pro cornerback worth $45 million, showing the NFL star the streets that he and his sister used to walk to get to school while living in a Skid Row homeless shelter. Prostitutes, addicts and drug dealers scatter.

It is Kenneth’s inner strength and his love for education that have brought together this high school class president and NFL star. “The things he’s been through are so big and so severe — they were threatening our lives and throwing things at us on Skid Row” Asomugha said later. But it doesn’t bother him. “His potential meter is at 1,000 right now.”

Even while Kenneth lived on Skid Row, he dreamed of attending Harvard to become a neurosurgeon. When Asomugha saw Kenneth’s story on CNN, he wanted to help. He runs a foundation, the Asomugha College Tour for Scholars that takes talented inner-city kids on tours of college campuses they otherwise would never be able to see. He’s helped get 25 teens into college over the last four years. “I’m thankful to be able to give back,” Asomugha said.

Asomugha came from a family where education was stressed from day one. He remembers asking his mom as a boy, “Can I have some ice cream?” “No,” she responded. “You haven’t finished your homework.” “I’d say, ‘but I’m 3!’” Asomugha’s sister is a pediatrician, his mother holds a doctorate. Two other siblings have secondary degrees. The football star, who is the highest-paid defensive back in NFL history, has a degree in finance from the University of California-Berkeley.

On this day, he’s come to tell Kenneth that he will be among the 16 students traveling in the spring to visit schools in Washington, D.C., a week long all expenses paid trip.  Asomugha is hoping that Obama might be willing to meet up with them at some point during this special trip. Hours before the Skid Row tour, Asomugha traveled to Hollywood’s Helen Bernstein High School, where Kenneth is a starting running back in his senior year. They met at the school’s football stadium, where Asomugha told Kenneth in person.

Kenneth is energized. “I’m going to be the first one in my family to get a secondary education,” he told Asomugha. “And everyone will follow you,” his father added.

Kenneth spent his sixth-grade year living in a van with his mother and stepfather. His sister once was beaten up by someone who wanted her shirt. Kenneth was held up at gunpoint for his laptop. He refused to hand it over because his grandmother bought it for him.  Outside Kenneth’s earshot, the NFL star talked about how the teen is an inspiration, doing all the right things to achieve greatness in life. “You don’t hear about guys like Kenneth,” Asomugha said. “When you have your back against the wall and you’re trying to fight and there are so many things — so many obstacles — against you but you’re still keeping your head above the water like he’s doing … the sky’s the limit.”

On the tour at Skid Row, Kenneth took Asomugha to the shelter’s rooftop. It’s a million-dollar view of the Los Angeles skyline. It’s where Kenneth studied. It’s also where he learned his biggest lesson: to always keep his head up. The student and the football player leaned over the building’s ledge. Down below, drug deals were being made. “Anytime you look down over the ledge, you start to see the negative,” Asomugha said. “When you keep your head up, you’re seeing all the positive.”

To watch the CNN coverage of the original and follow-up video visit: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/06/24/homeless.to.harvard/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

http://us.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2009/11/26/gutierrez.nfl.homeless.teen.cnn

Texting Brings Aid for Haiti

Cell-phone text messaging is being used to help victims of the deadly Haiti quake in probably the fastest way possible. Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean has helped raise more than $1 million in a joint effort with the Give on the Go campaign, according to the Los Angeles Times. The American Red Cross said it had brought in more than $8 million using the same technique.  “This is the first time there has been a major disaster when this type of service has been widely available,” says Yéle Haiti’s executive director, Hugh Locke, whose nonprofit will use the funds to send nutrition bars, candles, hand-cranked flashlights and blankets to Haiti on two FedEx planes Friday.

The technique for texting a donation is pretty fast and simple: Enter a five- or six-digit code into your cell phone, along with a single word in the body of the text, such as Haiti. The donation amount is added to your next phone bill.

“Our goal is to raise $1 million per day for the sufferers of this catastrophe,” the chairman of the Miami-based Give on the Go campaign, Matt McKenna, told the L.A. Times.  Jean, through his Twitter account, encouraged his followers to donate $5 to Yéle Haiti by sending a text message of “Yéle” to 501501, with the $5 being charged to the donor’s cell phone bill. “Your money will help with relief efforts,” Jean’s message to his 1.4 million followers read. “They need our help.”

AT&T said $10 donations can be sent to the Red Cross International Relief Fund by typing HAITI and sending it to 90999. A confirmation message will arrive within a few minutes, standard text messaging rates will apply, and 100 percent of the money donated will be passed on to the Red Cross.

Source: www.gnn.com

Boy Paints like Old Master

British Child Prodigy Compared to Picasso

His pictures cost $1500 and have made him over $50,000, there are over 600 people on a waiting list to buy them, and his second exhibition sold out in 14 minutes. What’s even more impressive is that this artist named Kieron Williamson is only seven years old!

It all began almost by accident. Just two years ago, a serious accident forced Kieron’s dad Keith to stop working as an electrician. Keith turned his hobby – collecting art – into an occupation. Confined to an apartment with no garden and surrounded by paintings, Kieron decided to take up drawing. Father and son learning about art together.

At first, Kieron’s art was pretty much like any other five-year-old’s. But he quickly progressed and was soon asking questions that his parents couldn’t answer. “Kieron wanted to know the technicalities of art and how to put a painting together,” says Michelle. One local artist, Carol Ann Pennington, offered him some tips. Since then, he has had lessons with other Norfolk-based painters, including Brian Ryder and his favorite, Tony Garner.

Garner, a professional artist, has taught more than 1,000 adults over the last few decades and Kieron, he says, is head and shoulders above everyone. “He doesn’t say very much, he doesn’t ask very much, he just looks. He’s a very visual learner…It might be a bit naive at the moment but there’s a lovely freshness about what he does. The confidence that this little chap has got – he just doesn’t see any danger.”

Kieron explains he is sticking to landscapes for now, but plans to paint a portrait of his 98-year-old grandmother when she turns 100. What does he think about people spending so much money on his paintings? “Really good.”

Kieron’s tips for landscape painting:

1 “Go on holiday to where you really want to go, and be inspired.”

2 “Start with acrylics, then watercolours, then pastels and then oils.”

3 “When you set out to do a landscape, “start with the sky first, top to bottom.”

4 “When you do distance, it’s lighter, and when you do foreground it comes darker.”

5 “If you’re doing a figure in the winter, do a brown head, leave a small gap, do a blue jacket and brown legs. Then with the gap get a red pastel and do a flick of red so it looks like a scarf.”

6 “Keep on painting.”

Source: www.happynews.com

Starbucks Love Project Promotes Global Sing Along

In support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Starbucks organized a “Global Sing Along” that took place simultaneously around the globe on Monday, December 7th.

At exactly 8:30 a.m. ET on that day, musicians worldwide joined together in a performance of The Beatles classic “All You Need Is Love.” Now, anyone is able to upload their own version of “All You Need Is Love” to the Starbucks Love Project site, with money donated to the Global Fund for each video. This project is the culmination of a partnership between (RED) and Starbucks that started over a year ago. Since that time, seven million daily doses of anti-retroviral AIDS medication have been distributed via the sale of (RED) products through Starbucks.

Here is the finished product:

Bionic Fingers to the Rescue

Frank Hrabanek works with occupational therapist Hannah Hega in Toronto, Dec.2, 2009.

Even though he is 60, one of Frank Hrabanek’s biggest thrills these days is being able to tie his shoelaces by himself.  Until a short time ago, this two-handed task would have been impossible for Hrabanek, who lost all four fingers on his dominant left hand following an industrial accident in June of 2007. But two months ago, he was fitted with a prosthesis featuring what are being called the world’s first bionic fingers.

Like something out of Star Wars, Myoelectric sensors inside the elbow-high prosthesis pick up nerve signals from contracting arm muscles, setting the motorized digits in motion, just like natural fingers.

“I am doing so many things,” said Hrabanek, one of just four Canadians and 30 people worldwide to have the dexterity of their hands restored with ProDigits. “I can use a fork and knife for eating. It’s no problem,” he said with a grin.

Made of a silvery-grey semi-translucent material, the bare ProDigits are certainly robotic in appearance. But Dakpa’s lab is working on a cover that can be slipped over Hrabanek’s prosthesis that will match the shape and coloring of his other hand, right down to the nails. Touch Bionics announced the commercial launch of ProDigits last Tuesday.

Now that Hrabanek is becoming more agile with his bionic hand, he and his wife are looking forward to returning to their favorite hobby – fly fishing.  “That’s the miracle,” said Zlata, Hrabanek’s wife, of the technology that has helped the couple reclaim their lives. “It isn’t any more science fiction; it’s a reality.”

Source: The Canadian Press

Jilted Bride Donates Reception to Seniors

(I missed this good-news story back in October.  It’s just too good not to share.)

Hundreds of senior citizens outside Chicago got an unexpected treat this past Halloween - a free party sponsored by a jilted bride.

Six days before Teanne Harris was to walk down the aisle, her fiancé called off the nuptials. And when Teanne and her mother went to the catering hall to cancel the reception, they were told their deposit was nonrefundable. That’s when Teanne noticed the Asbury Court Retirement Community across the street.

So instead of letting a Halloween-themed wedding reception go to waste, Teanne, 34, decided to move the party to the retirement home.  “I don’t think she knew anybody here, and we don’t get offers like that. So we were thrilled and so were our residents. It came out of the blue,” Mary Eichenfeld, the resident services director of the facility in Des Plaines, IL, told the New York Daily News.

More than 300 residents from the retirement home attended the party. Video from WBBM, the local CBS-TV station, showed seniors, some in masks, some in full costumes, including a cowboy and Raggedy Ann, dancing and enjoying swing music.

Teanne Harris put on a brave face and attended what should have been her wedding reception but declined to speak to reporters. Harris had her bridal bouquet placed in the retirement home’s chapel. “She’s an angel,” Eichenfeld told WBBM.  Ana Rojas, a resident of Asbury Court, praised Teanne’s generous donation.

Source: www.gnn.com

Thought for the Day

“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”

- Marcus Aurelius

Man Lifts Car off Trapped Girl

A young girl is calling a neighbor a superhero because of what he did when she was trapped beneath a car. Nick Harris said he doesn’t know where he found the strength, but somehow he managed to lift a car off the 6-year-old girl last week, earning himself the title of Superman.  “I just think it’s a Christmas miracle,” Harris said.

Harris said he has tried time and again to recreate the surprising show of strength that he said surfaced when sheer instinct sent him running to the 6-year-old’s aid. “I don’t know how I did it. I’ve tried three or four times since then.”

Harris was dropping off his daughter at Eugene Field Elementary Friday morning when he saw a car back out of a driveway, pinning the girl under its tire. That girl turned out to be his daughter’s best friend. “I was expecting her to have crushed hips,” Harris said. “I’ve had broken toes, because a car just backed over my foot. And here this whole car was on top of her. I wasn’t expecting it to turn out as wonderful as it did.”

The first-grader was flown to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City by air ambulance, but didn’t have to stay long. “They all call me superman now,” Harris said. “I’m just a dad. I’m just a dad that was in the right place at the right time. And I was finally able to help and I did something good.”

To watch the KCTV video coverage visit http://www.kctv5.com/video/22003914/

Source: http://www.kctv5.com/news/22003146/detail.html

Military Brides Receive Free Gowns

One hundred brides-to-be, who are also active military personnel, or fiancées of service members, received a free designer wedding dress this past Monday from a bridal shop in Watertown, MA, as part of its G.I. Gown Giveaway event.

Vows bridal boutique teamed up with the United Services Organization to donate 300 wedding gowns as a way of saying thank you to men and women in uniform. The other 200 dresses will be given away over the next year, as requests come in.

“We really wanted to give something,” said Rick DeAngelo, who co-owns Vows with his wife, Leslie. “What can we do? We have wedding gowns. It feels small to us.” The DeAngelos said they chose December to have the giveaway because of the holidays and the number of deployments happening around this time. Melissa Deibert, who decided on the first gown she tried on, said the giveaway seemed too good to be true.

To watch the Fox News video coverage visit: www.gnn.com/article/military-brides-receive-free-wedding/807380

Teen Scientist’s Cancer Research Earns $40,000 Prize

“These kids will surely make an impact on our world as we know it.” -Siemens Foundation’s, Jennifer Harper Taylor

Marissa Suchyta, of South Barrington, is a seventeen-year-old senior at the University of Chicago lab school, who just received a third-place win in the nation’s premier high school science contest, the Siemens Competition. Marissa began the competition up against 1,500 of the nation’s top teen scientists and walked away with a $40,000 prize.

Marissa was honored for her research into how a protein called geminin, blocks DNA from replicating, which has implications in developing new treatments for diseases like cancer. Marissa also founded the first Midwest chapter of the American Cancer Society’s “High Schools Against Cancer” campaign, then began her own nonprofit that donates gift baskets to teen cancer patients at Chicago area hospitals.

Not only has Marissa made an impact in the science field, but she is also president of the Gavel Club, captain of the Forensics Team, captain of the Mock Trial Team and a member of the Model United Nations team. This year, she placed second at nationals in the National History Day Competition.  Marissa is also a competitive ballroom dancer, plays the violin and mandolin, and speaks fluent French. She hopes to attend Harvard, double major in neurobiology and molecular/cellular biology, and then become a neurosurgeon with a Ph.D. in molecular oncology.

Source: www.suntimes.com

16-Year-Old Girl Grants Elderly People Their Dying Wishes

Caitlin Crommett, 16, started Dream Catchers, a make-a-wish style project that helps those who are terminally ill.

Caitlin got the idea last year, after watching the movie “Patch Adams.” In it, Robin Williams plays a doctor who is all about making his patients happy. In one scene, he fills a wading pool with spaghetti for a dying woman to jump into. After thinking about the movie for a few weeks, Caitlin told her parents she wanted to try and grant the wishes of elderly people in hospice care. They weren’t surprised.

Caitlin’s parents had put away enough money to send her to JSerra, a Catholic high school in San Juan Capistrano. The cost is about $12,000 a year. However, Caitlin wanted to go to Tesoro High in Rancho Santa Margarita, where her friends were going. This meant that there was an extra $48,000.

Caitlin’s parents agreed to give her some of that money to grant wishes until she could raise some funds on her own. Caitlin came up with a name: Dream Catchers. She then came up with a make-a-wish-style form that she began handing out this summer to Hospice Care of the West nurses, asking that they pass them on to patients and their families.

The first form she got back was from the wife of a man named Bernie Klein. He was in a wheelchair and could no longer speak, but was aware of everything around him. Bernie had sailed his whole life, and his wife wrote that it would be so great to see him out sailing on the ocean one last time. Caitlin chartered the schooner Curlew out of Dana Point Harbor for $600. Bernie’s family insisted she come along. She made ham sandwiches for everyone and served them herself.

Over the summer, Caitlin visited a hospice patient named Pat Wahlstrom every Sunday. A social worker had suggested that she help Pat put together a slide show of her world travels to share with other residents at the assisted living home where Pat lived. Caitlin and Pat spent the summer sifting through boxes of slides of Greece, Japan and Russia. Pat would sit in a chair with a remote and click through her projector, telling Caitlin the stories behind each photo that appeared. Caitlin would take notes so that she could later narrate the slide show. They decided to do the entire slide show on Pat’s favorite trip: China. Caitlin made up fliers for the big day. “An armchair tour of China,” they read. “Explore China again with Pat!” Unfortunately, Pat didn’t make it to the showing.  But the experience and the timed shared was the true treasure. “She laughed a lot when she told me stories,” Caitlin says. “It was just really great to listen to her.”

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves. -James M. Barrie

To learn more about Dream Catchers, email Caitlin at caitlincc@cox.net.

Source: www.ocregister.com

Mint Tea as Effective as Aspirin Scientists Find

A cup of mint tea could be as effective as an aspirin for pain relief, according to scientists.

Research showed that the herb Hyptis crenata, known as Brazilian mint, reduced pain as much as a soluble form of the conventional painkiller. In Brazil, the plant has traditionally been used to treat mild pain, including headache, stomach ache, fevers and menstrual pain. Until now, it had never been subjected to scientific testing.

The study was presented at the Second International Symposium on Medicinal and Nutraceutical Plants in New Delhi. Researchers plan to carry out further studies to determine which pharmacological compounds in the plant give it its painkilling properties.

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Food Backpacks Help Kids in Need

Hungry elementary school students in Moberly, Mo., who might not eat much between lunch on Friday and breakfast at school on Monday, take home backpacks full of food.

Every Friday afternoon, backpacks are placed carefully on the floors of the hallways in the elementary schools of Moberly, Mo. There are 106 of them, each with no child’s name and with no individual owner.  The backpacks are there because the school staff realizes that without them, the children for whom they are intended might go hungry between the last bell of the day on Friday and the first bell Monday morning.

The backpacks are each filled with food. The idea is that the children who need the food will blend in with the hundreds of other boys and girls who get enough to eat at home and that the 106 children will feel no stigma.

“We began to realize that some of these children go home to houses where they literally may not eat over the weekend. And we couldn’t just sit back and not do anything to help them,” said Francine Nichols, the school staff member in charge of the backpack project. “So, three years ago, the backpack program started…We make sure that the food is the kind that a young child can prepare himself or herself, if need be. Because some of these children live in single-parent homes, and when that parent works, not only does it mean that there may not be enough food in the house, but there may not be anyone to fix the meal for the boy or girl.”

Moberly is far from the only school district in the country to have a program like this. Quietly, they exist all over the nation. The weekend-food programs are not run by the federal government, but by local communities that simply can’t stand the idea of children going without enough food. Much of it is provided by the Central Missouri Food Bank in Columbia.

Francine Nichols noted that some parents whose children have been helped by the backpack program contact the school when they have found work again and say that because they are back on their feet, they no longer need the assistance. “And then they begin to provide food for the program; they bring food to school to help other children.”

Source: www.gnn.com

Health Clinic Lets Patients Work Off Bills

A low-cost health care clinic in Goshen, Indiana, has come up with a business plan that allows patients to pay for treatment with something other than money. At the Maple City Health Care Center, patients can help pay off their medical bills by performing community service.

Last fall, when the unemployment rate in Elkhart County, Indiana, topped 10 percent, clinic workers began noticing that patients weren’t showing up for appointments. Money just wasn’t available for office visits. So James Gingrich, the clinic’s medical director, decided to tap his patients’ skills and resources instead. The clinic began offering $10 an hour toward health care, if a patient volunteered at another non-profit organization.

“The More Than Money program has been a lifeline,” says Stephany Celis, new mom who wondered how, without health insurance, she would pay for her prenatal care.

To date, More Than Money participants have logged about 350 hours of community service.

Source: www.npr.org

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Finally Arrives

The perfect solution to Los Angeles traffic?

Skycar Flies from London to Timbuktu

A dune-buggy type car equipped with a massive rear propeller and the ability to deploy a giant fabric parasail when its driver and passenger decide to take to the skies successfully traveled from London to Timbuktu, Mali, in West Africa earlier this year. The trip included successful flights over the Straits of Gibraltar and the Sahara Desert.

The car goes from 0 to 62 mph in 4.2 seconds and drives at a top speed of 140 mph. It takes to the skies at 37 mph and soars at 100 mph. If the engine fails mid-flight, the Skycar can glide to safety. Skycars are on sale for about $80,000. First deliveries are expected in late 2010.

Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Thought for the Day

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

 -Desiderata

 

New Evidence That Dark Chocolate Helps Ease Emotional Stress

‘The “chocolate cure” for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances. Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress. Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects. In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks.’

For the full text article visit: http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/pr900607v