Only Positive News

It is easy, at times, to be wrapped up in our own little worlds.  It is easy, to remain uninterested in those that we don’t personally know or have any real connection to.  It is easy, just to keep going in the same tracks that you have walked in past years. 

It is easy, no doubt about that.  But, is it satisfying?  This year, as 2007 gets underway, I would challenge anyone and everyone to find one thing that is outside their normal scope and pursue making a difference.  There are so many worthy causes we can become a part of.  Whether you have a few hours a week that you can read to an elderly resident in a nursing home or someone confined to their own home; or perhaps, you have a few dollars left at the end of your week that you can donate to a charitable organization — it doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that you do something. 

Our world is a great place to be.  We have the power to make it even greater.  One person at a time, working together to make a difference.  Now that’s a New Year’s Resolution, we can be proud of.

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When Austin was age 9, all he wanted to do was make his schools’ basketball team.  He didn’t make it.  So, he decided to learn more about where his penpal lived instead.  What he found was startling. Austin learned that as a result of the AIDs epidemic in Africa about 15 million children had been orphaned.  Not knowing exactly what he could do, Austin put together what he called a hoop-a-thon (like a walk-a-thon but it involves shooting free thows instead) on World AIDs day.  That day, Austin shot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 kids who would be orphaned during the period of time that Austin would be in school.  He took pledges from the community and when it was all said and done, Austin’s first attempt at fund raising raised $3,000 which he then donated to World Vision to help take care of orphaned children.  

That was three years ago.  Each year this program has continued to grow as other children (and adults) have taken their shot at the freethrow lines.  The project has become a national movement and this year Austin hoped to do something much bigger — in that he wanted to help build a school so that the children would have a chance to improve their lives.  As of last week, Austin and his organization, www.hoopsofhope.org, raised $100,000.  Working again in conjunction with World Vision, Austin was more than happy to announce that a schedule has been approved to build a new school in Zambia this spring.   

It only goes to prove that no one is too young to make a difference.  

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A month or so ago I told you about the “free hug” movement that had made it’s way from Australia to China.  This week the movement has made its way to Seoul, Korea where it was also met with a certain level of resistance.  Seems that the East still hasn’t learned to embrace its neighbors from the West — literally.  However, they are learning to appreciate a good supportive squeeze and slowly the resistance is lessening.  More and more people are exchanging hugs as a way of showing support to one another.  For example, Korean students are now organizing their own hugging events to offer support after exams are completed and Naver, a Korean online portal has reported that literally thousands of people have joined an online hugging community. 

Let’s face it folks we are making progress.  Not all think such progress is here to last however:  

“The free hug phenomenon can be translated as symbolic resistance against a society that is turning bleak and lonely,” Seoul National University sociology Prof. Jung Keun-sik told Stripes. “But I don’t think it will last long.”

I respectfully choose to disagree.  I think the hugging phenomenon is about more than just symbolic resistance to being lonely.  Squeezing another human being requires effort and energy.  No, hugging is about being supportive and showing compassion in a world that needs more than hugs to survive.  However, hugs are an excellent starting point and I’m more than willing to do my part.  Hugs, get your hugs!  If you want a hug, the line forms on the right. 

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Some of us dream of dancing, others of us dream of dancing without making utter fools of themselves (myself included).  But for 15-year old Nathalie Calderon, it seemed an even bigger stretch than just learning the right steps.

She’s only got one foot.

She was born with a rare birth defect that her tibia quit growing, so a portion of her leg was amputated when she was a year old.  But that hasn’t stopped her from chasing her dream.  She wanted to dance.

With her prosthetic foot, she took and succeeded in her dance classes to the point that her instructors had no idea she was missing a portion of her lower leg.

What couldn’t we all accomplish if we refused to let our difficulties or disabilities prevent us from chasing after our hopes and dreams?

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Last Monday, millions of Americans watched as the New Orleans Saints ran with tears in their eyes into their newly rebuilt home.  After all the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Saints were finally able to come back to their home field.  They performed a miraculous game that many believed that the Saints would not lose no matter who the team was.  They were able to come home and beat the Atlanta Falcons 23 to 3.  The game was only one amazing part of the night as millions of Louisianans packed the stands of the newly rebuilt Superdome.  The rebuilding of the Superdome’s roof alone was $1.5 million dollars and crews worked 24 hours a day repairing the roof.  The walls were covered in a new coat of paint and after the dome had sat in 6 feet of water for seven months after the hurricane, the Saints received a new astro turf field as well.  They never believed that they would be able to repair the dome in time for the Saint’s first home game, but the crews persevered and repaired the dome faster than any other in American history. 

Rebuilding the dome showed America and Louisianans that there was still hope.  Hope that their city could be rebuilt and that their team was ushering in a new era.  Saint’s fans in the dome and at home sat with tears in their eyes as they watched the unveiling of the new dome as well as a spectacular performance of their football team.  Fans continued to occupy the dome long after the game was over.  They cried, laughed, smiled and chanted for their team and their city.

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Pat McCormick was a four-time gold medallist in diving.  In 1984, Peter Ubberoff began sending his Olympic organizing committee members, which Pat was a part of, to local schools and corporations to speak.  Pat’s first speech was at Windling Elementary in El Puente, CA.  Afterwards, one of the teachers came to her and asked if she could help out any of the children in the school.  Pat began volunteering two mornings per week at the elementary school and began refining her process.  Pat focuses on 3 key attributes in the students: You have to Work, You have to Learn and You have to Surround Yourself with Winners.  Soon after Pat began volunteering there was a dramatic increase in better grades and kids staying in school. 

Today, Pat volunteers at the Workman High School in East LA.  These students are “at-risk” students who are struggling to graduate from high school.  Pat has been able to encourage them to stop joining gangs and stop using drugs.  Pat says that her passion of excellence comes from hardships of her own.  “My father died on skid row, and that’s the motivation I have.  I want to let everyone know if you have a dream and you believe it, you will find a way.  You have to surround yourself with winners, you have to work,” says Pat.  Today, several students have followed Pat’s guidance and have gone for the gold of high school graduation.

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Some people crumble in the face of hardship, and others shine in spite of it.  T.J. Faeser of Biloxi is one of those people who shines.

He had been working as a mechanic and was in his first year of college when he lost his vision.  He’d had hopes to be nurse, but had to put that aside with his vision loss.  Instead, he clung dearly to his desire to help others and started classes to be a dispatcher with the Department of Marine Resources in Mississippi.

Would that the rest of us were so courageous to face whatever adversity came our way and find a new path for ourselves that allows us to help our fellow man.

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Courage can sometimes be a nebulous concept to define, we know it when we see it, but to put to words what it is, sometimes eludes us.

But it hasn’t eluded Amy Fenzel-Mergott.  She’s 32, the mother of two, the coach of a high school’s girls soccer team, and she’s battling breast cancer.  But instead of wringing her hands, she’s taken a bring it on attitude.  She’s getting treatments and living life to the fullest, even through the pain.  She’s trained and competed in a triathlon, looking forward to one the following year.  She’s not letting it conquer her spirits or her resolve.

There are no pity parties, nor will there be.

While she’s not alone in the diagnosis, she stands out as an example to her team and her community of pressing on despite all odds, and reaching out to others in the process.  She’s special because she chooses to fight and not let the disease win.  We should all be so courageous in the face of hardships in our own lives, overcoming and not capitulating to the troubles.

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Mike McCoy is not just any sheriff.  He is a sheriff with a kind heart and a lot of endurance.  This Peoria, Illinois sheriff runs for the kids at the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.  McCoy says that he runs for them because they can’t.  McCoy began staging runs in 1982.  Back then their goal was $25,000 and they were unable to meet it.  Today, their goal is $1 million and they should top it in pledges and donations. 

McCoy has always said that nothing would keep him from running for the kids.  However, this year McCoy’s pledge was tested when he was hit by a truck in January.  The truck hit both him and another runner shattering McCoy’s pelvis and almost killing him.  The doctors believed that he would never be able to run again but McCoy wasn’t going to let that happen.  He may be slower than he was in the past, but he is more motivated than ever.  He believes that he has been given a second chance for the children he dearly loves and cares for.

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Some people have no problem living with guilt.  They go on living as if they had never done anything wrong.  For others living with guilt is not that simple. Guilt nags at the mind and at the soul.  One Logan, Utah man had that problem.  As a child, he would steal candy in his backpack with his friends.  Shawn Seamons and is friends would steal more candy than he and his friends could eat in one week.  “I think we would just stash our backpacks full of candy, and just have an afternoon of sugar high and absolute fun,” says Seamons. Joanne Hansen, the owner of The Island Market where they stole their candy, never even knew that the kids were the candy thieves she had been battling.  The guilt weighed on Seamon’s mind for six years until yesterday when he came into the store and wrote a $200 check for Hansen.  He felt that he needed to pay her back for the years of candy that he and his friends had stolen.  “They would’ve never known. I know,” says Seamons and that is why it makes a difference.  Seamons could not bear to live with the guilt of knowing that he stolen candy from the store and paying Hansen back helped him to relieve some of that pressure.

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