The Small Business Administration said today it has lined up pledges from more than 120 banks to increase lending for an additional 2,000 veterans with loans totaling $475 million.
The new program, SBA Veteran Pledge Initiative, will increase lending to veteran-owned businesses by 5 percent per year for the next five years.
They volunteered for Iraq and Afghanistan. Now they are volunteering to help people in Oklahoma dig out from utter devastation.
These veterans have answered the call for duty because their drive toward service and helping their country did not end just because they hung up their uniform.
They are Team Rubicon, the vision of a former Marine sniper whose vision took flight first in Haiti, following the massive 2010 earthquake. Those eight veterans lifted tons of debris as well as their own spirits — healing their hearts through service to others.
Now, 8000 U.S. veterans are signed up and stand ready to be deployed, as yesterday brought an urgent reminder of why their heavy-lifting is so valuable.
An EF-4 category tornado touched down outside of Oklahoma City, destroying thousands of homes, schools and businesses with a swath of destruction reaching three miles across, especially hitting the town of Moore.
Team Rubicon already has initial assessment teams on the ground in Oklahoma, readying to mobilize a full response to help the people there.
They are launching a massive operation and need your help. “Strike teams will work in the community, going home to home, providing damage assessments and expedient home repair.”
The Good News Network has set up a fundraising page for Team Rubicon in Oklahoma. Please donate right now, whatever you can, to help these vets help others — and heal themselves in the process.
Also, you can set up your own page, and send it to friends, as a team member of the Good News Network. Our goal is to collect $2,000 toward the Organizations’s goal of $75,000. You can set up your own page, or simply donate whatever you can. Just visit: TeamRubiconusa.org/goodnewsnetwork
(WATCH the new video below)
An elderly woman being interviewed by a television crew was literally counting her blessings after her beloved schnauzer peaked out from beneath the rubble in Moore, OK and was spotted by a producer.
“Bless your little bitty heart!” cooed Barbara Garcia, who stooped down surrounded by the debris of her flattened neighborhood.
An 18-year-old girl from California may have solved the most annoying problem confronting her fellow teens and she earned an Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award for her work.
Eesha Khare from Lynbrook High School in San Jose will receive college grants worth $50,000 for her super-capacitor design that can charge a phone in less than a minute.
As 91-year-old John “Jack” Potter faced eviction from the house he built and lived in for 56 years, his granddaughter decided to act. She set up a donation campaign on the website, Go Fund Me, and her story about the WWII combat vet losing his home attracted more than 5000 people who gave $138,000.
“Grandpa is amazed at all of the love and support,” said his granddaughter Jaclyn. “He told me, ‘I never knew people could love an old man so much.'”
In addition to having fought in The Aleutian Islands campaign, Jack is also a former Sheriff of Vinton County, a 65-year Master Freemason and Mayor of Zaleski, Ohio, where he has lived for a more than half a century.
There are other saviors too, like an attorney who helped guide Jaclyn through the maze of paperwork, and a neighbor, Linda Webb, who has been like a second daughter to the Potters.
“When (his daughter) tried to force him into a nursing home over two and a half years ago, Linda closed up her home and moved in with him to help him and still lives with him today,” says the donation page. “She is a rare person so caring, giving, selfless and amazing.”
(WATCH the video below or visit the GoFundMe page)
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After twice conducting four days of continuous measurement on a controversial energy unit, a group of independent scientists reportedly confirmed the existence of unexplained energy production via a process formerly known as “cold fusion” but now named LENR for Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction.
In simple terms, the E-Cat devices (Energy Catalyzers) are similar to nuclear reactors but without any radioactivity or hazardous waste, and according to a top NASA scientist, could literally solve our twin problems of climate and energy.
When elderly veteran Charles Mowbray came to her primary school to talk about his experience in World War II, Leanna Morris wondered why he didn’t bring his medals earned for bravery. He only brought pictures of medals. When she learned it was because the government forgot to send them, she felt moved to do something about it.
A few weeks ago, she wrote a long letter to her senator, Barbara Mikulski, asking her to please get those missing medals to the old soldier soon.
He’s a battle-tested, decorated army sergeant who risked his life to protect our country.
But it’s a more personal risk he took that’s getting a lot of attention.
In the midst of Staff Sgt. Jesse Knott’s lowest moment in Afghanistan, following a suicide bombing, a feral cat climbed into his lap and restored his faith and his humanity.
Jeremy Affeldt makes $6 million a year pitching for the San Francisco Giants, but he gave a half-million back after a clerical error was discovered, despite already receiving the money back in 2010.
Affeldt got three opinions saying the contract was ironclad and he could keep the extra $500,000, from the Players Association, agent Michael Moye and even Giants assistant general manager Bobby Evans, according to the SF Chronicle.
Tuesday was an ordinary day at the Humane Society of Durham when an ordinary-looking man arrived at the animal shelter.
The man, who looked to be in his early twenties, said he’d like to make a donation and handed over a plain white envelope.
The worker at the front desk didn’t look in the envelope.
“I asked him if he wanted a tax receipt and he said there was no need for that,” she said.
He left and that’s when she saw the bank draft for $25,000.
“I was dumbfounded, just looking at it. My mouth fell open and I let out this scream and instantly burst into tears.”
(READ the story from Canada’s Metro News)
Glamorous gowns and high heels took the place of Hurricane Sandy’s damage and destruction for teens at East Rockaway High School in New York who are getting the chance to have their dream prom after winning a contest held by internet company Rent The Runway.
Students arrived at their renovated gym for a style party and found walls of formal attire and shoes from which they got to pick a free outfit. Hair and makeup stylists were on hand to help plan their big night.
Rent The Runway co-founders Jenny Fleiss and Jenn Hyman said they created the contest as a way to continue the giving spirit that started in their office after the storm.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from NY Daily News)
There is nothing like fresh produce from your own garden, but, did you know that there are veggies that you can grow in the kitchen from scraps?
“I always have a mason jar of green onions regrowing above my kitchen sink. The technique is quite simple,” writes the Mrs. Happy Homemaker blog.
Once you have used the original onion, simply place the root end in a jar of water & it will begin to regrow within just a few days.
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is planning to push an amendment to the upcoming farm bill that would repeal the secret provision known as the Monsanto Protection Act, a rider attached anonymously to a spending bill that sailed through Congress in March.
An outcry resulted once the public learned that the provision, inserted without debate, allowed Monsanto and other companies to continue selling genetically engineered seeds, even if a court has blocked them from doing so. Merkley will press for a floor vote on his repeal amendment when the farm bill is taken up next week, a Merkley aide told HuffPost.
In the hard-hit city of Philadelphia, a former art curator Barbara Chandler Allen was disgusted by cutbacks to arts funding for students, especially because it so disadvantages the poorest schools where kids are most in need of positive outlets.
Lucky for the kids, Barbara stumbled onto a big idea after enlarging some of their art and realizing it was in high demand for the walls in office buildings.
She thought she could donate the art in exchange for hundreds of dollars that could be poured into art departments across the city.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from Jane Pauley)
A 9-year-old girl who was chosen to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game brought tears to every eye in the stadium when she found out the catcher was actually her father, a soldier home from Afghanistan, in disguise.
Alayna Adams, who thought she was being honored because her father was serving overseas, walked to the mound after seeing a taped message from her father on the big screen at the Tampa Bay field.
Every Friday morning 17-year-old Sarel Ramphele puts on his gold-trimmed suit, grabs his trumpet and walks the 6 kilometers to the neighboring village. Under a makeshift iron roof in the yard of an unused house he meets with scores of other young people to rehearse for what has become an improbable musical success story in one of South Africa’s poorest regions, according to The Good News, South Africa website.
Based in Limpopo, Bezzi’s Youth Brass Band is one local woman’s answer to a distinct lack of youth engagement in the area.
“There are absolutely no entertainment facilities for young people around here,” says Janet Bezuidenhout, 42, who set up the band just under three years ago. “The teenagers are just idling around.”
A Cincinnati high school’s waste has been cut dramatically thanks to the teens who have picked up the reins of a nascent recycling program there.
“It’s awesome – it just keeps unfolding and growing,” said the teacher who offered the students a chance to lead. “I had no idea this would blossom and grow the life of its own that it has.”
Loveland High School is now only producing two bags of trash and the goal is to one day be a zero-waste school.
12,000 people have signed up to ride their bicycle to work Friday in the Washington, D.C. area in celebration of the 57th annual Bike To Work Day. The nation’s capitol ranks sixth on a new list of the Ten Most Bikable Cities.
America is way behind much of the rest of the world in urban cycling opportunities. In fact, Montreal is the only city in North America to make a list of top 20 biking cities globally, but there are some bright spots.
The group’s name may not catch on, but the idea certainly has.
SPPRAK (Special People Performing Random Acts of Kindness) began in an Indiana school district as a way to get students, teachers and staff to show more kindness to each other.
To help change the culture in the schools they began urging everyone to jot down the acts of kindness they experienced or performed throughout their day on colorful sticky notes.
