There is a treasured hero in Rushville, Illinois: a doctor who has kept his fees the same as they were back in 1955 — five bucks a visit — and who has never taken a day off.
Dr. Russell Dohner has been looking after his neighbors, going anywhere, at any time, to help those in need, often arriving before emergency crews.
“In a mercenary world,” a waiting patient told me, “this place is an oasis.”
WATCH the video below, or read the story at MSNBC…
There is a treasured hero in Rushville, Illinois: a doctor who has kept his fees the same as they were back in 1955 — five bucks a visit — and who has never taken a day off.
Dr. Russell Dohner has been looking after his neighbors, going anywhere, at any time, to help those in need, often arriving before emergency crews.
“In a mercenary world,” a waiting patient told me, “this place is an oasis.”
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama greeted members of the military and their families during Christmas dinner at the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Mr. Obama and the first lady are encouraging the public to support military communities, especially during the holidays when separation from family can be difficult.
(Video included below)
To put a smile on hundreds of homeless children this time of year, one man in New Orleans organizes a Christmas party for those he calls the “Forgotten Angels.”
Looking for a job 16 years ago, Clarence Adams applied to be a counselor at a New Orleans homeless shelter. He knew very little about homelessness then.
“After the interview, they gave me a tour in the building and it was lunch time,” Adams says. “And I saw children there. That really bothered me. I just never thought about a child being homeless.”
Adams got the job and took it upon himself to help the kids coming to the shelter in any way he could. He went with their parents to register them for school and organized donation drives for school supplies. One day as the holidays neared, he talked to a friend about what it might be like for homeless children to celebrate Christmas.
“Basically the only thing that these kids had to look forward to was having their Christmas dinner in the shelter with hundreds of people who they didn’t know,” he says. “I mentioned to my friend that if I ever got rich, I would just have a big party for homeless children. She said, ‘Well, let’s do it.'”
That’s how the Christmas for Forgotten Angels party started 12 years ago.
“The first year we had 50 children. And my food service manager from the shelter cook fried chicken and macaroni and cheese,” Adams says. “We had some desserts and we were able to give all the kids toys and we had Santa Claus.”
But organizing that party all alone, he says, was overwhelming.
“I swore I would not do that again because it was too much work,” he says. “But at the party, seeing the faces on these kids, having them come up and give me a hug and say, ‘Thank you,’ to see how much joy this brought to these children who would otherwise have nothing. I determined at the end I had to do this every year.”
Reports about his Christmas party now appear in local newspapers every year. That’s resulted in having dozens of volunteers contact Adams to donate their time as well as clothing, toys and food.
Despite the economy, “People are still very generous,” Adams says. “We had a group of volunteers that came for like three years in a row from Georgia. I know that last year, we got checks from four different states. I had a family that brought some toys last week. Their 7-year-old son had a $20 bill that he had saved up money from his allowance all year so he could help.”
Helping out
Volunteers who can’t afford to donate money come and help wrap the gifts and prepare for the party. Tiffani Hicks, a 29-year-old single mother, helped out for the first time this year.
Doing something to make homeless children happy is important to Hicks. She says she knows exactly how they feel at Christmastime, because she was homeless as a child herself.
“I felt like I wasn’t loved. I felt like I didn’t deserve it,” Hicks says. “I just felt like nobody cared about me. My Mom died when I was five years old and my aunt, she took care of us. She did what she could do for us. So we never really had a Christmas or whatever like that. It just makes you feel awful. Then after the holidays you have to go back to school and everyone is talking about what they got for Christmas, so you’re kind of making up things that you wish you would have gotten, so you can fit in.”
With dozens of volunteers like Tiffani Hicks, Clarence Adams says they were able to serve more than 200 homeless kids this year. The Christmas for Forgotten Angels organizer says he’d like to see his community’s support and commitment to making homeless children feel special continue all year round and not just during the holidays.
(Source: VoA News)
A kiss at midnight to ring in the new year. That’s what Friday night should bring, right? And there’s pressure to get it right.
There ia a scientific basis for those high stakes. Whom you kiss can set the course for a good year. Really. It’s not magic – it’s chemistry and neuroscience.
People in the audience listened with rapt attention at the White House last week during the signing ceremony for repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
The entire event was profound, but perhaps the most moving part was when President Obama told a dramatic rescue story from WWII.
“Sixty-six years ago, in the dense, snow-covered forests of Western Europe, Allied Forces were beating back a massive assault in what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge. And in the final days of fighting, a regiment in the 80th Division of Patton’s Third Army came under fire. The men were traveling along a narrow trail. They were exposed and they were vulnerable. Hundreds of soldiers were cut down by the enemy.
The Spanish airlines, Spanair, created a memorable holiday evening for passengers traveling on Christmas Eve to La Palmas. After arriving from Barcelona to collect their baggage, 190 people found a stream of colorful gift packages flowing out onto the conveyor belt delivering presents for each and every traveler.
Knowing their customers’ flight would be landing after midnight while others were already home celebrating with their families, the airline decided to do something special.
The Spanish airlines, Spanair, created a memorable holiday evening for passengers traveling on Christmas Eve to La Palmas. After arriving from Barcelona to collect their baggage, 190 people found a stream of colorful gift packages flowing out onto the conveyor belt delivering presents for each and every traveler.
Knowing their customers’ flight would be landing after midnight while others were already home celebrating with their families, the airline decided to do something special.
Entertainment mogul Tyler Perry is reaching out to help a great-grandmother of seven who lost everything in a fire.
On Tuesday, an 88-year-old woman and her 4-year-old great-granddaughter escaped a fire that destroyed her home of 40 years. Firefighters began soliciting for donations from and dozens of calls came in.
With the community’s help, Ransby was climbing up the stairs to a new rental home just 48 hours after the fire.
Much as prognosticators claim to see green shoots in the nation’s struggling economy, Kansas City’s jazz scene demonstrated encouraging signs of renewed vigor after an extended period fraught with challenges.
Rather than the traditional, honorary trip to the White House this year, the 2010 World Champion Los Angeles Lakers teamed up with NBA Cares and President Obama last week to join members of The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washingon for an afternoon of education and service projects.
Take a behind-the-scenes look as the President and the Lakers assemble care packages and write letters for wounded military servicement and women, put together supplies for DC homeless, and compete in the “Big Brain Academy Challenge” game which builds skills in thinking, memorization, computation, analysis, and identification.
Watch the activities with the kids below — President Obama congratulated the Los Angeles Lakers on their 2010 NBA Championship in a brief ceremony. (Watch that here or read the transcript.)
(Sarah Bernard is the White House Director of Online Engagment (and a native of LA who loves the Lakers)
Rather than the traditional, honorary trip to the White House this year, the 2010 World Champion Los Angeles Lakers teamed up with NBA Cares and President Obama last week to join members of The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washingon for an afternoon of education and service projects.
Take a behind-the-scenes look as the President and the Lakers assemble care packages and write letters for wounded military servicement and women, put together supplies for DC homeless, and compete in the “Big Brain Academy Challenge” game which builds skills in thinking, memorization, computation, analysis, and identification.
Watch the activities with the kids below — President Obama congratulated the Los Angeles Lakers on their 2010 NBA Championship in a brief ceremony. (Watch that here or read the transcript.)
(Sarah Bernard is the White House Director of Online Engagment (and a native of LA who loves the Lakers)
A New Year will mean new memories for the Chilean miners whose saga transfixed the world, as they are treated to a hero’s welcome and family vacations at Walt Disney World Resort next month.
During their complimentary six-night Disney vacation, Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2011, the miners, their rescuers and immediate families will visit all four Walt Disney World theme parks and serve as honorary Grand Marshals of the Main Street, U.S.A. parade in Magic Kingdom.
Scientists have isolated a set of proteins that accounts for over 130 brain diseases, including diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsies and forms of autism and learning disability.
The team showed that the protein machinery has changed relatively little during evolution, suggesting that the behaviors governed by and the diseases associated with these proteins have not changed significantly over many millions of years. The findings open several new paths toward tackling these diseases.
(READ the story in Science Daily)
By a vote of 71 to 26, the U.S. Senate Wednesday ratified the New START arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia that will reduce each nation’s nuclear arsenals to their lowest levels in more than a half century.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on April 8 in Prague.
“This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades,” Obama said after the Senate vote. “It will make us safer.”
21 people were named Wednesday by the Carnegie Hero Fund to receive the Carnegie medal, given to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
The Heroes Fund was started in 1904 by steel baron Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired after hearing rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people. Since then, more than $32.9 million US has been awarded to 9,412 people.
Here are the 21 winners:
• Keith Havens, a swim coach from Albion, Michigan and his two college-aged sons, Zachary and Zane saved Brittany and Jason Sorensen from drowning near a Pacific Ocean coral reef in Hawaii. They became caught in a very strong current that carried them seaward through a channel in the reef. Unable to return to shore, they shouted and waved their arms for help. The Havens entered the water and swam out toward the victims, reaching Brittany at a point about 300 feet from shore and Jason, who was about 100 feet farther out. Swimming against the current toward shore, after finding that swimming parallel was impossible, the progress was arduous, with Keith at one point swimming under water and pulling himself along the coral outcroppings.
• Mark J. Pierce, a disabled electrician from Morristown, Tennessee attempted to rescue a woman from her burning home. Despite dense smoke and flames that virtually filled the living room, Pierce entered the apartment through the front door and thinking that she might have been in her bedroom, tried to make his way there. He was overcome by smoke and collapsed to the floor at the bedroom doorway. Responding firefighters found a collapsed Pierce, who sustained and burns up to third degree
• Trevor Jordan Tally from La Grande, Oregon died attempting to help save a young boy and his grandmother from drowning. Tally, a 21-year-old service technician, who was fishing from a dock entered the cold, deep water and swam to the woman, grasped her but submerged with her before releasing his hold.
• Donald Ericson of The Woodlands, Texas rescued an 85-year-old woman from burning in the bedroom of her one-story house. Ericson, 51, a technology manager, who lived next door, was alerted to the fire, went to the rear of the structure and pried open a door leading from a deck into the living room. He then stepped inside to find blistering heat, dense smoke that limited visibility, and flames that rolled across the living room ceiling. Calling to her, he followed her voice to the bedroom, where he found her on the floor. After attempting without success to use a bedroom door that opened to the outside, Ericson retraced his path to the living room, dragging Shoaf.
• Julie Fitzpatrick from Lighthouse Point, Florida helped to save a number of people from being struck by an unmanned boat. Fitzpatrick, 37, a consultant, was in a 15-foot boat in the vicinity with her husband when their attention was directed to the runaway boat. They followed it in their vessel, intending to warn anyone who might have been in its path. As they closed in on the runaway, which was traveling at undiminished speed, they realized there was insufficient time to warn those at boats moored ahead. After Fitzpatrick’s husband took their boat alongside the runaway, Fitzpatrick jumped over the side and dived into the runaway boat. Regaining her footing, she stopped the craft just in time.
• Gheorghita Rusu of Ottawa, Ontario helped rescue a female letter carrier from being stabbed repeatedly. The assistant manager of a pharmacy, Rusu, 21, heard her screaming, and when he saw the assailant he grasped him, and pushed him against a wall of the building. The assailant struck at him, stabbing him in his chest. Concluding that he could not restrain the assailant alone, Rusu returned inside the building for help.
• David Benke of Littleton, Colorado saved a number of people from assault after a 32-year-old man armed with a hunting rifle entered the grounds of a middle school just after classes were dismissed for the day. After the man fired a shot at a group of students, Benke, 57, who was on bus duty immediately ran toward him and grabbed the assailant taking him to the pavement.
• Michael Sharpe of Spruce Grove, Alberta saved a 40-year-old man from a burning tractor and its trailer, which carried a total of 9,200 gallons of jet fuel. Sharpe, 35, a heavy haul operator, witnessed the accident and, despite its intense and growing flames attempted to kick out one of the tractor’s windows, then climbed atop the tractor and worked to open its passenger-side door, having to remove items of wreckage that blocked it. He pulled the door open sufficiently for the driver to climb from the tractor. Sharpe sustained third-degree burns to one arm, before the trailer and tractor were consumed by flames.
• Larry G. Darrohn, Jr. died attempting to save a woman from burning in her apartment, on the second floor of a two-story house. Darrohn, 46, who lived in the first-floor apartment, was alerted to the fire, and ran up the interior stairway to the burning apartment. Firefighters arrived shortly and found that both had died of smoke inhalation.
• Steven Bradley Estes 40, a manufacturing supervisor from Hartselle, Alabama, discovered a fire in a mobile home. Despite dense smoke filling that room, Estes crossed it, tracing Brown’s voice to his bedroom. There, Estes went to the floor to avoid inhaling smoke. He then stood, got a hold of Brown, and lifted him from his bed. He carried Brown into the living room and toward the front door but before reaching it collapsed to the floor. Both were dragged out by an officer.
• Gerald Piacente of Red Hook, NY was singled out for helping rescue 16-year-old Caitlin Kelly from a burning pickup truck. The truck had run off a road and crashed into a tree. After Piacente and his son helped the driver climb out a window, 60-year-old Piacente crawled into the flaming wreckage to release Kelly’s seat belt and pull her out.
• José Higareda of Norwalk, Connecticut died attempting to help save a ten-year-old boy from drowning. A strong current pulled the wading boy away from his father, who was fishing on the bank. The two men swam with and then across the current to reach the boy but Higareda was pulled under.
• Eula Lee Harward died after attempting to rescue her 78-year-old sister-in-law, who was alone in a burning house. Eula made repeated tries to search the smoky house, at one point penetrating the house 30 feet to find her on the kitchen floor. After leaving the house to get help from the neighbor, she collapsed but could not be revived.
• Christopher Alan Sturgeon, a 33-year-old police officer kicked in the back door after hearing screams coming from a burning house. Despite dense smoke in the rooms, he crawled inside but had to retreat for air. He made subsequent attempts, going farther into the house to find Brown on the floor of the dining room. He dragged her to the kitchen on one attempt and then closer to the utility room door on a subsequent one.
• Victor Oxford helped save a woman from an apparent suicide attempt from a freeway overpass. Oxford, 54, a minister and stock trader from Corona, California, was stopped in traffic near the overpass when he saw the woman. Following her, he too mounted the structure and, with only about six inches of footing atop it, held to the outside of the fence as he proceeded about 85 feet to the woman. Then at a point about 40 feet above the level of the freeway, Oxford placed his left leg across the back of the woman, pinning her to the fence. She struggled against him. Others on the scene put a belt through the fence, and Oxford placed it around the woman. Another man responded with a wire cutter and made an opening in the fence opposite the woman. Oxford then lifted her to the opening, and she was taken through the fence.
• Brian W. Coblentz saved a 2 year-old from drowning in a frozen lake after her sled veered onto the ice of a frozen lake. Coblentz, 47, a landscaper, was driving on a road adjacent to the lake and witnessed the accident. He immediately parked and, shedding his coat, ran to the bank of the lake. He continued into the lake, breaking a path through the thin ice with his arms and body. Reaching the girl, he lifted her out of the water. Swimming and wading, Coblentz made his way back to the bank and turned her over to arriving emergency medical personnel.
• Joseph Healey, from Bullhead City, Arizona acted to save two young children from being struck by a boat when it was drifting backward toward them, its engines running. As the boat closed in on the children, Healey, 38, a cardiac monitor technician, jumped into the water to get them out of the way. The boat struck Healey, badly injuring his right leg. Healey’s injured lower leg required amputation.
• Scott Matthew Bligh and Gary Kneeshaw of El Cajon, California braved a wildfire to save two 27 year-olds who were climbing a steep face of El Cajon Mountain. The wildfire broke out near the mountain’s base and, fueled by vegetation, began to move up the slope trapping them. Pinpointing them by their cell phone position, these two deputy sheriffs Bligh, 43, a police patrol helicopter pilot, and Kneeshaw, 36, a tactical flight officer for the same unit, flew to the mountain and located the climbers. Despite dense smoke, which restricted visibility, fire-driven turbulence, and the steep face of the slope, Bligh had to execute a landing in which only the front end of the helicopter’s skids could be braced against the mountain. With the rear of the craft extending over the slope, Kneeshaw left the cockpit, forfeiting his seat for the climbers. Because of limited space in the helicopter, weight considerations, and the craft’s tenuous positioning, the climbers could be rescued only one at a time. After the first was flown to safety by Bligh, the remaining two men fled advancing flames by moving laterally on the mountain. Returning shortly to the hostile environment, Bligh again maneuvered against the mountainside as embers entered the cockpit and smoke caused his eyes to tear. Dorian took the passenger seat of the craft while Kneeshaw stood on a skid and leaned inside, Dorian securing him by holding to his belt. Bligh then flew away from the mountain to safety.
For more information: www.carnegiehero.org
21 people were named Wednesday by the Carnegie Hero Fund to receive the Carnegie medal, given to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
The Heroes Fund was started in 1904 by steel baron Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired after hearing rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people. Since then, more than $32.9 million US has been awarded to 9,412 people.
Here are the 21 winners:
Research on bees conducted by a class of 8-10 year olds was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, complete with crayon illustrations.
In the paper published in Biology Letters, children from Blackawton Primary School reported that buff-tailed bumblebees can learn to recognize nourishing flowers based on colors and patterns.
The paper is written entirely by the kids, who may be the youngest scientists ever to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Their principal finding: “We discovered that bumble-bees can use a combination of color and spatial relationships in deciding which color of flower to forage from. We also discovered that science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before.”
(READ the paper at Royal Society Publishing)
Thanks to Nic Bernstein for submitting the link from Slashdot
Research on bees conducted by a class of 8-10 year olds was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, complete with crayon illustrations.
In the paper published in Biology Letters, children from Blackawton Primary School reported that buff-tailed bumblebees can learn to recognize nourishing flowers based on colors and patterns.
The paper is written entirely by the kids, who may be the youngest scientists ever to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Their principal finding: “We discovered that bumble-bees can use a combination of color and spatial relationships in deciding which color of flower to forage from. We also discovered that science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before.”
(READ the paper at Royal Society Publishing)
Thanks to Nic Bernstein for submitting the link from Slashdot
Congress on Tuesday passed legislation to better protect sharks, which are killed by the millions for their fins, a delicacy used in a traditional Chinese soup.
Conservationists called the measure a major step to save a species in trouble.
The loss of tens of millions of top predators annually can disrupt the balance of the populations of other lower species.
(READ the AP report in the Miami Herald)
