29 Year-Old Single-Handedly Raises Relief Supplies for Hurricane Victims

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Mar 30, 1999

Esther Stevens’ dining table in Colorado Springs, CO, has become a makeshift operations center for getting aid to the victims of Hurricane Mitch.

“I’ve never done anything like this,” said Stevens, whose whirlwind flurry of phone calls in the days following the storm produced volunteers, medical personnel, supplies and even a plane for the devastated region.

Stevens, 29, was daunted by the magnitude of the disaster, but was prompted to action by her personal ties to Honduras, where she spent her early childhood. She called an old college roommate in Honduras who works with World Vision, the Christian relief and development agency.

“Everyone is desperate,” her friend said. They needed a brigade of workers, supplies, and could Stevens come up with some airplanes?

Stevens, who is studying to be a physician’s assistant, started calling people who might have contacts. As she made the calls, the web grew wider. Donations were coming in — to World Vision as well as to Stevens’ house. And an amateur pilot from Chicago was on standby to fly down, carrying extra fuel for trips to isolated villages.

“I feel for the country I was born in, where people give all that they have,” she said. “If you’re a stranded stranger and you need five dollars to take a bus to the airport, they will sacrifice their monthly wage to put you on the bus. That’s just the way people are down there.”

Once Stevens got going on the phone, help started coming from unexpected places. A call to Emma Gribble, a Colorado acquaintance, mushroomed. Soon after enlisting Gribble, Stevens started getting calls from Gribble’s home state of Kansas. One doctor told her, “Send me a list of whatever medical supplies you need. I’ll send it to any location you want.”

Stevens called her parents in North Carolina, and they put her in touch with David Frost, a friend who happened to have jungle flight training. He is accustomed to flying without the benefit of air traffic controllers and landing on airstrips the size of driveways. Frost, 51, was ready to spend two weeks shuttling food, water and other emergency items from regional cities that now act as supply depots to villages that can’t be reached by road.

“The desire (to help) was there, but it took Esther’s phone call to get us involved,” Frost said.

Stevens called Transtainer Corp. in New Orleans about shipping rates. “I happened to find a very generous man who said he didn’t care how long things went on, he’d take supplies down there and do it for free.”

She is paying for the shipping to Louisiana, and she’ll have a huge phone bill this month, but that is part of her donation.

Largest Remaining Grove of Ancient -Redwoods Saved for Future Generations

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Good News Network

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Mar 2, 1999

Hours before the final deadline, Pacific Lumber agreed to accept federal and state funds totaling nearly a quarter billion dollars in exchange for the Headwaters Forest, over 10,000 acres including the largest unprotected grove of ancient redwoods in the world.

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Retired Parking Meters Raise Funds for Rainforests

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American News Service

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Feb 20, 1999

Many people would be willing to donate a quarter for wildlife conservation, reckoned Norman Gershenz, a conservation biologist at San Francisco State University.

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Endangered Woodpeckers Protected by Paper Company

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Good News Network

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Feb 18, 1999

International Paper announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved its habitat conservation plan for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. This plan is the most ambitious ever approved under the federal Endangered Species Act in which a private landowner will expand and enhance habitat on its own property rather than simply maintaining existing populations.

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Toastmaster Convicts Travel To Schools

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Good News Network

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Feb 5, 1999

Success is inevitable for one Toastmasters club formed in prison because the inmates, who create and maintain the club, support and nurture each other and self-esteem is achieved as a result.

Members of the Voices of Distinction Toastmasters club of Lafayette Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana wanted to give back to their community by showing youngsters the way to stay out of prison.

Their 90-minute presentation designed to emphasize the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse has been performed for 25,000 school children to date.

The program begins with the assembly witnessing inmates arriving in shackles and chains. The hush gives way to a dramatic play called Friends. Written by the Toastmasters themselves, the message reaches beyond prison walls and effects lives.

Find out more about Toastmasters’ success in prisons here.

Toastmasters Reforms Inmates While They Are in Prison

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Good News Network

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Feb 4, 1999

lecturn CC-scholz-flickr A Letter From A Louisiana Judge

According to criminal justice sources, 95 percent of crime is committed by criminals who have already been to prison. Since those released from prison commit the vast majority of crimes and over 70 percent of those who go to prison become repeat offenders, it would seem that there would be a great deal of emphasis on reforming inmates while they are in prison.

There has always been much talk about rehabilitation, but there has been very little funding for educational or other rehabilitation programs in our prisons. How can we lower the recidivism rate without additional resources from the state?

Here’s how.

In 1986, I recommended to a self-help group of inmates at a Louisiana prison in DeQuincy that they start a Toastmasters club in the prison and I put them in touch with a local club. (*Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization made up of local clubs providing a safe and nurturing environment for members to foster the development of all types of communication skills, especially public speaking.)

I had determined, after three years of research, that inmates have very low self-esteem and very poor verbal skills and that people who do not like themselves and who cannot express themselves verbally resort to physical expression. They beat people up instead of talking out the problem with the other prisoners.

In 1990, an inmate from the prison club won the Louisiana State Toastmasters Speech Contest.

The really startling news, however, was that out of 60 inmate Toastmasters who had been released from prison from 1986-1991, not one had been re-arrested. Statistically, 70 percent should have been re-arrested within two years of release.

District Judge Robert Downing
19th Judicial District
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Toastmaster magazine (January 1999)
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She Invested $60,000 and Seven Years of Her Life to Free a Stranger From Prison

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Good News Network

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Jan 10, 1999

A 68-year old New Jersey widow was so convinced of a young man’s innocence after reading a news account of his murder conviction that she spent seven years and $60,000 of her own retirement money to see that justice would prevail.

Priscilla Read Chenoweth, an editor at the New Jersey Law Journal, has a law degree of her own but little experience with criminal trials. Yet she began to reinvestigate the shooting because, she said, the convicted Luis Kevin Rojas also had little experience – in gangs, or violence. “He had no record, and nice friends,” she told the NY Times newspaper. “He had a reputation for peaceableness.”

It began when Rojas, an aspiring engineer, was sent to prison at 18, charged with second-degree murder for supplying the gun in the 1990 shooting death of a teen in Greenwich Village. Chenoweth learned of a letter-writing campaign by 150 of Luis’s classmates to the judge insisting the teenager’s involvement was impossible. She was impressed, and something moved her to take action.

She thought she would help with fundraising. But when she realized the appeal was being handled clumsily by a lawyer-friend of the Rojas family who was not investigating the evidence, Mrs. Chenoweth went to work reading transcripts, interviewing witnesses and filing motions with unwavering tenacity.

The mother of three and grandmother of five worked alongside her daughter, Leslie Estevao, who first brought her mom’s attention to the case. They enlisted a retired New York City police detective, Dennis O’Sullivan, whose busy past time is unsolved murders, to contribute to the crusade. He even put up his own house to gain Rojas’ release on $50,000 bail.

A second retired police officer, Mike O’Connor, was enlisted. He and Estevao, who began calling herself the “kitchen-table detective,” located a key witness to establish a Rojas alibi, a transit officer who remembered seeing Mr. Rojas just miss a train leaving the station the night of the murder. Records indicate the train departed no later than 2:03AM, leading to the conclusion that Rojas could not have been a half mile away at 2:07AM when the incident occurred.

Jethro Eisenstein, a former criminal lawyer, also donated his services, and won an acquittal this October from a Manhattan jury in the State Supreme Court.

Luis had spent a third of his life in prison. His mother died during the stay. Mrs. Chenoweth received Mother’s Day cards from him and offered as much emotional support as she could. “I really admired the tremendous patience and courage he displayed during his time in prison. He never whined to me.”

If our definition for a Good Samaritan covers the bases of kindness, generosity and helpfulness, Priscilla Chenoweth surely wins the title with a Grand Slam.

The United Arab Emirates Focus on 2000

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Good News Network

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Jan 10, 1999

Two thousand prisoners and their families will receive assistance, 2,000 more orphans around the world will be helped, 2,000 poor people will receive clothes, and 2,000 businessmen will be approached to sponsor students abroad.

The United Arab Emirates Red Crescent has produced a plan of action for the Millennium Year, and among the numerous activities promoting the Society and helping those in need, at least 20 included the magic figure of 2000.

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Give a Gift That Will Feed Hungry Kids For Years To Come

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BILL ASENJO

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Dec 10, 1998

Do you want to give an imaginative gift and feed hungry children in Chicago or Shanghai at the same time? Now you can give the gift that keeps on giving for generations.

Heifer Project International (HPI) provides income-producing animals to people in nearly 40 countries. Shoppers buy an animal in honor of a friend or relative and send the recipient an attractive card describing the gift of hope being given in his or her name.

Gifts of animals, such as chicks, goats, sheep, rabbits, pigs, fish, bees and heifers, along with training in their care, are given to low-income families around the world. Holiday gift-givers can provide egg-bearing chickens for hungry kids in Kenya, or a milk-producing goat for a family in Peru. And there’s more: Every family who receives your gift will give one or more of its animal’s offspring to another family in need.

In 1957, Esther Craig set a goal of contributing a cow a year to the Heifer Project. Since she retired, raising money for HPI cows has become a year-round project. To raise the money to buy the animals, she pots plants and crochets, picks wild berries for jams and jellies. At 80, Esther says, “I just can’t imagine children without milk.”

Esther never kept track of how many cows she bought. But records show at least 30. Heifers usually produce four offspring–that adds up to more than 20,000 cows!

Heifer Project International also has funded projects in 35 states and educates Americans about world hunger and the role of livestock in sustainable development.

For instance, in Chicago, worms are raised by inner-city teens in order to produce organic fertilizer to sell at Chicago’s Farmers Market. Catfish, raised in 55-gallon drums, are donated to local food banks. Kids have an alternative to gang activity, and as a bonus, learn business basics. Heifer Project’s three U.S. learning centers are visited by thousands of people each year.

For More Information Contact The Heifer Project: 855-948-6437

Visit their website at www.heifer.org

(Written by Bill Asenjo, PhD candidate, CRC, The University of Iowa)

A Message For Christmas: Find the Star Within

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Good News Network

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Dec 5, 1998

With so many things to do in the holiday season, it is difficult to stay in the moment, to take time to really BE with the people around you, rather than thinking ahead or comparing it to the past. This moment is called the “present” for a reason – Give it to yourself today…

Many Christmases ago I began a metaphysical study of the bible. Meta means beyond; I looked beyond the physical or literal interperatation of the stories found there. What I found was a marvelous map, which, when studied can show us the ways that we all evolve in consciousness (what we believe, think and feel). The bible, from front to back, illustrates the movement of your individual consciousness from one that is steeped in fear and judgement to one based in love and compassion.

The Christmas story represents the manifesting into our daily lives of that consciousness of love. The birth of a realization.

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Captain’s Crew Saved Thanks to Miracle Ten Dollar Bill

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Good News Network

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Dec 3, 1998

By the time 22 Pakistani sailors had made it to safe harbor off the tip of Texas on the eve of Thanksgiving in 1998, they had no fuel, no power, no water, no passports, and were starving. They had been surviving on one hope—to make it to U.S. waters.

The Bankruptcy

The 740 foot cargo ship, the Delta Pride, and her crew were shipping bauxite for their Pakistani employer, Tri Star Shipping. Suddenly, they were left to fend for themselves in a Mexican port when Tri Star went bankrupt and severed their radio connection. Mexican shipping agents gave the crew some food and water, but took their passports and ship’s papers as collateral until harbor fees were paid, which effectively marooned the ship. For more than five months the crew lived on rainwater, boiled rice and the few fish they could pull up via milk crate.

The Prayer

Dying without any water, anchored at open sea with no one to help them, the Muslim crew began to pray. Captain Maqsood Ahmed tells what happened next. “Because we prayed to God, He sent Hurricane Mitch to us and brought many tons of water and fish! For many people the hurricane was very bad, but for us it was a blessing.”

Then the captain found a ten dollar bill in his drawer. “I don’t know how it got there. I had no money for many months!” Instantly the words,“ In God We Trust” caught his eyes. “I never paid any attention to these words but this time they were so attracting to me. I felt in my heart that this was the answer to my prayer, like advice from God…go to the United States and people can help you out there.”

The Escape

By buckets they amassed the dregs of low fuel tanks and fired a torch to heat the heavy fuel to get them started. Two days into the journey they had so many problems with the generator the captain wanted to turn back. But the engineer said, “No. We’ll keep these engines running.”

The Rescue

“It was a real escape story!” said Captain Eddie Max Stovall, III, from Port Isabel, Texas, who heard their pleas for help on Thanksgiving Eve. He called them back on his radio and within a few hours had turned it into a rescue story. He formed a coalition of locals, the Propeller Club of the United States and the Int’l Seamans Club to collect $500.00 worth of food and water, which he delivered to them the next morning in his boat. Stovall told Good News Network they were so weak from hunger, “They couldn’t even lift up the heaving line and the gallon of water attached.”

As a seaman, Stovall’s heart went out to them. His bride’s did too. Just married that same week, she felt strongly that the homesick sailors, who had been away from Pakistan for 18-27 months, should get a chance to talk to their families again. So they hired a radio operator to patch 22 calls home. Ahmed recalls, “Families were crying, children were crying because they didn’t know if we were alive or dead.” The marine operator then called the Stovalls back to say his boss would cover the charges.

“This is just… you know, people don’t believe in miracles. But I believe,” said Maqsood Ahmed, “I believe now!”

Investors were found to pay the necessary attorneys to place liens on the ship, the first step in selling it to raise the two years back wages due the crew and money to transport them back home. The process will force them to rely on their friends in Port Isabel for another 2-6 weeks.

“We’ve Come Home”

For the 36 year-old captain, the ordeal has strengthened his faith in God. He cites the example set by the United States, “Many countries believe in God but they don’t declare it on their currency!”

The ordeal has also sealed his love for Americans. “There’s a feeling that we’ve come to our home,” he told GNN. “This is a country of immigrants. I’m an immigrant here! he added, with laughter.“The people are so loving and so caring.”

“We found more friendly people here than in other countries. More open-hearted. They cooked their food from home and local churches brought it. And because I came in very desperate conditions, I had nothing to give them except my love.”

All the Good Things About You

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Sister Helen P. Mrosla

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Nov 10, 1998

trumpet playing youth BW-Flickr-S Miramontes-CC

He was in the first third grade class I taught at Saint Mary’s School in Morris, Minn. All 34 of my students were dear to me, but Mark Eklund was one in a million. He had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful.

Mark talked incessantly. I had to remind him again and again that talking without permission was not acceptable. What impressed me so much, though, was his sincere response every time I had to correct him for misbehaving – “Thank you for correcting me, Sister!” I didn’t know what to make of it at first, but before long I became accustomed to hearing it many times a day.

At the end of the year, I was asked to teach junior-high math. The years flew by, and before I knew it Mark was in my classroom again. He was more handsome than ever and just as polite. Since he had to listen carefully to my instruction in the “new math,” he did not talk as much in ninth grade as he had in third.

One Friday, things just didn’t feel right. We had worked hard on a new concept all week, and I sensed that the students were frowning, frustrated with themselves – and edgy with one another. I had to stop this crankiness before it got out of hand. So I asked them to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then I told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed me the papers.

That Saturday, I wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and I listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday I gave each student his or her list.

Before long, the entire class was smiling. “Really?” I heard whispered. “I never knew that meant anything to anyone!” “I didn’t know others liked me so much.” The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another again.

Several years later, after I returned from vacation, my parents met me at the airport. As we were driving home, my father cleared his throat as he usually did before saying something important.

“The Eklunds called last night,” he began. “Really?” I said. “I haven’t heard from them in years. I wonder how Mark is.” Dad responded quietly. “Mark was killed in Vietnam,” he said. “The funeral is tomorrow, and his parents would like it if you could attend.”

It was difficult enough at the graveside. The pastor said the usual prayers, and the bugler played taps. One by one those who loved Mark took a last walk by the coffin. As I stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to me.

“Were you Mark’s math teacher?” he asked. I nodded as I continued to stare at the coffin. “Mark talked about you a lot,” he said.

After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates headed to Chuck’s farmhouse for lunch. Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting for me. “We want to show you something,” his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. “They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.”

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had once been taped, folded and refolded many times. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him. “Thank you so much for doing that,” Mark’s mother said. “As you can see, Mark treasured it.”

Mark’s classmates started to gather around us. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, “I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.”

Chuck’s wife said, “Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.”

“I have mine too,” Marilyn said. “It’s in my diary.”

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. “I carry this with me at all times,” she said without batting an eyelash. “I think we all saved our lists.”

The purpose of this essay is to encourage everyone to compliment the people you love and care about. We often tend to forget the importance of showing our affections and love. Sometimes the smallest of things, could mean the most to another. Express your love and caring by complimenting and being open with communication. We forget that life will end one day. And we don’t know when that one day will be. Tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

Photo credit: S Miramontes via Flickr – CC

Christmas Gifts For Stamp Collectors Aid Volcano Victims

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Good News Network

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Nov 1, 1998

For the philatelist on your holiday gift list, a stamp series commemorating famous pop musicians such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, with Queen Elizabeth II’s royal cipher on each stamp, has been issued to help raise funds for the Montserrat Volcano Relief Fund.

In July 1995, the Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat, British West Indies, began to spew ash and debris for the first time in about 400 years. Since then the Montserratians have been trying to cope with this continuous state of eruption. One explosion in June, 1997 killed 19 people and rendered a further 1500 homeless. Three-fourths of the island’s population is now homeless or relocated, scattered to various parts of the world with the aid of friends and families.

Montserrat is the home of Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios, where a “who’s who” of rock artists have recorded. Martin organized a concert featuring prominent musicians such as Phil Collins, Paul McCartney, Sting, Jimmy Buffet, Carl Perkins, and Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1997, with all proceeds going to help the victims of the volcano

The 1997 fully licensed limited edition stamp series commemorates Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Presley. The first rock stamps in the series were replications of the Woodstock Concert posters (both the ‘69 and ‘94 posters). The latest edition to Montserrat’s Music Stamp Series depicts reggae legend, Bob Marley. Others depict the volcano, the island under a total eclipse of the sun, and the relief concert.

For More Information call Westminster Stamps (508) 384-6157. You can write to Montserrat Music Stamps, P.O. Box 456, Foxboro, MA 02035, or visit their Web site: www.westminsterstamp.com

Wildlife Thrives in Restored Chicago Wetlands

By

American News Service

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Oct 30, 1998

wetland Lake Erie- Photo by Nature Conservancy

The northwest corner of Chicago, framed by the lanes of traffic along Interstate 94 and State Route 14, seems an unlikely address for wildlife. But across the street from a shopping center, on the banks of the north branch of the Chicago River, lives a thriving ecosystem called Gompers Park Wetlands.

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Israeli Peace Deal Signing Leads Way To Final Settlement Talks

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Good News Network

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Oct 23, 1998

President Clinton pushed for an agreement and finally got one between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasir Arafat after nine days of sometimes all-night negotiations with Clinton and Jordon’s King Hussein offering a final push at the secluded Wye River Plantation on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.

In a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Israel agreed to withdraw from an additional 13% of occupied territory on the West Bank. Arafat vowed to do “everything in my power” to maintain security and safety for every Israeli, so that, “no Israeli mother will have to worry when their child is late returning home.” A month’s worth of efforts by the State Department and the White House culminated in the land-for-peace-deal, which marked the first time in over 17 months that the two sides have talked.

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The Doctor is a Clown?!?

By

BILL ASENJO

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Oct 10, 1998

Do you like the academy award-winning actor Robin Williams? Does free medical care sound like a good idea to you? How about a movie starring Robin Williams based on the true story of a doctor who since 1971 has given free medical care?

The movie Patch Adams, released by Universal Pictures in December, 1998, is based on a real-life doctor, Hunter “Patch” Adams, M.D., who has been providing humor along with free holistic health care for thousands of patients.

Understanding the healing power of laughter, Patch often arrives for appointments in a clown outfit.

For Adams, health lies not in the absence of disease, but in a “happy, vibrant, exuberant life.” Describing his profession, he says, “If you like people, if you like human interaction, medicine is enchanting. The ideal patient is an intimate friend for life… Maybe intimacy is what life is all about.” He adds, “I love people; and medicine is simply friend after friend after friend.”

“We never charged money, or carried malpractice insurance; believing that these are the horror of a modern medical practice,” said Adams. The work was supported by part time jobs. We found that the joy of practicing medicine unencumbered is so great that it is even worth paying for!

Patch helped found the Gesundheit! Institute in West Virginia. A model for solving the problems of health care delivery, the Institute is a non-profit, holistic health care community. In 1994, Patch was honored with the Institute of Noetic Sciences Award for Creative Altruism.

Now, about the movie: Described as a drama/ comedy, it focuses on five years of the doctor’s early life. It stars Robin Williams as Patch Adams, Monica Potter, and Peter Coyote. Patch was invited to spend a week with Robin and his family at their home so that Robin could study him for the role.

“Robin is the actor I wanted,” said Patch. During his visit, they were two of a kind, as they roamed the hallways clowning for very sick children at U.C. San Francisco Hospital.

Tom Shadyac, the director, co-producers Mike Farrell (TV MASH fame), and Marsha Williams (Robin’s wife), and Robin all say they want the movie to be about, “joyful, relentless service in a humorous context.”

The doctor hopes the film and surrounding publicity will help raise money for the ongoing construction of the 40-bed medical facility and hospital on his 31 acres in West Virginia, and the Gesundheit! Institute, where care, not cost, will always be the only concern.

WATCH the trailer below —and get more information contact the Gesundheit! Institute, visit their website at PatchAdams.org

(Written by Bill Asenjo, PhD candidate, The University of Iowa)

17 Year-Old Out To Prove That Guys Are Not Idiots!

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Good News Network

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Oct 10, 1998

Rob Sowell, 17, has always loved children. Even when he was in elementary school, he gave up recesses to watch the smaller kids while their teachers stepped out. But he feels as a teenager that society unfairly views with disfavor the expressing of his love…Rob set out to change things.

When he tried to become a babysitter parents resisted hiring him. One mom confessed to Rob that she didn’t like hiring male-sitters. But he was her last resource.

That night while getting Kris, 7, ready for bed he realized that Andrew, 5, was missing. Rob tells it like this: “We couldn’t find him so I put a jacket on Kris and brought him outside with me. With a flashlight in one hand and Kris in the other, I looked in every backyard and bush. I went to Andrew’s school directly behind the house. I saw him walking towards me and I started shouting, ANDREW…but he wouldn’t answer. When he got about 5 feet in front of me and I was ready to carry him home, I noticed his eyes were shut.”

He recalled his sociology class project about sleep disorders. It cautioned, “Never touch or disrupt a person that is sleep-walking as it may cause harm. Direct the person home, not physically but verbally.”

“So I did,” exclaimed Rob, “And we were Home Sweet Home again in no time. Later Kris told his parents how his “favorite babysitter,” as he calls me, was able to handle the situation. A newspaper article appeared in the Niagara Falls Review interviewing him about the incident. Rob reports, “Ever since then, parents in my city trust male-sitters to babysit and I proved the fact that guys could be as responsible with children as girls are.”

(Submitted by Rob Sowell, Niagara Falls, ONT, Canada)

UPS Sends Senior Managers Into Hell’s Kitchen to Help Poor

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Good News Network

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Oct 9, 1998

Feeding in soup kitchen-Terry Brown UPS employee award winner

Call it a crash course in “The Shocking Facts of Life 101”, when United Parcel Service executives from around the country are air-dropped into Hell’s Kitchen of New York, or soup lines in Chicago, or the rural poverty of McAllen, TX or Chattanooga, TN.

These white-collar execs learn about poverty, hunger, and disease by living and working among inner city and rural poor, where they are required to use their problem solving skills to help make a difference.

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Operation Smile Turning Disfigured Faces into Smiling Faces

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Good News Network

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Sep 1, 1998

In 16 years, Operation Smile has treated over 45,000 children and young adults with deformities in the U.S. and abroad, offering hope and changing the face of the world one smile at a time. Founded by Dr. William Magee and his wife, Kathleen, the group has been turning deformed faces into smiling faces in countries all over the world, donating $28 million in medical services each year.

Romania-

This July, 60 Operation Smile volunteers joined a two-week mission to Romania and treated 160 patients. Since 1991, more than 700 surgeries have been performed in Romania – with a great deal of care going to the country’s many abandoned and orphaned children.

Morocco-

In August, nurses, doctors and technicians came from the U.S., Canada, Italy, and the Middle East for the first-ever OpSmile mission to Morocco, offering training programs for local medical staffs, and care for 126 patients. One 27-year-old man who grew a mustache to cover his cleft lip burst into tears after seeing his new smile, repaired just in time for his marriage ceremonies.

Thailand–

On October 10, a successful 10-day mission to Thailand concluded after surgeries on 167 patients. One of them, Som Namwong was a 77-year old poor farmer with a horribly disfiguring cleft lip. The medical team was delighted when the kind-faced man was chosen to receive surgery. When his cleft lip was repaired he was dubbed ‘Handsome.’ He told them that the Thai people believe that if a person lives a good life, he will be allowed to return for another life. Som said he would like to return in a life where he could speak English- so he can speak with Operation Smile to express his joy.

The Smile Train in China

The Smile Train is a new vehicle in Operation Smile’s quest to help children in developing countries. With full support of the government and U.S. Companies doing business there, The Smile Train volunteer medical teams will visit small villages in China. Working side by side with local surgeons for two weeks, the team will operate on hundreds of children and provide extensive surgical training and education for the local medical community.

When The Smile Train pulls out of town, it will leave behind $150,000 worth of operating room equipment and computers. In exchange for the free equipment and training, the local hospital makes a commitment to operate on one indigent child a day, for free. The hospitals will be supported with missions and supplies to help them keep that promise. After five years, local professionals will be performing 12 times as many surgeries as The Smile Train – an important step toward self-sufficiency

Youth Groups Raise Money, Awareness

Op Smile has its own youth club that not only raises funds and awareness, but trains youth to help on Medical Missions. Like two New Jersey high school juniors who were part of the Thailand team.

Melissa Fogg and Seung Shin from Lawrence High School,with support and guidance from their club sponsor, Christine Stockton, a New Jersey teacher – played with the children to entertain and distract them from their upcoming surger-ies. They play games, blow bubbles and draw pictures with children of all ages. They traveled to day care centers and taught many Thai children the proper way to brush their teeth.

Operation Smile’s sixth annual Youth Leadership Conference, held in Salt Lake City from July 31-Aug. 5, attracted about 370 high school and college students from 22 states and eight countries for a rigorous week of activities, which included speakers, educational workshops with medical professionals, team-building games and physical challenges (white-water rafting and ropes courses). At the end of the conference, the youths held a three-hour dance marathon, bringing in more than $18,000 through pledges and passing a hat.

(Visit Operation Smile on the Web)

Florida Firefighters Honored On the Internet

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Good News Network

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Aug 30, 1998

Firefighters in Dallas, SMU-TV video clip

The men and women who fought the fires in Florida this summer are heroes (and Good Samaritans). Here are some excerpts from Florida’s Internet sites expressing the gratitude felt toward the firefighters who saved homes and lives…

THANK YOU!…. to the firefighters who stayed after everyone pulled back, and kept our house from burning. The thermometer locked up at 158F on the front porch. You guys and girls are truly heroes. Our family is forever indebted to you for what you have done for us. You will always be in our thoughts and prayers. — The Shaffer family

At times, the smoke was so thick you couldn’t see our cars in the drive, and ash covered everything…. We could have lost everything without the efforts of these wonderful people who left their loved ones at home to literally keep us out of the fire…. THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US! –Roselyn Shiver

I would like to thank any firefighter that was in Palm Coast for saving my and my friends’ houses!!! You were tired, but still fighting!!! The fire was so close even the grass all burned up!! I can’t believe how hot it must be if the bottom of my friend’s roof was melted!!! –Al Volt.

This morning I saw a report of a group of firefighters from S.C. who took up a collection to buy a wagon to replace the one that was burned in the fire that belonged to a 3-year-old boy. It brought tears to my eyes. As if they didn’t have enough to do…they wanted to make the little boy happy. Everyone in the country is proud of the magnificent job you’re doing!–Vicki Strykowski, Plainfield, Ill.

My daughter came over to my house in tears and was saying she left my son-in-law up on the roof with a water hose as fire was threatening the area they lived in. Within the hour, my son-in-law arrived and said the fire was coming through the woods in a wall of flame. He left his house as three fire trucks pulled up, he thought there was no way that his house could be saved…. They were allowed to go back the next evening and lo and behold there was absolutely no damage. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all the heroes who fought that fire, and also to their families who gave and gave. May God bless all of you.–Ben O’Steen