Golden Goods: Real News That Makes You Glad To Be Alive!

2009-11-04T00:46:00.001-05:00

My favorite quote ever, "I don't wanna face my fears! I'm afraid of 'em!!!" - SpongeBob SquarePants - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-10-31T17:55:00.001-04:00

Responding to my son's inquiry about vacation,... "No, we're not going on vacation again for another six months. We're just gonna stay here in Orlando."

2009-10-31T14:33:00.001-04:00

just put up a new chandelier over dining room table. $35 on craigslist. Wife loves me!

2009-09-30T16:10:00.001-04:00

Just came out of Hershey Chocolate World in PA. What an inspiring man. What a lot of good he did. - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-09-30T10:08:00.001-04:00

just bought a copy of The Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin and is wondering why he never heard if it before? - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-09-26T11:33:00.001-04:00

So, I'm at the grocery store and I discover a thing called "Whole Grain White" bread. What the...?!? LOL! Spin marketing at it's finest!

2009-09-17T16:12:00.001-04:00

You owe it to yourself to try a Coconut Cream Pie food bar by Larabar. Wow, that's good! I wonder if they have an affiliate program? - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-09-17T10:40:00.001-04:00

2 sick children, no sleep for Sarah 'til 4am, power is out 'til 2pm and a goal for 7 more sales in 3 days. We've got that! :) - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-09-14T17:03:00.001-04:00

If success is like a recipe, what's the missing ingredient? - www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off w/ code 126887

2009-09-14T10:27:00.001-04:00

Visited Independence Hall for first time yesterday! Truly sobering. - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-09-12T20:21:00.001-04:00

Live the life YOU imagine. www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off w/ code 126887

2009-09-12T17:34:00.001-04:00

Fully express your true voice. www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off w/ code 126887

2009-09-12T15:19:00.001-04:00

What would you do if you KNEW you couldn't fail? - www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off w/ code 126887

2009-09-12T15:09:00.001-04:00

Weather in Philly is too good! Www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off w/ code 126887

2009-09-12T14:43:00.001-04:00

Mine the gold in your mind. www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off w/ code 126887

2009-09-12T13:30:00.001-04:00

In times of change there's one way to create personal certainty. Learn to www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off w/ code 126887

2009-09-12T11:06:00.001-04:00

Know your potential for yourself at www.KnowForYourself.com. $5 off DVD with coupon code 126887.

2009-09-10T09:18:00.001-04:00

Ever wanted to know for yourself exactly what you're capable of? Get $5 off awesome new DVD at www.KnowForYourself.com with coupon code 126887.

2009-05-28T21:16:00.001-04:00

A sale a day brightens your way. - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-05-28T21:14:00.001-04:00

A sale a day keeps the bill collectors away. - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-05-25T11:25:00.001-04:00

Wow, i love my job! - www.goldMindgroup.com

2009-05-05T08:19:00.001-04:00

The common denominator of successes is they have formed the HABIT of doing what failures won't do. http://ping.fm/WtmoF

Good Samaritan pays woman's $65 grocery bill

2009-04-09T12:30:00.002-04:00

OGDEN -- An Ogden woman cannot believe a stranger paid her $65 bill at the grocery store.
The Ogden Standard-Examiner reports it happened around 8 p.m. Friday at the Albertsons at 20th Street and Harrison Boulevard.
Frances Martinez reached the register but had a problem with her debit card. She stepped aside to call the bank. She says when she came back, the checker had surprising news.
"She goes, ‘The lady behind you paid for all your groceries; $65 worth.' I said, ‘Who was it? What does she look like?'" Martinez said.
But the woman was gone. The checker said all the Good Samaritan asked was that Martinez smile at four people.
Martinez tells the Standard-Examiner she went home and cried. "That doesn't happen, hardly ever. Now with the economy so bad, it's wonderful that someone would do that," Martinez said.

Tony Dungy gets inspiration from readers

2009-02-13T12:07:00.001-05:00

By Kevin Smetana, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer

Tony Dungy signs his latest book, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance, for former Tampa Bay Lightning General Manager Jay Feaster at Ave Maria Christian gift store Saturday.

[KEVIN SMETANA | Times]

BRANDON — Be bold.

That's the lesson Ilene Stubbs learned from Tony Dungy, and she says it helped save her husband's life.

In August, Fred Stubbs suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident. The doctor said he probably wouldn't make it, but Ilene believed otherwise.

"I looked at the doctor and said, 'I'm going to pray that you're going to have wisdom beyond what you know, and you're going to be amazed at the results,' " she said. "I think Tony speaking out so boldly gives other Christians that opportunity to know they need to speak boldly."

Today, Fred is walking with a cane.

"I truly believe (that) because I spoke boldly to that doctor, he went in and tried just a little bit harder," said Stubbs, one of several hundred Dungy fans at Ave Maria Christian gift store in Brandon on Saturday getting the former NFL coach's autograph.

Dungy, the Bucs' coach from 1996 to 2001, remains an icon in Tampa Bay for his community outreach work, Christian beliefs and calm demeanor. At Ave Maria, he engaged in conversations with fans, shook their hands and thanked them for coming out.

"There's no made-for-television with this guy," said former Tampa Bay Lightning General Manager Jay Feaster, a Brandon resident and one of the first in line Saturday. "He's genuine. He's inspirational."

With co-author Nathan Whitaker at his side, Dungy was promoting his latest book, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance. He also signed copies of his 2007 New York Times best seller, Quiet Strength and his children's book, You Can Do It!

Dungy said hearing people like Ilene Stubbs tell their stories of how he and his books have influenced them is gratifying.

"You go into football hoping to help young men become better players and better people," said Dungy, who recently retired after seven seasons with the Colts. "You hope to have an impact on the guys on your team, but to hear people say the book helped them, that does make me feel good."

Dozens of autograph seekers brought their kids so they could meet a man described by many as the ideal role model for his involvement in charities, including All Pro Dad and the Boys and Girls Club.

"It's a great family moment to see a man of character," said Valrico resident Norman Harris, while waiting in line with his wife and three kids. "For the kids, it's just a great lesson for them."

Once the Harrises reached the front of the line, Dungy let 8-year-old Jake and 6-year-old Henry try on his Super Bowl ring from the Colts' 2006 season.

"It just touched my heart to have somebody with such integrity and such character and faith appreciate my children," their mother, Jessica Harris, said.

Jeanine Johnson, of Valrico, brought her 11-year-old son, Noah, to meet Dungy because he is a "strong example" of how to live a family life. She plans on discussing Uncommon with her son as he reads it while approaching his teenage years.

"There are negative sports figures out there, and it's too bad that our young people look up to them," she said. "So I think this is a refreshing change."

Noah got a compliment from Dungy for his retro, creamsicle Mike Alstott jersey.

"He's a good person," Noah said. "He's really respectful, especially to his (former players). I wish he would have kept coaching instead of retiring now."

Dungy has been busy since retiring, doing 13 book signings in eight days. He said he believes it was the right time to leave the game, but wouldn't rule out a return to the NFL.

"I never would have foreseen myself writing books, and here I am, so I guess I can't close any doors," said Dungy, who is back living in Tampa. "But really I see myself doing other things."

Kevin Smetana can be reached at ksmetana@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2439.

Technorati Tags: inspiration,significance,tony dungy,uncommon,uncommon: finding your path to significance

del.icio.us Tags: inspiration,significance,tony dungy,uncommon,uncommon: finding your path to significance

IceRocket Tags: inspiration,significance,tony dungy,uncommon,uncommon: finding your path to significance

BuzzNet Tags: inspiration,significance,tony dungy,uncommon,uncommon: finding your path to significance

Program helps ‘big losers’ win healthful lives

2009-02-07T08:47:00.001-05:00

Program challenges students to become ‘biggest losers’

Photo illustration by Jaclyn Cosgrove

These four students — Kara Scifres, an elementary education junior; Kate Wear, an English freshman; Michael Ennis, a business management entrepreneurship sophomore; and Tiffany Farney, an advertising junior — are half of the employees from the Interlibrary Services participating in the office’s own version of Biggest Loser, a popular NBC show about weight loss. The group’s competition runs from Feb. 2 to April 27. The four students agreed they want to not only lose weight but also lead healthier lifestyles.

By Nicholas Mendez, Staff Writer, OColly.com

The time for change is just around the corner, and the rewards could benefit all.

This is the outlook of participants involved in the Interlibrary Services weight loss challenge.

“I came to college and started studying a lot,” said Michael Ennis, director of the ILS weight loss challenge.
“As a result, I started eating bad foods.”

Ennis’ story is similar to most first-time college students. However, Ennis has decided he is going to use his weight gain to become the biggest loser.

Instead of pursuing his weight loss goals alone, he has decided to lead a group of aspiring “losers” on a path leading to long-term success.

Working in the Interlibrary Services department on campus, “team trim,” which Ennis leads, has started a weight loss support group that will help students develop a healthier lifestyle.

Through an emphasis on proper nutrition, portion control and exercise, team trim focuses on the idea of losing weight through means of a new lifestyle, according to an official document team trim provided.
Ennis and team trim have declared that change is necessary.

As of last Monday, Ennis’ New Year’s Resolution became more than an idea with good intentions; it became a reality.

“I wake up at 5 a.m. Monday through Thursday,” Ennis said. “It’s paying off.”

The cost of entrance is $1 per week and is open to all OSU students.

Those interested should visit the ILS office on the west side of the library’s first floor.

To make the challenge interesting, the group has decided to include weekly bonuses.

Each week there will be a weigh in, according to an official document provided by team trim.

The person who has lost the most weight by the end of the week will be rewarded with a prize.

The person who loses the most overall weight will be crowned the biggest loser and walk away with a grand prize equivalent to the value of all money gathered throughout the 12-week competition.

Trying to maintain a healthful lifestyle while carrying a full load of school can be difficult.

“It’s an accountability thing,” Ennis said. “It’s like a family here.”

Others like Ennis have decided to join the competition not only for the prizes but also for support to lose weight and keep it off.

“I want to participate in this weight loss challenge so I can have the support of friends,” said Karen Scifres, an elementary education junior.

“And also so I can buy a new wardrobe soon.”

Tiffany Farvey, an advertising junior, agreed that it helps to have support during the challenge.

“It’s not just about losing weight, but also about changing my lifestyle,” Farvey said.

“It also helps to have friends wake up with you at 6 a.m. to work out with me.”

Technorati Tags: biggest loser,healthful,healthy,lose weight,loser,michael ennis,weight loss

del.icio.us Tags: biggest loser,healthful,healthy,lose weight,loser,michael ennis,weight loss

IceRocket Tags: biggest loser,healthful,healthy,lose weight,loser,michael ennis,weight loss

BuzzNet Tags: biggest loser,healthful,healthy,lose weight,loser,michael ennis,weight loss

43 Things Tags: lose weight,be healthy

Web site changing lives in Las Vegas

2009-02-07T08:20:00.001-05:00

from KVBC-TV and MSNBC.com

Susana Cervera lights up when she talks about her years as a makeup artists and aesthetician.

"I love my job, I love my job. I love the makeup. I love everything related to the beauty industry," she gushes.

But her career, which spanned more than 20 years, was abruptly put on hold when she was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent a massive surgery in 2003.

"I had a wonderful doctor that knew what he was doing. He saved my life. I'm very blessed to have (had) this surgery. Even though my life is never going to be the same, I am very happy to be here."

After her recovery, Susana desperately hoped to go back to work. But unfortunately, she couldn't afford her license. That's when she turned to ModestNeeds.org, a nationwide web-based non-profit organization whose mission it is to stop the cycle of poverty before it starts by helping families facing unexpected emergency expensed.

Located 20 miles outside the valley at the beautiful Lowes Lake Las Vegas, team members are entrusted with the difficult task of reading through thousands of applications. Committee member Mike Dickey hopes to get the word out to families living in Nevada that there is help available for them.

Meanwhile, Susana can't wait to repay the favor. She hopes to give back the best way she knows how: by using her talent to make others feel good.

Susana's story is just one of many you can read on ModestNeeds.org. You can also make a donation to the organization and choose the family you want to help.

Technorati Tags: charity,helping others,helping those in need,modest needs,modestneeds.org,philanthropy

del.icio.us Tags: charity,helping others,helping those in need,modest needs,modestneeds.org,philanthropy

IceRocket Tags: charity,helping others,helping those in need,modest needs,modestneeds.org,philanthropy

BuzzNet Tags: charity,helping others,helping those in need,modest needs,modestneeds.org,philanthropy

Home Grown: Retirement leads to a red hot business success

2009-01-29T10:39:00.001-05:00

By Kathy Edwards McFarland, Special to the Reporter-News

Robert Gooch moved from a longtime family packing business to a highly successful sauces company.

Absolutely World Class built its business on its picante sauce, and now has expanded to barbecue sauce.

Robert Gooch started in the family business, Gooch Packing Company, at the age of 12, working part-time.

His business ethic and management style developed through his time as a commercial agriculture major at Texas A&M University, leading him back to the Abilene meat packing company and full-time work as one of Abilene’s major employers until 1986, when the plant was sold.

It was hard on Gooch. He knew the meat packing company, founded and owned by his father Burt D. “Pete” Gooch as a successful and profitable operation, only to be bought by a company in a leveraged buy-out. The parent company did not want to be saddled with a meat packing company, according to Gooch. So though it had been successful, employing about 550 people; it was the business was closed in 1990.

Gooch, now 72 years old, didn’t take to retirement, and began a new business in 1991, starting from scratch, as he puts it.

“I didn’t feel like retirement was a good thing and ran across a recipe developed by a professional cook that did great, so we bought it and refined it for commercial production,” said Gooch. “That recipe is our Absolutely Picante sauce.”

In 1998, the picante recipe won the gold medal at a picante cook-off in Weslaco, sponsored by Texas A&M. Gooch happily brags on the fact that the flavorful condiment is made with the freshest ingredients – vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh jalapenos and the best spices.

“Major companies use tomato paste and water in their production process to save money, we don’t,” said Gooch. “I’m interested in making the best product – not the cheapest.”

Gooch and his staff came up with the Absolutely Wild BBQ Sauce and its milder versions after a lot of experimenting.

“I think what makes it so popular is the three sources of ‘heat,’” said Gooch, who claims the secret is the chipotle. “I don’t think any other barbecue sauce use it as an ingredient.”

Though Gooch won’t reveal how large the Absolutely World Class Inc. operation is, he has described the enterprise as very small, employing about 20 people, and reports the company earns annual sales of less than $1 million.

But the distribution in grocery store chains throughout West Texas and brisk orders through the company Web site, www. absolutelyworldclass.com, are indications of the brand’s popularity.

Cindy Christy, Absolutely World Class plant manager, began managing the operation and developing expansion plans in June 2008.

“I have great expectations for the expansion,” said Christy, who has 25 years experience in production management, mainly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “I would like to see our sales triple, maybe quadruple by the end of 2010.

Christy said a major part of the increased production may come from not only “expanding the brand,” but adding “co-packing” – meaning packaging the picante and barbecue under store brands.

“We have a lot of space in the building Robert owns, I’d say at least 25,000 (square feet), so we can bring in more equipment, possibly automate some of the production, and of course add more employees, so it wouldn’t be difficult at all,” said Christy.

Lana Zullo, Gooch’s youngest daughter, is currently in charge of shipping, and though married and raising three children, sees the new generation of Gooch family business as a source of pride and possibly further involvement.

“I saw my father and grandfather work, and how successfully they ran the packing company. I’d like to follow in their footsteps, if the opportunity arises at Absolutely World Class,” said Zullo.

Robert Gooch

Family: Janelle, wife of 49 years; three grown daughters and seven grandchildren.

Known for: Gooch Meat Packing Company, Absolutely Picante.

Developed/owns: Absolutely World Class, Inc. – producing Absolutely Wild BBQ Sauce, Mildly Wild BBQ Sauce, Absolutely Mild BBQ Sauce and the Absolutely Picante.

Employees: Less than 20

Product distribution area: Majority of grocery stores in West Texas and shipped to 36 states by special order.

Technorati Tags: absolutely picante,absolutely world class,attitude,be your own boss,business,business success,businessman,retirement,robert gooch

del.icio.us Tags: absolutely picante,absolutely world class,attitude,be your own boss,business,business success,businessman,retirement,robert gooch

IceRocket Tags: absolutely picante,absolutely world class,attitude,be your own boss,business,business success,businessman,retirement,robert gooch

BuzzNet Tags: absolutely picante,absolutely world class,attitude,be your own boss,business,business success,businessman,retirement,robert gooch

43 Things Tags: start a business

Rags to riches?

2009-01-16T15:16:00.001-05:00

From the Midland Free Press, By CHRISTINA BERNARDO

In an effort to keep complex items such as textiles from landfills and to extend the life of cloth beyond its original usefulness, Midland resident Louise Sparrow makes one-of-a-kind clothing with used apparel and scrap fabrics.

She makes clothing such as t-shirts, pants, skirts and dresses for children under her label Repurposed.

"I make all kinds of textiles, from chair covers to apparel to home decor," she said. "(Making textiles) uses a lot energy, water and various resources to create, so I'm trying to take that energy that's already been spent, and extend the life of the textile that's been produced.

"I'm keeping the clothes out of the landfill and I'm extending the original investment of energy, and resources, and turning it into something else," she said. "For me it mimics life itself. Nothing alive ever really dies. It just goes into the ground, turns into energy and comes back as something else."

Harvesting fabric is her way of being environmentally-concious.

Before she got into making children's clothing, she was making trapper hats and reusable bags.

"I've always wanted to do more with textiles because there's so much out there," she said. "I started with this because it's small enough that I can do it in a short period of time. I can charge $15 for the boys' t-shirt and $18 for the little girls' dress -- that's not inexpensive. On the other hand, you're also getting a one-of-a-kind, and then I bring my design skills to it."

Sparrow's ultimate talent is what she brings to her Repurposed pieces.

"The design process is very organic. I don't decide that I'm going to make a shirt an orange shirt," she said. "I look at what I've got. I let the fabric inspire the design."

The 50-year-old gets her clothes from local thrift shops.

She will make other clothing sizes upon request.

Sparrow has been sewing most of her life and loves "to turn something into something else."

Sparrow's future for Repurposed is to continue to harvest fabric, but also grow it, so she can create sewing circles and perhaps sell on the Internet.

For more information on Repurposed, contact Sparrow at 527-4023.

Technorati Tags: environmentally conscious,levi strauss,louise sparrow,problem solving,productivity,rags to riches,repurposed

del.icio.us Tags: environmentally conscious,levi strauss,louise sparrow,problem solving,productivity,rags to riches,repurposed

IceRocket Tags: environmentally conscious,levi strauss,louise sparrow,problem solving,productivity,rags to riches,repurposed

BuzzNet Tags: environmentally conscious,levi strauss,louise sparrow,problem solving,productivity,rags to riches,repurposed

Free Inspirational Book Offered by DailyOM Co-Founder Scott Blum

2009-01-16T08:37:00.001-05:00

From the Good Earth Times:

ASHLAND, OR -- 01/14/09 -- Every once in a while we meet someone who inspires us to new possibilities for ourselves simply by the way they approach their own lives. Scott Blum is one of those people. After many successful years as a technological innovator, a critically acclaimed multi-media artist, and the co-founder of the hugely successful inspirational website DailyOM, Blum is now sharing magic and wisdom through the written word.

Blum's new books, "Summer's Path" and "Waiting for Autumn," are written as a series of parables, similar in style to "The Alchemist," "Way of the Peaceful Warrior," and "The Celestine Prophecy." Through a semi-fictional sequence of events and an archetypal cast of characters, his stories awaken us to new ideas, invite us to explore powerful spiritual and healing practices, and draw us into a mystical world where nothing happens by mere coincidence.

For a limited time, those eager to embark on Blum's transformative trek can download the first book in the series, "Summer's Path," for free -- either as an e-book or audio book -- from Blum's website (www.scottblum.net).

"Summer's Path" centers around Don Newport, an engineer who, after losing his job and his health insurance, learns he has a terminal disease and only a few months left to live. In order to spare his beloved wife the burden of exorbitant medical fees, Don begins to seek a way to end his life that won't further traumatize his wife or cause her undue pain. His answer comes when he meets Robert, a brazen angel of death who offers him a rare and unexpected option.

"Summer's Path" makes history as the first time a major self-help publisher has used a free e-book to launch a new series of books. Publisher Hay House is even offering a chance to win a free Kindle to anyone who downloads the story. Those ready to continue on with the series will have to wait until April 7th when "Waiting for Autumn" comes out in hardcover.

Scott Blum and his wife, Madisyn Taylor, live in the mountains of Ashland, Oregon. Together, they run DailyOM: Taylor is responsible for the site's award-winning editorial content, and Blum oversees technology and outreach. Visit Scott Blum on the Internet at www.scottblum.net

Media Contact:
Julia Papps
DailyOM Publicity
541.488.0508 x5
Email Contact

Technorati Tags: dailyom,dailyom.com,e-book,ebook,hay house,madisyn taylor,scott blum,summers path,summer's path,transformation

del.icio.us Tags: dailyom,dailyom.com,e-book,ebook,hay house,madisyn taylor,scott blum,summers path,summer's path,transformation

IceRocket Tags: dailyom,dailyom.com,e-book,ebook,hay house,madisyn taylor,scott blum,summers path,summer's path,transformation

BuzzNet Tags: dailyom,dailyom.com,e-book,ebook,hay house,madisyn taylor,scott blum,summers path,summer's path,transformation

Tubby Says Meyer's Accomplishments Inspirational

2009-01-16T08:18:00.001-05:00

"We're all here for a purpose, and I think coach Meyer's found his purpose. And he's touching and influencing so many lives."

From Keloland.com:

Since surpassing Bob Knight as the winningest coach in NCAA men's basketball history, Don Meyer has received congratulations from many of his friends. Those friends also happen to be some of the biggest names in basketball.

One of those friends is Minnesota coach Tubby Smith, regarded as one of the best coaches in college basketball. He's won a national title, made four Elite Eight appearances, nine Sweet Sixteens and won 422 career games. Fewer than half as many as Don Meyer.

"That's what makes this such a great accomplishment," Smith said. "You think about all the great coaches." Coaches who now look up at Meyer on the all-time wins list. And not only find his body of work exceptional, but the story of what he's been through inspirational.

"Not just to me, but to so many," Smith said. "We're all here for a purpose, and I think coach Meyer's found his purpose. And he's touching and influencing so many lives."

The fact that Meyer knows how to treat his players is a big reason for all the success he's had.

"The accident happened when he was taking his team on a retreat," Smith said. "That alone tells you. I mean, how many coaches would do that? I'll just tell you. There are very few."

Smith is once again having an exceptional season. At 15-1, his Gophers are off to the best start in school history. And what does he talk about to inspire his team? Don Meyer.

"My team knows about coach Meyer and the challenges that he's going through and the struggles he may go through," Smith said. "But he's still getting the job done."

Smith says Meyer may have won 903 games, but his impact on college basketball extends far beyond that.

While Meyer is now the winningest men's basketball coach in NCAA history, he's still chasing another one of his friends for the overall mark. Tennessee's Pat Summit currently has 995 wins.

Technorati Tags: basketball,coach,don meyer,inspirational,inspire,ncaa,tubby smith,winning,winningest

del.icio.us Tags: basketball,coach,don meyer,inspirational,inspire,ncaa,tubby smith,winning,winningest

IceRocket Tags: basketball,coach,don meyer,inspirational,inspire,ncaa,tubby smith,winning,winningest

BuzzNet Tags: basketball,coach,don meyer,inspirational,inspire,ncaa,tubby smith,winning,winningest

Shuttered bakery reopens, rehires workers

2009-01-13T16:47:00.003-05:00

ASHLAND, Ohio (CNN) -- An Ohio bakery shut down in October is bustling again, with 60 eager employees who had expected a Christmas on the unemployment rolls.

Cookie production has resumed and some workers are back on the job at the Archway factory in Ashland, Ohio.

Some 300 workers lost their jobs when the Archway cookie factory in Ashland, Ohio, was suddenly closed by the private equity firm that owned it. The workers also were left without benefits like health insurance.

But then Lance Inc., a Charlotte, North Carolina-based snack food company, purchased Archway at a bankruptcy auction. And last week 60 workers were asked to return immediately, with perhaps more coming back in the months ahead.

Kathy Sexton, a worker at the bakery, had been preparing her children for a very modest holiday.

"They said they understood," Sexton recalls. "They said, 'That's all right, Mom.' You always want to give them more, but ... I didn't think I would be able to."

Now she can.

Tiny Ashland has been struggling. Ohio has lost 200,000 jobs over the past eight years. The recent presidential campaign saw both candidates visiting frequently.

The outlook in Ashland became especially bleak when the Archway plant closed. Workers at the bakery said they felt betrayed when Archway at first said there would be more work in a day or two, but then changed the locks.

Rita Devan remembers.

"They just kept taking and taking until there was nothing left to take," Devan says, "and they didn't care that they were putting 300 people out of work."

Things are different now.

When it promised to reopen the bakery, Lance gave all 300 former Archway workers a $1,500 prepaid debit card.

"I was crying," Devan says of the gift. "I am like, 'What are these people doing? They don't know me. They don't know us. They don't know any of the Archway people. And they are giving each and every one of us $1,500.' "

Sexton -- the woman who'd been preparing her kids for a meager holiday -- says of the $1,500 gift: "It was awesome. My first thought was, 'I can give my kids a Christmas.' "

David Singer, CEO of Lance, says the gift cards were a way of letting Ashland know the new owners are different. "We wouldn't do it willy-nilly," Singer says. "We do want to make money. But this is the pool of folks that we intend to hire. We just wanted to let them know who we were."

The 60 workers rehired so far are earning their previous salary and retained their seniority.

They also were provided health insurance from day one.

The bakery now produces Lance cookies that are sold to big chains like Target and Wal-Mart.

But production of Archway cookies is scheduled to resume soon. Lance has told the employees that it hopes to have the plant fully operational by the end of 2009 -- that is, five lines of cookies being produced simultaneously.

The new owners say that if new orders keep flowing in, more jobs will follow.

Terry Mowry is another worker rehired by Lance. He says what has happened is hard to describe: "You just saw life being breathed right back into the face of these people."

And Devan says with a laugh: "I walked into the garage last night, and my husband says, 'You actually smell like a cookie again.' "

"He said, 'Boy, I missed that smell.' "

Technorati Tags: cookies,lance,cookie,respect,archway,good business

del.icio.us Tags: cookies,lance,cookie,respect,archway,good business

IceRocket Tags: cookies,lance,cookie,respect,archway,good business

BuzzNet Tags: cookies,lance,cookie,respect,archway,good business

Five-figure bonuses stun Chicago plant workers

2009-01-13T15:53:00.005-05:00

Owners of ball bearings company reward workers for years of service

CHICAGO - Dave Tiderman wondered if the decimal point was in the wrong place when he opened his $35,000 company bonus. Jose Rojas saw his $10,000 check and thought, "That can't be right."

Valentin Dima watched co-workers breaking down in tears over their bonus checks and didn't trust his emotions. He drove home first, then opened his envelope: $33,000.

Year-end bonuses are rare these days. Rarer still is what the Spungen family, owners of a ball bearings company in Waukegan, Ill., about 40 miles north of Chicago, did as they sold the business.
They gave out whopping thank-you bonuses. A total of $6.6 million is being shared by just 230 employees of Waukegan-based Peer Bearing Co., with facilities in England and the United States. Amounts varied and were based on years of service.

"They treated us like extended family," said Maria Dima, who works at Peer Bearing along with her husband, Valentin, and received a somewhat smaller check than he did. "We won the lottery."

With $100 million in sales last year, Peer recently was acquired by a Swedish company for an undisclosed amount. Danny Spungen, whose grandfather founded the company in 1941, said it was a unanimous family decision to thank employees with the bonuses.

Laurence and Florence Spungen and their four children decided on a bonus formula a year before the sale closed to SKF Group, "a gamble that we would come out OK as well," Danny Spungen said.

He and other family members signed, by hand, two thank-you cards to each employee, one in Spanish and one in English. Each card was printed with all the workers' names and the years they were hired. The text expressed gratitude for "the loyalty and hard work of our employees over the years."

The new owners intend to operate Peer as a wholly owned subsidiary. Workers have been told that most will keep their jobs, and life at the company hasn't changed much since the party in mid-September when the bonuses were distributed.

Incongruously, the bonuses coincided with the U.S. economic meltdown. While neighbors and friends faced new financial strains, the Peer employees could breathe easier.

"I know people who work for corporate America are not going to get treated like that. And most of the family owned businesses are not going to treat you like that," Tiderman said. "This is something that just really doesn't happen."

Technorati Tags: bonus,bonuses,economic meltdown,generosity,peer,skf group

del.icio.us Tags: bonus,bonuses,economic meltdown,generosity,peer,skf group

IceRocket Tags: bonus,bonuses,economic meltdown,generosity,peer,skf group

BuzzNet Tags: bonus,bonuses,economic meltdown,generosity,peer,skf group

"I don't think like that anymore."

2009-01-09T12:40:00.001-05:00

Alex Wilson is smiling again after winning excellence award

by Iain Lundy, from the Evening Times Online

TWO years ago Alex Wilson had it made. He had a successful job, owned houses in England and France and was a partner in a luxury apartment business in Brazil.

The engineer drove plush cars, swam in his private pool, played tennis on his own court and had plans to build a golf course. But in January 2007 his world collapsed.

Cancer - which he had suffered 10 years previously - returned and he lost his job, his business partners deserted him and his marriage broke down.

Alex, 54, from Motherwell, was forced to return to Lanarkshire penniless and with no home to go to.

He contemplated suicide but, after almost two years in the doldrums, he is again on the straight and narrow and says his is a classic tale of "riches to rags to riches".

He has managed to turn his life back around thanks to the support he received in his home town, particularly a scheme run by Motherwell College, which has helped him relaunch a new career.

After completing his engineering apprenticeship in the old Lanarkshire steelworks, Alex went to work in England for British Aerospace and began to enjoy the good life.

He said: "I had worked hard and along with some friends I bought some holiday apartments in Brazil. They were full all year round and the income was brilliant."

But things started to go wrong when his stomach cancer came back and he was treated in France.

"My partners obviously thought I was not going to last. They got together and effectively wrote me out of the business. I had cashed in 85% of my pension to put it into the business, so all that was gone.

Alex then stopped working and his third marriage ended in divorce.

He said: "I had a couple of T-shirts, two pairs of jeans and a jacket to my name. There was only one thing I could do and that was go back to my home land.

"North Lanarkshire Council was brilliant. I arrived in the morning and by mid-afternoon it had set me up with a flat in Shotts and given me some money.

"I am not a Catholic but the local priest, Father Lamb, came round that night with three bags of shopping."

Through the JobCentre, Alex was put in touch with the "Support Employment" football project run by Motherwell College, Motherwell FC and Careers Scotland.

He has now been presented with Careers Scotland's Over-20 Excellence Award at a ceremony at Glasgow Science Centre.

He added: "A year ago I just wanted to die. I don't think like that any more. "

This summer Alex hopes to graduate from the college in Swedish massage and reflexology - and use his new skills to work again.

Technorati Tags: adversity,charity,overcome,overcoming,overcoming tragedy,positive,positive thinking,rags to riches

del.icio.us Tags: adversity,charity,overcome,overcoming,overcoming tragedy,positive,positive thinking,rags to riches

IceRocket Tags: adversity,charity,overcome,overcoming,overcoming tragedy,positive,positive thinking,rags to riches

BuzzNet Tags: adversity,charity,overcome,overcoming,overcoming tragedy,positive,positive thinking,rags to riches

43 Things Tags: make new friends,get a job,start my own business,become financially independent,meet new people,never stop learning

Inspirational athlete: Tom Daley, swimmer

2009-01-09T11:32:00.001-05:00

"You have to not care about what anyone else thinks if you are trying to excel in something."

This PE & Sport Today article is from August 2008. To receive the latest issue, subscribe here.

Newly-crowned European diving champion, teenager Tom Daley, talks about preparing for the Olympics and how he juggled school and sport.

Tom Daley is an extraordinary boy. As most children prepare to move from the comfort of their primaries up to ‘big school’, 10 year-old Tom was preparing to become British U18 Diving Champion. Then, in February this year, he qualified for the Beijing Olympics: he’ll be just 14 years and 79 days old when he dives for Britain at the world’s greatest sporting showpiece.

And in March 2008, Tom became European diving champion and with it wrote his name into the record books as Britain’s youngest diving gold medallist. On the way to the podium the teenager managed to dispatch both the current World Champion and World Cup champion in the Men’s 10m Platform.

Since his selection, the media have tried to establish just who exactly is the youngest ever Olympian. Does it really matter? Tom Daley has his sights set higher than that particular record, as PE & Sport Today found out.

At what age did you start diving and how did you get started?
I went along for swimming lessons at my local pool one day when I was eight years old and saw some children on the diving boards doing somersaults and thought that it looked exciting and would be a fun thing to try out. I had a go and just took to it.

Did you turn out to be a good swimmer too at that age?
Well, I had learned to swim quite early, at about three or four years old, and I got my 2,000m distance badge before I stopped my lessons. But no, I was just a regular swimmer.

When did you realise on your own that you were so talented?
Not until I won the British U18 title when I was 10. It was only then when it really sank in what I could potentially achieve.

Were you ever told you were not good enough?
Yes, at around the same age (10), I was learning a new dive and was standing on the platform, crying and saying that I couldn’t do it to my former coach. My current coach Andy Banks was there at the time. He went up to my coach and he told him that I was never going to make it. I think he changed his mind later!

How supportive are your teachers and your school (Eggbuckland Community College in Plymouth) in general?
They are very supportive of me. They give me extra work to do while I’m away diving and catch-up stuff when I return. My school has held special receptions for me, for example after my BBC award but I see school as an important support network for the good times and when things don’t go right too. They support me regardless of what happens with my diving.

Does your schoolwork suffer?
No, it doesn’t really suffer. I’m still in all the top sets but long term I’ll probably eventually have a tutor with me on the long trips away, when I’m training or in competition.

How are you treated by your fellow pupils? Is there any jealousy?
All my friends understand what I do and are very happy for me. I get the odd joke about diving and the kit I have to wear for my sport but it doesn’t bother me. You have to not care about what anyone else thinks if you are trying to excel in something. I try to stay focused.

Are you good at any other sports at school? Do PE teachers expect you to be good at other sports?
I don’t enjoy sports like football and rugby and I’m not very good at them, so generally ‘no’, I’m not particularly good at PE. My teachers and friends don’t naturally expect me to be good just because I’m good at diving, so that’s ok!

Do you think that you have inspired other young people you’ve known to become involved in diving?
If I have inspired any young people who are known to me or not to get involved in any sport – not just diving – then I’d consider that an honour.
As it’s not the most obvious sport for children to get involved in, do you have any ideas about how to make the sport more accessible?
It’s not easy, as there are only five Olympic diving pools in the UK (Plymouth, Southampton, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield). Perhaps if more children gave it a go, there would be more demand to build the pools.

(…We discuss dry land training where divers try out and perfect new dives before training in the pool. Athletes use rigs and harnesses with elastic cords to practice somersaults and twists…)

Working in the harnesses is really good fun. Maybe that could be a way of getting children to have a go at diving, without the pool first putting people off.

It’s quite a challenge for any experienced athlete to deal not only with the pressures of competition but also the demands of the media. Do you get any expert, formal assistance as part of your training?
As part of the Visa sponsorship programme, I have two mentors, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Steve Redgrave. They give me advice on how to handle any tricky aspects of being an elite athlete. I’ve got their mobile numbers, email and I can go on Facebook whenever I need to ask their advice.

Do you ever feel fear when you dive and, if so, how do you overcome it?
Yes, lots of divers experience fear. I occasionally get scared when I’m learning new dives and it can happen when I’m on the platform, in competition. The fear never permanently goes away but it gets much easier to deal with it. I’ve learned to block out any negatives and focus on what I need to do.

You could potentially compete in four or five Olympics. Do you have any fixed objectives about what you want to achieve?
I’d like to still be competing in 2024 but I don’t think I could give it all up before I’ve won Olympic Gold.

Do you have heroes in any other sports?
I’m impressed with Lance Armstrong. I read his book and could identify with his battles with cancer as my Dad had a brain tumor. What he achieved in his sport was amazing.

Do you feel that you get the support and facilities you need in the UK?
The facilities are not great in Plymouth but there are plans for improvements. The main issue for me is being able to have my family present at competitions, as it’s great to know they are there in the audience watching me. I’m not sure whether my parents can afford to travel to Beijing yet, so the money side can be a worry. Diving isn’t one of the high-profile sports so the funding is very limited.

What advice would you pass on to other pupils who dream of playing sport at an international level?
Work hard and success will follow. I believe that if you are constantly focused on what you want to achieve, the results will come.

Tina Ryan is a freelance journalist

florida gators, bcs champions, golds gym, florida oklahoma, gators football, national champions, oklahoma sooners, gator nation, university of florida

Technorati Tags: achievement,beijing,diver,diving,excellence,focus,olympics,success,tom daley

del.icio.us Tags: achievement,beijing,diver,diving,excellence,focus,olympics,success,tom daley

IceRocket Tags: achievement,beijing,diver,diving,excellence,focus,olympics,success,tom daley

BuzzNet Tags: achievement,beijing,diver,diving,excellence,focus,olympics,success,tom daley

43 Things Tags: be happy,exercise regularly,eat healthier,run a marathon,be more confident

Changing with the times: 5 volunteering trends

2009-01-04T12:07:00.001-05:00

by Connie Midey - The Arizona Republic

In the decades that volunteer centers have played matchmaker for people who want to donate time and the non-profit groups that need them, community service has undergone a makeover.

As people became busier and lifestyles changed, "we've responded to the change in demand for volunteer opportunities," said Rhonda Oliver, president and CEO of HandsOn Greater Phoenix.

Here are five trends she has seen and examples of volunteer opportunities for each available through HandsOn (www.handsonphoenix.org or 602-973-2212):

Episodic volunteering

For people who can't commit to serving on a regular basis, episodic volunteering offers opportunities to work as time permits.

Opportunity: Volunteers for the American Heart Association's Heart Walk on Feb. 28 will help set up the day before and staff registration and food booths, work along the route and perform other duties on the day of the event. Shifts last as little as two hours.

Family-friendly volunteering

"Parents want to instill the value of service in their kids," Oliver said. They also want to spend time together, and working on a community service project is a way to achieve both goals.

Opportunity: Families contribute to tasks such as organizing donations and pricing items at Hospice of the Valley's White Dove Thrift Store.

Student volunteering

Increasingly, students are getting involved. In the process of creating a "civic transcript" that makes them more appealing to colleges, many learn community service's less tangible rewards.

Opportunity: Students age 16 or 17 with signed permission from a parent can sort, pack and distribute food for the St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance. Those ages 12-15 must be accompanied by an adult.

Boomer volunteering

"There's a lot of research that Baby Boomers don't want to play golf and putz around in the garden every day," Oliver said. "They want to serve and enjoy a second chapter in their lives."

Opportunity: Mesa Public Schools needs Boomers and seniors to tutor during the school year.

Corporate volunteering

Many companies support volunteerism so wholeheartedly that they give their employees time off to work on service projects.

Opportunity: The city of Phoenix's Weedwackers tackle team-friendly projects such as rescuing Piestewa Peak from weeds that crowd out native plants and create fire hazards.

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8120 or connie.midey@arizonarepublic .com.

Technorati Tags: boomer,change,community service,donate time,volunteer,volunteering

del.icio.us Tags: boomer,change,community service,donate time,volunteer,volunteering

IceRocket Tags: boomer,change,community service,donate time,volunteer,volunteering

BuzzNet Tags: boomer,change,community service,donate time,volunteer,volunteering

43 Things Tags: make a difference,volunteer more,serve others

Boy Scout reaches Eagle rank

2009-01-04T11:48:00.001-05:00

By ERIN PLUMMER

Ray Mongeau/Citizen photo Parker Raus pins the mother's Eagle Scout pin on his mother, Holly Raus, during Saturday's Eagle Scout induction ceremony at the Gilford Library.

GILFORD — Scouting's highest honor was presented Saturday to a man in the community whose years of work resulted in attaining the rank of Eagle Scout.

Parker Raus, a sophomore at Gilford High School, was presented the badge during a ceremony at the Gilford Public Library.

Raus was escorted to the front of the room by his mother Holly and father Bob, who is also an assistant scoutmaster.
He also had visitors from across the country, including his grandparents from Rochester, N.Y., and his old scoutmaster from Boca Raton, Fla. A webcast was being done as well to let relatives in other areas see the ceremony.

"We're proud of you, Parker. We also have concerns and wishes and joys for boys around the country," said Carl Gebhardt, scoutmaster for Troop 243.

Eagle Scout is the highest rank for a Boy Scout, achieved after four years of consistent service and hard work. The rank is attained by only one percent of Boy Scouts, with the first Eagle Badge in Troop 234 being given in 1957.

Raus started his scouting career in his old home of Boca Raton, Fla., under scoutmaster Charlie Glover.

Glover said the troop would go to summer camp with another troop from North Carolina. Glover and the other scoutmaster discussed Raus' progress and both agreed they'd want to go to his Eagle ceremony if possible.

The other scoutmaster was not able to attend, but sent his congratulations with Glover.

"This is the joy I personally get in scouting, seeing young men go from the little blue-shirted guys in the back to an adult on the verge of something great," Glover said, calling ceremonies like Saturday's "an example to set for our community and our young children. I think that's what it's about, not just congratulating him on a wonderful job done, not just welcoming him in the Eagle Scout fraternity."

Raus moved to Gilford more than two years ago and settled into Troop 243. Fellow scout Albert Doyle recalled how he met Raus as a neighbor before the rest of the troop met him. Doyle said Raus has a "passion for playing guitar" and owns seven stringed instruments, including a bass guitar, mandolin, and others.

Raus has "learned to play all of them" since he came to Gilford, Doyle said.

Doyle recalled skiing trips with the troop, including Raus getting lost at Sunday River and his father trying to get a hold of him on his cell phone before he returned to the group.

aus' Eagle Scout Project was constructing a puppet theater for the new Gilford Library, a project that Raus said took more than 300 hours to complete with much help from his father.

"Parker is always up for a challenge," Doyle said. "He is always committed."

Bob Raus spoke of how he started scouting and found the Boy Scouts teaches important lessons.

"For my son to reach Eagle means a lot to me," Bob Raus said. "To me it embodies what we want this world to be. When he was 11 and I was an assistant scoutmaster, he said to me 'dad, I want to be an Eagle. I said 'I can tell you have the spirit of an Eagle.'"

Bob and Holly Raus both said there were many challenges along the way to attaining Eagle, though both his parents, especially his mother, pushed and encouraged him to do the necessary work.

Holly Raus pinned the Eagle badge onto her son as Bob Raus presented the Eagle certificate.

Letters of congratulation from the Gilford Board of Selectmen, Gov. John Lynch, Executive Councilor Ray Burton, U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, and President Bush, among others, also were presented.

Parker Raus said the next step is working toward Eagle Palms, a series of badges awarded to Eagle Scouts.

"I'm just happy that all these people are here for me," Raus said. "It means a lot, and all these people who come from far away."

Robert Raus presents his son Parker Raus with the Eagle Scout certificate while Parker's mother, Holly, looks on during Saturday afternoon's Eagle Scout induction ceremony at the Gilford Library. Ray Mongeau/ Citizen photo

Ray Mongeau/Citizen photo Parker Raus's mother, Holly Raus, pins on the Eagle badge during Saturday afternoon's Eagle Scout induction ceremony at the Gilford Library.

Technorati Tags: eagle scout,help others,honor,inspiration,inspiring youth,personal development

del.icio.us Tags: eagle scout,help others,honor,inspiration,inspiring youth,personal development

IceRocket Tags: eagle scout,help others,honor,inspiration,inspiring youth,personal development

BuzzNet Tags: eagle scout,help others,honor,inspiration,inspiring youth,personal development

43 Things Tags: become an eagle scout

Yasmin Khanam: Rags to riches

2009-01-03T00:26:00.001-05:00

By Awad Mustafa, Staff Reporter

The worst of economic times seem to be working best for Dubai-based venture capitalist Yasmin Khanam.

The 26-year-old CEO of two investment firms – DPI Ventures and Monarch Independent – said the global credit crunch has helped her business despite a global downturn in the economy.

"Investors in the UK want to take their money out and make it work for them abroad," Khanam said.

"Dubai offers the best opportunity for them and is highly reputed. Even after the credit crunch, high net-worth individuals feel confident that investing here will work for them."

Years after leaving home at 17 with only £18 (Dh96.49) in her pocket and becoming a single mother at 22, Khanam sits at the helm of a multi-million dollar business empire as chairwoman of both investment companies.

Looking back, Khanam confides she is a poster girl for a rags-to-riches story. At age four, Khanam, the eldest of four children, moved with her Indian father and her then 17-year-old Bangladeshi mother to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Living a sheltered life where she was rarely allowed to mix with others, or stay outdoors after dark, Khanam had no clue what the world had in store for her.

"At six o’clock the curtains would be drawn and we would be told to go to bed, I missed out on a lot, all my school proms, friendships and life, but I guess my mother was just protecting me in her own way," said Khanam.

Rebellious streak

While remaining dutiful to her parents’ family traditions, Khanam secretly harboured a rebellious streak that only came to light when she would sneak away to a local motorsport circuit at weekends. "On weekends when I was supposed to be at the mosque, I used to sneak off to the Knock Hill circuit in hot pants and hold the start-off flag and meet people there," she said.

During those races she met the father of her child who at that time was twice her age.

"I met my first boyfriend at Knock Hill. For me at that age I thought I was in love because he seemed a lot more mature than the people I met then," she said.

Khanam rejected an arranged marriage, stayed with her boyfriend for four years while working on odd jobs. She was estranged for eight years from her parents. She then decided to leave her boyfriend to start her own career.

She saved her earnings and invested her money in a property. She refurbished it, sold it at a handsome profit and then re-invested in five more properties. Four years later, she lives in her Palm Jumeirah villa while running two companies in Dubai.

Her clients, she said, rub shoulders with the likes of British entrepreneur Richard Branson and National Basketball Association superstar Jason Bell.

Dubai’s positive spirit

Her choice of moving to Dubai was not just because it’s a global business hub but also due to the positive attitude of its people.

"In Scotland, I have a Porsche and a nice flat. Being a young Asian single mother and having all that, people automatically think I am a drug dealer or a woman of ill repute," she said.

"I have had my car keyed and battery acid splashed on it, but in Dubai people are positive and enjoy each other’s company without trying to jump into each other’s wallet or judge you."

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur,entrepreneurship,fearless,financial success,investing,vc,venture capital,venture capitalist,yasmin khanam

del.icio.us Tags: entrepreneur,entrepreneurship,fearless,financial success,investing,vc,venture capital,venture capitalist,yasmin khanam

IceRocket Tags: entrepreneur,entrepreneurship,fearless,financial success,investing,vc,venture capital,venture capitalist,yasmin khanam

BuzzNet Tags: entrepreneur,entrepreneurship,fearless,financial success,investing,vc,venture capital,venture capitalist,yasmin khanam

43 Things Tags: work because I like to,not because I have to,become financially independent,spend less time fooling around on the net and more time actually working,live passionately,start my own business,be more confident,get out of debt

Boy activist spreads message of change

2009-01-03T00:07:00.001-05:00

STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

UNICEF child ambassador and motivational speaker Bilaal Rajan has written a book for aspiring activists who want to follow his lead.

Bilaal Rajan is an author, public speaker and fundraising phenom specializing in crisis relief. Oh, and by the way - he's 12.

'Just a regular kid,' Bilaal Rajan, 12, has written a book, raised millions for global relief

Dec 30, 2008 04:30 AM, Carola Vyhnak, URBAN AFFAIRS REPORTER

Bilaal Rajan hasn't yet opened his mouth to speak and already the crowd of 250 is on its feet in a standing ovation. That's the first clue this is no ordinary 12-year-old.

Fifteen minutes later, the real estate investors who are his audience on this Thursday evening are cheering again, wowed by an inspiring and insightful pep talk – delivered without notes.

"You can do anything you want to make a positive difference in the world," the dynamic young crusader tells them. "You just have to believe in yourself. If we work together as one, change is inevitable, it's unavoidable."

Afterwards, Tahani Aburaneh rushes over to shake his hand.

"I am speechless – the way he touched me," she marvels. "This kid is going to make a difference on this Earth."

And that's how it is everywhere they go, says Bilaal's father Aman, who's brought him from their home in Richmond Hill to the speaking engagement at a hotel near Pearson airport. "It's so great to watch as a parent. He gets up there and he just explodes."

With two websites (makingchangenow.com and bilaalrajan.com), his own charity foundation and a personal assistant to manage his appearances, the otherwise "regular boy," as his mother Shamim describes him, is a philanthropic phenomenon.

He's helped raise $5 million for children's causes around the world. He's an author, motivational speaker, children's rights activist, world traveller and official child ambassador for UNICEF Canada. Last summer he was named one of the country's Top 20 under 20.

Squeezing in classes at St. Andrew's College in Aurora – he missed 10 weeks of school last year – he manages a 91 per cent average in his Grade 8 subjects. In 30 years of teaching, says middle school director Mike Hanson, "I have never taught a student who was so driven and determined to improve the world he lives in."

Not surprisingly, the term "overachiever" figures in the title of his new book, Making Change: Tips from an Underage Overachiever (Orca Book Publishers). Its objective is to inspire children to take action and create a more peaceful, caring world, says Bilaal.

"Some people say I've done extraordinary things. But there's nothing that makes me any different than other kids. They too can make a difference."

His 150-page guide tells how with fundraising ideas, pointers on public speaking and advice for getting large corporations on board.

Bilaal was bitten by the fundraising bug at age 4. As his father was reading a newspaper article to him about a devastating earthquake in Gujarat, India, Bilaal "took in the meaning of the story," Aman recalls. "He was thinking about the people."

Eating a clementine, he said he wanted to raise money by selling the fruit. Going door-to-door with his parents, he raised $350.

He went on to help African youngsters affected by HIV/AIDS by selling decorative plates he made himself, and kids of hurricane-ravaged Haiti by selling cookies. As an 8-year-old, he also persuaded major corporations to make generous donations of medicine, food and other aid to the Haitian cause.

Four years ago, Bilaal raised thousands for tsunami relief efforts in Southeast Asia, then issued a challenge through UNICEF Canada for every child to raise $100. His goal of $1 million ballooned to almost $4 million when Ottawa matched the kids' contributions.

Bilaal's desire to help others "has always been there," says Aman. "He not only takes it to the next level, he climbs mountains." People ask if he and Shamim push Bilaal, he says.

"Never. Never do we push."

Bilaal credits his kindergarten teacher for inspiring him.

"I used to be in one corner, reading my own little book and not talking much. She taught me how to express myself with confidence."

Counting Mahatma Gandhi and the Aga Khan among his heroes, Bilaal has his sights set on a dual career as a neurosurgeon and astronaut – the first to land on Mars.

When he's not changing the world, he's playing sports, reading or playing with his Scottish terrier, Bobby. He doesn't play video games. To his friends, he's both a regular kid and an inspiration.

Nicholas Whitelaw, 12, says Bilaal's example motivated him to put in 550 volunteer hours at his church.

"He really does make a difference and it makes me want to do what he's doing."

With files from Robyn Doolittle.

Read more about Bilaal in the current issue of Desi Life magazine at desilife.ca.

Technorati Tags: activism,activist,kids,making a difference,motivational speaker,motivation,paying it forward,philanthropy,service,serving others,smiling,uplifting

del.icio.us Tags: activism,activist,kids,making a difference,motivational speaker,motivation,paying it forward,philanthropy,service,serving others,smiling,uplifting

IceRocket Tags: activism,activist,kids,making a difference,motivational speaker,motivation,paying it forward,philanthropy,service,serving others,smiling,uplifting

BuzzNet Tags: activism,activist,kids,making a difference,motivational speaker,motivation,paying it forward,philanthropy,service,serving others,smiling,uplifting

43 Things Tags: to live instead of exist,be more confident,make a difference,love myself,be a better person

Limbs not needed for inspirational high school wrestler

2009-01-02T23:54:00.001-05:00

Dustin Carter, Thu, 01 Jan 2009 3:33p.m.

This is not one of those typical stories about the sweet boy who overcame his disabilities – it is a story about an ornery brat who did it just the same.

"I was a trouble maker," says Dustin Carter. "Me and dad used to fight a lot. I was very disrespectful."

Carter was not born troubled or

disabled, but when a child he contracted a rare blood disease that would eventually claim his limbs - all four of them. After that, Carter grew into a straight F student with a passion for apathy.

Until eighth grade, when he found - of all things - wrestling.

"I got beat pretty bad," says Carter.

"Well, they just get out there and just throw him around on the mat," says his dad.

Carter lost just about every time he set his torso in the ring, but the competition brought out a side of him no one had ever seen before.

"He's got heart," says his coach Nate Horne. "He's got the heart of a lion."

"I'm a pretty determined person," says Carter. "I'll sit at something and sit at it for hours until I get it."

Over the years he trained hard. By all accounts he became a model of self-discipline. His grades went up and he actually started winning - winning more than anyone, other than Carter, could have ever imagined.

"There's not one day in my life, ever since I started wrestling, that I have not dreamed of going to the state tournament."

And last week, it happened. Carter made it to the state tournament.

"It was amazing. I looked up, I looked around, and then I got scared," he says. "I was like, I feel really small right now."

The Ohio tournament is actually one of the most competitive in the nation, and yet even here he was able to pull off a win. The victory placed Carter in the top 16 in his age group.

His final match - the last of his high school career - was a real knock-down drag-out. And although he lost the bout, he won the audience.

"I look up, and everybody is on their feet, and immediately my eyes started watering."

Carter says when you are disabled like he is, it is hard to get used to all the staring. But this kind of staring – that, he could get used to.

Technorati Tags: determination,excellence,fearless,gratitude,happiness,inspirational,inspiring youth,living dreams,living without limits

del.icio.us Tags: determination,excellence,fearless,gratitude,happiness,inspirational,inspiring youth,living dreams,living without limits

IceRocket Tags: determination,excellence,fearless,gratitude,happiness,inspirational,inspiring youth,living dreams,living without limits

BuzzNet Tags: determination,excellence,fearless,gratitude,happiness,inspirational,inspiring youth,living dreams,living without limits

43 Things Tags: to live instead of exist,be more confident,make a difference,love myself,be a better person

Vacuum used to save puppy from well

2008-12-31T22:13:00.001-05:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

By Darieth Chisolm, NBC Newschannel

A family's favorite Christmas present, a Shih Tzu puppy, fell down an abandoned well in Plum Borough, Pennsylvania over the weekend.

Thanks to efforts made by firefighters, the puppy made it out and survived.

"I woke up. My mom was in shambles, screaming and hollering. She said the puppy fell down in the well. We called 911," said pet owner Benny Palombo.

Firefighters tried for three hours to get little Romeo out of a pipe.

"Eventually, we hooked up an industrial-strength vacuum and sized it down to about 1 inch. We caught on to one of the dog's legs and got it out. It was a miracle," said Assistant Fire Chief Jim Scuffle.

When the dog came out of the well, it wasn't breathing.

Firefighters did mouth to snout resuscitation for about half of the journey to the veterinarian.

The dog eventually started to breath on its own.

"About halfway there, the dog started to gnaw on my finger a little bit and then it came around," said Scuffle.

The vet made sure Romeo was OK, and he was.

Technorati Tags: pennsylvania,plum borough,romeo,save,save lives,shih tzu,teamwork

del.icio.us Tags: pennsylvania,plum borough,romeo,save,save lives,shih tzu,teamwork

IceRocket Tags: pennsylvania,plum borough,romeo,save,save lives,shih tzu,teamwork

BuzzNet Tags: pennsylvania,plum borough,romeo,save,save lives,shih tzu,teamwork

Each act of mercy can help turn around someone's life

2008-12-31T08:50:00.001-05:00

Yeah, Christmas 2008 is now past but I couldn't help but post this one, belated as it may be, the purpose is perpetual. Very inspiring 14 year old.

Madison Lindstrom, Calgary Herald, Published: Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Many of you have heard my personal rags-to-riches story and, for those who haven't, I would love to share it with you from my heart. At the age of four, a series of circumstances led to

my mom and I living on the streets of Calgary. It was a very valuable learning experience because it has brought me to the place I am at today, at 14 years old.

My first-hand experience touched me in a way I will not forget. I have taken the lessons and turned them into something positive, and that is giving back to those who require a hand up, like I did at one point.

About two years ago, I became an activist for youth. My goal is to support the many Canadian charities that assist youth who are homeless, living in poverty or experiencing domestic violence. My personal philanthropy project is Project Rags To Riches Network Inc., which supports a variety of charities involving children, such as Inn from the Cold.

To Donate:

Visit Online: HeraldChristmasFund.com - Call: 403-235-7481 weekdays from 8:30 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. - cliP: Coupon, Page a2

Total To Date: $419,189.98

Also, I want people to know the circumstances they face are not always forever. For example, I have achieved many goals since the age of four--international actor, model and dancer.

The lesson of giving and receiving is an important one in life to learn. Giving is so much fun, and I am ex-cited with every opportunity I have to help someone in need.

It is one of the greatest feelings in the world to see the joy on someone's face when you have made a difference in their life, whether it is large or small.

Trust me, you will never be the same again, and you just want to keep on doing it, unconditionally.

The practical side is that you have made a positive difference and may have given them the hope to keep on going instead of giving up, because it shows you truly care. I know it did for me. Recently I expanded my philanthropy work when I became a Canadian Founding Arc Angel with Humanity Unites Brilliance (HUB). I will be going to Liberia with the group in April to see what can be done to improve the lives of women and children there. My mantra is "go big or go home."

I will continue to live by this for the rest of my life. Had our family not received the blessings from people who loved and cared about us unconditionally, who knows where I would be right now?

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. It is not about the gifts, it's about the love, compassion and care shown for each other. I know there were many Christmases when I didn't know if I would have one. But God is always faithful, sending angels to make every Christmastime very special. I loved the gifts I received; however, my most cherished memories are of being invited to someone's home to share in their celebrations.

This is my thank you to all who helped us years ago, especially John Robson, who started Inn from the Cold.

He shared his vision with us for low-income housing in Calgary. All of you who helped us then continually give me inspiration as I do not forget where I came from.

My invitation to all Calgarians is this, please open your hearts to those who require a hand up. It is not the quantity that you give, it is the quality. Remember, my past circumstances can happen to anyone, at anytime, so none of us are exempt from experiencing this. The bright side is, look how the angels who cared for me touched my life; it does make a difference for life.

Be the angel to someone else not just at Christmas, but throughout the year.

More information on Madison Lindstrom's Philanthropy projects can be found at www.madisonlindstrom.hubhub.org and www.projectragstoriches.net.

Technorati Tags: inn from the cold,john robson,madison lindstrom,making a difference,philanthropy,project rages to riches,serving others

del.icio.us Tags: inn from the cold,john robson,madison lindstrom,making a difference,philanthropy,project rages to riches,serving others

IceRocket Tags: inn from the cold,john robson,madison lindstrom,making a difference,philanthropy,project rages to riches,serving others

BuzzNet Tags: inn from the cold,john robson,madison lindstrom,making a difference,philanthropy,project rages to riches,serving others

43 Things Tags: serving others,making a difference,philanthropy

Hard Times, a Helping Hand

2008-12-31T08:30:00.001-05:00

By TED GUP, Canton, Ohio

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

IN the weeks just before Christmas of 1933 — 75 years ago — a mysterious offer appeared in The Repository, the daily newspaper here. It was addressed to all who were suffering in that other winter of discontent known as the Great Depression. The bleakest of holiday seasons was upon them, and the offer promised modest relief to those willing to write in and speak of their struggles. In return, the donor, a “Mr. B. Virdot,” pledged to provide a check to the neediest to tide them over the holidays.

Not surprisingly, hundreds of letters for Mr. B. Virdot poured into general delivery in Canton — even though there was no person of that name in the city of 105,000. A week later, checks, most for as little as $5, started to arrive at homes around Canton. They were signed by “B. Virdot.”

The gift made The Repository’s front page on Dec. 18, 1933. The headline read: “Man Who Felt Depression’s Sting to Help 75 Unfortunate Families: Anonymous Giver, Known Only as ‘B. Virdot,’ Posts $750 to Spread Christmas Cheer.” The story said the faceless donor was “a Canton man who was toppled from a large fortune to practically nothing” but who had returned to prosperity and now wanted to give a Christmas present to “75 deserving fellow townsmen.” The gifts were to go to men and women who might otherwise “hesitate to knock at charity’s door for aid.”

Whether the paper spoke to Mr. B. Virdot directly or through an intermediary or whether it received something in writing from him is not known.

Down through the decades, the identity of the benefactor remained a mystery. Three prosperous generations later, the whole affair was consigned to a footnote in Canton’s history. But to me, the story had always served as an example of how selfless Americans reach out to one another in hard times. I can’t even remember the first time I heard about Mr. B. Virdot, but I knew the tale well.

Then, this past summer, my mother handed me a battered old black suitcase that had been gathering dust in her attic. I flipped open the twin latches and found a mass of letters, all dated December 1933. There were also 150 canceled checks signed by “B. Virdot,” and a tiny black bank book with $760 in deposits.

My mother, Virginia, had always known the secret: the donor was her father, Samuel J. Stone. The fictitious moniker was a blend of his daughters’ names — Barbara, Virginia and Dorothy. But Mother had never told me, and when she handed me the suitcase she had no idea what was in it — “some old papers,” she said. The suitcase had passed into her possession shortly after the death of my grandmother Minna in 2005.

I took the suitcase with me to our log cabin in the woods of Maine, and there, one night, began to read letter after letter. They had come from all over Canton, from out-of-work upholsterers, painters, bricklayers, day laborers, insurance salesmen and, yes, former executives — some of whom, I later learned, my grandfather had known personally.

One, written Dec. 19, 1933, begins, “I hate to write this letter ... it seems too much like begging. Anyway, here goes. I will be honest, my husband doesn’t know I’m writing this letter... . He is working but not making enough to hardly feed his family. We are going to do everything in our power to hold on to our house.” Three years behind in taxes and out of credit at the grocery store, the writer closed with, “Even if you don’t think we’re worthy of help, I hope you receive a great blessing for your kindness.”

Another letter came from a 38-year-old steel worker, out of a job and stricken with tuberculosis, who wrote of his inability to pay the hospital bills for his son, whose skull had been fractured after he was struck by a car.

One man wrote: “For one like me who for a lifetime has earned a fine living, charity by force of distressed circumstances is an abomination and a headache. However, your offer carries with it a spirit so far removed from those who offer help for their own glorification, you remove so much of the sting and pain of forced charity that I venture to tell you my story.”

The writer, once a prominent businessman, was now 65 and destitute, his life insurance policy cashed in and gone, his furniture “mortgaged,” his clothes threadbare, his hope of paying the electric and gas bills pinned to the intervention of his children.

From left to right, Virgina Stone, the author's mother, Minna Stone, the author's grandmother, Barbara Stone, Dorothy Stone and Sam Stone, the author's grandfather.

Samuel J. Stone.

Names and addresses have been removed from the letters above.

A mother of four wrote, “My husband hasn’t had steady work in four years ... . The people who are lucky enough to have no worry where the next meal is coming from don’t realize how it is to be like we are and a lot of others... . I only wish I could do what you are doing.”

Another letter was from the wife of an out-of-work bricklayer. “Mr. Virdot, we are in desperate circumstances,” she wrote. They had taken in her husband’s mother and father and a 10-year-old boy. Now the landlord had given them three days to pay up. “It is awful,” she wrote. “No one knows, only those who go through it. It does seem so much like begging. ”

Children, too, wrote in. The youngest was 12-year-old Mary Uebing. “There are six in our family,” she wrote, “and my father is dead ... my baby sister is sick. Last Christmas our dinner was slim and this Christmas it will be slimmer... . Any way you could help us would be appreciated in this fatherless and worrisome home.”

The wife of an out-of-work insurance salesman added a postscript to her letter, one not intended for her husband’s eyes: She had just pawned her engagement ring for $5.

Also in the suitcase were thank-you letters from people who had received Mr. Virdot’s checks. A father wrote: “It was put to good use paying for two pairs of shoes for my girls and other little necessities. I hope some day I have the pleasure of knowing to whom we are indebted for this very generous gift.”

That was from George W. Monnot, who had once owned a successful Ford dealership but whose reluctance to lay off his salesmen hastened his own financial collapse, his granddaughter told me.

Of course, the checks could not reverse the fortunes of an entire family, much less a community. A few months after one man, Roy Teis, wrote to B. Virdot, his family splintered apart. His eight children, including a 4-year-old daughter, were scattered among nearly as many foster homes, and there they remained for years to come.

So why had my grandfather done this? Because he had known what it was to be down and out. In 1902, when he was 15, he and his family had fled Romania, where they had been persecuted and stripped of the right to work because they were Jews. They settled into an immigrant ghetto in Pittsburgh. His father forced him to roll cigars with his six other siblings in the attic, hiding his shoes so he could not go to school.

My grandfather later worked on a barge and in a coal mine, swabbed out dirty soda bottles until the acid ate at his fingers and was even duped into being a strike breaker, an episode that left him bloodied by nightsticks. He had been robbed at night and swindled in daylight. Midlife, he had been driven to the brink of bankruptcy, almost losing his clothing store and his home.

By the time the Depression hit, he had worked his way out of poverty, owning a small chain of clothing stores and living in comfort. But his good fortune carried with it a weight when so many around him had so little.

His yuletide gift was not to be his only such gesture. In the same black suitcase were receipts hinting at other anonymous acts of kindness. The year before the United States entered World War II, for instance, he sent hundreds of wool overcoats to British soldiers. In the pocket of each was a handwritten note, unsigned, urging them not to give in to despair and expressing America’s support.

Like many in his generation, my grandfather believed in hard work, and disdained handouts. In 1981, at age 93, he died driving himself to the office, crashing while trying to beat a rising drawbridge. But he could never ignore the brutal reality of times when work was simply not to be had and self-reliance reached its limits. He sought no credit for acts of conscience. He saw them as the debt we owe one another and ourselves.

For many Americans, this Christmas will be grim. Here, in Ohio, food banks and shelters are trying to cope with the fallout from plant closings, layoffs, foreclosures and bankruptcies. The family across the street lost their home. From our breakfast table, we look out on their house, dark and vacant. Multibillion-dollar bailouts to banks and Wall Street have yet to bring relief to those humbled by need and overwhelmed by debt. Already, the B. Virdot in me — in each of us — can hear the words of our neighbors.

Ted Gup, a professor of journalism at Case Western Reserve University, is the author of “Nation of Secrets.”

Technorati Tags: b virdot,canton,charity,great depression,rags to riches,secrets to success,selfless service,service,serving others,ted gup

del.icio.us Tags: b virdot,canton,charity,great depression,rags to riches,secrets to success,selfless service,service,serving others,ted gup

IceRocket Tags: b virdot,canton,charity,great depression,rags to riches,secrets to success,selfless service,service,serving others,ted gup

BuzzNet Tags: b virdot,canton,charity,great depression,rags to riches,secrets to success,selfless service,service,serving others,ted gup

43 Things Tags: get rich,serve others,make a difference

After many busts, pals deal up winner

2008-12-31T08:03:00.001-05:00

AARON HARRIS/TORONTO STAR

Toronto waiter Kosta Trichas shows off the Wheel-R-Dealer, a hand-held device that he and co-creator John Siambouris are hoping will come up aces in gaming circles worldwide, as a way to remove the fuss and tomfoolery from card dealing.Quest for 'big idea' leads to card-dealing gizmo that's turning heads in gaming circles

Sir Isaac Newton was allegedly sitting under an apple tree when he discovered gravity. And the Greek philosopher Archimedes was in the bathtub when the proverbial light bulb flashed over his head.

For Kosta Trichas, 40, and John Siambouris, 54, that eureka! moment happened while they were hunched over table 4 at their diner.

That's when they discovered a way to possibly revolutionize card playing, by devising a fraud-proof, hassle-free, automatic card dealer.

As on other nights after work, the two waiters leaned their elbows on a small two-seater near the entrance to Sunset Grill, a Queen St. E. breakfast institution.

This was in November four years ago. They were tired and sweaty, cigarette smoke curling through their matted hair, when Siambouris got up and started pacing.

"I got it," he said quietly after a moment. "I got it."

Now, it's no theory of relativity, but for the two would-be-entrepreneurs, his idea was tantamount to dreaming up Google.

"I stood up and yelled 'Yeah! yeah!' " Trichas said. "It was late, we were tired and this idea comes."

Today, their Wheel-R-Dealer is on its way to becoming the apple of every card player's eye, the partners say. It's a device only slightly larger than a deck of cards that eliminates any dealing errors or hand-eye trickery, they say. With a quick flick of a thumb, it deals out one card every time – no fuss, no muss or manual dexterity required.

A dealer's hands never touch the cards and once all 52 are securely inside the device, no one can manipulate the order, the partners say.

It's ideal for recreational poker players or bridge aficionados, or anyone else who finds dealing cards to be a chore or intimidating, the partners enthuse.

After only a month on the market, they say 20,000 units have been sold to Native Casinos, an association of aboriginal operated casinos in the U.S.

And Dave Snider, marketing director at Prairie Knights Casino and Resort in North Dakota, said he just received delivery of 1,000 units emblazoned with the company logo. They'll be given to VIP customers as a New Year's Eve gift.

"They're really cool," Snider says, noting the casino learned of the device at a Nevada gaming conference last month and had to have them.

"Guests will appreciate having something to deal cards ... The concept is really good."

While casinos typically use a six-deck shoe at blackjack tables, largely to inhibit card counting, the Wheel-R-Dealer founders hope their one-deck device can also find a place in gaming meccas.

One U.S. casino has expressed interest, and Las Vegas operators are also looking at the device, their business partner Paul Mailing adds.

That kind of acceptance would make Trichas and Siambouris' years of struggle all worth it.

"It's an almost rags to riches story," Trichas says over coffee at Sunset Grill, where other customers have taken their now famous table.

"Right now, it's more like 'rags to riches, question mark!' "

Trichas met Siambouris 30 years ago, when the two were working at his uncle's Yonge St. deli, Benny's, across from the Brass Rail.

Trichas was a busboy and Siambouris a waiter with John Travolta hair and a glint in his eye – "like a movie star," Trichas says.

The two discovered they shared a dream to strike it rich with a chain of restaurants or a big idea. But after Benny's closed in 1986, they lost touch for 20 years as Siambouris moved back to his native Greece.

Trichas went to work at Sunset Grill, an unknown eggs and bacon place when his uncle bought it in 1989, and spent two decades in an apron slogging it out over a hot stove.

He says his eyes lit up seven years ago, when Siambouris came back into his life, taking a waiter job at the Sunset.

"We were back to trying to think how we could become millionaires," Trichas says.

At coffee breaks or after work, sitting at table 4, the duo would bounce ideas off one another.

For three years, nothing stuck. Until that eureka moment in 2004.

Card players all their lives, they both hated having to stand up to deal cards and even more, the possible sleight of hand.

For two years the pair, both married with young kids, spent countless hours in their basements to create a working model.

Once they did, they needed a financial backer and approached Mailing, a Sunset regular.

He has invested more than $70,000 in the Wheel-R-Dealer, which is being made in Shenzhen and marketed worldwide.

"I saw an opportunity," said Mailing. "I'm a gambler. I'll take a chance."

As for Trichas, he flashes a smile at a Sunset waitress who offers to refresh his neglected coffee.

"You can't quit. I believe in that now."

Technorati Tags: casinos,cheating,gambling,las vegas,rags to riches,rich,siambouris,toronto,trichas,wheel-r-dealer

del.icio.us Tags: casinos,cheating,gambling,las vegas,rags to riches,rich,siambouris,toronto,trichas,wheel-r-dealer

IceRocket Tags: casinos,cheating,gambling,las vegas,rags to riches,rich,siambouris,toronto,trichas,wheel-r-dealer

BuzzNet Tags: casinos,cheating,gambling,las vegas,rags to riches,rich,siambouris,toronto,trichas,wheel-r-dealer

43 Things Tags: invent a product,start a company,start a business,be rich,get rich

Family Finds Inspiration By Serving Less Fortunate

2008-12-28T08:19:00.001-05:00

Joseph Choi, Family Serve Hundreds Of Homeless

From TheOmahaChannel.com, Fri., Dec. 26, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. - An Omaha family continued its Christmas tradition of giving up material gifts for civic service.

Eight years ago, Joseph Choi told his daughters, "Let's do something that is truly meaningful. And let's do it on behalf of our family," according to one of his daughters.

Every Christmas since, the family has cooked and served traditional Korean meals for the city's homeless. For at least one night, the dinner plays a part in the Siena Francis House's mission of rehabilitation and ending the cycle of homelessness.

"We try to help the people," Joseph Choi said.

He, his wife and children made enough Korean specialty foods Thursday night to serve a steaming plate to hundreds of cold visitors.

Their friends gave a holiday concert, playing holiday pieces on violin. One friend, clothing store owner Mike Oh, donated dozens of boxes of new winter clothes. They were distributed after dinner.

"It's just great to see that there are such wonderful people out there in the world to remember all of us people down here," said a woman at the shelter who identified herself as Michelle.

Choi's daughter, Regina Holmstrom, said remembering the less fortunate is her real meaning of Christmas.

"When I do this, it's the most inspirational, most heartfelt thing," Holmstrom said.

Technorati Tags: christmas,christmas spirit,homeless,joseph choi,korean food,nebraska,omaha,serve others,serving others

del.icio.us Tags: christmas,christmas spirit,homeless,joseph choi,korean food,nebraska,omaha,serve others,serving others

IceRocket Tags: christmas,christmas spirit,homeless,joseph choi,korean food,nebraska,omaha,serve others,serving others

BuzzNet Tags: christmas,christmas spirit,homeless,joseph choi,korean food,nebraska,omaha,serve others,serving others

BuzzNet Tags: make a difference,serve others

Gentry An Inspiration To His Teammates

2008-12-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

Full story at Scout.com by Adam Jardy

There were plenty of worthy candidates to be the last player recognized on senior day, but this year's choice was a no-brainer. Former walk-on Tyson Gentry has been inspiring his teammates during his tenure at Ohio State, and senior day gave the Buckeye faithful a chance to show Gentry their appreciation.

As 105,564 fans rose to their collective feet at Ohio Stadium, one young man remained seated.

Nov. 22 was senior day for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and the team’s seniors were being recognized for their contributions to the program. Each senior, from the unheralded walk-ons to the captains, was announced to the crowd and received applause as he headed to the Tunnel of Pride to meet first with head coach Jim Tressel and then with his family members.

But after eventual Thorpe Award winner Malcolm Jenkins and three-time AP All-American James Laurinaitis ran across the field, the final member of the team’s senior class was introduced.

And as Tyson Gentry wheeled his way from the south end zone toward the tunnel, the former walk-on who suffered a freak injury during the spring of 2006 and is still fighting to regain the ability to walk was treated to a standing ovation from the OSU faithful.

The reception brought a slight tear to the fifth-year senior’s eye.

“I could definitely feel the emotion, but once they announced my name and I was going toward the Tunnel of Pride it was definitely a little emotional to think of all the previous players and everything,” Gentry told BuckeyeSports.com. “It was just a very emotional day overall.”

Gentry’s senior day experience actually began some time before the team’s annual date with arch-rival Michigan. When the day’s activities were being planned several weeks prior, the Buckeye coaching staff had a tough choice on its hands.

Gentry fell awkwardly after being hit by a teammate during spring practice in 2006. He was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken C-4 vertebra and needed two surgeries – one from the front and one from the back – to fuse his C-3 and C-5 vertebrae together and insert titanium plates for stability.

He was discharged in late July and has since been on the road to recovery. A source of inspiration to his teammates, Gentry attends all team functions and is treated as a full member of the team.

“He’s always in the weight room working out, he’s always in the locker room driving around and in practice he’s out there rolling around,” OSU senior defensive tackle Nader Abdallah said. “I joke around with him all the time, telling him to go out there and make a play. It’s just stuff like that that really keeps me going.”

The entire senior day experience made Gentry grateful for all the support he has received during his five years as a Buckeye. At the team’s annual banquet, he brought home the Bo Rein Most Inspirational Player Award.

“I’m definitely very thankful for people’s thoughts and prayers,” he said. “It really means a lot. The amount of respect and everything else that people has given me has been very meaningful to me. It’s nice that people care so much.”

Gentry’s therapy is progressing, but there remains no prognosis for when – or if – he will ever walk again. Although many were hoping for a miracle to occur and for Gentry to rise out of his wheelchair and walk across the turf at Ohio Stadium on senior day, the man himself was not disappointed in the final outcome.

“I don’t really focus on that,” he said. “Granted, that’s what I’m pretty much going to therapy for, to get out of the chair one day, but at the same time I’m not focusing on that. Just because it’s not there doesn’t mean that I’m always thinking about it.”

With an attitude like that, Gentry has already succeeded in Tressel’s eyes.

“I know his future will be filled with making a difference in people’s lives,” Tressel said. “He has handled his tough situation with great strength, and I have already seen his ability to share that strength with others. He is an exceptional person.”

Technorati Tags: inspiration and encouragement,ohio,ohio state,osu,tyson gentry

del.icio.us Tags: inspiration and encouragement,ohio,ohio state,osu,tyson gentry

IceRocket Tags: inspiration and encouragement,ohio,ohio state,osu,tyson gentry

BuzzNet Tags: inspiration and encouragement,ohio,ohio state,osu,tyson gentry

An exceptional child proves inspirational

2008-12-27T11:00:00.001-05:00

The Yadkin Ripple reports on one mother whose making a difference:

Tammy Hazelwood holds her son, Joshua as an unidentified family member holds his hand.

Leanne Cloudman, Staff reporter, Yadkin Ripple, lcloudman@yadkinripple.com

Occasionally, one has the opportunity to meet an individual who has no idea how important his or her existence is to the rest of the community.

Eight-year old Joshua Hazelwood is just such a person.

Josh goes through life mostly happy and completely oblivious to the effect his life has had on others, especially his mother, Tammy Hazelwood. Josh is very special, as he was born with Down's Syndrome.

Because Josh has special needs, his mom had to take him out of public school; he is in home school now and attends a special rehab program at Comp Rehab.

Early in December, because of Josh, Tammy Hazelwood decided she would do what she could to help what she believed was a seriously underserved portion of the Yadkin County population. Special needs families are close to Tammy's heart for obvious reasons and she has proven how big that heart is.

"There were so many special needs families that weren't going to have a Christmas," said Hazelwood. "I felt God led me to do something."

Through a person who has asked to remain anonymous, Hazelwood began collecting information on families who needed her help.

Josh and his mom approached any business they were told might be receptive and some they just walked in and asked.

"They have been so good to help," Hazelwood said. "I just don't know how to thank them."

Hazelwood donated her time and gas and would be glad to do it again. "I wish I was a millionaire so that I could help everyone."

Though some have called Tammy Hazelwood an angel, she refutes this.

"Josh is the angel," she said. "He's my guardian angel. Without him, who knows what I'd be."

She has been asked what she gets out of doing all this.

"God sent me Josh and now through him and the people he led me to meet, I've been shown the true meaning of Christmas."

Businesses that assisted

Businesses that helped with finding Christmas for these special need families included:

* American General of Jonesville and Yadkinville
* Dobson Cleaners
* Judy Bingman of Elkin
* Dacia Goldman of Comp Rehab
* Dollar General in Boonville
* Dr. Kevin and Tondra Walker
* H&J Diamonds Inc.
* Food Lion of Yadkin
* Yadkin Drugs.
* Several others chose to remain anonymous.

Editor's note: The families who received gifts and food through this effort have asked to remain anonymous.

Technorati Tags: christmas,down's syndrome,tammy hazelwood,yadkin,yadkin ripple,yadkinville

del.icio.us Tags: christmas,down's syndrome,tammy hazelwood,yadkin,yadkin ripple,yadkinville

IceRocket Tags: christmas,down's syndrome,tammy hazelwood,yadkin,yadkin ripple,yadkinville

BuzzNet Tags: christmas,down's syndrome,tammy hazelwood,yadkin,yadkin ripple,yadkinville

6-year-old meets rescuer

2008-12-27T09:09:00.001-05:00

The Biloxi Sun Herald ID's good samaritan

BILOXI, Miss. -- A 6-year-old girl in Gulfport who was badly injured by a pit pull more than a week ago got to meet the man who saved her this week.

After Biloxi television station WLOX aired a story about the attack on little Katie Jarmen, Katie's parents said they wanted to meet the man who rescued Katie by grabbing her and putting her in his truck. The pit bull had mangled the girl's arm as she and her mother were walking home from school.

The rescuer turned out to

be Thomas Wedgeworth of Gulfport.

Katie has had one surgery so far on the arm and will probably need more. But for now, she's well enough to open the presents Wedgeworth's daughters picked for her.

Technorati Tags: good samaritan,help others,pit bull,rescue

del.icio.us Tags: good samaritan,help others,pit bull,rescue

IceRocket Tags: good samaritan,help others,pit bull,rescue

BuzzNet Tags: good samaritan,help others,pit bull,rescue

43 Things Tags: make a difference,save a life,serving others

Woman gives the ultimate Christmas gift to brother and his wife

2008-12-20T13:58:00.001-05:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

December 19th, 2008 @ 10:07pm, By Ed Yeates

A Utah woman has given her brother and his wife the ultimate gift. David and Julie Hendrickson have twins for Christmas this year because of something very special David's sister did for them.

Alyson Colton

Alyson Colton gave birth to the twin boys last week, about six and a half weeks early. Fertilized eggs from David and Julie were transferred to Alyson, who carried the infants until they were born.

"Three days later, I think, Alyson was still in the hospital recovering, and I just looked at her and [said], ‘I just want you to know I appreciate this so much,'" Julie said.

"I couldn't begin to comprehend the gratitude that I now feel," David said.

Why did Alyson, the mother of three daughters, become the surrogate? Julie has Cystic Fibrosis. A pregnancy could have been too hard on her system, actually damaging the cells of her lungs even more.

"I just felt like this is something I was supposed to do in my life. Julie couldn't do the pregnancies, so I had to bring them into the world for her, and now they're here," Alyson said.

Benjamin and Jackson

Many couples, where one partner has CF, have children via in vitro fertilization. That group includes Julie's brother, who believed kids bring home a special kind of therapy.

"Physically, yeah, the cards don't look like it's going to work out right, but her brother James said when you get married and you have kids, you have something to live for every day," David said. "Maybe in a subconscious, selfish frame of mind I thought: I want to have something from Julie for the rest of my life."

A husband and wife who cherish the time they have together, long or short, and a sister who's made it possible to fill that life even more. "What a blessing. What a great gift. This will be a Christmas never to forget," David said.

If Benjamin and Jackson continue putting on weight as they are now, they'll most likely be going home just after the first of the year. The roots of their names come from all three families.

E-mail eyeates@ksl.com

Technorati Tags: alyson colton,cf,cystic fibrosis,david and julie hendrickson,ultimate christmas gift,utah

del.icio.us Tags: alyson colton,cf,cystic fibrosis,david and julie hendrickson,ultimate christmas gift,utah

IceRocket Tags: alyson colton,cf,cystic fibrosis,david and julie hendrickson,ultimate christmas gift,utah

BuzzNet Tags: alyson colton,cf,cystic fibrosis,david and julie hendrickson,ultimate christmas gift,utah

43 Things Tags: make a difference,be happy,serving others

Help This 16-Year-Old Fight Blood Disease

2008-12-20T13:18:00.001-05:00

16-Year-Old's Inspiring Mission to Fight Blood Disease

A teenage cancer patient isn't sitting around and feeling sorry for himself.

The 16-year-old is taking action to help others!

Alex Ramsey is launching a major project and you can help him get results.

He's trying to raise the number of blood and platelet donations from the military!

He's also selling specialized wristbands to raise money for prizes to give the children who get transfusions at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.

"There's so many people that actually have diseases in which they need platelets or blood," Alex told NewsChannel 3.

You can read a letter from Alex's Mother below.

It has information on how you can help donate to his cause:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FW: Alex is asking for a call to arms!

Alex is 16 years old, attends school at Bethel High in Hampton, VA. He was diagnosed on 6 Oct 2008 with Very Severe Aplastic Anemia (in other words he is his own worse enemy...his body is killing his platelets and white blood cell's). Alex is treated at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Department, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Pediatrics' Ward. When not an inpatient, Alex still attends school three days a week as he tries to maintain as much as possible a normal teenage life. The other two school days, he is getting transfusions. He has been receiving and will continue to receive at a minimum 3 bags of platelets a week for at least 3-6 more months (maybe even longer).

Alex is known as the Superstar in the blood bank for getting so many donors. You can not donate directly to him but please donate in his name. Aphaeresis is helping to keep a tally and we are hoping to also make this some how into an eagle project for Boy Scouts. We continually need more donors, please. This way the hospital doesn't have to buy platelets from an outside source.

Platelets are only good for 5 days. We need to spread out the donors, this will allow the blood bank to stay stocked not only for Alex but for all of the other patients that need them. You can call the blood bank at 953-1717 to schedule an appointment or call if you have any questions about platelet donations. Platelet donations can be made every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at NMCP between the hours of 0700-1330. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to complete. You can sit back and relax for a couple of hours to watch a movie. They also give away lots of goodies including a free lunch in the galley, snacks, coffee mugs, etc. Oh yeah, they will take anyone 17 years or older, you do not have to have a military ID card, you only need a valid driver's license and an
appointment.

If you would like to donate platelets please call Aphaeresis at 953-1717. Don't forget to mention in the name of Alex so it can help him and towards a project that we are working on. Thank you for all of your help. Helping others is helping us to cope with a terrible situation.

We are also selling the wrist bands for $1.00 each. The money raised will be donated to the Aplastic Anemia & MDS Foundation; Make A Wish Foundation and prizes for the young children that are getting transfusions at NMCP Hematology/Oncology Clinic. All three of these organizations are non-profit organizations. His goal is to raise $1200.

This will allow him to give at least $400 to each charity.

His wish for the Make a Wish Foundation is to be able to dive the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia and Alex wants to go to William & Mary and become a marine biologist.

Please spread the word, the more the merrier!

V/r
HM1 Melissa Leonard "Missy"
Tricare Prime Clinic Chesapeake, VA

Technorati Tags: 16-year-old,alex ramsey,blood,blood disease,blood donation,donate blood,cancer,hampton,virginia

del.icio.us Tags: 16-year-old,alex ramsey,blood,blood disease,blood donation,donate blood,cancer,hampton,virginia

IceRocket Tags: 16-year-old,alex ramsey,blood,blood disease,blood donation,donate blood,cancer,hampton,virginia

BuzzNet Tags: 16-year-old,alex ramsey,blood,blood disease,blood donation,donate blood,cancer,hampton,virginia

43 Things Tags: donate blood,survive cancer,be healthy,make a difference

'Seven Pounds,' seven keys to Will Smith's success

2008-12-16T14:17:00.001-05:00

Will Smith, photographed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, plays an IRS agent on a quest for redemption in Seven Pounds, opening Friday.

By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Spend seven seconds sitting across from Will Smith, and you'll never wonder why he's a superstar.

He's charming and attentive, observant and clever — without ever seeming to try. When he talks, he makes eye contact; when he laughs, it takes over his whole body.

"You gonna put that in the article, that you're playing footsie?" cracks Smith after feet collide under a table at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Though he seems happy-go-lucky, the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air didn't end up where he is by accident. Like Ben Thomas, the painfully orderly and painstakingly wary IRS agent he plays in Seven Pounds, opening Friday, Smith, 40, is consistently in charge, on point and thinking ahead.

"That's one of the elements that attracted me to this idea — how much control you can have over your life, but how much you don't have once you relinquish it," he says. "I make choices in my life after working on this film. I found myself walking down the stairs and it's raining, and I found myself grabbing extra-hard on the railing. Just think, one slip — and that's it. You have to be conscious. You don't have control after you've set these dominoes in motion. Your control point is before you make this crucial mistake."

Seven Pounds may have made him think consciously about navigating slippery steps with care, but he has nurtured his career with nary a misstep, amassing $2.45 billion in box office in North America alone. Here's how he does it:

1. Think globally

Any film Smith makes, as a star or through his Overbrook production company, "has to be extraordinary, it has to be entertainment, it has to be art." And be "delivered to all people of the world."

Not every film fits neatly into that mold, including Seven Pounds, a non-linear story about his character making amends that has a shocking ending. It's "a bit of a stretch for us. The extraordinary entertainment art is easy, but because you can't actually talk about the movie, the delivery to all people of the world is slightly more difficult," Smith says.

He thinks about pitching everywhere from Peoria to Paris from the start. "If we don't know how to sell it, we're not going to begin — no matter how extraordinary I think the entertainment art is going to be. All I need is one visual, and I can sell that anywhere on Earth."

2. Talent at the top

Smith handpicks his directors. For Seven Pounds, he's re-teaming with Gabriele Muccino, who directed him to an Oscar nomination for 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness. The holiday hit starred Smith as a homeless man who breaks into the elite world of finance.

"He takes me to places that I'd never choose myself," Smith says. "It will be the biggest departures from who I am when I work with Gabriele. He sees me similarly as Michael Mann (Ali) does. He knows all my tricks. They erase all the Will Smith-ness."

Muccino, for instance, went so far as to alter the way Smith naturally makes eye contact. Smith's Ben Thomas never looks away, almost glares.

"He's trying to look under people's masks," says Smith. "I'm physically trying to look under people's masks. For me, it's a common courtesy to look away for a second when you're talking and you let people have their privacy for a second. This character never breaks eye contact. It's uncomfortable for me."

3. Mix it up, to a point

For every bombastic audience pleaser like Hancock, Smith tries also to release a more thought-provoking film like Seven Pounds.

"I have to challenge myself and push myself," Smith says. "My only job is to make sure I don't leave anything on the table, that I maximize what a young dude from Philly can do in the world of cinema. There's no telling what I can create at this point."

Two scripts he'd love to star in that Overbrook is developing are the stories of Nelson Mandela and Marvin Gaye.

"I'm not certain I'm actor enough yet," Smith admits. "I love both of those, and I need to make sure I'm man enough."

4. Preserve the Smith brand

Smith doesn't get busted for DUIs or punch or scream at paparazzi. "Not any more, not any more," he jokes.

His parents and grandmother instilled in him the belief that with privileges comes responsibility. Smith doesn't moan about the attention he gets, kvetch about the lack of privacy or lash out at reporters for asking personal questions.

"By being famous, you're afforded rights that other people who aren't famous aren't afforded," he says. "If I'm going to walk to the front of the line (at the restaurant) because I'm Will Smith, then I have to sign all the autographs. If I don't want to sign any autographs, I don't walk to the front of the line. It's that simple. Stand in the line with everybody else."

His image remains one of the most unblemished in Hollywood. The only question that surfaces is whether, because of his close friendship with outspoken Scientologist Tom Cruise, he, too, is a member of the controversial church. Smith repeatedly has denied it, saying he's a student of all religions.

Hitch co-star Eva Mendes says that off-screen, Smith is a bit racier than the clean-cut guy most people see. "He's funnier in person because his jokes get a little more daring. To this day, he doesn't call me Eva. He calls me Reva Melendez. He has this character he does named Redondo, an interviewer who never gets anyone's names right."

5. Cross color lines

With the exception of 2001's Ali (his other Oscar nomination), most of Smith's roles could have been played by him or Brad Pitt or Robert Downey Jr. The IRS agent he plays in Seven Pounds could have very easily been Caucasian, as could the bitter superhero in Hancock.

And that has been by design. Growing up in Philadelphia, Smith attended a mostly white Catholic elementary school and a mostly African-American high school. He lived in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, attended a Baptist church and admired the Muslim girls who lived one street over.

Along the way, Smith learned that laughter is collective and unifying. "Those universal elements became really clear in my experiences growing up."

Race is not something Smith dwells on in interviews, and it's not something often addressed in his films. "Being an American, this is the only place on Earth I'm even possible. My life is not possible anywhere else," he says.

It's a sentiment often echoed by President-elect Barack Obama, with whom Smith identifies.

On Election Day, Smith says, he didn't even have a beer. "I wanted to be totally sober. I wanted to see and feel and remember everything. The whole family was there. It was really fantastic — either way I knew it would be a historical evening. I wanted to be there and be aware," he says.

6. Be master of your domain

Eighteen years ago, Smith charmed audiences as the fast-talking, appealingly glib Fresh Prince. Today, his films gross an average $136 million. And Smith says he finally feels he's starting to own his profession.

"I was reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and he talks about the concept of 10,000 hours. That you don't really settle into any level of mastery until 10,000 hours, and I feel like I've just completed my 10,000 hours of story structure and filmmaking.

"Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist, which is my favorite book, he talks about the whole of the universe, and it's contained in one grain of sand. For years I've been saying that, and now it's really starting to expose itself to me. My own grain of sand has been story. The next 10 years will be my peak of innovation in filmmaking and just as a human being."

Since 1996's blockbuster Independence Day, Smith has generated a movie a year, sometimes two. When he signs on, he's fully committed.

"He's very firm with his own ideas and considerations about things," Muccino says. "He doesn't change his mind easily. If he says no, it's no. If he says yes, it's yes. He's a man of his word. In Italy we call them men of honor."

7. Leave nothing to chance

That includes his 11-year marriage to Jada Pinkett, with whom he has two kids: son Jaden, 10, and daughter Willow, 8. Smith also has son Trey, 16, from his first marriage.

"We did a business plan," Smith says. "Listen, everyone should do a marriage business plan. Why are you together? What's the point? Because he's cute? That's not going to hold up. It can't just be sex and somebody can cook. That's a really good purpose, but not for 40 years. Jada and I have connected to the purpose of our relationship, to teach and to continually learn about human interaction. Our marriage will have purpose for other married people."

Smith always wants to know the conclusion. Because if you know the end, you know precisely where you're going and how you're getting there.

"Jada and I sat down and asked, 'Where do we see ourselves?' We went to 40 years from now. We see ourselves some place where there are seasons. That's a big thing for Jada. We think there's mountains. We think we live on a golf course. We don't have more children — we have grandchildren.

"We are the greatest philanthropists that America has ever seen. We're going to try and get up there with Bill and Melinda Gates. We talked through all the elements of where we want to be so we can start, in this moment, designing our life toward that."

Yes, Will Smith has a plan for everything. But for people like Mendes, his success is the result of something that doesn't need so much preparation.

"Of course he's talented, of course he's sexy, of course he's got a body to die for, but who cares?" she says. "He's so full of light. We all want to be next to him and root for him. People want to be around it. He's a light force."

Technorati Tags: excellence,fresh prince,jada pinkett,jaden,keys,keys to success,master,overbrook,planning,secrets,secrets to success,seven pounds,success,universe,will smith

del.icio.us Tags: excellence,fresh prince,jada pinkett,jaden,keys,keys to success,master,overbrook,planning,secrets,secrets to success,seven pounds,success,universe,will smith

IceRocket Tags: excellence,fresh prince,jada pinkett,jaden,keys,keys to success,master,overbrook,planning,secrets,secrets to success,seven pounds,success,universe,will smith

BuzzNet Tags: excellence,fresh prince,jada pinkett,jaden,keys,keys to success,master,overbrook,planning,secrets,secrets to success,seven pounds,success,universe,will smith

43 Things Tags: be a better person,love myself,never stop learning,become financially independent,spend less time fooling around on the net and more time actually working,make a difference,to live instead of exist,get married,fall in love,stop procrastinating

Kelly Epperson: Success of business based on golden rule

2008-12-16T12:30:00.001-05:00

By Kelly Epperson, GateHouse News Service, Posted Dec 14, 2008 @ 09:38 PM

I’m in Indianapolis meeting with clients and gathering information for the book they want written. As a ghostwriter, I can’t divulge much about the people I meet or the books I write, but these guys probably won’t mind if I refer to them in the abstract.

This is a classic rags to riches story. Every such story is as individual and unique to the parties it belongs to, and this one belongs to two individuals – twins. These two gentlemen are now 76. After years of having folks tell them, “You should write a book,” they decided, what the heck, why not?

Hal and Dale (not their real names; I changed the names to protect the innocent, namely me, so I don’t get into trouble with my confidentiality contract) are a true American success story. They were born in on a farm. Their father died when they were 2, and their mother died when they were 10.

They were raised by older siblings, moved to Indy and were later drafted to serve in the Korean War. The day they shipped out was the day the war ended. Timing has continued to be on their side.

The two went into business together in the 1950s and have created a multimillion dollar empire. Their company still thrives today under the leadership and management of their sons. A grandson from the third generation has now entered the business as well.

In the 1950s, family-owned businesses were the norm. Today, they’re a rarity. Even more amazing is that there is no rivalry, feuding or power struggles among the second generation who has taken over the helm. There are tales of rock throwing and fist fights between the twins (as adults at company “board meetings”), but they always respected each other and relied on each other.

I made the comment that being in business with family is hard. Hal agreed and said, “If it was just my brother, I couldn’t do it, but he’s my twin. It’s different.”

Something else that strikes me as being different really should not, but in our corporate world today of greed and corruption, it is sad that decency actually seems different. Hal and Dale started their business practicing the golden rule, and they have it in their company brochures to this day.

Loyalty and trust are the backbones to success. Financial success takes hard work, certainly, and they put in long hours for a lot of years, but they have always operated under that one main premise: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

“It’s just common sense,” this family tells me. Sure, but common sense and common courtesy sometimes seem to be hallmarks of a bygone era. I’m not the only one who thinks so. I’m also writing a book for a powerhouse Canadian business leader who believes that the missing ingredient in today’s business management is the fact that people matter.

Hal and Dale have never lost sight of that fact. The company motto is “We Love People.”

“I stole that motto from a rental car company years ago,” Hal says.

Maybe so, but I’ve never felt loved when I was stuck waiting in line at a rental car place.

People feel loved here. Their customers, suppliers and employees are faithful; their loyalty is earned and returned. One word that keeps popping up in interviews is compassion. Empathy also seems like a lost attribute sometimes.

It’s alive and well here. Every person has a story to tell; I’m glad I get to tell theirs.

Kelly Epperson can be reached at kel_epperson@yahoo.com or PO Box 2324 Loves Park IL 61111 or www.whenlifestinks.com. She writes for The Journal-Standard.

Technorati Tags: do unto others,family business,financial success,golden rule,indianapolis,kelly epperson,twins,we love people,www.whenlifestinks.com

del.icio.us Tags: do unto others,family business,financial success,golden rule,indianapolis,kelly epperson,twins,we love people,www.whenlifestinks.com

IceRocket Tags: do unto others,family business,financial success,golden rule,indianapolis,kelly epperson,twins,we love people,www.whenlifestinks.com

BuzzNet Tags: do unto others,family business,financial success,golden rule,indianapolis,kelly epperson,twins,we love people,www.whenlifestinks.com

43 Things Tags: write a book,stop procrastinating,write a novel,start my own business,become financially independent,stop wasting time

Harris recounts his rags to riches story

2008-12-15T10:28:00.001-05:00

Texas cowboy sits in first place in the NFR average after eight rounds

By Brett Okamoto, Fri, Dec 12, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Whenever bull rider J.W. Harris pretended he was riding bulls as a little kid, he always imagined himself doing it at the Frontier Days Rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyo. Very fitting then, that Cheyenne ended up being the rodeo that saved his career.

After a slow start to his 2005 rookie year in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, Harris had come down with a very serious problem. He was broke.

"I was at a rodeo in Idaho, missed making the short round, and I went to use my debit card and I didn't have no money," Harris said with a laugh. "My uncle was with me and paid for the gas from Idaho to Cheyenne. I was scraping the bottom of every barrel just trying to get there."

Harris ended up winning the short round at Cheyenne and placing second in the average for a $10,000 payday that allowed him to keep traveling to rodeos. Three years later, Harris is sitting in first place in the 50th Anniversary National Finals Rodeo average. He has ridden six bulls through eight rounds, two more than any other rider, and won $53,365, moving him into second-place in the World standings.

What's the secret to his success this year? Harris says it's not getting caught up in the numbers.

"I couldn't tell you how many bulls I'm ahead right now," Harris said. "I don't pay attention to the average or even to the World standings. I don't even know how much money I've won here. I'll just let that take care of itself and let them tell me who wins it. And I think that's why I've stayed focused so well."

After spending time at both the bottom and top of his sport, Harris can comfortably say he was happy in either situation. Even during the slow start to his career, the 22-year-old from May, Texas says he has enjoyed every minute of the journey because being a cowboy is what he loves to do.

"The best part is just getting to do what I want to," Harris said. "Being my own boss. It's just neat, you get to travel the country and do what you love. It's never a strain on you, you know most people it can get to be a strain on you. This is just always fun to me."

Recapping his own career — the son of a former PRCA bull rider turns pro in 2005, nearly goes broke, gets a career-saving win and ends up sitting on top of the 50th Anniversary NFR average after eight rounds — Harris can't think of a thing he'd change.

"I couldn't have scripted it any better than this," he said. "After winning $36,000 in my rookie year I never thought I'd make that much money, I never thought I'd see another poor day. Now each year I make more money and that's always been my goal - get better every year, not stay the same or drop off but to get better. It doesn't get any better than this."

Technorati Tags: be your own boss,rodeo,cheyenne,wyoming,national finals rodeo,j.w. harris,prca,professional rodeio cowboys association,do what you love,passion,rags to riches

del.icio.us Tags: be your own boss,rodeo,cheyenne,wyoming,national finals rodeo,j.w. harris,prca,professional rodeio cowboys association,do what you love,passion,rags to riches

IceRocket Tags: be your own boss,rodeo,cheyenne,wyoming,national finals rodeo,j.w. harris,prca,professional rodeio cowboys association,do what you love,passion,rags to riches

BuzzNet Tags: be your own boss,rodeo,cheyenne,wyoming,national finals rodeo,j.w. harris,prca,professional rodeio cowboys association,do what you love,passion,rags to riches

43 Things Tags: work because I like to,not because I have to,stop wasting time,finish what I start,never stop learning,travel around the world,live passionately,visit all 50 states,identify 100 things that make me happy (except money),start my own business,get in shape

The Rags They Weave

2008-12-15T09:52:00.001-05:00

PhilStar.com reports on women making it happen with some bits of rags.

By Eden E. Estopace Updated December 14, 2008 12:00 AM

They have been weaving rags for years, and can’t recall now when, or how it started, who originally thought of braiding fabric scraps from factories into a patchwork to become functional doormats found in most Filipino homes.

Along sidewalks, usually near public markets, they sell for P10 to P15 a piece. Long before they found their way into department stores and supermarkets, the rags were sold by ambulant vendors for a measly P1 margin per piece or even lower.

Cynthia Cabrera, a long-time rag weaver from Payatas in Quezon City, says that making rags is hard work. First, you buy bolts of scraps from textile factories, cut the disjointed pieces into uniform sizes and tie them together to form a thick thread, then patiently loop them around a wooden frame to create a pattern.

Each rag is a labor of love for the women of Payatas, weaving in between cooking, mopping floors, washing clothes and dishes, rocking the baby to sleep, bringing older kids to school, and innumerable other household tasks. Selling them is another thing; either to the market to sell to another vendor or they sell them around their neighborhoods.

“Puede rin ho kaming malugi (we could also lose money),” Cynthia shares. The catch is to be able to sell the finished rags at a price higher than the purchase price of the scraps they were made of. Not being businessmen or entrepreneurs, the profit is small. Yet, the women – yes, it could only be a woman’s labor of love, at least in the beginning – have made rag weaving a homegrown industry.

Everywhere in this urban poor community, there are rag weavers. Where there is a need make ends meet, there is always some scraps of cloth to be woven into hope.

That was then. Today, Cynthia and her neighbors still weave rags, not for wiping shoes but for high-end fashion bags for fashionistas here and abroad. From bits and pieces of nothing to something with aesthetic and economic value, from scraps to commercial products, the quintessential Payatas rag has made the journey from a humble mass product to a world-class Philippine export.

The transformation, says Cynthia, was the effort of a Jesuit brother’s apostolic work in the former garbage dump.

Xavier Alpasa, SJ, president of the company that is now known as Rags2Riches Inc., which helped the women of Payatas form a business venture that is considered one of the most successful in recent years, recalls that the “rags to riches” concept came up during an evening gathering of friends over wine and cheese.

Brother Javy, as he is called, recalls that the conversation in that long-ago gathering was centered on a friend sharing his life story, which he described as one of “rags to riches” and his wish to find a way to be able to help others break the barriers of poverty and social disadvantage.

The friend, Mel Vergel de Dios, was once president of the Young Designers Guild. He, however, did not live long enough to see his dream come to fruition. His untimely death had, in fact, stalled the concept for some time. However, in due time and by God’s grace, it was eventually formed into a concrete action plan like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fitting together.

The apostolic work of the Jesuits in Payatas, which involved Brother Javy and college students from Ateneo and their friends and professional colleagues, became an army of volunteers that became the core group of the present company. What really started the ball rolling, so to speak, was a student donation of P10,000 – his graduation gift from his parents – which became the seed money to help create a sustainable livelihood venture for the women weavers of Payatas.

“Some students had this idea of making one-color rags – instead of multicolored ones sold in public markets – and selling them in bazaars,” Brother Javy shares. The idea was a hit and soon they were joining more bazaars and tiangges, and the one-colored rags were always in demand.

Not long after, they were toying with the idea of making the scraps into products other than rags. They had been wanting to seek the advice of famous fashion designer Rajo Laurel to create something out of the rags. After some time, one of the board members of Rags2Riches was able to arrange a meeting with the designer.

“While we were still talking, presenting our plans and our group, Mr. Laurel was already playing with the rag. Even before the meeting was over, he already made the first product that we are still selling now. He folded the rag, put three buttons and a ribbon and said, ‘This is not a rag, this is a wine holder.’”

The product, now known as the Mark Wine Holder and sold under the brand name RIIR, is showcased at the House of Laurel and sold in some of Manila’s high-end shops, and exported to Singapore and Japan. It was among the many product prototypes designed by Laurel for Rags2Riches as a volunteer, one of many professionals who embraced the cause of forming a social business enterprise for the women of Payatas.

Brother Javy shares that Rags2Riches is composed of volunteer professionals from many different fields, which include accountants, professional counselors, events organizers, designers, finance executives, all sharing their expertise for free. They were all instrumental in making this experiment in forming a social business enterprise work.

There were other products designed from the humble one-colored rag – the Ange tote, Maan envelope clutch, Javy eyeglass case, Memey utility kit, Tony tote, Jane purse, Cynthia bag and Reese yoga mat bag. Currently the products are exported to Singapore and Japan but the company hopes that in the coming year, they can also begin exporting to the Netherlands, the US, Australia and Indonesia as talks are already under way for their sale in these countries.

At the time of the interview with STARweek, Cynthia and Badette from the Rags2Riches office apologized for the delay in the schedule and for the limited time they could spare, since the women were rushing Christmas orders and they were under a tight schedule to finish 800 rags in a week’s time.

In one website that featured Rags2Riches and the business concept propelled into fruition by an army of volunteers, Brother Javy has been described as a “changemaker” for having founded the Philippines’ trendiest social business enterprise called Rags2Riches that utilizes high end fashion for poverty alleviation.” The Rags2Riches venture even won the Social Enterprise Award of the University of San Francisco International Business Plan Competition last year.

What change has Brother Javy and his volunteer brigade created in the lives of the women weavers?

“Madami (plenty),” attests Cynthia, who shares that the women can earn up to P1,000 a week for their effort. There are even families who depend entirely on rag weaving for Rags2Riches for a living.

“Meron na rin po kaming (We now have) quality control,” she adds. In the past, they would weave the rags any which way. Now, the weavers have to follow a strict procedure and even before one can weave, one has to apprentice with the seasoned weavers so they can learn to weave correctly.

“We reject pieces that do not conform to standards,” Cynthia says. That is why there are many weavers in the area who are not members of the Rags2Riches team. “Mas mahirap po kasing gawin yung rags namin at puedeng ma-reject yung gawa nila kapag hindi pumasa sa quality control (It is more difficult to weave this kind of rag and the finished product can be rejected if it does not pass quality control).”

Weaving for Rags2Riches also comes with a set of responsibilities. The women need to attend training on quality control, seminars on values and religious formation, leadership training, workshops on handling finances and running a cooperative venture, as well as other activities related to the Jesuits’ apostolic work.

Brother Javy explains this approach as the pillar of the Rags2Riches business, anchored on four Ps – profit, people, planet and positive influence. The women, he says, are trained not only to be good at making rags but in a holistic approach that encompasses the effect of their work on other people, the community and the planet or the world in general.

“Meron na din po kaming lalaking member (we now have a male member),” Cynthia discloses. It turns out that the man’s wife was extremely shy and so the man of the house attends meetings and seminars and weaves with the women while the wife stays home to mind the household.

Do they need to weave in groups? “Mas mabilis po kasi ang trabaho pag magkakakasama, kasi po tulong-tulong (Work gets done faster because we help each other),” says Cynthia. The collective effort also goes beyond rag weaving. According to Cynthia, in a group session, women usually leave for an hour or two to cook or fetch a child from school, then rejoin the group to resume weaving when they are free again. Somebody may leave a child in the care of the other women while she does some laundry or some errands. “So, tuloy-tuloy lang po ang trabaho (work continues),” says Cynthia.

Brother Javy says that from the present core group of 24 members, divided into five groups, they hope to eventually expand the operations to cover more areas in Payatas and even bring the concept to other urban poor communities in Metro Manila or even the provinces.

“But we need to make this sustainable first,” he shares. By December, the women’s group would have been registered as a fully functioning cooperative, with the women themselves running the business. Rags2Riches, the corporation, would then be a sort of holding company overseeing the cooperatives that would be eventually formed if the operation expands.

Cynthia now sits in the board of Rags2Riches and many others like her have big roles to play in the emerging cooperative. Meanwhile, the Rags2Riches board is preparing another glitzy launch of the second collection of high-end bags for Manila’s fashionable set. This time, Brother Javy shares, it is not just the bags, but the RIIR brand – and what it stands for – that will be featured.

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises,” said Greek statesman Demosthenes many centuries ago. It still holds true to this day. Literally, an enterprise is born from rags to riches, all because of simple scraps that women weave.

Technorati Tags: breakthrough,brother javy,free enterprise,RIIR,opportunity,overcome,payatas,phillipines,poor,poverty,rags to riches,rags

del.icio.us Tags: breakthrough,brother javy,free enterprise,RIIR,opportunity,overcome,payatas,phillipines,poor,poverty,rags to riches

IceRocket Tags: breakthrough,brother javy,free enterprise,RIIR,opportunity,overcome,payatas,phillipines,poor,poverty,rags to riches

BuzzNet Tags: breakthrough,brother javy,free enterprise,RIIR,opportunity,overcome,payatas,phillipines,poor,poverty,rags to riches

43 Things Tags: to live instead of exist,get out of debt,save money,get a job,start my own business,make a difference,spend less time fooling around on the net and more time actually working,become financially independent

Rags to riches tale began with barely a scent

2008-12-11T15:13:00.001-05:00

The Daily Journal out of PA reports on another up and comer ignoring the economy and making in happen!

Vincent Spinnato Jr. is either psychic or driven.

In 1992, he was the

quirky Vineland High School junior with a passion for designing perfume bottles.

"That kid's got gumption," said his former guidance counselor Pat Phillips, recalling the earnest teen selling his plans to launch a beauty line under the trade name "Vincenzo" to anyone who would listen.

Now, 16 years later, he's on the cusp of turning his vision into reality. He's hired an Atlanta-based public relations firm to start spreading the news about the spring '09 launch of his two unisex product lines.

V.S. Vincenzo, priced from $34 to $150, will include 25 high-end skin, bath and body products. His Aegean Skin Care line, targeting the mass market, offers 35 items, ranging from $9.99 to $40.

To reach this point, Spinnato had to learn the cosmetics/fragrance business inside and out, build up a bankable reputation and then convince financial backers to invest millions in his vision.

"I'm very aggressive when I want something," Spinnato said. "I haven't slept since 1982."

Growing up near Atlantic City fine-tuned his gambling instincts.

"I'm a hard-core dice roller," he said. "I don't get nervous -- it's exciting more than anything."

The pending launch is no surprise to Phillips, who plans to be first in line -- cash in hand -- for Spinnato's products.

"I knew he was going to make it," she said, well acquainted with his fierce self-motivation. "It's rare -- you don't see it too often."

When he made up his mind to apply for admission to Dickinson College, Spinnato would leave VHS at the 2:10 p.m. dismissal and drive three hours to the campus in Carlisle, Pa. He'd sit in on classes and hang out at the registrar's office, introducing himself to everyone.

"He had professors pulling for him to get in," she said.

And he did.

But once on campus, Spinnato still wasn't happy.

"I felt stifled, it was so frustrating," he said.

Instead of wasting time, he picked up and moved on.

"I had no money, I didn't even know where I was going -- Beverly Hills, Atlanta or Miami -- I got in my car and stopped when I hit the Pacific Ocean. I slept on the beach that first night."

Some predicted Spinnato would be home in six months.

But his mother, Henrietta Spinnato, knew better.

"I told them, 'I don't think so,'" she said. "He's just so determined."

When he was 13, Spinnato would tag along with his mother when she went shopping at Macy's, gravitating to the skin care counters.

"He would check out what was new," said Henrietta, a Vineland resident. "We would come home and I'd see him with a sketch pad. He really has never wanted to do anything but this."

Starting from scratch, Spinnato got to know the right people and always managed to be in the right place at the right time.

On his drive west, Spinnato picked up a Harper's Bazaar magazine that featured Riquette Hofstein, a pioneer in the kitchen cosmetics industry, which uses organic ingredients in skin care products.

"I called her," Spinnato said. "I said, 'You don't know me, (but) I want to work for you.'"

Hofstein hired the 20-year-old as an apprentice. He immersed himself in the industry, learning everything from product development to marketing strategies.

"I starved," he said. "I worked for free."

Spinnato got a little apartment and pieced together his rent with a hodgepodge of side jobs.

"I would do anything to keep a roof over my head," he said. "I wanted to work for this woman -- no major cosmetics company would take me on with no experience."

Eventually, he worked with wealthy clientele who commissioned personalized skin care products.

Spinnato's resume includes work for Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, Chanel, Procter & Gamble and Victoria's Secret.

"Now I have my foot in the door," he said.

It's taken 15 years to build up the professional reputation and financial backing to greenlight his personal line of products.

It's not makeup.

"Women, in general, are naturally beautiful," he said. "I'm trying to educate and encourage women to learn how to treat and correct their skin or skin conditions rather than cover these areas up with makeup -- in other words, how to bring out their natural beauty."

And in this teetering economy, he remains optimistic about his entrepreneurial success.

"Historically, the cosmetic industry seems to grow in spite of down time," Spinnato said. "The need for women and men to always clean and take care of their skin, or wash or condition their hair, or brush their teeth never goes away."

These days, Spinnato is down to the wire -- selecting brand colors and that all-important package design. He'd also like to woo a celebrity endorsement.

Life is good.

He's doesn't sleep on California's sandy shore. He has a trendy Laguna Beach address.

There are two Mercedes in the driveway -- a G Wagon and a convertible.

No longer an unpaid intern, Spinnato holds the top spot in his own business. Those letters that appear after his name in the company directory show how far he's risen.

"CEO," he said, with a chuckle.

Bracing for a new era, Spinnato is grateful to the people who invested both time and money to help make this lifelong dream come true.

"I want to pay them off in full," he said. "They don't expect to see it. They will get it.

"My parents have been phenomenal, remortgaging their home," he said. "They believe in me."

Next up?

He'll focus on generating some product buzz in major fashion magazines.

His fingers are crossed for a Vincenzo shout-out in Vogue.

"That would be the holy grail," he said.

Technorati Tags: aegean,business,daily journal,entrepreneur,free enterprise,overcoming,rags to riches,v.s. vincenzo,vincent spinnato,vincenzo

del.icio.us Tags: aegean,business,daily journal,entrepreneur,free enterprise,overcoming,rags to riches,v.s. vincenzo,vincent spinnato,vincenzo

IceRocket Tags: aegean,business,daily journal,entrepreneur,free enterprise,overcoming,rags to riches,v.s. vincenzo,vincent spinnato,vincenzo

BuzzNet Tags: aegean,business,daily journal,entrepreneur,free enterprise,overcoming,rags to riches,v.s. vincenzo,vincent spinnato,vincenzo

43 Things Tags: start my own business,make a million dollars,own my own company,start a company,live my dreams,be more confident,get a job,live passionately,work because I like to,not because I have to

This time, helping others is child's play

2008-12-11T14:18:00.001-05:00

The Daily News reports on two guys making a difference:

Wednesday, December 10th 2008, 2:10 AM

It's unlikely that any one of us can solve the larger international economic crisis.

But every one of us could make a single child's life a little brighter this month by donating a toy - or two, or three - to the Toys for Tots drive sponsored annually by the Marine Corps Reserve and being promoted Thursday with a live broadcast in Times Square by Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic of WEPN (1050 AM, ESPN Radio).

Mike and Mike will be at the Toys R Us store in Times Square, 6-10 a.m., greeting listeners, talking sports, having some silly fun and promoting Toys for Tots. All listeners are asked to bring an unwrapped gift for donation.

"It's a terrific charity, and it's something we feel great about doing," says Greenberg. "Golic and I are really lucky guys, and this time of year the difference always feels more acute between people who have that good fortune and people who don't. So it's really an obligation to help."

The team was in Dallas last week to help raise money for a children's hospital, an experience Greenberg says "I can't even really describe. It leaves you with a much more profound understanding that there are frightening numbers of people for whom the reality of life is very different."

Like countless other persons in the media and entertainment spotlights, Greenberg and Golic use some of their celebrity to draw attention to causes like Toys for Tots.

Like other hosts, they also walk the line during these promotions. "You can't lose the focus on what you do, which for us is talking sports," says Greenberg. "That's the price of the ticket. Beyond that, we do other things that hopefully are entertaining and worthwhile."