Breast Cancer Awarness Month Recognized by Fire Stations

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , ,

Dallas-Fire-Pink-Shirt-300x200It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and people around the country are doing amazing programs to raise awareness and funding. One woman is raising awareness in Dallas. Senior Fire Prevention Officer Shanetra Brown, a two-time breast cancer survivor, is heading up the Dallas Fire-Rescue annual Care Enough to Wear Pink campaign.

In 2008 she was first diagnosed with breast cancer and in 2012 she was diagnosed again. Now, the campaign she is spearheading calls on fire departments across the country to wear pink attire for the month of October. In Dallas, the fire fighters wore pink uniform shirts from the beginning of October until the 19th.

As Brown explained, “If you feel something that’s different in your body, go to your doctor. Don’t let fear paralyze you. The earlier they can find it, the better the treatment, the better the outcome.”

Pop Tab Charity Event Is a Success

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , ,

On Saturday, September 28th, the 15th Annual Olivia Andrews Tab Run took place to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House in Columbus, Georgia. There were over 800 motorcycles, bringing more than 1200 riders from Griffin to Columbus. They road on the Manchester Expressway, down I-185 to Victory Drive and then arrived at the National Infantry Museum to celebrate in the afternoon.

While most people would assume that the charity ride helped to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House – you might want to think again. Rather than collecting money, the group collects pop tabs.

As Beth Mancini, the Program Director for Ronald McDonald House Charities of West Georgia, said, “They bring in, literally, tons and tons of pop tabs. They save them all through the year, all the different subgroups from their biker organization, and they bring in a huge trailer.”

The Ronald McDonald House is then able to recycle the pop tabs and to make thousands of dollars for the house in Columbus.

 

 
WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather

Earl Morrall/NFL Alumni Celebrity Charity Golf Classic

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , , ,

The 12th annual Earl Morrall/NFL Alumni Celebrity Charity Golf Classic is being planned. It includes golf pairings, a cocktail party, a silent auction and a golf tournament. Both the cocktail party and the auction will take place on November 3rd and the golf tournament will be on November 4th.

The proceeds from the event will go to the staff sergeant (SSG) Marc Scialdo’s scholarship fun and also the Trauma Imaging Foundation’s research and treatment for military veterans and NFL players who have both brain and neck injuries. The Marc Scialdo fund was created after war veteran SSC Marc Scialdo was killed in Afghanistan in March. His wife, Kara, set up the scholarship fund to help children and grandchildren of veterans for educational grants.

The event chair will be Earl Morrall, a former Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Colts quarterback. Many players from the Miami Dolphins 1972-73 season will be there including former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula, Bob Griese and Gale Sayers, of many.

So far, the sponsors include Hilton Naples, Shula’s Steakhouse, Hideout Gold Club and the Meyer Corporation.

Justin Timberlake Greets Post-Surgery Fan

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , , ,

timberlakeSome celebrities really know how to have their priorities in place. Recently, while on tour, Justin Timberlake put his press tour on hold to meet one fan. Giana DiLascio, 13, has survived brain surgery and recently won concert tickets from a radio station. When Timberlake walked into the room where Giana was standing, her mom called out to him and explained their situation.

Timberlake stopped what he was doing to take a picture with Giana and talk. As she said to ABC News, “I couldn’t believe it. I’m still in shock.”

A year ago, Giana had surgery for a condition called Hydrocephalus, a condition that causes excessive fluid to form in the brain. As her mom said to The Huffington Post, “He gave her great joy. He made her feel important.” As she continued, “She put out such a positive message for children going through something traumatic. She made it seem like, ‘look you can get through this.’”

traducción español

Jonas Brothers Soccer Match to Benefit Children Foundation

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , , ,

Last Saturday, on August 17th, the Jonas Brothers held a charity soccer game. Joe Jonas was joined by brothers Nick and Kevin and pregnant sister in law Danielle. The game was in celebration of Joe’s birthday. All proceeds went to the Jonas Brothers’ charity Change for the Children.

The Change for the Children Foundation supports programs that motivate and inspire children to deal with adversity with confidence, determination and a desire to succeed.

After winning the game, Nick wrote, “ACU @A_C_United wins! Thanks to everyone who came out to support such a great cause!”
The event took place at the Stubhub Center in Los Angeles.

Here is a very cheeky video that the trio put up before the match. Enjoy.

traducción español

Bowling with the Dodgers

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , , ,

DodgersIf you love bowling, then the LA Dodgers Foundation Bowling Extravaganza at Lucky Strike Lanes in LA was the place to be on July 29th. The charitable event, in its ninth season, raised money with a silent auction, with a live auction and with donations.

As Catcher A.J. Ellis said, “This is more important than what we do on the field, It’s great to get out in the community and make a difference. It’s very important to do things like this, raising money and awareness for a very important group of people.”

Many team members were in attendance including Dodger pitchers Clayton Kershaw, Chris Capuano, Paco Rodriguez and Chris Withrow, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, second baseman Mark Ellis and others.

AJ Ellis was the event host for the first time, taking over from former Dodgers first baseman James Loney. The LA Dodgers Foundation is the team’s official charity and they support programs in sports and recreation, education and literacy, health and wellness. They certainly harnessed the energy that their brand conveys for this event.

Enhancing Kentucky’s Criminal Justice System

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , , ,

LMPDJoining with the Louisville Metro Government, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation recently designed tools and piloted innovations and test systems reforms.  It was hoped that this would make the criminal justice system more efficient and cost-effective while increasing public safety.  Initially data was assembled from system agencies and then analyzed in an attempt to “identify potential pre-trial interventions for implementation.”  To make it more efficient pre-trial programs are being run.

One way of better sharing information through agencies and partners is through the development of technology applications.  It is hoped that this will decrease processing times.  A court notification system might be set up to remind defendants of court dates.  If they are not appearing in court, workloads could be decreased. It is hoped that once the pilot is finished, the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) will have be able to access the data analysis, gaining a better understanding of all operations.  In addition, law enforcement initiatives could be targeted; changes to policy could be identified and training in general could be enhanced.

Indeed, it is believed that such analytics, data and technology can be used to enhance all parts of the criminal justice system. Already throughout the country police departments have been setting up similar activities which have significantly helped law enforcement officers more efficiently deal with crime.  There is much more to be done, but this integrated approach set out by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, is a good start.  It has been suggested that the improvements encountered in Louisville can serve as templates for changes throughout the US, such as decreasing the problem of overcrowding in prisons; testing electronic monitoring supervision; studying court processing teams and more.

60 Minutes Interview with Paul Tudor Jones II

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , , ,

Hedge fund mogul Paul Tudor Jones II recently appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss the Robin Hood Foundation. The charitable organization works to eliminate poverty in NYC by supporting charter schools, job training, food programs and other organizations. Jones explained that he was initially inspired by another philanthropist on 60 Minutes, choosing to support NYC schoolchildren after watching a segment of the show. After five years, he realized his efforts had failed.

“I felt like I had failed a great deal of those kids, but failure is a lot of times the fire that forges the steel for success, right? There are going to be stops, there are going to be failures, there are going to be setbacks but you grow from those and you get better and it becomes transformative.”

Here is the full interview from CBS News:

Gates Foundation Helps Eradicate TB

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , , ,

Tuberculosis, or TB, infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year according to the World Health Organization’s statistics from the year 2011. Almost all TB cases occur in low and middle income countries and those who have HIV or most vulnerable because of their already weakened immune systems.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made the eradication of TB as one of its goals. Dr. Peter Small, of the Foundation, is impressed by recent research developments. As he said, “There were probably forty years in which there was very little, arguably no, progress because there was no effort. What we’ve seen in the last decade is an acceleration. And it’s really changed what was a vicious cycle of neglect and despondency into one in which we’re starting to see exciting new products. We have now, for the first time, the capacity for untrained healthcare workers to definitively diagnose TB within two hours and know if it’s drug resistant. More than two and a half million of those tests run in the world.”

Dr. Small is the senior program officer for TB for the Foundation. He has researched the genetic variability of the disease and has seen the effects that TB can cause while he lived in India. As he said about treatment plans, “I think the Holy Grail remains a vaccine. We do need a vaccine to finish the job. The great thing is that we’ve completed a phase three trial. We’ve shown that we can get definitive answers and unfortunately that trial was ineffective. But I think that the vaccine pipeline is now something which we know we can test. The good news is, in the last fifteen years there have been massive improvements in understanding immunology.”

Bill Gates Will Be Featured Speaker

Posted on
By JohnTagged: , ,

It was just announced by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) that Bill Gates will be the featured speaker for the 44th Annual ACCT Leadership Congress. This congress will take place at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle on October 2, 2013.

As the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates has helped to increase opportunities for the world’s most disadvantages populations while also focusing on educational opportunities for students in the United States.

The ACCT Leadership Congress brings together community college trustees, presidents and administrators and is the largest national gathering of its kind. More than 1500 people are expected to take part in the congress. This year’s theme is  “Society Demands, Community Colleges Deliver: Moving the Needle.”