Trina Gary survived Hurricane Katrina. In that brief moment in time, she lost her home and means of supporting herself. She took her kids to California. She restarted her life in Hayward with hopes that some day she would return to New Orleans.
Gary didn’t think life could get much worse. She was wrong. On February 27th, she went to a check cashing business to cash the $18,000 check FEMA had sent her. When she returned home, robbers were waiting for her. She and her children were held at gunpoint until she turned over all the money. She was beat up and ended up in the hospital with a broken leg. She had survived a hurricane but it was her own fellow human beings who pushed her over the edge.
Gary found out the their are many good hearted individuals in this world. Those in the Bay Area in her adopted community were moved by her story. Minister, Maurice Scott of Great St. John Metropolitan Missionary began taking in donation for Gary. Mike Carroll, an Alameda County Sheriff’s Department detective, was working on Gary’s case. He couldn’t stop thinking about Gary and her children. He teamed up with Maurice Scott to collect donations.
The two have been able to recoop Gary’s $18,000 and add a little to the pot. To date, $26,707 has been collected for the family. A trust fund has been set up which Gary can use to pay bills and take care of her children. She has hope again and some day she will return to New Orleans and set down roots.
Hostage, Jill Carroll, was released by her captors today. Carroll had been held captived for three months.
Carroll was working as a freelance writer for the Christian Science Monitor and was working in Iraq. She was kidnapped January 7th in Baghdad. She was working on a piece which involved interviewing a Sunni Arab Politician. Her party was attacked before arriving at the politician’s offices. Her translator was killed during the attack.
Her kidnappers called themselves the Revenge Brigade. They demanded the release of all female prisoners before releasing Carroll. Deadlines came and went. As the days wore on, concern for Carroll’s safety grew. There was little belief that she was still alive despite the fact that there was no evidence she had been killed. Her family had made many pleas internationally for her release. Her sister appeared on Arab TV just last week to plead for her life.
Carroll claims that her captors never harmed her or treated her poorly. In an interview, she commented that she did not know why her captors let her go. Her family was elated when they received her phone call.
Throw Your Own Memorial
What would you do if you knew you were going to die? Vivian Clark knew exactly what she wanted! She was going to go out with a bang!
Clark had been fighting cancer for 11 years. Her doctors let her know that she had roughly three weeks to live. Clark hated the idea of her friends and family attending memorial filled with sadness and tears. She wanted to be remembered for the good times and she didn’t want everyone to wait until she was gone to share those memories. So, she threw her own memorial. She called it her “Going Away Bon Voyage Party” and did it her way.
All invitees had to show up in costume or funny clothes. They were not allowed to cry. Instead each was encouraged to come with a funny story about Vivian Clark and then tell the group about it.
In all, 50 people showed up. From her doctor to high school friends, they all took part in lampooned their friend and loved one. Everyone took the invitation seriously and wore their most outrageous dress. Clark, who showed up in bear slippers with a toy cow around her neck, was the emcee for the day. It was a tiring affair, but she enjoyed every minute.
Vivian Clark passed away 15 days after her going away party. She was 67 years old. Just as she requested, their were no services.
The “Paws to Read” program at the Pleasanton library has gone to the dogs. It’s the latest attempt to get children to read–and it’s working!
Children are teamed up with a dog partner. They then get a book, plop down on the ground, and read to their partner. A good story is shared and a little bit of drool.
Getting children to read can be a very difficult for many parents and teachers. There are many reasons why children don’t read. In our fast paced world, some get bored with books. Others who aren’t good readers are uncomfortable working with adults to improve their skills.
Children feel at ease around the dogs. Unlike people, dogs don’t criticize or smirk. They patiently listen to their pint sized story tellers. In return, they get a tummy rub and a few pats on the head. It’s easy to see that reading to dogs would be far less intimidating than reading in front of a classroom.
Sue Jones, a Pleasanton Library staff member, heard about a similar program in Salt Lake City at a 1999 conference. With the assistance of Sandi Martin of Intermountian Therapy Animals, a new group of therapy dogs were born (so to speak). They called them “Reading Education Assistance Dogs” and got the program started.
It was difficult convincing logical minded adults that reading to dogs would help kids. But a Salt Lake City study proved the benefits. In that study, participants’ reading test scores increased and their self esteem got a boost.
The program started with 16 dogs and 34 children. Today, over 200 children take part from schools all over the Bay Area. Parents are astonished to find their book hating children having a great time at the library.
When the WBC tournament started, there was little hope for South Africa. Many bets were placed on the United States and the Dominican Republic. Those two teams were were stacked with Major League Baseball stars–as well as Venezuela and Puerto Rico. These teams were expected to dominate.
Something happened on the way to the championship. The United States was eliminated in round two. The Dominican Republic lost in the semis. South Korea had dominated the Asian division, but suddenly found itself packing it’s bags. From the dust emerged two teams: Cuba and Japan. Between them only two major leaguers could be found. Yet, somehow they made their way to final.
The Cubans had a history of baseball talent and the Japanese had Ichiro. Perhaps the other teams had better talent and bigger wallets. It seems that the thing that set Japan and Cuba apart was their ability to play as a team.
The final game was full of excitement. In the end Japan came out on top. Their fans cheered as they celebrated. Then we saw something that never happens in the World Series. While Japanese celebrated, the Cubans came on to the field. The teams formed two lines and proceeded to congratulate and shake hands. Just like Little League.
After the hand shaking, the digital cameras came out. Ichiro posed for several photographs with his Cuban opponents. Cuban and Japanese players took pictures together for their own collections.
The WBC had it’s glitches. Pitch counts stifled great pitching performances. Umpiring was less than stellar. But the games were alot of fun. South Korean was a huge surprise. Japan pulled out a win when it was necessary. Venezuela showed an array of talent. South Africa almost pulled out a win over Canada. It was nice to see the regular players as well as the millionaires. And, it was great to find two teams in the final who treated each other with respect and had fun with it. It showed alot of class.
[Photograph credit: Tracy Scott-Murray, www.sxc.hu]
Shannon Babb put her brains to good use. The 18 year old Utah native won the 2006 Intel Science Talent Search. She beat out 1,600 students for the grand prize–a $100,000 college scholarship.
Babb’s project focused on water quality. She studied animal and human behavior along the Spanish Fork river. After collecting six months of data, she came up with ways to change environmental conditions including the reduction of pollution runoff. Runoff affected the river as well as local ponds. She also identified behavorial changes that people could incorporate into their daily lives.
The American Fork High School senior finds herself in good company. The award has been handed out for the last 65 years. In the period, winners have gone on to earn accolades in the field of Science. Six of them went on to win Nobel Prizes.
Do you remember this story during Hurricane Katrina? A teenager stole a bus and drove several hurricane survivors from New Orleans to Houston. He was hailed as a hero. His effort brought several people to safety who might not have found their way out of New Orleans.
Courtney Miles is that teenager and Hurricane Katrina may have saved his life. Before the hurricane, he lived in poverty on his own in his mother’s abandoned house. His father and grandmother had moved away. He was on his own. He rarely went to school. He spent most of his days playing basketball. Although he was seen as a basketball talent, there wasn’t much for Miles to look forward to.
When the hurricane struck, he survived a couple of days living in his mother and grandmother’s houses. When conditions worsened, he realized he had to get out of the flood zone. He had spent two days swimming back and forth between the buildings and he knew that he couldn’t last much longer.
He and a couple of others made their way to a school bus yard. They were able to sneak into the building and find the keys to buses. Miles drove around town picking up people. He then drove them to Houston. In all, Miles saved 180 people.
The universe works in mysterious ways. Miles had nowhere to go after his rescue mission. He could have ended up back on the street. However, family members located him and they made arrangements for him to move in with his grandfather in Oakland, California.
Miles now has a stable home environment. He’s going back to school. He’s playing on the Castlemont High School basketball team. He’s been given a second change and the future looks pretty bright these days.
I apologize for not blogging this past week. My dog was diagnosed with a soft tissue tumor three weeks ago. We saw a specialist who laid out the treatment plans. The options were so extreme! Choice one was surgery to remove the tumor, skin graphs, and then radiation treatment. Choice two was to amputate her leg.
They lead us to believe we had several weeks to decide on how to handle the situation. However, within the short two week period she went from happy go lucky to losing blood. She was bleeding through bandages twice a day by last Monday. It was horrible to see her suffer.
On Tuesday 2/28, we arranged to go to our regular veterinarian to see if there was any hope. We had talked to several people including another vet about amputation. After talking to our vet, we decided this was her only chance. She would not survive another month bleeding the way she was.
To make a long story short, Sierra went into surgery that day and is now a week into recovery. It takes all of my time as she needs round the clock care. She can walk already (in fact, she walked 7 hours after the surgery) but must be watched so she doesn’t hurt herself.
The vet bills are mounting up. If anyone would like to make a donation, we would appreciate in very much. I’ve set up a page for donation and also updates on her recovery.Here’s the link: http://www.islandroutes.com/donation.shtml
She is doing amazingly well. She is such a great dog with an incredible spirit.
I hope to be back blogging next week.
Thanks for your support and patience!
