Ceremonies for the winner of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Letters to the Front contest were held Thursday. The winner was 13 year old Fatima Faisal of West Genessee Middle School in New York.
At the presentation, she was given certificate, a t-shirt, and a savings bond. Staff Sgt. Phillip Trackey stood before the crowd, holding up the Purple Heart he earned from wounds suffered in Baghdad, Iraq in 2005. He walked up Faisal after she received her prizes. He had his purple heart in his hand and it pinned it on her blouse. Faisal was surprised at the gesture.
The contest is held annually. Faisal’s letter was one of 300 entrants in the Central New York region. 60 of her fellow students also participated.
Trackey was deeply moved by letters that children write to soldiers. He stated that “The letters mean so much to us. So I thought this was a big way of giving something back to them.”
Add Braxton Bilbrey to the list of people who have conquered the waters surrounding Alcatraz Island. At just 7 years old, Bilbey swam the 1.4 miles in the freezing waters of from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park. He completed the swim in 47 minutes. His coach and two other adults swam the distance with him.
Bilbrey was reading a magazine story when inspiration hit him. It was a story about Johnny Wilson, the 9 years old, who swam the distance in October 2005. Bilbrey began training with his coach, Joe Zemaitis, who swam along with him.
Since Bilbrey is 2 years younger than Wilson, he holds the record for the youngest person to swim from Alcatraz. Now that Bilbrey has beat Alcatraz he’s thinking of new waters to swim. Next on his list…the English channel.
We have many soldiers overseas who will be unable to see their children graduate this year. Over 250 graduates in the Fort Campbell, Tennessee region will attend commencement with a parent overseas. By the time their GI parents see the graduation photos, they kids will probably be off to college.
High schools near Fort Campbell decided to make sure that these parents would see their children at commencement. They hired a company called XOS Technologies videa tape the ceremonies and broadcast them live over the Internet. The service was set up for free. While schools had soldiers in mind, the video was made available to out of state relatives as well.
The venture went quite well. Who knows? Sometime in the future it may be the norm to have such live broadcasts so families don’t have to miss out on these life events.
Cesar Lopez is a classically trained musician. For years, he heard more gun fire than music as the decades old war battered his country. In 2003, he witnessed the bombing of a nightclub while his group was playing music in the street nearby. After that incident, he knew that he had to do something to change his world and change perspectives. His idea is original and incredibly powerful.
He transforms the machines of war: rifles, AK-47s, and so forth into wonderful musical instruments. Lopez gets guns from the government’s anti-land mine group. They are brought to his apartment. The firing mechanism is removed. Then he works on them with the help of a guitar maker, transforming them from killing machines to guitars. Twelve guns have been turned into guitars thus far. According to Lopez, “…the main idea is that weapons can be changed from an object of destructiveness to an object of constructiveness.”
Turning guns into guitars is just one part of Lopez’s work. One group he belongs to is called “Battalion of Immediate Artistic Reaction”. Whenever a battle breaks out in Bogota, they take to the streets and serenade the people. The other group, “Experimental Reconciliation Group”, is a mishmash of political adversaries. By bringing together people from the left, right, and anywhere in between, they hope to show that people can get along even with diverse views.
The reaction to his guitars has mostly been positive. Some are leery that a weapon of violence can be transformed into one of music. Lopez hopes his work will change their minds and change his country in the process.
Laura Gooder was separate from her husband, Eric Nielson. He took their daughter for an overnight visit and never returned. That was 1976 and it was Mother’s Day.
Laura Gooder kept on hoping for her daughters return, but the authorities turned up nothing. She kept waiting for the phone call that never came. 30 years passed and she still held on to a glimmer of hope.
Nielson told his daughter that her mother had been killed in a car accident. He changed their last name to make it harder for authorities to find them. Thinking her mother was dead, she lived her life. She’s now 31 and has a family of her own. Her father is in prison for unrelated charges.
On Saturday, Laura Gooder found a police officer at her door. She was in disbelief when he relayed his news. They had found her daughter–alive and well.
Eric Nielson has been charge with kidnapping. Mother and daughter have yet to have their reunion. Genevieve is in shock. She has spent the last 30 years thinking her mother was dead. She now has to deal with the fact that her father lied and that she has a whole other family out in Michigan.
Laura Gooder may never forget Mother’s Day 1976. She can at least replace it with the joy of Mother’s Day 2006.
Two of the women who lost their husbands during the 9/11 terrorist attack are reaching out to Afghani widows. They have taken the money they’ve received to compensate for their loss and they’ve set up a foundation to help others.
Patti Quigley and Susan Retik were dealing with their own grief when they saw Oprah Winfrey’s show on the plight of Afghani women. They felt a bond with the widows who lost their husbands fighting Afghanistan’s many wars–some of them widowed by the terrorist group that Quigley and Retik lost their husbands to. When the Afghani women became widowed, their sole means of support vanished and they lived in abject poverty. Both women felt that despite their losses they had been given so much and their counterparts in Afghanistan who were going through the same experience had so little.
Quigley and Retik decided to do something about it. They founded a group called Beyond the 11th in 2003. Their group works in conjunction with CARE, Women for Woemn International, and Arzu Rugs. The latter teaches women how to weave rugs so that they will have a means of supporting themselves and their children.
They have donated most of the money they received after 9/11 to help these women. They’ve also held fundraisers which have brought in close to $325,000.
They don’t just donate money and leave it at that. Quigley and Retik have been on the front lines, so to speak. Both recently went to Kabul, Afghanistan to see things first hand. They spent six days visiting villages and meeting the women they were helping.
Quigley and Retik believe they can make a better case now that they’ve seen the living conditions of Kabul’s people. They have seen first hand just how badly these women need aid.
Steve Vaught had a pretty good life. He’s 39 and loves his wife and kids. But, he’s been in poor health and weighed 410 lbs. Last Spring, he decided to do something about his life. He decided to walk across American to get himself back together.
On April 10, 2005, Vaught left Oceanside, CA, for the open road. He kept a log of his journey and sometimes had a film maker along to document his trek. He crossed so many state lines and talked to people. He walked every day except for a brief vacation in December for the holidays.
The trek has not been easy. Vaught has battled depression. He suffered a new injury within the first 100 miles of his journey. He’s had trouble finding healthy food choices. He’s worn out shoes and clothing. But, still he kept going.
Since the media has found out about him and he’s been on Oprah, he finds fans everywhere. People stop their cars to tell him how inspired they are and to have a chat.
On Tuesday, Vaught reached his final destination. He crossed the Washington Bridge and headed for New York City. He’s also about 100 lbs lighter.
Visit his blog and read what he went through at: Steve Vaught’s website
All right folks. You’ve got fair warning. Saturday is Stamp Out Hunger Day. So, go through your pantry, clean out your cupboard. Get rid of all your non-perishables that you don’t want. Everybody’s got something! That soup that sounded really good, but tasted bad, and was on sale so you bought 10 cans. How about that case of canned fruit that made you break out in hives. There might even be some dried beans that never quite made it to the crock pot. This is your chance to get rid of it all and give it to someone who can really use it.
Here’s the best part! You don’t even have to drop it off anywhere. Put all this stuff in a bag and put it next near your mailbox Saturday May 13th so your mail carrier will see it. He or she will do the rest! Be sure to put it out before your normal delivery time. If you receive the official post card in the mail, attach that to your bags to make it easier to see. If you go to the official website, you can have them email you a reminder so you don’t forget!
Donations will go to the America’s Second Harvest Food Bank. Some suggested items are soup, canned fish and meat, rice and grains, cereal, and canned fruits and vegetables.
Last year, mail carriers collected 71 million pounds of food. This is the 14th year the post office is participating. Here’s your chance to make difference. Help make the food drive a success! Clean out those pantries!!!!
Cheers went up as two weary miners made their way to fresh air for the first time in two weeks. Brant Webb and Todd Russell were trapped in a cage 3,000 feet underground at the Beaconsfield Mine. At 4 am, the Tasmanian miners were raised to safety. They were in good spirits despite the ordeal. Family, friends, and co-workers were on hand to cheer them on.
On April 25th, a rock fall trapped the miners. A third miner, Larry Knight, did not survive. Mourners were on hand for a memorial for Knight.
Webb and Russell were taken to Launceston Hospital. Medical tests would be done to assess their general health. Fear of blood clots is an issue for anyone held in a confined space for so long.
16 year old, Tatyana McFadden, of Atholton High School in Columbia, MD, was a lonely racer. The wheel chair athlete who won 2 gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic Games. But, wheel chair athletes were few and far between in her school district. She rarely had anyone to compete with.
Although the teen was allowed to practice with the other athlete’s, she was denied the right to race alongside of them. The rules limited her to wheel chair races only. This meant that she often raced alone.
McFadden filed a lawsuit against the school district. Recently, a judge issued a preliminary injunction paving the way for McFadden to race in non-wheel chair races.
Last week, McFadden pulled up the starting line in her first race against runners. Some of her competitors were a little concerned that they may get run down during the race. They had nothing to fear. McFadden is a world class athlete and handles her wheel chair with ease. At the end of the day she had participated in three races and enjoyed every minute.
There are some unique circumstances to McFadden’s races. While she allowed to participate with runners side by side, her time and stats will be considered separately. At least she won’t have to sit out on the track alone anymore.
