Daily good news about people, places, things, business, sports, technology and more...no wars, violence, gossip and car chases here - just the GOOD NEWSZ!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
16 year old blind teen Marlana Vanhoose belts out the National Anthem at Kentucky Women's Basketball game..."It was the best performance we've ever had here at Memorial Coliseum," Head Coach Matthew Mitchell told Kentucky Sports
The crowd of 7,429 in Memorial Coliseum at the University of Kentucky gave one of its longest, loudest ovations before the game even started for 16-year-old Marlana VanHoose, who sang the National Anthem before the game.
This is the most moving rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that we've heard in quite a while.
That's because Marlana Vanhoose is no ordinary teen. According to Kentucky Sports, the Paintsville high school student is blind and was born with Cytomegalovirus, a virus that can cause developmental disabilities.
When she sang the anthem at a University of Kentucky women's basketball game last February at the age of 16, the audience wasn't prepared for her colossal talent.
The Johnson Central student, who is blind and was born with Cytomegalovirus, got a visit at midcourt from Mitchell before the game.
"It was really moving," he said. "I told her before tipoff, it really brought tears to my eyes. It was the best performance we've ever had here at Memorial Coliseum. What an unbelievable voice on a little bitty girl like that."
Grandmother makes her granddaughter's day with a card and some cash after she says she was stressed out about money.
A grandmother's thoughtful gift to her cash-strapped granddaughter has gone viral this week.
"Briefly mentioned to my Granny that I was stressed about money. She sent me $8,"wrote Reddit user Delta747 in a caption for this too-cute snap.
"She may not understand inflation, but darned if that kind of effort isn't going to make you feel better," wrote Reddit user ImWritingABook in response to the bighearted granny's loving gesture.
Delta747, who identifies as a 25-year-old woman, said she's been amazed at just how much her grandma's note has touched the Reddit community.
"I love this. I keep getting messages about how this made them call their grandparents and I can't wait to tell Granny how much love she inspired. A good, good day!" she wrote, adding in an earlier comment that her grandma's gesture "meant more than [a] $100 bill."
Massachusetts native Tom Bergeron announces that Boston Marathon victim and dance instructor Adrianne Haslet-Davis is going to be on Dancing with the Stars...
The most significant moment of “Dancing with the Star” results show last night was not the identity of the celeb eliminated.
It came midway through the hour when host — and Haverhill native — Tom Bergeron promised to introduce viewers to an extraordinary woman next week: professional ballroom instructor Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost her left foot in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
“We were all very moved by her inspirational outlook. We’ll tell you how we hope to be part of her recovery,” Bergeron said.
OneFundBoston.org raises over $20 Million in its first week - details of distribution of funds are released.
More than $20 million -- and counting -- has poured into One Fund Boston in the week since twin bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon, and the goal is to get that money into the hands of those in need as quickly as possible.
Checks have arrived from around the globe, with businesses donating millions and children donating dollars, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said Tuesday, hours after meeting with bombing victims.
“It’s so important to keep those affected by this tragedy as our number one priority,” Menino said. “We’ll get through this together. We’ll help you move forward. We’ll support you during these difficult times.”
The $20 million will help the more than 250 people injured when two bombs made from pressure cookers blew up, piercing stomachs, heads, arms, and legs with projectiles. The money will help victims cope with the financial cost of recovery. Limbs were amputated. Ear drums were punctured. Psyches were smashed. Three people died in the blasts.
Menino and Governor Deval Patrick created the fund as a single source for the donations that began arriving almost immediately after the blasts. Patrick said it was the mayor who came up with the idea.
Courageous mother and daughter Boston Marathon victims Celeste and Sydney Corcoran get an inspiring visit from Marine Veterans with similar injuries
Looking up from her hospital bed through tears, she is at first morose and mournful, six days after losing both of her legs below the knee.
“I can’t do anything right now,” Celeste Corcoran says, voice sodden.
That is why the two Marines are here: Between them, they lost three legs and part of a hand in Afghanistan in separate bomb blasts in 2010, their agony then just as unimaginable, their futures just as uncertain.
But the Marines brim with vitality now — smiling, laughing, living examples of overcoming pain and loss like this, standing before Corcoran atop artificial legs purposefully exposed beneath shorts.
“Right now, I’m telling you — you know, with all my heart — you are going to be more independent than you ever were,” says Gabe Martinez, drawing Corcoran in with a reassuring voice, and with the power of his presence.
In the video, captured Sunday at Boston Medical Center and posted this week to a fund-raising page for Celeste and her 17-year-old daughter, Sydney Corcoran, who was also injured, the Marines accomplish the incredible. Within minutes, they have mother and daughter laughing from adjacent hospital beds, even getting Celeste to joke about the upside of her situation.
By Tuesday afternoon, more than 100,000 viewers had watched the clip, a poignant scene ending in uplift for a community and nation craving reasons for optimism amid so much grief and the first signs of healing.
“We’re the exact same,” Martinez says. “This is a new beginning for the both of you, and you know, there’s so many opportunities that’s going to come your way and so much support.”
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Friend's sickness inspires Kristen McCamy to lose weight for charity - she's lost 125 pounds and helped to inspire many others along the way with her Loss for Cause charity.
As a new mother, Kristen McCamy slowly began to gain weight and failed to stick to a diet. The excess pounds kept her from being the kind of active mother she wanted to be, and she hid from the world as her weight reached 287 pounds.
“If anybody has that extra weight, they know exactly what I’m talking about,” McCamy said in a TODAY report Monday. “It’s a struggle.”
A wake-up call came when her friend, Stephanie Sample, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. McCamy, 32, of St. Joseph, Mo., decided to lose weight to raise money for charities in the name of her friend last year and has now dropped a body-transforming 125 pounds.
TODAY
Kristen McCamy, before and after.
Appearing on TODAY Monday, McCamy bore little resemblance to the woman shown in old photographs.
“I just couldn’t believe that was my past, that was me,” McCamy told TODAY’s Matt Lauer. “That was the outside of what I looked like but it didn’t represent the inside of the way I feel.”
Susansnaps Gourmet Cookie Company is founded by Laura Stachler after her daughter Susan's cancer diagnosis...
WAVERLY, Iowa --- Some come for the cookies. Others are drawn by the story.
However people find Susansnaps, an Atlanta-based gourmet gingersnap company, founder Laura Stachler hopes they walk away with satisfied taste buds and elevated spirits.
Stachler, 59, a Waverly native, turned to baking as both catharsis and outreach when her family faced back-to-back health crises.
In 2003, her husband, Ken, began treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Less than a year later, their daughter, Susan, then 22 and a senior at Auburn University, discovered a suspicious lump on her neck.
The diagnosis, Hodgkin's disease, struck a chord of fear for more than one reason.
Susan is named for a beloved aunt --- Stachler's sister --- who died from that same disease at age 28.
With both husband and daughter undergoing chemotherapy treatments, sometimes in adjacent beds, Stachler needed to find a way to keep it together. She set her sights on helping not only her own loved ones but other cancer patients in need of cheering up.
"I had heard in passing that ginger is a stomach soother," Stachler said.
Ken Stachler encouraged the idea.
Nausea is a common problem for chemotherapy patients and he found the cumulative effect to be brutal.
He could tolerate gingersnaps, a gift from a friend.
"It really worked. It was one of the only things I could keep down," he added.
Millionaire Harris Rosen uses his fortune to help struggling kids and families in Orlando, Florida...“We've given these kids hope, and given the families hope. And hope is an amazing thing."
Harris Rosen went from a childhood in a rough New York City neighborhood to becoming a millionaire whose company owns seven hotels in Orlando, but his self-made success is not his proudest achievement.
Twenty years ago, the Orlando, Fla. neighborhood of Tangelo Park was a crime-infested place where people were afraid to walk down the street. The graduation rate at the local high school was 25 percent. Having amassed a fortune from his success in the hotel business, Rosen decided Tangelo Park needed some hospitality of its own.
“Hospitality really is appreciating a fellow human being,” Rosen told Gabe Gutierrez in a segment that aired on TODAY Wednesday. “I came to the realization that I really had to now say, ‘Thank you.’’’
Rosen, 73, began his philanthropic efforts by paying for day care for parents in Tangelo Park, a community of about 3,000 people. When those children reached high school, he created a scholarship program in which he offered to pay free tuition to Florida state colleges for any students in the neighborhood.
In the two decades since starting the programs, Rosen has donated nearly $10 million, and the results have been remarkable. The high school graduation rate is now nearly 100 percent, and some property values have quadrupled. The crime rate has been cut in half, according to a study by the University of Central Florida.
"We've given them hope,’’ Rosen said. “We've given these kids hope, and given the families hope. And hope is an amazing thing."
Tangelo Park resident Georgia Gordan admitted that she was ready to move away 20 years ago, saying the neighborhood was “drug-infested” and remembering when people were afraid to walk outside. Gordan decided to stay when Rosen offered free day care, and her daughter eventually became a college scholarship recipient from Rosen’s program.
“It's one thing to offer a scholarship to one person one time,’’ Gordan’s daughter, Rachel Jones-Manuel, told TODAY. “But to continuously, for over 20 years, to continue to provide this type of incentive for people to go to school, I think is absolutely wonderful."
Rosen is hoping other private donors see the positive effects of his scholarship programs and start their own versions in hard-hit communities across the country. His generosity continues to benefit students like scholarship recipient Kamillia Crawford, who is a freshman at Central Florida studying to become a lawyer.
“(I want to) make sure that I show the world that with his gift, I was able to reach my max potential,’’ Crawford told TODAY.
Medical advances made during wars are a huge help to doctors treating Boston Marathon victims..."As a doctor, one of the lessons I learned most dramatically is I don't have any preconceptions of what they can or can't do as a patient...it's possible they could run the marathon a year from now," he said.
The bombs that made Boston look like a combat zone have also brought battlefield medicine to their civilian victims. A decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has sharpened skills and scalpels, leading to dramatic advances that are now being used to treat the 13 amputees and nearly a dozen other patients still fighting to keep damaged limbs.
"The only field or occupation that benefits from war is medicine," said Dr. David Cifu, rehabilitation medicine chief at the Veterans Health Administration.
Nearly 2,000 American troops have lost a leg, arm, foot or hand in Iraq or Afghanistan, and their sacrifices have led to advances in the immediate and long-term care of survivors, as well in the quality of prosthetics that are now so good that surgeons often chose them over trying to save a badly mangled leg.
Tourniquets, shunned during the Vietnam War, made a comeback in Iraq as medical personnel learned to use them properly and studies proved that they saved lives. In Boston, as on the battlefield, they did just that by preventing people from bleeding to death.
Military doctors learned and passed on to their civilian counterparts a surgical strategy of a minimal initial operation to stabilize the patient, followed by more definitive ones days later, an approach that experience showed offered the best chance to preserve tissue from large and complex leg wounds.
At the same time, wartime demand for prosthetics has led to new innovations such as sophisticated computerized knees that work better than a badly damaged leg ever would again.
New Balance and Major League Baseball are the latest to step up to donate to the millions that have already been raised to help the victims of the Boston Marathon through OneFundBoston.org
BOSTON -- Major League Baseball and its players association are donating $500,000 to the fund set up to help victims of the Boston Marathon bombings as part of a $646,500 contribution baseball is sending to the One Fund Boston.
The Red Sox are pitching in $100,000 and the Red Sox Foundation is sending along a $46,500 check from donations by Red Sox fans at Fenway Park over the weekend. A set of checks was presented to Boston Mayor Tom Menino on Sunday by Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and designated hitter David Ortiz.
In addition to Sunday's donations, the Red Sox, baseball and its players will continue to raise funds on national telecasts, on their websites and via signs at Fenway Park.
New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. announced Monday a $1 million donation to One Fund Boston, the fund established by Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Governor Deval Patrick to support those directly impacted by the Boston Marathon bombings as well as to first responders and to its home town of Boston.
Known for its athletic footwear and apparel, New Balance added that its own foundation will match contributions made to One Fund Boston by company employees.
“The events at the Boston Marathon shook the streets of Boston but not the spirit of our city,” New Balance executive vice president of administration Anne Davis said in a statement. “In the aftermath of this tragedy and the remarkable scenes of heroism and bravery, we have never been more proud to be a part of the landscape of Boston. Our thoughts and prayers are today and always will be with the victims of this tragedy.”
Monday, April 22, 2013
University of Louisville Hospital turned into wedding venue for Evonee Lee and Don Tyler's special day...
Workers at University of Louisville Hospital in Louisville,
Ky., came together to grant a wish for a dying patient.
Hospital staff members call Evonne Lee an inspiration, so
they provided a moment of joy and celebration to the 52-year-old cancer
patient, who has a grim prognosis.
"Time is against her right now, and one of her wishes
was to get married before she was out of time," said University Hospital
nurse Melissa Pritchett.
That's all it took to turn University Hospital into a
wedding venue for Evonne Lee and Don Tyler.
"When we first met and we first got together, we
decided we're in it for life," Tyler said.
That promise was enough eight years ago, but getting married
became a priority when Lee was diagnosed with cancer last year. Don popped the
question Christmas morning, as Lee's health began deteriorating.
"During February, I found out I had leukemia," Lee
said.
She's been in the hospital since then, and doctors give her
weeks to live.
"I know I don't have long, but the time I have, I'm
just going to enjoy it," Lee said.
Julie Weiss ran a marathon 52 out of 52 weeks to raise awareness for the disease that killed her father - Pancreatic cancer.
Julie Weiss is the Energizer Bunny of marathon runners. For
52 weeks, she kept on going and going and going.
On Sunday, she finally stopped. As she crossed the finish
line of the Los Angeles Marathon, she reached her goal of running a marathon
every week for a year to raise awareness for the disease that killed her
father.
"Pancreatic cancer is my only competition out there and
I intend to beat it,” she told TODAY.
The 42-year-old California mother of two started her
year-long journey after her father passed away in November 2010, only a month
after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The experience stunned her.
Wave of Support to Replace Dave Henneberry's Boat Which was Ruined in Boston Marathon Bomber's Standoff With Police in Watertown, MA
America wants to help David Henneberry get a new boat.
The Watertown, Mass., resident became a hero when he
discovered suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding in his
backyard boat.
Henneberry quickly called the cops and in a final standoff,
his boat was riddled with bullet holes.
"That boat's his baby. He takes care of it like you
wouldn't believe. And they told him it's all shot up," Henneberry's friend
and neighbor George Pizzuto told ABC News. "He's going to be
heartbroken."
Today, people around the country want to make help mend that
broken heart.
Deborah Newberry, 62, of Orlando, Fla., has already put a
$25 check in the mail to Henneberry's home.
"Something told him to go and check things,"
Newberry told ABCNews.com. "I just want him to know that people care about
him because I know he's probably the guy that would say, 'Well, that's okay.'
But I just would like him to know that we're all thinking about him and
appreciate his spirit."
She believes Henneberry had to be "awfully, awfully
cool" to emerge from a daylong lockdown, notice something wrong with his
boat, find a bloody man in it and slip away to call police.
Injured mother and daughter from Boston Marathon, Celeste and Sydney Corcoran, are moved and are now recovering in the same room at Boston Medical Center
A mother who lost both legs in the Boston Marathon bombing has been reunited in the hospital with her daughter, who was also gravely injured in the blast.
Celeste and Sydney Corcoran - both of whom were featured in separate iconic photographs from the tragedy last Monday - are now recovering in the same room at Boston Medical Center.
The family has received nearly $500,000 in donations from strangers across the world to help pay for the cost of medical care and rehabilitation.
The mother and daughter had been near the finish line at the marathon waiting to see Celeste's sister Carmen Acabbo compete in the race.
'It just hits you, like, life will never be the same, but she can still hug me,' Mrs Acabbo, 43, told NBC News. 'And I still have her. She's my very best friend and I'm just so thankful to have her in whatever capacity that I do.'
Sydney, a high school student, was later reunited with Matt Smith - the man who saved her.
'Find Matt,' she had told her family, according to her aunt, Mrs Acabbo.
'We would all like to thank him,' Acabbo said.
'The nurses were able to get them in the same room and their beds are pushed together so they can hold hands,' Carter, Tyler and Sidney's second cousin, said.
Carter told MailOnline that both are in good spirits despite their circumstances.
'Celeste is a firecracker. She's just upset she didn't see her sister cross the finish line,' Carter said.
'Celeste is the glue of the family.'
Beep Ball gives these visually impaired and blind players their own Field of Dreams...
When Joe Quintanilla was growing up, he desperately wanted to be a baseball player. Every time a school assignment prompted him about what he wanted to be when he grew up, the young Jim Rice fan gave the same answer: a left fielder for the Red Sox.
But at age 5, he was diagnosed with a degenerative vision disorder called retinitis pigmentosa; by age 11, his vision was severely limited, and Quintanilla, who lives in Chelsea, was forced to reassess his diamond dreams.
That is, until he became beep ball player for the Boston Renegades.
Beep ball , derived from baseball, is a sport for blind and visually impaired athletes that uses sound to replace sight, allowing players to hit, run the bases, field the ball, and score runs. There is even a World Series.
And now, the game has its own movie.
“The Renegades: A Beep Ball Story’’ is a new documentary that focuses on the competitive beep ball team operated by the Association of Blind Citizens. The film had its local premier earlier this month in Revere and was recently shown at a film festival in Buffalo.
Quintanilla, 36, nicknamed Q by his teammates, has played for the Renegades for 13 years and said beep ball has enabled him to overcome some previous challenges.
“It got me the opportunity to actually hit a ball that’s being pitched to me,” he said, noting that as a child, his vision problems caused frequent strikeouts in Wiffle ball. “It’s something that I would never have been able to do [otherwise].”
Beep ball, as the name implies, uses a ball (made of repurposed payphone parts) that emits an auditory signal to the hitter and the defensive players. The pitcher and catcher are sighted, as are two spotters in the outfield who direct the visually impaired defenders toward the ball when it’s in play. There are two bases, but only one of them buzzes after a player hits the ball, giving the hitter the signal to run in that direction. Six innings are played and a run is scored when a batter hits the beeping ball and gets to one of two bases before the ball is fielded by the defense.
The Renegades usually practice and play in Watertown, but occasionally they take to the field in Brighton, Newton, or Waltham. Players hail from Brockton, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Watertown, Jamaica Plain, and Somerville. Last season, the Renegades had a 10-5 record against other teams from around the country.
The movie chronicles the Renegades’ practices and journey to the National Beep Ball Association World Series in 2005, with additional segments from 2006 and 2007. According to director Jack Clancy, the film explores the background of the team, the struggles the players face, and how they meet those challenges. Many of their stories are compelling: One player lost his sight as a child when he was hit in the head with a baseball bat; another has cancer and a heart condition.
“You feel joy, sadness, empathy . . . exhilaration,” said Clancy, who whittled 110 hours of footage down to a little more than 60 minutes. “It’s not the, ‘Oh look, a bunch of blind guys playing baseball. Isn’t that cute?’ ”
Clancy, of Brockton, said he decided to make the film when Quintanilla, a longtime friend, invited him to watch a beep ball game.
“I brought my daughter Liz [Clancy Lerner] to watch it, and we watched an inning, and I turned to her and her eyes were all welled up,” he said. “We decided we needed to tell this story.”
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Nicholas Winton, a 29 year old stockbroker, skips a ski vacation and ends up saving over 669 lives on nights and weekends and he kept it a secret for nearly 50 years..."Winton's Children"
“I was told that my sister and I were going to be sent to England. I was only 9 and not aware of the situation. A lot of us thought it was an adventure. We didn’t know what was happening.”
Here’s what happened. Milena Grenfell-Baines and 668 other mostly Jewish children were transported from Czechoslovakia to England in order to save their lives before the outbreak of WWII.
The man who made this possible was Sir Nicholas Winton. In 1939, Winton and a friend, Martin Blake, were supposed to take a skiing vacation. Instead, Blake, who worked with refugees, told Winton, at the time a 29-year-old stockbroker, that he should visit him in Prague and help with the refugees fleeing Hitler’s advancing armies.
Nicholas Winton did go to Prague, and he was deeply affected by what he saw: thousands of refugees driven out of Sudetenland, a Czechoslovakian area recently under Nazi control (Britain and France agreed to allow Hitler to annex a large part of Czechoslovakia in an attempt to avoid a World War and the Nazis had started to take control of the country.) There was no plan to save the refugees from the looming danger of the Nazis.
So Winton decided to act. He told the BBC, “The task was enormous but I had to do something. The so-called Kindertransports—initiatives to bring children west—had been organized elsewhere, but not in Prague.”
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