Stories Of Hope (Part 1)
Positive change very frequently comes from the bottom up.
Individuals and small groups experience a problem in their own lives and among the people they know.
They put up with it for a while, but somewhere along the way,
they decide that things have to change for the better,
not only for themselves,
but also for their friends, their neighbors, their city, their state, and/or their country.
In this section of the website, we will share successful stories of hope from the bottom up.
I will start with some of my stories,
but I invite you to share your success stories.
Share Your Thoughts
A BEAUTIFUL, INSPIRING, AND HOPE-FILLED STORY
669 Children Saved From the Nazi’s by Nicholas Winton of Great Britain
Jewish Children Waiting to Board a train Nicholas Winton, then a 28 year old stockbroker
Nicholas Winton (1909-2015) was a stockbroker born in London. His parents were of German-Jewish ancestry but chose to have their son baptized in the Anglican Church. Between December 1938 and September 1939, Winton worked with friends and colleagues in Prague and London to organize the transport and reception of children threatened by the Nazi racial laws which applied in Czechoslovakia after the German invasion of March 1939.
Winton was asked to come to Prague by his friend Martin Blake, a teacher and a member of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia. Blake introduced Winton to Doreen Wariner, who showed Winton the overcrowded refugee camps. Working from his hotel room – often hearing petitions while he shaved – Winton collected applications. He returned to London with the names of children and spent his evenings and weekends raising money and recruiting foster parents. He believed that the time was running out before the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, breaking the Munich Agreement of September 1938.
The first transport of children from Prague left by air on 14 March 1939, just a day before the Third Reich invaded Czechoslovakia. Between March and August, Winton and his colleagues organized a further seven transports departing by rail. The last transport left Prague on 2 August 1939, a month before the outbreak of WW2.
Winton’s work was largely unknown until the late 1980s, when his wife Grete found a scrapbook with details of 664 children he had helped. In 1988, an episode of the BBC magazine program That’s Life introduced Winton to just some of those he had helped, as well as to British public attention. Winton was knighted in 2002 for services to humanity. Asked to explain his decision to rescue so many, he claimed that something simply had to be done. He quoted Doreen Wariner’s words to him in Prague in 1938: ‘Look, if anything can be done, perhaps you’d like to try and do it.’ Winton died in 2015, aged 106. To view a 2 minute video of this inspiring story, click on this link: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sir+nicholas+winton+bbc&&view=detail&mid=CFDC6A98F4F5404EC114CFDC6A98F4F5404EC114&&FORM=VDRVRV
‘This is really the shot in the arm that we needed.’ Five CPS schools partner with Hope Chicago to help send roughly 4,000 students to college debt-free.
By Tatyana Turner Chicago Tribune Feb 25, 2022
Morgan Park H.S. seniors react upon hearing will receive debt-free college scholarships from Hope Chicago during their assembly at Morgan Park H.S. in Chicago on Feb. 23, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Tonya Hammaker, the principal of Farragut Career Academy high school, had been hearing students make comments like " Can you believe it?” and “I wish that was us” in the hallways all throughout the week.
The young scholars were referring to the Chicago Public School students who got the news that their college education has been paid for with the help of Hope Chicago, a citywide, multigeneration scholarship program that covers tuition, room and board, books, fees and surcharges for CPS students and one of their parents or guardians.
This past week the Hope Chicago team, led by former CPS CEO Janice Jackson and Pete Kadens and Ted Koenig, Hope Chicago’s co-founders and co-chairmen, visited high schools — including Benito Juarez High School, Al Raby High School, Morgan Park High School and Noble-Johnson College Prep — that are part of their inaugural cohort to announce to 4,000 students that their postsecondary education will be fully funded.
The last stop for Hope Chicago was Farragut in the Little Village neighborhood.
“I had to play it up so they wouldn’t know,” Hammaker said. “I’m nervous of course, because I want it to all go really well.”
Hammaker planned on having all of her students in the auditorium for a school assembly, but none knew what the event was for. The news is something Hammaker believes her students will view as life-changing.
To read the full article, click on this link: Five CPS schools to help send 4,000 students to college debt-free - Chicago Tribune
At Shepherd Inn, Women Who Have Experienced Sexual Violence Get A Chance To Heal
Victoria Shepherd, who founded the nonprofit, knows their stories all too well.
Because it happened to her, too.
Victoria Shepherd poses for a portrait at Shepherd Inn in Dallas. Shepherd Inn is temporary housing and programming from women ages 18-28 who have experienced sexual trauma or domestic violence and need assistance getting back on their feet. By Sriya Reddy, Published 1/11/22
When Victoria Shepherd learned that the teenagers she worked with at Cafe Momentum often didn’t have a safe place to sleep at night, she was angry. She was angry not only because of the lack of stability in their lives, but also because she knew what it felt like to feel unsafe.
When she was in her early 20s, Shepherd was drugged, raped on a beach and left in the ocean in Thailand. If two men from her hostel hadn’t found her, she believes she would have died. She has no memory of the attack beyond what was told to her.
For years, Shepherd’s experience led to her struggle with addiction. She said every time she closed her eyes, her mind would try to imagine what had happened to her on that beach. When she was under the influence, she didn’t need to think about it.
“It took going therapy to realize that that’s why I was drinking and doing drugs every night,” Shepherd said. “Because I just either didn’t want to go to sleep at all, or I wanted to black out so I could go to sleep.”
All she wanted then was a safe place to be. And now, she dedicates her life to building exactly that. Shepherd started Shepherd Inn in 2019 for women between 18 to 28 who have experienced sexual trauma or domestic abuse. Shepherd Inn has an outreach program and transitional housing, and it has supported almost 20 women.
“It is a safe haven for women who have experienced sexual trauma,” Shepherd said. “A safe place for them to recover and get back on their feet. It’s a place where you’ll feel love and security every single day.”
She said that their stories are her story, but she hopes they won’t have to go through all that she went through.
To read the full story, click on this link: At Shepherd Inn, women who have experienced sexual violence get a chance to heal - I Messenger (myimessenger.com)
“My mom came home in 2001 and that’s when my healing started.”
Carmella Glenn | Madison, WI
My mother and biological father separated at a very young age. There was a lot of domestic violence in my home while growing up, which I believe led my mother to self-medicate with drugs.
When the crack cocaine era hit both of them were highly addicted. It took them years to separate; I was fifteen. We moved down to Florida and to Northern Wisconsin. My mom was always trying to geographically relocate, but the trauma comes with you.
My mom eventually went to prison for drugs in the 1990s. I was twenty-two when she was sent to prison. She left me her house and her younger children, but at this point I was a pretty stone cold alcoholic. I was in my own domestic violence relationship with my child’s father. I kind of spiraled. I eventually got arrested for drunk driving in my 20s.
My mom came home in 2001, and that’s when my healing started. She was working with Asha Family Service, a domestic violence program that led workshops in women’s prisons. To read more about Asha Family Service, click on this link: The Collective (ashafamilyservices.org) She took me to Milwaukee to meet Antonia, the founder of Asha, and I fell in love with this work. Since then, I have worked for Antonia in any possible way, going inside the women’s prisons and doing Sister Circles. Any time there was a gap in my life of needing employment and re-centering myself, I always reached back out to her. I’ve been sober now for 18 years. And since my mother came home, for the last 15 years, she has been a chaplain within the prison system.
I’m the coordinator of a program called Just Bakery, a twelve-week educational and vocational training program. I have a culinary degree and a criminal justice degree. Who would have thought these two would go together? It’s just been my sweet spot. To read more of Carmella' story, click on this link: https://www.lovewi.com/carmella/ To learn more about Just Bakery, click on this link: https://justdane.org/just-bakery/
A Heartfelt Donation to Special Olympics of Western Racine County
“When I received this year’s staff email for #Gift2Giving I knew exactly where I wanted to donate my funds. A woman who lives down the street from me, Donna McKusker is the Agency Director for the Special Olympics of Western Racine County. Donna has been a driving force for the Western Racine County agency for many years. She donates so much time and her very own money to make sure her team members are cared for and able to participate in as many sporting programs possible. Her passion to serve the special needs community is genuine and sincere. I thought that #Gift2Giving may be a great opportunity to give back to her agency and team. I sent out an email to Community State Bank (CSB) staff about where I was donating my funds and an additional 10 CSB employees also hopped on board. Our donation to the Special Olympics of Western Racine County will cover a variety of travel expenses for helping get athletes to practices and competitions. Thank you, Donna, for all that you do!” To watch a 2 and a half minute video about this donation and to meet Donna McKusker, click on this link: https://vimeo.com/665356671?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=57287933
Invest, Dream, Achieve Program Changing Lives One Student at a Time
By Sara Rae Lancaster, Peninsula Pulse – September 3rd, 2021
Invest, Dream, Achieve alumna Cora Doumouras, pictured here with her husband, Jake Bastian;
and sons, Lukas and Finn. Photo by Artemis Photography.
School was never Victoria Jacquart’s thing. A self-described rough childhood led her down a rocky path into her teen years, and eventually she dropped out of high school, believing she didn’t have much of a future. Now, as she inches closer to earning an associate degree in business management from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC), she’s looking beyond that to getting a bachelor’s degree in psychology and, eventually, earning a PhD in psychology and opening a private counseling practice.
Jacquart credits the Invest, Dream, Achieve program – a community-grant program that’s a collaboration between the Women’s Fund of Door County and NWTC – for her shift in mindset.
“When I moved to Door County from Manitowoc, I decided to get my life together,” Jacquart said.
She earned a high school equivalency diploma before enrolling in the business-management program at NWTC-Sturgeon Bay. She knew she was on a better path, “but I still had this fear of not being able to pay for college since I was working a low-wage job at the time,” she said.
Being new to the Door County area, she also lacked a support network – especially one that understood her situation as a nontraditional student. Enter the Invest, Dream, Achieve program. It began in fall 2018 to help Door County women achieve their goals through education, financial stability and career exploration.
A $200,000 grant from the Women’s Fund of Door County made the program possible. But instead of focusing on scholarships alone, the Invest, Dream, Achieve program takes a holistic approach, supporting women in the various challenges that can affect their educational goals.
“These women are juggling a lot on top of wanting to better themselves,” said Karen Peterson, a member of the Women’s Fund’s board of advisers. “From the beginning, it felt like if we could just give them a chance – not by giving them a crazy amount of financial assistance, but the tools they need to help them flourish – they could succeed.” To read more, click on this link: https://doorcountypulse.com/invest-dream-achieve-program-changing-lives-one-student-at-a-time/ To learn more about the Women’s Fund of Door County, read about them below under Hope-Filled Organizations section.
A former ambassador finds optimism at a high school debate contest in Indiana
By LEE FEINSTEIN CHICAGO TRIBUNE DEC 03, 2021
This piece may be disturbing to some readers. It offers limited hope, optimism and earnest language, with brief scenes of unity.
Like many who have worked on promoting democracy around the world, I spend a lot of time these days worried about the state of our democracy at home. The global democratic recession has evolved into an anti-democratic wave.
But as we move into the holiday season of selflessness and good cheer, I found comfort and confidence when I wasn’t looking for it: at a suburban high school in central Indiana, as an amateur judge at one of the first in-person high school debate tournaments since lockdown.
I traveled on a recent Saturday morning on the school bus with my son, a high school senior and the local debate team for a fall day inside watching forensics. The students are instructed to adhere to a judicious mask mandate: Wear them when you’re not eating. Take them off, if you want, when it’s your turn to debate. The students and their parents reacted to the announced safety protocols without a shrug. No complaining. No studied outrage: just a willingness to do what was needed to participate safely in an activity they loved.
The debaters arrived by 8 a.m. at the tournament from large and medium cities, suburbs and small towns across the state. Like their students, the teachers and coaches are a casually diverse and interactive group: white, Black, Asian and Latino. Some of the debaters have been in the Midwest for many years. Others are more recent arrivals to the United States. Dare to think of it not as flyover country, but as America’s third coast.
In the debate rooms, young people of all races and genders face off against each other. To the students and the debate judges, the racial and gender differences are unremarked and unremarkable.
It’s not that the students don’t have different points of view. If you listen carefully, you can detect leans to conservatism, left activism, libertarianism and mainstream politics. But there are no bubbles or algorithms in the debate room. Students are assigned to a side and are prepared to argue both for and against the stipulated resolution; in this case: Resolved: A just society ought to recognize an unconditional right to strike.
To read more, click on this link: Op-ed: A former ambassador finds optimism at a high school debate contest in Indiana - Chicago Tribune
Carthage students create marketing company to promote renewable energy
Racine Journal Times Dec 19, 2021
KENOSHA — Carthage students Sophie Shulman and Zach Gibson are not typical college students.
Together, they’re dedicated to lowering the cost of renewable energy for Wisconsin residents and have started a marketing business to facilitate the sale of residential solar panels.
“Climate change is an urgent need that needs to be addressed, but people don’t always understand the options available to make the change toward renewable energy,” Shulman says. That’s where their business, Blackbird Gen, comes in.
Shulman is a marketing and music major from Gurnee, Ill., and Gibson is a marketing and finance major from Byron, Minn. They started the green energy project with a grassroots approach last year when they joined Enactus at Carthage.
According to its organization page, Enactus is an “international organization that connects students and business leaders through entrepreneurial projects that empower sustainability progress for their communities.”
For their Enactus project, the two entrepreneurs reached out to All Energy Solar, a solar panel installation company that offers a referral program to green energy advocates.
Since forming Blackbird Gen, they have organized a group buy through their partner. That means the more panels people purchase, the higher the rebate they receive. To read more, click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/education/carthage-students-create-marketing-company-to-promote-renewable-energy/article_c6ad08b3-fe96-58bd-a811-8680d5268152.html
A Steger woman wanted to give her kids an opportunity ‘to fix what they see wrong in the world,’ an effort that snowballed into the bustling Community Closet
By Carole Sharwarko Daily Southtown Nov 17, 2021
Laura Hensley receives a hug at a Community Closet event. Hensley founded the organization as a way to help her children do good works and it's grown over the last decade and now operates out of a church in Lansing.
Laurie Hensley didn’t know exactly what to do when two empty funeral urns got dropped off at the Community Closet of Steger and the Southlands.
Having operated the charity for nearly a decade, Hensley is a pro at processing donations of heaps of clothing, small furniture and appliances. So, however unexpected, she knew the donation of two urns presented a unique opportunity to help community members in need.
“We posted on the Facebook page: ‘This is an odd one, guys, but we’re looking for two specific individuals who need these,’” she said. “Maybe for a loved one they couldn’t afford to put to rest nicely.”
In less than two hours, the Community Closet gave one urn to a man who had been keeping his wife’s remains in a cardboard box, and the other to a woman who couldn’t afford a burial for her adult son.
The Community Closet, which sprung up out of Hensley’s Steger home, had its origins in a desire by her then-young children to help a local family in need. The effort “snowballed,” Hensley said, as she and her family continued aiding neighbors.
“This gave (my kids) the opportunity to fix what they see wrong in the world,” she said. “You can’t keep complaining about things if you’re not willing to go out and fix it.” To read more, click on this link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/ct-sta-community-closet-st-1117-20211117-m7zel2v74vgv5ilifdtiablkh4-story.html
How this Racine program helps kids understand the Root River, the water itself, and living things in the water
Lauren Henning, Racine Journal Times, Nov 6, 2021
21st Century Preparatory School teacher Devron Bostick, left, helps LeRon Willis identify the creatures he looked at with his magnifier.
As the program director for WATERshed, Nancy Carlson and her wagon full of buckets of water and critters and magnifying tools help students understand where our drinking water comes from along with the life forms that call the Root River home.
“The watershed program uses the Root River and Lake Michigan as living laboratories to help students make personal connections to the freshwater resources in their community,” Carlson said. “They explore human relationships with our watershed and we provide education about watersheds to help foster students who both understand and care about freshwater resources.”
The program connects with the students at the elementary level and then again during their senior year of high school. Using survey results, Carlson said that 95% of students remember their first experience, even if it was years later and the student came to the center only once.To read more, click on this link: How this Racine program helps kids understand the Root River, the water itself, and living things in the water | Local News | journaltimes.com To watch a 3 ½ minute video of students learning, click on this link: https://watershedprogram.com/field-trips
The life of Vevlon Days-Kimmons: Racine's first-ever black alderwoman
Dee Hölzel, Racine Journal Times, September 30, 2021
Vevlon Days-Kimmons died on Sept. 23 after a lifetime of serving the community of Racine. The first black woman to serve on the City Council, she also served on the Police and Fire Commission and was the director of George Bray Community Center.
RACINE — Her life was rich with important firsts: the first person in her family to earn a college degree and the first African American woman to sit on the Racine City Council.
She was kind but tough when she had to be, as when she fought back against critics of the Alternatives to Prison program, which she coordinated.
Vevlon Days-Kimmons, 69, died on Sept. 23 after a lifetime of kicking down barriers, lifting up those who needed a hand, and giving unconditional love to friends and family…Al Days, a younger brother of Days-Kimmons, spoke of her as a civic-minded woman who sought to speak for those who could not speak for themselves.
She was a petite woman, perhaps 5-foot-1 and 100 pounds…Despite her small stature, her brother said she leaves a giant legacy.
Days-Kimmons was one of six siblings whose parents left Mississippi in the 1950s looking for a better life in the North. She and her siblings were born and raised in Racine, on Memorial Drive. To read the entire article click on this link: The life of Vevlon Days-Kimmons: Racine's first-ever black alderwoman | Local News | journaltimes.com
Not Going Quietly
Nell Minow August 13, 2021
A man in a wheelchair rolls toward the Capitol Building. It is social justice and health care activist Ady Barkan, one of TIME magazine's 2020 most influential people, and he is on his way to testify before Congress. "Ady's been fighting like hell for his life and for all of ours," says Committee Chair Jim McGovern as he introduces him.
Barkan has been speaking in public since he was in high school. But as he tells the committee, this time is different. It is the first time he is not using his natural voice. He has ALS, a "deadly debilitating disease with no cure and very little treatment," and he can now only "speak" through a Stephen Hawking-style mechanical device directed by his eye movements. He is using it to speak on behalf of everyone who is in need of health care, meaning everyone, and he is urging Congress to adopt Medicare for All.
"Not Going Quietly" is about Barkan's activism, a combination of old school grassroots organizing and new-school social media. When someone raises a question about whether he is exploiting his disease for political gain, he has no hesitation in answering, "Absolutely!" He is a savvy enough strategist to know that an attractive but sick young guy with a wife and toddler is a more powerful argument than a bunch of statistics in a binder. But when his voice finally fails and he has to use the mechanical voice synthesizer, he wonders if he should make that appearance before the committee. Maybe, he says, it would be better to have his remarks read by someone else. To view a 2 ½ minute video about the movie, click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJKUBTL34bY
How a public-private partnership is bringing dividends in Racine
Adam Rogan Racine Journal Times, Sep 26, 2021
Dave Giordano, right, spends time with his daughter on Sept. 14 at Pritchard Park in Racine, WI
RACINE — Five years ago, Pritchard Park was a prime example of what happens when you ignore the land. Overrun with an invasive species, prone to flooding, ugly, damaging to Racine’s water supplies. Negatives all around.
During a volunteer day about five years ago, attempting to make a dent in removing the invasive and damaging buckthorn, a woman said aloud: “This is never going to happen.” That pessimism steeled Dave Giordano’s resolve.
Looking back, that volunteer couldn’t have been more wrong. The rooting-out process is simple but challenging. Giordano described it as “hack and squirt” — cut down the invader, spray a bit of herbicide at the base. Then you repeat that, on plant after plant, year after year.
There’s still buckthorn in the park, but it’s now a tiny minority of the plant population as opposed to the predominant resident. Five years ago, as much as 90% of plant life in Pritchard Park’s 15 acres was buckthorn and dead ash trees.
You’d be hard pressed to find a bee in here,” Giordano said. Much less an endangered bee, such as the rusty patched bumblebee discovered for the first time in years at the park along Highway 11 (Durand Avenue) last month. “When you eradicate buckthorn and bring back the natives, all the natives come back and they find their food sources.”
To read full article, see additional pictures, and view a 1 minute video, click on this link:
ROOT-PIKE WIN’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DAVE GIORDANO AWARDED “CONSERVATIONIST OF THE YEAR”
By the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation
SOMERS, WI – Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network’s (WIN) Executive Director has been awarded “Land and Water Conservationist of the Year” by the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. Presented on August 21st, 2021, this prestigious award honors individuals for outstanding contributions to the conservation of land and water within the fields of watershed management, soil conservation measures, wetlands conservation, wild rivers protection, and protection of surface or groundwater water quality. To read more
CITY OF GRANDVIEW, MO RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL CITY MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION AWARD
2021 Community Partnership Award: 10,000-49,999 Population
Move Toward the Badge, Grandview, Missouri
Protestors and police faced each other in the streets of many U.S. cities in the summer of 2020, including in the Kansas City, Missouri, metro area. While activists called for defunding police in nearby cities, in the minority-majority community of Grandview the Pastors Alliance was praying with and for Grandview Police Officers, and residents were thanking officers for their service and inviting them to engage in real community conversations. These are the positive results of a long-term commitment to community through partnerships from a police department project implemented years earlier.
To read more, click on this link: https://icma.org/2021-community-partnership-award-10000-49999-population
Brief Editorial Comment: My career background is working as a City Manager in 3 cities and working with over 300 cities around the country as a management consultant. I understand that positive police and community relationships are not always what they could and should be. But I also know that many Police Departments work diligently and creatively to address these issues. This story is one of the positive efforts made by cities to foster better relationships between the Police Department and the communities they serve. Robert Beezat
‘We’re all together, one big family, right?’
'Any way we can help':
Racine County hosts donation drive for Afghan refugees in Wisconsin
Diana Panuncial, Racine Journal Times, September 20, 2021
Volunteers of Racine County's donation drive for Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy sort through food donations on Saturday. The drive saw the county's Veterans Service team up with Team Rubicon and the Journey Disaster Response Team for the drive.
RACINE — It was Phil Hartnell’s first time volunteering on Saturday, and the cause he chose was the Racine County Veterans Service’s donation drive for Afghan refugees in Wisconsin on Saturday.
“We’re all together, one big family, right? So I think we want to help those that need the help,” said Hartnell, a member of the Journey Disaster Response Team from Pleasant Prairie. “It’s just a great feeling to help people.”
Hartnell was one of a few dozen volunteers at the drive, which was a partnership between RCVS, JDRT and Team Rubicon, a Marine-founded humanitarian organization. Amazon in Kenosha also donated a truck to help bring the donations to Fort McCoy. The drive called for donations of clothing, food, baby items and other necessities to bring to the refugees, who are currently at Fort McCoy following the overthrow of their country’s government.
As of Sept. 3, almost 9,000 refugees are at Fort McCoy; the base has a capacity of to host 13,000 people. Zdroik said he estimates refugees will stay at Fort McCoy — and other bases across the country — for three months at minimum. To read more, click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/any-way-we-can-help-racine-county-hosts-donation-drive-for-afghan-refugees-in-wisconsin/article_b631ea4d-31af-580b-84db-7be8bb2ea293.html
Watch now: Madison women donating 'mountain' of fabric for Afghan refugees to sew own clothes
EMILY HAMER Sep 9, 2021
Connie McElrone, left, and Cynthia Hirsch organize fabric donations destined for refugees from Afghanistan while preparing the items for delivery at Hirsch’s Near West Side home Wednesday.
Connie McElrone and Cynthia Hirsch carried dozens of colorful fabric bolts from a pile on Hirsch’s front porch out to a small silver SUV Wednesday afternoon on Madison’s Near West Side. “Oh, I hope two cars will do it,” McElrone said to another neighbor.
The women, along with a network of people from the local sewing community and beyond, raised $8,000 in less than a week and amassed a “mountain” of fabric to donate to Afghan refugees staying at Fort McCoy in western Wisconsin, McElrone said.
McElrone got the idea while having dinner with a friend, Sue Savage, who has been volunteering at Fort McCoy. The two worried about the “culture shock” the Afghans would experience when coming to the U.S. after fleeing from Afghanistan as their country fell to the Taliban, McElrone said.
Although Fort McCoy has received piles of new and lightly used clothes from the community, McElrone noted that those donations “would not be traditional clothing.”
“Right off the bat we had a sense that fabric to sew tunics would be welcomed,” McElrone said. Hirsch said they wanted to give the Afghan women at Fort McCoy the “comfort of being able to make what they need and what they want in their own fashion,” rather than forcing them to wear Western clothes.
To read the entire article and watch a two minute video at this link: Watch now: Madison women donating 'mountain' of fabric for Afghan refugees to sew own clothes | State & Regional | wiscnews.com When you get to the website, scroll down to the second video on the page.
Racine pastor keeps 20-year promise on 9/11
Dee Holzel Racine Journal Times, September 11, 2021
Bill Thompkins made a promise that he would never forget the events of Sept. 11, 2001. When it looked like Racine would not have a major 20-year-anniversary memorial, he planned one himself and invited folks to join him on the grounds of Nehemiah Gardens, 4414 Northwestern Ave. (Highway 38).
RACINE — Following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Pastor Bill Thompkins made three promises: he would remember, he would pray and he would speak hope to the nation.
“For those 20 years, I’ve always remembered this particular day,” he said.
However, as the 20th anniversary approached, there did not seem to be many in Racine planning to mark the occasion.
True to his word, Thompkins planned a memorial event in the Nehemiah Gardens, 4414 Northwestern Ave., which began in the inner city of Racine in 2004 and now grows plants that are distributed to families throughout the area.
At the garden’s new home along Highway 38, there is a permanent display dedicated to 9/11, first responders and the “Day of Gray” — so called because the people covered in ash and soot from the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers became one color. To read more click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/racine-pastor-keeps-20-year-promise-on-9-11/article_c1ea8a50-2158-59bf-89fd-33986ca61723.html
The Great Story
The Great Story (also known as the Universe Story, Epic of Evolution, or Big History) is humanity's common creation story. It is the 14 billion year science-based sacred story of cosmic genesis, from the formation of the galaxies and the origin of Earth life, to the development of self-reflective consciousness and collective learning, to the emergence of compassion and tools to assist humanity in living harmoniously with the larger body of life.
The Great Story encompasses meaningful ways of telling the history of everyone and everything. The Great Story is humanity's sacred narrative of an evolving Universe of emergent complexity and breathtaking creativity — a story that offers each of us the opportunity to find meaning and purpose in our lives and our time in history.
The universe took 13.7 billion years to evolve to the point that it could learn and celebrate its own story. Wow! Where it goes next, at least in this sector of the galaxy, is in part up to us. Are we ready? Courtesy of Michael Dowd. Videography by Ursa Minor Arts + Media.
To view this video, click on this link: 13.7 billion years of evolution in 85 seconds - YouTube
Contribute to the Co-Creation of an Evolving World.
By Robert Beezat: The following essay is taken from Chapter 21, titled “Work” from my book
Knowing and Loving: The Keys to Real Happiness.
I think most of us, particularly when we are young and contemplating a career, at least had some desire to make a contribution to a better world. I think there are many ways to contribute to a better world. That term means different things to different people. We usually associate that idea with being involved with one of the helping professions such as a doctor, nurse, or teacher. To some it means inventing a new product or discovering a cure for cancer. To some it is a call to public service or a religious life. To others it means creating a work of art which people find beautiful. And to yet others, the desire to entertain people is a motivator. The list is endless, and I will not try to capture every type of work imaginable. I think the hard thing is finding a career which will blend the dual goals of making an adequate living and contributing to a better world.
Since how each of us does that is so unique to what our deepest motivations are, I would like to use as an illustration, my own experience of meshing together my deepest motivations with making a living. To read more
Chicago youth storytelling program focuses on art and beauty, not violence
By REX HUPPKE CHICAGO TRIBUNE |JUL 30, 2021
Nyjah Johnson, 19, from left, David Gonzalez, executive director of The Port Ministries, Cosette Nazon-Wilburn, executive director of LUV Institute, and Nadia John, 24, are collaborating on Chicago Stories on the Block, a new storytelling, visual and performance art project. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Nyjah Johnson is searching her Englewood neighborhood for stories untold, stories that push back on the narrative drummed into Chicagoans’ minds that the place she calls home is solely a place of violence, misery and decay.
Many news stories reveal the bad that exists in Englewood, but no place is all bad. Few places are even largely bad. There are stories everywhere of friendships and loves, of simple acts of kindness, of gardens and gatherings and all the good things that make a community.
So, Johnson, along with about 40 other young Chicagoans from neighborhoods across the city, is out to find those stories and bring them to light through art, movement, music — whatever it takes.
The 19 year-old is part of an ongoing project called Chicago Stories on the Block, launched by a Back of the Yards charity organization called The Port Ministries in conjunction with an array of other community groups. The goal is to encourage young people to embrace the good things around them and not be caught up in the violence that plagues many city neighborhoods.
“We invest so much time on what’s wrong with Chicago,” said David Gonzalez, executive director of The Port Ministries. “I think we need to equally invest in the creativity and the power and talent that people have. What if we celebrate the voices of young people?” To read the full story click on: Column: Chicago youth storytelling program focuses on art and beauty, not violence - Chicago Tribune
A True Story of Hope About the Basic Goodness of People (cont.)
This is another story about what happened on 9/11/2001
When the people in Gander, Newfoundland became emergency hosts to thousands of people
Who were unable to continue flights from around the world to the United States.
We had the original story in the June 2021 Newsletter.
This story was written by a flight attendant who was on one of the 38 flights forced to Land in Gander
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden, the curtains parted, and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there, I noticed that the crew had that "All Business" look on their faces.
The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination."
No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, Newfoundland.
He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately -- no questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in approving our request.
While the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.
We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander, Newfoundland, to have it checked out.
We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that's nothing new! Forty minutes later, we landed in Gander. Local time at Gander was 12:30 PM!...that's 11:00 AM EST. There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world that had taken this detour on their way to the U.S.
After we parked on the ramp, the captain made the following announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. The reality is that we are here for another reason." Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the U.S. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The captain informed passengers that Ground Control in Gander told us to stay put. To Read More
Farm an outlet for those with Special Needs
Frankfort Couple Helping them make friends, memories
Steven Warning, right, and his dad, Craig Warning, tend to eggplants last week at Navarro Farm in Frankfort. (Michelle Mullins / Daily Southtown)
When Sherri and her husband Damion Navarro purchased a 5 acre farm last September in Frankfort, they didn’t intend to be running an agriculture learning experience where people with special needs can learn real-world skills and make memories. To read more, click on this link A Frankfort couple turned a weedy old soybean plot into a farm where young people with disabilities tend and sell their own produce, ‘grow with confidence, knowledge and inclusion’ - Chicago Tribune
Basketball and brotherhood is bringing Racine closer together,
and it's here to stay
By Diana Panuncial, Racine Journal Times, August 26, 2021
Isaiah "Lul Icey" Lambert, organizer of Put the Guns Down Basketball Association, talks with TJ Poisl, co-organizer of Soul Revival Church. Poisl has been helping Lambert put together the PTGDBA games since the start.
RACINE — Larry Canady lost two cousins to gun violence. He doesn’t want to lose any more.
Harry Canady, Jr. was shot on his girlfriend’s porch in 2017; he was only 20, the same age Larry is now.
“He was like a brother to me,” Larry said. “His mom and my mom, twins. His dad and my dad, twins.”
In 2019, one of Larry’s other cousins, 32-year-old Marcellus “Nino” Martinez, was shot inside a vehicle on LaSalle Street in 2019.
So, Larry, a Park High School basketball record-holder, decided to join the Put the Guns Down Basketball Association, an adult basketball league formed earlier this summer dedicated to stopping gun violence.
The league aims to give community members a chance to enjoy the game and set an example to youths that there’s more to summer in Racine than the gunfire often heard and seen. Organizers and players say the league has worked. “For me, this is a good thing for the youth, and letting the youth know that there’s more than guns and stuff like that going on,” said Larry.
For the last eight or so Sundays, the young ballers — along with all the community members who gather each week to watch the games — have been able to see exactly that on the Dream Court outside the Dr. John Bryant Community Center, 601 Caron Butler Drive. To read more click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/basketball-and-brotherhood-is-bringing-racine-closer-together-and-its-here-to-stay/article_f549a74c-b20b-5961-a7d9-41c41086fd0c.html
Sports: Moments of Joy, Love, and Hope
Women and men, young and old, black and brown and white,
Milwaukee Bucks fans celebrate the Bucks winning the 2021 NBA Championship.
One of the best things about sports is that it peacefully unites people as team members and as fans.
It fills them with joy.
Almost always, after a team wins a Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, or the NBA Championship
team members talk about how they love one another.
It is one of the few times when men say that they love one another.
They help each other grow individually and grow together for the common goal of winning a championship.
They all want to be the best they can be individually,
but just as importantly, they want to be the best they can as a team.
It fills me with hope that the same openness, mutual support, and thriving as individuals and as groups
as demonstrated in team sports can carry over into our lives
As families, as neighbors, as a community, as a country, and across the world.
Working together as a championship team, We can do it!!!
Olympic Motto Amended
It was “Faster, Higher, Stronger”
On July 20, 2021 it was changed to
“Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”
The change was made in response to the Covid pandemic and to recognize and promote the idea
that we need the best from everyone and that we need to all work together to make progress
in fighting Covid and making the world a better and more peaceful place.
Volunteers help Racine be more 'House-Proud'
Dee Hölzel, Racine Journal Times, July 6, 2021
RACINE — They scraped and painted, weeded, planted, fixed, tore down and rebuilt. There were teens and adults, some skilled labor, all were volunteers.
Juan Morales, 15, gets a lesson in using the drill as he helps to rebuild a porch. He said what he has learned so far is "we can turn anything around and make someone's home better."
For a week, starting on June 21, ACTS Racine Youth Ministry and the Racine Christian Reformed Church provided the labor through a summer services work camp. Throughout the week, the teens and their adult mentors made repairs to 11 houses between the 1100-1400 blocks of Villa Street and Park Avenue.
The effort benefitted the “House-Proud Program” of Racine Revitalization Partnership, Inc., which offers homeowners home repair and improvement services. To read more, click on this link: Volunteers help Racine be more 'House-Proud' | Local News | journaltimes.com
One of the Partner Organizations in this project is Racine Revitalization Partners (RRP).
To learn about RRP and see a 4 ½ minute video about the Partnership, click on these links: http://revitalizeracine.org/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6BdItfBNL8
One Man’s Crazy Idea For Michigan Town Lands Them As Finalist
in “Nicest Places in America” Contest
This story was chosen as one of the top ten nominations to win the Reader’s Digest “Nicest Places in America” contest: a crowd-sourced effort to uncover nooks where people are still kind and compassionate in an era of global pandemic and political divide.
It was a Field of Dreams, just waiting to be built.
On Christmas Eve 2020, fire trucks rushed to the Chittle home in the sleepy little town of Manton, Michigan. It wasn’t because of an accidental fire, or anything you might associate with a holiday nightmare. Instead, it was a dream come true. The local fire department was there to pitch in on a project that would capture the imaginations of the 1,287 souls who call Manton home, bringing them months of mirth during one of the darkest winters in memory.
Outdoor activities and a slower pace of life are a mainstay in this rural town about 110 miles North of Grand Rapids. But, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the town to shut down, Scott Chittle decided that the community needed a safe place to come together, and something to spark some joy during the dreary winter months.
And what is a better activity to get people outside in the cold than ice skating?
In order to make his dream a reality, Chittle scoured the Internet for YouTube tutorials on how to build an ice rink. He ordered a large 3,000 square foot tarp online and purchased some lumber to create the walls. It took 12 firetrucks to get enough water to fill the plot.
After his ‘field of dreams’ was built, however, nobody came.
So, Chittle went door-to-door coercing neighbors to convince people to come see his creation, and soon Chittle’s backyard ice rink became a Manton hotspot. Parents pitched in to help Chittle purchase second-hand skates and hockey sticks for all the neighborhood children. Soon enough, the children were skating and shooting, a fire was burning, and hot chocolate was steaming in to-go mugs. To read more, click on this link: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/michigan-man-builds-ice-rink-nicest-places/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_medium=weekly_mailout&utm_source=14-07-2021&fbclid=IwAR00VabOOEcT190Y5di40QQ7-NymJfBqazJQChYU7w3qIbdCYzHTQWLyzns
https://www.rd.com/article/nicest-places-in-america-2021/
For the fifth year in a row, Reader’s Digest is searching for the Nicest Place in America, where people are kind, resilient, and work to make their communities better. After America faced a global pandemic and fought together for racial equality in 2020, this year is one of healing and building, of bouncing back stronger, together.
Anton House—From Prison Reentrant to College Professor
One of the many stories of hope by the work done by Racine Vocational Ministry
The headline read - From a drug dealer to a doctor of US history; the inspiring story of Anton House.
The article goes on to say, “Anton House is a doctor of United States history, earning his doctorate from Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, after serving time in prison for drug peddling.” Truly, these are the bookends of his remarkable story.
In 1998, at 18, he went to prison for the first time. He returned to prison again in 2001. It was at this time that he knew he had to do something different! He was referred to RVM by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in 2006. At this time, he started to map out his career. Within a year he was enrolled and studying at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. By the time he graduated in 2011, he was on the Dean’s List, had a degree in history, and was President of the Black Student Union. He looked to college professors to confide and be mentored. Anton was building a new life!
Following graduation, he was accepted to Howard University. By 2019 he had finished his master’s and doctorate. He states, “I was able to utilize my mind to take me someplace, and that’s what I try to impress on a lot of the boys and girls who come from, not only from Racine but some of the lower socioeconomic communities that I work in.” He went on to say, “your mind can take you as far as you fill it.” The vision and determination to persevere were also factors in his success. In addition, Anton used his knowledge of history to ground his own life. He confessed that, “In finding my family’s history, I found my place in the world.”
Anton’s career has taken him to Delaware State University, in Greenbelt Maryland, a historically black university, where he now serves as Assistant Professor. He shares his message of hope and resilience with people at the university and local neighborhood centers. We suspect that Anton will be paying it forward for many years to come! To read more about the wonderful work done by Racine Vocational Ministry click on this link: https://hopefromthebottomup.com/hope-filled-organizations#racine-vocational
Juneteenth Designated a National Holiday
The holiday legislation passed this week with overwhelming support in both chambers of Congress. The Senate approved the bill unanimously Tuesday night, and the House passed it in a 415-14 vote. To read more click on this link: Juneteenth becomes federal holiday after Biden signs bill (cnbc.com) To see and hear a history of Juneteenth, as recently presented by Darnisha Garbade at the New Berlin Public Library in Wisconsin, click on this link: https://fb.me/e/J569xKMi
A weight off your shoulders: Chicago strength coach’s remarkable act of charity helps South Side school lift heavy burden
By: Mike Lowe May 26, 2021
CHICAGO — It’s been said that the heart is the strongest muscle. So, what happens when a heart beats inside of a strength coach?
Cam Paulson coaches inside of Strive Village, where hard work is more than a slogan on a wall, it’s a life philosophy. “There’s no success without sacrifice.” “You’ve got to love hard work, because that’s what it takes,” he said. “So that’s my mission.”
The 33-year-old strength coach is equal parts demanding and devoted, charismatic and candid. The former college football strength coach leads clients through grueling workouts. Some of the city’s most successful people are drawn to the challenge. His clients include Chicago’s top names in business, politics, sports, and media.
Paulson tapped into that network to start the non-profit, It Takes a Village Chicago. “This isn’t an organization where we sit on a board and waste time,” he said. We’re trying to be a force for good. I want to help as many people as I can – today!” To watch a 6 minute video about this story, click on this link: https://wgntv.com/news/cover-story/a-weight-off-your-shoulders-chicago-strength-coachs-remarkable-act-of-charity-helps-south-side-school-lift-heavy-burden/
National Grasslands Award
Carol Ference, a volunteer at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington, was part of a team that won a National Grasslands Award this spring in the category of grasslands research and technology. The team put together a series of of self-guided interpretive tours of the facility that helped increase visitor participation from 7,000 in 2019 to 44,000 in 2020. (Midewin NTP)
Homewood’s Carol Ference remembers starting her computing career using mainframes that were bigger than refrigerators. “I worked on some of those,” she said. “Now, my phone is more powerful than the computer that I worked on when I started programming. It’s been amazing.” The technology has gotten smaller over the years, but her skills have gotten larger.
From training on those old behemoths, through decades in the working world, through retirement, Ference has kept up her computer skills and they have continued to pay off. Most recently, she was a part of a team that won a National Grasslands Award this spring in the category of grasslands research and technology.
The team consists of a group of volunteers from the Wilmington-based Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. They put together a series of self-guided interpretive tours of the facility that helped increase visitor participation from 7,000 in 2019 to 44,000 in 2020. To read more, click on this link: Homewood woman whose computer skills helped lure 44K visitors to Midewin lauded with National Grasslands Award - Chicago Tribune
Bay Area artist spreads love, smiles through her 'heartwork'
Artist Deirdre Freeman hangs her artwork on a telephone pole in Alameda, Calif., Tuesday, April 13, 2021. Freeman, who has hung over 120 pieces of artwork on telephone poles to spread joy to others, says, "It's starting a love and kindness movement, which is what we need.
By JANIE McCAULEY Associated Press April 29, 2021, 9:01 AM
ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Deirdre Freeman walks the mile from her home, lugging a large, colorful painting and tote bag with her hammer and nails. Her destination is a telephone pole at a busy intersection, where she will hang her largest “heartwork” painting yet.
Her goal is simple: to spread smiles and some much-needed love to the masses through this 18-by-24-inch acrylic on canvas, which features a red heart shape over whimsical designs — typical of the paintings she has been sharing in public places. To read more click on this link: Bay Area artist spreads love, smiles through her 'heartwork' - ABC News (go.com)
A True Story of Hope About the Basic Goodness of People
Gander, on the island of Newfoundland, Canada, was a small, quiet, relatively unknown town of ten thousand inhabitants for away from the urban centers of a hectic world, at least until September 11, 2001. That day, following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States closed its airspace to incoming planes. Those destined for one of its airports were diverted elsewhere. Thirty-eight planes, carrying almost seven thousand passengers of ninety-seven different nationalities, were forced to land at Gander International Airport. A major humanitarian challenge had suddenly been thrust on the people of the town. The story of how they responded has since become the subject of several books, and more recently a musical, Come From Away. Come From Away | About the Show | Official Site
The passengers were exhausted, disoriented, and shocked. Some had been on board planes for 28 hours while extensive security checks were made on their luggage. Many of them had no idea of where they were, or how to get in touch with relatives and friends to let them know they were safe. Yet almost immediately, they encountered an unusual sense of welcome. Greeting them was a feast prepared by the people of the town. Local bus drivers, who had been on strike, immediately set their grievances aside to take the newcomers to the various shelters that had been prepared for them around the town, in schools, Salvation Army centers, and churches. To read more
13-year-old Eli Coustan is helping Illinoisans find vaccination appointments
with his website ILVaccine.org
By DARCEL ROCKETT, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, APR 01, 2021
Talking to Eli Coustan about his website ILVaccine.org makes you wonder what you were doing at age 13.
Eli found out about the difficulty people were having booking COVID-19 vaccination appointments after he helped his grandparents. Putting his programming skills to work, his website aims to make the process easier.
Launched in February, the site lists information about locations across Illinois that are offering COVID-19 vaccinations, including availability and eligibility information. As of Wednesday, Eli said the site had reached 14,600 unique visitors.
“It needs to be easy for people to get appointments. If you’re an essential worker, especially a front-line essential worker, you don’t have the time to be in all the Facebook groups monitoring everything,” he said. “You have time to check a few things every day, maybe. At the very beginning, I saw how hard it was firsthand. … When they release (appointments), nobody knows. And if you’re not at the right place at the right time, you’re not going to get it. So that’s why I created it.”
He’s always improving the site, from making it available in Spanish to adding accessibility tools (bigger text, contrasting colors). Eli keeps the site updated with the help of volunteers.
To read more click on this link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/vaccine/ct-life-eli-coustan-vaccination-help-tt-0401-20210401-42cyywdfw5gyrbopfx73lolvj4-story.html
Social workers could be embedded with Racine Police Department
Adam Rogan Racine Journal Times, April 15, 2021
Andrew Muir, a mental health officer with the Madison Police Department, and Sarah Henrickson, a social worker at Journey Mental Health Center who is part of the department's mental health team, drive through Madison on a shift in January 2018. The mental health team, which started in 2015, is one way police in Dane County have tried to improve responses to people with mental illness.
When the prospect of embedding social workers in police departments gained volume after the killing of George Floyd, many balked at it. But in his final months with the Racine Police Department, Art Howell has tried to set up the foundation for such a program.
A plan being considered Racine wouldn't send social workers in the place of cops to 911 calls, but social workers-in-training may be brought in to assist in certain scenarios in what could be a benefit for community members in crisis, stretched-thin police officers and taxpayers. To read more, click on this link:
'It's about the community': One thousand Easter meals distributed by 50 volunteers at Festival Hall
Diana Panuncial Racine Journal Times, April 3, 2021
A family who drove through the first-ever Dan & Ray Easter meal giveaway pose with characters, including the Easter Bunny, at Festival Hall, 5 Fifth St., on Saturday.
RACINE — One thousand food boxes were distributed at Dan & Ray's first-ever Community Easter Meal Giveaway from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at Festival Hall in Downtown Racine.
Families were able to drive their vehicles, or arrive on foot, through two tents set up in the parking lot. Attendees stated how many boxes they needed and volunteers helped load up their cars.
About 50 volunteers were in attendance to help distribute food, said Ray Stibeck, owner of Route 20 restaurant in Yorkville.
Stibeck, and Dan Johnson, owner of Danny’s Meats, have been putting together Dan & Ray Rendering Thanks on Thanksgiving for 11 years, since its inception. The Easter meal giveaway was new this year…
The grab-and-go meal for four or more people included ham, vegetables, rolls, dessert and water. Stibeck and Johnson partnered with CJW, O & H Danish Bakery, Racine County Food Bank and Ralph Malicki's Piggly Wiggly, among other businesses, to help execute the giveaway.
Volunteers from Dan & Ray Rendering Thanks greet the camera during the Racine Community Easter Meal Giveaway on Saturday. About 50 volunteers were in attendance to distribute 1,000 meals.
Chicago’s MacArthur Foundation awards $100 million grant to Community Solutions to end homelessness
By JENNIFER DAY CHICAGO TRIBUNE APR 07, 2021
Michelle Lindstedt checks on the well being of a homeless man camped out near Charles Street on April 7, 2021, in Rockford. Lindstedt is a housing advocate for the City of Rockford Human Services Department. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Can we end homelessness? Community Solutions, a New York-based nonprofit, thinks we can — and the MacArthur Foundation is awarding the group a five-year, $100 million grant to help prove it.
When you think of seemingly intractable societal problems — the sort of issues the MacArthur’s 100&Change program is designed to address — homelessness is perhaps the epitome. Community Solutions has developed a framework that’s been deployed in more than 80 U.S. locations to better coordinate services available to people who are homeless. The goal is not to manage or control homelessness, but to end it.
Fifteen of those participating communities, including Rockford, have brought U.S. military veteran or chronic homelessness rates down to “functional zero” — meaning that homelessness among these populations is rare and brief, as the number of new cases in a city do not exceed a city’s ability to provide housing. Individuals who are chronically homeless typically account for a fraction of the overall homeless population, but they use a disproportionately high number of services due to disabilities and longer stints on the streets.
“Homelessness is curable,” said MacArthur President John Palfrey in a statement announcing the grant, which aims to encourage durable solutions to significant problems. “More than 568,000 people experienced homelessness on a given night in the United States, before the pandemic. Community Solutions has proven that people do not have to live this way. Its racially equitable response is primed for this moment.”
Rosanne Haggerty, president of Community Solutions, said the MacArthur Foundation grant will allow the organization to expand its work to 110 communities with the aim of ending chronic or veteran homelessness in 75 of those areas. Six of the 20 largest U.S. cities already participate; although the city of Chicago is not one of them, suburban Cook County is involved in the program. To read more click on this link: MacArthur Foundation targets homelessness with $100 million grant - Chicago Tribune
Gen Z is our best hope for peaceful politics,
so let’s stop dismissing them
By Kevin Singer, Chicago Tribune, April 20, 2021
Joe Biden ran to be a president for all Americans, and this includes young people who were critical contributors to his victory last November.
Young people have the power to influence presidential elections, but whether they influence presidencies is another matter entirely. Biden ran on promises that matter to young people. But, after less than three months in office, there is growing concern these promises were just lip service.
“Young people not only exist to represent the future of the country. We are here to effect change so that our country may have a future,” one student activist told the Center for Law and Social Policy. “This past election, we overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden, cementing our place as a critical voting bloc,” said Connor Kalahiki. “Despite our efforts, the issues we face are not prioritized. We face high unemployment rates, mental health crises, and injustice environmentally, socially, and economically – the pandemic has only exacerbated this reality. We cannot be ignored anymore.”
“As a member of Gen Z, I was a part of this historic youth turnout. I supported Biden from the start,” Ashley Lynn Priore, a national youth organizer, wrote for The Progressive on inauguration day. But it took months to connect with someone to urge the campaign “to consider the differences in policy based on ages. When I finally did get a call back, I was told something like this: ‘This campaign is about organizing, not policy implementation.’ ”
Feeling dismissed, Priore concluded: “How do we expect to have a seat at the table for young Americans without actually engaging them in the White House? We are tired of being shut out.” To read more, click on this link: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/apr/20/kevin-singer-gen-z-is-our-best-hope-for-peaceful-p/
Peace Fellowships Through Rotary International
Each year, Rotary awards up to 130 fully funded fellowships for dedicated leaders from around the world to study at one of our peace centers.
Through academic training, practice, and global networking opportunities, the Rotary Peace Centers program develops the capacity of peace and development professionals or practitioners to become experienced and effective catalysts for peace. The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.
Since the program began in 2002, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,400 fellows who now work in more than 115 countries. Many serve as leaders in governments, NGOs, the military, education, law enforcement, and international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank. To read more click on this link: Peace Fellowships | Rotary International
Animal control buys purple unicorn for dog
that stole it from Dollar General
by CNN March 27. 2021
The cutest thief was rewarded after he continued to steal a purple unicorn from a Dollar Store
Inspired by a man outside Starbucks who needed money,
Chicago artist turns T-shirts into funds for Streetwise vendors
By HEIDI STEVENS CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MAR 12, 2021
Scott Marvel works in his Norwood Park basement screen printing new orders.
(Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Most mornings, sometimes as early as 5 a.m., Scott Marvel descends into his crappy (his word), unfinished basement on the Northwest Side of Chicago and screen prints T-shirts.
It’s a labor of love, born of the simple desire to help.
Six years ago, Marvel was talking to a man outside Starbucks who needed money. He and Marvel knew each other — it was Marvel’s usual Starbucks and the man’s usual corner to ask for spare change.
“It’s a good spot to stand,” Marvel said. “You just spent $5 on coffee, you can probably spare a few cents.”
The man mentioned to Marvel that he had a job interview the following week.
Marvel, who had a basement full of T-shirts waiting to be screen printed, offered to bring the man a bunch. He thought the man could use some clean, new shirts for interviews or work. The man thought Marvel wanted to give them to him to sell, as a way to make money.
That got Marvel thinking: He had been designing T-shirts for years — a side gig, in addition to his full-time job as president of Daily Planet Productions, a Chicago-based video production company. What if he made a bunch of extras on the weekends and then drove around every Monday handing them to people who are homeless so they could sell them and keep the money?
After a few conversations with friends and business contacts and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Marvel decided to partner with StreetWise, the organization that supports Chicagoans who are homeless through jobs selling StreetWise magazine and other services.
Thus, GiveaShirt was born.
To read full story, click on this link: Chicago T-shirt artist raises money for StreetWise by screen printing musicians' designs - Chicago Tribune
2 college students harness TikTok to collect bras and tampons, combat period poverty
By ZAREEN SYED PIONEER PRESS, FEB 27, 2021
A few months into lockdown, two best friends set out on a simple mission: Donate bras and tampons to women who need them. But with the help of TikTok and a flair for organizing, what started as a pandemic project…became a fully functioning nonprofit with volunteers across 42 states.
Alexa Mohsenzadeh and Jenica Baron launched Her Drive in June 2020, a Chicago-based organization that provides bras as well as menstrual care and general hygiene products to combat period and hygiene poverty.
“I think as we looked into period poverty, just hearing about it in high school, how girls would resort to using plastic bags instead of pads or would try to wash their underwear using clean water but wouldn’t be able to, we became really passionate about it,” said Baron, who is a public health student at Tulane University…
The social-media-savvy 19-year-olds organized their first Chicagoland drive in July and proceeded as any proper millennial would. To get the word out, Mohsenzadeh creatively clipped together some pictures and videos they’d shot, accompanied by a remix version of the Ritt Momney song “Put Your Records On,” and posted the footage on Her Drive’s TikTok account. In the video, they asked their followers to donate spare bras. The response was spectacular.
A small portion of articles received and distributed by Her Drive.
One family’s weekly trips to fill Chicago’s Love Fridges are a reminder of our capacity to care for one another
By HEIDI STEVENS, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MAR 02, 2021
Annie Swingen, from left, her son, Ellis, 10, and her husband, Lee Swingen, fill a Love Fridge with food in Little Village on Feb. 27, 2021. Direct Effect Charities, founded by Michelle DiGiacomo, counts on volunteers to shop and fill the fridges around the city. The public is welcome to take and to contribute food. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
In normal times, Michelle DiGiacomo spends a lot of the year planning around Santa…DiGiacomo partners with Chicago Public Schools to collect letters from kids whose families can’t afford to buy gifts at Christmas. She distributes the letters to some kindhearted helpers, who fan out across the city and shop for gifts, which the kids then receive at school.
The pandemic wreaked havoc on that tradition, obviously. Closed schools meant no place to collect the letters and no place to distribute the gifts…It’s one of this pandemic’s cruelest twists: Even as our communities’ needs are growing, many of our traditional ways of meeting them are roadblocked.
Undaunted, DiGiacomo wrote a letter in October inviting her loyal donors to purchase grocery store gift cards in lieu of gifts from Santa, which she pledged to hand out to school principals and otherwise use to fill the growing food insecurity caused by COVID-19 lockdowns and layoffs.
She said she collected around $25,000 in gift cards.
“That’s when I found out about Love Fridge,” she told me.
Love Fridges are community refrigerators that dot Chicago neighborhoods, offering free, fresh food to anyone who needs it. The brainchild of Chicago musician Ramon “Radius” Norwood, Love Fridges started popping up around the city last summer, and now there are more than 20, from Avondale to Back of the Yards to Pilsen to Englewood. (Find one at thelovefridge.com/locations.) To read more:
Gen Z’s surprising optimism should give the rest of us hope
Activists at the Youth Climate Strike march in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2019.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
By Samuel J. Abrams Jan. 30, 2021 4 AM PT
It would be completely understandable if those in Gen Z — America’s youngest generation whose oldest members are now in college — were totally turned off from politics. As a politics professor myself, I have spent countless hours with hundreds of undergraduates from around the nation trying to help them understand a chaotic Trump administration, which has operated in an era of deep polarization.
Over the past four years, these older Gen Zers, ages 18-23, have experienced a constant assault on political and democratic norms and have faced crises America hasn’t seen in generations — including a global pandemic, an extreme economic downturn, xenophobia, violence in our cities, the onslaught of climate change and Donald Trump’s attack on our electoral system.
Yet despite these tumultuous events, my students have remained remarkably positive on politics and the future of the nation. They thrive in a world of differences, and seem to genuinely welcome a diversity of ideas, seek empathetic leadership and are interested in serving their communities. It also appears that Gen Zers, having deeply embraced technology, feel empowered by using those tools in forming new political movements.
To read the full article, click on this link: Gen Z's surprising optimism should give the rest of us hope - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Purses for a Purpose program at Shalom Center exceeds expectations
Deneen Smith Feb 13, 2021 Kenosha News
Tamarra Coleman’s office at the Shalom Center in Kenosha is lined with purses filled with supplies.
KENOSHA — When Tamarra Coleman, executive director of the Shalom Center, organized a “Purses for a Purpose” drive for Valentine’s Day she hoped to collect about 75 purses filled with toiletries for women in need. Coleman had done the drive before back in 2019, collecting new and gently used purses filled with toiletries, candy and inspirational notes, that year drawing largely on friends and family for donations.
“This year, I vowed to do it again and so the planning began. I simply asked my family and friends again to donate with a hope of collecting 75 purses, but, this year, it went viral and I had random ladies donating purses from all over the community, from Racine and even Lake County. It was pretty amazing,” Coleman said in an email. “KUSD even got involved and the young ladies who are a part of the African American Female Initiative (AAFI) from Bullen, ITA, Bradford and Tremper donated 200 purses and each school group made Valentine’s bags as well.”
Coleman said about 500 purses were donated in all, each purse packed with “all types of ladies items from lipstick, jewelry, nail polish, feminine hygiene products, shampoo, socks.”
Women in Shalom Center programs were able to choose a purse on Friday. “The goal was to allow women to pick a purse of their choice and show a little extra love,” Coleman said. To read more, click on this link: Purses for a Purpose program at Shalom Center exceeds expectations | Local News | kenoshanews.com
Lots of Lasagna Love
Volunteer home cooks deliver lasagnas to community
Diana Panuncial Racine Journal Times, February 15, 2021
STURTEVANT, WI — A lasagna waits patiently in the oven.
It’s about 11 a.m. Sunday in Frances Kis’ quaint kitchen in Sturtevant, where the lasagna — which she’s put a few hours of her week into making — is cooking to perfection.
At noon, Kis will wrap it up and deliver it to a family of four in Mount Pleasant to have on Valentine’s Day.
“Just gotta let it broil for a bit longer,” said Kis — who is an avid believer in letting the sauce simmer for a few hours to bring out the flavor in the whole lasagna — as she set the oven.
This is the premise of Lasagna Love, a nationwide movement to deliver homemade lasagnas to members of local communities in order to spread kindness, show support and feed a neighbor. To Read more, click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/lots-of-lasagna-love-volunteer-home-cooks-deliver-lasagnas-to-community/article_cf8655f6-9359-59d0-9abd-e3d469fe4dcf.html#utm_source=journaltimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fdaily-headlines&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_content=01bd8f4bbd87b1b8e02791bc07ac6336d5dd61a8
How a Young Activist Is Helping Pope Francis Battle Climate Change
Molly Burhans wants the Catholic Church to put its assets—which include farms, forests, oil wells, and millions of acres of land—
to better use. But first, she has to map them.
By David Owen, February 1, 2021, New Yorker Magazine
In the summer of 2016, Molly Burhans, a twenty-six-year-old cartographer and environmentalist from Connecticut, spoke at a Catholic conference in Nairobi, and she took advantage of her modest travel stipend to book her return trip through Rome.
When she arrived, she got a room in the cheapest youth hostel she could find, and began sending e-mails to Vatican officials, asking if they’d be willing to meet with her. She wanted to discuss a project she’d been working on for months: documenting the global landholdings of the Catholic Church. To her surprise, she received an appointment in the office of the Secretariat of State…Burhans has been a deeply committed Catholic since she was twenty-one. For a year or two, when she was in college, she considered becoming a nun. Later, though, as she grew increasingly concerned about climate change, her ambitions broadened, and she began to think of ways in which the Catholic Church could be mobilized as a global environmental force.
“There are 1.2 billion Catholics,” she told me. “If the Church were a country, it would be the third most populous, after China and India.” The Church, furthermore, is probably the world’s largest non-state landowner. The assets of the Holy See, combined with those of parishes, dioceses, and religious orders, include not just cathedrals, convents, and Michelangelo’s Pietà but also farms, forests, and, by some estimates, nearly two hundred million acres of land, Burhans concluded that the Church had the means to address climate issues directly, through better land management, and that it was also capable of protecting populations that were especially vulnerable to the consequences of global warming. To read more, click on this link: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/08/how-a-young-activist-is-helping-pope-francis-battle-climate-change
Black Men Northwoods Retreat
This week Love Wisconsin https://www.lovewi.com/ is doing something a little bit different. We are very excited to partner with James Edward Mills of The Joy Trip Project. James worked with the National Forest Foundation this past fall to create The Black Men Northwoods Retreat. For the rest of the week, we will be sharing stories from four of the men that were part of the trip to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
Here is what James has to say about the stories in this project: “In the spring of 2020, I received an invitation from the National Forest Foundation to create a series of photographs and interviews about the Black community and its relationship with the natural world…
…In order to create a worthwhile and socially significant project, I partnered with Aaron Perry, the founder of the Rebalanced Life Wellness Association. Having created a community service organization dedicated to the health and wellness of Black Men in Madison, Wisconsin, he was able to assemble a small cohort of participants who would not only benefit from a two-day visit to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and a hike along the Ice Age National Scenic Hiking Trail, but also share a few words about their experience. The Black Men Northwoods Retreat provided three fathers and their sons the opportunity to escape the ravages of the Covid-19 Pandemic and enjoy the healing benefits of the natural world through the forests of Wisconsin.” To read more go to: https://www.lovewi.com/northwoods-retreat/
Man gives paycheck to Evanston family devasted by fire.
Jeron Dorsey, program coordinator at Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Center, carries food at a holiday
food and toy drive in Evanston on Dec. 16, 2020. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)
Mayra Jackson smiles with her son Jordan Jackson, 9, on Dec. 29, 2020, at her sister's home where the Jacksons are staying in Evanston. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
To read the full story click on this link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/heidi-stevens/ct-heidi-stevens-man-donates-paycheck-evanston-family-fire-0104-20210104-s7ojzns4xfbn3ongxadabj4qly-story.html
Chicago couple canceled their big wedding but used the $5,000 catering deposit to feed people in need By Lauren Kent, CNN December 06, 2020
Read full story here: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/06/us/wedding-deposit-to-feed-needy-trnd/index.html
The Miracle on Ninth Street - UCC's 50 Years of Service to the Community
By David Luhrssen, Sheperd Express, Nov. 10, 2020
The year 1970 marked a turning point for Latinx Americans. César Chávez’s United Farm Workers marched for the rights of migrant workers, and the Chicano Moratorium, which brought 30,000 protestors to the streets of Los Angeles, focused national attention on discrimination. In Milwaukee, Latinx students occupied the office of UW-Milwaukee’s chancellor. More quietly, on the city’s South Side, a neighborhood center called The Spot provided a haven where teens could gather. A year later, The Spot took the more authoritative name of United Community Center (UCC) and began a process that shows how great things can grow from humble beginnings…
The heart of UCC is its sprawling campus, occupying entire blocks running east-west from South Sixth through South Ninth streets and north-south from West Mineral to West Washington. From a nucleus at 1028 S. Ninth Street, the UCC expanded over the decades like an old growth tree, purchasing properties to make way for a village with preschools, primary and middle schools, a senior center and elder housing, residential treatment for alcohol and drug addiction, an arts center, a restaurant and more.
To read the full story click on: https://shepherdexpress.com/news/features/the-miracle-on-ninth-street/
Racine, WI Rotary Club Donates to Camp Anokijig in Little Elkhart Lake
Racine children will again get the chance to experience Camp Anokijig on Little Elkhart Lake near Plymouth next summer, thanks to a donation from the Racine Founders Rotary Foundation. The $9,500 donation was funded by the proceeds from the club’s Vegas Night fundraiser held in February. Over the past six years, the foundation has given the camp over $45,000 to fund life-changing Anokijig experiences for many Racine area kids and teens through camper scholarships and the teen leadership program. According to executive director Darin Holden, Anokijig served 540 campers and 106 teen leaders during seven COVID-free weeks at camp in 2020. “These funds will help to make sure Anokijig is prepared to meet the unknowns of 2021 while we plan to continue our mission of serving youth and families.” Foundation treasurer Frank Sterbin (right), event co-chairman Chad Arents (second from right) and club president-elect Chris Terry (left) presented the check to Holden during the club’s Oct. 23 meeting at Racine Country Club.
Need a new furnace? This Racine heating contractor is giving one away
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Juan and Zulma Lopez, owners of J&E Heating and Cooling LLC, remember what it was like to struggle to pay their bills. So the couple is offering a free furnace this winter to a family in need. "It'll be the perfect gift," Juan said. |
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https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
OUR MISSION, OUR PASSION: Since 1997, millions of people have turned to the Good News Network® as an antidote to the barrage of negativity experienced in the mainstream media. Because of its long history, staying power, and public trust, GNN is #1 on Google for good news. The website, with its archive of 21,000 positive news stories from around the globe, confirms what people already know—that good news itself is not in short supply; the broadcasting of it is. From our 5-star app, to our new book (And Now, The Good News: 20 Years of Inspiring News Stories), to our weekly Good News Gurus podcast, and Morning Jolt email newsletter, GNN is a daily dose of hope for millions of fans.
Community State Bank
Community State Bank (CSB) is a regional bank in southeastern Wisconsin with locations in Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth Counties. They have taken two recent initiatives which are bringing Hope From the Bottom Up.
One initiative is working with a group called Love, Inc. located in Burlington, WI. CSB is partnering with the Burlington Rotary Club to provide over 150 Thanksgiving meals to residents in the area. To read more, go to: https://csb.bank/thankgivingdonation
The second initiative is a monthly podcast to help its customers stay informed and give a local perspective on items that may be in the news. The first podcast was put online on November 19, 2020. The title is “Feel Good Friday: Teaser - Let's talk about the good stuff in our community!” CSB Marketing Intern, Twila Dovas sits down with CSB President & CEO, Scott Huedepohl to introduce a new podcast series called "Feel Good Friday". Here is a link to that 10 minute podcast: https://csb.bank/podcasts
First Woman Appointed as the General Manager
of a Major League Baseball Team
The Women’s Liberation Movement for equal opportunity took another step forward with the appointment of Kim Ng, as the first woman to be named the General Manager of a Major League baseball team, the Miami Marlins. She is the first woman to be a general manager of any of the four North American men’s professional sports teams: baseball, basketball, football, or hockey. To Read More
Way to go Kim!
In the September Sharing Ideas section of the website, I included a story about Tom Rutkowski and the work he and others are doing through the Sierra Club and the Clean Power Coalition in southeastern Wisconsin. Here is a link to that story in September: https://hopefromthebottomup.com/news/who-do-you-know-and-what-do-they-do
The work of these groups has resulted in some positive changes taken by We Energies, a long time producer of electric power using coal to do so.
We Energies to retire part of Oak Creek coal plant; replace with solar, batteries, gas
OAK CREEK — Wisconsin’s largest utility plans to replace nearly half its coal-fired generation with a portfolio of solar, wind, batteries and natural gas plants as part of a $16.1 billion spending plan that the company says will generate profits for investors while also saving ratepayers money.
WEC Energy Group, of which We Energies is a subsidiary, plans to retire 1,800 megawatts of fossil fuel generation — including a portion of the Oak Creek coal plant near Racine County — over the next five years while adding 1,500 megawatts of clean energy and storage capacity along with 300 megawatts of natural gas generation.
“This is momentous news!” Susan Modder, a member of the nonprofit environmental organization Sierra Club who serves on the executive committee of the Clean Power Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin, said in an email. To read more click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/we-energies-to-retire-part-of-oak-creek-coal-plant-replace-with-solar-batteries-gas/article_e0962d28-38a7-599c-9607-c8f1b232bac1.html#utm_source=journaltimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fnews-alert&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_content=01bd8f4bbd87b1b8e02791bc07ac6336d5dd61a8
Here is a link to the November Newsletter of the Clean Power Coalition discussing the story above, as well as other Clean Power news and activities. Read more.
John XXlll Educational Center
Submitted by Geraldine Bodi Middle School Supervisor and Outreach Coordinator
I am blessed to work at a non-profit mission, John XXlll Educational Center, that brings homework assistance and social emotional learning support to students of color in a low income community. It was a challenge last March to create something out of nothing and switch to virtual lessons, virtual tutoring, and in person social distance tutoring. Our numbers dropped until very recently. We picked up the ball immediately and pressed forward knowing to help even one student was important.
Soon after opening our evening homework assistance to 5th grade, “L” began coming every day, usually for two sessions. She is a black public school student and needed a little support with a small amount of homework. “L” was quiet at first and showed every sign of being a very responsible student...Read More
The Muslim Women’s Coalition: Builds Bridges of Understanding
By Erin Bloodgood From October 2020 Shepherd Express
