Ex-Service Amputees Climb Kilimanjaro to Support ‘Pilgrim Bandits’

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By DouglasPosted In: MilitaryTagged: , , , , ,

John Sandford-Hart and Corporal Ricky Hatten at Kilimanjaro's Peak

On February 23rd, twenty seven men volunteered to climb Mount Kilimanjaro- the highest peak in Africa. And these were no ordinary men- four of them were ex-military and single leg amputees from Pilgrim Bandits.

The volunteers, including Lance Corp. Johno Lee, Corporal Ricky Hatton, Rifleman Chris Parks and former REME John Sandford Hart, not only sponsored their own trip, but raised additional funds for the charity as well. The Pilgrim Bandits Kilimanjaro challenge may have raised up to $15,830, with another similar event planned for later this year.

A charity of the New Forest, Pilgrim Bandits is an organization that aims to finance a number of challenges for amputee service men and women. The challenges encourage the amputees to push both their physical and mental abilities while raising money for additional ex-forces amputees to do the same. The events also promote awareness of the daily struggle amputees must cope with despite their impressive training and remarkable self-discipline.

Rhys Jones, an organizer who followed the expedition, said “Killi is the highest walkable mountain in the world, but it is a tough climb, a real challenge for anyone let alone someone with a prosthetic leg. It’s been a tough week for all involved and a real inspiration.”

Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation Is Born

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By JohnPosted In: EducationTagged: , , , , ,
Born This Way Foundation

picture from advocate.com

Lady Gaga just unveiled her latest venture – and it had nothing to do with a wacky outfit or outlandish head dress.  She is rolling out a new youth foundation with her mother, Cynthia Germanotta. Called the Born This Way Foundation, she launched her plan on February 29th, 2012 at the Harvard University Sanders Theatre.  The Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Graduate School of Education are teaming with Lady Gaga in this new venture.

The Born This Way Foundation is a nonprofit charity that plans to “foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.’’ It has three pillars which include Safety, Skills and Opportunity.

The charity roll-out at Harvard was no small affair. Gaga was joined by Oprah Winfrey, spiritual leader Deepak Chopra and the US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the launch.

She explained that

“The goal of the Born This Way Foundation is to challenge meanness and cruelty by inspiring young people to create a support system in their respective communities,’’ she said. “This is about changing . . . the school environment, and not putting the power in the hands of the teachers or the government.’’

She emphasized that it is not, exclusively, an anti-bullying charity, but much of the talk at the launch did focus on cyber bullying and other issues.

Oprah Winfrey explained her excitement about the new foundation. As she said,

“What is exciting to me is that thought leaders have gathered together as one force to ask why does bullying and violence and hatred against young people continue in our society and what we can do about it.’’

Time will tell how the foundation fulfills its mission. At the moment, it’s certainly a breath of fresh air and a venture that has promise, from one of America’s most popular and powerful superstars.

Redhead Celebrities Support the Sumatran Orangutan Society

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Famous redheads are pooling their efforts to support the Sumatran Orangutan Society, an Oxford charity, by donating items to be auctioned at the Jungle VIP online auction.

Sumatran orangutans share 96.4% of their DNA with humans. They are severely endangered, and may become the first great ape to become extinct since the evolution of humans. The Sumatran Orangutan Society, or SOS, works alongside local communities in orangutan habitats to create a more sustainable future for the species and their forests.

Some celebrities participating in the project include Nicole Kidman, Chris Evans, Nicola Roberts, Geri Halliwell, Anne Robinson, and even the band Radiohead. Donated items include celebrity fashion, handwritten lyrics, memorabilia and photos.

Comedian Tim Minchin donated one of his shirts from the ‘Ready For This’ tour. He said: “I think it’s a huge pity that any species should become extinct. Species have become extinct for different reasons and have done throughout history, but orangutans are having their environment destroyed in a way that doesn’t need to happen.”

Celebrity Jane Asher donated a green dress and joked: “I didn’t feel especially close to them before being asked to help with this campaign, but all redheads share an unspoken bond.”

Chris Evans said “Anything that helps to protect a species’ natural environment, within reason, is worth doing,” and donated a stay for two at his pub, called The Mulberry Inn.

Midwest Sports Fans Donating to Military Charity

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By M. MarksPosted In: MilitaryTagged: , ,
Operation Homefront

Operation Homefront

Sometimes people get it right – and the sports blog Midwest Sports Fans has certainly just done so.  On their site, they explain that they recognize that their job, blogging about sports, is not the most important activity in the world.  To bring more depth to their site, and to do something good with their passion for sports, they are creating a way to donate a portion of the MSF revenue to worthy causes.

Starting today, March 1, they will be donating a portion of their revenue to Operation Homefront, a charity that provides emergency financial and other help to families of those who serve. MSF will continue donating a portion of the revenue they generate from each pageview to Operation Homefront until September 15th, when they will turn their sights to another charity.

As MSF explains on their site,

“In fact, March is annually our highest-traffic month by a long shot. As soon as we decided to launch this program, we knew we wanted to fast track it to leverage our March traffic spike into a sizable donation for a good cause. Enter the wonderful folks at Operation Homefront.”

MSF will specifically be working with Operation Homefront’s Team Operation Homefront. This is an endurance event program that raises money for the larger charity.  Participants run to raise money for Operation Homefront, while honoring a specific veteran in the process.

Way to go MSF. And here’s hoping that they generate a lot of sports traffic in the coming months!

The Good Teenagers

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By M. MarksPosted In: EducationTagged: , , ,

Supporting Educational Programs for Kids

It seems that sometimes, teenagers just get a bad rap.  But truthfully, those are just the stories we hear about.  There are countless other tales of teens doing good things – really good things – out of the goodness of their hearts.  And that is exactly what has been happening in Norwalk when two volunteer teens used their love of math to support educational programs in the area.

Two students and St. Luke’s School –15 year-old Khushwant Dhaliwal and 16 year-old Sheetal Akole – rather than spending their Saturday afternoons engaging in some mindless activity, instead can be found at the Fairfield Math Club where they coach fifth to eighth graders for national math contests.  With the donations they receive from the students they are assisting, they choose a charity to help out.  For example, Dhaliwal just raised $300 and Akole, $800 for the Family & Children’s Agency.  Akole asked it to be used for the charity’s After School Program that gives academic support to 50 students in Norwalk public middle school.

Math Club Mission

As Akole pointed out, the math club’s mission is to provide a community service by helping prepare students for math contests and, simultaneously, help charities through such activities.  Naturally, the charity was thrilled to accept these donations.  It’s the second consecutive year Akole has chosen this charity and a first time for Dhailwal.  It shows that these teens have a very strong value of the importance of education in the community and wish to ensure others have as many educational opportunities as possible.

The Sutton Trust Launches Yale Summer School Program for Underprivileged Teens

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Yale University is teaming up with the Sutton Trust to enable gifted but disadvantaged teens to get a real education in a new summer school program.

The project is similar to those already launched in the UK, and hopes to help 64 students within its first year. First priority goes to adolescents from homes with an income lower than $53, 550 a year. Recruiting begins on April 16th, and the classes will most likely be held in July.

The school, which is also in partnership with the Fulbright Commission, opens as U.S. college applications increase by the thousands. Harvard University has had a 45% increase in applications over the past couple of years. Still, according to the Sutton Trust, most applications come from private schools. 

Mr. Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said “Studying at a US university is an appealing prospect to many UK state school students. The breadth of the four-year degree and the chance to experience another culture will make for an intellectually stimulating and fun time.

“With tuition fees increasing dramatically in England, and some generous financial aid packages in the U.S., it is also more attractive than before from a cost perspective.

“If successful, we intend to establish man more US summer schools next year and beyond- opening a pipeline for UK students to reap the benefits of higher education at leading US universities.”

The trust is proud to run seven leading university summer school programs. More than 1,000 students are affected each year, and three quarters end up at a leading selective university, Sutton Trust said.

Students Feeding Each Other?

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By M. MarksPosted In: PovertyTagged: , , ,

 

Students at Middle Tennessee colleges recognized hunger amongst their peers and decided to do something about it. They opened up food pantries so that students would no longer go hungry.  Thus today, Austin Peay State and Tennessee State facilities are able to offer free food and toiletries for students encountering temporary difficulties due to economic uncertainty and inflation.  Canned foods and cereals are being given to them to try to supplement their lacking diet.

Save Our Students

The project all began when students at Austin Peay discovered some students were attending classes hungry. They thus took matters into their own hands and started a social work graduate class project.  The next step was to work in conjunction with the university, launching the “Save Our Students” food pantry, providing students with enough food for about three days.

One of the issues that has led to students reaching the poverty line and going hungry, is that parents who would otherwise have supported their children more financially, are losing jobs and homes and simply cannot afford to do so anymore.  So for those not eligible to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, for various reasons, this is the solution.

Pay It Forward?

Simultaneously, moving over to the University of Central Missouri, business students are providing local day cares and preschools with backpacks of food.  This began when the Early Childhood Hunger Operation during the 2011 fall semester was adopted by one of the classes.  In Warrensburg, $930 and over 50 backpacks of food to children in the area was donated by the ECHO project that sprung out of a UCM class. It is still in operation and going well.  This began with business students and social workers joining forces to find out what was needed.  They saw the kids come for a morning snack who were stuffing themselves, clearly because they were starving.  Thus it was deemed necessary to engage in this project.

Students Hunger Strike

And then there are the students globally who are being educated on hunger issues and taking it upon themselves to “go hungry – so others don’t have to.”  They are being educated on what is going on with the world’s hungry – 925 million people who are not getting enough sustenance daily with around 11,000 children under the age of 5 dying due to hunger.

So, in response to this, many students “do the Famine,” not eating for 30 hours so that they can feel what it is like to be hungry. Thereafter they raise funds to help hungry families around the world. Every $30 raised by each group can help feed and care for a child for a month. Powered by World Vision, The Famine is not just feeding kids for today — it is giving them the opportunity to beat hunger for a lifetime.

Let’s hope the Famine doesn’t come to students in America – without them campaigning against it in third world countries – and that caring individuals in western world countries take action today to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Getting Glasses to Kids

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By M. MarksPosted In: Childrens CharitiesTagged: , , ,

 

The Specsavers Opticas chain recently announced that their Javea and Calpe stores will be supporting various different charitable endeavors in 2012, including Caritas, EMAUS and The Lions Club. 

The Lions Club

It will be able to help those who cannot afford glasses by collecting second-hand glasses for The Lions Club.  As it is, these branches of Specsavers Opticas already offers people the opportunity to drop off second hand glasses. But this new campaign will be encouraging more people to join this so that second-hand glasses in good condition don’t go to waste.

Caritas

Caritas supports needy families and individuals around the world who don’t have access to life’s basics like food, clothing and shelter.  One recent example of its work was when it was asked to help a boy who needed glasses so badly, he couldn’t even perform well at school.  So it made contact with Specsavers Javea which was pleased to provide assistance to the boy without charging the family a dime. 

EMAUS

Specsavers Opticas has also been supporting EMAUS Children’s Home in Altea by giving the kids living there who need them, glasses. Again, like its work at Caritas, it enables poor-sighted children who live there to be able to live a higher quality of life by significantly improving their sight with the use of glasses, something people without poverty issues don’t even think about.

Tesco and the RSPB Launch ‘Together for Trees’

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The RSPB, the biggest wildlife conservation organization in Europe, recently teamed up with Tesco in a project aimed at protecting rainforests across the globe, Together for Trees. The initiative aims to promote awareness and raise funds to support tropical rainforests as well as local conservation work in their areas.

As part of the new campaign, Tesco hopes to inspire donations from both customers and corporations. The RSPB and Tesco hope to raise more than one million euro for Together for Trees throughout 2012.

According to the project, soccer-field-sized patches of rainforest are cleared every four seconds. This is one of the largest causes of climate change, as more and more carbon dioxide is released into the earth’s atmosphere.

The planet’s rainforests are home to more than a third or earth’s wildlife (excluding marine animals, of course), while three-quarters of endangered bird species make their habitats there too. Over one billion of the world’s impoverished people rely on the rainforests for survival as well. The RSPB’s rainforest projects include Harapan Rainforest in Indonesia, West Africa’s Gola Rainforest and Centre Hills National Park.

Tesco shoppers will have the option of donating their green Clubcard points or Clubcard vouchers , as well as donating money directly to the RSPB. 75,000 euro will also be given to the organization from the sale of Together for Trees reusable bags, while funds raised through the Welsh carrier bag charge will also be donated to the RSPB efforts.

Tesco is also increasing its efforts to improve its environmental conscience, and highly recommends that other companies do the same. The retailer has pledged to continue “helping our customers make greener choices.”

Tesco’s Ruth Girardet said “Our aim is to create more sustainable ways of doing business and we have been working hard to reduce our own emissions. But as a leading retailer we also have a great opportunity to engage our customers to help protect our environment.”

Martin Harper of RSPB added “Rainforests are amazing places and saving them has never been more urgent- huge areas continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Current efforts to try and prevent the loss of these special places are not enough.”

 

UK Health Charities to Get Cash Injection

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The Benenden Healthcare Society

In 2012, the Benenden Healthcare Society will be giving large amounts of money to two valuable charities in the UK: actionforchildren.org.uk”>Action for Children which “supports and speaks out for the UK's most vulnerable and neglected children and young people, for as long as it takes to make a difference in their lives…” and Yorkshire Air Ambulance (an independent charity providing a life saving rapid response emergency service to 5 million people across Yorkshire). 

It is hoping substantial monies will be raised for these two charities since in 2011, a new fundraising method was put in place which resulted in more than £3000 to be split amongst the two chosen charities of that year.  The hope for 2012 is that even more money will be raised.

How Beneden Healthcare Works

Benenden Healthcare raises funds to provide “affordable mutual healthcare to employees of the public sector as well as their friends and family.”  It is a complimentary service to the UK’s National Health Service that is totally overwhelmed by offering free healthcare to all UK citizens.  When one therefore ends up needing additional care, Benenden Healthcare is the solution.  The way it works is that employees are able to select the charities democratically – and these will be the ones which will benefit from the Society’s fundraising for this year.  So why these two?  What do they do?  How are they helping UK citizens in the field of health? Let’s take a look.

Action for Children

Clearly, this worthy charitable endeavor has exerted extreme efforts to bring smiles to the faces of many kids.  Just one recent example is the case of a 10-year-old sports fanatic who has been given the opportunity to walk out onto the Wembley football pitch next week.  He will be escorting one of the football players – no doubt his hero – during the England Vs Holland game.

How did Action for Children arrange this?  The young lads – 10-year-old Trey Jennings (who has undergone various obstacles with his family) and Luke Stevenson (who has Aspergers Syndrome) – had their names pulled out of a hat in a cool idea set up by  the charity with the help of the FA and the Kirklees Family Intervention Project. It seems a lot of people want to help those who are less well-off than ourselves, and giving to kids in this way will sure render a lot of smiles when they get to do something they only dreamed about.  Clearly, Action for Children makes a real difference in the life of vulnerable kids.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Moving over to the other chosen charity, this organization provides a crucial  service to Yorkshire – ambulances – but cannot manage without huge cash injections since it relies on outside funds from the kindness of others to keep it in operation.  

It’s bad enough that it doesn’t get adequate financing from the government for its venture, but recently, the organization has had to start a new battle with the authorities: to get a VAT rebate on all the fuel they use.  Thankfully one resident, Ken Sharpe, is on the case and has to date, collected close to 4,000 signatures for his e-petition against this.  In all fairness though to the British government, it doesn’t have all that much control over this since it is being bamboozled by EU legislation which doesn’t give individual countries under its auspices the power to extend VAT zero rates to any kind of charitable organizations.  But now enough noise has been made and in the Houses of Parliament, one active MP, Mr. Bayley tabled an Early Day Motion to get grants to over the fuel VAT.  Not surprisingly, from all parties the motion won huge amounts of support, crossing party lines.  As he said, “I hope the Chancellor will agree to return the VAT which Yorkshire Air Ambulance pays, so that the service receives the same benefit as the lifeboat service.”

At least if this goes through then Yorkshire Air Ambulance will be able to use the funds it will be receiving from Benenden Healthcare for other expenses, rather than wasting it on bills it shouldn’t need to be paying.