Celeste Fraser Delgado
- Now Online
Archive
Most Active Posts
Blogroll
2008
January
- 03/27/08 Paul Hitchcock
- 03/27/08 Sandee Roberts
- 03/27/08 Amy Schwartzbard
- 03/27/08 Ben Cameron
- 03/27/08 Corinne Wingard
- 03/27/08 Linda Bird
- 03/27/08 Zero
- 03/27/08 Bob Harvey
- 03/27/08 Charles Buford
- 03/27/08 Maria Curcic
- 03/27/08 Janet
Posts: 13
-
Constance Collins
01.May.08, 10:07 EDT
Constance Collins was 13 years old the first time she saw a homeless woman. She still remembers how the woman shivered against the cold in a Manhattan winter as she picked through garbage. Now 49, Collins is putting the knowledge -- and capital -- she earned in the real estate business to work and providing homeless women with long-term shelter.
Lotus House, which opened in 2006, offers more than a bed for a few nights. Here women find "wrap-around" services that include counseling, career services, help applying for government programs, nutrition and cooking classes, daily meditation, and yoga. An oasis in the middle of Overtown, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Miami, the shelter sits on a naturally landscaped lot where guests tend to the garden and the pet birds. When a woman is ready to move on, she receives support in locating a permanent home, as well as a house-warming gift of furniture and two weeks of groceries.
How do women find their way to Lotus House?
The same way they find themselves on the street. We have women who have physical disabilities, mental health issues, substance issues, economic troubles, women right out of prison, and young women who've aged out of foster care. Some just show up at a bus stop. The bus drivers know us now, so if they find a woman asking for a place to go, they will bring her here.
How many women can Lotus House serve?
Right now we can house 50 women, for stays of up to a year. That includes as many as 15 pregnant women and mothers with babies under one year old. We don't keep a waiting list because we want to be able to respond if there is a crisis in the moment. If we had another building, we could fill it with 50 more women in a week. But we can't do that right away because what we do costs a lot of money.
Lotus House is run primarily with private funding, including your own money. But you coordinate with government services as well ...
Our resources coordinators keep track of what services our guests are eligible for. Often, the women with the most need are the ones who get the least services, because it's so hard to fill out all the forms and keep track of appointments. We help with that, so that women receive the services they need.
Why, along with more traditional services, does Lotus House offer programs such as meditation and yoga?
It's not enough just to give a person a place to sleep. Women come to us in crisis, so for the first 30 days, we encourage them just to learn to breathe again. We want each guest to learn who she is when she is not in crisis. After those 30 days, then she'll start working formally with our career counselor on getting ready to find a job.
You have a rule that a guest can't spend more than $100 a month, even if she has a job or receives money from a government program. Why?
Part of what we teach is financial well-being. We want women to learn how to save the money they will need to live on their own. Here we provide room and board, toiletries, everything they need, so we expect them to deposit any money they earn in their savings accounts.
What models did you look to in founding Lotus House?
To tell the truth, I never set foot in a homeless shelter before we opened Lotus House. I have since then, but when I started, I really just asked myself what any woman would need -- what any of us would want.
For Buddhists, the lotus symbolizes divine birth. According to one Buddhist text, it represents a spotless spirit born of muddy waters. Is Lotus House inspired by Buddhism, the way so much work on behalf of the homeless is inspired by Christian and Jewish faiths?
We embrace all faiths. But we do say that we honor the divine light in every woman.
Wait a minute, that sounds familiar. What do instructors say at the end of every yoga class?
[Smiles.] Namaste: May the light in me honor and respect the light in you.
Namaste.
-
Mahesh "Max" Moktan
09.Apr.08, 12:02 EDT
One day, Mahesh "Max" Moktan was strolling with some friends through their hillside town of Kalimpong, in northeastern India, when they decided to start an organization to better their community. Now Max is the Secretary of HOPE, the Himalayan Organization for People's Education. He talked to MOLI about how HOPE has cleaned up waste in Kamlimpong and welcomed visitors from around the world to help in the cause.
So who are the people that the Himalayan Organization for People's Education educates?
HOPE is run by young educated men and women between the ages of 20 to 35 years who are all very enthusiastic and energetic. HOPE educates people of all ages from a young child to an old man with regard to health, education, environment, human rights, and all social issues.
Tell us a little about how HOPE came about and how you got involved?
The idea of HOPE started during the spring of 2003, when I was strolling with a group of childhood friends on the streets of Kalimpong, our hometown, and thought of doing something productive voluntarily for the possible development of our town. We wanted to intermingle our dreams to move forward. We eventually set up an organization named HOPE.
As for me, I am a nature lover and like to help people whenever I can. I am very emotional when I see an animal that is wounded or sick or small children picking up trash to earn a living. I immediately think about helping however I can.
Tell us about HOPE's Wealth in Waste initiative. What inspired Wealth in Waste?
Irresponsible disposal of garbage by the local administration led to the start of Wealth in Waste. Our town is a hill station and has no dumping place, so the daily 20 metric tons of garbage collected by the municipality is dumped from a hillside, which ultimately pollutes the river flowing beneath.
One early morning in January 2005, some of my friends and I -- four boys and a girl -- were watching a municipality truck loading trash that was collected alongside the road. The trash consisted of all sorts of things like plastic, metal cans, paper, glass bottles, rotting vegetables, etc. Suddenly a question struck me: Where does the municipality throw this trash? What do they do with the tons of trash collected everyday?
To our worst surprise, we found that the municipality truck used to dispose the trash down the hill near the river. We immediately visited the dumping site and to our horror, we found the place to be a hell -- very smelly with huge loads of trash strewn all over the hill, down the hill, and down to the river. We were really worried about the situation and eventually set up Wealth in Waste, where we conduct house-to-house garbage collection and separate the recyclable waste to sell it in the recycling factories and generate some funds to sustain the project, thus reducing the burden of landfill.
By August 2005, WIW was running with full support from the local community, the Hotel Association, and the Municipality of Kalimpong town. The town mayor/chairman was very cooperative and provided us trucks and other necessary materials to take the recyclable waste to the factories.
Now WIW covers about 500 houses in the town and it’s expanding. The project director is Mr. Nawang Tenzing, a board member of HOPE, and there are two ward supervisors and 16 waste collectors and members of WIW presently.
The project is self-sustainable and the funds are generated from the selling of the recyclable wastes like plastics, metals, glass, and paper in the recycling factories located about 80 kilometers away from Kalimpong town.
Companies like Hindustan Coca Cola Ltd., North Bengal Plastic Federation, and Indian Plastic Federation have also been supporting our initiatives by providing collection bins, crushers, gloves, and uniforms for staff.
What signs of success have you seen?
The most important success is the awareness among the people regarding responsible disposal of their garbage. Self-help groups in small towns have effectively implemented the same concept.
Public participation in the solid waste management service and awareness play an important role and pose a significant challenge. Funding for the service until it becomes self-sustainable takes six months to a year depending upon the size of the area covered.
I notice that you're also a travel agent. How did you get into both careers?
It was through the need for organizing travel guides for foreign volunteers coming to work with HOPE. When volunteers started coming, there was a need for someone to look after their air tickets, some sightseeing, and travel packages during their free time since every volunteer used to run about in the town searching for travel agencies and Internet for their flight bookings and suitable sightseeing, trekking, rafting, or meditation.
So ultimately last year we set up Aspire Global Tourism development project, which works out the most reasonable travel packages and assistance for all volunteers and foreign tourists visiting India. The tourism project also earns some revenue for HOPE and provides some employment opportunities for young men and women. We are in a team, so I have been able to coordinate both careers very successfully.
HOPE takes volunteers from around the world. The website mentions a number of expenses involved in volunteering. What does a three-month stay generally cost a foreigner?
Actually the duration of stay for volunteers can be for a minimum of two weeks to a maximum of six months. The volunteers need to pay a minimum program fee of $330 per month, which includes accommodation, food, supervision, simple spoken native language training assistance, administrative charge, and savings for an upcoming HOPE project.
Apart from the program fee, the volunteers need to pay for their own flight tickets, visa costs, their own travel insurance, private expenses, etc.
What draws visitors to Aspire Global Travels?
The most important thing that draws visitors to Aspire Global Travels is an opportunity to take the pleasure of traveling while also participating in a good cause with HOPE such as planting trees, pr visiting an orphanage or a community school, etc. Anyone traveling through Aspire leaves with an everlasting impression of love and friendship and longs to visit again in future.
What is your biggest dream for what you can accomplish?
My biggest dream for HOPE is to make it a well-reputed Himalayan charitable youth organization and a ray of hope for all young people and communities all over the world seeking development and possible assistance. -
Paul Hitchcock
27.Mar.08, 10:01 EDT
“People don’t pay attention to what’s underground,” observes Paul Hitchcock, who manages waste water treatment for the city of Stuart, Florida. “We call it a world out of sight, out of mind.” Yet what happens to waste water has a profound effect on our health and on the environment.
Before settling in Stuart, Hitchcock called attention to the underground world of water treatment in developing countries. As a task leader for an American-based company called Operation Management International, he lead a team that helped the Egyptian government build two water treatment plants, at a cost of $750 million. The plant treated 450 million gallons of water a day and served 63 million people.
When Hitchcock arrived in Cairo in the mid-1990s, the average life expectancy of residents of the Egyptian city was around 40 years. At the time, sewage was dumped directly into the canal where many people washed their clothes. Some people developed cracks in their feet from walking barefoot, permitting the waste water and the worms the waste attracts to go right into their blood stream. As a consultant to the Egyptian Government Environment Agency, Hitchcock’s job was to help Cairo residents add another 25 to 30 years to their lives by redirecting the wastewater to drying beds in the desert. There the waste could be treated and transformed into fertilizer.
“We killed the waste,” Hitchcock says, “so it wouldn’t hurt people.”
He later went on to work on wastewater management projects in the United Arab Republic and the Gaza Strip. In 1997, he provided the same services in Salvador, Brazil.
Back home in Florida, Hitchcock -- like his colleagues across the country -- faces mounting challenges to aging water treatment facilities and a severe water shortage.
Florida’s ever-growing population has exceeded the capacity of the existing pipelines, he points out, but there is little political will to invest the money that would be required to expand the infrastructure. Increased use is depleting the state’s supply of fresh water. Eventually, water will need to be drilled from wells as deep as 1,000 feet. In the meantime, golf courses and large housing developments have begun to draw from this deeper water – which is harder to treat and not suitable for drinking, but fine for irrigation. Drawing from this water, he says, will relieve pressure on the drinking water supply.
“You’re going to see a lot more purple lines, indicating reclaimed water,” Hitchcock predicts. “They’re almost forced now to put in reclaimed systems and storm water retention ponds.”
For Hitchcock, the key to insuring that we'll have the water we need in the future lies in learning lessons from nature.
“We must change our thinking to design with nature, not to circumvent it,” he observes. “After all, nature has worked in ways that have allowed this world to last for billions of years so far.”
-
Sandee Roberts
27.Mar.08, 09:59 EDT
As a cancer survivor, you're on the board of your local American Cancer Society and you help organize the Relay for Life in your neighborhood. Cancer seems like a lot to focus on. Why focus on education?Life kept getting in the way of Sandee Roberts' higher education: her family didn't think girls should go to college; she needed to work to support her son as a single mom; she was diagnosed with cancer. She was in her fifties, in 2000, when she went back to school to earn her bachelor degree. Now a doctoral candidate in the higher education administration program at Barry University (which happens to be where I teach), she's determined to make it easier for the women who follow by studying the barriers that stand in the way of women -- especially Latina women -- pursuing higher education.
Education is key. You have to be educated in order to move up. Everybody needs an education. You can't save everyone, but you can save whoever you can.
Why did you decide to write your dissertation about Latina women going back to school?
This all started when I asked myself, "I wonder how many other people have made this journey." I wanted to address what happened to me, to tell my story.
But you're an American who happened to grow up in Latin America, where your father worked. So, why Latinas?
When I reviewed the literature, I found very little information about non-traditional students and even less about Hispanic women in higher education. I wanted to be able to tell other people's stories so they'll know that they're not alone. I can relate a lot to what they're going through, even though we're not on the same playing field.
How have the experiences of the Latinas you surveyed differed from your own?
I didn't ask one question about racism, yet every single woman mentioned discrimination and racism. Education for Hispanic people is key because you may be told that you're not qualified for a certain job because you don't have a degree.
What did you find when you surveyed non-traditional Latina students?
Even with everything against them, they were still positive. These women personify "self-efficacy": the theory that if you believe you can do something, then you can do it.
What kind of response have you had to your research?
I presented at a conference on immigration issues. Someone in the audience asked: "Why are you focused on these people?" I asked them who they want paying taxes to care for them in their old age: someone flipping burgers or someone who has had an education? -
Amy Schwartzbard
27.Mar.08, 09:56 EDT
A year ago, Amy Schwartzbard's 14-year-old daughter was in trouble: She was failing out of high school and making what her mom calls "non-working choices." So Amy sent her daughter to a special school for kids in crisis run by Premier Educational Systems. As part of the program, Mom was required to take seminars too. She was so inspired by the changes in her daughter, her family, and herself that she embarked on a new career. Now she is dedicated to making the resources that helped her family available to people in economically strapped communities — starting with the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
So your daughter was in crisis. Why did you end up going to classes too?
The Premier schools don't believe that the child ended up in this situation by herself. It's not about blame, but about all of us as a family making choices that result in our child ending up in a school like this. If you want the best possible result when your kid comes back, changes need to be made as a family.
But you didn't stop with your own family.
I've been going through leadership training with the schools' sister company, Resource Realizations, since March of last year. Four or five months before the training, I had closed the boutique I had run for 14 or 15 years. I used to sell high-end furniture and bedding, beautiful things, but my life was more money driven. That's just not where I wanted to be. I found a commitment to living life with joy and being of service to others.
How did you get involved with Katrina survivors in New Orleans?
With each training, they ask [the students] as a group to do a community service project. During September 2007, 34 of us formed LEEP (Leaders in Education, Empowerment, and Purpose), a nonprofit organization to help residents in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
Right after LEEP formed, we partnered with a local man named Ward "Mack" McClendon, who had bought a 15,000-square-foot airplane hangar that he wanted to turn into a community center. Instead of taking his savings to rebuild his own house, he chose to give it to the community. We shared his vision.
We're doing the whole renovation. The huge main room is going to have a basketball court, also used for events. Then there are smaller rooms with a computer lab and a library.
How is LEEP funding this?
We received over $100,000 in in-kind donations from Lowe's in building supplies. And we've raised over $100,000 through things like selling ornamental leaves that will be in the reception area to acknowledge donors.
What role do you play?
I took on planning the programs. We have programs based on what the community needs. We're going to have a commercial-kitchen training program and an apprenticeship program where residents can learn trades like being a plumber. There will be mentoring programs.
I knew this would be more than a 10-week commitment. The people in the Lower Ninth Ward are still so depressed. They've lost everything: homes, pets, family, neighbors, community. They're in a place where to some extent there are people who don't want to get out of bed in the morning. We decided to create this seminar, Breaking Through to Possibilities, to inspire the community and get them life coaches. In the summer, we're setting up Youth Leadership Camps for teens.
To make that possible, I founded my own nonprofit, called Branching Out Seminars, facilitated by Resource Realizations. We offer the same seminars for paying clients, then we use some of the proceeds to fund the seminars in disadvantaged communities.
Why did you start in New Orleans?
I was in South Florida for Andrew, so I know what a community can go through when a hurricane hits. But we're a very strong community and financially able to rebuild. In the Ninth Ward, it looked like Katrina hit yesterday.
Whenever you tell anyone about it, they say, "Isn't [rebuilding] the government's job?" First of all, the government probably can't do it. Anyway, they won't do it. So I have to ask, where do we, the people, step up? -
Ben Cameron
27.Mar.08, 09:53 EDT
When the Ford Foundation convened the nation's nonprofit theaters back in 1961, all 23 of them showed up. Now, says Ben Cameron, there are more than 1,900 nonprofit theaters in the United States. Last Thursday, I heard the lively program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation address a bunch of exhausted theater critics at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Cameron kept our attention by tap dancing (literally) and delivering straight talk on what theater must do to keep doing good in our communities.
In the '60s, Cameron explains, nonprofit theater exploded because a group of journalists and philanthropists sold the idea that no city could be "world class" without a professional theater — and that taxpayers and wealthy donors should support regional theaters in cities like Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. With dollars pouring in, nonprofit theaters sprung up everywhere. Lately, however, they've hit on hard times with rising costs and falling revenues.
Before making his own case for (or against) the theater, Cameron shared a little about himself as a boy growing up in North Carolina. To this day, he protests, a Southern accent is used to signal ignorance and evil intentions. And that's nothing like the impression of the South he grew up with, where his strongest memories are of his grandfather delivering babies in the countryside and being paid with chickens, tobacco, and a slew of babies named after him.
As a Southerner, he felt left out of our national culture until someone introduced him to the work of William Faulkner when he was a senior in college.
"Finally," he told the crowd, "here was someone not speaking for the South or at the South but of the South."
"It is not a leap," he continued, his passion contagious, "for me to understand an African-American child who has never seen his story told on stage."
He discounted the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as a tale meant to make "white people comfortable" and Philadelphia as another meant to make "straight people comfortable." Cameron pointed out that those stories would never have the power that Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson, or Tony Kushner do in speaking from their own communities.
The challenge facing nonprofit theater today is not only to represent the racial and cultural diversity of our nation, but to capture the vast differences in telling and hearing stories across the digital generational divide.
Cameron cited studies that show that people over 40 and under 20 have fundamentally different ways of understanding media, with the oldsters drawing on "linear narrative" and the youngsters drawing on "image associative" intelligence.
Although Cameron served for eight years as executive director of the Theater Communications Group — the national service organization for theater in the United States — he doesn't assume that theater is worth saving. Instead he suggests that the current decline in audiences and revenue might reflect a decline in the value of theater for most Americans.
You see, before the TCG gig, Cameron worked for the national giving program at Target Stores, doling out $51 million in grants for all kinds of good causes. That's where he learned that people pay for what they value — and that you'd better know how to let your customers know exactly what you're selling. You know, like the Target motto says: Expect More, Pay Less.
The "world class city" argument is not enough to justify a nonprofit theater anymore. Now, Cameron argues, if any individual theater is worth supporting, it has to answer three questions:- What does theater (in general) offer my community?
- What does this theater in particular offer my community?
- What would happen to my community if this theater were no longer here?
Come up with compelling answers for those questions, nonprofit thespians, and chances are your theater will thrive, even in this time of hardship. -
Corinne Wingard
27.Mar.08, 09:51 EDT
If you're running for office in western Massachusetts, then you want Corinne Wingard on your team. A retired social worker, Corinne devoted 30 years to the students enrolled in Hartford, Connecticut, schools. Now she's back in her hometown of Agawum, Massachusetts, and dedicating her considerable energy to the campaigns of the candidates who inspire her. Do-Gooder caught up with Corinne as she was cleaning up after a Women's Brunch for Barack on a Sunday afternoon in the run-up to Super Tuesday.
So, how was brunch?
We had some quiche and fruit and veggies for a small group of about 19 women. These are all women who are working on the campaign. We were able to talk about strategies and the efforts we were making to identify voters. All of us left just feeling terrific.
Why Brunch for Barack?
These brunches were statewide. I believe our governor went to one in South Boston.
What's your role in the campaign?
I’m coordinating Hampden County. We have some big towns: Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee, Westfield. My town, Agawum, has about 28,000 people.
How did you become active in politics?
I grew up here, and then I lived in Connecticut for about 30 years. When I moved back here, I didn’t know that many people. I went to see [former secretary of labor during the Clinton Administration] Robert Reich speak at a local bookstore. He’s such an inspiring speaker. The event was cosponsored by Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, so I joined the organization.
One of the women in PDM told me about a man named Deval Patrick. When I went to hear him speak in August ’05, I said, This is the man for me. I think Deval Patrick is one of the most extraordinary human beings I’ve ever heard. He’s so real; he’s so genuine. I said, Okay I’m going to work on his campaign [for governor of Massachusetts]. My friend who had been coordinating this area was moving to North Carolina. She talked to the campaign organizers in Boston, so I took over. I had to change my registration from unenrolled [independent] to Democrat!
My town is conservative and we had a landslide [victory]. Deval said that when he won Agawum, he know he could do it. I was coordinating this area, and then I became the regional desk for Western Mass. I think the most thrilling night of my life was when he won the primary [on September 19, 2006] and then the election [on November 7].
So what exactly do campaign coordinators do?
It’s a matter of identifying team captains and organizing volunteers to get out the vote. We work with them to set up phone banks in each of the towns and organize stand-outs. That’s when a whole bunch of supporters stand outside with signs and wave and yell. They’re actually a lot of fun. We get a lot of honks.
What's the secret to a successful campaign?
You have to believe wholeheartedly in what you’re doing. We’re all reaching out to our personal networks of friends and acquaintances and telling them why we support Obama and asking them to do the same.
[Corinne offers a more concrete secret, then asks me not to publish it because she doesn't want "the other side" to use it.]
Why Obama?
Because I think he is our absolute best choice. It’s a matter of his personal integrity and his character. And his leadership skills. And his ability to bring people together.
Somebody gave me this great quote, from Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address, about the "better angels of our nature." [Obama has quoted that phrase.] Barack Obama brings out the better angels of our nature. He inspires people to be their best and do their best for the country and to think of the overall good instead of their own personal gain. -
Linda Bird
27.Mar.08, 09:48 EDT
When the Democratic candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in Florida for the presidential primaries this year, as punishment for the state's decision to move up the state's primary ahead of the official date, that didn't faze veteran volunteer Linda Bird. The successful realtor from Fort Lauderdale, Florida knew she could rally grassroots support for her favorite candidate without any help from the national campaign.
Linda's personal e-mail list reads like a who's who of movers and shakers in South Florida. Head of Bird Realty for 22 years, she's found homes for the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and other powerful folk. She's been named Woman of the Year by the American Cancer Society and won awards for her volunteer work with the NAACP and Planned Parenthood. Currently, she's president of the board of directors for Friends of OUR House, raising funds for a treatment center for child victims of sexual assault.
A member of the DNC's Women's Leadership Forum and a board member of the Florida Democratic Professionals Council, Linda's been a foot soldier for Dems in every presidential contest over the past 16 years -- even as she raised two daughters. She wasn't going to let a little setback like a ban on campaigning in her home state hold her back this primary season. Do-Gooder caught up with Linda in between rounds as she shuttled voters to the polls for early voting in the state's primary.
How did you get involved in political organizing?
During the Clinton-Gore campaign, I volunteered a little bit when my children were small. I would stuff envelopes and I would bring food to the campaign center. All these college kids looked hungry and as a mother I had to feed them.
Then with Gore-Lieberman, I took a month off work and got very involved in that campaign. I was a jack of all trades at that point.
The next campaign was Kerry-Edwards. I was working as a volunteer with Women for Kerry. I helped organize some women’s events around town.
Later I became president of a Democratic club, Broward Democratic Women, and I increased the membership of that group.
What exactly are you doing for the Hillary Clinton campaign?
Nothing! I’m not a member of a campaign. [See, she's not violating the ban on official campaigning.] But as a volunteer activist, I’m doing a lot. We have organized a lot of events that are just so much fun. Most of it has been sign waving on street corners, with home made signs, and getting some elderly people out to vote. We had a little house party where we had everyone come and talk about the issues.
I’ve raised close to $23,000 as a Hillary volunteer by encouraging others to donate.
How have you managed to organize without help from the national campaign?
As soon as the candidates signed the agreement and it became clear they were not going to be able to campaign, I said, You know what? We can do this. I had gone to a Hillary summit up in Washington DC, so I had some literature.
We started with a nucleus of about three of us. One woman recently retired from American Express; she brought her capabilities and mailing list and business sense. We were trying to get people out to early voting, and she would call me and say: "I had 60 percent of the polling places completely filled."
I’m the sales person; I did the phone calling. I have a ton of lists from my volunteer work in Broward County.
The third is a woman who is retiring in the next month. She had the place where we meet. She had about 20 people come to a meeting. Then we had a visibility event on a street corner, and 16 people volunteered. I had a holiday house party at my house and we had 65 people come to that.
With that little group of women, we grew and grew and grew. Now we have a group of 211 women. It’s a wonderful group of professional women who said, We can organize on a grass roots level.
Why bother, when the DNC has taken away Florida's delegates at the national convention in Denver in August? Does this primary even count?
The candidate who is elected after Super Tuesday will actually take over the convention; they will be able to make the decisions about who will be seated. I don’t know any candidate who will say, Florida and Michigan will not be seated. Hillary has said she has pushed for the delegates to be seated.
Apart from the delegates, Florida is a referendum; it’s a slice of America, much more than Iowa or South Carolina.
What are the big issues for voters in Florida?
We’ve got a lot of support in the community because people are hurting. They’re hurting every time they go to the gas station and pay $3.19 a gallon.
For example, myself, I have a $12,000 price tag on my health care and a $2,000 per person deductible in my family. We need to have universal health care just like the congress has.Why Hillary?
Because she’s a mother and she’s a professional woman -- a professional who happens to be a woman. She can build coalitions across the aisle. She’s taken every issue and worked hard on it. She’s a work horse, not a show horse. All the other senators totally respect her.
When if comes to children's welfare, it’s important that we have a president who understands the issues. If you elect the right person you don’t have to beg them to do what’s right. Hillary has been a children’s advocate and she absolutely understands as a mother that the least of us have to be taken care of.
How does it feel to be volunteering for a woman presidential candidate?
It is so exciting that we’re making history. This group of women I’m working with all faced discrimination in the work place. We all hit the glass ceiling. We’re enjoying seeing a competent woman go as far as she can go. -
Zero
27.Mar.08, 09:46 EDT
It's not enough for Natasha Tsakos to bring laughter to audiences as a celebrated, if unconventional, clown. After she saw the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced film, The 11th Hour, she decided she had to do her bit for the planet as well.
The Swiss-born artist has earned rave reviews from critics (this one included) from Miami to Mexico for her portrayal of Zero, a Chaplinesque tramp for the digital age. Her one-woman show Upwake shows Zero struggling to make sense of a computerized world that runs faster and faster, but always leaves him repeating the same numbing office routine.
But Sunday is Zero's day off. Staying in character, Tsakos launched React with Zero, a call for people around the world to "turn off all the lights and give the planet a break" for seven minutes -- from 7:53 pm to 8:00 pm -- every Sunday.
Tsakos sends out Zero's message to her e-mail list once a week, asking everyone who receives it to "Pass it ON. Let's create a movement together."
Do-Gooder checked in with Tsakos to see what inspired the React campaign and to find out what response she's had so far.
Who is Zero?
Zero is a corporate clown, going to work, stuck between dream and reality.
So what motivated you to make Zero a clown activist?
My graphic designer invited me to see The 11th Hour. I said, "Something’s got to change. What can I do to participate in this shift?" I’ve always wanted to have Zero running for the presidency. Then I realized he’s not really running for any country’s presidency; he's running to make a better world.
Why rely on a clown to get your message across?
I’ve always wanted to use my art to affect people. I wanted to step out of the theater platform and be a real character. To not just make the art accessible when you go into the theater, but to make it accessible to people who don't go to the theater.
Why did you choose Zero for this campaign?
Zero has just become very aware and has decided to raise levels of global consciousness and present simple ideas for us to save ourselves.
Why did you decide to run the campaign over e-mail?
The Internet is a beautiful platform which uses relatively little energy and doesn’t waste paper. That makes this campaign have as little toxic footprint as possible.
Why does Zero ask for people to turn off their lights?
The idea is to create something that everybody can do, not necessarily on their own time, but in their own home, in private.
I don’t like mass movements, the way I’ve seen them. They weaken the integrity of the individual. That irks me. This is in the privacy of your own home and between you and the world directly. It’s a different way of suggesting a solution.
What do you do during those seven minutes?
I light my candles. Usually I take a shower, because it's suddenly very romantic. I end up leaving everything off for more than seven minutes. The rest of the week I take for granted how nice it is to turn the computer off and be with myself.
How many people do you think have Reacted with Zero so far?
It’s still very small, but I’m hoping through repetition and time this campaign will gain global power. I hope everyone will turn their electiricty off. The more people that do it, the more that effects the results.
How have people responded?
I have people that I don’t know writing me e-mails, thanking Zero. I even heard from my family from Greece who I don't know -- but we have the same last name -- telling me how proud they are.
Does Zero have any other campaigns planned?
We’re also about to launch a quiet campaign, on the day that Marcel Marceau died, as a tribute to Marcel Marceau. That’s something that will happen soon.
You mention on your MOLI profile that you speak several languages, but your favorite is silence. Why is that?
Silence is when we understand everything and everybody the best. When you stop using words, you’re using instinct and the deeper intelligence that we have. When we talk, our ability to rationailize things doesn’t do us justice; it creates more problems than anything.
Within silence you can come to terms with somebody because words don’t get in the way. I speak from experience: My best times as a human are usually when I don’t speak and when I’m performing as a character that doesn’t speak. That’s when magic happens. -
Bob Harvey
27.Mar.08, 09:41 EDT
All Bob Harvey wants for Christmas is to give away a lot of books. Well, that and to bring a little cheer to wounded veterans. Oh, yes, and to rescue injured pets too. That's the concept behind his program Wounded Vets & Injured Pets. How does it all fit together? To find out, Do-Gooder caught up with Bob after his first visit to a medical facility for wounded vets, where he gave away 200 copies of his novel, Catalyst.
Okay, first: wounded vets and injured pets. Connect the dots for me, please.
One of the key characters in my mystery/adventure is a wounded veteran whose life is dramatically altered by the biophilia hypothesis: the human/animal bond. (I like to pronounce it bio-feel-ya, so its meaning to “feel life” is clear.) This hypothesis was put forth by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard entomologist/socio-biologist Edward O. Wilson, in his landmark 1986 book Biophilia, where he defined the term as "the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life," and argued it is "determined by a biological need, genetically encoded, and unalterable."
It seems our well-being depends on having access to nature and other living beings. Biophilia is most clearly manifested in our association with pets. Alan Beck, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University, writes that pets are great stress relievers and help strengthen the human immune system, lower our heart rates and cholesterol levels, improve our motor skills, reduce depression, and give us a sense of joyful contentment.
That all sounds great. Where does the focus on injured pets come in?
Every eight seconds another cat or dog is euthanized in America. Sinfully the vast majority are adoptable, if we but had the will to change our ways. Many are rescued but in need of urgent care to survive the ravages of neglect and/or injury all too often inflicted by humans. We should care enough to save the lives of our best friends!
I agree. But what does all this have to do with vets?
If you are the oldest of the baby-boomer generation as I am, you can shamefully remember how Americans mistreated the returning Vietnam veterans. I believe we have created a BOOMERang Legacy: We have invented the disposable relationship. We discard other humans -- through divorce, neglect of the elderly, turning our back on those who protect us -- just like we throw away consumed products. We unfortunately do the same with unwanted animals and even the natural resources of our great land. Now our unnatural behavior is coming back to haunt us!
Our wounded hero veterans also pay a HUGE personal price to protect us! In the current Middle East conflicts there have been over 3,500 US military deaths and in excess of 28,000 casualties. Three hundred million Americans are incredibly fortunate, and should be grateful, to be protected by an active, volunteer military numbering just 2.5 million. We should care enough to support and thank our heroes.
What was your first visit to a vet's facility like?
I donated the first 200 books at a 60,000-square-foot outpatient clinic in Austin, Texas. The very large reception area seemed to stretch on forever. First, I realized many of the veterans had to walk with the assistance of canes, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, etc. Many would carry these wounds and the life-altering health-care impact for their entire lives.
Then slowly I began to notice a major difference in the demeanor of the vets/patients. In most hospital waiting rooms there is a sterile, cold silence; no one talks to strangers. Here the environment was friendly and interactive. Most were engaged in conversations, and a supportive camaraderie was quite evident.
The humble, little act of giving a copy of my book seemed so inadequate to the gifts they truly deserve.
Catalyst is set in an alternate world, where every human is required to have a pet. Why is that?
Here is an excerpt from Chapter 10, a fictitious college lesson plan that becomes all too real as the story unfolds.
How have vets responded to Catalyst?
When I mentioned the human/animal bond theme, most smiled. If they opened the book to my initial quotation -- "Honor all life as if the value of yours depends upon it" -- you didn't need words to see how it resonated on their faces. If we got to chat, I usually mentioned the book's life lesson: "To learn what you are willing to fight for." This statement brought a wide range of humbling reactions, far-off stares, and many heavy sighs that carried a burden only the bearer could measure.
What would be the ideal outcome for you of the Wounded Vets and Injured Pets program?
The optimum outcome would be that the 5,000 books I have committed actually get purchased. This way 5,000 wounded veterans get a gift of thanks and 100 percent of the profits from the program (after the costs of printing, warehousing, distribution, marketing, etc.) go to save injured pets across America. (During the ordering checkout process, those purchasing books get to recommend the animal rescue groups who should receive the donations.)
If you would like to purchase a copy of Catalyst for a wounded vet and help an injured pet in the process, just click here. -
Charles Buford
27.Mar.08, 09:37 EDT
"When we came home from Viet Nam, we didn't even get a good 'Thank you very much,'" recalls Charles Buford, a former chaplain's assistant who served from 1960 to 1972. That's why he and a few fellow vets formed Make a Wish Veterans, to show their appreciation for the soldiers returning home today.
Buford likes to say that the first wish the group granted was his own. But although he is classified as 100 percent disabled due to exposure to Agent Orange, his wish wasn't just for himself. A long-time volunteer at the Miami Veteran's Administration Hospital, Buford felt bad whenever he saw his comrades waiting for the bus outside in the hot Florida sun or, worse, in a subtropical downpour. Make a Wish Veterans prevailed upon Miami city officials and an outdoor advertising company to build shelters at each of the stops outside the hospital.
Then last week, MWV received a gift of two limousines from a local auto dealership owned by fellow vet Bill Seidle to provide car service for veterans who are discharged from the hospital, but have no ride home. "We're looking for some persons to help us with [paying for] insurance, " he says, "and then we'll carry the veterans home."
The wishes MWV grants are not all as prosaic as bus shelters and rides home. The group granted one Iraq vet's wish to go fishing in the Florida Keys and took another group to a Florida Marlins baseball game.
However, some wishes are much more basic. "For many of the guys coming back wounded, it's taking forever for them to get their benefits and their families are hurting," Buford notes. So MWV has teamed up with STOP Hunger to provide food to the estimated 7.5 million veterans of all wars living below the poverty line. In addition to food service through STOP Hunger, MWV is raising funds to distribute 1,000 debit cards of up to $200 to vets across the country before Christmas.
That help is appreciated. Take the case of US Army Sergeant Brad Gruetzner, who received support from Make a Wish Veterans while receiving extensive outpatient treatment at the VA Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, for a head injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq. Now back on his feet, Gruetzner recently sent MWV a donation to help another soldier.
That's what Buford believes in: soldiers helping each other, on and off the battlefield. -
Maria Curcic
27.Mar.08, 09:34 EDT
Maria Curcic not only wears many hats, she designs them too. The DJ, painter, and milliner added do-gooder to her hat rack when a close friend was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. "She was the same age as me and it was devastating news to those of us who knew her," she recalls.
Given her experience producing fashion and art events, Curcic decided the best way to help her friend and raise awareness about the disease would be to throw a party in her hood in Calgary, Alberta. She convinced a small club to host the event, contracted a jazz band, and hit up local retailers to contribute goods for a silent auction. She contributed her own hats, paintings, and music too.
"My event was unique in that I incorporated aspects of my own life into it," Curcic recalls. "I also did a show and sale of my hats and accessories, paintings, and other services that I provide, like interior design, and I donated a percentage of all my sales, 15 percent to be exact."
That first event was such a success that Maria has been putting together new venues, bands, and vibes to benefit cancer survivors every year since. Now that the official Breast Cancer Awareness month has come to a close, we asked Maria for her opinion on the many events that crowd the calendar. We anticipated some talk of auctions, sponsors, maybe balloons. Instead, Maria surprised us with a critique of the current struggle against cancer.
Over the years, Maria writes us by e-mail, the events have grown more expensive to produce, more sponsor-driven, and in her opinion, less likely to actually benefit people with cancer. Though Maria has certainly presented her own work at her events, she's no fan of what's called "cause marketing": when large corporations sponsor a cause in order to accrue good will along with publicity.
"A good event needs to be about the cause and living life," she says, "not about big corporations getting their hands into it, selling us poison, and then telling us they donate a portion of their sales to BC." What's at stake, she believes, are profits and good PR for cancer producers. "I did some research and found out that these large companies were more concerned about the hype for their company than the actual cause -- disheartening indeed."
That research includes Dr. Samuel S. Epstein's 2005 book Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War. "This book will open your eyes to more than you ever imagined," Maria promises.
Epstein argues that both the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society have been coopted, if not corrupted, by lobbyists and donors from pharmaceutical companies and other corporations that produce carcinogenic products. This has resulted in a focus on finding a "cure," rather than restricting the environmental carcinogens that make us sick -- an alternative course of action that Epstein contends would be easier and more feasible to achieve than curing the disease after the fact.
Looking at the sky-rocketing cancer rates since President Nixon declared the "war on cancer" in 1971, Epstein claims: "It seems that the more money we spend on cancer, the more cancer we get."
Oh, nothing is ever simple. Or is it? Maria writes that nowadays, she's taking a more direct approach to helping cancer survivors. "Raise the money," she writes. "Then find the people who are going through chemo, buy them their meds or whatever they need to feel comfortable, take them to the spa, make them feel special. Help those that need it most; they will thank you, not the big corporations. This is what I do now and it is more rewarding in the end." -
Janet
27.Mar.08, 09:30 EDT
Last night, Janet was one of seven women up late Thursday night, making corsages for 100 breast cancer survivors to wear on Saturday to the annual Pink Tie Ball in Newark, New Jersey. Today, as soon as she gets off work managing a medical office in Bloomfield, she'll rush right over to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to join a team of her sisters to, as she says, "transform an ordinary building into a magnificent ballroom."
Janet knows a thing or two about transformation. Eight years ago, she was devastated when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then, she has transformed her pain into inspiration to help others.
"As a breast cancer survivor, volunteering connects me to the cause," says Janet. "I want to help other women who are going through this terrible disease."
The North Jersey affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure has plenty of opportunities to keep her busy. Founded 10 years ago as a promise to a then 10-year-old girl, Jackie Bertolini, who lost her mother to breast cancer, the affiliate now has a staff of 12, more than 800 volunteers, and more than 1400 individual and corporate supporters. Twenty-five percent of the money they raise goes to the national organization's research fund, the rest stays in northern New Jersey to promote community-based breast health awareness programs.
That often means finding women where they live, and shop. "Last weekend I sat at a table in Nordstroms in the Short Hills Mall," says Janice. "It was breast cancer week at the mall and I handed out brochures, sold merchandise, and collected donations."
Every spring, Janet is a big force in putting together the North Jersey Race for the Cure.
This weekend though is all about the Pink Tie Ball. The original fundraiser for the North Jersey affiliate, the ball has become a Newark institution over the past ten years. Last year's 10th anniversary ball raised a record $2 million with dinner, dancing, and live and silent auction that included items like a brand new Mini Cooper and a $10,000 shopping spree at Bergdorf Goodman, including a personal style consultation with Oscar de la Renta. This year there's a Lexus on the block, but I've got my eye on a Lady Dior hobo handbag.
But what I'm really looking forward to is hearing the world's most famous "survivor," Gloria Gaynor, sing her beloved disco anthem "I Will Survive." A Newark native, Gaynor has made performing at the Pink Tie Ball something of a tradition. She'll rev up the crowd for this year's headliners, doo-woppers Little Anthony and the Imperials (of "Goin' Out of My Head" and "Tears on My Pillow" fame).
"Too bad you couldn't attend," Janet writes me, reminding me that I am a couple thousand miles away.
But Janet will be there, as she always is, wherever she can give other women struggling with breast cancer hope. "There is a light at the end of the tunnel," this survivor promises. "If I can help make it shine, I will."
WELCOME TO MOLI ® - Control Your Privacy™
© 2008 MOLI, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MOLI ®, COVIBE TECH™, MOLI KIDS™ AND MONEY AND LIVING™ ARE TRADEMARKS OF MAINSTREAM HOLDINGS, INC.
TERTIARY PRODUCTIONS ® IS A TRADEMARK OF TERTIARY PRODUCTIONS, LLC.
