New Book Helps Stroke Survivors and Families

Someone in the United States has a stroke every 40 seconds on average and stroke is the third leading cause of death according to the American Heart Association. Ron Gardner, survivor of a severe stroke, understands what it feels like to have his life changed forever. He has made it his personal mission to better the lives of the other more than five million survivors and their loved ones with his new book, Take Brave Steps for Stroke Survivors and Families – A Message of Motivation and Hope.

The book teaches how motivation meets inspiration following a life altering event. Unlike other books, Gardner leads readers from “bitter to better.” He shares his heart-felt personal tragedies and triumphs over stroke and he guides survivors through the Take Brave Steps™ process, including Tips, Self-Reflections, and Exercises.

Ron explains how the book came to be.  “On the morning of November 5, 1997, I woke up and my life had changed forever. I had suffered a severe stroke in my sleep and when I woke up, I was paralyzed on my right side and barely able to speak.”

The issue was Ron did not immediately seek medical attention, and the focus of the book is to help people better understand what to do, and how to deal with all the challenges that come with a stroke.

“I did something terribly stupid. I was in denial and I said to myself, “This isn’t happening to me. I’ll walk this off. My foot is asleep.” Well that was the wrong thing to do. After more than six hours, I called my wife at work and alerted her that something had gone wrong and we finally went to the emergency room.  Unfortunately, I had suffered six more hours of brain damage. I hope others will learn to call 9-1-1 immediately if they have any similar symptoms.

“It took me approximately one year to learn to walk and talk again.  My wife and I found there was very little information related to the mental, emotional and social and family challenges we faced available. I decided to close that information gap and help millions of others by writing the book.”

“What makes this book special is that I share very personal accounts of the suffering and how I prevailed over the illness and that is where the reader’s journey to empowerment and wellness begins. I invite them to get actively involved with their own recovery by participating in self-reflections, tips and other helpful Brave Step tools.”

93 year old woman publishes first novel

A 93-year-old woman is having her first novel published and with the book’s proceeds plans to buy a large house in Devon so she can give a real home to some of her friends who are currently in nursing homes

Lorna Page of Surrey says: “I started writing as soon as I could hold a pencil; fairy stories, poetry, short stories, and now my novel, a who-done-it. Seems I’ve been writing for a hundred years and that’s practically true!’’

Ms. Page’s book A Dangerous Weakness is being published by AuthorHouse this July.

Lorna Page is busy at work on her next book, a collection of short stories.  “After all,” she says, “I have to buy a jolly big house for all the friends I have who are alone and need a home.”

A signed copy of A Dangerous Weakness can be ordered directly from the author at lornapage@gmail.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or is available from Amazon.com.

Olympic athletes that beat the odds

If you live in the United States and plan to watch the 2008 Summer Olympics you will certainly hear inspiring, and deservedly heart warming stories of althletes that succeeded in spite of significant challenges.  In the sport of swimming alone you’ve likely already heard about Dara Torres and Eric Shanteau.  Torres, coming out of retirement at the age of 41 is setting records and Shanteau is battling testicular cancer but plans to postpone treatment until after the games.

Looking outside the US one can also find tremendous stories of athletes achieving their dreams while overcoming tremendous obstacles.

The BBC has a series online titled “Against the Odds” which profiles such inspiring athletes.   Follow these links to see the following stories:

Nery Brenes
Costa Rican sprinter who left behind a town hit by gang violence to get to Beijing

Bernadett Baczko
Neither family tragedy nor serious injury deterred this Hungarian judoka

Hem Bunting
A crumbling Cambodian athletics stadium is home to marathon runner Hem

Ziad Richa
Meet the Lebanese clay pigeon shooter training in the hills around Beirut

Vijender Kumar
An unsung boxing champion fights for recognition in cricket-mad India

Samiya Yuusf Omar
A 16-year-old’s amazing journey from war-ravaged Somalia to the Olympic Games

The BBC should be lauded for creating such a compelling series.

Young boy plays baseball despite cancer

Inspirational stories and people can be found in towns and cities around the globe.  One particular young man of note is Hudson Davis of Lafayette, CA.

The Contra Costa Times provided an in-depth article chronicling Hudson’s efforts that one would find truly inspirational.

The 12-year-old from Lafayette is nearing the completion of a Little League season in which he helped pitch and hit his team to first place and was named to his league’s all-star squad. That would be a distinguished achievement for any youngster.

What’s especially remarkable about Hudson is that he did all that while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for a malignant brain tumor discovered long before his season started.

Nothing was going to stop Hudson from playing baseball.  His persistence inspired his parents, coaches, friends, teammates and even Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins.

For Hudson, the motivation was simple.  He wanted to play baseball.

“The only time you saw a smile on the kid’s face was when he was on the baseball field,” said Greg Davis, Hudson’s father.  “It was the only time he could really escape all the things that were happening to him.  He’s been through hell and back with all the stuff he’s been through.  But playing baseball definitely helped him get through it.”

The best news is that the tumor is gone, and that Hudson had his final radiation treatment on Wednesday. He will continue long-term care for the foreseeable future, but the worst appears to be over and his prognosis for survival is excellent.

Read the entire Contra Costa Times article here.

Near the beginning of his treatment Hudson was befriended by Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies.  Jimmy Rollins was named Major League Baseball’s National League MVP of 2007.  Jimmy dedicated his first homerun of the 2008 season to Hudson.

On May 11, with the Phillies visiting San Francisco to play the Giants, Jimmy invited Hudson down onto the field during batting practice so they could meet and talk face-to-face for the first time.  Jimmy has been a real inspiration for Hudson.

hudson

Sources: contracostatimes.com, abeldogs.com

Positive Media legislated in Romania

Whether one sees the glass as half full or empty, one thing seems to be for sure in Romania - half is the right amount.

Last month, the Romanian Senate unanimously voted a law proposal forcing media to distribute 50% of positive news.  According to its instigators, the law will help to fight against “the extraordinary harms of negative news and their irreversible effects on health and people’s lives.”

The Senate wishes that TV and radio news programs feature as much ‘negative’ as ‘positive’ news.  The Romanian’s National Council for Audiovisual broadcasting is to validate the law - under which it will have the responsibility to decide what constitutes good or bad news.

But the Council swiftly criticized the law. “News is news, it is neither positive nor negative, it simply reflects reality,” said the Council’s president, Rasvan Popescu.

Press freedom organizations such as Reporters Without Borders have also criticized the proposal, comparing it to similar laws in authoritarian regimes.  While a number of editors may agree that the news agenda tends to be vastly ‘negative’, no law should seek to force the reverse.

Source: Lemonde.fr (link in French), The Editors Weblog

Hold Steady - Stay Positive. Good music and a better story.

If you’ve heard of The Hold Steady you probably saw them live given they tour over 300 days a year.  People that know them raise your had; those that don’t stand up and take notice. The Hold Steady is a Brooklyn-based rock band that just released its latest album - Stay Positive.  This is the band’s fourth album  and was released in the UK on July 14 and the USA a day later.

In a recent interview with Gothimist the bands leader, Craig Finn tells the story behind how the new album became called Stay Positive.  “It was something that arose out of my constant surprise when people ask me for my autograph. I always write ‘Stay Positive’ in my autographs, and it stuck with me from writing it a bunch of times. I came up with a song of the same name, and once I worked on that I kind of had it pretty early on in the record’s genesis.”

The record is about aging gracefully and about maintaining that hope and optimism in the face of bigger events, something that is deeply personal to the band members.  Craig Finn is 36 and, “at the age of 30 I was working in an office, thinking my rock band days were behind me.

In the five years since forming, the guys in the band have gone through a bunch of typical thirty something stuff- babies born, family members dying, relationships started, relationships ended, health problems, joy, struggle, life, etc.   This last summer we opened for the Rolling Stones in Ireland. We have met many of our musical heroes.”

The song Constructive Summer is a driving song about trying harder.    Listen to the song below.

According to Finn, the most exciting aspect of our band is the community of fans that have followed the band around the country.  “In talking to them, we have found that no matter their ages, they are so much like us as people, that they seem at times an extension of the music.   These are our lives. These are your lives. This is our fourth record. Stay Positive.”

Ron Burton Camp helps boys grow

Over the past twenty-four years the Ron Burton Training Village has served over 2000 young men in their spiritual, physical and educational growth. More than 120 boys ages 11 to 17, most from tough neighborhoods and foster homes in and around Boston attend the camp for five straight weeks during the summer and campers stay in the program for six years.

The Boston Globe interviewed several staff members and camp regulars in a fantastic article from Emma Brown.  Below are several quotes from her interview.

“We’re bringing them out to a setting that’s completely foreign to their living situation,” says soft-spoken Ron Burton Jr., 44, one of five siblings who have run the Training Village since their father died in 2003 at age 67. “We’re exposing them to a whole ‘nother culture.”

“My father’s philosophy was, if you see beautiful things, you think beautiful thoughts,” says Ron Jr., a director of community relations for the Red Sox who, along with his younger brother Paul, a 35-year-old reporter for WBZ-TV (Channel 4), takes five weeks’ vacation each year to volunteer here. They run the camp on in-kind donations and a budget of $350,000, most of which comes from sponsors at an annual fund-raising dinner at Gillette Stadium.

“They’re hungry for goodness,” Ron Jr. says. “That’s the kid we want - seen all the junk, and is hungry for something different.”

Read the entire article in the Boston Globe here.

The camp stresses diversity with a roster of 50% minority and 50% non-minority campers. Though the young men come from very diverse backgrounds, the majority of the youth who attend the training village are kids who come from economically disadvantaged and often troubled and at-risk situations. The environments they are reared in generally lead to adverse behavior and low self-esteem. These young men have excessive stress in their homes, neighborhoods and social lives and are looking for direction. These campers genuinely desire to get better however the majority of the surrounding forces they are confronted with on a daily basis keep them teetering on that fence, and with the wrong influences they could easily be edged in a very unfavorable direction. The Ron Burton Training Village curriculum directs the focus of these individuals toward a positive and productive target whose bull’s-eye is; a love for God and ones fellow human beings, physical adeptness and academic excellence. The program accomplishes this through the medium of sport.

Though the kids come from different backgrounds, most of the campers come on scholarship. No child is turned away due to their financial situation. Each camper is given all of their clothes, meals and accommodations for the five weeks. Everyone dresses the same so that no one feels any different (better or worse) than anyone else. They are given full sweat suits, running sneakers, shorts, t-shirts, socks; in fact the only articles kids come to camp with is a sleeping bag, a few personal items, and the clothes on their backs.

There are four core values of the camp: Peace, Patience, Love and Humility. The camp’s philosophy is to inspire the consideration of others before your self and motivate an understanding that faith and morals need to be the foundation of the mentality through which they approach life.

The entire program is based on love and understanding. The staff, counselors and campers alike are only allowed to speak positive and uplifting words. Teasing, putting down or any words that might hurt or otherwise demean someone’s spirit are not allowed. The kids are taught never to swear or use harsh language. Through athletics the program inspires the campers never to drink, smoke or take any kind of drugs. The camp stresses the importance of respecting their colleagues, their elders and a special emphasis is placed on loving and respecting their parents.

Sources: Emma Brown/Boston Globe, Wikipedia, Ron Burton Training Village website

Orrin Hudson - working to help 1 million kids

Orrin Hudson of BeSomeone, Inc has blazed the trails throughout America teaching youth to “be someone.”  He has been a source of inspiration for many and has also used chess as a stimulus for children to believe in their own ideas and to learn from the decisions they make in life.  A chess champion, U.S. Air Force veteran, and former Alabama State Trooper and entrepeneur, Hudsom points to his own life as proof that every move counts and that winning is a choice.

Orrin was interviewd by Spark Plug Radio in Atlanta about his philosophy and work with kids.  Listen to that here:

Angela Hines - super mom becomes lawyer

Meet Angela Hines, the once-struggling mother of five and public-housing resident from Queens who put herself through hell, and law school, while lavishing the kind of affection on her children that would make any loving parent proud.

Whoever said, “You can’t have it all,” hasn’t met Angela  Hines. “I never really thought of it in those terms,” she says. “But I just knew that if I kept moving forward one step at a time, eventually I’d reach my goal.”

Hines graduated from CUNY Law School and was admitted to the bar in January, fulfilling a lifelong dream. Her professional life as an attorney will cap a career trajectory that includes earning her bachelor’s degree in law and paralegal studies at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), working at various jobs, including spending months as a bus driver at JFK International Airport, and successfully completing her studies at CUNY Law School.

These accomplishments are all the sweeter because during this time Hines struggled as a single mom to bring up a family of five — that’s right, five children! Three were born while she was an undergraduate at City Tech and two while she was working as a paralegal before attending law school.

“Growing up African American in a low-income Queens housing project, I realized early on that getting an education would be my only way out. Often, luck was not on my side,” she explains.  “My Mom died the day before I was to take my placement test for college.” Taking out loans became a way of life for her, a strategy she says she looks at as an investment, “even though I feel like I’ll be paying back forever.”

It’s clear that Hines has imbued her children with her love for education. Today, they are all well on their way. Her 19-year-old is a sophomore at Virginia State; her 17-year-old attends the School of Art and Design; her 14-year-old is studying at Taft, a boarding school in Connecticut; and her seven- and eight-year-olds are both enrolled in the Gifted and Talented program at P.S. 106, their neighborhood elementary school in Far Rockaway, Queens.

“My kids struggled along with me,” she explains. “I realized that I had to stay focused. And I always knew that if I succeeded, they would succeed. It was that simple.”

Succeeding, for her, always also had something to do with helping others. As a resident of Far Rockaway, for example, Hines became familiar with the difficult life situations of immigrants.  She translated that knowledge into becoming the chief administrator of City Tech’s Immigration Clinic for the past four years.

“The clients love her,” says Concetta Mennella, chair of City Tech’s Department of Law and Paralegal Studies, explaining that Hines’s main duties involved supervising work-study students and volunteers. “She’s accomplished wonderful things — like working doggedly to overcome obstacles faced by people whose citizenship applications were first denied by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.”

Hines, who happily states that she married her longtime boyfriend in 2006, says that she plans to devote her legal career to working in the public interest. “Her story is an inspiring example of how an individual can break out of a cramped environment, make positive life decisions, tackle the challenges of earning a bachelor’s degree, move on to complete law school, pass the bar and finally enter a career with the goal of serving the community,” Professor Mennella says.

“Through it all, being a mom didn’t stand in the way of her career moves. And her educational and vocational journey didn’t interfere with her determination to nurture her family. Angela did it all. She’s one of our great against-the-odds success stories,” Mennella says.

New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York is the largest public college of technology in New York State. The College enrolls more than 13,500 students in 57 baccalaureate, associate and specialized certificate programs. Another 15,000 students enroll annually in adult education and workforce development programs, many of which lead to licensure and certification. Located at 300 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, City Tech is at the MetroTech Center academic and commercial complex, convenient to public transportation.

Angela was featured in the NY Daily News earlier this year.  You can read the article titled “Hero mom to be sworn in as lawyer” here.

Sources: NY Daily News, CUNY Newswire,  CUNY

Diver attempts final exam

A diver undergoes a final examination to see if he can apply skills in the real world.

Life or Death Exam

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