Holiday gift idea - adopt a Koala

They’re cute, they’re cuddly and, in these times of financial woe, they make an affordable festive gift that’s also good for the soul — adopt a rescued koala.

The “Adopt a Wild Koala Program” has been in operation for 15 years and is a major source of funding for The Koala Hospital, the world’s only medical facility dedicated to the care and preservation of the animals.

The annual cost of adopting a koala is A$40 (US$26) within Australia and A$50 (US$32) from overseas, which the hospital said goes toward the rescue and treatment of sick and injured koalas, the release of treated animals back into the wild, as well as the preservation and expansion of their habitat.

Adopters receive a certificate, a photograph of the animal, the story of how it ended up in the hospital as well as stickers and booklets about koalas and the hospital.

“It’s an ideal gift, and particularly these days when kids have everything,” Anne Walsh a volunteer at the Port Macquarie-based hospital told Reuters by telephone.

“I had a phone call from a lady in Singapore today who wanted to adopt five koalas for her relatives for Christmas.  I’ve been delighted with the amount of people wanting to adopt.”

Walsh said the rescued koalas are usually named after the area they were found in and the person who helped rescue them.

“We’ve got Westhaven Barry, Kempsey Carolina and Bonny Fire, she was caught up in a bushfire,” she added.

Once they have recovered from their injuries or ailments, and are able to live in their natural habitat, the koalas are released back into the wild.

The Koala is found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia, from near Adelaide to the southern part of Cape York Peninsula. Populations also extend for considerable distances inland in regions with enough moisture to support suitable woodlands. The Koalas of South Australia were largely exterminated during the early part of the 20th century, but the state has since been repopulated with Victorian stock. The Koala is not found in Tasmania or Western Australia.   Their staple diet is eucalyptus leaves.

Sources: -

Forget Stocks, Adopt a Koala (Reuters), Wikipedia, Youtube, Australian Koala Foundation

Starbucks saved his life

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Michael Gates Gill didn’t learn to savor life until he began serving coffee to others.

He shared his riches-to-rags story in the 2007 book, “How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.”

The author of the bestseller — soon to be a Tom Hanks movie — spoke Monday at The Economic Club of Grand Rapids to a crowd of about 600 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.

The club tapped the New Yorker for its December luncheon, which is traditionally reserved for an inspirational story. The event also included a standing ovation for executive director Lorna Schultz, celebrating her 20th anniversary with the organization.

Gill says he appreciates hard workers such as Schultz after landing an hourly job as a bartista at age 63.

By the time he wandered into the Starbucks that was hiring, his life had hit rock bottom after he was downsized from a six-figure job, divorced and diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Despite a Yale University degree and a 26-year career as an advertising executive, Gill had few practical skills. Everything had been given to him from his education to his career, he said. He even needed help filling out his Starbucks application.

At Starbucks, Gill said he was taken under the wing by his new boss Crystal and later Kester, his training coach.

He credits some of his biggest lessons to Crystal’s tutelage. Crystal grew up in the projects and worked hard for everything she earned.

“She treated me with loving kindness that I had never thought to offer anyone I worked with in my 26 years,” he said.

Crystal could overlook his less-than-stellar skill in making lattes, but she called him in her office when she saw him refusing to let a homeless use the restroom he had just cleaned.

“The last thing that gentleman needed was to be disrespected by you,” she told him. “This is the one place you shouldn’t decide who to respect or not.”

It took a while for his “old habits of arrogance” to die, but Gill says he is happy with transformation. He didn’t realize how much he changed until Kester complimented him on the quality of his work cleaning restrooms and closing the store, and Gill felt pride for the first time.

“I realized for many years I didn’t have a sense that I had value — that I contributed to something,” Gill said.

The book is based on the journal he kept at his daughter’s suggestion.

From Mlive.com - read full story

Related Story - Life Changes, with a latte to go (NY Times)

Bystanders stop purse snatcher at mall

This is an interesting short that ran in the ContraCosta Times (Northern California).

About 9 a.m. a woman reported that her purse was stolen by a man wearing a white button-up shirt and blue jeans. She said the man had followed her out of the mall entrance near Fresh Choice and grabbed her purse from behind.

The man tried to get away on a motorcycle in the mall parking lot on Stoneridge Mall Road, but two people who saw the theft chased the man and jostled him for the key, said Pleasanton police Lt. Mike Elerick The man gave up trying to start the bike and fled on foot. Pleasanton officers located the man, identified as 21-year-old Dwight Admues Mondaime of Gilroy, a short time later in a wooded area near Foothill Boulevard and Laurel Creek.

He was arrested on suspicion of robbery and was taken ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton because he was out of breath from running and officers feared he may faint. He was then booked at Santa Rita jail.

The woman’s purse was returned with all its contents accounted for.

By Sophia Kazmi - Citizens foil purse snatcher

Winning the 5th Quarter - life lessons

The NFL did a study a few years back and surveyed 1000 players who had been out of the league for at least four years. What they found was staggering: 87% were either divorced, having serious financial issues, or were dealing with drug/alcohol problems!

When I graduated college and stopped playing football, my finances too were depleted, and to the point that the State of Ohio helped me with welfare assistance.  But by applying the lessons I myself learned on the football field, I have since become a highly successful entrepreneur, have spoken to groups in ten countries, and am a published author a couple times over.

In my latest book, Winning in the 5th Quarter, I write that, “Football Players are told from grade schools to the professional level that the most important quarter in football is the fourth quarter. The only quarter that matters at all however is the 5th Quarter. This is the quarter we all play in, when the game ends and life begins.”

When my oldest son Robbie started playing football, he leveraged the life lessons the game could teach him. “To even play the game of football you have to execute the core principles of success,” I write in Winning in the 5th Quarter. “If you carry those principles forward to the 5th Quarter (Life) you will be successful and happy. When my son decided to dedicate himself to try to achieve a Division I football scholarship I had to ensure that whether he did or did not achieve his goal, he understood the true secret of football: winning… in the 5th quarter.”

According to the National Sporting Goods Association, statistics show that close to twenty million Americans over the age of seven participate in some form of organized football play.  But football is more than just a grueling physical sport; it is a microcosm for life.  “This book is nothing less than a guide for lifelong success,” says Grant Teaff, Executive Director of American Football Coaches Association. “The messages and concepts are timeless. They will have a profound impact on everyone who reads this book and more importantly uses it to create a foundation for happiness and achievement.”

Football player or not, we all need to understand how to leverage the principles of success that football offers us all.  Parents and coaches need to learn how to stress the life lessons football offers to their children and players. Players need to learn how to apply the lesson they learn on the field, off the field.

My goal in life is to reach out to as many players, coaches, parents, and people as possible to share my experiences and help them and their families realize their dreams.  Through the book, Q5 Workshops, personal life coaching, and a TV show my team and I are working on, I am on a mission to help people understand just how to use football as a foundation for lifelong success.

Head football coach of Rice University, David Bailiff, says, “We tell players that attend Rice University they are attending for fifty years not just four. We talk to them about the 5th Quarter their first day here. Bob Beck has expressed this message in the exact way I would like every player and parent to understand. This book will become part of our culture.”

Winning in the 5th Quarter
By Bob Beck

Playing for Change - the power of music

A clip from film “Playing for Change” by filmmaker Mark Johnson. This remarkable film took 10 years to complete.

The DVD appears to be discontinued but is available through rental companies.

Three Americans head to China to lose weight

Three American men have taken the unusual step of moving to China in an extreme attempt to shed huge amounts of weight at a fat reduction clinic — and have become surprise local celebrities.

Alonzo Bland, 33, and brothers Walt and David Anderson, 56 and 50, have lived in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin since the middle of this year as part of an effort to break away from their unhealthy lifestyles back home.

Together, they have lost a combined 192 kilogrammes (427 pounds) and are aiming to shed over 100 more.

“The reason why I think it works here is that China is away from everything, all the stuff that I’m familiar with,” said Alonzo, who has lost 103 kilogrammes from the 291 kilos he weighed when he first arrived in Tianjin.

He decided to come after winning a contest organised by China Connection, a US firm promoting traditional Chinese medicine, and was being treated free of charge for as long as it took to lose his target weight — like Walt and David.

Alonzo, who had a tracheotomy in 2000 because the fat in his face was pressing down on his windpipe, left a fiancee and two children behind in Wisconsin.

For David, an unmarried dishwasher in a casino in Iowa who sold his car and ditched his job to come to China, the move was a life-saver.

“Before I came over, it got to the point that I couldn’t walk 20 feet without gasping for breath,” said David, who is down to 104 kilogrammes after losing 41 kilos.

“I don’t think I would have made my 51st birthday.”

Every morning, the three lie down in their spartan bedrooms at the Aimin Fat Reduction Hospital for acupuncture, which doctors say increases the metabolism rate and reduces appetite.

“When I sent an email to my friends from here, I think I scared them when I told them how deep those needles go,” said Walt, who has shed 48 kilogrammes off his original 179 kilogrammes.

But the rest of the weight-loss treatment is similar to the West — exercise twice a day and good nutrition, albeit Chinese-style with rice, fried vegetables, tofu, meat and soup the staples of their diet.

Read Full Story from AFP

Couple returns thousands of dollars found on highway

The Martins of Kings Mountain NC were returning home from a shopping trip when they spotted a purse on US ByPass 74. They pulled to the side to retrieve the item, and discovered it had more than $5000 in $100 bills. They had no intention of keeping the money. Here is the story from the Shelby Star:

“I told my wife, ‘Somebody has lost their purse,’ and we turned around to pick it up,” Vance said. “By the time we turned around somebody had run over it and money was lying everywhere.”

As Vance, who is on disability, dodged traffic to retrieve the $100 bills, there was only one thing on his mind.

“We decided we would take it to the police department and turn it in,” he said. “We didn’t think about doing anything else. If I had kept the money, every time I would have bought something I would have felt guilty.”
Shelby Patrol Officer Chris Wilkinson was shocked that in these bad economic times and this close to Christmas that the Martins turned in the wallet.

“I was kind of surprised at that much money,” he said. “There’s still some good people out there.”

The large wallet had a passport in the wallet along with credit cards, business cards, important papers, frequent flyer cards, $1,000 in foreign currency, a recent paycheck and more than $5,000 in $100 bills. The person whose identity was found inside the wallet was a man from Charlotte. He had decided to carry cash because of the uncertainty in the economy and banking industry.

“I have had the opportunity to meet two people who have more character than most of the people I have met in my lifetime,” he said. “Instead of my life being upside down, my life was restored by two people who are honest and love their beliefs enough to live them each day and in each moment. And over time, I hope I can come close to repaying them” said the man whose wallet was returned.

Shelby Star Online

Obama Family helps out on Thanksgiving

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife took their daughters to work at a food bank on the day before Thanksgiving, saying they wanted to show the girls the meaning of the holiday, especially when so many people are struggling.

Ten-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha joined their parents to shake hands and give holiday wishes to hundreds of people who had been lined up for hours at the food bank on Chicago’s south side.

Sasha wore a pink stocking hat over her pigtails and Malia had on a purple striped hat as the family handed out wrapped chickens to the needy in the chilly outdoor courtyard. Those seeking food on Wednesday at St. Columbanus also received boxes with potatoes, oranges, fresh bread, peanut butter, canned goods, oatmeal, spaghetti and coffee.

The president-elect, dressed casually in a leather jacket, black scarf and khaki pants, was in a jovial mood, calling out “happy thanksgiving” and telling everyone “you can call me Barack.”

He told reporters that he wants the girls “to learn the importance of how fortunate they are, and to make sure they’re giving back.”

The soon-to-be first lady said the Obamas wanted to give their children “an understanding of what giving and Thanksgiving is all about.”

Read Full Story

One last Christmas

It was the weekend before Thanksgiving, but all through the house, Mike and Kara Landeweer’s friends gathered to celebrate Christmas.

A Christmas tree stood in the living room and decorations covered the front of their Arlington Heights home.

Even Santa Claus made an early visit Sunday.

For the Landeweers, Christmas couldn’t arrive soon enough. In a bedroom, 37-year-old Kara lay in her bed, her eyes closed, oblivious to the celebration in the next room.

This is likely the last Christmas she will spend with her husband Mike, a Mount Prospect police officer, her daughter Alexis, 2, her son Ryan, 6, and her stepdaughter Katie, 17. A brain tumor will soon claim her life.

Thanks to Elke Kadzielawski, the wife of one of Mike’s friends on the Mount Prospect police force, and the Landeweers’ many friends, the family had one last Christmas together Sunday.

Carolers from Christian Life Church sang on the lawn, and when a siren sounded, the group began singing “Here Comes Santa Claus.”

Santa Claus, Mount Prospect Police Officer Joe Morel, arrived, not by sleigh, but escorted by a Mount Prospect fire engine and patrol wagon.

He came bearing gifts from him and helpers, including a brand new bicycle and autographed pictures of Chicago Cubs players for Ryan and a Barbie doll for Alexis.

When Morel arrived, he handed Ryan a $20 bill - the money came from the tooth fairy, since Ryan had pulled out a tooth that day.

“Out of all the kids in the world this year, I decided I’m going to come to (your) house first,” Morel told the children, adding “My elves have been hard at work.”

It was a memorable afternoon for Katie, a senior at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, who plans on being a nurse.

“I’ll definitely be here for the kids. I love them very much,” she said.

Mike Landeweer is humbled by what his friends and colleagues have done for his family.

“As horrible as this situation is, I’m blessed to have these wonderful people helping me,” he said. “It’s truly amazing.”

In March 2007, Mike, Kara and Ryan were sitting around the family dinner table, when Kara suffered a seizure and doctors later found a brain tumor.

“Basically, it was the worst case scenario,” Mike said.

The average life expectancy, Mike said, was around 11 months.

Kara went on to survive surgeries to remove additional tumors, radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and even the removal of a bone flap in her skull when she came down with an infection.

For most of this year, Mike said, life seemed relatively normal. But in August, she lost mobility on her right side and her health began to slide once more.

Eventually, it was found that the cancer had spread to the frontal lobe of the brain.

“At that point, there was just nothing left to do. That’s when we decided to bring her home,” he said.

She is receiving hospice care now.

“We are here not only to celebrate Christmas but to celebrate Kara’s life. She is a very strong, loving wife, mother and friend. She has never given up on her faith.

Kara always put everyone before herself. So to be a part of today is just a true honor,” Elke Kadzielawski said.

The police department and the entire village donated money, time and gifts to Sunday’s Christmas celebration.

“Kara’s a great girl. and it means the world to us that we were able to give them the opportunity to celebrate Christmas,” said Elke’s husband, Mount Prospect police officer Ron Kadzielawski. “To see the smile on the kids’ faces makes it all worthwhile.”

By Steve Zalusky Daily Herald Staff
One last Christmas for Arlington Heights family (original story plus reader comments)

Turning loss into a new beginning

Robert Rogers lost his wife and four children in a flash flood. Though he could have wallowed in self-pity, he chose to turn this tragedy into a positive. He is trying to start five orphanages on five continents in memory of his heavenly family. They already have one in Russia, and another under construction in Rwanda.

In the past five years, he estimates he has told the story of his loss at least 400 times to more than 120,000 people. The message behind his story is to live life with no regrets by embracing your family and faith.

“People have responded to me that they want to change the way they live their life. They want to have a personal relationship with God and they want to get right with their spouse and children,” he said.

In addition to his speaking tours, Rogers has established a ministry dedicated to serving orphans across the world. Rogers also traveled to Haiti and tsunami-ravaged parts of Asia to minister and deliver aid to orphans.

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