Glass House - The El Salvador Action

Glass House, is an independent feature-length documentary about the historically-overlooked “El Salvador Action” in which two Salvadoran diplomats devised and implemented a daring plan to provide protection to approximately 30,000 endangered Jews during World War II.

Director Brad Marlowe who self-funded the project shot in high-end digital video brings Glass House to the Latino Film Festival in hopes of securing a larger distribution deal.

Glass House (78 minutes) is a moving documentary of how El Salvador, one of the smallest countries in the world, facilitated one of the most successful rescue operations during the second World War.   It shares the story that begins in 1942 when the lives of thirty thousand Jews were saved when they were issued certificates of Salvadorian citizenship thanks to “El Salvador Action”.   José Arturo Castellanos headed the operation, a man assigned to open the Consulate of El Salvador in 1938 in in Hamburg while Europe was under Nazi siege. Glass House shares one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in the Holocaust’s history.  The documentary was filmed over a three-year period on location in Central America, Switzerland, Hungary, and Spain, as the sons and daughters of the heroes themselves along with some of the survivors of the effort, share this inspirational story, all people who owe their lives to El Salvador.

$1M for cirriculum creativity

Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, Inc., announced that through its Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program it is recognizing close to 300 educators nationwide for their outstanding achievements and contributions in the classroom. This year, the Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program will award $1 million in total grants for the 2008-2009 school year to aid teachers working in grades K-12 in underserved communities. These grants provide the resources necessary for instructional creativity and enhance curriculum development.

“Jordan Fundamentals was designed to honor educators across America by providing financial support to their schools,” says Keith Houlemard, Jordan Brand President. “Our committed educators pave the way for the future of this country due to their unwavering commitment to their students and their communities by providing the best education possible to every student that enters their classrooms.”

The Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program acknowledges and provides financial support to teachers who endeavor to overcome challenges and limited resources in order to achieve excellence through instructional creativity, innovative teaching and high learning expectations for students. Since 1999, the Jordan Fundamentals program has presented more than $9 in financial aid to public secondary school teachers where at least 50 percent of the student body population is eligible for the free or reduced lunch program.

“Jordan Fundamentals allows teachers the opportunity to bring fresh ideas and innovative programs into the classrooms,” said Tim Anderson of Chicago’s May Community Academy and 2008-2009 Jordan Fundamentals grant recipient. “It is through these grants that we can inspire children to awaken their appetite for learning by gaining access to books, supplies and resources that have previously been out of reach to these deserving children.”

For the list of grant recipients and more information about the Jordan Fundamentals program, please visit www.jordanfundamentals.com.

CSR Wire

Photo drives refugee reunion

What started with a correspondents photograh turned into worldwide feedback of sympathy, and fueled a writer’s desire to reunite the family.

From Jerome Delay, Associated Press Writer.

Eleven-year-old Protegee carried her sobbing niece on her back as they searched for relatives in a sea of people in eastern Congo.

An Associated Press photograph of the girl — using her filthy T-shirt to wipe the tears from her face as 3-year-old Reponse clung to her neck and wailed — prompted hundreds of e-mails from people around the world hoping to help them.

I returned to Kiwanja on Sunday to try to reunite the girls with family and even succeeded in finding them. But it turned out that not all problems in Congo can be solved by an outsider’s sympathy.

When I first photographed Protegee on Nov. 6 in a crowd of thousands in the town of Kiwanja, she told me only her first name and that she was looking for her mother.

I learned later that she and Reponse had wandered alone for three days after being separated from Protegee’s mother on Nov. 3 as the family fled on foot from their village of Kiseguru, about 12 miles away.

Protegee had spent one night sleeping in a church, huddled with Reponse under a flimsy scarf. “I had no food or water,” she said, speaking in the Kiswahili language.

———————

After searching and finding that the mother had found the children but sent them to another village to be safe the writer helped unite them again with his car.

———————

Protegee, Reponse and Esperance are back in Kiwanja now. They have set up a cot in the corner of a room on the Catholic church grounds. Outside, the U.N. World Food Program is distributing food, but the situation in the town remains volatile.

Before I left, I gave Esperance the photograph of her daughter and granddaughter. She handed it to Protegee, who, with Reponse in her lap, gazed at the image. I left them there on their cot, clutching the photo, one of their few possessions.

Asked when they would return to their village, Esperance replied: “When the war is over.”

Read the full story: A photo of 2 little girls and a reunion in Congo

Championship ring to help save children

Former NFL player Je’Rod Cherry is raffling his SuperBowl championship ring in hopes of helping children.

Cherry, who played for New England, Philadelphia and New Orleans in a nine-year NFL career, is raffling his 2001 Patriots Super Bowl ring on Nov. 27 to raise money for children’s charities around the world. “I was moved by some pictures I saw of a child in Africa on his deathbed, and in the background waiting was a vulture, in essence, to consume him,” said Cherry, who lives in Ohio now. “What I saw there moved me to say, ‘What can I do to make a difference?’ What can I give sacrificially from myself to show I do have care and concern about this child’s predicament as well as other organizations that help people across the world?”

Cherry says he cherishes the ring, and played football 21 years to get to the pinnacle of the profession. “But using this ring to help children who are starving … and who have no hope will be a greater feeling than what I felt the day I actually won the ring.”

He’s raffling the ring instead of auctioning it so all fans would have a chance to win it, not just the richest ones. Five tickets cost $10, and can be purchased at netraffle.org. Deadline for purchase is Nov. 27 at 9 a.m.

“After the decision to do the raffle was made,” Cherry told me Saturday, “I said, ‘Wow. I’m actually going to relinquish this ring.’ It’s not going to be easy. Before that season, I’d played football all my life, but I never won a championship. My high school team won one league game in Berkeley [Calif.]. I went to Cal. I started my career with the Saints, and we never won there.”

He got to the Patriots with the middle-class free-agency class of 2001, and as I reminded Cherry, that first Super Bowl team was a bunch of Je’Rod Cherries. It’s fitting he won the ring with a bunch of blue-collar players like him.

Cherry’s disappointed with the raffle kitty so far — it’s approaching $75,000 — but he hopes even if the proceeds aren’t what he hopes for, “I may spur someone who hears about this or reads about a person giving up such a prized possession to do something for others.”

Purchase your raffle tickets at Netraffle.org (here)

Created by Jostens, the 14-karat white gold Super Bowl ring worn by the Super Bowl XXXVI champions, the New England Patriots, features 142 diamonds. Forty-two diamonds encircle the bezel, which is the edge of the ring’s face, and two larger football-shaped diamonds are on each side of the bezel. The face of the ring displays the Patriots logo made from red garnets and blue sapphires trimmed with diamonds. A figure of the Lombardi trophy is behind the logo and is made of platinum, a large marquis diamond, and two tapered baguette diamonds.)

Related Story -

• Cherry hopes hollow ring will save children - ESPN

From: SI.com (Peter King), Youtube, Netraffle.org

Pray the Devil Back to Hell - the quest for Liberia

Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.

Thousands of women - ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim - came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about a agreement during the stalled peace talks.

A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverence of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting, and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

Related Links

• ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ documents Liberian women’s effort to end war (Los Angeles Times)
• Theater schedule and listings
• Liberia Information (wikipedia)

Hoelzer strives to aid other child abuse victims

Margaret Hoelzer set a world record in the 200-meter backstroke at the US trials for the Beijing Olympics. At the Games this summer, she won three medals (two silvers and a bronze). She is a champion swimmer, but she has struggled for a long time with dark secrets swirling just below the surface. Secrets more than 20 years old. Secrets about child sexual abuse. And now she’s reliving her past to help other children.

The process is painful. Hoelzer, 25, couldn’t live by herself until last year, her childhood robbed by a playmate’s father who gained her trust when she was just 5 years old. The ripples created by the trauma haunt her to this day. But after returning from China, she decided to tell her story.

Advocates are grateful for her support. Researchers say 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 7 boys will be a victim of sexual abuse before their 18th birthday, according to the US Department of Veteran Affairs, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress.

“Margaret is so unbelievable; what she’s doing screams of courage,” said Catherine Hereford, the director of development for the National Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit agency for which Hoelzer is a spokeswoman. Hoelzer wants to devote her life to the prevention of child sexual abuse.

Hereford calls her “amazing.”

“It’s extremely difficult to talk about something like that,” said Hereford. “A lot of people that have gone through it feel shame and guilt. She had an opportunity to share her story to make a difference, and that outweighed any hesitation she had about public humiliation or embarrassing herself.”

Hoelzer, tall and personable, pulls out a photograph of herself when she was 6: a blue-eyed girl in a sky-blue bathing suit, with a beaming smile. Everything looked picture-perfect.

But something horrible was going on. And her parents never knew.

Today when she talks about her playmate’s father, she shrugs.

“This happened to me, and I went to the Olympics. If I can help just one child, it’s worth talking about. Maybe some 8-year-old kid will read this and say, ‘Yeah, I can get over this. I see light at the end of the tunnel.’ ”

Read this powerful story from Stan Grossfield of The Boston Globe - Belated Crusade

Margaret swam collegiately for Auburn and now trains, professionally with King Aquatic Club in suburban Seattle, WA.

Recently, Margaret competed at her second Olympic Games where she won 1 bronze and 2 silver medals. At the US Trials, she posted her first World Record swim in her signature event, the 200m Backstroke. The record was lowered in Beijing by Kirsty Coventry.

Margaret is a National Spokesperson for the National Children’s Advocacy Center. She is available for speaking engagements. Please contact PMG Sports for more information.

Margaret is nominated for ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ at the upcoming Golden Goggle Awards

Boston Globe, Margaret Hoelzer website

Entrepeneur and Homeless man change each others lives

Pete Kadens was on his way to yet another meeting one Chicago morning when he noticed Troy McCoullough sitting on a Chicago sidewalk.  Something brought these two men together to share their stories.  Now, they’re both learning the  power anyone of us has to change one man’s life.  If you ever dreamed of making a difference, this is the story for you.

Inspirational Mom Marathon

The down-turned economy has left many small business owners wondering what the future holds for them. The fear of losing their business has encouraged several mom entrepreneurs to look for opportunity while others cut spending and layoff employees.

Thirty inspirational women will be highlighted over a period of 30 days on The Mom Entrepreneur blog, which offers tips, advice and resources for balancing motherhood with running a company. These mom entrepreneurs’ stories demonstrate how these amazing women have decided to make “lemonade from lemons” using a little creative ingenuity.

“I have received dozens of emails from mom entrepreneurs all over the country telling me their “glass is half-full” stories,” said Traci Bisson, owner and founder of The Mom Entrepreneur. “From Misty Gibbs, owner of My Inspiration Lounge whose vision is to “help women feel empowered, especially during this time, so they can take control of their lives and become better prepared for future downturns,” to Sarah Laufer, owner of Play Outdoors whose business launched in 2008. Laufer has decided to focus on “being who we are and continuing with our goal of creating a place where parents and kids are encouraged to get outdoors”.

These women and 28 more will be featured in a 30-day inspirational story marathon starting November 15 and concluding on December 14.

Mike Michalowicz, author of “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur” (Obsidian Launch, LLC, 2008), in a guest post for The Mom Entrepreneur blog said “so here we sit, as entrepreneurs, on an economy that sucks. It will either revive over the next year or two or even perhaps die. But one thing for sure, it will get worse before it gets better. And it is now, right in this moment, that it is the best time to start a business.”

The 30 stories in 30 days marathon will highlight mom entrepreneurs who also feel that now is the best time to start or grow a business because even in a sour economy lies optimism, promise and positive change.

To learn more about The Mom Entrepreneur and to follow the 30-day inspirational story marathon, visit http://www.themomentrepreneur.com/.

Ueberroth’s recognized with Award of Excellence

Ronald McDonald House Charities hosted its 24th Annual Awards of Excellence celebration on Saturday, November 1 in Rosemont, Ill. to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to improve the lives of children.

The annual event presented three prestigious awards to individuals selected from across the globe, including:

• Peter & Virginia Ueberroth, founders of the Ueberroth Family Foundation, honored with the RMHC Award of Excellence for their commitment to assisting local community-based groups and programs that promote social change.
• Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis, editor-in-chief of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, honored with the RMHC Medical Award of Excellence for her contributions in the areas of pediatric medicine and medical education.
• Lionel Whitehead, McDonald’s owner/operator and dedicated philanthropist, honored with the Gerry Newman McTLC Award of Excellence for his legacy of leadership and commitment to RMHC that led to the establishment of the first Ronald McDonald House(R) in New Zealand.

“We are honored to recognize these extraordinary individuals for their ongoing contributions to improving the lives of children everywhere,” said Marty Coyne, president and CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities. “Children around the world would not have a chance at a better life if it weren’t for the dedication and commitment of people like the Ueberroths, Dr. DeAngelis and Lionel Whitehead.”

An Evening of Celebration

As part of their recognition, Peter and Virginia Ueberroth and Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis were each awarded a $100,000 grant that will be donated to The Ueberroth Foundation and the Child Life Program at John Hopkins Children’s Center, respectively. Lionel Whitehead received a $50,000 grant that will be given to RMHC New Zealand.

In addition to honoring the four remarkable individuals, the 2008 Awards of Excellence celebration included dinner, entertainment by Grammy award winning artist Richard Marx and country music star Kenny Rogers and a live auction that took place throughout the evening. Attendees had the opportunity to bid on exclusive prizes, including two first-class round trip airline tickets anywhere in the U.S. from United Airlines; round-trip airline tickets and a six-night hotel stay in London; two tickets to the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla. and a VIP weekend getaway to Las Vegas, including airfare and hotel stay at Mandalay Bay Casino.

Past RMHC Awards of Excellence Recipients
Past RMHC Awards of Excellence Recipients have included: actress and national outreach director for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Marlo Thomas (2007); NCAA championship basketball coach and youth mentor John Wooden (2006); the late actor Paul Newman on the behalf of the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps (2005); actor, director and humanitarian Danny Glover (2004); renowned pediatric surgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson (2003); Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan (2002); tennis star Andrea Jaeger (2001); performer and humanitarian Harry Belafonte (2000); Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald’s Corporation founder Ray A. Kroc (1999); former First Lady Betty Ford (1998); Retired U.S. Army General Colin Powell (1997); acclaimed theologian Henri J. M. Nouwen (1996); former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Antonia Novello (1995); former First Lady Barbara Bush (1994); the late Fred Rogers (1993); children’s health and disability advocate Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1992); former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1991); and “The Muppets” creator Jim Henson (1990), among others.

Cynthia Derosier Surfs for Good Causes

Cynthia Derosier is the author of The Surfer Spirit Book and recently published The Survivor Spirit : The Beauty, Passion, and Power of Breast Cancer Survivors.

Cynthia is convinced surfing can help Hawaii’s at-risk youth.  In partnership with Girls Court and The Surfrider Foundation’s O’ahu Chapter, Derosier started The Spirit Sessions, a six-week program aimed to help at-risk teens redirect their lives in a positive way through surfing and other ocean-related activities.




Beth Kanter interviewed Cynthia on her blog.  Here is an excerpt.

What is the connection between surfing and healing?

There is a saying “only a surfer knows the feeling” and it’s true. It’s hard to describe, but I can tell you, anyone who has ever caught a wave, whether they surf throughout their life or only once, everyone remembers that first wave. I taught some Buddhist monks to surf and they told me that it is very much in the spirit of being a Buddhist because you must live in the moment.

Surfing keeps you in balance, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The physical part is obvious. The rest, becomes obvious the more you surf. It’s the only sport I can think of where you play with nature. not on it, not in it, but with it. You sit in the right spot then wait for a wave, then it does what it wants with you. And if you are skilled you know how to respond to it in a way that works for you. And no two waves are ever the same. And no surf spot is ever static.

I see a lot of self-esteem enhancement with the kids in our surf program (The Spirit Sessions). Most don’t think they can surf and we get them up and riding on their first lesson!  They get a great workout, learn a whole new sport and positive activity (vs some of their other less positive habits.   They also develop a whole new social circle. In addition they start to see the ocean and the environment differently and they start to ask us marine biology questions, which lead to general environmental education. For many of our kids its a chance to practice and reconnect to their Hawaiian culture. So there is also cultural healing as well.

The Hawaiians believe that the ocean itself is healing. He`e Nalu is the Hawaiian word for “surf” it literally means “to slide on churning water”…but “nalu” also refers to the amniotic fluid and He`e Nalu also implies being born. In many ways, surfing was regarded as a way to celebrate life and be cleansed.

You also created a surfing program for breast cancer survivors.  Can you tell me about that?

As part of Make A Difference Day, the kids from our Spirit Sessions Program helped us teach some of the women who were breast cancer survivors to how to surf. It was a rainy and cold day, but a few of the women came down anyway. They had a blast and I think at least two of them are going to keep surfing! In exchange They gave the girls some life advice about being positive and never giving up when faced with life challenges and most of all continuing to celebrate life and enjoy what good there is in the world, surfing being one of them!

Read the full interview

« Previous Page — Next Page »