Dogs making a difference! Man’s best friend much help they lend.

Therapy dogs help so many people. Many correctional facilities have created special programs where inmates train the dogs. After that, the dogs goes on to help others, who may need help in a myriad of ways. Let’s hear it for this continually wonderful and evolving program making such a difference:

When Allison Winn was just seven years old, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and her carefree life as she knew it was over. She soon underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and then began a grueling regiment of radiation treatments and chemotherapy, leaving her weak and ill.One of Allison’s doctors had a suggestion to cheer the child up: a therapy dog. At the nearby Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, prisoners have trained dogs specifically to assist people with disabilities and illnesses, and Allison seemed like a perfect candidate to be partnered with one of the program’s graduates. Not long after her family sent in an application, Allison was paired with a beautiful Bichon Frisé, who she named Coco.

“She made me feel better,” Allison told the Denver Post. So, when Allison finally began to feel like her old self again this spring, she made it her mission to help other children with cancer get support from their very own therapy dogs.

All summer long, Allison baked thousands of dog biscuits from her own special recipe, and sold them at a stand in front of her house and in local shops. She raised more than a thousand dollars, which is enough to pay for three therapy dogs for other children.

Last Tuesday, Allison and her mother drove back to the correctional facility to watch as another child received Allison’s gift: two-year-old Krysta Mullen, who is legally blind because of a brain tumor that had recently been removed, was able to choose from three available dogs waiting there. The toddler sniffed around and stroked their fur before choosing a black Labrador named Lucky Bug.

Krysta’s mother, Shanell Mullen, was amazed by Allison’s generosity. “I just think that is an awesome little girl,” she said as she watched her daughter bond with her new dog.

Allison is still planning to pay for two other children to receive their own therapy dogs with her leftover money, but she’s not stopping there: she’s already working on her next giant batch of biscuits.

Source: Alltop

Beth

Bereaved Childs Writes Book

“I want other children to read it if they lose their daddy like me,” says Milly Bell.

This brave girl mustered up the strength and creativity to reach out to other children who may be in her situation by writing a book that talks openly about the death of a parent.

“My Daddy Is Dying” is being published by a cancer charity in the hope that it will help other youngsters cope with bereavement.

Among Millie’s pieces of advice is a suggestion that those feeling miserable should make a “Happy Feelings Cake”.

“Sometimes you will feel sad so you can make a cake of happy feelings. What you do is each ingredient is a happy thought.

“E.g. if it was me the flour could be my dog Daisy who makes me smile, the egg could be the start of the new beginning, the sugar could be the sweetness of your family or friends and the butter could be a thought about something you are looking forward to.

“When you decorate the cake the toppings can be happy feelings that you had about making the cake. Then you eat it and it makes you feel better because making it sort of takes your mind off feeling sad.”

Millie’s mother Gaynor Appleby, 37, from Exeter, said: “She was absolutely devastated when she lost her dad, and it broke my heart to see her grief. But she has been so strong - and her thoughts have always been with other children.”

Source: DailyMail.com

Beth

Good Samaritan saves Lucky Man’s Vacation

This story is a great lesson in putting your troubles aside to help someone else. Not always the easiest task, but giving to someone else when you’re in distress can be a great equalizer.

Brian Tapp, a 59-year-old florist from Sydney, Australia, had just been evicted from his shop. One morning last month, as he made a final trip to his flower shop to collect his possessions, he happened to spot a wallet and passport lying by the side of the road.

Most people in his position would be too miserable to give a second thought to helping someone else out. But Tapp put his own troubles aside to help out a stranger, pulling over to pick up the loose belongings before they were run over or stolen. Along with the wallet and passport, Tapp discovered an itinerary for a flight to Bali—which was due to leave in less than two hours.

“‘The first thing I noticed was that the owner of the passport was on a flight leaving at midday,” Tapp told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It was 10:15 when I found it, and I just thought, ‘This bloke’s going to be at the airport in a bit of a state. So I’ll see if I can find him.’”

The would-be traveler, Adam Morison, hadn’t realized that he’d lost his wallet and passport until he’d arrived at the airport, and was devastated by the mistake. By the time Tapp contacted the airline, Morison had turned around to head back home, his hopes of a surfing holiday dashed. But, while driving home, he received a call from the airline, letting him know that a Good Samaritan had found his possessions and was driving to the airport to deliver them to him in person. Morison turned his car around again, and sped back to the airport.

When he pulled up, he found Tapp, “this angel with a beard,” he said. “I still can’t believe it. I’m a perfect stranger, and he’s having a shocking day, yet he’s picked up my passport, my wallet, all my stuff, found a way of contacting me, and has gone out of his way to make sure I get my flight.”

Thanks to Tapp’s good deed, Morison made his flight after all—but Tapp’s work still wasn’t done. When Morison noticed that some of his cash and cards were missing from his wallet, Tapp returned to the road where he’d found it. Remarkably, they were still lying there. “I found the money, a Medicare card, a MasterCard, and his barrister’s identification card,” said Tapp. Though Morison had already departed for Bali at that point, Tapp mailed the items to Morison’s home.

Morison still can’t believe that Tapp would go to so much trouble to help a total stranger, and is now trying to return the favor by helping Tapp pick up more customers for his floral business. But for Tapp, there’s nothing unusual about his generous deed: ‘‘It’s what I’d expect anyone to do,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m a person who really hates losing things, so I can put myself in the place of the owner.

“It’s just the way I was brought up, I suppose.’’

Source: Gimundo.com

Good Samaritan … Brian Tapp, left, found Adam Morison’s wallet and passport and rushed them to the airport so he could catch his flight in time Photo: Dallas Kilponen

Beth

Monkey School, for the Lot of you!

 

 

Sure, monkeys are adorable and intelligent creatures. But in some places, they can be a real nuisance. Take Punjab, India, for instance:

Punjabi officials have a solution to rehabilitate the worst-behaving monkeys: monkey school.

The new school, which will eventually house up to 100 monkeys, will provide the primates with trainers who will work to tame their aggression, and help them learn to behave more like the wild animals that they are supposed to be.

While they’re not likely to learn reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic at their new school, hopefully, they’ll ace their etiquette test by the time they graduate. Or at least manage to refrain from stealing bananas out of their teachers’ hands.

Beth

Running Nun Doing the Good Work

 

 

“I run in a habit as a statement because then people say, ‘Why are you running in your habit?’ ” she says. “It gives me a chance to tell them I’m running for the children.”

Sister Mary Elizabeth Lloyd is part of a beautiful piece the New York Times is running (pun intended) called “Running Voices.” The intent of the piece is to show the huge cross-section of people who run for causes, for their health, for the spirit of the race.

Take a look at the beautiful photo series on this page.

Sister Mary Elizabeth Lloyd is running for the children who have become orphans because their parents have died of AIDS. Last year she published AIDS Orphans Rising, a book chronicling the growing plight of millions of kids who watched their parents die of the devastating disease and then became heads of households, caring for younger siblings.

“What I love about running is you can meditate while running. It’s a peaceful place. You pray and think of the children and what you’re doing, and you get through it. The time passes clearly. The first mile is the hardest.”

 

Beth

Small Ways to Make a Big Difference

 

 

Sometimes going green can seem overwhelming. There are so many ways in which we affect our planet on a daily basis. There are some many toxins to avoid and so much help needed to make our world healthier. Where to begin?

CNN published a list of small things you can do to make a difference. Try to integrate a few of these pointers every day. You won’t know what hit you!

Workshop

1. Unplug your power tools. Figure out which cordless tools (like drill/drivers) get the most use, then unplug the chargers on all the rest. Most cordless tools have nickel cadmium (NiCad) batteries, which will hold some charge for up to a year. They lose 15 to 20 percent of their juice each month, but only take a couple of hours to power up again. Newer tools with lithium ion batteries lose just 2 to 5 percent of their charge each month, so they’ll be ready to go even if you haven’t charged them in ages.

2. Spread sawdust on your floor. Take the superfine shavings captured by your dust collection system, wet them down, then push them around with a stiff broom to sweep your concrete garage or workshop floor. The mix is as good as a power-guzzling shop vac at picking up dust but doesn’t swirl it into the air.

3. Up the wattage on lights. Where you still use incandescent bulbs (with dimmers or three-ways) on multiple fixtures in a room, try consolidating. One 100-watt incandescent emits more light than two 60-watt bulbs combined but requires 17 percent less power. The 100-watter also uses the same energy as four 25-watt bulbs, but pumps out twice as much light. Just be sure your bulbs don’t exceed the maximum wattage recommendation for each fixture. This Old House: Energy-saving bulbs

4. Eat your leftover take-out. Then save the plastic containers it came in–which can’t be recycled in most municipal waste systems–and use them to organize your nails, screws, and leftover paints. Not only does their tight seal help preserve solvents, but the see-through containers stack neatly and display contents clearly. For added strength, double up the thin ones.

5. Save used paint thinner. After cleaning oil-based finishes from brushes and tools, allow the dirty solvent to sit overnight. The sludge will settle to the bottom of the jar, leaving a layer of clear thinner on top. Carefully decant the clear thinner into a clean jar, and reseal it for future use. Be sure to dispose of the leftover sludge at a hazardous-waste-disposal site–never down a sink drain or into a street gutter.

6. Mix it up in the garage. Combine all those cans of leftover white paint that inevitably collect after you decorate the house and use them to paint the garage or workshop. (Make sure only to mix latex with latex and oils with oils.) You’ll keep the stuff out of the trash, and by adding the semi-glosses to the flats and eggshells, you’ll end up with a sheen that’s easy to clean.

7. Turn things on their heads. Store paint cans upside down so the solvents–which separate and rise to the top–get trapped under the bottom of the can. Not only will paint last longer, but solvents won’t be able to slowly seep out through the lid this way.

8. Take charge of your charges. Invest in an inexpensive battery tester, then set up a “battery center” where you can store new cells, check used ones for power, and set aside those that have burned out and have to be recycled. A designated collection spot will deter you from throwing bad batteries in the garbage. Once or twice a year, you just take the pile to your town’s recycling center.

Kitchen

9. Take your fridge’s temperature. Stick an appliance thermometer in a glass of water in the center of your refrigerator, or between frozen goods in the freezer, overnight. Your fridge temp should be between 37 and 40 degrees F (no more, to keep bacteria at bay); your freezer between zero and 5 degrees. If either compartment is too cold, adjust the setting, since keeping them just 10 degrees colder than necessary can boost your energy consumption by up to 25 percent.

10. Freeze your assets. Slip a dollar bill between the rubber gasket on your freezer and fridge doors and the frame, then close the door and tug on the buck. Notice any resistance? If not, the seal’s not tight enough and cold air is probably leaking out, making your fridge work harder to stay cool. Try this on all four sides of the door.

If necessary, call the manufacturer’s service department to find out how to replace the gasket.

11. Throw a dinner party. And clear out that second fridge or freezer in the garage or basement. Then banish the appliance to the recycling center. Getting rid of either one can save you more than $200 a year, especially if it’s an old, inefficient model. This Old House: House-part recycling centers

12. Invite your biggest buddy over. Ask him to help you move your fridge out of direct sunlight or away from the range. The heat from either will force a refrigerator compressor to gobble up more energy than necessary. A fridge uses up to 2.5 percent more power for each degree the surrounding temperature is above 70 degrees. So moving it out of a 90-degree spot can save you as much as $70 a year. If you can’t move it, at least block any sunny window with curtains and put as big a buffer as you can between it and the range.

13. Use the dishwasher. Doing a full load in your machine is far more efficient than washing the same number of dishes by hand. This is especially true if you have an Energy Star dishwasher, which requires an average of 4 gallons of water per load, compared with the 24 gallons it takes to do them in the sink. Using one will save you 5,000 gallons of water, $40 in utility costs, and 230 hours of your time each year.

Bathroom

14. Turn your toilet tank blue. Or green or red. Pour food coloring into the water in the tank, wait two hours, then check to see if any color has seeped into the bowl. If it has, your tank’s flapper is leaking, either from mineral buildup or worn parts. After you flush the dye away so it doesn’t stain, head to the hardware store for a replacement flapper assembly (then go to thisoldhouse.com for instructions on how to install it). Toilet leaks waste up to a gallon of water per minute. That’s more than 43,000 gallons a month.

15. Run the shower. Place a 1-gallon bucket under the running water, then see how long it takes for it to fill up. If it’s less than 20 seconds, replace the showerhead with one that sprays 1.5 gallons per minute. That could save as much as 14,600 gallons of water a year–especially if you limit your showers to 10 minutes. It will also save you $22 on your annual water bill, and $150 per year on water heating.

16. Go from scalding to just hot. Turn your water heater’s temperature setting down from the standard 140 degrees F to 120 degrees. Not only will this save you some bucks, it’ll also slow down mineral buildup and corrosion, prolonging the life of your tank. Since a new water heater costs about $900 installed, each additional year of use saves you money as well.

17. End the water torture. One drip per second from a leaky faucet or pipe can waste up to 5 gallons of water a day–and 1,800 gallons a year. While you won’t notice much of an increase on your water bill (around $3 annually), if an overlooked leak soaks through your kitchen floor, you could wind up with a $1,000 repair job–money that could have been saved by simply replacing a 50-cent washer.

Entries

18. Wipe your feet. Equip your exterior doors with a series of mats–or one long “walk-off” mat–so everyone enters with clean shoes. As long as there’s room for five steps on the mats, you’ll drastically reduce the amount of grime tracked in. That means fewer pathogens that cause disease and less chemical cleanup. It will also mean improved indoor air quality, since dirt embedded in a carpet can become airborne when it’s tromped on or agitated by a vacuum.

Basement/laundry

19. Reach behind your clothes washer. Turn down the hot water tap for the washing machine so less goes into the warm-water cycle. Perspiration and most other dirt dislodge best at body temperature, so you don’t need water that’s warmer than 100 degrees. Since most washers simply open both the hot and cold taps to make “warm” water, it may take longer to fill the machine. But you’ll save about $40 annually on your water-heating bill.

20. Spend more time in the basement. Make sure furnace filters in forced-air systems are clean. Dirty furnace filters restrict airflow and increase energy use. Cleaning them, or swapping them out each month during the winter, can save you up to 5 percent on your heating costs. Also schedule an annual checkup before the heat comes on to see that the furnace is properly calibrated.

Living areas

21. Listen to your mother. And put on a sweater. That way you can turn down your thermostat this winter. Adjust it by just one degree for eight hours a day, and you could save 1 percent on your monthly heating bills. Do it for 24 hours and save 3 percent. Try setting the temp at 70 degrees during the day and 62 at night during winter (and 78 or higher come summer). Heating and air-conditioning account for nearly half the energy used in our homes, so every little bit less you use makes a dent.

22. Worship the sun. Or at least use it to your advantage. Open blinds or drapes to let in natural solar heat on cold days, then close them once the sun sets, and you can reduce your heating bills by 10 percent. You can also cut your cooling costs by up to 33 percent in the summer by blocking out sunlight with exterior blinds, shutters, or awnings. To keep rooms bright, paint or paper with light or reflective colors.

E-mail to a friend

Source: CNN

 

Beth

Costa Rica - The World’s Happiest Country

 

 

Pura vida is their message. Meaning pure life. Costa Rica offers that up and then some. If you’ve never been, there is something truly magical about this country - deeply relaxing, peaceful, joyous and rich with life. The people are gentle, friendly souls and you feel naturally at home.

According to Gimundo:

According to the new “Happy Planet” report from British nonprofit group New Economics Foundation, if you’d like to live a more rewarding life, it might be work trading in your Rolex for a surfboard and heading south. Their comprehensive new report, which compares nations according to their populations’ life expectancies, life satisfaction, and ecological footprint, combining all of the factors to create a “Happy Planet Index” score, ranks the sunny, fun-loving Costa Rica as the number one place in the world to live, followed by the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Vietnam, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and Honduras to round out the top ten.

The results may come as a shock: after all, Cuba’s known for Fidel Castro’s human rights abuses, Colombia’s famous for a violent drug trade, and even Costa Rica, while a vacationer’s paradise, is a relatively poor country, statistically speaking. But what these countries may lack in material wealth, they make up for in happiness.

Standing in stark contrast to the materialistic, independent attitude of the United States and many other rich Western nations, “Latin Americans report being much less concerned with material issues than, for example, they are with their friends and family,” claims the report. “Civil society is very active, from religious groups to workers’ groups to environmental groups.”

Two Mexican artists perform traditional dance on the sixth day of the Costa Rican International Art Festival 2008 in San Jose, April 17, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

 

Beth