Education Through Innovation
“Home is open arms… where you feel safe,” says Jimmy Wayne, country music singer and former child of our nation’s foster care system. He makes this statement with a keen sense of awareness of his life both with one and without it. You see, by the time he was 14, Jimmy was facing homelessness and Read More »
Sometimes we forget there was a whole generation of people who lived not so many years before us, who also endured lean times similar in ways to what a lot of families face right now. Known as the “Great Depression,” people coped with far fewer resources than many of us have at our disposal today. Read More »
We all have teachers we recall from our school days… some excellent, some average and some downright de-motivating. It’s no wonder that our public schools, under the powerful influence of the Gates Foundation, have decided that good teachers, not necessarily teacher-student ratios, dollars spent per student, or other possible factors, can make the greatest difference Read More »
One year after Christmas my teenagers were both home on break and naturally everyone had their own agenda… spending time with friends, going to movies, playing card games and eating as many holiday treats as were paraded in front of us. But this year, I had another idea. Now you know when Mom gets an Read More »
Not long ago, I was reunited with my car after leaving it in a remote parking area near the airport. As I was leaving, a woman took my ticket at the exit gate and I made eye contact with her just for a moment. I had the fleeting sense that I knew her from somewhere Read More »
Six years ago a very special club was formed called “Fun Life” in… you guessed it…. someone’s garage. A young couple named John and Nancy Pantellas were volunteering at a summer camp for high school teens when they began interacting with a few special needs kids who were attempting to keep up with all the Read More »
Since its launch in 2003, Disney’s “Pirates” franchise has generated $2.7 billion in ticket sales worldwide, yet this number does not begin to describe its true profit-making ability. Intellectual property like “Pirates” is often referred to as a “wave maker” among Disney’s top executives. According to an article in the September, 2011 issue of “Fast Read More »
Most of us feel a debt of gratitude well up within us when we encounter men and women in military uniform, whether in shopping malls, airports, restaurants or the like. Often we hesitate, not knowing how to acknowledge them. Should we shake their hand? Say thank-you? Offer to pay for their dinner? The answer is Read More »
The season for dressing up in costumes and procuring all manner of masks is upon us. The creatives among us will don everything from tu-tu’s to blue Smurf hair, to life-like faces of government officials. Young and old alike will enjoy the fun of assuming a wide variety of facades. But while many of us Read More »
“Lest we forget” is a phrase often repeated as we remember our war veterans on Veteran’s Day. Although the armistice signed at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month was intended to finish the “war to end all wars,” this sadly has not been the case. Numerous wars have been fought Read More »