Flowers For Valentine's Day

Volunteers arranging the bouquets into vases.

Flowers for Valentine's Day! How many people will be giving and receiving flower bouquets in the spirit of the day? Probably millions. What happens to bouquets that aren't sold, not just on Valentine's Day, but on any other day?

Well, in Portland, Oregon, there is an answer. You see, back in 2007 a group of volunteers gathered in Heidi Berkman's garage, creating beauty to be shared with those who are coming to the end of life's journey. That is how THE BLOOM PROJECT started.

Heidi is the founder and now director of the organization. She has a special place in her heart for the work of hospice organizations and wants to share the beauty and kindness in the gift of flowers. She utilizes her background in retail marketing and experience with nonprofits to arrange with places that have too many flowers than can be sold to allow her organization to make special gifts of them. Not just the patients at hospice receive those gifts, but also the family members/caregivers in the process of saying goodbye.



The Bloom Project maintains a list of 20 hospices, while collecting unused flowers from local florists. Volunteers trim the flowers, arrange them in bouquets and place them into decorated vases. The flowers bring joy to those coming to the end of their lives and their loved ones. The organization accepts volunteers, who can be involved with pick-up, delivery, flower arranging (after training), organizing fundraising events. There is even a way to connect with the group to contribute monetary or flower donations.

So, if you're interested in providing beauty and joy to people who have reached a difficult point in their lives, this is the place. After all, who better to appreciate the wonder of nature's beauty. By the way, since its beginning The Bloom Project has gifted more than 80,000 bouquets.

Thanks to this article from Oregon Live: http://www.oregonlive.com/window-shop/index.ssf/2015/02/the_bloom_project_unsold_flowe.html.

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On The Frontlines Of The Battle Against AIDS In Africa

Annie Elble with some of the students at New Hope Primary School.

According to The World Factbook, nearly 27 percent of adults in Swaziland are dealing with HIV/AIDS. In this small country, that leaves approximately 120,000 children orphaned and vulnerable.

Back in 2008 officials at Purdue University wanted to seek ways that students could make a positive contribution in the face of all of these challenges. So, they sent a team of students to scout where the help was needed in order to develop service learning projects and internships.

Annie Elble, a graduate student in the Public Health Program made the trip with two other students. They visited clinics, hospitals, schools, orphanages, and homes where children were heads of households and other households where those with AIDS were receiving hospice care. The visit was so life-changing for Annie that she and Kait Mariutto founded GIVE HOPE, FIGHT POVERTY, a charitable organization that helps to develop service learning projects to help orphaned and vulnerable children to be educated and empowered in order to lift them out of situations of dire poverty. It brings resources and professional expertise to help raise children, especially those who lack adult involvement.



One of their main projects has been developing the New Hope Primary School in Malindza Village, in a rural area of Swaziland, where children, who are AIDS orphans, would otherwise not have access to education. That school now has grades 1,2, and 3, serving about 60 children. Some other programs include a FEEDOM feeding program that provides lunch to 1259 children, gardens containing fruit-bearing trees for child-headed households, scholarships to 24 children from child-headed households for primary and secondary education, equipment for eLangeni Primary School. There are now so many programs that there are too many to list here.

If you want to participate, the website has a list of upcoming trips, along with the number of openings available. But you don't have to participate in one of those service learning trips. The organization provides speakers to explain what they do, giving information so that your church, school, or community can decide how they want to help. The group also will provide help with organizing a "Paint For A Purpose" event in which participants can paint a mural for a classroom in Swaziland (a good idea for a school-based service learning project). And there is also a list of needs, so your organization or company can collect needed items and send them to Give Hope, Fight Poverty. This is a program that invites participation and the children receiving help can know that the rest of the world cares about them.

Thanks to information from this article from Life 360: http://www.purdue.edu/hhs/life360/fall2013/10-days-in-swaziland.html, this article from Pollination Project: http://www.ifightpoverty.org/, and the above links.

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First Job Interview

Do you remember your first job interview? Even if you don't, I bet you were pretty nervous and wanted everything to be just right, but weren't necessarily sure that would be so.

Photo of Yasir with Dennis Roberts that went viral.

It was just that sort of worrying about the right touches that prompted teenager Yasir Moore to make a stop at his local Target Supercenter in North Carolina, seeking out a pre-tied tie. Although Target did not have one in stock, the employee serving him, Cathy Scott, helped him pick out a regular tie. Then Dennis Roberts, another employee, tied the tie so it could be slipped over Yasir's head.

But that's not all they did. While serving Yasir, they gave him advice that was designed to help win him the job, for which he was applying at Chick-Fil-A. They also invited him back to tell them how the interview went.



Just this Monday, Yasir and his mother, Najirah Parrish, returned to Target to thank the team that had helped Yasir so much. Najirah discussed what she though about this kind act, "They could have just sold my son a tie. But they took the time, helped him tie the tie, and talked to him. They treated my son with dignity, respect."

How did Yasir feel about the encouragement he received? "When he [Dennis Roberts] told me all this advice, I got my confidence back. And so when I went there, I was calm, cool, and collected." But Yasir was a bit shocked to hear that the photo that another customer took and posted on facebook became popular, but he did understand. He said, "After I heard it went viral, I was in shock. I was amazed. It's one of the best things that ever happened to me. It's a good story. Usually in the world today, you don't see a lot of good things that happen."

So, how did Yasir do in his interview? He already went back for a second interview this past weekend and he passed that one, so Chick-Fil-A plans to call him back today for the next step in the process.

Yasir and his mother hugging Cathy Scott and Dennis Roberts, Target employees.

Thanks to this article from ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/US/target-teen-yasir-moore-returns-store-job-interview/story?id=28862952, and this one from WTVD: http://abc11.com/society/teen-who-was-the-subject-of-viral-target-picture-meets-those-who-helped-him/510358/.

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Putting Faith Into Action

Items collected during annual fundraiser.

It started as a prayer group back in 1974 in Erie, PA. The members hadn't planned it at the time, but the group has become a non-profit organization, helping people in need in the community.

The group holds a one-day event, a large annual fundraiser, that provides the money that the group uses throughout the year. It's a fun occasion for the entire family, usually in June, with opportunities to shop with local merchants and donate used items to be provided to those in need, packed in gift baskets, that are given with a lot of love.



All of the used items are re-made, re-furbished into brand new condition, thanks to the talents of local craftspersons, who volunteer their time and efforts. Extra yarn becomes winter hats and mittens, afghans and slippers. Old, torn stuffed animals are mended, given new buttons and new hair, given new outfits with donated fabrics and bric-a-brac. Mugs and other usable glassware are sanitized and adorned with flowers, ribbons, and/or candy.

It's all used to cheer up community members who are suffering through hard times, have illnesses, in nursing homes, are barely making do with earnings that don't stretch far enough. Partner organizations make requests to this group, THE SUNSHINE GROUP OF ERIE, PA, and the members and volunteers create personalized gifts, many for Christmas, some just because, a total of approximately 10,000 gifts each year. It's a way of letting those in need know that their community cares deeply about them, while giving them a few items that they really need.

The group utilizes their FACEBOOK PAGE to request needed items, sometimes shelving, at other times, items that members of the community would otherwise throw out. There is even room for community members to inquire about whether some items that they have would be useful to the group. Recycling and caring about members of the community, The Sunshine Group is all heart.

The group's logo.

Thanks to information from this article by Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/joann-chase-sunshine-group-erie-pa/.

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Transformation Via Dinner Party: A New Movement

The attendees at the very first dinner party.

Back when Lennon Flowers was a senior in high school, her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her mother's illness caused her to change college plans; she would now attend the University of North Carolina to be closer to home, rather than her dream college of NYU. Her mother died during her senior year of college.

Discussing a major illness and then death of a close family member with friends can be rather difficult, especially when you're young. Frequently enough, your friends can be on a different wavelength and you don't want to dampen the atmosphere by bringing up your own sadness and worries.

Then, for some people the grieving process can be delayed; it can be difficult to absorb the fact that this significant loss has actually occurred. That is the experience Lennon had. The loss didn't really hit her until about a year after her mother's death. She reported, "By then, the surge of attention had disappeared. It made me feel like there was something wrong with me for feeling something a year later. It was a deep source of shame." In fact, what Lennon was experiencing is not all that uncommon. Delayed grieving also decreases the feeling of having the common grieving experience with other family members and limits that catharsis that comes from talking through the feelings with them.



Three years later, after she moved to Los Angeles, she met Carla Fernandez, and they got to talking. Both had in common losing a parent while they were still young adults. A few months afterwards, Carla organized a dinner party for five women, including her new friend Lennon, with the commonality they shared of having lost a parent and feeling so alone with their feelings.

With the special decorations and the atmosphere, the invitees were able to share their individual stories, talking well into the night and staying together overnight. What was so meaningful from one dinner party became a movement, THE DINNER PARTY, LIFE AFTER LOSS. Visit the website; its purpose is to become life-changing, especially for young adults who have experienced significant losses, among friends who may not share that experience. Currently, there are about 31 tables throughout this country, engage in holding dinner parties monthly.

This common experience of loss, which many people have difficulty discussing, has become the focus of discussion in a social setting, changing the climate of keeping the silence about deep feelings.

Another gathering of young adults for dinner.

Thanks to this article from On Being for the heads up and information: http://www.onbeing.org/blog/breaking-bread-and-healing-hearts-one-dinner-party-at-a-time/7110, and from the above link.

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Bringing Community Resources Together

Carla M. Perez, founder.

Social change sometimes comes in the form of bringing together resources from those with backgrounds in different types of healing to those who have been traumatized. By receiving the opportunity for healing, those individuals can go on to speak out about social issues and provide healing for others. That forms the basis for what the Oakland area HEALING CLINIC COLLECTIVE does in its concentrated events.

Over the course of each event, a variety of healing arts services and classes help those in need receive comfort and healing without the usual pharmaceutical emphasis that usually comes from the western healing arts. When it first formed, those who lacked access to health insurance, as well as having had traumatizing experiences, were the focus of concern.



Carla M. Perez has a background of experience as an activist and community organizer. She also has earned her BS in Conservation & Resource Studies from UC Berkeley in 1999. In 2007 Carla joined MOVEMENT GENERATION and became co-founder of their Justice & Ecology Project. While engaged in work in resiliency and permaculture, she founded the Healing Clinic Collective, which provides the Women's Healing Clinic events and, now, the Men's Healing Clinic events. Her Native/Latin American heritage has been an important background within her activities.

Carla's underlying purpose in organizing these events can be summed up in her own words, "When people have an opportunity to heal as part of their process for building resiliency and the power to control their own lives, they will have the capacity and desire to be part of the movement for social change in the long term."

Of course, Carla doesn't run the programs alone. They take quite a bit of planning and promoting, along with the vision of those with backgrounds in other traditional healing arts. So, she has four other members of the organizing committee: Angela Angel, a healer, medium channeler, and ceremonialist, with experience as a traditional healer from Bontoc and Ibalot tribes in the Philippines; Sharena Thomas, an experienced community organizer and medical assistant with first-hand experience of police brutality; Suzanne Snyder, a California State licensed Acupuncturist and Clinical Herbalist; and Atava Garcia Swiecicki, a licensed clinical herbalist and certified in Accupressure and Jin Shin Jyutsu.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of backgrounds just within the members of the organizing committee. An important feature of the services is that gender identification is open and inclusive. If someone who has female gender features, but identifies as a male, wants services from the Men's Healing Clinic, that is provided, as requested. There is no evidence of gender discrimination, or any other type of discrimination, a commendable feature, indeed. There is information on the website for making monetary donations to its work.

One of the healing activities at an event.

Thanks to this article from Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/carla-perez-womens-healing-clinic/, and information provided by the above links.

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A "Lost Boy" Comes Home

Sgt Peter Kuch in full dress uniform.

Back in 1987 the Sudan was engaged in a prolonged and bloody civil war. Young boys became separated from their families and walked across the desert, seeking refuge. They had seen things that no child should ever have to witness. They were the LOST BOYS OF SUDAN and they had no idea what had become of their families.

Peter Kuch was one of these boys, only eight years old back then. He was actually one of the lucky ones. After living in a refugee camp for about ten years, he was evacuated to the US and became a citizen, got an education. But he always believed that he owed this country, which had adopted him, much more. So, he joined the army.

Currently, Sgt. Peter Kuch is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, a member of the 82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION. He is known for how hard he works, his commitment to serving this country he loves. Says Sgt. Kuch, "I will do my job to the best of my ability until the last day I leave the Army. I will always remember this is the country I am serving."



However, he had still wondered about the family he left behind in the Sudan, whether they were even alive. Back in 2003, he found out that his parents were still alive; he has regular phone contact with them.

But it had been some 27 years since he had seen his parents, so when the Army gave him leave recently, he made the trek back to the Sudan to see them. It was the first time in years that he had touched his mother, had hugged her. Sgt. Kuch reported, "As soon as she saw me and we hugged each other she just collapsed on my hand. After like a good three minutes then she came back up and she put her hand on my head and she started praying before she even said anything and she said, 'I knew all this time that God would bring you back to me.'"

So, now that he has visited his former home country, does he want to go back there? Sgt. Kuch responded, No, "America will always be my home regardless. This is my home." The country that helped Peter Kuch, the teenager, has a devotee for life. And, oh, Sgt. Kuch now has a family here in this country, complete with a four-year-old son, who has a very different life from the one his dad led as a young boy.

Peter's mother fainted shortly after she first embraced him.

Thanks to this article from CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-army-sergeant-reunites-with-long-lost-family-in-sudan/.

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