Acclaimed author Stephen King is giving back to his home state. King is donating $6,500 to Farwell Elementary School, located in Lewiston, Maine, so that a group of students can publish their own books. King’s donation to the students in its Author Studies Program mean the students can publish the two books they’ve written.
As a group, the students — some of whom have graduated and are now in middle school — have been working on the books over the course of four years – working on the character development, plot, and overall storyline with the help of another Maine author, Gary Savage. The end result of their hard work is two books — an original and a sequel — and a 290-page manuscript. The books are ready for publication and with the help of King’s donation, they’ll be sent to a publishing company and available for purchase.
The books are about a boy’s adventures during the pandemic. Although the Author Study program has been in existence for several years, its focus shifted when the COVID-19 pandemic first reached Maine in March 2020. Savage and Martin moved the program online and tasked the students with taking Savage’s existing novel Fletcher McKenzie and the Passage to Whole and reworking it into an entirely new tale that incorporates their personal experiences in the coronavirus pandemic.
Principal Amanda Winslow said she’s proud of the students and what they’ve accomplished and praised the dedication of librarian Kathy Martin and author Gary Savage — who advised the students — towards making this happen. “I think it’s hard for kids to really understand the lesson of perseverance and patience, but they’ve been working on this book … and they’re definitely starting to reap the rewards of their hard work,” she said.
“Really incorporating their own experiences into the book, really that extra kind of feeling of this is a real book that you can really get your hands around, and once you start to read it you can’t put it down,” said Savage.
The books are expected to be printed and published in April of this year with the students in the program credited as contributing authors. “This student inspired book, ‘Fletcher McKenzie and the Passage to Whole,’ is a journey through Maine history and the wildly fantastic and healthy world of Whole. The major edits, written by elementary students, give the readers exactly what they crave at a time of Covid-19 fatigue and exhaustion — excitement, suspense, vividly funny characters, healthy eating, and subtle nutrition lessons, history lessons, respect for Native American history, and traditions, confusing and strange ventures, magical journeys, deadly danger, and closure.”
King’s donation is helping dozens of aspiring writers get one step closer to realizing their dreams. The $6,500 donation came through the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, a private nonprofit King and his wife launched in 1986 to help give back to local Maine communities. The foundation provides grants for projects in Maine that address the underlying causes and consequences of social and environmental problems. Giving priorities include health and human services, literacy, arts, and projects that will affect the most members of a community.
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An Indiana community is giving back to the man who has delivered pizzas with a smile for 31 years. Robert Peters, known as Mr. Smiley around the town of Tipton, was gifted a new car after one customer decided to raise donations. Tanner Langley, 28, a customer of the Tipton Pizza Hut said he and his family have been getting deliveries from Robert Peters since he was a child.
When Peters recently told him he was having trouble with his 28-year-old Oldsmobile, Langley decided it was time to thank Peters for the kindness he has shown the town over the years. He started a GoFundMe campaign in hopes to buy him a new car. In just 2 days, with donations from the community, he surpassed the $12,000 goal, reaching over $18,000.
“This community has a countless number of amazing citizens, but there are few people in this world that fill a room with smiles and happiness more than Robert Peters,” Langley wrote on the campaign’s website. “Robert has been delivering pizzas in the same car for a plethora of years, and I think it is about time that he gets an upgrade to his current vehicle!”
On Jan 11, Langley surprised Peters with a 2017 Chevy Malibu. The car’s registration, insurance and taxes were also covered and Peters was given a $500 gas card, plus a $2,500 thank-you tip from the neighborhood. “He makes an impact on everybody and he’s a very kindhearted individual. Every time you see him, he has a smile on his face. He has never not been joyful” Langley said in regards to the overwhelming support for Peters.
Peters was overcome with gratitude for the generosity Langley and the community showed him. He told news outlets it was heartwarming to know Langley and the community would go out of their way for him. ” “I couldn’t believe it, it’s almost like it’s surreal. I just hope that all those who made this happen will be blessed as much as they have blessed me,” Peters said. “This has really been an awesome experience that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. To me, me this is luxury. This is the first car I’ve had made in the 21st century.”
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National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), or AmeriCorps NCCC is an AmeriCorps program that engages 18- to 24-year-olds in team-based national and community service in the United States. They recently they deployed 230 energetic young adults from across the nation in 24 teams across the country, assisting community groups that are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic or implementing wildfire management in the West.
The youths piled into vans to begin a new adventure serving others through the NCCC. The training for AmeriCorps began in October and emphasized Covid-19 safety, teamwork, leadership development, and communication. From tackling food insecurity to providing affordable housing, these youth are bridging the gap by providing much-needed volunteers to areas in need.
Habitat for Humanity is one of the groups that is benefitting from the ten week deployments. Two of the teams are wielding hammers and power tools assisting with affordable home construction in Sacramento. Another team traveled to Stockton, California to help with food distribution and another group is in California assisting with fire management.
One team arrived in Oregon to work on similar projects and upkeep the environment while another is serving Salt Lake City, Utah. Bode Anderson-Brown discovered the most impactful aspect was getting out of his comfort zone. “It was so rewarding to talk to homeowners and know that because of the work I was doing, they are going to be safer and more protected from wildfires. I know that this is an experience I will take with me for the rest of my life. Talking to people on the phone and getting them the assistance they need… I previously considered this to be out of my wheelhouse, but have now discovered that I have a talent for it!”
Other groups are assisting the Health Department by supporting coronavirus testing sites and delivering hygiene supplies to residents. They each will graduate from NCCC on July 14th, after completing 3-5 long-term service projects investing over 1,700 hours. In exchange, members receive $6,395 to help pay for college or pay back existing student loans. The 10-month residential program funded by the U.S. government engages around 2,100 young people every year between the ages of 18 and 24. It was originally envisioned by a bipartisan group of Senators and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
The NCCC program was loosely based on the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In some respects, NCCC teams resemble their CCC predecessors, who were also required to function under rugged conditions for prolonged periods and engage in strenuous conservation and wildfire-fighting projects, flood control, and disaster relief. The main difference between the two is unlike the original CCC, the NCCC was not created to be a public work relief program, but rather was designed to help communities meet self-identified needs through service projects and develop leadership skills in its participants.
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IKEA Group has always been environmentally conscious and their latest move of purchasing of 11,000 acres of forest in Georgia that looked like it would be lost to development, shows their continued commitment. The purchase was made to ensure it remains intact and working to suck up CO2 from the atmosphere, the forest was bought by IKEA as part of a strategy to reduce more carbon than it creates through its value chain.
The working forest in the Altamaha Basin is now owned by the IKEA subsidiary, Ingka Group, which has worked with The Conservation Fund, a non-profit that has protected over 8-million acres of forests in the U.S. from fragmentation and development. A working forest is one in which lumber is harvested and regrown—and it’s these forests which often suffer from being broken up into smaller segments and developed, something the Conservation Fund and Inka are ensuring will not happen by creating permanent easements that legally prevent the forest from ever being split up into smaller pieces.
Ingka Group currently owns 616,000 acres of such forests in the U.S. and Europe, while privately choosing to ensure the highest international standards for good forest management. A spokesperson added that “no significant amount” of wood from the forests is currently used in Ikea products.
“Well-managed forests provide essential benefits, including clean water and important wildlife habitat, as well as mitigating climate change. The transfer of these lands to Ingka Investments completes our Working Forest Fund process, through which we identify and buy important, at-risk private forests; develop sustainable harvest and restoration plans; and secure permanent conservation protections to block fragmentation and development,” said Larry Selzer, President and CEO of The Conservation Fund.
Forest stewardship is just one way that the world’s largest furniture outlet is trying to become a carbon-neutral company. They recently announced they would begin buying used IKEA furniture from customers for resale, while electric vans and less carbon-emitting materials are used in both packaging and product. They are also committed to the goal to only use renewable and recycled materials in their products by 2030 and reducing the total IKEA climate footprint by an average of 70% per product, by 2030.
IKEA’s Sustainability Strategy outlines their belief that climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a visible reality and one of the biggest challenges that humanity faces. The IKEA People & Planet Positive strategy describes the sustainability agenda and ambition for everyone in the IKEA franchise system. They say the purpose of the strategy is to inspire, activate and lead others in decision-making and goal setting so that together we can achieve the positive changes we want to see in the world.
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Global e-commerce giant Amazon has unveiled a new Housing Equity Fund, investing more than $2 billion to preserve and create over 20,000 affordable housing units in three communities where the company has thousands of employees—Washington State’s Puget Sound; Arlington, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee. Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund will help preserve existing housing and help create housing developments through below-market loans and grants to housing partners, public agencies, and minority-led organizations.
Amazon’s first investments include $381.9 million in below-market loans and grants to the Washington Housing Conservancy to preserve and create up to 1,300 affordable homes on the Crystal House property in Arlington and $185.5 million in below-market loans and grants to King County Housing Authority to preserve up to 1,000 affordable homes in the state of Washington, with additional investments to come in all three regions.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said that his company has been helping people in need, including building a Mary’s Place family shelter within the newest Amazon office building last year to support over 200 women and children experiencing homelessness in Puget Sound. “This new $2 billion Housing Equity Fund will create or preserve 20,000 affordable homes and help local families achieve long-term stability while building strong, inclusive communities.” The Fund seeks to ensure that moderate- to low-income families can afford housing in resource-rich communities with easy access to neighborhood services, amenities, and jobs.
Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund will provide an additional $125 million in cash grants to businesses, nonprofits, and minority-led organizations. Amazon is providing below-market capital in the form of loans, lines of credit, and grants to households making between 30% – 80% of the area’s median income. The fund will also give grants to government partners including transit agencies and school districts, which typically are not involved in affordable housing issues, Amazon said.
Amazon’s first Housing Equity Fund commitment in Virginia includes a $339.9 million below-market loan and grants worth $42 million to the Washington Housing Conservancy (WHC)—a nonprofit organization that preserves homes so they are affordable for moderate- to low-income residents.
Home prices in the US have climbed more than 6% annually since 2012 despite low wage growth for most workers. Another obstacle is affordable apartment buildings in American cities affordable for teachers, healthcare providers, transit workers, and others with modest incomes are increasingly being redeveloped into luxury apartments, causing displacement and reducing housing options for working families. Before the coronavirus pandemic, rental prices had also risen steadily, causing a shortage of affordable units.
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A security guard’s selfless act of cycling for over an hour to return a lost wallet inspired people to return the kindness. Aina Townsend, who works at the Kahului Food Land on the island of Maui found a wallet and when he noticed the owner hadn’t returned, he decided to bring it to her. When the wallet was returned the owner’s husband was so impressed with this selfless deed they first posted to Facebook and a GoFundMe was started to raise money for a car. The GoFundMe raised a total of over $25,000.
It all started when Chloe Marino was shopping at a Kahului, Hawaii supermarket with her 5-month-old son. She accidentally left her wallet in the shopping cart when she left. Luckily, the wallet was spotted by eagle-eyed store security guard Aina Townsend. When he noticed she hadn’t returned, he volunteered to return it to its owner after his shift. Not having a car, the 22-year-old rode his bicycle for nearly an hour right to the Marinos’ door.
Cloe didn’t even realize she’d misplaced her wallet when he knocked on their door but she and her husband Gray were blown away by Townsend’s determination as well as his willingness to help out a total stranger. Gray posted the incident on his Facebook page:
“On Saturday my wife left her wallet in the shopping cart of Foodland in Kahului by the mall. After loading the baby and groceries into the car, she hadn’t even noticed it was gone. Several hours later we had a knock on our home door. It was the security guard from Foodland. He had found the wallet, and after seeing that we didn’t come back for it. He got on his bicycle and he pedaled miles to Waiehu where we lived, getting the address from her ID. He literally rode his bicycle to return her wallet. Completely full of everything important to her including cash. Nothing was so much as moved.
Gray Marino’s pal Greg Gaudet was inspired not only by Townsend’s selfless act but also by the young man’s story—inspired enough to set up a Go-Fund-Me page to see if folks could pull together enough money so Townsend might be able to trade in his bike for a car to make his daily commute to work.
The GoFundMe reads: My friend Gray Marino shared this story on Facebook. When I read it I was blown away by this man’s selflessness. I had been wanting to do something special for a family this holiday season, and I knew we had to do something for him when I heard this story.
It looks like this young man moved to Maui 5 years ago to be with the woman he loved. Now they have kids, and he works security at the grocery store to support his wife and him and put himself through college. But what really got me was that he rides his bike to work and school every day because he doesn’t have a car, and has been doing this for 5 years. When I put myself in his position after a long day of work and school, wanting to go home to see my family and go to bed, but choosing to ride my bike to the next town miles away instead to return this women’s wallet, I know this guy has a huge heart. This shows the effect that one act of kindness and selflessness can have and the way we can impact the world by repeating these actions” Gaudet said.
Townsend said “You know, I lost a wallet before too and it’s the worst thing in the world. I was just doing what I felt was the right thing to do.” Townsend’s good karma translated into more than $25,000 in car-worthy donations, exceeding the original funding goal of $5,000 by $20,000. He was able to purchased and car and Greg Gaudet is helping him put the remaining funds into a mutual fund.
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MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has donated more than $4 billion in the past four months to hundreds of organizations and charities—in particular to food banks and emergency relief funds across the USA. Scott signed the Giving Pledge—an initiative sparked by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett a decade ago—and promised to give away her billions “until the safe is empty.”
This July, she began making good on her promise and has already donated $1.7 billion of her $60 billion fortune to 116 charities. Just 5 months later, the 50-year-old announced that she’d given even more money away. Since summer, the world’s third-wealthiest woman has donated more than $4.15 billion to 384 organizations in Puerto Rico and the States—taking her 2020 donations so far to $6 billion.
In a blog post that begins with an Emily Dickinson poem, Scott–a lauded novelist as well as a philanthropist—writes, “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling. Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”
Scott said she has been working with a team of advisors to help her accelerate her giving to organizations that need immediate support in the face of the COVID crisis. Using a “data-driven approach” to identifying organizations with strong leadership teams, and paying “special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital,” recipients of Scott’s funding include the YMCA, Meals on Wheels, the Global Fund for Women, civil rights organization the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, many dozens of food banks, Goodwill, and various centers of education such as Blackfoot Community College.
In the latest round of giving, Scott donated $40 million to Morgan State University, an HBCU in Baltimore. The gift is the largest single private donation in the university’s history, and roughly doubles the school’s endowment. Scott also gave $50 million to Prairie View A&M University in Texas — the school’s largest donation ever, and nearly doubling its endowment, according to the university.
According to news outlets, these donations “might be among the most ever handed out directly to charities in a single year by a living donor.” Scott is not the only billionaire who’s been giving in 2020. While Jeff Bezos has not signed the Giving Pledge, he has distributed $791 million in grant money to large environmental organizations through the Bezos Earth Fund.
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A young leukemia survivor spread holiday cheer to kids battling cancer by delivering toys throughout the D.C. area. Six-year-old Summer Grace Cernoch and her family drove around the region with the gifts. Summer Grace battled leukemia for two years, spending holidays in the hospital, had several surgeries and countless painful treatments. She finished her last treatment in February.
Two Christmases, 79 port chemos, 10 blood transfusions, and a countless number of pills later, Summer Grace beat cancer. Per her request, the night she took her last chemotherapy pill the Cernoch family set off fireworks in celebration. The fireworks, however, were just the beginning of their celebration of Summer Grace’s hard-fought battle – in September they started the Summer Grace Foundation in her honor.
December 21st marked three years since she was diagnosed. “I’ve dreaded this day every year as it … just brings back a lot of bad memories for our family,” said Summer Grace’s mother, Jessica Cernoch. The Cernoch family started the foundation to help kids like her and many of the toys delivered Monday were donated by the community.
The foundation’s mission is to raise awareness, raise funds for pediatric cancer research in hopes of finding better and less toxic treatments, and support the childhood cancer community. 1 in 5 kids diagnosed with cancer will not survive. On average, 43 kids are diagnosed with cancer every day, and 7 kids die every day due to cancer or because of the effects of their harsh treatments. “We remember very vividly how awful this journey is, and so we want to do everything we can to give back and support the childhood cancer community,” her mother said.
The world changes in an instant, and things are never quite the same ever again after a cancer diagnosis. Childhood cancer effects every aspect of family life. In addition to the physical aspect of cancer, there’s often a huge financial burden, and an indescribable level of worry and stress. Life becomes physically and emotionally draining, and there’s often little energy left to focus on anything or anyone other than the child. Marriages may become strained and siblings may be left feeling disconnected from the family.
Every year, the foundation also partners with various businesses to offer relaxing, overnight retreats. Donations to the foundation can sponsor a retreat for families battling cancer. Summer Grace and her family also plan to start a music scholarship program for cancer patients.
You can support the Summer Grace Foundation through AmazonSmile. At no cost to you, you can find the same selection of products and low prices! Upon checkout, Amazon will donate a portion of your purchase price to us. Simply go to smile.amazon.com, sign in, and choose the Summer Grace Foundation as your charity. Amazon will donate .05% of all eligible purchases.
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A New York City based painter bought $65,000 worth of art to help struggling artists during the pandemic. Guy Stanely Philoche whose own Abstract canvasses can command in excess of $100,000 each—began the one-man crusade in support of his fellow artists. Philoche knows all too well that earning a living as a fine artist is rarely easy in the best of times.
As pandemic restrictions tightened their hold, closing galleries and shutting down regular shows, for many, it became close to impossible. As the ability to afford the basic necessities slowly diminished, art became a luxury not many could afford. That resulted in hundreds of thousands of artists and independent creators were left without an income stream in the midst of the chaos. One of these artists was Philoche’s own friend, who just had a baby and had lost his job because of the pandemic.
“I told him, ‘Don’t worry, we’re New Yorkers. We’ve been through 9/11, the blackout, the market crash, we’ve got this,'” Philoche said. “But he was scared, so I bought a painting from him to help him get through it. It was such a big deal for him at that moment, and that’s when I realized if he’s panicking like this, other artists are too.”
The realization that so many creative people were struggling was the catalyst that spurred him to do what he could to help. “The art world is my community and I needed to help my community,” Philoche said. “People say New York is dead, but it’s far from that. There’s an artist somewhere writing the next greatest album. There’s a kid right now in his studio painting the next Mona Lisa. There’s probably a dancer right now choreographing the next epic ballet. People forgot about the artists in these industries.”
In March, Philoche posted an Instagram shout-out to artists around the world asking them send images of their work. Philoche, 43, has dedicated himself to seeking out artists from around the world who are unable to make ends meet and has so far purchased more than 150 artworks for up to $500 each. Since then, he’s spent in the neighborhood of $65,000 and purchased over 150 unique works of art from both friends and total strangers. His only criteria is that the art speaks to him.
Philoche and his family immigrated to America from Haiti when he was 3 years old. As the middle child of three boys and coming from a family of sports enthusiasts whose passion he didn’t share, Philoche turned to art as his calling. Like many immigrants, he says he learned to speak English by watching TV. He was also inspired at a young age to make drawings of his favorite Disney characters. From those early efforts, his fascination for the art that would one day become his career was born.
It took Piloche decades to achieve success, however, now that he’s arrived, the 43-year-old feels honor-bound to pay his good fortune forward. “Art saved my life,” he said. “I owe it a debt I could never repay, but the only way to really repay it is by buying other art from someone who hasn’t gotten a big break yet. And that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”
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Gulf Breeze, Fla., business owner Michael Esmond donated thousands of dollars to pay the bills of 114 families who were at risk of having their utilities shut off. According to Gulf Breeze utility supervisor Joanne Oliver, Esmond paid $7,615.40 to cover the expenses of the bills, which were past-due. Holiday cards notifying the families that their utility bills have been paid will be mailed this week.
The Esmond started his giving spree last year, when he spent $4,600 to help out 36 families. This year, many of the households he paid for had bills under $100, but they were unable to make the payments amid the pandemic. “That really impacted me – that people can’t even afford to pay a $100 bill on their utilities and things are so bad. That’s why I was able to pay for 114 families” Esmond said.
“This year to me probably is more meaningful than last year with the pandemic and all the people out of work having to stay home,” Esmond, owner of Gulf Breeze Pools and Spas said. “Hurricane Sally slammed us pretty good and hurt a lot of people. We still have a lot of the blue roofs here, where they’re just covered with tarps.”
Esmond says he feels some guilt over knowing that his business did well during the pandemic, while most people have been struggling. “We’ve had a good year, and that’s why I want to share what I have with the people who need it,” he said. The 74-year-old veteran runs a pool and spa company, and he said business was good this year. Esmond could remember a time while raising his children when things weren’t so well. He couldn’t pay his bills in 1983, and his gas and electricity were cut off. “We had icicles hanging off our windows.”
Edmond’s generosity will likely alleviate some pressure for many who are struggling financially this holiday season and hopefully inspire others to act in kindness as well. His own inclination to act in such a way stems from the empathy he feels for people who are passing through difficult times. “I have been down on my luck like people are today, where I had trouble paying bills and raising three daughters,” he says. “The gas company just shut the gas off and we didn’t have any heat. . . That’s probably one of the biggest motivators for me, because I’ve been there.”
Gulf Breeze is a community of around 7,000 people, just north of Pensacola Beach. The city of Gulf Breeze has granted residents a grace period of 60 days to pay their bills due to the pandemic, but the families Esmond helped were past the 60-day mark.
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