This holiday season, anonymous Good Samaritans stepped up to help families in need from coast to coast. These men and women, called “layaway angels,” plunked down large sums of cash at their local retailers to pay off the layaway account balances for total strangers.
In Bellingham, Mass. Toys R Us, a generous woman paid off every single layaway balance to the tune of $20,000, local TV station Fox 25 reports. “I have no words. I can’t believe someone would do that, it’s so nice,” Diane Brewer, a mom from Mendon who was working extra shifts to pay for presents for her son, tells the station. “I have been running around all week picking up layaways everywhere, so this is really awesome.”
At an Oldsmar, Fla. Walmart, one man (later identified as John Sanders of Jamson Labs & Power Kleen Corporation) gave $12,000 to clear the layaway balances for 55 customers, according to Fox 13. “Our theory was if people had it on layaway, they were maybe struggling a little bit for the holidays,” Sanders says.
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The Consumerist notes that this touching trend kicked off in 2011 after a California man dropped $16,000 to pay off layaway balances for local families. This season, Secret Santas have also popped up in places such as Cleveland; Iowa City, Iowa; Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Chiefland, Fla. and nearby in Lake City, Fla.; where a generous donor paid a whopping $59,000 to clear 300 accounts at a local Walmart.
Even NFL player Tim Tebow is joining in on the good cheer. The Atlanta Journal Constitution writes that the quarterback teamed up with “Good Morning America” to surprise shoppers for a whole week.
“You don’t understand how hard I’ve been working,” Damara Jarrett said after Tebow paid off her $701 tab. “And then I said I was going to take stuff off [the account] because I can’t afford everything, and then this. Just thank you. I just want to cry.”
With the type of news that’s been dominating the headlines, it’s truly wonderful to see something positive that’s sweeping the country.
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Category: Bridging the Opportunity Divide
The Good News for Immigrants Looking to Become the Country’s Future Leaders
Most immigrants only know what it’s like to be a newcomer to a country once. But for Sayu Bhojwani has done it twice.
Immigrant leadership advocate Bhojwani was born in India in 1967, then moved to Belize with her parents when she was four-years-old. She spent the remainder of her childhood in the Central American country, learning the Catholic traditions and the Spanish language, which most of the population speaks despite English being the official language of the country, along with her own family’s heritage.
Then in 1984, she went to college at the University of Miami and moved to New York City after she graduated where she was struck by the vibrant mix of different ethnicities living side-by-side.
Working with Asian immigrants and Asian-American communities through the Asia Society, she soon noticed that there were few elected representatives of this community. So in 1996, she created the nonprofit South Asian Youth Action! (SAYA!), which helps young Asian-Americans feel more at home in their country — connecting kids from immigrant families to tutoring, mentoring, internships and jobs. In other words, the sorts of opportunities American kids from non-immigrant families can take for granted.
“I’m restless,” Bhojwani tells NBC News. “For better or worse I get bored with what I’m doing and I start thinking about what problem I can solve.”
Bhojwani went on to tackle many other problems. In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the persecution many immigrants experienced as a result, Bhojwani was named the first New York City Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs. In that role, she pressed for policy changes, such as ensuring that immigrants could maintain their confidentiality when reporting crimes or receiving healthcare. “Really what we did,” she says, “was serve as a pain in the ass, to getting these things through city bureaucracy.”
Then Bhojwani decided she wanted to look beyond New York City and get Americans all over the country to view immigrants in a more positive light and treat them with respect. To do this, she founded the New American Leaders Project (NALP) in 2010, through which she works to foster leaders in immigrant communities and supports representatives of these communities running for public office.
Bhojwani is an inveterate helper and problem solver. “I feel like if I see something, I have to do something about it,” she tells NBC. “As I get older, I am working on this — if I see something, I should point it out to someone else.”
Still, it’s clear the 47-year-old Bhojwani plans to keep solving problems for immigrants for years to come.
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This Second Grader Saved for a Pet Snake, But Decided to Feed the Poor Instead
Eight-year-old Keaton Snell of Winter Haven, Fla., assiduously saved his allowance and birthday money for months, trying to accumulate enough to buy himself a snake. Once he’d saved $114, he approached his mom about getting the pet, but she said he needed to wait until he was 10-years-old.
Keaton wanted to spend the money this year, however, so he decided to buy food for those less fortunate.
He got the idea from his second grade class, which has been talking about ways the kids can help the community and holding a food drive. His teacher, Lori Davis, tells the News Chief, “We’ve been having conversations about the less fortunate, and Keaton is particularly sympathetic about it. He came to me and said, ‘I want to spend $114 on food for the poor,’ and I thought that’s a lot of money, but it was totally his idea and it shows how deep in his heart he feels about this.”
Keaton started by raiding his pantry to give to others. His mom, Shannon Snell, says “I kept telling him he can’t give all of our food away. We need some, too. So it came to the point where he was like, ‘Mom, just take me to the grocery store, and I’ll buy the food.”
Shannon made a deal with her son that she would match his contributions. Keaton ended up donating 72 cans, which will stock the food pantry at The Mission, a Winter Haven, Fla., church organization that feeds the hungry and helps the homeless.
Keaton’s classmates were donating an average of about two cans per person, but when they saw all the cans he brought, it inspired them to give more.
Davis says, “He came into school with two bags overflowing with cans. The other kids saw it, we talked about Keaton using his own money and they all got really excited about it. They started bringing in more cans and we saw the school count rise a lot.”
So far, the school has collected 3,000 cans of food. As for Keaton, he may not yet have a pet snake, but his teacher rewarded him with one week during which he doesn’t have to wear his school uniform. “He went above and beyond,” Davis says.
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Forget Crossword Puzzles. Here’s How to Increase Your Brain Power
We’ve all heard of the benefits of living in walkable cities — not only are they good for your heart and body, but foot-friendly communities help reduce environmental impact as well. And now, new preliminary research finds that walking improves brain function, too.
In a small-scale study, Amber Watts, a professor of psychology at Kansas University in Lawrence, discovered that taking a stroll — whether to the bank or to simply enjoy a beautiful day — helps keep your mind active and fresh. Results showed that test subjects (who were older and included some with Alzheimer’s) who resided in more pedestrian-friendly ares actually scored higher on cognitive tests, according to Fast Co. Exist.
Watts used the mapping software Space Syntax to gauge the areas with the most connectivity, which measures the amount of places within a half mile of a participant’s home, and integration (how difficult and intricate navigation of the area is).
“Higher connectivity across the board is associated with better cognitive function. It could be that there’s more places to walk to, more people to socialize with, more opportunities to get there,” Watts tells Fast Co. Exist.
Because of the findings, Watts is preparing to conduct a large research project on how walkability affects cognition. For it, she plans to strap pedometers to 100 older adults, including those with early dementia.
“I wouldn’t say that moving to a walkable neighborhood will prevent you from getting Alzheimer’s,” Watts explains. “This could be a relatively small contribution, but it could be important. We can’t change our age, we can’t change whether we have genetic alleles that put us at risk, but we can change how we live.”
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No Insurance? Not a Problem for This Group of Big-Hearted Doctors
The assembly room at Christ the King Community Center in Mesa, Ariz. was brimming with people of all ages and races. The reason for the congregation’s gathering? Mission of Mercy’s weekly medical clinic.
The nonprofit faith-based community organization operates in six sites in the greater Phoenix area and also in parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas, providing free, no-questions-asked health care to thousands of people since its beginnings in 20 years ago.
Mission of Mercy began when founder Dr. Gianna Talone Sullivan felt a divine calling in 1991. In 1994, the first clinic began taking in economically disadvantaged people using, then as now, volunteer practitioners and donated space. To date, it has provided more than 380,000 patients free appointments and dispensed more than 645,000 prescriptions at its 17 pop-up style clinics in churches and community centers. Partnerships with pharmaceutical companies allow Mission of Mercy to often obtain just-expired yet still effective drugs.
While it stems from a Christian ethic, the nonprofit does not have a proselytizing agenda.
Mission of Mercy receives some financial support from local hospitals that have seen their emergency room costs decline as a result of the group’s presence. The remainder of the funding is strictly private donations and grants. That’s because, as Mission of Mercy treats everyone regardless of citizenship status or income, it has chosen not to pursue state or federal funds, which often come with stipulations.
“I am no longer told by an insurance company,” says Doctor Ira Ehrlich, a retired cardiologist who now practices primary care as a Mission of Mercy volunteer, “what I can and can’t do for a patient.”
Doctor Ehrlich puts in one day every week at Mission of Mercy in Arizona, usually at the Mesa location. In addition to the personal gratification he feels, he says that it is a true pleasure to be able to actually connect with his patients.
“At the Mission of Mercy I can take all the time I want,” says Doctor Ehrlich, “and I think the patient leaves with the feeling that they’ve actually seen a doctor and have been listened too.”
Despite the expansion of health care in America under the Affordable Care Act, the vagaries of federal and state guidelines have left many unable to access care or receive the level of care they need. One such person is Paul Scherb, a patient at the Mesa, Ariz. location. After losing his insurance (and his longtime job) a year ago, Scherb looked into what government benefits he might qualify for. He discovered that for an Arizona household of two (which describes the home he shares with his wife), his income must be less than $15,130 to be eligible for Medicaid — putting Scherb in the awkward position of self-identifying as poor, but not being poor enough to receive assistance.
“If Mission of Mercy was not here,” says Scherb, “then I would just be without health care. I couldn’t afford the drugs, I can’t afford the doctor.”
Mission of Mercy also helps the immigrant population. At their clinics, Spanish interpreters (also volunteers), help serve those that don’t speak English as their primary language. While Mission of Mercy does not ask residency questions, it doesn’t know what proportion of its patients are illegal immigrants — but the number is presumably high. In Arizona alone, there were an estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants in 2010, a figure that represents about six percent of the state’s population. If not for Mission of Mercy, many of these people would have no choice but to visit hospital emergency rooms in a crisis, or to try and dangerously weather their maladies without medical assistance.
Mission of Mercy’s operations are complicated, requiring coordination with religious institutions, hospitals, community centers, pharmaceutical companies, software for patient records and armies of volunteers. But at the core, the organization is quite simple: It will see anyone who needs care and treat those patients with dignity and respect.
“They’re trying their best in a tough situation,” Doctor Ehrlich says about his patients, “and we’re trying our best to help them in that tough situation.”
Can You Teach Someone How to Be Creative?
How do you teach a concept to a child?
For Jeremy Boyle and Melissa Butler, the answer is to put in their hands. That’s the idea behind Children’s Innovation Project, the duo’s program that introduces public school children to the world of technology and innovation.
Boyle is resident artist at Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab and Butler is a kindergarten teacher. When the two met in 2010, they realized that children needed to learn how to be innovative and creative, and in this world that meant technology. So, they formed the Children’s Innovation Project with the purpose to familiarize elementary school children with technology and set them “on a pathway” of comfort and understanding of it, reports the Atlantic.
Boyle and Butler determined that the best way to start was to focus on one area, so they chose electricity and circuits. Boyle designed all of the tools — wires, blocks and accessories — while Butler created the curriculum, which contains precise language and building the habits of asking questions, critical thinking, perseverance and coherent explanations are the cornerstones of the curriculum.
The Pittsburgh Allegheny K-5 public elementary school is an example of the project at work. In one kindergarten class, all of the students sit in an “innovation” circle each holding a length of wire bookended by small alligator clips on each end. The children are then encouraged to analyze, play and explore the wire to determine its purposes and uses. Collaboration is encouraged as the students work with each other and their teacher to experiment.
Throughout all of the activities, students must use the correct language. For instance, “clips” must be referred to by their name, not “these things.”
Students continue with the program through elementary school, and as they progress through the grades, tasks become more difficult. Around fourth grade, students actually start building their own schematics, according to the Atlantic.
While the practical and tangible skills are important to Boyle and Butler, it’s the intangible ones that are the most important. Through the program, Boyle and Butler are trying to instill the qualities of curiosity, inquisitiveness and wonder. In some of the older grades, students will even bring in old or broken toys and take them apart just to observe the parts and understand how it works — demonstrating how important that childlike sense of wonder really is.
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Can the Use of Virtual Reality Reduce Racial Bias?
How can you change a person’s view of race? Try changing the color of his or her own skin.
Researchers discovered that making white people feel that they are wearing brown skin is associated with a decrease in racial bias. Researchers Lara Maister, Mel Slater, Maria V. Sanchez-Vives, and Manos Tsakiris write in Trends in Cognitive Science, “Ownership of an outgroup body has been found to be associated with a significant reduction in implicit biases against that outgroup.”
How did researchers convince study participants that they were in an “outgroup” or minority body?
In the first technique — the “Rubber Hand Illusion” — participants watched a screen that showed a brown-skinned rubber hand being touched while their own hands were touched in a similar way. In the second, called the “Enfacement Illusion,” white participants watched a video in which the face of a dark-skinned person was being stroked with cotton, while having their own faces touched in a similar fashion. In both of these scenarios, test subjects showed signs of reduced racial biases.
In the third experiment, “Full Body Illusions,” participants played virtual reality computer games in which their avatars either had brown, white or purple skin. Those that played the game with brown-skinned avatars demonstrated reduced bias against black people in a subsequent test, while those who’d played the game with white or purple skin showed no change.
Researcher Slater tells the Huffington Post, “Generally using these techniques, it is possible to give two sides of a conflict an experience of what it is like to be a member of the ‘other side,’ This should help to build empathy.”
Unfortunately, real world applications have yet to be developed. But in light of all the recent civil unrest in this country, organizations such as police departments and schools could definitely benefit from these findings and any subsequent usage of them — leaving a lasting impact on this nation.
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Watch This NFL Player Treat Deserving Kids to a Holiday Shopping Spree
A group of Houston kids saw their Christmas wishes come true earlier this December when football player Andre Johnson surprised them with his annual toy giveaway.
With a shopping cart and some Houston Texans cheerleaders for assistance, the kids were given 80 seconds (Johnson’s jersey number) to tear through a Toys “R” Us for whatever toy they wanted.
The athlete started his touching annual tradition in 2007 to spread some holiday cheer to local children. This year, the 11 deserving recipients were from the Harris County Department of Family Protective Services and ranged in ages 8 to 16.
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To top it off, as he explains in the video below, the kids didn’t need to worry about accessing a goody, such as an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, locked in a glass case since each one was going to receive whichever game system they wanted, plus a couple of games.
The final bill this year set Johnson back a cool $16,266.26. According to ESPN, his credit card company called him to make sure the purchase was legit (although they should probably come to expect the annual spending spree since he spent $17,352 last year and $19,000 the year before that).
“I just enjoy doing it,” Johnson tells the sports network. “… I always felt like if I was ever to make it, I wanted to give back. You go through stuff as a kid growing up. You understand certain situations. I understand some of the things these kids go through.”
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The New Devices That Make It Easier to Follow the Doctor’s Orders
Ever forgotten to take a prescription medication before leaving for work in the morning? Maybe even accidentally skipped a whole day of antibiotics once you started feeling better? Of course you have. No harm done, right? Don’t be so sure.
Aside from the obvious dangers of someone forgetting to take medicine they need, the Atlantic estimates that the U.S. hemorrhages $100 to $300 billion dollars from medication non-adherence, or “taking too many pills, not taking enough pills, taking the wrong pills at the wrong times.” Between wasted pills, unnecessary doctor’s visits and hospitalizations, even premature deaths, this mistake is all too common.
For decades, the answer has been those plastic pill organizers with a little box for each day of the week. No more. Companies like Vitality and PillPack are invoking a 21st century consciousness to bypass the dangers — both medical and financial — posed by medication non-adherence. And with 20 percent of American adults taking five or more prescriptions, the market is poised for an easy solution.
From Vitality comes GlowCap, a device that fits over most prescription bottles and “that lights up when it’s time to take a pill, then chirps, and finally sends a text reminder,” reports the Atlantic. Soon, Vitality also plans to release the GlowPack, which will monitor adherence for sirups, inhalers, ointments and blisters packs as well.
And PillPack wants to get rid of the current script bottle entirely. Instead of providing each medication separately, PillPack is a full-service pharmacy that arranges and mails all of your medications in single-use packets labeled for the specific time they should be taken, eliminating virtually any risk of taking too much or too little of your meds. PillPack’s CEO, T.J. Parker, isn’t shy about his product’s appeal: “We have the opportunity to make everyday tasks delightful. Even something as unsexy as taking pills,” he says.
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Things Are Heating Up in This Los Angeles Kitchen
You’re heard the warning about having too many cooks in the kitchen. But for Mott Smith, it’s a warning that might be better unheeded.
As the developer of the new L.A. Prep, Smith has designed a space for co-worker cooks. Opening next month, this 56,000-square-foot former warehouse has been transformed into 50 fully licensed, professional kitchens — complete with a chef in each one, according to Next City.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health mandates that all food producers (except those on the smallest scale) utilize restaurant-style kitchens to meet strict health codes. Businesses run into problems, however, when they want to expand. Normally, they have two options: (1) expanding to a larger kitchen that can cost thousands of dollars or (2) become a “gray market” operator and use restaurant space at night.
That is, until L.A. Prep popped onto the scene. The place will give cooks access to upscale kitchens without the crazy overhead normally associated with it. Chefs can bring in their ingredients on day one and walk out with goods ready for sale.
Leah Ferrazzani is one of the first tenants scheduled to move into the space. Her company Semolina Artisanal Pasta previously ran out of her home’s kitchen. Limited by space and time, Ferrazzani is optimistic about her move to L.A. Prep, as she estimates that it will double her production from 45 to 90 pounds per day.
L.A. Prep will be the first of its kind, occupying the middle ground between cottage production (at-home production that is sold directly to consumers) and large-scale industrial food markets. While it took some finagling with the Health Department, Smith was able to get approval.
Right now the health department is starting to see that there are a lot of ways that they can still keep people safe but also be more open-minded about the way they regulate things,” Ferrazzani tells Next City.
For Smith, L.A. Prep represents the opportunity to expand innovation.
“I’m passionate about experimentation and innovation in cities,” Smith says. “Everything I’ve done is about opening up the marketplace at the entry level…making it easier for small businesses to do their thing, innovate and realize that awesomeness that is implicit in L.A.”
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