Circle of Hope

 Homeless high school grad returns to Brooklyn to help kids like himself get to college

BY BEN CHAPMAN

DAILY NEWS WRITER

Monday, July 25, 2011

Homeless high school grad Orayne Williams has returned to the city after his first year away at college - and he's on a mission to help other street kids get an education.

Williams, 19, was abandoned by his family and lived alone in city shelters, but managed to graduate with honors from Brooklyn's Bedford Academy last year.

After the Daily News published his inspirational story last June, readers opened their hearts and wallets - donating $15,000 and a full ride to Manhattanville College in Westchester.

Now he's launched an ambitious new charity to help other needy kids get into college. "If I can do it, they can do it," said Williams. Even kids in the toughest situations can relate to Williams' life story.

He suffered physical abuse as a young child growing up in Kingston, Jamaica and came to live in America by himself at age 12. Through it all he never gave up on school - and it continues to pay off.

In his freshman year, he earned a 3.6 grade point average. He had no trouble settling into dorm life. "It's much nicer than a shelter," he said.

Williams will head back to college in the fall but, for now, he is working feverishly to get Progressive People Movement off the ground.

A dozen volunteers have already signed on to work with the charity. This fall they'll visit shelters and community centers to tutor and counsel kids.

Williams has raised $3,000 to help pay for transportation and materials, but he wants to raise 10 times that much .

Social workers and teachers who know Williams believe he can accomplish whatever he puts his mind to.

"It's always been amazing how he's taken his stumbling blocks and turned them into stepping stones," said Wayne Harris, a city Education Department social worker who helped Williams move off the streets and into a shelter.

bchapman@nydailynews.com

Miracle Man

Posted: Friday, July 8, 2011 12:13 am | Updated: 12:11 pm, Fri Jul 8, 2011.  
BY JARRAD HEDES  
Gettysbsurg Times Staff Writer
http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/article_46086d7c-a919-11e0-93df-001cc4c03286.html

By his own admission, Rick Phillips’ dream of being an active patrolman again will take a miracle to come true.
Miracles, however, are something the 41-year-old Gettysburg resident knows a great deal about experiencing.
Phillips, while working for Eastern Adams Regional Police Department, was involved in a violent crash with a tractor-trailer while pursuing a speeding vehicle at the intersection of routes 30 and 94 in Cross Keys on March 11, 2010.
Many who witnessed the result of Phillips’ collision first hand, including close friend and colleague Bendersville Borough Police Chief Mike Trostel, said it would take a miracle for him to live, much less walk again.
More than a year later, including an eight-month neurological rehabilitation stint in Creedmoor, N.C., the 12-year-veteran of the police force is not only walking, but also doing many of the activities he loves — except one.
“I miss being an officer so much,” an emotional Phillips explained. “Serving on the force gives you an opportunity to save lives and people’s property. It made me feel needed and wanted. You could come home at night and go to bed knowing you did something positive. I hope and pray for that opportunity to come about again.”
Recalling The Accident
It was just after midnight on March 11, 2010 when Phillips, traveling eastbound on Route 30 collided with the rear-axle of the tractor-trailer headed northbound on Route 94. The truck driver, Robert D. Pyles, 61, of Neelyton, Huntingdon County, was not hurt, but Phillips lost consciousness he wouldn’t regain for eight days. The driver Phillips was pursuing has not been caught.
“I remember that there was a car who would not pull over for me,” Phillips recalled. “He went through a red light. He tapped his brakes, but he went right through it and I went after him. Then I saw the trailer. It hit the breaks and the back of it was sliding back and forth. I put my foot on the brake but my cruiser was sliding. The back of the truck got brighter and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop. I put my hands up to cover my face because it was heading right for the computer in my car. That is the last thing I remember about that night.”
Phillips was transported to York Hospital where he was put on a ventilator. The first 72 hours, doctors said, are the most important when dealing with neurological damage and within two days the officer was responding to stimuli. He was upgraded to stable condition shortly before the next moment he recalls.
“I opened my eyes and the doctors were walking around me,” Phillips said. “They said Officer Phillips, Officer Phillips, Officer Phillips are you with us and I tried to get up but the doctors held me down. It was then I realized I had a breathing tube in me and my heart rate was rising. Everyone got me calmed down after that, but that was an extremely traumatic moment in my life. When you realize what has happened, you just want to get up and go on with your life but you can’t.”
Rehabilitation
After a few months at HealthSouth Rehab Center in York, Phillips boarded a plane at York Airport and flew to the Learning Services Neurobehavioral Institute in North Carolina, a campus-style setting specializing in helping brain trauma patients rebuild basic life skills.
Only a handful of residents occupied the home, according to Phillips, where every day began with small household chores.
“Sometimes it would be cleaning the kitchen, sweeping up, cleaning a vehicle or tending to the garden,” Phillips said. “They were really small things that took maybe 15 minutes or a half-hour but they got you involved and active.”
Speech and other forms of therapy were filtered in throughout the day as well as constants such as a trip to the movies every Friday and bowling one night per week.
Phillips became active in the local Meals on Wheels and Goodwill programs in North Carolina.
Catering to his love of gardening, Phillips also helped out at a greenhouse owned by Granville County, where Neurobehavioral Institute is located.
“Twice a week or so we would go plant vegetables and eventually take them to families in need or to a food pantry,” Phillips said.
COMMUNITY  SUPPORT
Phillips returned to York Airport, in airplane provided by Hanover Foods, to a throng of law enforcement officials, family and friends standing near the end of the runway.
He shook the hands of many in the crowd before being awarded Purple Heart medal from the American Police Hall of Fame.
“It was so amazing to see all of those people there that I knew,” Phillips said. “That they cared about me so much to come out on that day and welcome me home, it just touched my heart.”
From the airport, Phillips hopped in a cruiser driven by Trostel and traveled down Route 30 and around the New Oxford square, where more supporters greeted him with signs, American flags and tears of joy.
“I remember when we got back to the house there were police there and they opened the door and welcomed me home,” Phillips said. “Those guys are all my friends and I have been through thick and thin with them. The whole community has been so compassionate. My neighbors who I have never even spoken to since we moved in this house came over to sit with me on the porch and tell me they are praying for me. It’s touching, truly touching.”
THE FUTURE
Although it’s his ultimate goal to be back on the streets fighting crime, Phillips sadly explained that might not be a realistic hope.
“I have to get my right eye taken care of first,” he said. “The vision just isn’t very good in there right now. From there, you never know. I may not get back to being on patrol, but I would love to be back involved with the police in some capacity. The thing that is first and foremost important to me is helping my community. That is one thing I have always done and always want to do. For today, I will continue adjusting to this new lifestyle and pray for each day I am here.”

Pixar Animator's Letter of Resistance

 

Art of Peace

Guns taken off city streets by NYPD to be turned into 'inspirational' art

BY JENNIFER H. CUNNINGHAM

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Hundreds of guns pulled from New York City streets will be melted down and crafted into a work of art that promotes peace.
The NYPD donated 946 weapons to artist Lin Evola, who will transform them into a 5-foot tall statue of a peace angel. The guns - including shotguns, handguns and assault rifles - were taken from suspects or turned in during buyback programs.
"They'll be shredded here and ultimately melted down to form a large peace angel that we'll prominently display at Police Headquarters," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday at the Sims Metal Management recycling yard in Jersey City.
"And of course, it's symbolic," Kelly said. "The idea is to turn guns into pieces of art."
Kelly noted that over the weekend, the NYPD recovered more than 350 guns in the Bronx through a buyback program hosted by three churches.
Evola, founder of the nonprofit Art of Peace Charitable Trust, said she hopes to curb violence through her work.
"We have a very real and very achievable goal of interrupting the cycle of violence within our neighborhoods," she said, "...by supporting the removal of illicit weapons and transforming them into inspirational peace angels."

Evola has created peace angels for Los Angeles, Jerusalem and Johannesburg, South Africa. But the first one she sculpted sat outside Nino's Restaurant on Canal St. for eight months. Some say the 13-foot statue gave a feeling of protection to first-responders working at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks.
"It's a sense of comfort," said owner Nino Vendone, as he stood near dozens of oil drums filled with firearms at the recycling yard. "It was a guardian angel."
Officials said there's no target date installing the peace angel in the lobby of Police Headquarters.

Meet Me in the Town of Hope

Community Outpouring

Young cancer patient, Alice Pyne's bucket list goes viral, raises thousands for cancer research

By Nina Mandel
When 15-year-old terminal cancer patient Alice Pyne created a bucket list, the British teen expected to share it with only her friends and family.
But days after posting the list to her blog, the girl from Ulverston, England, has captivated the attention of people around the globe.
Pyne, who has been fighting cancer for four years, created buzz with her heartwarming list of last wishes: swimming with sharks, going to Kenya and perhaps most importantly, making everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor.
She began the blog - alicepyne.blogspot.com - after a scan came back to show that the cancer had spread throughout her body
"Mum always tells me that life is what we make of it and so I'm going to make the best of what I have because there are so many things I still wanted to do," she wrote. "Mum suggested that I turn my ideas into a bucket list."
Much to Alice's surprise, the list went viral, thanks to the help of people on Twitter who retweeted her hashtag #alicesbucketlist enough to make it a trending topic on the social networking site.
Since the blog was posted on June 6, Alice has received more than 7,000 comments and well-wishes - and money for cancer research.
She's directing donations to Race for Life, a British race benefitting cancer research.
"OH WOW OH WOW OH WOW it's the middle of the night and we just hit £10,000 for CANCER RESEARCH by you sponsoring my little sister for her run this weekend," she wrote on Friday. "We can't go to bed because we're hooked on reading all the messages. I feel so good that with your help we are getting more people on the bone marrow donor list AND now we're putting money into supporting cancer research. Happy happy happy :)"
She also is already fulfilling one item on her bucket list: seeing Take That, a British pop group.
"I am so excited and really can't wait, I just hope that I don't get ill or something daft," she wrote.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/06/10/2011-06-10_young_cancer_patient_alice_pynes_bucket_list_goes_viral_raises_thousands_for_can.html#ixzz1P7VOnTzA

My Philosophy on Life

The Rescuing Hug

Twin girls, Brielle and Kyrie, were born 12 weeks ahead of their due date. Needing intensive care, they were placed in separate incubators.

Kyrie began to gain weight and her health stabilized. But Brielle, born only 2 lbs, had trouble breathing, heart problems and other complications. She was not expected to live.


Their nurse did everything she could to make Brielle’s health better, but nothing she did was helping her. With nothing else to do, their nurse went against hospital policy and decided to place both babies in the same incubator.

She left the twin girls to sleep and when when she returned she found a sight she could not believe. She called all the nurses and doctors and this is what they saw (refer to the picture above).

As Brielle got closer to her sister, Kyrie put her small little arm around her, as if to hug and support her sister. From that moment on, Brielle’s breathing and heart rate stabilized and her health became normal.

From then on, they decided to keep both babies together, because when they were together they kept each other alive.

And today they are 15 years old.


Moral:

So remember, when you are going through something, that you’re not alone. You’re within an arm’s length of a sister who will be there to support you. But best and above all, you have a God who loves you no matter what.

Who are you within arm’s length of today? Think of someone who might need your love and encouragement. Stay close to them, because you never know if that moment will save their life.

One more smile. One step closer to peace.

Must Love Hippos.

Hippo Tsunami Survivor

A TRUE Story of Survival --
Author Unknown

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.
The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen, and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down the Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, 2004, before wildlife rangers rescued him.
It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother', ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.
After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together, the ecologist added.
The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother, Kahumbu added.
The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years, he explained.

 

Life's inevitable flow.