National Day of Service

After spending two hours chipping away and shoveling out gigantic piles of snow that city plows had pushed into the curb cuts that are supposed provide access to cross the streets, I began to feel frustrated and exhausted. So I started talking to God, kind of like Tevia in Fiddler on the Roof.  

I cried out in frustration, "Why God, did you create snow?" Surprisingly I got an answer. "So that you can learn to help each other."

Of course all this was in my mind. I wasn't really talking. I didn't want anyone to think that I was delusional. But it did make sense to me. If we are on this earth to learn to love each other, than how can we do it unless we serve each other?

The next day I received the Michelle Obama invitation to sign up for the National Day of Service on January 19 in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  You can click on the website and find an event in your area or you can host your own. 

So I'm hosting a snow shoveling event in my neighborhood. Our object is to clear the curb cuts and walkways for elders and for those who use wheelchairs. We will meet at noon. Everybody will bring their own shovel and we will create an accessible neighborhood. 

I'm so excited. A few people have already signed up. I don't care if it's an army of volunteers or just a handful. If we can raise awareness and work on a problem at the same time it will be worth it.

If you can't join us and you live where there is snow, you can simply look around your own neighborhood and spend an hour or so shoveling out someone's car, driveway, walkway or curb cut. It's exercise too and costs less than a health club.  

Click here to learn about and sign up for our event.

Click here to find an event in your neighborhood or host your own.

See Boston story here.

From Orphan to Soldier to Nurse

So what’s stopping you from becoming the person you want to be? I know from experience that I can talk myself out of just about anything by making excuses centered around my “dysfunctional childhood” or bad breaks in life. But when I hear about people like Bayelign Mamo I am encouraged and inspired. His adoptive father, Dr. Rick Hodes is so proud of him that he has sent a letter asking for congratulation cards to be sent to Baye.

After you read his amazing story, I hope that you will find it in your heart to send a letter or card as a word of encouragement. 

Baye lost his father to a war in Ethiopia and then his mother to a famine. As an orphan, his only hope of getting food was to join the army. But he was so thin from not having regular meals that the army wouldn't accept him. So Baye found another way. He borrowed a pair of long pants, filled the pockets with stones, weighed in again and finally became a soldier in hopes of getting fed.

The war did not go well. At one point Baye barely escaped alive after becoming trapped behind enemy lines. When Ethiopia eventually lost the war, he and a friend hoped to make it to safety by jumping onto an Ethiopian Navy boat and sailing out to the Red Sea. 

The problem was no country would let them dock. They wound up living on a deserted island with 3000 other guys for more than 2 years. Eventually when they became repatriated, Dr. Hodes hired Baye as a house guard and then adopted him into his family. 

One day when Dr. Hodes asked Baye what time it was. Baye confessed that he couldn’t tell time and in fact, he couldn’t read or write.With all this war, famine and destruction going on in his life. There had been no opportunity for school. The other kids in the family taught him the alphabet.

And then at age 20, Baye entered the third grade. It was hard to sit in classes with the little children and Dr. Hodes says that learning didn't come easily for Baye. But he persevered. Eventually Baye learned enough to get accepted to Central University Nursing School.

"I was impressed with their education: it was serious, and comprehensive," writes Dr. Hodes

"I've never seen Baye happier than when I brought him 12 pounds of standard medical and surgical nursing texts from America so he could study them."

Last Saturday Baye graduated from nursing school and is now an RN with hope for a bright future.

Wouldn't it be fun to get lots of people to send him cards and letters of congratulations? Please send yours to:

Bayelign Mamo 

c/o Dr. Rick Hodes

PO Box 7600 

Adis Ababa, Ethiopia

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

Nelson Mandela

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible: and suddenly you are doing the impossible." 

St. Francis of Assisi