ROWW Responds to Gatlinburg Fire

On December 1, just two days after a fire ripped through the Great Smoky Mountains, Reach Out WorldWide was on the ground in eastern Tennessee.

This deployment was ROWW’s first response to a large-scale fire; a fire that left nearly 20,000 acres burned, over 2,000 structures damaged or destroyed, 175 people injured and at least 14 dead. Two juveniles have been charged with aggravated arson.

ROWW was among the first NGOs to arrive on scene and immediately went to work by assisting the local government to set up a volunteer coordination center and assess the damage with the local fire department as soon as the gates were opened. Reach Out WorldWide, partnered with and All Hands Volunteers, were the lead VOAD teams instrumental in fast tracking the opening of Gatlinburg to additional volunteers.

Source: ROWW Responds to Gatlinburg Fire

SD Wild Horse Auction Labeled “Postponed” by County Officials

“The horses impounded from the ISPMB was scheduled for December 20, 2016, at the Faith Livestock Auction in Faith, South Dakota. That sale has been postponed.

Source: SD Wild Horse Auction Labeled “Postponed” by County Officials

An Open Apology To Dolly Parton

It’s good to see first impression can change. I’ve loved Dolly since she first appeared many moons ago as singing partner to Porter Wagoner …

Dear Dolly,

I’ll be honest. I used to think you were a bimbo. I used to think you flaunted your big boobs, teased hair, tiny waist, and your syrupy-sweet southern accent just to sell yourself and your brand as a country singer. Granted, I was raised in the Midwest and lived as an adult for many years in the Northeast. I didn’t get you, much less the South.

For example, I’d heard about your origins as a poor girl from the hills of East Tennessee, and when I learned you’d created a theme park in your native Sevier County I rolled my eyes. “Really, a theme park?” I thought. “As if rollercoasters will really help the people of rural Appalachia. Why not create something truly useful to give back to your community, like a library.”

You have created a library, actually, and possibly in a bigger and more magical way than any brick structure filled with books could. And this is where my understanding of who you are really began to shift.

When I moved to Knoxville eight years ago I received a welcome letter from “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.” It informed me that Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among preschool children by mailing a specially selected book each month directly to any child under the age of 5. You had expanded it from Sevier County to my county, and if I had a preschool age child, it said, all I needed to do was sign her up and she would begin receiving books each month.

My daughter was not quite 2 then, and I can still see how her face lit up each time we pulled a book addressed to her out the mailbox every month. Several of them became her early childhood favorites, and are stored away should she have children of her own some day.

As a writer and editor, I’m a book hound and made sure my daughter has been exposed to reading at every turn. But you know better than anyone that not all kids have that privilege. I can’t imagine what a magical gift receiving a book every month must be for kids whose parents can’t afford to buy them or who don’t have easy access to a library. I quickly came to see the genius of your Imagination Library literacy program, and how you were making a difference in so many ways I never realized.

Your father was illiterate, which fueled your literacy passion. Now the Dolly Parton Imagination Library just surpassed gifting one million books to participating children around the world each month. To celebrate, your Dollywood Foundation randomly selected one of those children to receive a $30,000 college scholarship. Two-year-old Evey, from Conway, Arkansas, has no idea yet how fortunate she is, but her parents surely do.

But what finally brings me to this overdue apology is how I’ve seen you respond to the devastating wildfires that swept through your hometown communities of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. At least 14 vibrant lives were taken tragically too soon, and thousands of buildings and homes were damaged or destroyed.

You made a public statement saying that you were heartbroken, while also expressing deep gratitude to the firefighters who protected Dollywood and evacuated everyone staying there to safety. Dollywood is the place I once dismissed, but now know is the largest employer in Sevier County and is the largest ticketed tourist attraction in Tennessee, hosting over 3 million guests a season. East Tennessee will count on that tourism to rebuild.

With the humble generosity and graciousness I’m learning is signature Dolly Parton, you’re not only planning a telethon to raise funds for the fire victims, but you’ve also created the My People Fund to provide, as you say, a “hand up to all those families who have lost everything in the fires.”

Those struggling families—and there are hundreds of them—will receive, thanks to you, $1,000 a month for 6 months. Countless stories detail how these families escaped with literally minutes to spare, and with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. And with each story, there’s a strong undercurrent of hope about how strangers helped one another and how this region is “mountain strong.” Your generosity both reflects and inspires this region’s spirit and resiliency.

Tonight, my daughter, who is now 9 and also loves to sing and act, has been using face paint to dress up as one of the DC comic heroines she and her friends admire. When she finished, she asked, “Hmmm, what other Superhero girl do I admire?”

I sat down next to her and said, “Let me tell you about Dolly.” In fact, I hope to take her to a Christmas show at Dollywood during this season of gratitude, and I’ll be making a donation to your My People Fund. I can’t imagine a more inspiring place to be, or a better way to support an amazing example of what it looks like to make the world a stronger place, starting with your own sweet community.

Dolly, I’m sorry I didn’t get you sooner—and I thank you for all you are, and all that you do.

Your biggest fan,

Amy Rawe

Source: An Open Apology To Dolly Parton

The Story Behind The Movie Hidden Figures …

Melba Roy

As America stood on the brink of a Second World War, the push for aeronautical advancement grew ever greater, spurring an insatiable demand for mathematicians. Women were the solution. Ushered into the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1935 to shoulder the burden of number crunching, they acted as human computers, freeing the engineers of hand calculations in the decades before the digital age. Sharp and successful, the female population at Langley skyrocketed.

Many of these “computers” are finally getting their due, but conspicuously missing from this story of female achievement are the efforts contributed by courageous, African-American women. Called the West Computers, after the area to which they were relegated, they helped blaze a trail for mathematicians and engineers of all races and genders to follow.

“These women were both ordinary and they were extraordinary,” says Margot Lee Shetterly. Her new book Hidden Figures shines light on the inner details of these women’s lives and accomplishments. The book is being adapted into a movie that will receive a wide release release in January.

“We’ve had astronauts, we’ve had engineers—John Glenn, Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft,” she says. “Those guys have all told their stories.” Now it’s the women’s turn.

Growing up in Hampton, Virginia, in the 1970s, Shetterly lived just miles away from Langley. Built in 1917, this research complex was the headquarters for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) which was intended to turn the floundering flying gadgets of the day into war machines. The agency was dissolved in 1958, to be replaced by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) as the space race gained speed.

The West Computers were at the heart of the center’s advancements. They worked through equations that described every function of the plane, running the numbers often with no sense of the greater mission of the project. They contributed to the ever-changing design of a menagerie of wartime flying machines, making them faster, safer, more aerodynamic. Eventually their stellar work allowed some to leave the computing pool for specific projects—Christine Darden worked to advance supersonic flight, Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo missions. NASA dissolved the remaining few human computers in the 1970s as the technological advances made their roles obsolete.

The first black computers didn’t set foot at Langley until the 1940s. Though the pressing needs of war were great, racial discrimination remained strong and few jobs existed for African-Americans, regardless of gender. That was until 1941 when A. Philip Randolph, pioneering civil rights activist, proposed a march on Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the continued injustices of racial discrimination. With the threat of 100,000 people swarming to the Capitol, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, preventing racial discrimination in hiring for federal and war-related work. This order also cleared the way for the black computers, slide rule in hand, to make their way into NACA history.

Exactly how many women computers worked at NACA (and later NASA) over the years is still unknown. One 1992 study estimated the total topped several hundred but other estimates, including Shetterly’s own intuition, says that number is in the thousands.

As a child, Shetterly knew these brilliant mathematicians as her girl scout troop leaders, Sunday school teachers, next-door neighbors and as parents of schoolmates. Her father worked at Langley as well, starting in 1964 as an engineering intern and becoming a well-respected climate scientist. “They were just part of a vibrant community of people, and everybody had their jobs,” she says. “And those were their jobs. Working at NASA Langley.”

Surrounded by the West Computers and other academics, it took decades for Shetterly to realize the magnitude of the women’s work. “It wasn’t until my husband, who was not from Hampton, was listening to my dad talk about some of these women and the things that they have done that I realized,” she says. “That way is not necessarily the norm”

The spark of curiosity ignited, Shetterly began researching these women. Unlike the male engineers, few of these women were acknowledged in academic publications or for their work on various projects. Even more problematic was that the careers of the West Computers were often more fleeting than those of the white men. Social customs of the era dictated that as soon as marriage or children arrived, these women would retire to become full-time homemakers, Shetterly explains. Many only remained at Langley for a few years.

But the more Shetterly dug, the more computers she discovered. “My investigation became more like an obsession,” she writes in the book. “I would walk any trail if it meant finding a trace of one of the computers at its end.”

She scoured telephone directories, local newspapers, employee newsletters and the NASA archives to add to her growing list of names. She also chased down stray memos, obituaries, wedding announcements and more for any hint at the richness of these women’s lives. “It was a lot of connecting the dots,” she says.

“I get emails all the time from people whose grandmothers or mothers worked there,” she says. “Just today I got an email from a woman asking if I was still searching for computers. [She] had worked at Langley from July 1951 through August 1957.”

Langley was not just a laboratory of science and engineering; “in many ways, it was a racial relations laboratory, a gender relations laboratory,” Shetterly says. The researchers came from across America. Many came from parts of the country sympathetic to the nascent Civil Rights Movement, says Shetterly, and backed the progressive ideals of expanded freedoms for black citizens and women.

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space.

The Secret of the Voice in Your Head

Excellent advice …

All day long, we go around with a monologue inside our head – the chatter of our thinking. Much of it includes thoughts such as: what do I have to do next, why is this or that person making things difficult, what am I going to have to eat or drink in the next? Will I be late? Am I good enough to do what’s expected from me? What happens if I lose my income? How am I going to stop this pain?

Often – if not almost always – it’s a mixture of fear and stress.

We sometimes mix the negative voice with fantasies of escape or revenge. These fantasies are not tangible nor rational enough to produce satisfying action.

The voice in your head sounds like your own, but it’s not. It tends to be a compiled rumble of childhood messages mixed with adult conflicts and disappointments. The fears and stress are enunciated in your own words and in your own voice.

On the bright side, we can replace the negative thoughts with positive affirmations or steps toward solutions. Even then, a negative voice will pop up out of nowhere. Chasing those negative thoughts is like hitting the plastic moles in What-A-Mole. So, how do you untangle this mess of unhappy inner quarrels?

Here’s a secret for the ages: you don’t have to believe in your own thoughts.

Your thoughts are just thoughts, words streaming through your head like the crawl at the bottom of a news channel. Let those thoughts be. They are not you. You don’t have to own them. They actually get quieter if you pay them no mind.

It’s a tiny thing to learn, but it’s helped me a great deal.

Source: The Secret of the Voice in Your Head

Spiritual Awakening

voices

All day long, we go around with a monologue inside our head – the chatter of our thinking. Much of it includes thoughts such as: what do I have to do next, why is this or that person making things difficult, what am I going to have to eat or drink in the next? Will I be late? Am I good enough to do what’s expected from me? What happens if I lose my income? How am I going to stop this pain?

Often – if not almost always – it’s a mixture of fear and stress.

We sometimes mix the negative voice with fantasies of escape or revenge. These fantasies are not tangible nor rational enough to produce satisfying action.

The voice in your head sounds like your own, but it’s not. It tends to be a compiled rumble of childhood messages mixed with adult conflicts and disappointments. The…

View original post 137 more words

Donate to the “My People Fund”

Help Dolly Parton provide a hand up to those families who have lost everything in the fires in Sevier County, TN through Dolly’s “My People Fund.” #SomePlaceSpecial #MyPeopleFund

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Source: Donate to the “My People Fund”

Helping Hands In Haiti …

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Reach Out Worldwide Website

ACTIVATED: Team ROWW is heading to Haiti. It is estimated now that over 350,000 people need help in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew struck the country on Tuesday. ROWW is deploying a team of EMS professionals and we need your help to reach as many victims as possible. Please donate today at donate.roww.org/haitihurricane to help the Haitian victims of Hurricane Matthew.

The death toll has risen to 65 officials report, but the full extent of the damage is unclear as many say this is the country’s worst disaster in years. Team ROWW will be bringing in medical supplies, food, water filtration devices, and providing continued emergency services in the worst hit areas of the region. Please donate today.

For those still in the path in the US, please be safe.

photo: HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP – Getty Images

Goodreads Giveaway is Go! — Natalie J Case

Click here! to enter my Goodreads giveaway. I have two signed books up for grabs. If I get 350 entrants, I’ll run another giveaway next month. You have until Monday, July 18th to enter Good luck!

via Goodreads Giveaway is Go! — Natalie J Case

Hammond Ranch – The Rest Of The Story

Before It’s News – It’s About The Gas & Uranium

It’s finally coming to light why the Federal Government is using BLM – The Bureau of Land Management to arrest, imprison and confiscate lands that have been in families since the western expansion.

It’s always about the money. When you follow the money in the Bundy Ranch situation, we found Harry Reid and his son in bed with a Chinese solar company.

If you look at the REAL reason Bureau of Land Management tried to illegally take over Sugar Pine Mine, in southwestern Oregon, you’ll find that BLM has been the enforcers for the Federal Government since the turn of the century.

Kerby Jackson, author and historian, has documented many cases.

Now we find Obama ordering the destruction of a family ranch for the natural gas and uranium. Assets they will sell to the Chinese … The country that really owns the United States along with UNESCO.

Seems the 11 western states have become the testing ground for how far the Federal corporation can push before the citizens of the Republic push back.

West Virginia kids in Rose Bowl Parade – WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports

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Source: West Virginia kids in Rose Bowl Parade – WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports

CHARLESTON, WV – 20 West Virginia kids are getting ready for the opportunity of a lifetime- a chance to ride in the Rose Bowl Parade. The float starts a new tradition of partnerships and an opportunity to show-off all West Virginia has to offer.

This Friday among the colorful floats made of roses you’ll see a little piece of West Virginia. A miniature Greenbrier, New River Gorge Bridge and other landmarks will be featured in the “Find Your Adventure” float.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity because the eyes of the world are on the Rose Bowl Parade. Even if you don’t like football, you watch the Rose Bowl Parade,” explained Amy Goodwin Commissioner of Wild Wonderful West Virginia.

The Division of Tourism worked with the WVU Medicine Children’s and Children’s Miracle Network to create the first West Virginia float in the Rose Bowl Parade since 1963. Six WVU Medicine Children’s patients will ride the float now being nicknamed “The WVU Children’s Miracle Float”.

“We might go to Disney land. I’m going to be in the canoe I’m going to like have a helmet too,” Brody Wilmoth told WBOY-TV earlier this year before leaving for the trip. Brody was previously a Miracle Child, acting as an ambassador for other kids in the Children’s Miracle Network. He’s just one child with an amazing story of recovery and now of adventure.

“it’s been a dream of mine to go to California, it’s so exciting. I’ve met and went and met the president, I spent the weekend with Mark Wills, the singer, Miss America, and now I’m getting to do this,” said Samantha Stalnaker. She was also a Miracle Child and will be riding in the float Friday as well.

The former patients voted on names for the two black bears that will be on float. The black bears of course being West Virginia’s state animal. The final decision for names- courage and pride.

“Because that really embodies the patients of that hospital, and the people of west Virginia. Courage and pride – that’s who we are,” Goodwin explained.

The WVU Medicine Children’s group organizing the float is still accepting donations to go towards the cost of building the float. You can check out pictures and updates on the float on their Facebook page. Be sure to watch for the float Friday morning.