Twenty years ago, Harris Rosen had amassed a fortune with his seven Orlando hotels and decided it was time to give back. He targeted the local crime-infested neighborhood of Tangelo Park where the high school graduation rate was 25 percent. He gave every parent a daycare and pre-K program, but didn't stop there.
Former surgeon general C. Everett Koop died Monday in New Hampshire at age 96. Koop is justly renowned for spearheading the war on tobacco in the 1990s. But Koop was also pivotal, and saved just as many lives, because he forced the Republican Party to address the rampaging AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Do you remember the story two years ago about the homeless man with the golden voice who was discovered pan-handling for change on a cold Ohio street? It turns out, he didn't fall back into old habits and end up on the street again as some had worried. Williams now helps the homeless and addicted whenever he can. He maintains an apartment and continues recording voice-overs for Kraft Mac and Cheese commercials.
Pushpa Basnet, a Nepalese woman who runs a home for children so they don't have to live behind bars with their incarcerated parents, was named the 2012 CNN Hero of the Year on Sunday night. She was in her twenties when she started a home in Kathmandu where children can receive education, food, medical care and a chance to live a more normal life.
Jon Candelaria is being hailed as a hero for pulling a man out of rushing floodwaters during Superstorm Sandy after seeing from his apartment window an SUV taxi lifted by the powerful force of water beneath it.
Not only is she one of the historic class of 2012 women elected to the US Congress this week. Not only is she the first Thai-American woman to be sent to Capitol Hill. Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran, a U.S. Army helicopter pilot who lost both of her legs in combat. The impressive Duckworth was born in Bangkok, Thailand, to an American father, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who traced his family's roots in America back to before the Revolutionary War.
A Massachusetts junk hauler this weekend valued honesty over profit when he decided to return thousands of dollars worth of bonds to a homeowner who had hired him to take away what she thought was junk.
In high school Hillary Rodham was voted Most Likely To Succeed. Today, the beloved Secretary of State is being hailed by people around the world wishing a Happy 65th Birthday to Hillary Clinton. On the occasion, the Huffington Post has compiled a list of reasons to love and admire her -- from the small things -- like, she's not afraid to go outside without makeup -- to the long list of firsts that she has accomplished as a pioneering woman and lawyer.
Two notable women were named 2012 Good News Ambassadors last week during a sunset award ceremony aboard a river cruise on the Potomac in Washington, DC. Caroline Adams Miller and Allison Silberberg were chosen got their strong positive voices in the fields of psychology, coaching, storytelling and advocacy.
For their extraordinary efforts to help change the world and better the lives of others, 10 everyday people will receive $50,000 and a chance for much more.
Robert Thome's dream of becoming a professional athlete was shattered when he broke his neck during a high school football game. As a 15-year-old quadriplegic, he thought his life was over until in rehabilitation he learned how to use his mouth to actively pursue his second-favorite subject, art. Without the use of his hands, Robert began painting with his mouth. At age 30, he became a member of a global for-profit company that allows him to live independently with a thriving career as an artist.
An abused Filipino child who lived off a garbage dump has won a prestigious award for the work of his children's charity, which benefits his fellow street kids. Cris Kesz Valdez, aged 13, was handed this year's International Children's Peace Prize at a glittering ceremony in The Hague on Wednesday, where he received a $130,000 prize presented by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Recognized as one of Time magazine's 25 most influential Americans, Stephen R. Covey dedicated his life to simple leadership principles that could help any person truly control their destiny and effectiveness. Since its publication in 1989, his landmark book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People sold more than 25 million copies in 38 languages, and remained on the NY Times bestseller list for five years. Covey, 79, died Monday from complications resulting from a cycling accident. He is being remembered as a business professor, management consultant, speaker and motivator, but also as an all around lovely guy and great family man
Even though she was well known as a physicist, Sally Ride became famous for being the first American woman astronaut to enter space. A trailblazer at age 32, when the 1983 Challenger mission launched, she also became, and remains, the youngest American to enter space. Ride died peacefully on July 23, after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to the obituary released by her company, Sally Ride Science, which creates programs to keep preteens and their teachers engaged in science.
At the White House yesterday President Obama honored this year's recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor. "I have to say, just looking around the room, this is a packed house, which is a testament to how cool this group is," chuckled the President, whose broadest grin came as he bestowed the medal upon the shoulders of Bob Dylan.
Today is Take Your Daughter (and Sons) to Work Day, and while we don't begrudge the right of kids to tail their parents on this special day, we can't help but feel a little jealous of what some of them get to experience. Moms working in television, business, politics, and even Olympic-level athletic competition undoubtedly have some really cool jobs to drop in on, and we've picked several of our favorite working moms that we'd like to spend a day with.
After being the target of terrible racial violence as a young black girl in Oklahoma, Dr. Olivia Hooker went on to fight prejudice throughout her distinguished career as the first African American woman to be accepted into the US Coast Guard (in 1945) and as a psychologist who taught respect for all people.
Provita Pharmaceutical is working on a project (with funding from the Gates Foundation) to use mosquitoes to help carry vaccines against the West Nile Virus. And, everyone on the 15-plus person Provita team, from research and development workers to finance officers, is under the age of 18 and still in high school.Read More
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