When Rochelle Ripley was a child, she was the victim of a violent crime. Following this event, Ripley stopped speaking. During this time, she went to visit her grandmother, a Native American. “My grandmother performed a healing ceremony for me,” recalls Ripley. “We then spent the rest of the day together. She talked to me […]

When Monique Pool called the Animal Protection Society in 2005 looking for her lost dog, she never imagined that the call would change the course of her life. They told her that there was a baby sloth in their care that had been orphaned. Without a second thought, Pool offered to take the sloth in. […]

Jody Farley-Berens and Michelle Singleton were childhood friends. They grew up together and had children. But tragedy struck when Michelle was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 30. A single mom, she struggled to make ends meet while battling for her life. “With two children, it was scary,” recalls Farely-Berens. “The everyday tasks […]

Many people would be astonished and even horrified at the gun violence stories that frequently make the headlines in Chicago. Not Dr. Daniel Ivankovich. “I’ve treated more than 200 gun violence victims in Chicago,” says Ivankovich. “These are the mean streets. People often call Chicago’s streets the killing fields.” But gangs and gang related crime […]

It’s hard for many people to believe that there are still many parts of the US that don’t have access to fresh and nutritious food. Conetoe, North Carolina, is one of these many “food deserts”. The small town is located an hour east of Raleigh and the nearest grocery store is at least 10 miles […]

Unfortunately, people living with disabilities have few opportunities available to them in mainstream careers. It’s even harder for them to make it in the world of the arts. This is a fact that Rob Lentz and two of his colleagues realized years ago. They decided to do something about it by starting Project Onward in […]

Bhagwati Agrawal was a successful engineer working in the US with Fortune 500 Companies. Having grown up in Rajasthan, India, he and his friends in the US always ensured that they sent donations back home whenever there was need. Agrawal’s career had been successful until 2003, when his company declared bankruptcy. “I was thinking of […]

Like many teenagers who’ve just completed high school, Maggie Doyne set off to travel the world during her gap year before starting college. However, for Doyne, this would be a life-changing journey. The New Jersey resident set off for Fiji where she put up residence in a Buddhist monastery while helping to rebuild a sea […]

Back in the old days, before transportation became so efficient, soldiers returning home from the battlefield would have to make the long journey back on foot. Although often a grueling journey, this gave them time to decompress and process their experiences. “Active hiking gave soldiers an opportunity to come to terms with any trauma they […]

Target is expanding on the number of dangerous ingredients that they want vendors to remove from their products, increasing pressure on manufacturers to comply with health concerns of consumers. Some of the ingredients that they aim to remove from the products on their shelves include bisphenol A and coal tars, as well as triclosan, which is a substance found in sanitizer and hand soap that […]