Infants Can Grow to Be Children with the Help of the Bell Family Foundation Infants in Crisis Program

In Burkina Faso, West Africa, the Bell Family Foundation is working hard to make a difference to children and their families. With donations from people like AJ Discala and his wife Dounya, the Foundation is able to provide the crucial supplies needed, which in many cases can mean the difference between life and death.

West Africa has the highest mortality rate in the world. With no shops to purchase supplies in the villages, it means that mothers do not have easy access to baby bottles or formula. And with no readily available supply of clean water to mix the formula, the only alternative feeding method for an infant to survive is through breastfeeding. If, however, the mother cannot breastfeed, her child is in danger.

This is where the Bell Family Foundation Infants in Crisis milk program plays its life-saving role.

With financial support from generous donors like AJ Discala, the Bell Family Foundation can intervene through local missionaries who are on-site, bringing life giving baby milk to those sorely in need.

Grace is the first baby whose life was saved through the efforts of the Infants in Crisis program.  Obviously grateful, Grace’s family had this to say about the program.

“How else could we have saved her life? We are very content because with this aid our children are saved. If you would not have saved our children, what would we have done so that they would become the children of tomorrow?”

In addition to supporting the Infants in Crisis Program, The Bell Family Foundation is also involved in helping bring fresh, clean water to the residents of villages who would otherwise have no easy or convenient way to obtain potable water. The following are photographs from a recent opening of a water well for the people of Burkina Faso.

Yesterday, CareOne CEO Daniel E. Strauss continued the distribution of $1 million of relief funds to the company’s hurricane-affected employees at a ceremony in New Jersey. The premier senior care company was able to benefit 100 employees and their immediate relatives thanks to ongoing fundraising efforts.

Daniel Strauss awarded $30,000 to community-based relief funds Hope for Highlands and Middletown Disaster Relief Fund. He was joined by Highlands Council President Rebecca Kane, Highland Council Woman Tara Ryan, Highlands Business Partnership President Carla Cefalo-Braswell and Former Mayor and Founder of the Middletown Disaster Relief Fund Anthony P.

The money will support families as they renovate and rebuild new homes and replace lost items, as well as help prepare for future crises. An application process and damage assessments helped to ensure fair fund distribution.

May 1 marks the opening night for the 2013 Spring Show NYC (by invitation only) at the Park Avenue Armory.  This particular event will be used to benefit the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A room – designed by Brett Beldock of Brett Design – will showcase artworks with animal motifs.  From the sales of these, $25 will be donated to the ASPCA.

The actual Spring Show NYC is open to the public the following day until the 5^th May, at the same address. It is being orchestrated by the Art and Antique Dealers League of America (AADLA) and sponsored by 1stdibs.com.

Exhibition perusers can select a variety of items brought to the show from over 50 galleries and dealers.  These include: Kendall Fine Art (Stand 120), Phoenix Ancient Art (Stand 323), European Decorative Arts Company (Stand 310), Schillary Fine Art, Inc. (Stand 111), Jayne Thompson Antiques (424), etc.  Fifteen of these will be bringing their exhibit to the show for the first time.

Contained in Beldock’s room on opening night will also be her personally-designed wallpapers.  She explained that these really make “the glorious antiques sing,” which in turn have a significant impact on the strength of the items.

Yesterday, Drake University celebrated its bulldog mascot in the 34^th annual Drake Relays Beautiful Bulldog Contest. Held in Des Moines, Iowa, the contest participants include bulldogs of all ages. Creatively dressed as pirates, ballerinas, bikers and more, the bulldogs kicked off the Drake Relays event which will continue throughout the week. This year’s contest winner was Huckleberry, a four-year-old bulldog who belongs to Steven and Stephanie Hein of Norwalk, Iowa.

Here are some photos from the event:

Huckleberry Wins!

Addie

Zeus

Jazmine Josephine

Lots of young mothers are backing a new trend: jewelry made from breast milk. Though many have deemed the idea adorable and meaningful, others have called the creations “gross” or “creepy.”

The keepsakes, with include pendants and bracelets, were first offered on craft site Etsy.com by Mommy Milk Creations. Run by Allicia Mogavero, the online shop transforms breast milk into precious mementos by preserving it in resin and shaping it into figures like tiny hands or feet. All the buyer needs to do is provide two tablespoons of their milk in a zip-lock bag.

Mogavero was surprised by the enthusiastic response. She can “barely keep up” with orders, she said. Customers have called the jewelry a “gorgeous reminder of such a special time,” and a wonderful way to commemorate “the bonding experience you had with your child.”

Ms. Mogavero explained how she came up with the idea.

“You only make breast milk for such a short period and it was amazing to me that this milk that I made was able to make my child thrive as well as he was. This was simply amazing to me but the thought of him no longer nursing and be not making milk was sad in a way.

I thought long and hard about a way for me to preserve the short time that I made the milk. Through lots of trials and experiments I came up with a system to preserve my breast milk.

I made myself a bracelet and started making them for family members with their breast milk, word of mouth requests started coming in and the rest is history!”

What do you think of breast milk jewelry?

Mike Libecki

Adventurers are people who partake in exciting or unusual experiences with uncertain outcomes. Generally bold and potentially dangerous, adventurous activities include skydiving, mountain climbing and extreme sports.

National Geographic recently released its annual Adventurers of the Year photo gallery. Top explorer Mike Libecki reflected on his adventures in Greenland, Afghanistan, Antarctica and many other locations in an interview with the magazine. He explained that he climbed icebergs in east Greenland- an incredibly dangerous feat.

“The excitement of this kind of climbing- I have done it a lot- is incredible. Icebergs are challenging because of the ice condition/quality,” Libecki said. “These moments never leave me; they are such an incredible, joyous feeling.”

He added, “The main components of my trips are remote, untouched, unexplored mystery. An adventure for me can’t be an adventure unless there is mystery, unless there is an unknown, something that hasn’t been done before.”

You don’t have to travel far to find adventure. In fact, many Americans have accomplished amazing things right here in the U.S. John Castle, Castle Harlan chairman and CEO, recreated the entire Lewis and Clark expedition on his own, traveling from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean in a 15-foot dinghy. The journey covered 3,100 miles. Mr. Castle later completed the river trip across the entire United States in a small inflatable boat.

“I went from New York Harbor the Pacific Ocean by starting out repeating what Lewis and Clark did- coming down the Missoura River to St. Louis and then I did the Columbia part of it, going through Washington and Oregon,” John Castle explained. “And then having done that, I said, ‘I might as well do the rest of the United States,’ so  left the New York Harbor, went up the Hudson River, across the Erie Canal, across the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, and up the Mississippi, completing the trip across the United States.”