Category: Charitable

About one in six Americans goes hungry or wonders where the next meal will come from. That’s a reality of life in the United States today. But another fact of life in this country is that people and organizations get together to tackle such problems and to help their fellow Americans.

To combat hunger, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) will conduct its 22nd annual food drive on Saturday, May 10. Using the unparalleled postal networks, letter carriers will collect non-perishable food donations on that day as they deliver mail along their postal routes.

On May 10, as they deliver mail, the nation’s 175,000 letter carriers will collect the donations that residents leave near their mail boxes. People are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, canned meats and fish, pasta, peanut butter, rice or cereal, next to their mailbox before the regular mail delivery on Saturday.

It is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, and is held annually on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

Check out the Stamp Out Hunger Facebook page here.

 

By Michael V. Hannigan

The NFL draft is approaching and that means I’m starting to get antsy.

Why? Because I’m an NFL guy and for 43 years the Philadelphia Eagles have been my team. When I talk about the Birds I use the word “us” regardless of what anyone else says, and if you cut me I swear I bleed green.

And this year there is another reason. I started something today that means I have to go a year without wearing any of my Eagles shirts … without my personalized jersey … without my beloved, worn, gray “division champs” t-shirts.

A year without green.

Because I am going to spend a whole year in blue.

Today — with an assist from the good folks at the District Attorney’s Office, the support of my wife, and help from my partner in crime Jeff Weinstein — I started the Go Blue 365 project. For the next year, I am going to wear a Go Blue t-shirt everyday to raise awareness of the child abuse problem in Henderson County.

And since the folks who deal with the aftermath of child abuse really need more than just our “awareness,” I’m going to ask at least 365 people in Henderson County to donate $100 for child abuse prevention. I am hoping to be able to present one of those big checks with a big number on it on Go Blue Day 2015.

By this time next week GoBlue365.com will be up and running and we should have something set up for the donations. I will be posting photos of me in blue on the site and I hope some of you will send me photos of you in your Go Blue shirts as well.

It’s going to be a long year during which a lot will happen. Unfortunately, among everything that happened in 2013 there were 252 confirmed cases of child abuse or neglect in Henderson County.

I think we can do better than 252 and I’m willing to Go Blue to try.

 

Luminant press release

Luminant recently donated nearly four acres of land to the Trinidad Volunteer Fire Department. The land is adjacent to the fire station and is the potential new home for a training center that would serve multiple area fire departments, a benefit to the community as a whole for years to come.

“The VFD originally approached us with an interest in acquiring the land for a training center. We determined that we didn’t have any business purposes for the land and thought it would be a nice gesture to give it to them,” said Terry Bagley, Luminant gas plant operations manager. “They’re planning to build an outdoor training facility that could potentially serve their needs and help area VFDs. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

A predecessor company, Texas Power & Light, originally acquired the property in 1935 for use by the Malakoff Fuel Company Railroad to deliver coal to the Trinidad plant. Usually, these kinds of exchanges occur when one side purchases a commercial note for the land (click here for more info). This circumstance is different due to the donation of the land, meaning that whilst ownership of the note has exchanged hands, no money will be involved alongside it. The estimated value of the land donation is approximately $2,000.