We all expect a hospital to be there when we need it -- when a bone is broken, a car is crashed, there is heart trouble or labor begins.
But what about when you are unable to feed your cow?
Mitch Graves, president and CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Affiliated Divisions, along with 780 employees -- known as associates -- do what they can to carry out MLH's mission to take care of the entire community they serve ... (read more)
As a small child I received one of those plastic, green inchworm riding toys for Christmas one year. It's the wheeled conveyance with a little yellow hat and saddle on its middle hump for sitting.
The story goes that I was given this gift, played with it for a day, deemed too young for it by my mother, and it was put back in the attic for the next year. So there are faded photos from the early 1970s of me with my inchworm, and then more photos from one year later with the very same toy.
My mom recycled before recycling was fashionable ... (read more)
In the fantasy world of the "The Nutcracker" ballet, a wooden nutcracker comes to life to defend young Clara from the Mouse King and his army.
In the work-a-day world of Billy Ray Morris of Oakland, Tenn., a truck driver for Pepsi America for 23 years, more than 200 nutcrackers bring life to his home this time of year.
The nutcracker collection fills the home he shares with his wife, Judith, 50, and 78-year-old mother, Billie, both of whom help him set up the displays around Thanksgiving each year. The process can take three days ... (read more)
Lynette Herman stares into the middle distance while listening to a conversation, occasionally offering up information, correcting her husband's memory or erupting with a sharp burst of laughter.
There is levity in those steel grey eyes, and something else: a malfunction that reaches to the cells lining the back inside wall of the eyes. The mutation of a gene reaching back to at least the turn of the last century ... (read more)
A banner in the lunchroom of Carnes Elementary School offers simple advice: Be the Best You Can Be.
SMG, the company that manages such local venues as Memphis Cook Convention Center and Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, hopes it's providing students an incentive to do that.
For the second year in a row, SMG sponsored the Bikes for Books program at Carnes. Sixty bikes were provided last year, and this year 75 students in kindergarten through the fifth grade were given new bicycles, helmets and locks for reading the most books and scoring consistently high in the school's Accelerated Reader curriculum ... (read more)
Duane Klink's volunteer work with the American Red Cross Mid-South Chapter dovetails nicely with his job as process project adviser in disaster recovery planning at FedEx.
While his employer is working to deliver the barrage of holiday packages, as a volunteer, Klink may be called on to deliver help to a family that has just faced a tragedy.
Klink is a member of the Red Cross Disaster Action Team. Part of his duty is to go out as part of a two- or three-person team after a house fire to assess damage and needs, to ensure the family has a place to stay for the night and to line up talks for the following day to help the family get back on their feet ... (read more)
Of all the things I didn't do last weekend, at the top of the list was run the St. Jude Marathon. Again.
I had every intention of doing so, just as I intend to every year, though I never have. I've never really trained for a marathon, which is probably mistake No. 1. Every book you read about marathons mentions training within the first few chapters.
I do enjoy running; the accumulation of miles as I push myself to go that extra block this time, the sun on my face, the 30 minutes or so of peace with no kids asking me for anything ... (read more)
Perre Magness has been writing about Memphis history for 25 years. That's more than twice as long as her editors on her latest book, "Memphis: A Children's History," have been alive.
For this project, her first book for children, Magness recruited three 10-year-olds to help fashion the book for her core audience ... (read more)
Corporate Giving story for The Commercial Appeal.
December 5, 2008
At the telecommunications company PAETEC, support and encouragement to give back to the community may come from the top down, but the ideas and choice of recipients grow from the bottom up.
The $1.6 billion enterprise, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., has made it a company maxim to foster a caring culture. This means giving locally, in the communities where PAETEC has offices. It is this commitment that helped the company win the Corporate Neighbor of the Year award from Volunteer Memphis ... (read more)
