Feed Your Good Dog

Positive Thoughts | Positive Actions | Positive Results

Atlanta City Council Proclaims August Safe At Home Month

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2nd Annual Safe At Home Game™ – Inner City Kids vs Inner City Cops

Safe At Home PosterOn July 5, 2016, the Atlanta City Council proclaimed the month of August Safe At Home month in recognition of the success of a program which culminated in the inaugural Safe at Home Game™ on August 1, 2015. The program was so successful that the organizers, APIVEO and L.E.A.D., Inc., in partnership with the Atlanta Police Foundation, and its participants committed to it again in 2016.

L.E.A.D. Ambassadors and Atlanta Police Department will compete against each other for the second time in the 2nd Annual Safe at Home Game™ on Saturday, August 6, at GA Tech’s Russ Chandler Baseball Stadium. The game is a culmination of fellowship and practice time spent between the L.E.A.D. Ambassadors and Atlanta Police Department officers during the 2016 SAH program. The goodwill that is generated by the SAH program is priceless.

L.E.A.D. Ambassador Cameron Giles had this to say about his experience playing in the inaugural Safe at Home game:

I learned that everyone is human and has different emotions. The police started to get a little frustrated when they made errors and I realized that we do the same thing on our own team. So no one should get mad at someone else because they didn’t do correctly on the field or at the plate. We should all keep our heads high and continue to have a great game.

And, Lieutenant Jim Hodges had this to say:

They were all very polite and genial. I could sense that they had hope and an idea that they are going somewhere in life. The hopelessness and its collateral effects that I normally see in kids from their neighborhoods doesn’t operate in them.

The relationship between APIVEO, Atlanta Police Department and L.E.A.D. is stronger now because of their work together on Safe at Home, and that is a big win for all three organizations, especially L.E.A.D. Ambassadors and APD police officers, as well as the families of both groups, and Atlanta’s inner city communities. Together our voices are stronger and more likely to be heard as we develop Atlanta’s next generation of leaders.

Please help us help spread the word about this year’s 2nd Annual Safe At Home Game™ and the strong support the Safe At Home initiative has received from the City of Atlanta.

World FSHD Day – June 20, 2016

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Carden Wyckoff, FSHD Ambassador
Carden Wyckoff, FSHD Ambassador
Challenge to Feed Your Good Dog friends. Please view the video below and share to raise awareness of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy that affects 1 in 8,333 according to a 2014 Dutch study – children and adults alike ‪#‎FSHD‬. You will be as awestruck as I am every time I have a conversation with this ever so poised gracious 24 year old, Carden Danielle Wyckoff – FSHD Ambassador. Carden created this video to thank supporters and to encourage everyone to take part in World FSHD Day on June 20, 2016. Let’s help her send this video to “the moon and back” to raise awareness of FSHD, muscular dystrophy. Thank you!

Philanthropy

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Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice that make philanthropy necessary.
~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source: “On Being A Good Neighbor”, Strength to Love, Martin Luther King, Jr., 2010 Fortress Press

FSHD – Spencer Wyckoff Competes in ANW to Raise Awareness

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Group Selfie Spence Wyckoff Family and Friends FSHDMy husband and I are big fans – for many reasons – of a family who lives right down the street from us – the Wyckoff family. We are also American Ninja Warrior fans. So when we saw that the Wyckoff’s oldest child, Spencer, was picked to compete on this year’s show of American Ninja Warrior being taped in Atlanta, it became a no brainer – we were there.

What’s more, and this came as no surprise . . . the primary purpose for Spencer’s participation in ANW is to raise awareness of a muscular disease called Facioscapulohumera or FSHD. His sister, Carden, was diagnosed with FHSD when she was 8 years old. She will soon be 23 and continues to fight it with courage and grace each and every day.

Spencer received some great news today from ANW about their plans to help raise awareness of FSHD. You can read about American Ninja Warrior’s plans here.

You can also help raise awareness of FSHD by learning about it on the FSH Society website, and sharing what you’ve learned with your family and friends. Thank you.

#FSHDninja #cureFSH #FSHSociety

Concisely Put Philosophy of Life

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Life Flow of the Chatthoochee RiverHave you ever come across a quote and thought it was so good that you couldn’t wait to share it? I came across such a quote – about life – and decided to share it with you here. Following is a little background on how I came to hear it, the actual quote, and what it means to me. I hope you find this simple saying as intriguing as I do. Enjoy!

Our daughter, Gillian, was home this past weekend, and shared a few video interviews of herself and colleagues who make up the 2015-2016 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health‘s MPH cohort. The video interviews are the brainchild and creative effort of Quyên Lê, one her classmates, who thought it would be a great idea to have these videos to look back on, as well as a resource for someone who may be thinking of going into Public Health.

So I watched the video interviews with Gillian and felt that I was being treated to something very special – a view into a world that I would not otherwise have if it weren’t for her forward thinking classmate. Not only was I fortunate to have this opportunity, I learned a few things too. These future Public Health leaders are passionate realists about their chosen profession. They are also extremely smart and funny.

The quote I heard and share here communicates age-old thought about the ever changing nature of life. The statement was made by Ricardo Millàn, MPH cohort co-leader, during his interview and it stood out to me. It was memorable, I think, because Ricardo said it in such a way that I understood for him it was “a given” … something he just knew – didn’t have to think about – and accepted about life. I believe that some of us need reminders from time to time that the only thing constant about life is change, so it resonated with me. So simply and concisely put, Ricardo said:

Life is a flux.

The origin of this statement appears to be Osho in Zarathustra: The Laughing Prophet (On Friedrich Nietzsch’s Thus Spake Zarathustra), in which he tells us that:

“Zarathustra was a contemporary of Heraclitus and Gautam Buddha. It is a strange coincidence that all these three great teachers have basically given a single approach to life: life is a flux, everything is constantly changing, and that which does not change is dead. Change is the very spirit of life; permanency is part of death.”

I am struck by the simplicity, yet depth, of this statement. It’s easy enough to adopt as a mantra, a necessary reminder, that life is in a constant state of change. The depth of this simple declaration rests with the word “flux”; the origin of which lies in the Latin words “fluxus” – flow and “fluere” – to flow. Inherent in flow, whether as an object or action, is change. Literally, in a word, “flux” sums up, and characterizes, the ever changing nature of life and its flow.

In Zarathustra: The Laughing Prophet (On Friedrich Nietzsch’s Thus Spake Zarathustra), Osho tells us that:

Zarathustra was a contemporary of Heraclitus and Gautam Buddha. It is a strange coincidence that all these three great teachers have basically given a single approach to life: life is a flux, everything is constantly changing, and that which does not change is dead. Change is the very spirit of life; permanency is part of death.

So . . . concisely put . . . life is a flux. It is never the same from one moment to the next because of its continuous flow, which can itself vary in nature. It can be calm and peaceful, or chaotic and turbulent. However life is, is due to its flow. The question is – Will we go with the flow and be joyful in anticipation of what it will bring, or hunker down and ignore it or try to stop it, and experience the difficulties in doing so? The choice is ours.

And, remember . . . Feed Your Good Dog so your good dog always wins!