In Their Own Words:

Mission: Our mission is to grow a healthier world.
Vision: Our vision is to have healthy forest ecosystems for every community.

Strategy: Our strategy for achieving the mission is to provide action opportunities to targeted audiences to enable them to improve their environment with trees. We do this by using the best science to identify conservation issues, then develop and market practical solutions that individuals and groups can apply. American Forests' targeted audiences are individuals, community groups, government at all levels, educators, and businesses.

American Forests is a world leader in planting trees for environmental restoration, a pioneer in the science and practice of urban forestry, and a primary communicator of the benefits of trees and forests.

American Forests (americanforests.org) is the nation’s oldest nonprofit citizens’ conservation organization. Citizens concerned about the waste and abuse of the nation’s forests founded American Forests in 1875. The organization is proud of its historic roots in the development of America’s conservation movement and proud of the new approaches the organization has developed to help people improve the environment in the 21st Century. American Forests’ Ecosystem Restoration and Maintenance Agenda presents our core values and seeks to build support for our policy goals. These goals focus on assisting communities in planning and implementing tree and forest actions to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems and communities. We also work with community-based forestry partners in both urban and rural areas to help them participate in national forest policy discussions. American Forests seeks to broaden awareness of the interdependence of communities and forests through our policy and communication activities with local partners.
The roots of our work at American Forest are deep in the communities we serve all over America. Whether it is planting trees to restore ecosystems damaged by wildfire, working with cities to reverse the decline in urban tree cover or instituting a Living Classroom project at a local school everything we do is community based. American Forests is a leading proponent of community-based forestry in the United States, providing workshops; publications and other resources to help people in communities use their resources in exciting new ways.

American Forests is about action and that is the focus of our major campaigns. Today, the organization's primary campaigns are "Tree-Planting for Environmental Restoration" and "Reversing the National Urban Tree Deficit," which encourage people to improve rural, suburban, and urban ecosystems by planting and caring for trees that provide important environmental and economic benefits including pure water, clean air, and wildlife habitat.

In Their Own Words:

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project promotes justice for low-income immigrants by pursuing and defending their legal status. They focus on providing direct legal services, supported by education and public policy work.

Through its legal services, NWIRP helps:
•Uphold Basic Human Rights
•Preserve Family Unity
•Prevent Persecution
•Protect Children
•Provide Hope for Justice

A Success Story:
Young Man from Malawi Becomes a Permanent Resident
At the age of nine, Otis left Malawi in southeastern Africa to live with his mother in Washington State. Shortly after he arrived, his mother was diagnosed with cancer and for the next six years of his young life, Otis assumed the role of her caretaker. When symptoms were too severe, Otis arranged for her to get to the hospital and stayed home alone for days at a time. Otis often went hungry, sometimes living on Kool-Aid and Top Ramen.

Otis' future looked bleak and uncertain as his mother's cancer progressed. Risking deportation as his 18th birthday approached when it's more difficult to obtain documentation, Otis was referred to NWIRP. A NWIRP staff attorney was able to expedite a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) Visa application for Otis, and it was approved just two weeks before he turned 18.

Now a Permanent Resident, Otis is flourishing. He obtained a driver's license, a job, and even bought himself a car – none of which he would have been able to do without permanent status. Otis will graduate from high school soon, and looks forward to a future filled with opportunities thanks to the help he received from NWIRP.

What You Can Do:
Donate, volunteer, join their mailing list or more at http://www.nwirp.org/GetInvolved/Overview.aspx

The National MS Society is a collective of passionate individuals who want to do something about MS now—to move together toward a world free of multiple sclerosis. MS stops people from moving. We exist to make sure it doesn't.

We help each person address the challenges of living with MS through our 50-state network of chapters. The Society helps people affected by MS by funding cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education, and providing programs and services that help people with MS and their families move their lives forward.

• We are moving research forward by relentlessly pursuing prevention, treatment and cure.
• We are moving to reach out and respond to individuals, families and communities living with multiple sclerosis.
• We are moving politicians and legislation to champion the needs of people with MS through activism, advocacy and influence.
• We are moving to mobilize the millions of people who want to do something about MS now.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT^® 

Volunteer or donate at http://www.nationalmssociety.org/get-involved/index.aspx

Thanks to Pete Conroy at www.WRScompass.com for highlighting this cause.

In Their Own Words:
Great Rivers Environmental Law Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing free and reduced-fee public interest legal services to individuals and organizations working to protect and preserve Missouri's environment.

What They Do:
The primary purpose of Great Rivers Environmental Law Center is to provide public interest legal services to organizations, citizens groups and individuals who seek to protect the environment.

Great Rivers Environmental Law Center works through the courts and administrative agencies to safeguard the environment by enforcing environmental laws, especially air and water pollution laws, and laws intended to protect wetlands, floodplains, open space, and endangered species.

The issues which Great Rivers Environmental Law Center will raise will often have national significance, although Great Rivers Environmental Law Center will initially emphasize Missouri and Illinois.

What You Can Do:
Information on donations is available at http://www.greatriverslaw.org/Donate.pdf

International Response Fund

You can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by mailing your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter. Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at www.redcross.org.

In Their Own Words:
Midwest Environmental Advocates is the first and only non-profit environmental law center in Wisconsin. MEA provides legal and technical support to grassroots groups that are working for environmental justice in the Western Great Lakes region.

Its Objectives:
1) Increase Legal Support on Environmental Issues for Lower Income Groups
In order to increase the amount of legal resources (both human and capital) available for environmental issues, MEA is building an Advocacy Network comprised of volunteer law students, lawyers, legal secretaries, and others. MEA serves as a clearinghouse that links groups in need of legal assistance with advocates. Law students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School participate through an externship program that trains them to use lawyering as a tool for social change. The short-term goal is to increase MEA's ability to provide high quality legal services. The long-term goal is to increase the resources available for public interest law and the opportunities for lawyers to work in the public interest.

2) Enforce Environmental Laws, Regulations, and Agreements
Our laws are only as good as their enforcement. MEA uses a variety of legal tools to protect the environment. MEA brings cases in administrative, state, and federal court. MEA often works with co-counsel from our Advocacy Network. The goal is to reduce the threats to public health, the environment, and Native lands and sovereignty by holding polluters accountable for their actions.

3) Strengthen a Diverse Coalition of Communities Impacted by Environmental Problems
Diverse coalitions help overcome the tendency of individual groups to be isolated and marginalized by their opponents. Multicultural coalitions are also a first step to overcoming racism. When addressing an environmental problem, MEA works with or brings together a multicultural coalition to develop grassroots organizing strategies, create public outreach messages, and determine which legal tools best fit their needs. The goal of building these coalitions is to increase collaboration among diverse groups in order to increase the effectiveness of our political and legal strategies and to reduce ethnic tension in the region.

4) Maximize Community Education and Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making
MEA creates legal and technical materials for non-lawyers and works with local leaders to conduct "know your rights" and public speaking workshops. These workshops aim to mobilize local leaders to speak at public hearings, events, and press conferences. The goal of this component is to build social capital by facilitating the emergence of local leaders and increasing the capacity of low-income groups to shape the policies that impact their lives.

What You Can Do:
Sign up for MEA's Advocacy Updates, Join the Advocacy Network or make a donation.

In Their Own Words:

Prairie State Legal Services is a not-for-profit corporation that provides free legal help to senior citizens and low-income persons in thirty-six counties in northern and central Illinois. It has service offices in Batavia, Bloomington, Carol Stream, Galesburg, Kankakee, Ottawa, Peoria, Rockford, Rock Island, Waukegan, and Joliet.

Throughout its history, Prairie State has focused on providing legal services to the most vulnerable groups in our society, the poor, the elderly, the physically and mentally disabled as well as other vulnerable people.

Prairie State charges no fees except for court filing costs. Prairie State Legal Services provides help to people regardless of race, creed, color, age, sex, disability or national origin.

Services are primarily provided by licensed attorneys. Paralegals also provide services in some offices. In-house volunteers, some of them attorneys are also an important part of the staff in some offices. In addition, many attorneys and law firms actively participate in pro bono programs, volunteering to represent persons in need.

What You Can Do:

Pro Bono Programs and Other Volunteer Opportunities – Information about the pro bono and other volunteer opportunities at Prairie State Legal Service

Make a Contribution – You can make contributions to the programs and services of Prairie State Legal Services through this site using a secure server.

As you can see my daughter Maddie has some medical issues.  She was diagnosed with ABCA3 surfactant protein deficiency - a rare genetic disorder that affects the lungs when she was 8 months old.  Maddie had a very rough first week of life, and our doctors told us to begin our goodbyes, because according to all the medical research she probably would not live.  The top picture was taken two days after we were told Maddie might not survive the night (January 30, 2006).

Our Maddie seems not to read the medical texts ... here she is (left) at 6 months old - THRIVING!  The brownish patches on her cheeks are
duoderms:  adhesive pads that protect her skin from the top clear
adhesive that holds down her oxygen and feeding tubes. 

Maddie is beginning to walk at 15 months old (right).  She and her twin sister are into anything and everything!  They excel at ripping toys away from one another, chasing their big brother, and waving "bye-bye!"  Some people tell us how sorry they are when they hear about Maddie - we're actually very lucky!  We have wonderful support systems, and it is all worth it when she gives us that big smile!  It is tough at times, and we always worry about her contracting viral illnesses, but we are getting better at dealing with them at home. 

In the summer of 2007 we were given some additional dubious news:  Maddie's twin, Hallie also has the genetic markers for ABCA3 surfactant protein deficiency.  Hallie is very healthy now, and we're hopeful she continues to stay that way.  Doctors just don't know enough about this disease to be able to provide us with prognoses for our girls.

If you're asking how you can help, please consider using www.goodsearch.com for all your internet searches, and http://www.goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx for online shopping.  When you first go to the search engine, they will ask you to choose a foundation:  please select chILD Foundation - Children's Interstitial Lung Disease Foundation (Mason, OH).  Then every time you do a web search from that site, they will donate a penny to the foundation. Every store that you order from linked to the site donates a different percentage of your overall sale.

FALL 2007 - Thank you for making chILD's Night Out a HUGE SUCCESS!

There is still time to donate to the chILD Foundation.  ALL PROCEEDS will be put into a medial research grant.  I'm very pleased to announce that we raised $80,000 from the chILD's Night Out event - and hopefully those dollars will lead to answers about this kind of disease that will help all those diagnosed.
 

Winter 2007-2008 - Maddie was additionally diagnosed with "failure to thrive" in January.  We're now adding supplemental calories to her diet (Duocal), and she's slowly learning to eat orally.  It was a much better winter than last year - only a few minor hospitalizations, and one surgery in late January.  All in all, pretty good!  The girls turned 2 in January, and now, in April are talking like crazy and dying to go outside to play.  We had almost 100 inches of snow this winter, so we've had too much inside time.  All the snow has made the back yard quite boggy.  However, the warm weather always lifts our spirits as we know we're coming into the summer months when we can go see many friends and family that we miss during our cold/flu hibernation! 

Spring 2008 - I've been accepted to the board of directors for the chILD Foundation.  I am so thrilled to have a title to accompany the work that I am trying to do.  The foundation families have been the most wonderful support ever - and I hope I can put some restless energy to good use!  My main duty right now for the foundation is keeper of the web site.  Please visit us at www.childfoundation.us.

Summer 2008 - WAHOO!!!!  Maddie has grown enough and is doing well enough to be able to be off supplemental oxygen!!!! Hallie continues to show no symptoms of chILD.  Now without an oxygen tether, the girls get into heaps of trouble:  Here they are playing in the fountain in the Rose Garden at the Chicago Botanical Garden in August 2008. 

Maddie continues to amaze us!  There is still some much that is unknown about Children's Interstitial Lung Disease - and we are so hopeful that one day, no other family will have to experience the things we have endured.

 

Fall 2008 - We just finished the Hike for Lung Health in Chicago.  I was only 14 weeks post op (left hip resurface) but decided to try to three mile hike.  Paul was under the weather, but the kids were completely up for it.  The girls walked almost the entire route!  It was a day I never thought that I would see!  We finished the Hike dead last, but we finished! 

Maddie continues to do well off the oxygen, so now we're turning our attention to her feeding issues.  We've just completed the paperwork so that we can attend an in-patient feeding program at Children's Hospital Of Wisconsin (CHOW) in Milwaukee.  I've heard great things about this program:  many children enter feeding tube dependent (like Maddie) and come out eating almost all their calories by mouth.  There of course is a waiting list, and we hope to be in the program next June.

Hallie is still asymptomatic.  ;-)  Paul has just gone for a consultation with an adult pulmonologist to be screened for evidence of changes in his interstitium (the adult version of what the girls have is called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis).  He's scheduled for a HRCT scan and a PFT this week.  I have no idea what this will show - but am hopeful that there is nothing to worry  about as we watch our children grow and thrive!

October 2008 - I am amazed each and every day at my amazing girls.  How they both have identical mutations, and present so differently is baffling.  Maddie is still off supplemental oxygen, even though we've been fighting lots of colds this fall.  Her eating continues to improve.  Hallie still looks, acts and eats like a normal toddler.

In late October we went to Kroll's Pumpkin Patch to get pumpkins, see their really cool chickens, and the other farm animals.  The girls LOVED the baby goats!  It was so awesome to go on a trip with them and not need to bring extra oxygen tanks.  We still carry around back up G-tubes, and extensions and syringes in case she needs an urgent flush of fluids (Maddie gets dehydrated quickly).  But despite the tube feeding, we're trying to do as many normal things as possible.  Hopefully in the future we won't bring any weird medical supplies with us on trips!

Flu shots are next - and then we hunker down for the rest of the winter!  Look for new posts in Spring of 2009!

February 2009:  RHAMC's Hustle up the Handcock was yesterday ... I am in awe of the people who climb the full 94 flights to help support

RHAMC efforts!  I gladly provided an interview to help with the fundraising efforts ... disclaimer:  My friends at work say that it will make you cry.  Thankfully it is only 1 min 10 seconds - so only a few tears might escape!  And after being at the climb, my husband and I have vowed to start a team and climb next year.  Email if you want to join us! jean.schmit@sbcglobal.net.

Fall 2009: Yes it has been quite some time since I posted! We are very busy living life with three-year-old twins! The past winter was a difficult one. The girls were sick constantly as they started pre-school on their third birthday. We had way too many rounds of anti-biotics, too many occruances of strep throat, and way too much lost sleep. Maddie's ear tubes came out again, and in May they were replaced ... they fell out again, and were replaced in Septmeber. Also during the summer, I attended a conference on chILD and learned that young children in growth spurts may need supplemental oxygen, even IF their vital signs do not indicate that the oxygen is necessary. Maddie was having a very difficult summer. We restarted night time oxygen, and the results were nothing less than fantastic! So, we are so glad that she's doing better, but are back on oxygen. It's ok for now, and she seems to like it, and can function better

October 2009 - I was plesantly surprised to receive the "Making a Difference" award for Lung Health Advocacy on Oct 21, 2009. The RHAMC was so very kind to the chILD Foundation, and I am so thankful to them for all the support they provide to the chILD Foundation. Let's hope that sooner, rather than later, more people know about lung diseases so that we can begin to find cures for them.

November 2009 - Maddie is off to Children's Hospital of Wisconsion (CHOW) to the feeding camp. It's a porgram designed to get kids OFF G-tube feeds. I would estimate that Maddie gets 75% of her calories from the G-tube feeding (special formula that we pump into her) and the rest orally. Well, she's doing well enough now to try and get her to take everything orally. We started swtiching some medications (We are on Singulair right now and it is working wonders!) to oral administration. And Maddie has really taken to Grandpa Tom's red apples! I have my fingers crossed that she graduates from the tube!

The Mission of Children's Interstitial Lung Disease (chILD) Foundation is to provide support, education and hope to families affected with a pediatric interstitial lung disease and to advocate and raise funds for scientific research.

In the simplest terms, all forms of chILD decrease a child’s ability to supply oxygen to their body. This can lead to impaired growth and development, dangerously low oxygen levels and in some cases death. Understanding how to improve clinical care, how chILD develops, and ultimately ways to improve treatment requires research funding.

Find out more, and how you can help, at www.childfoundation.us.