This year Maria Davis of "Mad Wednesdays" will be celebrating 20 years of Living with HIV. It seems like yesterday that she found out through a rejected life insurance application that she was HIV+. Her HIV diagnoses was life changing and because of GOD'S Grace & Mercy SHE IS STILL HERE!!!
Dan Davis of Detroit might get our vote for father and neighbor of the year. In a time where there are so many depressing stories coming out of the Motor City, here’s a good one.
Regardless of personal preferences to his music, Meek Mill has always come
off as a dude with a heart. His charitable efforts are well-documented at this point, and his latest feat only helps
drive home the belief.
Chicago investment executive Mellody Hobson and her husband, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, are donating $25 million to the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools to support the construction of an arts building.
Rapper Juicy J has awarded his 50,000 scholarship to Zaire Holmes, a young woman from Florida. In Holmes’ winning video submission, the single Mother talked about needing the money to fund her Biology lab studies, “I am a full-time college student and single Mom. I’m going to school to become a doctor. I deserve this scholarship because I am exceedingly motivated and I am a hardworking mom and student.”
Who doesn’t love Bey? Mega-star Beyoncé Knowles, who just released an album two weeks ago, managed to make some wishes come true for a terminally ill young girl by singing and dancing with her at a recent concert, CBS News reports.
After flooding the seven cities of Virginia with that raw for several years before rap came calling – Pusha’s words, not mine – the braided half of the Clipse turned all St. Nick on us.
As the costs for college continue to skyrocket, the task of finding money for higher education is now harder than ever. Though exclusionary scholarships tailored to certain kinds of students are often a way for those with a specific background (such as women who want to study Computer Science) to go to college, one prestigious U.S. university is now seeking to change an 80-year-old scholarship that discriminates based on race.
On behalf of ET6 Nation and Blacks in Law Enforcement of America we would like to thank everyone for coming out in a stand of solidarity against gun violence. It was a blessing and successful day amongst loved ones. This event was conceived to show mothers of the victims to gun violence in Westchester County that the community still cares. There are to many families losing brothers, sons, nephews, grandsons, uncles, and fathers at the hands of intentional or accidental murderers. This is a real problem with unreal solutions!! However, "coming together on this day to share, love, and cherish one another made it better" in the words of one parent. ET6 Nation would also like to send a special thank you to Mr. Damon "DK" Jones of Blacks in Law Enforcement of America. Mr. Jones is a constant on the battlefield in the fight for justice and equality for African-Americans. To him as well as Blacks in Law Enforcement of America we salute, for allowing us to take part in a meaningful day to heal. In the words of us here at ET6 Nation "Teamwork makes the Dream work".
The tallest man in the U.S. just got a giant gift. Igor Vovkivinskiy, the 7’8 man from Rochester, Minn. who made headlines earlier this year for raising $32,000 for custom-made shoes, will receive a pair from Reebok, gratis.
Vovkivinskiy, 29, tugged at people’s heartstrings when he shared his story of foot misery -- hadn’t had a new pair of shoes in six years. Ill-fitting footwear caused his feet to become deformed and infected.
Worst of all, he had no decent shoes to get him through the rough Minnesota winters.
He did some investigative work and discovered that he could get perfect fitting shoes -- for $16,000.
The steep price included laser scans, molds and labor. But once all that was done, future pairs would cost around $200 each.
Desperate, he started a fundraising effort on his Facebook page and was stunned when the money started pouring in.
Last week, Reebok stepped in and offered to fly Vovkivinskiy out to its Canton, Mass. headquarters to get fitted for brand new shoes.
Shoe engineers scanned, tested and measured Vovkivinskiy’s feet while designers worked with him on what he wanted the shoes to look like, according to the ‘Today’ show.
“When Igor came to us and we heard his story, we were more than happy to completely fund the creation of his footwear,” Reebok’s chief marketing officer Matt O’Toole said in a statement released to Today.com. “It is our goal to make fitness accessible to everyone.”
Vovkivinskiy has struggled with his height since he was a little boy.
He was already 6’ at age six when he and his mother emigrated to the US from Ukraine in order to get her son better health care.
The Mayo Clinic reportedly attempted to remove a tumor in his pituitary gland was responsible for his nonstop growing.
The tumor was too far imbedded to be fully extracted.
Come out to Central Park in NYC on May 20, 2012 and support Aids Walk 2012. Everybody will be walking for a good cause and this is a disease that effects everyone. There currently is no cure for AIDS but all monies raised will go to research, education and prevention to stop this dreaded disease which has claimed the lives of millions. Our friends over at Dellway Travel and Afficial Bread Winnas will be participating in fund raising for this event. To sponsor them or donate to their teams reach out to them on Twitter @Dellwaytravel @TeamBRED2Win @LadiiSassii_ABW @SlimmFoxxable
Baltimore– Lenny Robinson is still getting acclimated to his 15 minutes of fame. When he pulled up to Baltimore's Sinai Hospital in a black Lamborghini decked out head to toe in a custom Batman outfit, he was greeted by a crush of reporters, news photographers and giddy hospital staff armed with smartphones snapping pictures.
Robinson became a viral video sensation last month when police pulled him over in full costume. The dashboard camera in the Montgomery County, Maryland, police cruiser caught the entire scene, including the officer calling for back up. “You can send me Robin if you wish,” the officer snickered to dispatch before asking the driver, “What’s your name other than Batman?”
“Lenny,” Robinson replied from the driver’s seat in a cape and Batman headdress.
The police pulled over Robinson’s car because instead of a Maryland license plate, he had the Batman logo. He likes his outfit and car to look just right when he visits hospitals across Washington and Maryland to cheer up terminally ill children. Once police heard that and saw that the official license plate was inside the car, Robinson was on his way both to the hospital and Internet stardom. Last week a local paper unmasked the caped crusader with a front-page article detailing the charitable work done by the 48-year-old father of three.
Parked outside Sinai in a valet lot where expectant mothers come at delivery time, the Robinson Batmobile gleams. The black Lamborghini is customized with yellow trim and tricked out with the Batman logo nearly everywhere, including on the floor mats, the door jams and the monster rims. A collection of "Batman" themes blasts out from the stereo. Robinson grins from ear to pointy ear, fielding interviews and breaking away to pick up a sick child, say hello and cheer them up.
Upstairs, Hope for Henry is having its annual superhero celebration.
“We’re delighted to work with him and bring the magic of Batman to these kids,” says Laurie Strongin, executive director of Hope for Henry. Her group has brought pizza, cupcakes, superhero capes and games to help young cancer patients with their treatment by making them forget, for one afternoon, that they’re stuck in the hospital.
Strongin knows firsthand what the families here are going through. “My husband and I started Hope for Henry back in 2003 to honor the life of our son Henry, who had died when he was 7 years old after a bone marrow transplant,” she says.
Henry was a Batman fanatic. He never got to meet Robinson, but Strongin says Henry would have loved the day.
When Batman walks into the room, all the heads in the room turn. Sick children have a glimmer in their eye. Robinson flashes a smile and grumbles, “I’m Batman.”
And for the next two hours he is as close to the real thing as possible.
“I know the suit weighs almost 40 pounds and I lose approximately between 5 and 6 pounds of water weight each time I do it,” he says after autographing a boy’s forearm just above the tiny hospital bracelet.
“The car was a quarter-million dollars and the suit was 5 grand, and I give away approximately $25,000 worth of Batman sunglasses and T-shirts and hats (and) coloring books, and everything I give away I always sign. But it wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about spending the money on the car or the suit. It was about coming to see the kids,” Robinson says.
While the party also features a man dressed as Spider-Man and a woman dressed as Wonder Woman, Batman is the star. He’s giving out books and toys, and if you’re under the age of 14, you’re starting wonder whether this actually may be the real Batman.
“Some of these kids recognize that this is not Batman, but in their head it is, and this is a great thing for them,” says Dr. Joseph M. Wiley, the hospital’s pediatrics chairman.
The party is medically important for the patients, Wiley says. “It is absolutely clear to those of us in the field that attitude and play therapy and distraction help children overcome illnesses, so this is a big deal for all the kids who are here today.”
Robinson says, “It’s rewarding in a whole different way, just making that child smile. And if I only just touch one kid out of all this, then I know I’ve done something really successful.”
Robinson volunteers much of his time these days as Batman at events such as this one. In 2007, he sold the industrial cleaning business that he began in high school. He told The Washington Post that his volunteering is part of his own maturation process, nodding to a few brushes with the law in his younger years thanks to, according to the Post, “fights and other confrontations.”
He says his cleaning business – which cleaned office buildings, churches and synagogues – was fulfilling, but being Batman and cheering up sick children is his calling.
“You see what’s going on. It has to be moving. Sometimes you’re crying on the inside but you’re strong on the outside. These are the real superheroes. It’s not me, it’s not you. They’re fighting for their lives every single day,” he says.
Robinson says he hopes to take his act on the road and around the world. Turns out that getting pulled over by police was one of the best things ever to happen to Batman.
Before we leave, he stops and looks right into CNN’s camera. He says he has been working on his closing line.
“Remember, at the end of the day, ask yourself, ‘Self, did I make a difference?’ And the answer had better be yes.”
