Colby Salerno's Hope for a Heart

Video Courtesy: CTNOW (dot) com

Colby Salerno doesn't feel his "story is more important than anyone else's" he writes on his Tales from the 10th Floor blog.  But he's thrilled about his own role in increasing awareness about organ donations in Connecticut.  The 24-year-old has spent the last 3 months in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant. Salerno has been living with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy for half of his young life. The condition causes the heart muscle to thicken, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood. A heart transplant is Salerno's best chance at life, and 3 months of hospital living haven't soured him on his dream to go to medical school and become a cardiologist.

Besides having his story spotlighted for organ donation education, more than 5,600 people have rallied in support of Salerno on facebook on the Have a Heart for Colby page. The local Fox station in Hartford featured Salerno's blog, Tales for the Tenth Floor, and the $5,000 donation pledge that came from the Eric De La Cruz Hope for Hearts Foundation for financial assistance to the Salerno family.  The money was raised through the recent Raise a Glass wine mixer and benefit.

"Colby is an amazing young man whose strength, positivity, courage and overall approach to his illness is more than inspiring. I believe he has something to teach us all about life."  Veronica De La Cruz, Hope for Hearts Foundation

Veronica De La Cruz is an NBC/MSNBC anchor. She founded Hope for Hearts after the death of her younger brother, Eric, who suffered from severe dilated cardiomyopathy and was denied insurance coverage due to his pre-existing condition. Veronica worked diligently and feverishly through social media and raised funds for her brother's heart transplant, but Eric De La Cruz passed away on July 4, 2009 before the surgery could happen.  She's made it her mission since to help other heart transplant patients like Colby Salerno navigate the exhausting process.

With humor and infinite patience, Salerno regularly shares his life now on his tumblr blog.  You can send your good will his way with greeting cards mailed to: Hartford Hospital 80 Seymour St., Bliss 10-I, Room 6, Hartford, CT 06102

And a fund established for Colby's cause accepts donations:

The Colby Heart Transplant Fund 

P.O. Box 225

Cheshire, CT 06410-0225

Coral Reef Restoration Inspires "Voluntourism"

In the next few weeks, some springbreakers will forgo the "wild" life in Daytona and the Florida panhandle for undersea wildlife in the Keys. Ken Nedimyer has made volunteer vacations popular with his Coral Restoration Foundation.  The project is dedicated to rebuilding coral reefs and does so by farming coral off Florida's most southern coast.  Climate change, pollution, and overfishing have all contributed to the decline of corals which are tiny, stationary marine animals.  The corals spend about a year in an underwater nursery before being transplanted into the wild.

That passion led to Nedimyer starting the Coral Restoration Foundation, which has grown more than 25,000 staghorn and elkhorn corals in underwater nurseries. He and his staff of volunteers work three days a week maintaining the nurseries just off Key Largo. The nurseries cover more than an acre of the ocean floor. --CNN

The goal is to get them to reproduce on their own and repopulate an area where they no longer exist.  Once Nedimyer felt helpless, but now he see hope.  His is the largest underwater nursery in the Gulf and wider Caribbean.

Nedimyer and his Coral Restoration Foundation were recently spotlighted by CNN Heroes.

Helping After March 2nd Tornado Outbreak

Weather Channel expert Greg Forbes says this storm outbreak has the potential to be the U.S.'s largest ever recorded in March.



If you're looking for ways to help, check out these organizations:

American Red Cross
Red Cross workers have opened shelters for displaced residents, providing meals for victims and first responders of the disaster.

Support relief efforts:
Donate online at redcross.org
Text RedCross to 90999 to make a $10 donation
Call 618-529-1525

Salvation Army
The relief organization is providing feeding sites, first responders and clean-up crews. It is not accepting in-kind donations at this time. Contribute to relief efforts:
--Text the word ARCH to 80888 to make a $10 donation
--Donate online at SalvationArmy.org
--Donate through the mail at The Salvation Army, PO Box 21787, St. Louis, MO 63109. Please designate the gift "Storm Relief."
--Call 1-800-SAL-ARMY

Team Rubicon
An organization that deploys veterans to help with disaster relief, Team Rubicon has sent three teams to Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. The group is clearing debris, assisting with security and making repairs where possible. Support Team Rubicon's response efforts here.

United Way of the Plains
Find volunteer opportunities and ways to help the small town of Harveyville, Kan. Support efforts and find options here.

Harrisburg Volunteer Hotline
Anyone wishing to volunteer with relief efforts should call 618-252-3732 and will be contacted as soon as possible.

Branson Volunteers
Anyone interested in volunteering or providing recovery assistance in the Branson area can find opportunities at volunteerbranson.org.

Feeding America
The hunger organization is calling for an increase in food donations to serve those in affected areas.Find local food banks here.

Architecture for Humanity
A grassroots network of building professionals, volunteers provide their services to areas of need post disaster. The organization accepts donations online.

Floating Doctors

Floating Doctors meets immediate medical needs and implement sustainable approaches to living healthier in underserved coastal areas around the world.  The mission is "to reduce the present and future burden of disease in the developing world and to promote improvements in health care delivery worldwide."

The organization is a nonprofit with goals that include:

• Providing free acute and preventative health care services and delivering donated medical supplies to isolated areas.
• Reducing child and maternal mortality through food safety/prenatal education, nutritional counseling and clean water solutions.
• Studying and documenting local systems of health care delivery and identifying what progress have been made, what challenges remain, and what solutions exist to improve health care delivery worldwide.
• Using the latest communications technologies to bring specialist medical knowledge to the developing world, and to share our experiences with the global community and promote cooperation in resolving world health care issues.

Floating Doctors stay in operation through donations.  A $5 donation provides 30 children with a month supply of multivitamins. One hundred dollars will microfinance a surgery. The more you give, the more the medical team can accomplish.

Founder Dr. Benjamin LaBrot is featured as a 2012 CNN Hero.

Seed Savers Exchange

Many people may not be able to say whether or not they've eaten genetically modified food, but chances are they have since 70% of the food available in the U.S. contains genetically modifed ingredients like corn or soy.  Seed Savers Exchange works toward preservation of food integrity:

Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Since 1975, our members have been passing on our garden heritage by collecting and distributing thousands of samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners.

Gardeners and food purists rely on Seed Savers Exchange for untreated, non-GMO (genetically modified organism) varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs.  From arugula to zucchini, growers have more than 13,000 types of seeds from which to choose.

Raise a Glass for Healthy Hearts

On Tuesday February 28, 2012, The Eric De La Cruz Hope for Hearts Foundation will be hosting, Raise A Glass, a wine mixer and benefit. This event will take place at Vinatta Project, 69 Gansevoort St., NY, from 6 to 9 P.M. The benefit is to raise funds for heart transplant patients.

Along with a night of celebrating February as National Heart month, with MSNBC’s Veronica De La Cruz and other special guests, a silent auction will be conducted and all the proceeds will be towards the Hope for Hearts Foundation.

“The Eric De La Cruz Hope For Hearts Foundation has been formed to honor the memory of Eric De La Cruz and fulfill his wish that no heart transplant patient would ever again have to suffer because of a lack of insurance or the inability to pay for life-saving medical treatment.”

For more information or to make a reservation visit: http://www.hopeforheartsfoundation.org/raise.html

http://twitter.com/veronicadlcruz

@VeronicaDLCruz

February 28. Save the date and help a heart patient!

Source

KIND: Kids in Need of Dentistry

A child with a toothache is a child in debilitating pain. Eating, sleeping and concentration are all affected, and school work becomes a daunting task. Kids In Need of Dentistry (KIND) has spent the last century helping children achieve a healthy mouth.

KIND is a nonprofit organization providing "high-quality, affordable dental care to children in need throughout Colorado." Since 1912, KIND has helped thousands of children each year get the dental services they need at affordable rates.

The Chopper Topper program puts volunteer dental professional in schools. Young students receive oral health education, dental screenings and sealants at no charge.  The Miles for Smiles program is dentistry-on-wheels with a mobile unit that travels into rural areas and other places in Colorado with limited access to oral health care.

Learn more by visiting the Kids in Need of Dentistry website.