Las Vegas Shooting Survivors Still Wait for Help

Vegas Strong Fund pays 12 Las Vegas shooting victims — then stops
Las Vegas Review Journal
Nicole Raz
December 29, 2017

P.J. DeMasseo, a survivor of the Oct. 1 Las Vegas shooting, cashed a check for $1,000 Friday from the Vegas Strong Fund.

Survivors of the Oct. 1 Las Vegas shooting--Jennifer Holub (left), Heather Gooze and Stacie Armentrout discuss ways to deliver immediate financial assistance to survivors and families of the 58 who died in the shooting in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017. Nicole Raz/Las Vegas Review-Journal

He is one of 12 people who received checks this week from the nonprofit totaling $14,800.

He also could be one of the last.

The checks — ranging in amounts from $200 to $3,900 — mark the first distributions to Oct. 1 victims by a nonprofit established in response to the shooting. But it was unclear Friday whether additional victims would receive money from the fund.

The Vegas Strong Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created by the Nevada resort industry after the shooting. The Las Vegas Victims’ Fund, a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has raised more than $22 million for victims of the Strip mass shooting — and gained far more attention than the Vegas Strong Fund — isn’t expected to distribute money until March. Many victims have expressed concern with that timeline because they have immediate financial needs, and others won’t qualify for assistance from the Victims’ Fund at all.

Enter the Vegas Strong Fund. The $14,800 came from more than $12 million in commitments and cash collected so far. Most recipients will not qualify for assistance from the Las Vegas Victims’ Fund, which will benefit those who suffered physical injuries and the families of those killed.
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Austin Police Warn Public About Charity Claiming to Support Troops

Police warn of group claiming to raise money for soldiers
By WSLS.com Staff
Published: April 29, 2016

“It’s almost like an act of stolen valor. They [are] basically taking people’s patriotism and taking advantage of it,” said Alvarez.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Neighbors and police are raising concerns about a group claiming to raise money in order to send care packages to military members deployed overseas.

“Just the fact that we have somebody out here that’s portraying that they want to do that and that’s preying on the heart strings of our community is just unacceptable,” said Leander Police Chief Greg Minton.

Callers in Leander, Texas reported someone soliciting donations earlier this month for a group called United Soldier Outreach. Minton noticed a few red flags. First, the organization was willing to accept cash. They also seemed willing to break city rules. Minton says Leander requires a permit for solicitors and the city does not allow going door-to-door on a Sunday. He says United Soldier Outreach didn’t have a permit and they were soliciting on a Sunday.

Leander is hardly the only community raising concerns about United Soldier Outreach. Media in the Houston and San Antonio areas also found neighbors and police reporting similar interactions. Now, potential donors report seeing them in Steiner Ranch, Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown and Wells Branch.
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Giving Feels Awesome at Patrick Air Force Base

One boy's trash is another boy's treasure
AFTAC Public Affairs
by Susan A. Romano
Posted 6/27/2013

Rafael Nuñez Jr., gives a thumbs up after collecting several pieces of used baseball equipment to distribute to underprivileged youth in the Dominican Republic. Nuñez, a computer security manager with the Air Force Technical Applications Center at Patrick AFB, Fla., founded a non-profit organization called ‘Giving Feels Awesome,’ whose charter is to “embrace opportunities to connect givers at every level to underprivileged children in need of a lift, hope and happiness through sports participation.”
(Courtesy Photo)

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- For someone who doesn't play baseball, doesn't follow baseball, and doesn't even know the rules of the game, he sure does have a lot invested in the sport.

Rafael Nuñez, a computer security manager for the Air Force Technical Applications Center here, has spent the past seven months collecting baseball equipment for underprivileged kids in the Dominican Republic. It started out as a way to reach out to his family's community after visiting his parents in their native homeland.

"Last year I flew down to see my family in Santiago," said Nuñez. "While I was there, my dad took me by a small village called Villa Gonzalez where I saw local boys playing baseball. They were using juice cartons as gloves, wadded-up rags as baseballs, and flattened out milk jugs as bases. It was at that moment that I realized I needed to do something to help these kids."

He returned home and asked around in his circle of friends if they had any old equipment lying around that their children weren't using anymore. He thought he might get a couple of worn out gloves, some beaten-up cleats and a few old baseball bats that had seen better days.

But what began as a solo effort to collect a few items from neighbors and co-workers has since blossomed into a veritable cottage industry for Nuñez.
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Brothers in pink bras

Last night I went to meet up with friends and show support for some of Orlando's guys dressed up in their finest pink bras to raise funds for breast cancer sponsored by Semper Fidelis at the VFW Post 4287 along with members of the Orlando Nam Knights. Great cause and lots of fun.

British soldiers in Afghanistan do Gangnam Style – video

Troops from the 4th Mechanized Brigade at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan perform their own Gangnam Style parody for charity in a video that has become an internet sensation.

Named Afghan Style, the video was filmed with help from the British Forces broadcasting service over a three-month period during soldiers' downtime.

• The regiment is using the video to help raise funds for the Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team, which operates close to the troops' UK base in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

Donations can be made here

Deployed soldier still thinking about needy back home

Cloverdale soldier's donation warms hearts at Sonoma County charity
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Saturday, December 15, 2012

Motivated by the terrorist attacks of 2001, Jessamyn Sobecki-Engle of Cloverdale joined the California National Guard at age 17 and went off to war in Iraq a few years later in 2004.

A slender, 5-foot-6 woman, Sobecki-Engle served in a military intelligence unit and earned a combat action badge as a Humvee gunner, manning a .50-caliber roof-mounted machine gun.

Now in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province on her second overseas deployment, Sobecki-Engle, 28, has been promoted to sergeant first class and awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service.

The 2002 graduate from Cloverdale High School said she has found a niche in the military, serving her country, seeing the world and helping others.

“It is such an honor to wear this uniform every day, I am so grateful,” Sobecki-Engle said in an email from Afghanistan.

But she’s also retained the childhood lessons she learned from her parents, Skip Engle and Marybeth Sobecki, who involved their three daughters in buying Christmas presents for the needy, raising more than 50 puppies for the Canine Companions for Independence assistance dogs program and sponsoring a low-income elderly woman and her special-needs son.
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Donation-based hospital rescues Afghanistan's wounded

Donation-based hospital rescues Afghanistan's wounded
By Clarissa Ward
December 13, 2012

(CBS News) KABUL - In Afghanistan, an American soldier and two Afghans were killed by a car bomb Thursday.

It happened near the U.S. airbase in Kandahar, a few hours after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta left there to meet with Afghan President Karzai.

Taliban attacks have grown more frequent, causing a sharp rise in civilian casualties. There's one place where many of those lives are saved or lost.

The non-profit trauma hospital goes by one name: Emergency. It offers free treatment to the bruised and bloodied victims of this conflict. Every patient who arrives there is a casualty of war.

Dr. Gino Strada is the chain-smoking Italian cardiologist who founded emergency in 1999. He told CBS News that he'll take in patients, regardless of whether they're Taliban or whatever their political affiliations may be.

"Otherwise, you're not a doctor anymore," he said, "then you're a judge."
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NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo proves compassion lives in Manhattan

UPDATE Shoeless man in viral photo was homeless veteran

Larry DePrimo, NYPD Cop, Buys Homeless Man Boots (PHOTO)
Newsday
By Anthony M DeStefano
Posted: 11/29/2012

You have to like what NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo did for a barefoot man in Manhattan one frigid night this month. In fact, more than 260,000 Facebook users have "liked" DePrimo's actions, a number that's growing every day.

After a tourist from Arizona snapped a photo of DePrimo, of Holbrook, giving the man socks and boots to ward off the cold, the image became an instant hit on the NYPD's Facebook page.
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UPDATE
Photo of NYPD officer giving boots to barefoot man warms hearts online
Cop keeps receipt in his vest 'to remind me that sometimes people have it worse'
NBC News
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
On a cold November night in Times Square, Officer Lawrence DePrimo was working a counterterrorism post when he encountered an older, barefooted homeless man. The officer disappeared for a moment, then returned with a new pair of boots, and knelt to help the man put them on.

The act of kindness would have gone unnoticed and mostly forgotten, had it not been for a tourist from Arizona.

Her snapshot — taken with her cellphone on Nov. 14 and posted to the New York Police Department’s official Facebook page late Tuesday — has made Officer DePrimo an overnight Internet hero.

By Wednesday evening, the post had been viewed 1.6 million times, and had attracted nearly 275,000 “likes” and more than 16,000 comments — a runaway hit for a Police Department that waded warily onto the social media platform this summer with mostly canned photos of gun seizures, award ceremonies and the police commissioner.

Among all of those posts, the blurry image of Officer DePrimo kneeling to help the shoeless man as he sat on 42nd Street stood out. “This is definitely the most viral,” said Barbara Chen, a spokeswoman for the department who helps manage its Facebook page.

Mr. Cano volunteered to give the officer his employee discount to bring down the regular $100 price of the all-weather boots to a little more than $75.

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Photo of NYPD officer giving boots to barefoot man warms hearts online Cop keeps receipt in his vest 'to remind me that sometimes people have it worse'

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Richest 400 Americans' net worth jumps 13 percent to $1.7 trillion

UPDATE

Warren Buffett, Bill Gates' 'Giving Pledge' Gets 11 More Billionaires To Pledge Half Of Wealth
Posted: 09/19/2012

Warren Buffett got 11 more billionaires to agree to give away half of their wealth to charity.

The Giving Pledge, a philanthropic initiative started by the business mogul and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to get the super rich to pledge their fortunes early in their lives, so that they can have more control of how it’s spent. In the two years since it was launched, the pledge has recruited 92 billionaires, including the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Some of the newest members of the benevolent club include Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin, along with Intel Chairman Emeritus Gordon Moore and his wife Betty, MarketWatch reports.

Moore, who already gave away half of his fortune when he established a foundation that focuses on science, health and environmental issues, told the Wall Street Journal that his giving habits already put him “ahead of the curve.”

"It won't change much of what I'm doing," he told the news outlet, but "it's a good idea and has shaken loose a lot money that otherwise would have been tied up for a long time."
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Richest 400 Americans' net worth jumps 13 percent to $1.7 trillion: Forbes
Dan Burns
Reuters
11:17 a.m. EST, September 19, 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The net worth of the richest Americans grew by 13 percent in the past year to $1.7 trillion, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday, and a familiar cast of characters once again populated the top of the magazine's annual list of the U.S. uber-elite, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and the Koch brothers.
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Postal carrier stole money sent to a Chicago charity

Veteran postal carrier admits to stealing $275K destined for single charity
5-year sentence possible for yearlong scheme in Berwyn
By Annie Sweeney
Chicago Tribune reporter
August 17, 2012

A veteran postal carrier admitted Thursday to stealing nearly 30,000 letters containing cash, checks or money orders that he was supposed to deliver to a charity on his mail route in Berwyn, federal authorities said.

Frederick L. Taylor stole $275,000 meant for the charity over the yearlong scheme, according to a guilty plea he entered at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. But it was unclear how much money he actually pocketed because checks made out to the charity made up most of the stolen funds. He pocketed more than $17,700 in cash, authorities said.

The purloined donations, taken between August 2010 and August 2011, came from some 25,000 different donors, authorities said. The charity was not identified in court documents.
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"I'll Go, a Soldier's Oath" tells it like it is

"I'll Go, a Soldier's Oath" tells it like it is. They serve for all of us.

This is a great song but what makes it more special is they are donating all the proceeds to military charities!

Uploaded by MusicUCanSee on Nov 10, 2011
A tribute to our Soldiers and Veterans. A Kelly's Lot song now available on i-Tunes On iTunes
Kelly is donating %100 of her i-Tunes proceeds from this song to military charities.

Song produced by: Perry Robertson and Scotty Lund. Video by: MusicUCanSee Productions and Axis 4 Studios. Produced by CJ Reagan.
Audio mastering: Mike Milchner/SonicVision Mastering Photo archives: Tim McGrath. Thanks to: Cahuenga General Store-NoHo CA.
Cameras: Howie Rogers, Jennifer Gilroy and CJ Reagan
Kelly's Lot are:
Kelly Zirbes - Vocals/Guitar
Perry Robertson - Guitar
Rob Zucca - Guitar
Matt McFadden - Bass
Scotty Lund - Drums

Veterans "support" organization IRS documents reveal only 6.6 percent for veterans

Veterans Support Organization volunteer quits non-profit following Investigators story
10:36 PM, Dec 20, 2011

Written by
Noah Pransky

TAMPA, Florida - After a 10 News Investigators story exposed the outrageous spending habits of a local non-profit, one fundraiser says the story confirmed suspicions she had developed while working for the group. There's even more to the story than first reported.

Sandra Miller, 49, contacted 10 News after she quit the Veterans Support Organization (VSO) because it couldn't fully explain where money donated for local veterans was actually going.

The initial Investigators' report showed the VSO - collecting this holiday season in local malls - raking in upwards of $1,000 a day per location from holiday shoppers. But the VSO's most recently-submitted IRS documents reveal only 6.6 percent of the group's $5.7 million in revenues go toward the grants and veteran assistance programs they tout to donors. Instead, huge payments went to the group's founder ($255,698), office expenses ($240,995), travel ($154,332), and uniforms for solicitors ($71,860).

"The owner of this company makes almost $300,000 a year?" Miller asked rhetorically. "How dare he? We're out there working our asses off for a cause that, personally, I believed in."
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How Forming Nonprofits Eased The Grief For Victims' Families

9/12: How Forming Nonprofits Eased The Grief For Victims' Families
Huffington Post
Eleanor Goldberg
As Susan Littlejohn lay amid the rubble of her tornado-ravaged barn in July, she begged for a miracle. Without one, she would no longer be able to provide animal-based therapy to kids with special needs.

Five days later, one arrived to Ellijay, Ga. It came in the form of New York Says Thank You, a September 11-inspired organization that helps communities devastated by tragedies nationwide.

“The tornado took everything I had,” Littlejohn shared. “Now we have everything we need to work with … It's all about 9/12 and paying it forward.”

In the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, there was an outpouring of inspiring community service. But with images of planes crashing and fleeing innocent civilians looped on the television, the horror of September 11 was too present to allow the significance of those 9/12 efforts to sink in.

But once those who lost loved ones committed to their commemoration by honoring the goodwill they witnessed, the meaning and long-term significance of September 12 began to manifest.

Here are three such stories of hope and resilience, in which despair gave way to determination -- and resulted in the creation of organizations that uplift those who have been devastated by tragedy.
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Target is among top 10 donors to nonprofit groups

Fact Check: Target is among top 10 donors to nonprofit groups

Veteran who was source of misfired email has tried to clarify message
Posted: September 4, 2011

By Carole Fader
Times-Union readers want to know:
An email I received says that when asked to be a sponsor for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, Target refused, saying that "veterans do not meet our area of giving." The email goes on to say that Target will not allow Marines to collect for Toys for Tots at its stores and would not continue insurance coverage for employees who were called for active duty. Could this be true?

Target has unfairly been a target of some miscommunication.

The genesis of the claim is Dick Forrey, a member of Indiana's Howard County Vietnam Veterans group, according to several fact-finding groups.

It is true that Forrey's local Target store would not grant him a $100 sponsorship for a traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in March 2002. Forrey wrote of his displeasure under the headline "Target Stores do not support veterans." Around the world his message went.
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Some 9/11 Charities Failed Miserably

Some 9/11 Charities Failed Miserably
August 25, 2011
Associated Press|by Brett J. Blackledge and David B. Caruso

NEW YORK - Americans eager to give after the 9/11 terrorist attacks poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of charities established to serve the victims, their families and their memories. But a decade later, an Associated Press investigation shows that many of those nonprofits have failed miserably.

There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11.

One charity raised more than $700,000 for a giant memorial quilt, but there is no quilt. Another raised more than $4 million to help victims, but didn't account publicly for how it spent all of the money. A third helps support a 9/11 flag sold by the founder's for-profit company.
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CREW and Vote Vets files complaint against Sean Hannity over Freedom Concerts

Watchdog files complaint against ‘deceptive and illegal’ Hannity concerts


By David Edwards
Monday, March 29th, 2010 -- 1:28 pm


Allegations about a charity connected to a key Fox News personality have floated across the web for years, but less than two weeks after a conservative blogger took aim, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tends to focus on liberal issues has filed a complaint.

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) and Votevets.org have filed a complaint charging the Sean Hannity's Freedom Concerts with deceptive and illegal marketing practices.

The concerts, hosted by Freedom Alliance, raise funds to provide scholarships and services to disabled veterans and their families. According to an email distributed by CREW, the complaints "allege Lt. Col. North's Freedom Alliance has violated its charitable tax status by engaging in prohibited political activities. In addition, CREW's complaints charge Mr. Hannity's Freedom Concerts has engaged in deceptive and illegal marketing practices by suggesting that all concert ticket sale revenue goes directly to scholarships for children of killed and wounded service members."

Earlier this month, columnist and blogger Debbie Schlussel claimed that Hannity is profiting from a charity that raises money for severely injured US soldiers and the children of troops killed in action, and she described the Freedom Alliance as "a huge scam."

"Less than 20% -- and in two recent years, less than 7% and 4%, respectively -- of the money raised by Freedom Alliance went to these causes, while millions of dollars went to expenses, including consultants and apparently to ferret [sic] the Hannity posse of family and friends in high style," Schlussel writes.

"And, despite Hannity's statements to the contrary on his nationally syndicated radio show," she continues, "few of the children of fallen soldiers got more than $1,000-$2,000, with apparently none getting more than $6,000, while Freedom Alliance appears to have spent tens of thousands of dollars for private planes."

read more here

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0329/watchdog-group-ftc-complaint-against-hannity-concert/

The price of hunger in America

June 29, 2008

The price of hunger
ANP: Hunger is a growing crisis in US, stagnant economy and rising fuel price cause cost of food to soar

American News Project: Hunger is a growing crisis in America. With a stagnant economy and rising fuel prices the cost of food is soaring. Congress is reacting, but will their efforts be enough? ANP spends a week with Brian Duss who agrees to take the Food Stamp Challenge and live off a dollar per meal for 7 days.



The Price of Hunger
By Garland McLaurin

JAMES P. MCGOVERN, CONGRESSMAN (D-MA): Hunger is a political condition. That is absolutely the best way to characterize it. We have the resources, we have the infrastructure, we have everything to end hunger except the political will.

VOICEOVER: Hunger is growing in America, and food banks are scrambling to keep up with the need. Higher oil prices mean higher food prices, and the stagnant economy means more unemployment. It's estimated that a record 28 million Americans will be using food stamps in 2009. Millions more depend on community food banks like Bread for the City in Washington, DC, to provide free food from time to time.

JEANETTE CHANCE, NORTHWEST FOOD COORDINATOR: You know, we never can predict a time and an amount of people, but they're coming, and probably between about 100 to 150 people per day. The first two weeks of the month, it's really 200-plus families every month.

VOICEOVER: The elderly living on fixed incomes are among those who need the most help with food donations. For many, the food stamps they receive are just not enough.

CHANCE: A person who picks up from us every month—I don't know if I should say his name—but he'll be 110 years old this year, and he's the talk of Bread for the City, and stronger than two people, two normal people. But he comes faithfully and picks his food up every month.

DONNA HENDRICKS, SENIOR IN NEED OF FOOD ASSISTANCE: I have to go wherever I can go to get groceries, because the cost of living has gone up so high. It's like a vicious cycle. It reminds me of a hamster running on its wheel, just going around and around and around. And I feel overwhelmed right now. I live on a single income, and it's true I do get food stamps, but all I get is $70 a month, and that doesn't stretch for one month. So I come here and I get food once a month, and that helps tremendously.
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When do we get about doing what Christ told us to do? If anyone wants to claim the title of being a Christian think of this.

Galatians 6:2 (New International Version)
2 Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+6:2

You can find many more times when Christ Himself talked about how to treat others in the Red letters of the New Testament.

How can anyone dismiss this and still claim how important faith is to them? Is it was faith can do only for them, their needs, wants and desires? Or is it what faith is supposed to transform within them? Do they think it's ok to face Christ and say what they bought for themselves instead of what they did for others? Do they think it's ok that they claimed they fought for Christ to stop abortions or gay marriages when they failed to take care of the least among us? If they think what someone else does in their own personal life is what Christ was talking about fighting against, they missed the entire reason He came at all. Read the Red Letters of the New Testament and find me the time when Christ said we were to hate or judge anyone. Find me the part where He talked about making sure we got what we wanted first and leave everyone else on their own. Sure you can point to Leviticus and how the sins were worthy of death like eating shell fish, or maybe even go to the Acts and the speeches given by Paul, but you can't show me where Christ said anything about any of this or where God said anything written in Leviticus in the Ten Commandments. We twist what is right around because we just don't want to do it His way. Take a look at the words above and then tell me how allowing people to go hungry in this country is suppose to be a thing to ignore.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington