Regarding America

Rooms for the Homeless

By Daniel Hamon

According to the Columbus Dispatch, fifteen homeless people in Colorado Springs will be inside for Christmas, thanks to a mysterious donor who paid for their motel rooms. The donor, a woman that said her name was Linda Craft, paid in advance for four rooms insisting that they be used to provide shelter to some of the homeless campers that have been gathering near Interstate 25.

As reported by The Gazette, Maggie Spence, one of the beneficiaries "welcomed the weeklong shelter as an aid in finally kicking the pneumonia she’s been battling for weeks."

Linda Craft is another example of people in America quietly taking the initiative to help their neighbors in need.

Comforting Trees

By Daniel Hamon

For those who have lost their jobs, hope or faith, Sharon Girulat offers comfort in the form of a Christmas tree:

Two years ago she phoned the owner of a Frosty Farms lot and asked if she could have some leftover trees. They gave her about 50. She and her husband Rollin delivered them, along with decoration kits they made up, to some churches. Last year she called Frosty Farms again, as well as Johnson Brothers tree farm. She got another 50 trees and recruited a few colleagues to help make the deliveries.

This Christmas, 50 turned into 500. Peltzer Pines, which has several farms in Orange County, offered up 350 trees when Sharon came knocking. She put an ad on Craigslist, asking people to sing out if they had lost their job or their hope or their faith, and would find comfort in a Christmas tree.

Americans' Charitable Giving: $300 billion in 2008

By Daniel Hamon

In the midst of a recession, Americans donated an estimated $307 billion for charitable causes in 2008, marking the second year in a row in which Americans have given more than $300 billion. A report from the Giving USA Foundation tracks giving by types of donors and recipients and shows that charitable giving by individuals continues to be the largest component of all donations, reaching $229 billion or 75% of the total. Religious and educational institutions received $146 billion or 48% of the total.

USNS Comfort

By Daniel Hamon

A U.S. hospital ship completed a four-month mission to provide humanitarian care to areas of seven Latin American countries where medical care is limited or not easily available. The USNS Comfort arrived in Haiti on April 9 and left Nicaragua on July 14 to return to the United States. Some of the results include: 100,049 treated patients, 1,657 surgeries, 135,000 filled prescriptions and 15,003 dental patients.

Art for Orphans: Isabelle's Global Orphan Project

By Daniel Hamon

Isabelle Redford became so concerned about the plight of orphaned children in Haiti that she decided to find a way to help. Since she has always loved to draw, she started drawing and selling gift cards to raise money to help care for orphans.  Through her efforts, Isabelle raised $10,000 that funded an orphanage in Haiti and will soon fund another one in Malawi. Isabelle is only 7-years old but says she wants to keep doing this for a "very long time, maybe forever."

A Soldier's Wish List

By Daniel Hamon

 "In 2003, my son was called up to go to the middle East. When I went to Fort Riley, Kansas to  say goodbye to my son, I met a young man who didn't have any family there to say goodbye to him. I asked if I could 'adopt' him and another who was there with his wife and son and going back for his second time. That is how it started. With 2 troopers then 4, then 10, then 20, and then 150. It has now grown to over 40,000 troops that have asked to receive boxes for themselves and others in their units. " Explains Julieann Najar, founder of "A Soldier's Wish List".

Ending Poverty in Our Lifetime

By Daniel Hamon

25,000 people die every day due to hunger-related illnesses. To put this loss of human life in perspective, think of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami happening every 10 days. The horrific impact that poverty and hunger has in communities throughout the world is something that weighs heavily in Zack Schuler's heart and he is doing something about it.

The Forklift Philanthropist

By Daniel Hamon

A young man drops out of high school to help support his parents and four siblings in Louisiana. At age 19, he moves to Detroit in search of better opportunities and joins the Ford Motor Company. He works there sixty two years from 1940 to 2002. The highest position he holds is that of forklift operator and his highest salary is close to $100,000. Matel Dawson Jr. passed away in 2002. During his lifetime, he gave more than $1 million so that others could have a better life.

A Hospital Chooses Care over Profits

By Daniel Hamon

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal describes how Mount Sinai Hospital's commitment to serving the poor in its low-income Chicago community takes priority over its financial well being. "While some large nonprofit hospitals have amassed billions of dollars in reserves, Mount Sinai's days of cash on hand -- a common gauge of a hospital's solvency -- is sometimes measured in hours."

Tsunami Disaster of December 26th, 2004: How Americans Responded

By Daniel Hamon

Four years ago today, "the most powerful earthquake in forty years struck the floor of the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Within minutes, a series of tidal waves radiated from the epicenter...Entire villages were wiped out... Three months after the tragedy, more than 300,000 people in eleven countries were dead or missing. Hundreds of thousands lost their livelihoods and millions were made homeless." The account of this tragedy and the commitments of charitable aid from around the globe is detailed by Arthur C. Brooks in Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism.