World’s Tallest Building Opens in Dubai

By Robbin Friedman
Feb. 8, 2010

The people of Dubai have extended their reach—into the sky.

In January, the world’s tallest building opened there. The skyscraper, called the Burj Khalifa, is more than 160 stories high, with 60-mile views from the top of the tower. At 2,717 feet, the structure stands more than 1,000 feet taller than the last tallest building, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

After five years of construction, the Burj Khalifa opened with a party. Fireworks lit up the surrounding sky.

The world’s largest fountain shot water high into the air. Two men parachuted more than 2,200 feet from high on the building to set a new world record.

But now the tower is getting down to business. The skyscraper has 37 floors of office space and 1,000 apartments. It will house the world’s largest mall. The owners hope that eventually more than 12,000 people will live and work in the 6 million square feet inside the building.
A New Name for the Middle Eastern Tower

The Burj Khalifa was originally named the Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower, after the region where it was built. Dubai is a sheikdom, or a region in the Middle East that is governed by a ruler called a sheik.

It is part of the United Arab Emirates, a country made up of seven sheikdoms. Recently, Dubai needed a loan. Sheik Khalifa, President of the United Arab Emirates and sheik of neighboring Abu Dhabi, helped out. Burj Dubai was renamed Burj Khalifa in his honor.

 

World’s Tallest and More

The towering structure have broken a number of records besides the record for height. It has the world’s highest swimming pool, on the 123rd floor.

It also has the world’s highest outdoor observation deck: Visitors can stand in the open air 124 stories above ground.

Fifty-four elevators race up and down, going as fast as 40 miles an hour. Should the elevators stop working, 3,000 stairs go from top to bottom. And when it’s time to clean the windows, 36 workers will spend about three months washing them.

Reaching half a mile into the sky, the Burj Khalifa soars over even the world’s other highest skyscrapers. Its height outstrips the Taipei 101 by 60 stories. It stands more than 1,100 feet taller than China’s Shanghai World Financial Center.

And Dubai’s new tower dwarfs one of the most famous skyscrapers of all: it stands more than twice as high as the Empire State Building in New York City, the world’s tallest building for more than 40 years.

Source: Scholastic News

 

 

Editor’s Note:  GRAPH IT     Map: Jim McMahon

Read today’s story about the Burj Khalifa, then complete this graph-reading activity about the world’s tallest buildings.

Download it here!  Map: Jim McMahon

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Happy 100 Hundred Years of Service

By Anne Driscoll  
Feb. 8, 2009

From Harrison Ford to Neil Armstrong to Barack Obama, some of America’s most well-known celebrities and well-respected leaders have worn a Scout uniform. As the Boy Scouts celebrate 100 years, Tonic takes a look at the history — and values — of an organization that shapes our nation for the better.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if everyone pledged to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent?

In the past 100 years since the Boy Scouts of America was founded, 112 million boys have raised their right hand to live up to those homespun standards and uphold the Scout Law, earning merit badges and volunteering for service projects ranging from food collection to conservation.

And a significant number of scouts have grown into conscientious adults who continue to contribute in ways, large and small, to the social good.

A century ago today, former president Theodore Roosevelt helped found the Boy Scouts of America and served as its first and only Chief Scout Citizen.

Since then there have been 18 other US presidents involved with scouting in some capacity, including Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford and John F. Kennedy, each of whom spent at least some of their childhood in a Scouts uniform.

No other US youth organization has served as many boys and none can boast such a long roster of luminaries who have, later in life, made such significant impact in politics, public service, commerce, sports, science and entertainment, to name a few.

Today, there are 3 million youth Scout members guided by another 1.1 million adult members involved in volunteer and community service projects, crafting boyhood memories and building a foundation for the men they will become.

Over the years, many notables have attributed their achievements to their association with scouting. Jimmy Stewart, who was a US Air Force Brigadier General, as well as a movie star, was quoted as saying he wouldn’t trade his experiences in Scouting for anything. And just this month, Ed Begley told Tonic  that his green roots can be traced to a love of nature that sprouted when he was a scout.

Other well-known actors have been scouts, too, like Ashton Kutcher, Richard Gere and Henry Fonda. Harrison Ford taught Reptile Study as a Life Scout and made movie history when he played the fictional Life Scout Indiana Jones. Jerry Mathers, known as “The Beaver” in that boy-next-door ’60s TV show Leave it to Beaver was a Cub Scout in California.

In 2007, he recalled his audition to a reporter in Parade Magazine, saying, “I had just joined the Cub Scouts, and I had my first Cub Scout meeting and didn’t want to miss it. My mom told me to wear my uniform to the audition and she would drive me to Cub Scouts right after it. I went in and the producers said, ‘Why are you so fidgety, Jerry?’

And I said, ‘I don’t want to be here because I have a Cub Scout meeting.’ My mom said that probably wasn’t the best thing to tell them! That night the producers called and said I had the part. And the reason they picked me was that they’d rather have a child that wanted to go to a Cub Scout meeting than to be an actor.”

Athletes on every field, court or track have been scouts including Bruce Jenner in track and field, Mark Spitz in swimming, Bill Bradley in basketball, and Steve Young in football. Baseball great Hank Aaron, for example, was quoted as saying that the greatest positive influence in his life was his involvement in scouting.

And scouting has launched other high achievers whether they reach the literal heavens (astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn), the highest bench of law (US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer) or the heights of commerce (Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton).

Surprisingly long before he was making margaritas or singing about them, Jimmy Buffett was earning merit badges. Walter Cronkite practiced reciting the Boy Scout pledge years before he was delivering the nation’s nightly news. Bill Gates was doing volunteer service work as a Life Scout well before he made billions with Microsoft and then created a foundation to give much of it away to charity.

Director Michael Moore  first began his filmmaking career with his Eagle Scout project in 1970 as a high school sophomore when he photographed polluted areas in his hometown of Davison. Similarly, Steven Spielberg was an Eagle Scout who made a movie of his Scout troop while working on his photography merit badge.

He ultimately helped to design the requirements for the Cinematography Merit Badge for Eagle Scouts.

The Boy Scouts of America, which was incorporated on February 8, 1910 and chartered by Congress in 1916, has never wavered from its original purpose, which is to provide an educational program for boys and young adults to build character, promote citizenship and develop personal fitness. But since its inception, the organization has grown and changed.

It now offers a Tiger Cub program for boys in first grade and offers various levels of scouting programs all the way to Ventures for young men up to age 20. And since Arthur Eldred was recognized as the very first Eagle Scout in 1912 and Anthony Thomas of Lakeville, Minn., became the 2 millionth Eagles in 2009, an average of 5 percent of all Boy Scouts earn that most revered highest rank in scouting, including 52,025 since 2008.

In the coming months, there are a number of celebrations planned to observe the centennial of scouting. The most ambitious is scheduled for July 31 at 8 p.m. EST when — for the first time in the history of the Boy Scouts of America — the entire scouting community is encouraged to take part in a special nationwide broadcast, A Shining Light Across America, that will air festivities at the 100th Anniversary National Scout Jamboree in Fort AP Hill, Va., to communities across the country via satellite and a webcast.

Whether it’s today, on July 31, or at any other point during this centennial year of Scouting, we here at Tonic hope you’ll take a moment to think about, thank, and support the Boy Scouts in your own community. 

After all, your support of their efforts today will help shape the men they will all become tomorrow.

 

Source: Tonic

 

Editor’s Note: Logo courtesy of  Boy Scouts of America  and photo by a la Corey via Flicker

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

God’s Strength Available

By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Feb. 6, 2010

Do you know what “Joylogy” means? It is the study of caring, sharing, and listening and Sacrifice.

This was written by Mr. Jeineke in 1975

We would like to know what you think: dan@youngchronicle.com

What is a Joyologist? A joyologist then would be one who studies joy logy. Frankly our world could use a great many joyologists whose mission in life is to actively research the effects of discussing and sharing joy.

The research could branch out into how joy affects our careers, family lives, and friendships. The very act of doing the active research should spread jubilation throughout the world and bring about positive results. What a fun job!

All one needs to start with is to share the words joyism, joy logy, and joyologis with others. Use the words daily and make them a part of the world’s vocabulary.

The upcoming year is going to challenge us all. Here is something we need to think, this is from an unknown reader. It is called: God’s Strength Available

 

 

By Unknown

A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The lad dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With a little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy and the rock was very huge.)

When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall. Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved-but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration.

All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father. Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!

“No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.” With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

Do you have “rocks” in your life that need to be removed? Are you discovering that you don’t have what it takes to lift them? There is One who is always available to us and willing to give us the strength we need. Isn’t it funny how we try so hard to do things ourselves. Sadly, many adults who have been Christians for years are trying to do everything themselves and only turning to God as a last resort. God wants to be your first resort. Let Him help you with your trials, tribulations, and temperament. He loves you so much … all He wants you to do is ask Him to help.

 

 “Do you know? Have you heard? The Lord is everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
Ephesians 40:28-29

 

Source: Joyology

Issues for 11-year-Old Mom

By Fox News
Feb. 5, 2010

For many 10 and 11-year-old girls, life is all about talking to their friends, learning the lyrics to the latest Taylor Swift song and making plans to go to the mall. But, what happens when a child that young goes down the road of an adult?

It’s happened in the Northeast where an 11-year-old girl just became a mother. She gave birth to a baby boy this week, becoming one of the youngest mothers in the history of the United States.

And now that she is a mother – does that mean she’s technically an adult who can make adult decisions?

Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ senior judicial analyst answered a few legal questions for FoxNewsHealth.com.

 

Q: What is the law when a minor gets pregnant?

A: A mother who is a minor has the same rights of motherhood — the right to make unfettered decisions about the raising of the child — as an adult mother, depending upon her age and level of maturity.

The courts have several rules of thumb that they follow. If the minor is 12-years-old or younger, she is presumed to lack the maturity to make unfettered child-rearing decisions; and the place where the baby was delivered is obliged to deliver the minor and the baby into the hands of a competent adult who agrees in writing to be a guardian and to advise the minor that she must live with and make child-rearing decisions in conjunction with the guardian.

 

Q: What if the child is between the ages of 12 and 16?

A: If the mother is 16 or older, she is presumed to be mature enough to raise the child unimpeded by a guardian or any court and the place that delivers the baby is free to hand the baby to the minor alone.

If the mother is between 12 and 16, it is the duty of the physicians who delivered the baby to involve the mother with a guardian who will live with her, or to petition a court of competent jurisdiction to address the matter, depending upon the physicians’ objective opinion of the minor’s level of maturity and access to material resources.

 

Q: Are there exceptions?

A: Note that the scenario above presents merely guidelines and presumptions, not hard and fast rules of law. Thus, for example, it is theoretically possible that a 10- year-old could possess the maturity to raise a child unimpeded by a guardian (though, I know of no case that has found this to be so); and it is theoretically possible that a 16-year-old may require a full-time guardian (I know of many cases that stand for this).

There are many other lawful obligations imposed upon physicians who deliver babies from minors, but they do not involve the emancipation of the mother.

 

Q. What exactly does emancipation mean?

A: The paragraph above provides guidelines for the ages of emancipation for minor mothers. “Emancipation” in this context means that a child is no longer subject to her parents and is free to live and to raise her children as she wishes.

 

Source: Fox News

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Sack Lunch

by Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Feb. 3, 2010

This was send to us by a couple of our readers Derick & Ellen. Who has received it from some one else. We don’t know who the author of this great story is. I believe they would want it that way….. We want to share this with you. It brought tears to my eyes as I was reading this.

We always love when we get stories and messages from you the readers.

This reminded me of the time when my fellow Vietnam Vets came home back from the war. They would have loved for this to have happaned to them. All they got was that they were called “baby killers”.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

 

The Sack Lunches

 

by Unknown

In fact today on my flight a first class passenger gave up his seat to a military fellow.  On a lot of my flights people offer to buy those snacks and such, but not always.  

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. ‘I’m glad I have a  good book to read.

Perhaps I will get a short nap,’ I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.

‘Where are you headed?’ I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.   Petawawa. We’ll be there for two weeks for special training, and  then we’re being deployed to Afghanistan after flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars.

It would be several hours  before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time…

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch.    ‘No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn’t be worth five bucks.  I’ll wait till we get to base.’

His friend agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch.   I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a  fifty dollar bill.  ‘Take a lunch to all those soldiers.’

She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she  thanked me.   ‘My son was a soldier in Iraq; it’s almost like you are doing it for   him.’

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, ‘Which do you like  best – beef or chicken?’

‘Chicken,’ I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class.

‘This is your thanks….’

After we   finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room.   A man stopped me. ‘I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.’ He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, ‘I want to shake your hand.’  

Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain’s hand.    With a booming voice he said, ‘I was a soldier and I was a military pilot.

Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.’ I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs.    A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word.

Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars.

‘It will take you some time to reach the base… It will be about time   for a 
sandwich.

God Bless You.’

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers.

As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little…

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America ‘ for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.’

That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.’

May God give you the strength and courage to pass this along to everyone on your email buddy list….?

I JUST DID

 

Let us pray…

Prayer chain for our Military…. Don’t break it!

Please send this on after a short prayer… Prayer for our soldiers doesn’t break it!

Prayer:

‘Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they 
perform for us in our time of need.   Amen.’

Prayer Request: When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world.

There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book. Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, & others deployed in harm’s way, prayer is the very best one.

GOD BLESSES YOU FOR PASSING IT ON!

Bipolar Parents Affect their Kids with Mental Woes

By AJP
Feb. 1, 2010

NEW YORK (Reuters Healt) – Your preschool child is throwing a fit: is it just a temper tantrum, or could it be an early sign of something more serious, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or oppositional defiant disorder? The answer may lie in your own mental health.

According to a new study, young children whose parents have bipolar disorder — a mental illness marked by severe mood swings from depression to mania — have an eight-fold higher risk of ADHD relative to young children of mentally healthy parents.

They also have a six-fold high risk of having two or more mental disorders.

The study, led by Dr. Boris Birmaher of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania compared 121 children ages 2 to 5 from 83 parents with bipolar disorder with 102 children of the same age from 65 comparison group parents with no history of bipolar disorder.

The researchers excluded parents who had ever been diagnosed with schizophrenia, mental retardation, or mood disorders stemming from substance abuse, medications, or medical conditions.

Their results, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, point to an elevated risk for ADHD and other psychiatric disorders among children of parents with bipolar disorder.

And while only three children of bipolar parents had mood disorders, children of parents with bipolar disorder, especially those with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder, had significantly more severe manic and depressive symptoms than comparison children.

While diagnosing a preschooler with mania is a controversial endeavor, the investigators point to previous studies showing that preschoolers can indeed be diagnosed reliably with a psychiatric disorder, including bipolar disorder, as young as age 2.

They acknowledge in their report that parents with bipolar disorder may witness behaviors in their own children that remind them of their own symptoms. Such watchful anxiety may be justifiable, as “The single largest risk factor for the development of bipolar disorder is a positive family history of the disorder,” the investigators note.

As with most medical issues, there is a benefit of early detection, Birmaher and colleagues note. Psychosocial interventions aimed at helping preschool children regulate their mood, they point out, have been found to be useful in preschoolers with disruptive behavior disorders and in older children with signs of mood disorders.

And effective treatment of mental health problems in parents “may diminish the severity of, and perhaps delay or prevent the new onset of,” similar problems in preschool children of parents with bipolar disorder.

SOURCE: Lifescript

 

 

Editor’s Note: This article was published in American Journal of Psychiatry on Jan. 15, 2010.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Students across America Helping Haiti

By Jill Lederman
Feb. 2, 2009

Students in Pennsylvania are collecting pennies in jars. Fourth-graders in Iowa are holding a lollipop sale. Kids in a Michigan school are going class to class to ask for donations. And a school in New Jersey asked kids to pay a dollar to wear regular clothes instead of their uniforms.

These are just some examples of how kids are raising money to help Haiti. A very destructive earthquake struck that Caribbean nation last month. Tens of thousands of people died, and many more were injured.

The nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas were left in ruins.

It’s likely to take many months—even years—for Haiti to recover from this earthquake. Haiti was already a very poor nation.

Getting water, food, and medical aid to people there remains an urgent need.

Experts say the best way to help is to donate money to groups carrying out relief efforts. People worldwide have answered that call. Kids across America are doing their part too.

Kids in Renea Boles’s fourth-grade class in Glenside, Pennsylvania, were saving pennies to help pay for a new school playground. But they decided the people of Haiti need that money more.

“The kids there don’t even have a school, and we’ll still have a playground,” said Lucy, a student in Ms. Boles’s class.

Her classmate Julie says helping people makes her feel proud. “Supporting and helping people reminds me of how lucky I am, and . . . that everything isn’t always about me.

To help others is always the right thing to do,” she said.

 

 

THINK AND WRITE 

Read today’s story about kids raising money to help earthquake victims in Haiti, and then use what you’ve learned to respond to this writing prompt

 

Source: Scholastic News Online

 

Editor’s Note: Students stand before a sign made to raise awareness and money for Haiti relief efforts. (Photo: Larry Schwartz)

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Honoring Vietnam Vets

By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Feb. 1, 2010

 As a former U.S. Marine Vietnam Vet myself, I was very honored and proud to receive this e-mail from one of my readers.

I know that all vets will get the same feeling that I got Proud, Honored and Thankful.

Someone spent a lot of time on this and it is truly remarkable.

Someone sent me the link which is a virtual wall of all those lost during the Vietnam War with the names, bio’s and other information on our lost comrades.

It is a very interesting and amazing  link, and those who served in that time frame and lost friends or family can look them up on this site. 

Pass it on to other veterans who you think would like this.

First click on a state……then when it opens a city ………and names…….
then it should show you a picture of the person or at least his bio and medals……

This is amazing!

I believe everyone that goes to this  will know someone who is on the Wall……..

 

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to hear from you if you know of someone on this wall, their story and how it has affected you. dan@youngchronicle.com

We Can Learn from 12 Year Old Stock Market Smarts

By Robbin Friedman
Feb. 1, 2010    

Do you ever wonder about the smartest way to spend your allowance? Twelve-year-old Fabian Fernandez-Han might have a few good ideas for you. Fabian won the NYSE Financial Future Challenge, sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Foundation.

He received a prize of $2,500 and had the honor of ringing the closing bell at the stock exchange on January 11.

The contest aimed at getting young people to think about money management and investing. Kids ages 6 to 19 were asked to create a product idea that would teach their peers about finances and the stock market, and inspire them to think about saving or investing money.

Along with the NYSE Foundation, two other groups sponsored the contest: By Kids for Kids (BKFK), which encourages innovation by young people, and education company K12 Inc.

Financial experts chose five finalists, including Fabian, from thousands of entries. Voters on BKFK.com picked Fabian’s “Oink-a-Saurus” as the winner.

 

An Imaginary Piggy Bank on Your Phone

Fabian’s Oink-a-Saurus is an idea for an iPhone or iPod app, a computer program that runs on Apple phones and MP3 players. Oink-a-Saurus would gather information about people’s interests and spending habits by tracking what they browsed online or bought in stores.

Like an imaginary piggy bank, Oink-a-Saurus would then show how much money a user might have earned by saving and/or investing the money, instead of spending it.

Fabian explained why his idea is important. “Many kids spend huge amounts of money on things they don’t need when they should be saving and investing for their future, such as college.”

He thinks that if kids knew more about money, and how to save and invest it, they might make better choices.

 

More Great Ideas

The other finalists offered their own cool ideas for teaching kids about finance. Eight-year-old Tyra Smith proposed “Stock Pocket,” a game that would use electronic flashcards.

Players would learn facts about the stock market and win points by answering questions correctly.

Twelve-year-old Kelsey Foss suggested a reality TV show called “Stock Market Tycoon Idol.” On the show, kids would compete to make or lose virtual money by investing in the stock market.

Her plan included adult experts helping the kids and teaching the audience about money at the same time.

 

What Is the Stock Market?

Fabian and the other contestants tackled a very tough topic. Investing in the stock market is tricky even for many adults to understand. That’s one reason the NYSE and the other sponsors want to help kids learn about it early.

The New York Stock Exchange is the biggest American marketplace for buying and selling stocks, or parts of public companies. While some companies are privately owned by a person or family, many big companies divide ownership into shares, or many little pieces of the company’s total value. Together, the shares are called stock.

People can invest their money in a company by buying one or more of its shares. If the company does well, the value of the investment usually goes up. If they wish, investors can then sell their shares at a profit.

Money can be lost in the stock market as well, when the value of shares falls. Many investors lost money during the recent economic downturn.  

So what does Fabian plan to do with his $2,500 prize money? Invest it, of course.

 

WHAT’S YOUR NEWS IQ?Read today’s story, and then check what you’ve learned with this comprehension quiz.

 

 

Source: Scholastic News Online

 

Editor’s Note: Fabian Fernandez-Han was honored at the New York Stock Exchange on January 11. (Photo: Jon Whitney Studios)

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Hope For Haiti

By Dave Ramsey
Jan. 31, 2010

Sometimes it may seem like hope is hard to find.

Just look at the situation in Haiti. New heartbreaking stories come out every day. Current estimates on casualties range anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 people.

For a country that was already the poorest nation in the west, this earthquake must be the final blow, right?

Truth is, Haiti does have hope. Blake Thompson, Senior Producer of The Dave Ramsey Show, saw glimmers of hope all throughout Haiti during his visit to the devastated country last week.

 He saw hope in the resilient nature of the Haitian people and in the miracles he encountered while he was there.

Blake traveled to Haiti with SafeWaterNexus—a Tennessee-based nonprofit organization—to provide food to orphanages, medical supplies to tent cities, and respond to any other immediate needs they encountered.

When the group arrived in Port au Prince, the center of the earthquake’s devastation, he was overwhelmed by what he saw. “It looked like a massive bomb blew up the city,” Blake said.

“There were piles of buildings everywhere, bodies in the streets, and homeless people for miles and miles. The smell was terrible.”

 

One Incredible Story

While he was on the ground in Haiti, Blake provided updates to thousands of people through Dave Ramsey’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

One evening, he was checking messages and stumbled across a comment from an old college friend he had not seen in nearly two decades.

“He said a Haitian family in his church was just devastated because their father and mother are preachers in a community outside of Port Au Prince. The parents had more than 100 people staying in their crumbling church, all of them without food and water for nine days.

This family was begging my friend to help, but he didn’t know what to do. He said it was a long shot, but he sent me the address of the church in case we could get over there.”

That night, Blake prayed and developed a plan with the guys from SafeWaterNexus. The next morning, they hired a driver and a mini-bus.

“We drove to the airport, where a lot of crisis groups and nonprofits had set up headquarters, and asked them to donate any food or water they had left over,” he said.

They loaded the mini-bus with the supplies and drove through Port au Prince trying to find the pastor’s address in the middle of all the rubble. “Some roads had been totally blocked by collapsed buildings or bodies in the streets. So we had to back up and find another way,” Blake said.

 “Our driver had to create roads by driving on sidewalks and on any other area he could get us through. He even drove down a steep, curvy staircase with the bus at one point.”

After an hour of navigating through a devastated Port au Prince, they finally found the pastor’s address—a battered, old wooden church. On the front gate, a sign read “Need Help.”

When the group arrived, the pastor exited the building with his hands in the air, exclaiming, “God bless! God bless! God bless!”

Blake introduced himself to the pastor, who was extremely grateful. “He thanked us and told us God blessed him and his people that day,” Blake said.

The group unloaded enough food, water and medical supplies for more than 150 people. Afterward, they helped make sure more supplies would be coming soon.

 

“We Will Be Going Back.”

Not surprisingly, that story was just one of the many stories Blake

experienced while in Haiti. They did a lot in a short amount of time, but they still had so much more to do.

“We had an agenda, pages long, that we wanted to get to,” Blake said. “But we will be going back.”

Since returning home, Blake says everyone wants to know how to help. The answer is really simple. “Prayer and money,” he said. “Give money to an organization that is making a difference and helping people right now.

SafeWaterNexus is a great place to start. That organization was on the ground in Haiti and putting donated funds to use within days.”

Regardless of whom you donate your money to, make sure the organization has a plan for the supplies when they hit the ground.

“We saw rotting food at the airport because too many people would drop the food off and have no way to get it into the city,” Blake said.

“The organization needs to be physically capable of taking the food, water and supplies to the people. SafeWaterNexus, Samaritan’s Purse and World Vision were some of the organizations that were organized and doing great things down there.”

Most importantly, Blake said he saw prayer work in amazing ways. “God was there. I’m still trying to comprehend that. But we’re told all through Scripture that we don’t understand some things about God.

What I do understand is that we were in Haiti—and the other organizations helping out were in Haiti—because of God. We reflected God to those people.”

The challenge for us is to reflect God as well—even if we can’t volunteer on the ground. How, then, can we reflect God? The answer is simple: Give like no one else.

We can’t single-handedly restore hope to Haiti. Its resilient people will once again need to pick themselves up. But we can make a difference—a major difference—by giving like no one else.

Yes, it sounds so simple, but it’s the foundation of what Dave teaches, and it’s the reason Blake traveled to Haiti to help.

Give like no one else.

*Follow @safewaternexus on Twitter for ongoing Haiti information.

 

Source: Dave Ramsey

 

Editor’s Note: Photo credits: Esther Havens

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com  

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