Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Christien Louviere is competing with 10 other community leaders to see who can raise the most money for blood cancers through June 8.
- AWARENESS
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Wednesday, April 3
Christien Louviere of Smyrna has been named as a candidate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Man & Woman of the Year campaign. Louviere joins other community leaders to see who can raise the most money for the organization within a ten-week time period starting on March 28 through June 8. Money raised during the campaign will advance the LLS mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Louviere, Anametrix's director of sales, says he's excited to part of a worthwhile campaign. "The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is a critical resource to thousands of blood cancer patients and I am thrilled to be a part of it. I look forward to my friends, family, …
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Mel Pender draws on the challenges and successes of his own life to motivate youth and effect change in his community.
Long-time Smyrna resident Mel Pender has had three lifetime’s full of success with careers as an Olympic athlete, an officer in the military and an entrepreneur. However, he says his life’s greatest work is motivating youth and helping others. Pender is no stranger to hard work and success. The Atlanta native served two tours in Vietnam, played football for the Army team, won an Olympic gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay and served as West Point Military Academy’s first black track and field coach. Now he draws on his own life story to motivate young people to achieve. “My motivation is love of God—I’m a Christian—and love of people,” he said. “I want to see people progress and stay healthy.” In addition to being a motivational speaker in…
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Smyrna resident and colon cancer survivor Dawn Gagliardi is among the hundreds of Metro Atlanta participants in The Undy 5000—a 5k race in underwear to help raise awareness for colon cancer.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Angela Chao
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The Undy 5000 5K Run/Walk to fight colon cancer will return to Metro Atlanta for the third consecutive year. Smyrna resident and colon cancer survivor Dawn Gagliardi is among the hundreds of participants who will be running in their underwear to help raise awareness for the disease this weekend in Marietta. In 2002, Gagliardi was constantly plagued with an upset stomach, discomfort, bloating and extreme pain. She was told that she had Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The IBS treatments, however, did not work for her even after countless visits to the doctor's office. After her visit to a gastroenterologist and receiving a colonoscopy, she was immediately diagnosed with stage II colon cancer at just 31 years old. Along her journey fighting the disease…
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Lenny Kapiloff and his wife Wendy have been organizing the annual GIST Cancer Research fundraiser in Metro Atlanta for five years.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Angela Chao
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Lenny Kapiloff, a Vinings resident, retail consultant and retired Home Depot executive, has an inspiring story to tell as a cancer survivor. Not only did Kapiloff survive from Gastro Intestinal Stromal Tumor, a rare type of cancer, he and his wife Wendy have been raising awareness and money for a GIST cancer research fund for the past five years. Almost eight years ago, Kapiloff was vacationing when he began to feel weak, nauseous, and lose appetite. After he went to Emory for more tests and evaluation, he was diagnosed with an uncommon type of cancer, a sarcoma—Gastro Intestinal Stromal Tumor. Kapiloff first went through surgery to remove the tumor, and about two years later, the tumors returned to his liver. He decided to go to Dana …
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
The Cobb Alcohol Taskforce teams up with civic organizations and the government to help reduce underage drinking.
The Cobb Alcohol Taskforce is conducting a community survey to help identify effective strategies to reduce underage and youth binge drinking. More than 2,000 participants from Acworth, Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs, Smyrna and unincorporated Cobb County are needed by Sept. 30. A similar survey was previously conducted in 2009 as a requirement of the Sober Truth On Preventing Underage Drinking (STOP) Grant. Click here to take the survey online or access it on the Cobb Alcohol Taskforce website at www.cobbat.org. Representatives of the following community sectors are encouraged to participate: business, civic, education, faith, government, healthcare, justice, law enforcement, media, parent, non-profit and youth. For more …
Monday, August 20, 2012
Volunteers served nearly 190,000 lunches to families in need this summer.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Angela Chao
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Monday, August 20, 2012
The Summer Lunches Program at MUST Ministries has just ended, and volunteers handed out a total of 189,648 lunches to needy children this summer—a 34 percent increase from last year. MUST started the Summer Lunch Program in 1995 in Cobb and Cherokee Counties in an effort to fight child hunger. In 2011, MUST Volunteers delivered 103,000 lunches to hungry children in Cobb and Cherokee, and the program was expanded to Douglas, Paulding, North Fulton and Gwinnett communities this year.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Meet the new commander of the American Legion Post 304, and find out how you can support and connect with veterans in Cobb County.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Angela Chao
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Monday, August 6, 2012
The North Cobb American Legion Post 304 will be hosting its 2nd Annual 5K Run on Saturday, Aug. 18 at Dallas Landing Park in Acworth. The event helps raise money to support youths and veterans programs in Cobb County. You can register online at www.active.com, or click here to download the entry form on Post 304's website.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Ryan Burton wrote "Sometimes You Gotta Fight" in honor of his stepdaughter and her battle with cancer. All the song's proceeds benefit CURE Childhood Cancer.
Life can change in an instant and for Ryan Burton that change came in fall 2011 when he learned that his two-year-old stepdaughter had acute myeloid leukemia. Burton said he and his wife Kathy felt helpless when he learned that Callie had a 50 percent chance of survival. “When you experience something like this at the front-end of it (…) you go from planning your life and planning your future to really just living by the minute because everything stops and becomes about taking care of someone you love and this could be common through any situation like this,” he said. “You kind of immediately are focused on their wellbeing and very quickly you get into wanting to help and wanting to do something.” Burton couldn’t cure Callie’s cancer …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Charles "Pete" Wood's service to Smyrna and Cobb County spans more than 50 years.
Charles “Pete” Wood is a man of few words, but his accomplishments speak for him, those and his wife Lillie who even after 52 years of marriage beams with pride when she talks about his involvement in the community. “Pete loves a challenge,” said Lillie Wood. “He loves the challenge of being involved in organizations. That’s the truth.” August 2012 will mark Wood’s 50th year on the Cobb County Hospital Authority, a job he took in 1962 when the only hospital in the county was Kennestone in Marietta. Wood said he remembers a time when there were no doctors in Smyrna either. The doctor who delivered Wood in his family’s home on Fleming Street had to drive in from Marietta. So when Wood received a call from his friend Herbert McCollum, he had …
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Smyrna Rotarian Sam Whitfield has done a wealth of good for the city and he's set to keep on giving.
At 82 years young, Sam Whitfield has left his mark on the Jonquil City. And he’s not done yet. “It’s been a good place, a real good place,’’ Whitfield said before a recent Smyrna Rotary Club meeting. Born and raised on a farm in rural Cherokee County, Whitfield signed up for the Army in 1952, and went to Korea the following year near the conclusion of the Korean War. Assigned to the 73rd tank battalion and 7th infantry, Whitfield spent six months in the combat zone. He served in the Army until 1955, when he and his wife, Grace Garren, moved to Smyrna and raised their two children. Then in 1963, he was one of the founding organizers of the Smyrna Rotary Club and later served as its third president. “It was a challenge getting started, but …
Princess Dolls & Distinguished Gents. Youth GMB
9:14 pm on Thursday, April 18, 2013
I am so blessed to know that Mel Pender is in Smyrna where I live! I attended "Camp Opportunity" at West Georgia College formed by Mel Pender in 1980! that camp changed my life forever! I now have my own youth program in Smyrna! Thanks Mr. Pender G. Marrion more ›