As ONE members, we care. We care about the child orphaned by HIV/AIDS. We care about the village that lacks access to clean water. And we care about the millions of people throughout the developing world who will go to bed hungry tonight. For many of us, that caring is borne of our faith.

Last week, the ONE campaign asked students to take action on our challenge: to make poverty history. Now, ONE is reaching out to people of faith and engaging traditions that say that when you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness. (Isaiah 58:10)

I recently discovered I was an idealist. Well, I’ve always been passionate about many aspects of life. I’ve always volunteered and worked with many non profit groups to make my community a better place. Yet it wasn’t until recently that someone labeled me as an idealist.

Webster says an idealist is “one guided by ideals; especially one that places ideals before practical considerations.” It leads that an idealist is “an adherent of a philosophical theory of idealism; an artist or author who advocates or practices idealism in art or writing.”

A Ray of Sunshine for the Living. “What are your hopes and fears?” That is what you will hear from a hospice nurse when she walks into the home of one of her patients. Together a hospice nurse and her patient address the needs, emotions, and practical decisions of how to live until it is time for life’s most intimate passage. Death and dying is a subject we find difficult to talk about in this country. We are uncomfortable and at a loss for what to say and how to care for someone who is facing a life threatening illness. At hospice, they know all too well that talking about death, and life at the time of death can ease a difficult time.

Established in 1985, Founders Forum is a non-profit organization dedicated to the needs of entrepreneurs within the Brevard community. The organization’s mission is to serve the community by fostering the success of new and existing businesses, creating an environment where entrepreneurs are motivated, educated, and encouraged to exchange ideas and information vital to business growth.

The Founders Forum hosts five dinner meetings each year with topics ranging from financing and marketing to operations and the presentation of entrepreneur of the year award. Attendees have the opportunity to develop business relationships with fellow entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists and other business professionals. Each meeting also presents the opportunity to network with successful community industry leaders who serve as keynote speakers or panel members and provide their business expertise on numerous aspects of entrepreneurship.

Dr. King is an inspiration–and shows us how great America can become if we work together towards the common good. So much is in place to divide us. We need to build bridges–and there is a group working to build a monument in our nation’s capital that does so.

The mission of the Memorial Project, is to commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by leading a collaborative funding, design, and construction process in the creation of a memorial to honor his national and international contributions to world peace through non-violent social change.

As 2005 draws to a close and we look forward to the new year, I found this information on Citizens Against Government Waste. CAGW is the source of information on government waste and, backed by our members, CAGW works tirelessly everyday to win cuts in wasteful spending.

Bruce Wilkinson’s recent bestseller The Prayer of Jabez shined the light on an obscure Old Testament character who unleashed a powerful petition to the God of Israel that had a dramatic impact upon his life. A key portion of the prayer was Jabez’s request that God would “expand his territory.”

What this meant, explained Wilkinson, was that Jabez sought broader and deeper opportunities to be of service to God and to humankind.

The ONE Campaign grew out of the Heart of America tour in 2002, in which a busload of citizens and celebrities toured the mid-West in support of a new U.S. initiative on global AIDS. The success of that trip insured that a new constituency of Americans were raising their voices for Africa and needed to be heard. Together with the Better Safer World Campaign, representing nine of the largest, most effective private aid agencies (with 3 million supporters) working together to fight global poverty, and Bread for the World, a Christian voice for ending hunger for more than 30 years, the ONE campaign got off to a great start.

Brevard Tomorrow announces its annual Community Celebration, an event that highlights the organization’s accomplishments and honors its many volunteer team members and partners. The date is Thursday, August 25, 2005, from 8:30 am to 10:30 am, at the King Center for the Performing Arts Rotunda, in Melbourne.

Originally scheduled for June 17, Brevard Tomorrow recognized the equally important Community Leaders Breakfast -sponsored by NASA and being held on the same day- could compromise the attendance for both events, as they each invite a majority of local business and community leaders.

Growing Leaders of Worth was founded by Marlene Abbott in 2004 and is located in Rockledge, Fla. It is a woman/veteran owned corporation. Marlene served in the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corps for over 20 years, holding a variety of leadership positions. Growing Leaders of Worth provides energetic and encouraging leadership development through motivational speaking, consulting, executive coaching and education and training.

Dr. Wanda Bethea looks toward the future of Brevard County and envisions a number of key persons and groups working together to create a multi-faceted synergy that keeps the Space Coast on the cutting edge.

“I see a number of similar-type groups, such as Chambers of Commerce, working closely together to provide to the very best in terms of professional development and opportunity,” says Dr. Bethea, a Melbourne-based psychologist and executive and personal coach. ” I see a greater understanding and intermingling of various disciplines like law, government, business, education, really coming together and figuring out how to provide a service to all the citizens of Brevard.”

Is abstinence until marriage a totally foreign concept to you and your teen? And why shouldn’t it be? Everywhere teens look their society, culture and media are giving them one clear message. Sex is great. Do it now. Do it often. Plus there’s the constant pressure teens face from their peers to grow up, join the party, and act like an adult.

So if they want to have any fun, they’d better start having sex now, right? Small wonder so many teens are cashing in their virginity for sexual activity. What they’re missing is an understanding that temporary pleasure of having sex before marriage can bring long term consequences.

We usually get in trouble with our to-do’s when we over promise. We put too much on our plate, we make far more commitments than we have the time, resources, or ability to deliver on.

There are many reasons for this. For example, having a full plate may be a part of the company culture, or you may be piling on tasks to create the perception that you’re a go-getter, or you were raised with a strong work ethic. Whatever the reason, I invite you to explore it further with a coach. In this section, however, we will examine how “promise management” (explained later) can be used to restore some sanity into your work life.

Though Children’s Home Society (CHS) has provided adoption services for 102 years, our role in “special needs” or foster care-related adoptions is more recent. As a result of Community Based Care (CBC), CHS is providing adoption services for children in foster care in many parts of the state. By June 30, CHS expects to be involved with more than 500 adoptions involving children in the foster care system, compared to just 150 in 2001-02.

Kids at heart, helping Brevard’s kids! One of our area’s many service clubs is perhaps not as well known as the Rotary or Kiwanis, but is just as active in volunteerism to support community needs—and, we think, we have more fun doing it!

The Exchange Club of the South Brevard Beaches is the local chapter, founded in 1980, of a national service club whose national project is Child Abuse Prevention. We have about 30 members, most of whom are business owners and professionals in their 30, 40s, and 50s, and all of whom are young at heart. Our Friday breakfast meetings are a mixture of business—planning upcoming fundraisers and other events, honoring our Student of the Month, etc.—and lighthearted banter, laughter, and camaraderie. As one member said, “This is the most fun you can have at 7:45 in the morning!”

Hacienda Girl’s Ranch, Melbourne, is a program of the Children’s Home Society of Florida, Brevard Division.

Hacienda was originally established in 1968 by a group of caring Brevard citizens. One family anonymously donated the 25-acre campus and the Florida Federation of Women’s Club funded the construction of three buildings. In 1999, Hacienda partnered with CHS’s Brevard Division to improve and expand services.

Today, Hacienda can shelter 45 girls, ranging in age from 10-17 years old, in comfortable residential-style homes on a 25-acre campus that includes a swimming pool and basketball court. Hacienda offers mental health counseling, remedial education and vocational opportunities for each child. Some girls take part in an Independent Living Program aimed at preparing them to live on their own.

Moving in the right direction
Throughout the peaks and valleys of day-to-day life, its good to know that there is an active program in your community that works to minimize your challenges and keeps Brevard County on a level we all feel good about.

Brevard Tomorrow is a community-driven initiative focused on creating a preferred future for Brevard County. This task takes solid direction, and here’s ours: We aim to bring diverse groups from around the county together to collaborate, communicate and proactively carry out initiatives that will protect and enhance the quality of life for all our residents. Simply put, we are people who want a strong community, now and forever, through qualities like top-notch education, a sound economy, and safe, scenic streets. Brevard Tomorrow moves ever forward in the name of community excellence.

I felt honored last month to be recognized along with many others as a Brevard County “Emerging Leader” under the age of 40. Leadership Brevard sponsored the awards, organizing and throwing a great banquet complete with videographies and an improv comedy troupe. It was neat to look around the room and celebrate the accomplishments and potential of so many younger persons, both teenagers and adults.

I certainly appreciated the persons who chose to pay $50 per ticket to come out and be part of a very special night. It really gave me a sense that the larger community does value its emerging civic nucleus, that it wants to encourage the younger crowd to stick around, plant some roots here and make a difference with a long-view perspective.

Hospice is a concept of care, not a place. Hospice provides quality, compassionate health care to individuals facing life-limiting illnesses. Hospice focuses on maximizing the quality of life based on an individual’s choices, so that the person may live life as fully and comfortably as possible, for as long as possible.

Hospice has turned an eternal secret into a living principle ‚ that what is truly important is a life lived richly, deeply and meaningfully for as long as it lasts. Patients can die at home, surrounded by their families and friends, and with the knowledge that everything will be done to keep them pain free as they approach death. By promoting dignity, family, comfort and caring, hospice helps terminally ill patients and their loved ones cope with and find meaning in the end of life.

Should we send the children to the large, public elementary school, or to a smaller but expensive private school? Should I accept an offer for a higher-paying managerial job and give up the hands-on involvement, or stay at my current level and salary, but do work that I love? Should I go to graduate school now and finish in 18 months, or enter the workforce and go to grad school at night, but finish in 3-4 years?