Davenport, IA– On October 15th, The Amy Helpenstell Foundation presented River Bend Foodbank with a check for $15,000 to support the Backpack Program. This is the 4th year The Amy Helpenstell Foundation has awarded a grant to River Bend Foodbank.

Tom Laughlin, River Bend Foodbank Executive Director, said, "This is an incredible donation and insures that children will not go hungry on the weekends throughout the school year. We are so thankful for the continued support from The Amy Helpenstell Foundation."

The Backpack Program provides children at risk of hunger with nourishing food to take home on Fridays to get them through the weekend when programs like school breakfasts and lunches are not available.  The Backpack Program targets pre-school, elementary and middle school children who are at risk of chronic hunger.  These children are identified by name by their school staff.  Each child receives a weekly food pack on Fridays to put in their Backpacks and take home for the weekend.  The food is child friendly, easily consumed and vitamin fortified. The bags contain about eight items and include two "entrees" like stew or soup, two servings of fruit, cereal, milk, and juice. The Foodbank partners with the schools to select the children and distribute the food. Currently RBFB serves 47 schools and 1,700 of the neediest children in the Quad City Area.

Philanthropist Says Money CAN Buy Happiness - But Only When You Give It Away

Many Americans are choosing to hold onto their money these days, a lesson learned from the 2008-09 financial crash.

It's good to have savings - but not to the point of hoarding, says entrepreneur and philanthropist Tim McCarthy, author of "Empty Abundance," (mindfulgiving.org).

Americans are saving at a rate of 5.30 percent, well above the record low of 0.80 percent in 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The world's billionaires are holding an average of $600 million each in cash, which is more than the gross domestic product of Dominica, according to the new Billionaire Census from Wealth-X and UBS. That's up from $60 million the previous year, signaling that the very wealthy are keeping their money on the sidelines and waiting for an optimal investment time.

"All of us could invest part of our 'fortune,' great or small, on something that gives back on a deeper human level, such as non-predatory loans to individuals from impoverished communities,"

McCarthy diverts all of his business profits annually to his foundation, The Business of Good, which invests in socially conscious businesses and scalable nonprofit concepts.

He reviews what everyone has to gain from mindful giving.

•  Money buys you happiness - up to $75,000 worth. Life satisfaction rises with income, but everyday happiness - another measure of well-being - changes little once a person earns $75,000 per year, according to a 2010 Princeton study. Another widely published survey by psychologist Roy Baumeister suggested that "happiness, or immediate fulfillment, is largely irrelevant to meaningfulness." In other words, so many who finally achieve financial excess are unfulfilled by the rewards that come with that.

•  Remember the wealth disconnection to overall fulfillment. A Gallup survey conducted in 132 countries found that people in wealthy countries rate themselves higher in happiness than those in poor countries. However, 95 percent of those surveyed in poverty-stricken countries such as Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan and Sierra Leone reported leading meaningful lives, while less than 60 percent reported the same in wealthier countries.

"While more investigation to wealth, happiness and well-being is certainly in order, I think it's clear that while money is important, it cannot buy purpose, significance or overall satisfaction," McCarthy says.

•  Giving money reliably equals happy money. Two behavioral scientists, Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, explore in their recent book, "Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending," what makes people engage in "prosocial behavior" - including charitable contributions, buying gifts and volunteering time. According to Dunn and Norton, recent research on happiness indicates that the most satisfying way of using money is to invest in others.

In 2010, multi-billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates co-founded The Giving Pledge, a long-term charitable effort that asks the wealthiest among us to commit to giving more than half of their fortunes to philanthropy. Among the first to join, Michael R. Bloomberg wrote in his pledge letter: "If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing - by far - is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children."  To date, 115 of our country's 495 billionaires have pledged.

•  Anhedonia, amnesia and the fallacy of consumption. Anhedonia is the inability to enjoy activities that are typically found pleasurable.

"After making my wealth, I found that I suffered from anhedonia," McCarthy says. "Mindful giving - intelligent and conscious giving to those who need it - turned out to be my best therapy."

Everybody has experienced the limits of consumption, the economic law of diminishing returns. One cookie is nice and so, too, is your first $1 million. But at some point, your ability to enjoy eating cookies or earning millions diminishes more with each successive one.

"Everyone learns this lesson, yet the horror is that so many of us succeed in forgetting it," McCarthy says. "I think that, in every moment, we need to remind ourselves that continually reaching for the next 'cookie' is not in our best interest."

About Tim McCarthy

Tim McCarthy's first business, WorkPlace Media, eventually built a permissioned database of 700,000 gatekeepers who reach more than 70 million employees with incentives for clients such as Coca-Cola, Lenscrafters and McDonalds. He sold the company in 2007 and recently bought it back. In 2003, he partnered with his son, Tim Patrick McCarthy, to open Raising Cane's of Ohio, which had 13 stores with over $30 million in revenue in 2013. McCarthy, author of "Empty Abundance," (mindfulgiving.org), earned his bachelor's in political science and MBA from Ohio State University. In 2008, he received the Fisher Alumnae Community Service Award and was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Staff Sgt. Maurice L. Fevold to be laid to rest Monday at Blossom Hill Cemetery in Badger, Iowa

 

(DES MOINES) - Gov. Terry Branstad has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in Iowa from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, October 20, 2014, in honor of Staff Sgt. Maurice L. Fevold, formerly of Badger/Eagle Grove, Iowa.

The Governor's directive applies to all U.S. and state flags under the control of the state. H.R. 692, signed in 2007, requires federal government agencies in the state to comply with the Governor's Executive Order that the U.S. flag be flown at half-staff in the event of the death of a member of the Armed Forces.

Flags will be at half-staff on the State Capitol Building and on flag displays in the Capitol Complex, and upon all public buildings, grounds, and facilities throughout the state. Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flag at half-staff for the same length of time as a sign of respect.

Fevold, a 21-year old Badger/Eagle Grove, Iowa native was assigned to the 599th Bomber Squadron, 397th Bomber Group (Medium), U.S. Army Air Corps. On Dec. 23, 1944, the first day of aviation operations for the Battle of the Bulge, Fevold, along with five other crew members, took off from Saint Quentin, France onboard a B-26G Marauder bomber aircraft to attack an enemy-held railroad bridge in Eller, Germany. Their aircraft was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire near Seffern, Germany, which borders Belgium. A total of 10 U.S. aircraft were recorded as lost in the vicinity of Seffern during this specific mission.

Fevold, the aircraft's armorer-gunner, and the entire crew were officially declared deceased on Dec. 23, 1944, but their remains were never recovered. In November 2006, the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command - Central Identification Laboratory (JPAC) received information of a possible aircraft crash site near Allmuthen, Belgium. In March 2007, a JPAC Investigation Team surveyed the purported crash site, where human remains and physical evidence were recovered in 2012 by JPAC personnel.

In 2014, JPAC's Research and Analysis Group concluded a historical association existed between the artifacts and human remains recovered at the Belgium excavation site and Missing Air Crew Report #11985 from World War II. Mitochondrial DNA testing positively identified the remains as belonging to Fevold and other crew members from the missing aircraft.

Maurice Fevold was born Feb. 21, 1923 near Badger, Iowa to John and Carrie (Thorson) Fevold. He grew up in the Badger/Eagle Grove, Iowa area and was a 1941 graduate of Eagle Grove High School.

Fevold enlisted in the U.S. Army on April 12, 1943, and transferred into the U.S. Army Air Corps in June 1943. Fevold attended armament training at Lowry Field, Colo., aerial training at Ft. Myers, Fla., and then B-26 flight training at Barksdale Field, La.  He left the U.S. for duty in the European theater in April 1944 and was assigned to the 599th Bomber Squadron, 397th Bomber Group, Medium, U.S. Army Air Corps.

His military awards and honors include the Purple Heart (posthumous), Air Medal (11 awards), Army Good Conduct Medal (posthumous), European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with one silver service star), World War II Victory Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, and Enlisted Aircrew Member Wings.

He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Jeanette Prime. He is survived by great nephews and great nieces: William Bushman of Missouri; Robert Sweeney of Hawaii; Michael Sweeney of Washington; Vicki Riley of Iowa; and Shelly Everheart.

Visitation will be held on Sunday, Oct. 19 from 5-7 p.m. at Bruce Funeral Home, 923 1st Ave. South, Fort Dodge, Iowa. A memorial service will be held on Monday, Oct. 20 at 2 p.m. at Bruce Funeral Home, followed by interment at the Blossom Hill Cemetery, Badger, Iowa (located northeast of Badger on 110th St. and Racine Ave.), with full military honors provided by the Iowa National Guard. The public is welcome to attend the visitation, funeral, and graveside service.

Memorial contributions may be directed to the family in care of Bruce Funeral Home, 923 1st Ave. South, Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501. Contact the funeral home with any questions at 515-576-5117.

Schilling speaks out on Ebola outbreakSchilling: "We must protect our population, first and foremost."

Schilling suggests using small, private aircraft to transport CDC technicians, medical experts, and medical supplies

EAST MOLINE, IL -- Former Congressman and Congressional candidate Bobby Schilling (R-Colona) is calling for an immediate halt of commercial air traffic in and out of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three countries where the Ebola virus is out of control, and any new countries that experience an uncontrolled outbreak.

"I have been constantly amazed by the ineptitude of President Obama and international agencies who keep saying it would be counter-productive to halt flights in and out of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia because there would be no way to get world health experts and medical supplies into and out of those countries," Schilling said.

"We must protect our population, first and foremost. The answer is to immediately halt commercial air traffic with hundreds of civilian passengers who could then spread the virus all over our country and the world," Schilling continued. "Instead, we should be using U.S. government small planes for Center for Disease Control (CDC) personnel and technicians who can wear masks and hazmat suits on the way out. A small plane with a few experts and medical supplies is infinitely better able to have both the passengers and the plane itself controlled and quarantined upon arrival."

"It absolutely defies common sense why this hasn't been done already," Schilling said.

Schilling noted that neighboring countries Nigeria and Senegal have stamped out their Ebola outbreaks in small part by sealing their borders with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. In this case, the world is like a hospital?those who have deadly contagious diseases are put in isolation until they are out of danger of spreading the disease.  The same needs to be done with countries.  It seems to have been part of the solution for Nigeria and Senegal.  

Nigeria had 20 Ebola cases and eight deaths with 900 people potentially exposed. They got to business with a massive sense of urgency from the beginning with outstanding epidemiological detective work, and they closed their borders with countries where the outbreak was uncontrolled. 

Schilling also said he has heard from numerous doctors and nurses here at home who are alarmed at the very slow progress in developing protocols on what to do if confronted by the need to treat a potential Ebola victim. 

"Our Administration and healthcare leaders need to work around the clock until this vital planning is done because the Ebola virus is already here," concluded Schilling. 

Bobby Schilling (R-Colona) was born and raised in Rock Island, Illinois. He has been married to his wife, Christie for 28 years and together they have 10 children. Schilling represented the Illinois 17th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011-2012, serving on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Agriculture Committee, and the House Small Business Committee. Schilling is seeking another term and is running against incumbent Congresswoman Cheri Bustos.