A Journey of Hope to Enhance the Quality of Life

DAVENPORT, IA- On Thursday, July 12, a team of cyclists participating in the 25th Journey of Hope, presented by KRG Capital, will arrive in Davenport as part of a nine-week, 4,000-mile cycling event across the country to raise funds and awareness for people with disabilities.

That evening, the team will have dinner and a Friendship Visit with the City of Davenport Parks and Recreation at 6:00 p.m. location TBD.

Journey of Hope is a program of Push America, the national philanthropy of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity, which raises funds and awareness for people with disabilities. The Journey of Hope team consists of men from Pi Kappa Phi chapters across the country. The team will cycle an average of 75 miles per day, beginning in San Francisco and Seattle and ending in Washington, D.C. on August 5.

At stops across the country, the three routes (North, South and TransAmerica) will distribute grants directly to assist organizations in serving people with disabilities. For the team, the real journey will not be on a bike, but spending time with the people for whom they are riding. The Journey of Hope team members will spend every afternoon with people with disabilities in many different community events and activities. These men are striving for community inclusion of people with disabilities and are helping to break the barriers of society that keep people of all abilities from living life to the fullest.

This year marks Push America's 35th anniversary and Journey of Hope's 25th. The organization was founded in 1977 with the hope of committing its members to enhance the lives of people with disabilities. With the combined efforts of sponsors and individual team members, this year's Journey of Hope will raise more than $600,000 on behalf of people with disabilities. Push America and Pi Kappa Phi have raised over $15 million to date and continue to be on the cutting edge of the disability movement.

by gardening expert, TV/radio host & author Melinda Myers

Add a little extra color and motion to your summer garden with containers designed to attract birds and butterflies. Many garden centers continue to sell annuals throughout the summer and many of these mid-season annuals are a bit bigger, providing instant impact.

It's easier than you think to attract birds and butterflies and the good news is you don't need a lot of space to do it.  Container gardens give you the ability to attract wildlife to your backyard, patio, deck or even balcony. Simply follow these four steps and your garden will be filled with color, motion and a season of wildlife.

1-      Provide food for birds and butterflies.  Include plants with flat daisy-like flowers like pentas, zinnias, and cosmos to attract butterflies. For hummingbirds, include some plants with tubular flowers including nicotiana, cuphea, salvia, and fuchsia. And don't forget about the hungry caterpillars that will soon turn into beautiful butterflies. Parsley, bronze fennel, and licorice vines are a few favorites that make great additions to container gardens. You can even create containers that will attract seed-eating birds. Purple Majesty millet, coneflower, coreopsis, and Rudbeckias will keep many of the birds returning to your landscape.

2-      Include water for both the birds and butterflies.  It's a key ingredient and a decorative small shallow container filled with water can be included in a large container.  Or include a free-standing birdbath within your container collection.  I used a bronzed leaf birdbath in just this way.  It created a great vertical accent, added interest to a blank wall and provided a water supply for the birds.

3-      Give them a place to live and raise their young. Add a few evergreens, ornamental grasses, and perennials to your container garden.  Use weather resistant containers that can tolerate the extreme heat and cold in your garden.  Then fill with plants that are at least one zone hardier.  Or add a few birdhouses.  These can be included in the container or mounted on a fence, post, or nearby tree.

4-      Skip the pesticides, please.  Nature, including the birds you invite into your landscape, will devour many garden pests.  Plus, the chemicals designed to kill the bad guys can also kill the good bugs and wildlife you are trying to attract.  And, if pests get out of hand, use more eco-friendly products like soaps, Neem, and horticulture oil as a control mechanism.  And, as always, read and follow label directions carefully.

And to conserve time and energy, try using one of the self-watering containers or hanging baskets that are on the market.  This helps to make it both easy and convenient when time constraints and vacations get in the way of providing ideal care.  I recently tried using one of the Gardener's Supply Easy Roller self-watering containers.  I filled one with wildlife-friendly petunias along with papyrus and golden moneywort.  After a five-day trip during hot dry weather I returned to find my container garden in great shape and hummingbirds visiting the flowers.

So gather your family and get started planting your wildlife container garden today.

Nationally known gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has more than 30 years of horticulture experience and has written over 20 gardening books, including Can't Miss Small Space Gardening. She hosts the nationally syndicated Melinda's Garden Moment segments which air on over 115 TV and radio stations throughout the U.S. and Canada. She is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and writes the twice monthly "Gardeners' Questions" newspaper column. Melinda also has a column in Gardening How-to magazine.  Melinda hosted "The Plant Doctor" radio program for over 20 years as well as seven seasons of Great Lakes Gardener on PBS. She has written articles for Better Homes and Gardens and Fine Gardening and was a columnist and contributing editor for Backyard Living magazine.  Melinda has a master's degree in horticulture, is a certified arborist and was a horticulture instructor with tenure.  Her web site is www.melindamyers.com

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FAYETTE, IA (06/27/2012)(readMedia)-- Area students were recently named to the Upper Iowa University Dean's List for the spring 2012 semester. To be honored, a student must have earned a minimum 3.50 grade point average for the semester and be enrolled as a full-time student. These students include :

• Ty Grunder, of Durant, IA

• Brandon Voss, of Eldridge, IA

About Upper Iowa University

Founded in 1857, Upper Iowa University is a private, not-for-profit university providing undergraduate and graduate degree programs and leadership development opportunities to nearly 6,800 students-nationally and internationally-at its Fayette campus and learning centers worldwide. Upper Iowa University is a recognized innovator in offering accredited, quality programs through flexible, multiple delivery systems, including online and independent study. For more information, visit www.uiu.edu.

Americans believe in heaven -- since 1997, the numbers have fluctuated from 72 to 80 percent, according to Gallup polls.

But what is heaven and what does it look like?

"Too often the popular idea of heaven is a place where you'll have nothing to do but tell a jealous God how good he is over and over for all eternity?and that wouldn't be much better than hell," says Charlie Webster, former senior engineer for NASA, Bible scholar and author of Revitalizing Christianity (www.NewCenturyMinistries.com).

"That's not Jesus' picture of heaven," he says.

Heaven will be a place with exciting challenges against a background of caring love from everyone and to everyone.

"But you don't have to wait 'til you die to experience some of the most important benefits of heaven," Webster says. "Anyone can create a real foretaste of heaven wherever they are. And you don't even have to believe in God to experience part of this?though it certainly works better if you let God help you."

"Caring about and helping with the needs and pains of others brings real joy," Webster says.

It's the same thing Jesus said two millennia ago: When you focus on yourself, you are the only one interested in helping you, he says.

"Even in places of worship, most folks are asking, 'What can God do for me?' instead of 'What could I do to make this world the caring place God wants it to be?'"

Here are three ways Webster says anybody, regardless of creed, can get a taste of heaven here on Earth:

· Forgiveness: When you forgive a hurt or transgression, there's a great sense of relief?a weight has been lifted. Animosity eats at the bearer. But how to forgive? It takes both faith and sympathy ? "faith that if the transgression needs to be punished, it will be, and sympathy because you can't know what caused someone to anger you," Webster says. "Take a road-rage scenario?some speeding motorist almost kills you. Your immediate reaction is anger. But do you know the reasons behind his risky driving? Maybe it's just that he thinks everybody should get out of his way. God will deal with that. But maybe he's responding to a genuine emergency that you might have handled the same way. If you turn the matter over to God, you can arrive home stress-free. Better yet, offer a prayer for the offender. Whatever the cause, he needs prayer.

· Helping Others: Rather than stressing over time, money and travel logistics for a vacation focused on pampering yourself, Charlie suggests helping others in the form of a mission trip -- an all-around win. Volunteers often see a new part of the world; but more importantly they come home with wonderful new friends and the knowledge that they've made the world a better place. And you can usually find a trip that's already planned and priced at reduced rates. When your mission vacation is over, you'll truly be recharged and refreshed and you'll have memories you could never get on a vacation focused on yourself.

· Having a Marriage that Works: By far the best marriages are the ones in which couples have asked themselves "how can I make his/her life better" rather than saying "I want him/her because he/she satisfies my needs." Such marriages almost never end in divorce, Webster says. "Even couples who never go through a ceremony can experience this. God never demanded a ceremony?he demands the unselfish love that he knows will bring us true joy."

"In the end heaven is really more about relationships than where you are," Webster says. "It's not fluffy clouds, scratchy robes, and awkward wings. The heaven Jesus taught about is an active life in an environment of unselfish caring ? the kind of environment that builds strong bonds."

"If you accept that the after-life taught by Jesus is real, then doing this in your daily life prepares you for an eternity of ever-greater joy. It's a life of unselfish caring that brings the kind of joy that will make heaven, heaven."

About Charlie Webster

As an engineer, Charlie Webster headed NASA projects for several years; as a Bible scholar, he has taught biblical studies at the college level. Webster has a son and daughter, and was widowed in 1999. He has been happily remarried since 2000.