Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Helen Park wasn’t awake when the Tony Award nominations were announced a few weeks ago. “My agent called me and I was still asleep!” said Park, who bears the distinction of being the first Asian American female composer on Broadway. “When I checked my phone, the first text I saw was, ‘OMG’ and the second was, ‘You’re Tony nominated.’ I just sat on my bed completely speechless for about a good 20 minutes.”
“Hiking Mount Sinai in Egypt was a divine experience,” says “#FreeRayshwan” actress Alyshia Ochse. “We hiked the mountain in the middle of the night and felt (like we were) so close to the stars that I could reach up and touch them.”
Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Dontari Poe loves football almost as much as he enjoys helping children. His Poe Man’s Dream Foundation started off with an annual free football camp for kids in his hometown of Memphis, Tenn. It has since grown into a program for children in Memphis and Kansas City, Mo., where they are given support with tech events and a three-month program called Dream Big Build Strong. “That program teaches them about healthy living and eating, and provides additional educational support,” says Poe.
“On our first trip to Guatemala, one of our [mission] members had a heart attack and passed away,” recalls actor Lucas Grabeel. “That was devastating. My parents were giving him CPR for an hour and a half while we waited for the ambulance to come. It was pretty traumatizing for a 12 year old. The next year, we brought a monument for him. I’m definitely going to go back and look for it and help people again. I’d also like time to explore the country as well. We did a little bit of that, but our job was to help people when we were there. Guatemala’s really a beautiful country.”
This little city (pop. 567), located south of St. Louis in the Ozark Mountains, is home to the Arcadia Academy, an antiques mall that used to be the Ursuline Academy, a Catholic girls’ boarding school that Bob Hope’s daughter attended.
When it comes right down to it, geocaching is just a high-tech version of hide and seek. Someone hides a box full of “treasures” in a public place–usually a park or forest–inputs the coordinates online at www.geocaching.com and then waits for people like you and me to go hunt for them.