A MASSIVE thank you to all ECHO readers for the support you have given Liverpool Unites during 2008.

We have had a fantastic year and raised more than £100,000. Last week saw gang member Sean Mercer jailed for the murder of Rhys Jones. Rhys is the reason the ECHO started its anti-gun crime campaign.

The outpouring of grief and anger after his death was turned into something positive and we have seen the charity go from strength to strength. The support of the people of Liverpool was represented by thousands of purple ribbons and wristbands.

Liverpool Unites will always be a proud memorial to Rhys.

The charity was relaunched on what would have been Rhys’s 13th birthday on September 27, to help more children across Merseyside. Liverpool Unites fundraisers are giving out grants to children’s charities and community groups across Merseyside. The aim is to provide children with an alternative to becoming involved with crime and gang culture.

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Henry County Health Center is doing as well as or better than its peers in the areas of patient falls, medication error rate and heart attacks, according to director of patient services Ann Corrigan.

Wristbands, stickers and placards are commonly used to identify allergy warnings, fall risks, or do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders to hospital staff. The problem is, until recently, these colors were not standardized from one hospital to the next in 22 states, including Iowa.

The Iowa Healthcare Collaborative hopes to change that. IHC recently initiated the decision to standardize color-coded alerts among hospitals that already use color-coded wristbands, such as HCHC.

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The St. Joseph-Metuchen High School ice hockey team will be adding a new color to its green-and-white scheme for Wednesday night’s game against Central Conference Red Division rival Ridge — pink.

The Falcons will be doing their part in the fight against cancer when they play host to the Red Devils at 8 p.m. Wednesday night at the Woodbridge Community Center, with admission to the contest being donated to various cancer charities and treatment facilities.

The brain child of team parent Peggy Russo and coach Ryan Carter, the idea was inspired by the NHL’s “Hockey Fights Cancer” program, and cultivated during a conversation about how the team could give back to the community.

Between Russo, a former PTO president at Edison High School and veteran fund-raiser, and Carter, whose wife, Ruby, is in remission after being diagnosed with cervical cancer five years ago at age 26, the “Falcons Hockey Crushes Cancer” event was born.

“Since my wife was diagnosed with cancer, we’ve been very active with the community and trying to give back,” Carter said. “As a coach, I thought this was a great chance for these kids to give back to their community and understand that life isn’t always perfect. Cancer is something that effects most families, so I thought this was a chance for our boys to understand life a little bit.”

The Falcons players have embraced the idea, led by senior assistant captains Jake Russo and Steven Geffre.

The St. Joseph players, as well as players from Ridge, which also sports green as its primary team color, will be wearing pink all over their uniforms, a tribute to the fight against breast cancer, which has stricken family members of several Falcons players.

Geffre, who went so far as to paint his facemask pink, also bought “Live Strong” bracelets for his teammates, while Jake Russo purchased green “Falcons Hockey Crushes Cancer” bracelets to wear. (more…)

Most of us think that our health is a private, personal matter. We think it is up to us alone to make sure we are eating right or getting the right amount of exercise or even quitting unhealthy behaviors like smoking.Research, however, tells us another story. We are all much more sensitive to the clues and messages that our social environment provide. We make most of our health changes within the context of the people around us who help us identify problem behaviors and who subtly guide us either to maintain or to successfully change our behavior.

We may think we decide to lose weight entirely on our own, for example, but it is our perception of how others see us that most frequently motivates us to take action and the responses of those around us to our efforts most frequently predict the likelihood of our success. (more…)

NEWBERG — When it came time to name the pet, there wasn’t any doubt, and no hesitation.

The Chinese fighting fish was small, lean and aggressive, and the name just fit, though he isn’t sure why. Andrew Meinert called it Walter Thurmond IV.

What does a fish mean? A lot when you’re 16 and you’re trying to beat this aggressive cancer that came from nowhere. Plenty when you’re spending months in a strange city, hundreds of miles from home, getting treatment after surgeons removed an egg-sized tumor from your brain.

What does a visit by the fish’s namesake mean? A lot when you’re 17 and you’re spending your days in bed, unable to leave home. Plenty when you’re trying not to think about how the cancer suddenly reappeared, and hit you “like a bullet train.”

Everything when you recognize that this second time around, the disease does not intend to be beaten. And as you follow the instructions you received from Walter Thurmond III:

“Keep fighting.”

Why do certain athletes become our favorites? It’s as hard to explain, maybe, as why we’re devoted to their teams.

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