Twenty-three year old Blair Griffith is a pageant winner. She was crowned Miss Colorado in 2011 and Blair Griffith is Homeless. You might have heard of her. She is homeless currently because of several events that can happen to any of us. Blair had a dream of winning the pageant but never imagined that she would do so homeless.But Blair is facing the challenges of life as so many others in the country are at this moment.

Blair’s father was her biggest fan and support person. He succumbed to cancer when Blair was barely fourteen. Blair’s mom suffered from heart problems and three years ago, had a heart attack. In the interim, her mom became unemployed and subsequently, her medical insurance. Her mom was unable to manage the mounting expenses of life with all that had happened.

Dwindling finances, mounting medical costs, house payments and education loans became too much and Blair and her mother lost their home a while back. Since then, they have had to live with a gracious friend. In the middle of all of this, Blair lost her job as well. Regardless of what life has thrown at them and the tragic events at a very young age, Blair is lifting her head and marching forward for her dreams

She won the title in the state of Colorado and she is getting ready to represent Colorado in the Miss USA contest this June- thanks to the thoughtful provisions of those that support her efforts. Her sponsors are taking care of the incidentals and a designer in Chicago is creating her gowns at no charge.

It takes incredible spirit and strength to face such odds and the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries see people that are without a home and have nothing and yet they go on. Just like Blair, they have not forgotten or quit trying to achieve their dreams. A positive outlook has made the difference in helping them go from recovery to stability.

Blair Griffith lives life like it has all been a series of tests and she meets folks every day that give her the strength of will to continue onward. Her realizations that there are many others in the same or worse shape – yet they continue onward, give her courage and strength.

In turn, she inspires others to follow her lead.What a great story of persistence and human spirit as Blair and others continue to work toward their dreams.

On a given day, in any city in the world, you will see a homeless person. Five to ten percent of them will be accompanied by a pet of some description. In some areas, the percentage of the homeless accompanied by pets reaches as high as 24% based on the United States estimate of 3.5 million homeless people.

In 2006 Genivieve Fredericks was visiting New York City when she saw a homeless man begging on the street, with a dog lying at his feet. She wondered how he could have a pet and care for it if he couldn’t care for himself. This incongruity troubled her until she began seek the answers to the question. Genivieve was a pet lover and she realized that pets provided love for their humans unconditionally. The homeless were finding comfort in the pets to provide that sense of belonging and companionship that all humans seek.

In 2007, Fredericks launched PETS OF THE HOMELESS with the help of Gary Ailes and Woody Allen, local veterinarians. The trio started with donations and the help of the local media. The first day, they filled a 55 gallon trash can. Local businesses have gotten into the act sponsoring food drives such as GIVE A DOG A BONE WEEK. This particular fundraiser is now in the second year and at last count, an astonishing 79 tons of pet food have been donated.

Volunteers pick up, organize, and deliver food to the needy animals. Fredericks, who spends 30 to 40 hours a week in her Carson City headquarters, says that distribution centers have multiplied beyond anything she had expected. Collections sites have risen to 288 with 256 distribution sites in 39 states and a few in Canada.

Cash donations are used to sponsor grants for vets who hold free clinics where the homeless congregate. After hurricane Katrina, she realized that there was a need for pet disaster relief also. The love of people for pets meant that they would not leave them behind. Donations were diverted for crates and blankets for disaster-affected animals, so they could be as comfortable as possible, much to the relief of the pet owners.
Her husband Ray delivers pet food and helps with the logistics. Her daughter, Renee Lowery is an officer at FOOD FOR PETS helping to keep the non-profit organization going. Fredrick’s grandchildren put labels on bags of food and mail, and her English setter Kaiya supplies enough doggy companionship for them all.

A Starbucks Gold Card brought unexpected aid to a homeless man and helped create a new innovative way to provide assistance to those in need.

A man became homeless last winter and was out on the street with little more than a cell phone and his Starbucks Gold Card.It was because of the Starbucks card and the social media agent twitter that he was able to stay warm and safe and find new ways to impact those less fortunate.

This news story begins with the man finding himself out in the cold with nowhere to go. As a significant amount of the homeless in America find themselves, he made the local shelters a place to sleep for the night. However, it was the policy of the shelter that everyone had to leave early in the mornings when it was still very cold outside.

With it being winter, he had to find some way to keep warm so he used the Starbucks card to sit and drink coffee.While sitting there, he tweeted about the condition of the homeless and the suffering he observed. When his money began to run out, he broke down and began to ask his followers if they knew anywhere he could find assistance and stay warm. The gold card allowed him to stay connected to society while so many others in his plight simply fade away out of sight.

To prevent him from being kicked out into the cold, the generosity of people following him on twitter began to provide for his needs. At first, he began to get Starbucks cards from some and card refills from others. As the generosity of the public poured in, he began to formulate an idea. Whenever he became homeless, he tweeted and the news of his condition spread through the cyber world and the generosity of folks he did not know came to his rescue.

His idea was to begin to help other homeless folks. He began a blog that talked about the needs of other homeless people and began to ask for assistance for items that others desperately needed.Starbucks has changed his life and in turn he is changing the lives of others. He uses the internet connection to tweet or blog for needs and meets those in need at the stores.

Further work is being done by donating day old pastry to shelter and more can be done if we harness the power of generosity and the technology available.

This past weekend a private investigator in Utah delivered some very heartwarming news to a man that had basically no possessions; the man was Max Melitzer and what he found out changed his live drastically. Melitzer was reportedly pushing a shopping cart when the private investigator found him and in the cart was everything he owned; no longer will that be the case though.

Melitzer was told by the private investigator that unfortunately his brother had died last year of cancer, but the upside to the story is that he had left his entire estate to Melitzer. The private investigator did not announce how much money or property was given to Melitzer but he said it was significant and would be more than enough to survive off of for quite some time.

The private investigator has reportedly been searching for Melitzer for nearly 3 months and in that time he went through various different steps to find the homeless man; Melitzer’s extended family is happy to hear that he was found and that the inheritance will finally be finalized following the brother’s death.

A press conference is being scheduled for sometime this week but at this time it is unknown if the family or Melitzer will participate. They have all expressed gratitude to the investigator as well as relief to know that Melitzer has finally received what was rightfully given to him by his late brother that passed away last year.

The six-mom pack attack, a group comprised of 6 moms who are between them raising 19 kids, will run a total of 198 miles in June for the Ragnar relay. The race is set in Chicago and is to help raise money for the homeless.

The six-mom pack attack is made up of six women who work full time jobs and or raising families. They are all marathon runners and really excited about the prospect of doing this relay.

The relay will start in Madison Wisconsin and extend to Montrose Beach on Chicago’s lakefront. It will have teams of runners doing legs of the relay and will cover 200 miles to raise money for the back on my feet project for the homeless.

The group includes Stacy Abel, Whitney Martin, Jennifer Falk, Karen Redmond, Allison Harris, and Kim Busch. The busy moms are excited and can’t wait to get started on this project. They are hoping to be an inspiration to other moms that want to get in shape.

The relay begins Friday and will run over into Saturday causing people in the relay to run in the dark. The six-mom pack is being sponsored by running right. Running Right is a specialty store and the women are super excited to have the store helping them out.

Four of the women in the group are over 40 but all of them are in great shape. Karen Redmond the leader of the group put them together after hearing about the Ragnar relay and wanting to have a fit team for the project. She couldn’t have chosen a better set of moms to run with.