Think

To the editor:

We are in such a state of confusion and upheaval in this world at this time. Do we as humans think that financial worries and concerns are all we should be taking notice of? If so, how very, very sad. We all need to do our part to help not only other people but all the animals that join us on this planet. The environment is crucial to all of well-being.

Please think everyone, show concern and offer that helping hand. We all can make a difference.

Pat Anderson
Orlando

Great need

To the editor:

Thousands of children in America live day-to-day moving from home to home, without the love and care of permanent families. November is National Adoption Awareness Month and as we celebrate all forms of adoption as a wonderful way to create or extend families, I would like to draw your attention to a very special group of children — right here in America — who desperately need families.

Today, more than 114,000 children entered foster care through no fault of their own as victims of child abuse, neglect or abandonment and have been permanently removed from their homes. These children urgently need to move from temporary foster homes into permanent, loving, forever families. We aren’t talking about someone else’s children, we are talking about children in our very own city where there are numerous children waiting to be adopted. The need has never been greater. More children enter foster care every year than leave the system. Sadly, these children often wait five years or more to be adopted, can move three or more times in foster care and frequently are separated from siblings. And tragically, tens of thousands of children available for adoption turn 18 and leave the system without families each year. This vulnerable population often become homeless and turn to crime as a way to survive.

If you are willing to open your heart to a child, consider foster care adoption. Or support the work of organizations that find adoptive families for waiting children.

Nicole Ward Moore, adoption attorney,
Orlando

Helpful hands

To the editor:

Thanks to an adventurous journey through Osceola County, courtesy of my GPS system, I spent what might have been a very unpleasant hour with my VW Jetta stuck in six inches of mud on the side of Hickory Tree Road (just after the bend by the orange groves where it becomes County Road 534).

I am a novelist, and I was on my way to West Melbourne for a multi-author signing to promote my most recent book release. Normally I mapquest my route, which takes me through Orlando and east on 528 to Interstate 95, and I head south from there, so when ended up south of Orlando and on roads leading past residential areas and orange groves, I figured I must have entered the wrong destination address. Long story short, I decided to make a U-turn and pull off on the shoulder to check my coordinates and destination address.

Alas, what I thought was solid shoulder turned out to be a grass-covered section of waterlogged mud. My car sank chassis-deep into the mud and I was stranded. Luckily, several people stopped to help. Though none of them had tools to tow me out, two of the people who stopped called friends. A local gentleman in a red truck answered one of the calls and came to help. VW Jettas don’t come with towing hitches, so rather than risk damaging the car, he left and came back with three more men. The four of them pushed my car out of the mud and set me back on my way to Melbourne.  

I didn’t get their names and they wouldn’t accept payment. I was 30 minutes late to my signing, but I wouldn’t have made it at all if not for them. At the signing, one of my friends and fellow authors (Linnea Sinclair) suggested I track down the paper that serves the local area where I got stuck and write to the editor to share my story in the hopes that my four good Samaritans might come forward and be recognized for their act of kindness.

I hope you will publish this story, and I hope they will come forward to identify themselves. I would very much like to know their names and addresses so I can send autographed copies of my books to them as a small token of thanks.

Cheryl Wilson
Bradenton