A growing group of young Rhode Islanders is stepping up to volunteer in their world of low budgets and high drop out rates.

The Indigo Dream is the focus of this week’s Street Story and it’s the inspiration of Brett Kunzmann who started the non-profit organization in January in West Warwick and Coventry.

‘To make something better,” 17 year old West Warwick junior Mathew Couchon tells us. “You have to work for it.”

Kunzmann says the goal is to get people to focus on how to fix issues in their communities instead of just complaining about the problems. Right now, there are 20 indigo dreamers, working in a rabies clinic one weekend and cleaning up trash in a park, the next.

“I remember thinking it was a dirty park and I’m one of the reasons it’s dirty,” Couchon says.  “Why shouldn’t I clean it up?”

The volunteers come from all sorts of backgrounds but Kunzmann and Couchon are good examples that it can matter more where you’re going than where you were.

“I’ve been in and out of trouble,” Kunzmann tells us. “But not anymore.”

Couchon admits he thought he knew everything until his ‘inspiration’ was literally born when he was in 9^th grade.

“I wasn’t ready to grow up but you have to do what you have to do,” he says. “And now that I have a child, I want to make the community better for him.”

After existing for a mere four months, The Indigo Dream was recognized in a ceremony at the State House. But the volunteers say their goal is more important than awards.

“You can believe in yourself instead of a rapper or a hip hop artist,” Kunzmann says. “Look in the mirror. That’s someone you should believe in.”

The next dream is a community garden but the indigo dreamers say the sky is the limit when it comes to how much their organization can help their community.

Even when a fire doesn’t claim a life, it’s devastating to a family.  Judy Williams and her loved ones know that painfully well.

“All I could do was cry,” she told us as we put together this week’s Street Story. “As soon as I drove up to the burning house, I just cried.”

Their suddenly scorched home on Calla Street in Providence is balanced by the somewhat unexpected outpouring from their neighbors. Judy and her fiance’ John Braboy call it ‘overwhelming’.

“Furniture, clothes, a place to stay and just kindness,” Judy says.

Smoldering incense in her son’s room started the fire earlier this month. The fire damage is confined to that one room but there’s smoke and water damage everywhere.

The most difficult part about looking back is thinking of the tragedy they avoided. No one was home during the fire and no one was injured but on many afternoons Judy’s grandchildren, both infants, might’ve been napping upstairs.

“It could’ve been tragic,” Braboy says. 

Now, their friends and family are throwing a fundraiser to help them raise money to replace what the homeowners insurance does not cover.

“We really are thankful that everyone is safe but also thankful for our friends’ help,” Braboy says.

The fundraiser is scheduled for April 10th at the John Hope Settlement House in Providence. You can find out more by linking to our Street Story facebook page.

And you can watch this week’s Street Story, Kindness From Neighbors by clicking on this link.  http://www.wpri.com/subindex/on_air/street_stories

Your image of your grandfather’s local VFW post is probably filled with stale smoke and warm beer but in this week’s Street Story, a trio of new veterans tell a different story.

Posts are disappearing at an alarming rate according to Rhode Island’s commander of the VFW but with two active fronts, the number of veterans continues to grow.

Garry Crum, a veteran of two tours in Iraq with the Marines’ 6th Motor Transit Battalion was looking for a post but instead discovered what he calls a veteran generation gap.

“When you see what we’ve seen, tanks blowing up, blood on the street. There are some things you want to talk to your brothers about. You’d like to go to a VFW post to share stories and support each other.”

He called the state VFW office and was offered the Sylvester S. Payne post on Dexter Street in Providence. It was named for World War I Private Payne who died in the line of duty in France.

It was also boarded up, forgotten and packed with dust, debris and old pictures. Until now.

“We’re bringing it back to life,” Crum tells us. “For all veterans but especially the younger ones who we identify with.”

The pictures of young World War I soldiers and veterans will remain but the mission will be aimed at a new set of young faces who fought for their country just like some their grandfathers.

 I hope you watched our story on parenting your way around your potential ‘addiction’ to technology.

The bottom line is some parents are asking their children to cut back on cell phones, laptops, video games, etc. . .while at the same time staying too plugged in to their own cell phones, laptops and for some parents, video games and etc.

Bottom line 2—according to our expert—the old adage, ‘Do as I say…not as I do’ doesn’t work for technology and your children.

I received an email from Bradley Hospital in East Providence and was given this link that’s very helpful in explaining these potential issues and missed moments with your children.

(http://www.lifespan.org/bradley/news/article.php?p=1063)

And if you wanted to see our piece, hit this link.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/scitech/dangers-of-technology-addiction

In a news market like this one, it’s rare that every news outlet misses a fatal hit and run and police chase in Providence but it happened a week ago and no one can explain why.

“We wondered,” George Adams III, the father of the victim told us. “If she (the suspect) knew somebody. I didn’t know why my son’s death was ignored. My friends and family were asking the same thing.”

We found out what happened to his son Monday as you can see through this link.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/providence/providence-north-main-hit-and-run-victim-remembered

But last Thursday, after George Adams IV was hit by a van that didn’t  stop, Mr. Adams tells us the family was told they could not get a copy of the police report for fear of retaliation against the suspect, 31 year old Haley McKee of Lincoln.

“She had to know somebody,” Adams told us, also saying he did not want to even see the suspect let alone retaliate for his son’s death.

My phone calls led to a return call from Chief Dean Esserman who I connected with the Adams family. Chief Esserman acknowledged he’d ‘get to the bottom of this’.

Keep in mind, every news operation in RI makes what we call ’beat calls’ to Providence police. A fatal hit and run involving an un-shoveled sidewalk and a driver who ditches her vehicle and is eventually tracked down, arrested and arraigned is rarely missed by every station and paper for one day, let alone five.

Robert Palardy used to get hammered just about every day and spent 15 years of his life without a home but that isn’t even the low point of his roller coaster ride journey.

In 83, he was part of Operation Urgent Fury — the invasion of Grenada. Critics called us imperialists but as a Marine in a helicopter that was under heavy fire, Palardy pulled civilians to safety.

“The mother of one girl I saved has sent me a card on my birthday every year since then,” Palardy tells us in this week’s Street Story.

When he arrived home, the battle continued in his personal life. A series of events provoked a single shot that would change Palardy’s life forever.

“My wife killed herself.”

From that point on, he doused his sorrows and guilt with alcohol and eventually was homeless. Then, came November 25th, 2005, the day after his 48th birthday. 

“I got drunk and robbed a bank. Got away with more than 24 thousand but got caught about 8 minutes later, waiting for the bus.”

He says alcohol and pot was available with a bribe or two in the federal prison where he spent almost five years but Palardy tells us he finally grew up and got clean. He credits the often criticized VA and the Wilson House in Pawtucket for keeping him focused.

Now, as you’ll see in our story, he’s on the streets again offering perspective, help and an occasional hot cup of coffee.

Hit this link and see it.

http://www.wpri.com/subindex/on_air/street_stories

A five year old Middletown girl, battling a horrible disease for the second time in her young life, needs your help. Katelyn Bailey is once again being treated for a potentially deadly disease at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and doctors say she needs a bone marrow transplant.

She was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the tender age of nine months old! She beat it and was in remission until early this month. But then doctors discovered she had leukemia.

Saturday between 10 and 2, her friends and family will gather in Fall River to host a bone marrow registry drive to search for a match. The event will be held at the Fall River Fire Department Flint Station at 400 Eastern Ave.

All you have to do to register is fill out some paperwork and supply a cheek swab. A few minutes of your time could save Katelyn’s life. I’ve been through the bone marrow registry process. It’s easy and painless. Find out more through this link. http://www.marrow.org/  You can also call Nicole at 401-248-5720 for more information.

The images peer at you from a collection of calming spears of colorful light. The creator of these accidental angels is the focus of this Friday’s Street Story.  

Ruth Furtado was experimenting with something called fractally generated art but then she started twisting and turning the colorful images that resemble spin art.

“That’s when the images started to appear,” she told us.

Her website is : http://www.ahostofangels.com/A_Host_of_Angels/Welcome.html

What makes the art all the more amazing is Ruth is battling Multiple Sclerosis.

“When the MS started to get worse, I just wanted to give up. But no! Now, I have work to do.”

Her facebook page has grown steadily to a group of admirers from 20 countries.  

“One of them asked how I make such beauty with light. That made me cry.”

Ruth tells her story this Friday night at 6:15. You can also jump over to the Street Story section of this webpage by clicking right here.

http://www.wpri.com/subindex/on_air/street_stories

Your average meeting on taxes and education does not bring out the robust crowds you might expect or even hope for but a public hearing on medical marijuana; Standing room only in the DOH auditorium.

The faces of today’s ‘compassion center’ supporter may also surprise opponents of the idea. Several were senior citizens including one sweet faced woman who told the crowd in a grandmotherly voice that she puts cannabis oil in her applesauce to ease chronic pain.

Another elderly man explained that he had a different opinion about pot in the 60′s and an even stricter view when his children were teens and experimenting with the drug. But now he’s living with two replacement knees, a very sore ankle and terrible pain from arthritis.

“12 aspirin a day doesn’t do it,” he says.  “This (marijuana) is the only thing that helps.”

Three local lawmakers, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung and state reps Peter Palumbo from Cranston and Doreen Costa from North Kingstown, spoke out against potential locations  in their communities.

Fung is worried other crimes will ‘spring’ from the ‘compassion centers’ and he claims tax benefits will be out-spent by the tab for police department surveillance and other costs.

Newly elected republican Costa says her email inbox was packed with opponents while only one constituent supported the idea for the NK location.

The public opinions count five percent toward the process and while the state has the option to deny all 18 applications for various reasons, we’re told at least one is expected to be approved. But a DOH spokeswoman says there are no guarantees for the legal limit of three despite the apparent passion for the ‘compassion center’ idea.

Decision day is March 8th.

Sources claim that I was mugged, injured and left stranded somewhere in the UK. . .and I didn’t even know about it. (more…)