Donors

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

A 24-hour charity marathon raised more than $600,000 for Anne Arundel County nonprofit groups this week. The "Great Give," organized by the Community Foundation for Anne Arundel County, encouraged donors to give to their favorite charities through a special website between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 7 p.m. Thursday. The event was capped with a party at Rams Head Center Stage at the Maryland Live! casino in Hanover. During the event, bonuses were give to the charities through contests,such as having the most donors overall or the most donors during certain time periods.

The Baltimore Sun today published a story outlining a handful of companies that have given big bucks to Gov. Martin O'Malley's Democratic Governors Association , and also have strong interests before the state . As we point out in our story, there's nothing improper about the gifts, though government ethics types don't like the practice. The donations haven't guaranteed success, in some cases companies opened their wallets but didn't get anything in return. (It reminds us of the famous quote by Jesse Unruh, the longtime speaker of the California House: “If you can't drink a lobbyist's whiskey, take his money, sleep with his women and still vote against him in the morning, you don't belong in politics.”)

John Jenkins knows the heartache of losing a child. But he and six other families have learned firsthand that such tragic deaths needn't be in vain. Jenkins, 56, lost his 20-year-old son 18 years ago to a motorcycle accident. But when 21-year old Joshua L. Aversano died after being struck by a car last year, Jenkins was one of six people whose lives were dramatically changed by the tragedy. Jenkins had been waiting more than two years for a new heart. Doctors were able to harvest not just Aversano's heart, but his liver, kidneys, pancreas and a lung, which also went to waiting patients.

Relatives of an 11-year-old girl who died after police say she was abducted by a registered sex offender will not have to pay for her funeral or burial. John Holloway of Holloway Funeral Home in Salisbury told WBOC-TV that local donors have paid for the funeral of Sarah Haley Foxwell. Holloway says the donors want to remain anonymous. No date has been set for the memorial service. Sarah was abducted from her home Tuesday night. Her body was found on Christmas Day after a search that included more than 3,000 volunteers.

The article entitled "Outside money cements place on Capitol Hill" (Oct. 21) really disgusted me. I realize that the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for corporations supporting candidates and that is a separate issue, but the net concept is the same. Why would corporations and individuals blow so much money on campaigns if they truly got nothing in return? In an economy where thousands are barely surviving and corporations have cut jobs, why is dumping millions of dollars to support a candidate a good idea?

Sixty-three percent of SUNDIAL respondents, representing 195 of 308 callers, say they do not donate blood, while 113 callers, or 36 percent, say they do.Of 190 non-donors who explained their position, 26 (13.6 percent) said they fear "contracting AIDS, etc." Twenty callers (10.5 percent) said they do not feel a compelling reason to give blood. Seven callers (3.6 percent) said they object on religious grounds, and 137 callers (72.1 percent) said they have other reasons."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as a scientific public opinion poll would be.

Why don't you tell your readers the truth for a change? According to The Sun, evil GOP candidates are using super PACs to "raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash on their behalf" ("In the presidential campaign, money talks," Feb. 23). Why don't you inform your readers as to how our Dear Leader raised hundreds of millions for his re-election campaign? Did this money come from the poverty-stricken and the middle class - or from "a handful of wealthy donors"? I didn't notice any coverage by The Sun about George Kaiser for example.

Carroll County General Hospital Foundation plans to honor donors who contributed to its 1989 capital campaign at a dedication ceremony today.A hospital wing that serves heart patients will be designated the Naganna Wing to recognize cardiologist Dr. Chitrachedu Naganna and his wife, family practitioner Dr. Vimala Naganna, who were major donors in the 1989 campaign.The couple declined to make public the amount they gave, hospital spokeswoman Gill Chamblin said. The wing to be named for the Nagannas includes an eight-bed critical care unit and a 32-bed bed progressive care unit for heart attack patients.

The freshman class at Loyola Blakefield is trying to carry out the school motto, "men for others," as students rally around classmate Joe Gorman. The 14-year-old, who has attended the private school since sixth grade, is fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rare genetic form of the blood disease. He needs a bone marrow transplant, but no family member is a suitable match. Gorman's classmates, who are too young to be marrow donors themselves, are raising money with carwashes, raffles and other events.

The Air Force service member infected with rabies before his organs were transplanted into several patients — including one Marylander who died — was thought previously to have been poisoned by a type of fish. Kathy Giery, a director at LifeQuest Organ Recovery Services in Gainesville, Fla., said Monday that the organ recovery service oversaw the transplant process from the rabies-infected donor. The hospital where the donor died told the organ service the person was poisoned by ciguatera, a toxin found in certain kinds of fish, she said.

For years, Jeff Mikula collected United Way donations from his fellow steelworkers at Sparrows Point. On Thursday, he - and 500 former co-workers from the now-closed plant - stood in line to receive them. The Dundalk man, who worked as an ironman for nearly 39 years at the mill, said accepting boxes stuffed by volunteers with chicken roasters and fixings for Christmas dinner was hard for the steelworkers, who were once among the charity's most generous donors in Maryland. "You see the need; you see what people are going through, the heartache," said Mikula, 57. "Steelworkers are proud people.

Defeated presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who helped do himself in with his closed-door characterization of nearly half of all Americans as content to live off federal handouts, wasted no time doubling down on the theory. He did so in a conference call with donors saying President Barack Obama won re-election essentially by bestowing "gifts" to minority voters, the young and women through his policies and campaign promises. Mr. Romney cited the extended benefits of the Affordable Care Act, free contraceptives and forgiveness of interest on college loans essentially as bribes that helped put Mr. Obama over the top. That is how he explained the overwhelming support these voters gave the president, including more than 70 percent among Hispanic and Asians and 94 percent from fellow blacks.

The city of Baltimore announced Monday it is seeking someone to donate a large evergreen tree to be placed in front of City Hall and decorated for the month of December. The donor will receive a letter of thanks from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "Ideally, the tree should be a spruce or fir tree 25 to 35 feet tall with symmetrical branches and no large holes or gaps. Pine trees with a good shape and branches will also be considered," states a release from Rawlings-Blake's press office.

Marriage, as it has existed for hundreds of years, goes far beyond the commitment of two individuals to each other. It is more about the formation of new families. The parents of marrying spouses eagerly look forward to the arrival of grandchildren after the marriage. The natural family unit has been, is, and will always be, a father (male), a mother (female) and a child. By themselves, gay and lesbian couples are by nature unable to create new human life. For this reason, gay and lesbian couples are not equal to heterosexual couples and their commitment should be recognized in a different legal institution.

The article entitled "Outside money cements place on Capitol Hill" (Oct. 21) really disgusted me. I realize that the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for corporations supporting candidates and that is a separate issue, but the net concept is the same. Why would corporations and individuals blow so much money on campaigns if they truly got nothing in return? In an economy where thousands are barely surviving and corporations have cut jobs, why is dumping millions of dollars to support a candidate a good idea?

Early stories of organ transplants told of brave pioneers who submitted to risky operations in the hope of earning a few more weeks or months of life while helping to expand the frontiers of medicine. Now, successful transplants are routine, and news reports are focusing on another kind of story -- the quiet tragedies of people in need of transplants.These people live each day hoping to hear that a heart or a lung or a liver is available to replace their own failing organ. They are waiting for the kind of miracle that happens when a death creates the possibility of new life.

Abby Ferretti, 28, is a hands-on philanthropist. Four times a week, she volunteers with an organization called Back on My Feet, where she goes on 5:30 a.m. runs with residents of local homeless shelters. She's not the type to just write a check and then forget about it, during the holiday season or at any time of year. That's why she chose to donate through GiveCorps, a Baltimore-based business that launched in August, which connects local donors to local organizations trying to fund small projects.

There are big political contributors, and then there are BIG contributors. Count Baltimore trial lawyer and Orioles owner Peter Angelos among the latter. Angelos has donated at least $1.22 million, mostly to super PACs backing Democrats, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission. And he's not the only Marylander in this seven-figure club. J.W. Marriott Jr., executive chairman of Marriott International in Bethesda, gave $1 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Art Modell did not just play a major role in the sports life of Baltimore. He and his wife Pat were among the region's most generous donors to the city's cultural institutions, including the Lyric Opera House , Walters Art Museum , Baltimore Museum of Art and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. "When Art brought his team to our great city, he brought back to Baltimore the energy and excitement that we had lost years before," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement.