Just thinking about fireworks gives me a little shiver of fear, beautiful but also very dangerous and loud! Each year most of us Americans have a picture of the fourth of July and fireworks, they just go together naturally… There are many times of the year though that fireworks are used in abundance, the winter holiday season to say one time… It’s safe to say that as a whole we feel festive over the holidays and quite often we have left over fireworks stored away somewhere. In the United States we have laws for the accessibility of fireworks, however, this really does differ substantially from state to state. The fireworks themselves are categorized generally and defined as ‘domestic’ or ‘consumer fireworks’ and this is according to the definitions from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Fireworks even though categorized like this are still very dangerous and any category of firework can seriously damage, cause injury, burn and do a lot of harm to you and others! The CPSC shows the sorts of serious injuries you can get from fireworks… Vulnerable areas on humans are the eyes, hands, and feet, however, it’s not just us humans that are vulnerable! A recent South Daytona, Florida Story shows us that firework injuries are not just limited to humans alone… Police officers witnessed above all the brunt of this when they came to a complaint about a 58-year-old local resident called Madison Carroll, who lives opposite a family with a dog, a dachshund called Oscar… Oscar was toddling round one afternoon near his house were he lived, some witnesses say that were other dogs there too. When Carroll saw the dogs he went inside and returned with an M-80 firecracker! Now if you’re thinking the same as me then it’s not a nice thought at all, and of course, you would be right! Carroll lit the firecracker and threw it at Oscar, witnesses say it was absolutely on purpose! Charged with animal cruelty and arrested at the scene, according to the news channels he is already out on bond! The vet thought that Oscar would have to have his leg amputated for sure… Owner Kyle Jasinski said:

“There was just so much blood”

“I thought I was going to lose him, I was covered in blood in five seconds, as soon as I picked him up.”

Just after it happened Kyle rushed the dog to a local animal care facility in Maitland, thanks to their quick actions the doctors now think that they could save his leg, wow, thank goodness!

The police say that Carroll could have been trying to scare the dogs away when he threw the firework and they also said that they could smell alcohol during Carroll’s arrest. I think that if you’re going to throw a firework then you have to, at least at some level, know that it could cause serious injury! His mother says that she believes that her son didn’t understand fully, the seriousness of his actions? Tell us what you think in the comments, I know what I think! His mother said to the news:

“I’m very upset with him”

“…he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

Jasinki did admit that Oscar does occasionally get out, but a family pet like this really doesn’t deserve this kind of terrible injury and pain he went through. Thankfully Oscar was so tough and so much of a fighter that he was able to fight his way back to health, but let this be a warning to others, this holiday season to be careful in their celebrations, not just for them but for their pets too!

The Consumer Products Safety Commission and its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System reported in 2016 that around 11,000 injuries caused by fireworks were recorded around the fourth of July Holiday alone! During your holiday, please do take care and for your pets too! Let’s SHARE this warning tale and hope it does some good.

Gideon Purchase began to worry his parents, he began to lose his appetite, little by little at first which is why they thought that maybe it was because he was teething. When they started to notice that he was developing yellow bruises under both his eyes, then his parents really were beginning to seriously worry… Gideon, 2 years old started to look quite sick, his parents took him straight away to the doctors, then very next day after that noticed these latest symptoms, it was what the doctors told them that made their world crash all around them! The doctors said that Gideon had neuroblastoma and it was in stage 4… Katie Purchase said:

“It’s literally as bad as it gets”

The team at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital conducted many more tests but they too confirmed the severity of the diagnosis, such a sad moment for a young person, with their potential whole life you thought they had ahead of them, just to be told that may not be the case anymore.

Dr. Sara Federico of St. Jude said:

“His entire face and skull was full of cancer, and all of his bones were full of cancer”

“He had a large tumor that was present in the middle of his body.”

Gary and Katie, his parents were shocked beyond belief at what had happened, the news really rocked their world but of course not in a good way at all! The Doctors did have some glimmers of hope though… There was a clinical trial that could be of some help, just a little light at the end of the tunnel, but no matter how small that light was they had to take it! That little glimmer of hope was an antibody introduced alongside chemotherapy, through the whole process. After six weeks the doctors were further shocked by a sudden change in Gideons Health. Federico said:

“The early results are surpassing all of our wildest expectations”

“He went from 84 percent of his marrow having a tumor to zero percent.”

By the six week mark, most of Gideon’s tumors had reduced to nothing, his legs had no tumors, his face and arms were clear too, the last few tumors that remained were getting smaller every day! With many months of treatment ahead of him, Gideon’s treatment, for the moment, looked really positive, the light at the end of the tunnel was getting considerably closer! Gary said:

“Being how aggressive this disease is, they can’t leave one cell alive”

Still a long road ahead Gideon had to face radiation and bone marrow transplants, but it’s not a fast fix and not a chemotherapy-free cure, but it most certainly does give us all hope, and when we have hope it definitely makes us stronger to fight!

They’re asking for heartbreakingly simple things, amongst the parties and celebrations with food the children at Christmas are the important ones, it’s the season! The non-profit ‘Things of My Very Own Inc.’ TOMVO based in New York give gifts. One young boy asks for snacks at school so he is not the only one in the class with nothing to eat! This touching request he made brings our lives back into perspective I believe, TOMVO based in New York have a simple and clear mission at Christmas, besides their gift donation program they also help keep families together too and keep children out of the foster care system, especially when the sole problem is not enough money to buy the essential things needed to live! This ten year old boy with such a simple wish holds this one simple thing as absolutely crucial, because of how it makes him feel to be the only one without snacks! He feels this every day that crushing feeling of being the odd one out when you just want to fit in, and have a few pokémoon cards too because, after all, he is still 10….

A small snack seems like such a small thing in most peoples eye, but put yourself back at school, under the watchful eyes of all your peers, judged my everything you do and say and have, and while yes its important to accept where you are and ignore the naysayers, at only 10 this is not how our youngsters minds work yet…. TOMVO gives out gift tags to local businesses and people select then buy the items written in the tag that they have and take them to the organization wrapped and ready to give to a child. Getting tags with Thomas the tank engine, blankets, a night-light, clothes, across everything you could imagine there is a request for something important to each child’s heart.

At six years old this boy wants food and an army man, let’s just consider that for a moment, he’s six and he is asking for food? Does that make you want to cry? I know It makes me want to!

Asking for blankets and a coat and she likes the color blue and felt fabric then she wants to desperately tell the gift buyers she is ‘a nice person’, can you feel your heart reaching out and feeling for these children, I know that my own kids don’t have a clue about real hardship! Here, on the other hand, these children are wishing for the simplest of things that so many other children don’t consider because they have all these things in abundance! In what world, we must ask ourselves, does a child have to wish for things to keep her warm!

Amongst all these heartbreaking requests, thankfully we are reminded that these are still kids and still innocent enough to consider that their biggest concerns are things like ‘their brother is stealing their Batman toys’…

TOMVO, it’s fair to say probably isn’t unique, but that doesn’t make it any less special. There are no doubt many places that do similar things, at least we hope so! Let’s all support our own communities and children in these magical times of the year that we can make all children feel special! As a parent, we try to think of other peoples children too, make donations to charities that do actually help children at Christmas time, give food, toys, money, just what you can afford to give to help other kids at this magical time of the year! If you cant give things, then maybe you could give your time to help a worthy charity, to help others, every little bit helps!!! For the little boy who simply wished for snacks at school, $10 or even $5 could get him set-up for a whole month, just imagine how he would feel and grow in confidence, just to fit in at school and not to worry about this simple thing that is so important to him. In 2017 I sometimes think that the world grows meaner every year, but then again, in other ways some of us just grow kinder and do help the world to become a better place! So let’s be the good ones and make our world a better place. If you’d like to donate to Things of My Very Own, Inc. directly, you can do that on their website. Other organizations that help kids during the holidays are Toys for Tots, Operation Christmas Child, and Make A Wish, just to mention a few! Shearing is CARING, please share and let’s really send this message out far an wide, thank YOU!