Community

1. What has community come to mean in your life?

"A Better Community for All (ABC4All)."  Originally it was "Partnerships for a Better Community (PBC)" until along came Co-Founder Bob Chew and stated it would be prefererd to be at the beginning of the alphabet and suggested the name change.  The rest is history...

2. How have you become a part of a community? When did you know you were a part of that community?

Originally the concept for PBC came when we raised funds for Easter Seal Society Pool Therapy Program and other nonprofits in the local community, dating back to mid 1980s.  Being forced to retire from the profession of clinical psychology because of physical impairments, I began turning attention to ways to help larger segments in the community and this led, with Bob Chew's participation to the concepts for a new entity in the world, now known as ABC4All.

3. How important is it to you that your community be a religious, faith, or spiritual community? What life experiences have influenced how y ou feel about this?

This question is best answered by an original poem, called "Serendipity."  The inspiration for this came from how so many developments related to ABC4All seemed to happen without trying.  As this phenomenon occurred over and over again, there seemed to be developing, at the same time, a "collection of Angels on Earth" who were assembling to become the Central Core Team of ABC4All (ABC4AllCCT).  Since then there have been so many developments (8+ years in the making) the info is overwhelming, but the history is well recorded in the Tech Museum Award Nomination Application and in the BBMG Grant Application.

4. What does 'service to community' mean to you?

The best answer to this question stems from a referral made to us by Ghanian Billy Yasin, an "ABC4All Mentor" who referred us to the Center for Purposeful Living (CPL) where he had applied, and was accepted, to a full year's scholarship/study at CPL in Winston-Salem, NC USA.  He is now applying for a Visa, but the CPL group is the "epitome" of service, developed with an active "training lab" for becoming a "Totally Responsible Person (TRP)" consisting of a local restaurant where all participants volunteer.  Their program had evolved over 17+ years of active service for the elderly, the disabled, the dying, etc., resulting in a training program which has since become an amazing opportunity for persons from anywhere on the globe.  Their book, "Better Than Money Can Buy:  The NEW Volunteers" has been reviewed here:  "Universal Caring". 

5. Have you had any experiences where 'performing' Service within a community became a life-altering event?

The transition "From a Lifetime of Rehabilitation to Making the World a Bettter Place" has included an unexpected, unimagined, dramatic, miraculous rejuvenation not anticipated but so welcome.  The new lease on life has permitted a renewal and dedication to introducing Plasma Activated Water (PAW) to the world together with Global Humanitarian Relief via the ABC4All Bridge of Relief and the ABC4All Global Humanitarian Consortium