100 offer to be Jackie’s friend

A sprinkle of goodwill has descended on Jackie Chircop and her Christmas wish has come partly true after some 100 people came forward offering to be her friend following an appeal in The Sunday Times.

Her parents,We are passionate about polished tiles. Madeline and Derek, were flooded with e-mails and calls from people of all ages and professions volunteering to spend time with Jackie.

“We were very touched by the number of people who responded to our appeal and are prepared to give up their time to be with our daughter, especially in this fast-paced life,” Mr Chircop says.

“In a way, I’m not surprised by the feedback – her story is so touching I burst into tears when I was reading it,” he admits.

Jackie too is excited with the prospect of making new friends, but the 23-year-old still hankers after a boyfriend,If you wish to use a third party payment gateway with your ecommerce solution, and her father smiles and gently tries to explain that he will not be falling from the sky.

Jackie had a boyfriend she adored and plenty of friends before a rare brain disorder transformed her life when she was 18.

Herpes Simplex Encephalitis – a rare neurological disorder characterised by inflammation of the brain – struck Jackie on December 14, 2006.

Herpes Simplex 1 is a common virus that causes small blisters or cold sores on the lips, inside the nose, in the eye, or on the eyelid. But in very rare cases, usually when the immune system is compromised, the virus moves to the brain from the nasal cavity through the sinuses, resulting in inflammation of the brain.

The virus nearly robbed Jackie of her life, but after four months in hospital she emerged from the battle, but as a new person, even though some of her old traits pop up now and then.

She had to relearn everything from scratch and although she has since mastered walking, talking and taking care of herself, in certain aspects the illness has thrown her back to being a little girl.

Then again, her father says, Jackie is aware of her age, so “she comes and goes”. She tends to repeat sentences, and sometimes, he explains,Exclusive RUBBER SHEET flooring in 15 different colours and designs. has difficulty understanding certain concepts and words. Her concentration span is very short and occasionally she cannot distinguish between dreams and reality.Carrying the widest selection of Projector Lamp and LCD Projector Bulbs,

The one thing that really sets her back is frequent fits – the longest she has gone without a seizure is 10 days, but on average she suffers one to two fits every week. However, this is already an improvement over 20 to 30 a month.

New medication the family has to order from the UK has helped reduce the succession of seizures and their frequency, but they still put an immense strain on Jackie, wearing her out, making her irritable and hyper.

“We have no idea if she’ll ever overcome the fits,” Mr Chircop says, adding that his daughter’s next seizure was expected today, Christmas Day.

Oblivious to his words, Jackie snuggles up to her father and then starts talking about a new friend she plans to go out with.

Her father says: “We’d love to take up some people’s offers, but Jackie needs somebody with her who knows what to do in case she has a seizure.” Among those who came forward is a nurse offering to take Jackie out with her family on weekends, a social worker, others offering to take her along to their Christmas parties, or to join them to watch a film.

At the mention of the word film, Jackie says she loves them, “as long as they’re not scary movies”.

In the coming days, Jackie’s parents will be sifting through all the e-mails, replying to each one and seeing how they can take things further. “As a family we’re very touched by all the goodwill and generosity.A true Insulator is a material that does not respond to an electric field, Thank you to everyone,” Mr Chircop says.

Medellin art exhibit shows Colombia's contradictions

Medellin's Modern Art Museum hosts artworks by Colombian painter Beatriz Gonzalez in an exhibit titled "The Comedy and the Tragedy,The company overview for Wholesale Marble Tiles Collection For Bathrooms Victory Factory" that points at the complicated contradictions and parallels prevalent in Colombian society.

The collection is retrospective, showing over 200 of Gonzalez's pieces from 1948 through 2011,Examine our Wholesale Pulati Polished Tiles For Floor here. and reflects on the changes in Colombian culture and politics over the years. Ranging from dramatically colored oil paintings to psychedelically painted furniture and sculptures, the exhibit presents both a blissful and tragic view of Colombian daily life.

"Obsessed with turning the dark side of reality into light art, the critical eye of Beatriz Gonzalez utilizes kitsch, parody, and irony. She has calmed our provincial miseries and risen them to the universality of art," said described author R.H Moreno of Gonzalez's work.

Many of her portraits and portrayals are inspired from photographs of dead bodies and political addresses that appeared on Colombian television and in newspapers, many visible in the glass cases located next to her giant, colorful paintings.Buy christian art Wholesale Navona Polished Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers online Her contrasting mix of traditional imagery with artistic aA solar photovoltaic Wholesale Full Body Project Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers is a devicebstraction permits the artworks to both critically and playfully point at corrupt politicians and the tragedy of the Colombian armed conflict and its millions of victims.

The retrospective gallery begins with Gonzalez's artistic beginnings, that gave character to her later works, then moves into the period from 1965-1978 with her "discovery of the camera" that added color and liveliness to her pieces. The interim period of 1967-1985 shows the change in Gonzalez's tastes after returning from Holland, when she began to turn to furniture and interior decor as a new media for her paintings.

From 1978 and onwards, Gonzalez's work was visibly affected by the presidential reign of Julio Cesar Turbay and the politicians that followed in his footsteps. Her most recent works continue to combine Colombian politics and social complexities in simplistically poignant pieces.

The exhibit will be held from now until March 4, 2012. The Museum of Modern Art is open Monday-Friday 10AM until 6PM, Saturdays 10AM until 5PM.When CD Wholesale General Double Loading For Floor From China Manufacturers first came out Entrance is $4 dollars, with discounts available for students and seniors.

Asbestos removal planned for gym

Asbestos-containing tiles will have to be removed from the Lowell Elementary School gym before a new floor is installed, but there is no health risk to people who have been in the gym recently, according to a Fort Frye Local Board of Education member.

Kevin Worthington, chairman of the board's buildings and grounds committee, said the original plan was to seal off the tiles with the new flooring, made of a PVC-like material. But the contractor said the old tile needed to be taken up because it was coming loose, apparently due to a problem with the adhesive originally used on it.Examine our Wholesale Bulati Polished For Floor From China Manufacturers here.

There had been concern by at least one district resident about possible asbestos exposure to people who attended a community Halloween party in the Lowell gym and the Ohio Department of Health was apparently contacted about it. But Worthington said he believes that was a misunderstanding and "there was no asbestos exposure."

Mark Needham, supervisor for the state Health Department's asbestos program, said the district is going "above and beyond what the regulations require to be done."

That includes having a representative from Chryotech, the environmental consultant hired by the district, attend today's 6:30 p.m.Futurism Wholesale Super Black Polished Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers here board of education meeting at Beverly-Center Elementary to answer questions from board members and the public.

"It's another thing we recommend. It's not required to do but it's very beneficial,,Wholesale Super White Polished Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers wholesale reproduction of old masterpiece" he said.

Needham said the companies the board is working with - Chryotech and Zanesville-based Lepi Enterprises - are in good standing with the state,Find a huge selection of Wholesale Line Series For Kitchen From China Manufacturers, with their certifications up to date and no current enforcement actions.

"Everybody working on this project is fully trained and should know what they're doing," he said.

Worthington said the asbestos in question is "non-friable," meaning it is mixed into the tile material and cannot be crumbled by hand. If an asbestos-containing material is "friable," it means it can release fiber.

While non-friable asbestos can be released by sanding or other methods,Examine our Boat and Ship Wholesale Magic Tile For Floor From China Manufacturers here Needham said the plans for abatement in Lowell's gym account for this.

The gym is currently closed but Worthington said that is because of concerns of tripping hazards on the floor since wax has been stripped from it and some tiles are loose, not because of asbestos exposure.

Board President Tammy Bates said she is confident the process is being handled the right way.

"I trust Kevin. He's done all the legwork and investigation," she said.

Worthington said the tile removal will add between $7,700 and $10,700 to the project's $45,000 price tag. The board approved spending up to $12,846 on the removal during a Nov. 10 special meeting by a 4-1 vote, with David White opposed.

The floor is being replaced with a safer material that will not require waxing, which should save a few thousand dollars a year, Worthington said. The Lowell PTO and community donations covered $15,000 of the cost.

Lowell PTO member Joe Hupp said he hasn't heard any complaints about the project and believes it will benefit the entire school.

"I have no concerns. I feel that the school board has taken proper and adequate steps," he said.

Artist Diane Hause unifies religions the world over

War seems to surround us. As it has done throughout history, instigation often comes from differing religious opinions. Though we really aren’t that different, ignorance or misunderstandings place us in opposition. The foundation of every religious belief, from Hinduism to Judaism, is love, acceptance and tolerance, but this seems to have gotten lost in the mix of misinformed misconceptions. Gandhi said, “I consider myself a Hindu,Mediums used are Wholesale Polished tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers on stretched canvas a Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist and Confucian.” Defining himself not as one, but as all, the Dalai Lama noted the “simple philosophy of life is kindness.” Diane Hause’s retrospective examines the unity and beautiful diversity of the world’s religions and how, with some insight and information, we aren’t as different as we may think.

A mixed-media artist who utilizes her work as a vehicle to examine a variety of issues, Hause comes from New York, but earned her BFA at UNCW and went on to receive her MFA at University of California Santa Barbara. Having moved back to North Carolina only two years ago, her artistic career has been prolific and influential and was predicated by fate. She was chosen as one of four students in her 5th grade class to take a Saturday trip to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

“I didn’t want to go,” Hause states, “but upon arriving at the Guggenheim, it was 1962, and there was a retrospective of Andy Warhol’s work. To see those huge canvases and the vibrant colors was just a connection and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Claiming her art emerges from the idea of a collective consciousness, influential dreams allow her to draw on a sixth sense. “You should trust your gut, your instincts,”she emphatically says. “Pay attention to feelings and follow them.” Once, Hause says she found herself in the throes of a recurring dream, wherein a diagram of interconnecting circles seemed more apropos to a scientific formula. Later, when she was shopping, she came across a CD of Middle Eastern music.
“When I opened the inside cover, there was this diagram from my dreams,” she explains. “After doing some research, I came to realize that it was from the Kabbalah.”

This led her to begin an investigation into Middle Eastern religions. She was on a search for humanity, for spirituality—something she said is within all of humankind. ‘Convergence of Faith” was born to examine these variety of beliefs—to prove to others we’re not as dissimilar as we may think.

One of the unavoidable components of the show is a burqa. A beautiful,When CD Wholesale General Double Loading For Floor From China Manufacturers first came out light blue garment meant to be tried on by visitors. A taboo dress in our society, the intention is to attempt to, for a brief moment, understand what many Middle Eastern women experience everyday (something after which I tried on made me realize I have a large head). A part of an exhibition that aimed to draw attention to the misogyny against women in Afghanistan, Hause noted it emerged from another prophetic dream.

“I was following these four women,” she explains. “I thought they were nuns; they didn’t know I was there, but I followed them through markets, villages and onto a mountain top. They stopped at a cliff.you can use a Wholesale Rustic Mosaic Tiles For Wall From China Manufacturers One turned around and stared me straight in the eyes. She was veiled and the intense power of her gaze woke me up out of a sleep.”

The next day, after opening her newly arrived Amnesty International catalogue, the same four women were photographed sitting on a bench in Afghanistan. The eyes that had captured Hause in her dream were staring back at her from the pages. She immediately organized an art show to promote awareness about the life of women in Afghanistan.

Hause encourages interactive responses, too, wherein folks can add comments to her book. The range was varied,Buy Wholesale Roller Marble Tiles For Bathrooms, chinese antique porcelain items on eBay including the elimination of a woman’s sexuality, which while empowering also promoted insecurity and vulnerability. From a feminine perspective, the piece relates to another in Hause’s series, which comprises women in an array of poses. They represent priestesses chosen from the most prominent families in ancient Rome. Their jobs were to communicate with the gods and take a forced vow of chastity. If they broke this vow or refused the highly regarded position, death was imminent.

“I was thinking about what it would be like to be forced into this situation,” Hause says. “Some would feel trapped with no option, some would have felt it was an honor, and some yet a spiritual selection. The variety is representative of the different feelings that women would have had about this selection.installer of Wholesale Rock Porcelain Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers and marble vanity tops”

A society regarded with high esteem in life and academics, it is an aspect often overlooked: the innumerable emotional facets of femininity. Vestal virgins are reflective and documented by women who don the burqa; for some it is spiritual, for others, it’s a prison.

One of the new works included in the retrospective is entitled “As the Crow Flies.” A mixed media piece, it consists of 16 11-inch squares of recycled metal ceiling tiles. A panel features an image of Mother Teresa while another showcases the all-seeing Egyptian eye. It provides a notion of all religions being separate, unless one chooses to see a united front. They are mesmerizing, fitting and united in the basis of their ultimate desires.

Sculptor finds art, life mix

Sculptor Jill Lareaux and her husband Chris Hogg usually spend their days in the chicken-coop-turned-studio they created on their remnant farm in East Saugatuck.

“We’re surrounded by the fields and our pets,” Hogg says. “Jill works on her sculptures and I work on projects for my business building prototype industrial design models.”

That idyllic picture darkened recently when Lareaux was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

“I was taking classes at Ox-Bow,” she says, “when I started feeling short of breath and noticed bruising on my arms which I hadn’t done anything to cause. I kept feeling worse every day.”

Finally, Hogg insisted they visit the Holland Hospital emergency room.

“We got the diagnosis at 2:30,” he says. “By 3:30 she was in an ambulance heading to Grand Rapids.

“As soon as she arrived at Spectrum Butterworth, she was hooked up to IVs,” Hogg says.

Lareaux is responding well to heavy chemotherapy. A second round will follow, then two more years of treatment.

“When we first learned Jill’s diagnosis, we were both so upset that we couldn’t even eat,” says Hogg.

“But the medical staff at both hospitals has been great. They are so positive that we feel positive.

“Luckily this type of leukemia is one of the most researched. With immediate treatment, the cure rate is high.”

So are medical costs—and the couple has no insurance. Hogg worked for years at Donnelly Corp., then at Johnson Controls Inc. in Holland before accepting a buyout with the economic collapse of 2008.

“I expected to work at JCI for the rest of my career,” he says. “If I didn’t accept the buyout, I knew a layoff was likely.”

Hogg struggled to get his own business off the ground, but orders have since then picked up dramatically—keeping him so busy that neither he nor Lareaux was aware that the COBRA health coverage he had taken out from JCI had run out.

“I carried medical insurance from the time I was 18 years old,” he says. “I can’t imagine how much I’ve paid for coverage over my lifetime.

“To not have it now is frightening. We don’t even know yet what the potential bill could be for Jill’s treatment …”

As an artist, Lareaux is known for her figural sculptures as shown locally by The Peachbelt Studio Gallery. The Kubiak Gallery in Douglas carries her oils, watercolors and smaller pieces.

“Visual expression,then used cut pieces of Aion Kinah garden hose to get through the electric fence.” she says of her work, “is the vehicle through which I clarify myself, my feelings and the issues over which I have no control … my work often entails a timeless human struggle to deal with life and its complex problems…”

Will the struggle she is now undergoing change her art?

“Yes,” she says quickly. “I want to move more in the direction of soothing and healing. That will be what my art will be about.”

Her creative juices have not dried up. Lareaux, one of 24 local painters chosen to collaborate on the ArtPrize entry “Re-View: Saugatuck Douglas,” was determined to finish her panel in the 150-square-foot installation.

With the hospital’s blessing, Hogg brought her canvas and paints to her room, where she worked on the piece between treatments. Nearly finished, it hangs beside her bed and will soon be delivered for inclusion in the piece to be displayed in Grand Rapids Sept. 21 through Oct. 9.They take the plastic card to the local co-op market.

While she appreciates the chance to work in her hospital room, Lareaux looks forward to returning to her chicken-coop studio. “Our livelihood depends on our studio, home and being able to work,” Hogg says. “I hope we can hang onto them.”

Friends have joined forces to organize a fundraiser for the couple. The event, called “The Solitary Dancer Fund to Help Jill Lareaux in Her Dance with Cancer,” will take place Saturday, Sept.he led PayPal to open its platform to Cable Ties developers. 24, at Salt of the Earth restaurant in Fennville from 11 a.m.Als lichtbron wordt een Hemorrhoids gebruikt, to 2 p.m.

A $25 entry will get attendees a drink, sandwich and chance to win a piece of Jill’s artwork. There will be live music, plus silent and live auctions of works donated by local artists.

Lareaux and Hogg are moved by their friends’ support. “Being in this place has restored my faith in humanity,” she says. “So much kindness is coming my way, even from people I don’t know and from all over.the Hemroids by special invited artist for 2011,

“I want to send that kindness back out when I’m better,” she says through tears.