Samaritanmag

Music-heavy news site about charities, causes and good deeds

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Terry Eagan Fulfills Wife’s Dying Wish With Healing Gardens

It isn't often that a husband gets to fulfill a wife's dying wish as passionately and successfully as Terry Eagan has over the past decade with the introduction of Mary Eagan Healing Gardens to hospitals in cities in Massachusetts and Ontario.

Mary Eagan succumbed to leukemia in 1992 but, before she passed away, she told her loving husband Terry that she'd like to see a garden built for the use and comfort of future cancer patients who were stuck inside in sterile environments and yearned for a taste of nature.

"She wanted to see trees, flowers and birds," Eagan told Samaritanmag over coffee at a Toronto restaurant during a recent visit from his hometown of Waltham, Mass. "While science was working towards curing her, it would have been very invigorating for her to get outside and get some nature. That was her wish, which gave me the original motivation that this all stemmed from."

 

Samaritanmag.com is an online magazine covering the good deeds of individuals, charities and businesses.

Giving A Pet For Christmas Puts Strain On Shelters

The best Christmas present I ever received was my dog Lady. She was two and I was six when my grandmother got her from a shelter and gave her to me, and that loveable mutt was a very important part of my life until she passed away 10 years later.

Unfortunately, many similar stories of people giving and receiving pets at Christmas don’t have such happy endings.

Despite the best intentions of a person giving an animal, it often isn’t what the recipient is looking for. The person may not want a pet at all, or may desire a different size or breed, or perhaps a different type of animal altogether. When this happens, the animal often ends up in a shelter and in need of another loving family to adopt it.

"Many people think that a friend or family member would love to receive a surprise present at this time of year,” says Humane Society of Canada executive director Michael O’Sullivan, who’s been involved with animal protection for 40 years and has a house full of dogs and cats.

“While people on the receiving end of the furry gift will likely be surprised, people need to remember that choosing a pet who will become a part of your family for many years is an extremely personal decision. Our experience has shown that it’s always better to let the people who will be living with the animals for the next 15 or 20 years make that choice."

Samaritanmag.com is an online magazine covering the good deeds of individuals, charities and businesses.

Green Music Group Aims To Save The Environment

Green Music Group was created earlier this year to set green guidelines and create widespread environmental change within the music industry.

GMG is a coalition of musicians, music industry representatives and fans that was the brainchild of Andrew Gardner, singer-guitarist with American band Guster. It’s a project of the non-profit organization Reverb that aims to facilitate large-scale greening of the music community through touring, venue and label standards, resource development, green grants, mentoring, viral videos and public service campaigns.

GMG launched with a Jan. 30 cocktail party that featured performances by members of Maroon 5, Dave Matthews Band, The Roots and Guster. Those groups were founding members of GMG along with Linkin Park, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Canada’s Barenaked Ladies.

“Their goal is to green the rock and roll touring industry,” Barenaked Ladies singer/guitarist Ed Robertson, who’s a friend of Gardner, says of GMG. “I’m generalizing here, but you have a bunch of left-leaning people who are socially conscious and want to have less of a footprint on the planet that we live on.

Samaritanmag.com is an online magazine covering the good deeds of individuals, charities and businesses.

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