Robert Plante has walked over 7,500 miles during the past 27 years, raising more than $300,000 for cystic fibrosis research. That means he has taken about 13,200,000. Each step was taken with great dedication and purpose, because of his desire to assure that there would someday be a cure for a disease that most of us are barely aware of.

Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening, genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections and progressively limiting the ability to breathe. There are about 30,000 people in the USA (70,000 people worldwide) today, with around 1,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

In the 1950s, children with CF rarely lived long enough to attend elementary school.… Read More

School administrators take note: Those assembly speakers you find to address a hall full of fidgety students can indeed change lives. Dan Hopkins is living proof. His new business, GrassTrack Safaris, has its roots in one of those assemblies.

Now living in Lebanon, Dan grew up in Rumford, Maine. In the early 1980s an assembly lecture (by Charles Darwin’s great-grandson) introduced him to African game and environment. The explorer suggested that Dan and a friend accompany him on his next trip, which seemed like pie in the sky. But relatives from LA who worked in commercial aviation insisted he should not miss this opportunity.… Read More