Social media – like everything else – has its positives and negatives. But one of the most striking positives has been the inspirational material shared with us through our foundation’s Twitter handle, @InTheAreena. The following story is a terrific example. From a website called sunny skyz: “The Gubbio Project was co-founded in 2004 by community activists…
I’ve always been fascinated by trees. The variations. The colors. Apples falling to the ground. Warm summer days in the shade below. If one is looking for beauty on this planet, look no further than our majestic trees. They’re everywhere. A recent Yale University study estimated there are over three trillion trees on earth. (How this…
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore.” Peter Finch. Network. Sounds good. Sounds powerful. Sounds like a rallying cry. But Paddy Chayefsky wrote those words in 1976. Forty-two years later it’s clear we never got mad enough. And now the world has never been crazier. There’s no leadership anywhere. The people in power want to…
Each day, we lose 400 American veterans of World War II. Rishi Sharma, a 20 year-old California student, saw that number as an opportunity to make his mark on the world. He set out to record interviews with every veteran of WWII he could; digitally archiving their stories for generations to come. His project is called “Heroes…
AREENA had intentionally decided to take a break from blogging as we developed our platform and financial plans for the coming year. During that time – about eight weeks – the world continued to spiral out of control. The other day a teenager managed to get hold of an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and kill 17 children…
I hope you had a terrific summer, enjoying family and friends, doing things that excite and inspire you. We at Areena spent the summer preparing for our work this fall and throughout 2018. Let me tell you about it. First, we decided to rebrand ourselves into a company called AREENA. Why “AREENA”? To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt,…
We try not to make this a political space. Politics are polarizing and we realize each individual reading our emails has their own beliefs. We don’t, however, see climate change and the environment as political issues. These are issues for all of humanity to embrace with ferocity, requiring us to do whatever we can –…
We often like to use this space to point out the brilliant work being done by others across the country – especially those trying to make better the lives of the less fortunate. Today we want to focus your attention on Bob McKinnon of GALEWiLL, a self-described “for-purpose” company, analyzing the socioeconomic factors involved in…
I saw something in Chicago. A city of compassion. A like-minded people rallied behind a singular cause. The more fortunate doing something for the less fortunate. Books. 2,100 of ’em from bars, restaurants, ice cream parlors, cafes, coffee shops and everywhere else in between. All going to the kids at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center….