Support These Heroes

Support these real live every day heroes!

While I'm a hero to many people as a sports inspiration, these people below are my real live every day heroes. Their personal causes are just as important, or more so, as my breast cancer awareness cause is to get to Major League Baseball with my Louisville Slugger wood-painted pink bat.

Life is precious. We need never to forget that. People need hope, love and laughter. It's time to push the negatives aside from our societies so we can promote the positives to the forefront of life.

I had the good fortune a decade ago to meet Dr. Maya Angelou, the great African-American writer as her photographer for the day (I was working for another studio at that time). She sat me down for a spell before she spoke at a convention here in Las Vegas. She told me to look for the silver lining in the clouds no matter how dark those clouds were. That was her speech for that afternoon and I was given a summary of it by her in private. I was thrilled to hear it while being in her presence sitting next to her. She gave that speech to a standing ovation at the end and I filmed her from my heart and soul.

Since then I have always looked for the silver lining in the clouds because of her. I'm so glad I listened to her because breast cancer came into my life at that time our paths crossed. I needed a silver lining to get through it and I got it. The men in baseball became my silver lining in the clouds of cancer...

Please support these heroes below because they truly deserve it. Click on their individual banner to go directly to their website.

"A Glove of Their Own" is a beautifully written story book that teaches adults and children to how to give back to others by passing it forward. The book is a fund-raising vehicle which helps to donate new and used sports equipment to children in need who otherwise would not have the opportunities to participate in baseball or softball because they don't have a glove of their own.

www.AGloveofTheirOwn.com

"The Empty Cup Runneth Over" is one of the best books about breast cancer that you will ever read. It doesn't matter if you have had breast cancer or not, the information will open your eyes and expand your mind to the realities of this disease. It will also enlighten you. Written by Cindy Papale, this is her own personal survivor story that goes beyond her journey to win her life back to include expert content that answers the toughest questions in dealing with breast cancer.

www.TheEmptyCupRunnethOver.com

Bob Salomon

Bob and I found each other on the baseball players social network Checkswing.net. He's quite a special guy. Class act gentleman with a heart of gold that is priceless.

Bob actually is the president of "A Glove of Their Own" but I put that he's the founder because he found from deep within himself the desire to help underprivileged children who might otherwise not get to play sports at all.

Heroes come in all kinds of surprisingly-packaged human beings who look for the good in others then keep passing that good forward. Bob is one of those kind of rare people as is Cindy below.

I'm honored to know them both. And as I meet more heroes like them on my own life's journey, they will be added here because we life heroes are a life team.

Cindy Papale

Meeting Cindy by email has been a blessing to me. She found me on Twitter and added me to her list of following. I typed in her name on Google and went after her to find out who she was. Wow. What a remarkable woman she is.

Weird thing about meeting her?

Back in 2008 I wrote to Vincent Papale, the NFL football player that the movie "Invincible" starring Mark Wahl was written about. Vince and I had a brief moment by cell phone text and then we got busy with our own lives forgetting to re-hook up. I was sharing my breast cancer /sports story with him since I do play pro football in addition to baseball. He was wowed.

When I searched Cindy on Google her last name just kept ringing a bell but I couldn't figure out why. Until I told her that her last name was familiar and then she let the cat out of the bag. Vince is her cousin.

Small world huh? Yes it is. I love them both! They are special in their own right with their lives even if they were never related to each other. I just had to share this...

As for Cindy? Well if you don't take the time to get to know her and her survivor story that has led her to educate others about cancer and how to deal with it then you will be greatly missing out on on meeting a real live Earth Angel.