Giving Heart Beat

Episode 29 - Radioactive - Mental Health Matters - Host Donna Valente details her long absence from the airwaves, recounting physical illness that brought her thrice to the hospital emergency room in six months, and the last time landed her in the hospital for over a week. The deeply profound experience forced her to realize the importance of mental health and self-care. 

With the global pandemic, climate change, and extreme social unrest on many fronts compounding the already high stress levels of living in this world, it makes sense that our collective and personal mental health are affected, e...

Episode 28 - Interview with Amy Rivera - Founder of Ninjas Fighting Lymphedema Foundation, Advocate, Entrepreneur, Mom, Wife, soon-to-be-published Author. Amy was born with primary lymphedema that affected one side of her body, but doctors failed to identify the correct diagnosis until she was 31 years old and required surgery.

Despite being the target of relentless bullying, as a teen Amy entered and won a beauty contest, and went from being "the girl with the big leg" to "the beauty queen with the big leg." Not wanting her big leg to be the focus of her identity, for years...

Episode 27 - Interview with Priti Mehta - Managing Director Foundation Operations, Investors Bank. Priti talks about growing up the daughter of parents that immigrated to the United States from India, and learning the practice of SEVA - giving back, from their example. Priti lends her experience to a number of philanthropic endeavors, including the boards of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and Girls On The Run, and as a grants reviewer for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life Grants Program. 

Shout out to County College of Morris (CCM) in Randolph, New Jersey for being t...

Episode 26 - Interview with Lee Woodruff, Co-Founder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Author of 3 NY TIMES bestselling books, Speaker, Journalist, Communications Consultant, Advocate. The Bob Woodruff Foundation's mission is to assist injured service members and their families heal from the wounds of war. 

In 2006, Lee's husband Bob Woodruff, television journalist with ABC News, was imbedded with troops in Iraq when the tank they were driving in hit an IED - improvised explosive device - and Bob suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. While Bob was in a medically-induced coma for 38 days, Lee witnessed many severely injured soldiers t...

Episode 25 - Interview With Jane Elliott - Internationally Known Teacher, Lecturer, Diversity Trainer, and Recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education. Ms. Elliott recalls the origins of the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise" that she conducted on April 5, 1968, the day after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This exercise cast her in the national spotlight for educating her all-white students in Iowa about how it feels to be treated on the basis of a physical characteristic one is born with that can't be changed, and it also caused her to become an...

Episode 24 - Interview with David Jacobsen, Psy.D. - Chief Executive Officer of Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region (RMHC-CR), Albany, NY - The House That Love Built. Dr. Jacobsen is an experienced, mission-driven nonprofit leader. He focuses on implementing best-practice standards to develop self-sustaining, value-evident programs that serve communities one person and one family at a time. 

Ronald McDonald House Charities is an organization that draws on the compassion of the community to deliver and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children and families. Prior to joining RMCH-CR, Dr. Jacobsen p...

Episode 23 - Interview with Hector Del Valle & Willis Washington: Co-Hosts of Living The Balanced Life, a video talk show that brings in experts from key areas of life to share their knowledge with the community. Hector and Willis are both disability advocates, having met at a national conference on independent living in Washington, DC over ten years ago. Living The Balanced Life is a program of L.I.F.T.  - Legacy Impact Foundation Team - which advocates for affordable accessible housing and provides information on community resources, particularly for people with disabilities.

Living The Balanced Life w...

Episode 22 - Interview with Heather Ehle, RN - Founder and CEO of Project Sanctuary. Project Sanctuary serves military and veteran families across the USA through therapeutic recreation and education at in-person family retreats, along with a holistic spectrum of services before, during and after. Project Sanctuary is one of the few organizations that addresses mental health for the entire military and veteran family, particularly the children.

Ehle first learned of the unmet needs of military families 14 years ago when she volunteered as a registered nurse at a free clinic in Colorado. After 9/11, she tried to find the...

Episode 21 features an interview with Michael Bethune, Author, Speaker, Minister and Educator with over 25 years of leading and serving some of the most vulnerable populations through the nonprofit sector. He himself is a once-homeless military veteran, whose life's calling and purpose emerged from his own pain. [Trigger warning]

Michael Bethune's book Unto The Least of These - 12 Stages of Genuine Compassion, For Churches That Are Serious About Helping the Less Fortunate breaks down the true meaning of compassion that is so crucial in serving the most vulnerable in our communities who may be homeless and/or addicted...

Episode 20 - Caregiver Confidential - Solo provides a glimpse behind the Giving Heart Beat podcast microphone into the life of a caregiver entrepreneur, with a cautionary tale for caregivers. 

Host Donna Valente shares the journey of finding her way forward into an uncertain future, and describes a bit about caregiving for someone with late onset type one diabetes. 

The cautionary tale for caregivers is a heartfelt plea to take care of yourself. The safety instructions on airplanes are true: put your own mask on first and then assist others. 

Turn around the saying "Tre...

Giving Heart Beat podcast episode 19 features an interview with Nichole Reed, Event Coordinator for Family Promise of Sussex County, New Jersey. Family Promise is a national nonprofit with a unique model of serving individuals and families that are experiencing homelessness or at high risk for becoming homeless. 

The description here is from the Family Promise website and also from host Donna Valente's personal experience volunteering to cook meals and serve them for guests of Family Promise of Sussex County emergency shelter program over the years in different churches. While the emergency shelter program is not possible right n...

Episode 18 of Giving Heart Beat podcast is an interview with Odunola "Ola" Ojewumi - Entrepreneur, Nonprofit Founder, Model, Public Speaker, Patient Advocate, and Public Policy Worker. Ola survived multiple major organ transplants as a young teenager and then survived cancer that resulted from the transplants. She quickly learned first-hand how to fight for her rights to--among other things--use the elevator in her 4-floor high school. This experience led her to advocacy and activism for people with disabilities. While still in school, Ola started the nonprofit Project ASCEND to provide college scholarships for disabled students, particularly individuals of color in...

Giving Heart Beat podcast Episode 17 features an in-depth interview with Kimberly Igel, Director of The Church at Hemlock Farms Second Harvest Food Pantry, located in the Pocono Mountains of Lords Valley, Pennsylvania. Kim explains how she got involved with the mission of helping families experiencing food insecurity after joining The Church at Hemlock Farms and  learning of the problem. She was encouraged to align and train with Second Harvest Food Bank and for two years has been orchestrating successful food distribution events monthly to serve a growing number of families in need. Kim describes her passion to help others t...

Episode 16 features an interview with Andy Arias - actor, model, federal policy worker, advocate, and civil rights activist.  

Andy has been an advocacy and policy professional for over seven years, most recently at the national level on disability policy. In Washington, DC, Andy worked closely with Judith Heumann, pioneer of the Independent Living movement and the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

As an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, member of many boards and commissions, and subject matter expert on diversity and inclusion, Andy works to ensure that people with disabilities are represented. Andy continues educate th...

Episode 15 - Interview with Nikki Brown-Booker, Program Officer, Disability Inclusion Fund, Borealis Philanthropy, shares insights and wisdom from the funder's side of the table. Nonprofits focused on social justice and civil rights should listen closely!

Nikki Brown-Booker is a Filipino/Black woman with a disability who works in philanthropy. "When I enter a room no one looks like me. This is my life experience. It doesn't change except for the rare occurrence when I attend an advocacy meeting or training that people with disabilities would attend."

Nikki's story is, in her words, ". . . exclusively American. My...

Giving Heart Beat Episode 14 features a fascinating interview with  Nancy Gonzalez, a survivor of domestic violence and Founder of Mustard Seed Bags of Courage, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2016 with the mission to encourage victims of domestic violence to become survivors. Nancy has won multiple awards for her work and was nationally recognized in the magazine publication Woman's Day.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. 

Nancy provides invaluable information for individuals currently in abusive domestic situations so that they can signal for assistance without speaking. The pandemic lockdown hit everyone hard, and for families li...

Episode 13 - Letters for Superman, The Reluctant Entrepreneur, Panic Attack on Route 80 [Trigger Warning] is the first monologue by Donna Valente, Giving Heart Beat podcast creator, host, producer and (at this moment) solo financial supporter. Sponsors are being sought!

Since launching on August 2, 2020, over 400 episodes have been downloaded and Giving Heart Beat podcast ranked very high on the iTunes nonprofit charts; reaching #4 in the USA, #3 in Canada and in the United Kingdom, and #2 in Spain!! 

Giving Heart Beat podcast is now available on Amazon Music and Google, and soon to be on other platforms. And, M...

Eves's Fund for Native American Health Initiatives

Barbara Crowell-Roy, President

www.EvesFund.org

www.EveCrowell.com

Please visit Eve's Fund on FaceBook and Twitter!

Your support is welcome!

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Edna Sutton is a survivor of domestic violence as a young woman that resulted in paralysis. She lives independently with assistance from caregivers that come to her home to provide assistance for activities of daily living. Edna found that the caregivers that were sent to her home had virtually no training at all, let alone on how to care for someone with paralysis. She created Compassions Training and Awareness Center to provide specialized hands-on training to home care providers on how to take care of a person living with paralysis, as well as to teach people who need caregivers...

Hope Loves Company is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Hope Loves Company, P.O. Box 931, Pennington, NJ 08534

HopeLovesCompany.org

Jodi O'Donnell-Ames - Founder and Director

jodi.odonnell-ames@hopelovescompany.org

609-730-1144

Find Hope Loves Company on FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and AmazonSmile!

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Episode 9 of Giving Heart Beat is a longer conversation with Kisoboka Uganda Co-Founders Sandra Gannon and Hope Kalibbala. We learn about the power of sponsorship and a young girl named Shakira, the challenges of proving the value of education to the village families, the prevalence of witchdoctor medicine in the village, as well as the common practice of child marriage in Uganda. Kisoboka Uganda works ceaselessly to holistically improve the quality of life for all children of Bakka and their families.

Sponsorships are needed for many children and young adults and "Mamasan" as Sandy is known in...

Orphan Anni-Mals Rescue and Farm Sanctuary is an U.S. IRS501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Glen Gardner, New Jersey.

Darla Daniel, Founder

www.OrphanAnnimals.com

On FaceBook and Twitter!

Orphan Anni-Mals Rescue and Farm Sanctuary, 71 Forge Hill Road, Glen Garnder, NJ 08826

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

SanteBus (formerly known as Healing Haiti Fund) is a U.S. IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in New Jersey that works  with families living in devastating poverty in Haiti.

Dr. Jean Paul Bonnet, Founder and Director

jompbonnet@yahoo.com

973-670-8385

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Rights for Disability Development Foundation

Kampala, Uganda

rightsdisability@yahoo.com

Bob Lubega, Executive Director

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Eve's Fund for Native American Health Initiatives is a US IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

www.Evesfund.org

www.EveCrowell.com

Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund

Barbara Crowell-Roy - Founder

Please visit Eve's Fund on FaceBook and Twitter! Your support is welcome!

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Kelly's Kitchen provides access to and education about Healthy Food and Food Needs for People with Disabilities.

Website: Kellys-Kitchen.org

Kelly and Paul Timmons, Founders

Kelly's Kitchen, PO Box 14109, Charleston, SC 29422

KellysKitchenCHS@gmail.com

Veggie seeds and masks are available on the Kellys-Kitchen.org website!

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Compassions Training and Awareness Center is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit located in Cleveland, Ohio.

Founder and Director Edna Sutton can be reached through Donna Valente at GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Compassions Training and Awareness Center is in dire need of a website rebuild, as its website was recently hacked.  If Edna's message touches your heart and you wish to help her get back to training more caregivers for people living with paralysis, please get in touch! 

Hope Loves Company is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Hope Loves Company, P.O. Box 931, Pennington, NJ 08534

HopeLovesCompany.org

Jodi O'Donnell-Ames - Founder and Director

jodi.odonnell-ames@hopelovescompany.org

609-730-1144

Find Hope Loves Company on FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and AmazonSmile!

GivingHeartBeat@gmail.com

Kisoboka Uganda Inc. is a U.S. 501(c)(3) Charity

www.Kisoboka.org

Kisoboka Uganda, Inc., 7 Clematis Road, Lexington, MA 02421

sgannon@kisoboka.org

"Whose Daughter Am I?" by Hope Kalibbala available on Amazon

givingheartbeat@gmail.com

givingheartbeat@gmail.com