money 5 stories that show Newport County residents stepped up to make a difference in 2021
In "The Merchant of Venice," William Shakespeare wrote, "How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good dead in a weary world." For many, living during a pandemic has been a dark time. Loved ones have gotten sick, and millions have died.
On Nov. 11, the World Health Organization reported that 5,070,244 people have died as a result of SARS-cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. School and work closures have had direct impacts on people's career plans and their wallets. Many have struggled to feed their families.
Despite these tragedies, there are shining stars in our community, who have selflessly given.
A 23-year-old woman, a stranger, donated bone marrow to a baby with a rare form of cancer, saving her life. A FedEx clerk recognized that an elderly man was being scammed out of thousands of dollars, and alerted authorities, and a local reporter, who has had a tremendous impact on Aquidneck Island over four decades of service, was inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame.
These "good news" stories, and selfless acts, have touched us all directly, or indirectly, and if one thing is certain, these are the types of stories that we all need to hear right now.
Newport is her community, her home
Early this year, the daughter of a Newport native was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Acute Myeloid Leukemia known as RAM. She began chemotherapy immediately, but needed a bone marrow transplant.
After hearing about Aspen Peck's diagnosis, the community came together on Feb. 6, for a bone marrow drive that was held at Roger's High School. Aspen's mother, Ashley (Vierra) Peck, a 2003 graduate of Roger's, and said the response to her daughter's needs was amazing. People were lining up outside the door to be tested.
A match was found, though it's unclear if the match was from the Newport bone marrow drive, and Aspen was able to receive the transplant she so desperately needed.
Aside from the bone marrow drive, Ashley said Newport residents also have helped them out financially. A GoFundMe for Aspen has raised nearly $100,000.
"We've had people even from Newport who have offered us organs, if Aspen needs organs. Like, if someone in their family may be passing away and is an organ donor," she said.
Local restaurants and an artist have hosted fundraisers or given the family donations for young Aspen. Newport has surrounded the Peck family with support and love, which Ashley said has been just amazing.
"When you're in that type of situation where you feel so lonely and helpless, and my mom's calling me telling me that 10 people dropped cards off at our house that day, people are touched by it, and it really makes a difference," Ashley said. "I haven't even seen anybody face-to-face, because we've been so quarantined because of the pandemic, plus Aspen and her immune system."
Though the family currently lives in Cranston, Ashley said Newport is her community. It's her home.
They knew something was wrong
A Middletown teenager Jamari Freeman, 14, was playing basketball at Miantonomi Park in mid-August with his cousin and some friends, when one of the players grabbed his cousin's wrist, and then began running home, but in the wrong direction. The man sat in the road on Hillside Avenue, and began having a seizure. Freeman called 911, and along with the others there, waited with him until emergency responders arrived.
It wasn't the first time the young man had helped someone in dire need. A few years ago, an elderly neighbor fell outside on a freezing and snowy day, and couldn't get back up. The neighbor set off his car alarm, and Freeman went outside to investigate. Finding the man, Freeman helped him get up. The man was cold, but OK.
During an interview about the incident at Miantonomi Park, Freeman's mom Brittnea looked over at him and said, "Jamari, I think this is your calling." Jamari shrugged. "Maybe," he said.
FedEx clerk stops scam
The skepticism of a clerk at a FedEx on East Main Road saved an elderly man from a $15,000 scam. On Aug. 3, the man told the clerk he intended to mail a package that contained $500 work of rolled up magazines. After asking the man questions about the magazines, the clerk became concerned that it could be a scam. She contacted her manager, who allowed her to open up the package, and found $15,000 in cash.
When she found the cash, the woman called the Middletown police, who reported to the Newport Daily News, that the man had been told if he sent the money, then he would get $25,000 deposited into his account.
No arrests were made as a result of this incident, but police did follow-up with an investigation.
Middletown animal shelter helps sister shelter flee Afghanistan
When the Potter's League, a Middletown animal shelter helped a faculty member at the Naval War College bring her cat home to Newport after her deployment, they ended up working with an Afghan animal shelter called Nowzad Animal Rescue.
The shelter, worked in Kabul to manage the stray animal population, and assisted in reuniting U.S. service members with the pets they adopted while on deployment. The organization was mostly run by female veterinarians.
Most of the people working at the shelter are Afghan citizens,” Shear said. “Part of Pen’s mission from early on was to create safe and sustainable workplaces for women in the country, so they hired some of the first female veterinarians to be able to practice in Afghanistan.
"And now, I think there's special concerns for educated women under this new regime and, really, for all employees and their families.”
The Potter League put out a call on social media asking for the local community to donate money to Nowzad as the shelter attempts to fly its 25 staff members, their dependents and the sheltered animals out of Afghanistan in the wake of the country’s takeover by the Taliban.
Nurse saves man's life at park
In September, a nurse who works at Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice was traveling between assignments when she noticed the Common Fence Point playground and stopped to check it out because she thought it'd be a fun place for her son to play.
While she was in the park, Nicole Masse saw a man and woman sitting at a picnic table. She saw the man begin to slump, and her nurse's instincts kicked in.
Six months pregnant, Masse ran to the man, her stethoscope in hand. By the time she got there, he had started turning blue. With help from the woman, Masse got the man on the ground and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him.
The woman called the paramedics.
"I ended up performing CPR for 11 minutes before rescue got there, from the time he started going over," Masse said. "Thankfully, I started to notice the time he went over and took note of it. As a nurse I'm trained to do this, but just knowing CPR, you're taught to do that."
When emergency responders arrived, they also performed CPR on the man for 11 minutes.
The man had a cardiac history, but several weeks after the incident, Masse received a letter from his partner, saying he had survived.
Building a bilingual library
Nathan Hilyard, a Portsmouth High School senior, crafted the small bilingual library, stationed outside Conexión Latina Newport, in the hopes of bringing “engaging books” to the city.
Hilyard designed and stocked the library as part of his National Honor Society Leadership Project. “The only criteria for this project is that it must be leadership-oriented and with the purpose of bettering local communities, so this project seemed like a good fit,” Hilyard said.
Founded in 2019 by local women, including Executive Director Rebekah Gomez, Conexión Latina Newport was born out of frustration at gross injustices and works to connect local Hispanic people with existent resources in the community.
Bethany Brunelle-Raja can be reached at bbrunelle@newportri.com 575-644-1223 or @bethanyfreuden1 on Twitter, Insta: bethanyfreudenthal, TikTok: becomingmrsraja, Muckrack: https://muckrack.com/bethany-freudenthal
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport's heroes who have helped shine a light during difficult times
