logo
Middle schooler raises funds for Mid-Michigan Honor Flight

Middle schooler raises funds for Mid-Michigan Honor Flight

Yahoo04-03-2025
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A middle school student is on a mission to raise $120,000 for the Mid-Michigan Honor Flight — a group that sends veterans to our nation's capitol.
That amount would cover an entire flight to Washington D.C. Oakland County 13-year-old Abbie Jones became interested in helping veterans because she comes from a long line of veterans.
'My Uncle Johnny was in the army and he struggled with PTSD. In 2015 he ended his struggle. And I didn't want other families to go through what our family went through,' Jones said.
Mid-Michigan Honor Flight was 'best experience' for veterans
She has been on an Honor Flight before and said it was a very 'heartwarming experience.' Jones said toward the end of the flight, the veterans started to open up more and she became friends with one.
Her friend died a week ago and in his obituary said he wishes loved ones would donate to the upcoming , sponsored by Jones, instead of sending flowers.
Jones is raising money by going around the state and the country asking people to donate online. One fundraiser coming up on May 31 in Auburn Hills includes a DJ, taco bar, activities and raffles. For more information on how to help Abbie reach her goal, reach out to Mid-Michigan Honor Flight at or 231.803.4255 and let them know it's for Abbie's flight.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Emotionally intelligent people use the 2-week rule to motivate themselves and reach their biggest goals
Emotionally intelligent people use the 2-week rule to motivate themselves and reach their biggest goals

Fast Company

time2 days ago

  • Fast Company

Emotionally intelligent people use the 2-week rule to motivate themselves and reach their biggest goals

What's your elephant? Maybe you've heard that old saying: 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.' The idea is that the best way for tackling large, overwhelming tasks or projects is to break them down into smaller, more manageable steps. But that doesn't address the obvious problem: Nobody wants to actually 'eat the elephant.' So, how do you motivate yourself to actually get started? I learned a great trick some years ago from fellow Inc. columnist Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth. It's a technique founded on principles of emotional intelligence, the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions effectively. Best of all, it's far simpler than you might expect—as you can tell from its name: The Two-Week Rule. What's the Two-Week Rule, and how can it help you beat procrastination, find motivation, and reach your biggest goals? It all comes down to the psychology of how motivation works, and how that knowledge can help you manage your emotions. (Sign up here for my free email emotional intelligence course.) How to use the Two-Week Rule to reach your biggest goals Over the years, Haden's had the chance to interview successful people like Shark Tank investor and billionaire Mark Cuban, NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal, and professional tennis great Venus Williams. Through those interviews, Haden learned some interesting things about the psychology of motivation. 'Motivation isn't something you get from the outside, nor is it something you find within,' Haden told me in a recent interview. 'Motivation is something you create through a cycle of a little bit of effort, a little bit of success that feels good—because it always feels good to get better at something—and that gives you enough motivation to get you to the next day.' 'That cycle just continues to repeat, and it can take you a really long way,' says Haden. In other words, while motivation is part of the cycle, it's not the beginning of the cycle. And here's where the two-week rule comes in. The two-week rule is about as simple as it sounds: Commit yourself to a project for two weeks. Then, evaluate your progress and decide whether you want to move forward. To illustrate, Haden uses the following example: Let's say you want to run a marathon. At the beginning, you may only be able to run a mile; still, you commit to training for two weeks. After day one, you're thinking there's no way you're ever going to be able to run the full race. This thing is hard, much harder than you anticipated. That fact alone is so overwhelming, you're tempted to give up. But you've committed to a full two weeks, so you force yourself to keep going. After a week, you still haven't seen much improvement. 'I'm sore,' you think to yourself. 'I'm tired. My knees hurt. I don't really enjoy this.' But you also think: 'Thank God I only have another week to go.' At the end of two weeks, though, things look different. You're a little faster. A little fitter. You've developed a new routine and you've found your flow. Now you say to yourself: 'Hey, I've actually gotten somewhere. I'm not at 26 miles yet, but I'm much better than when I started.' And that progress may be all you need to keep going. Why the Two-Week Rule works The beauty of this rule is you can commit to almost anything for two weeks. At the end of that time, you'll have data you can actually use to make a decision about moving forward—and many times, the motivation you need, too. But what if you can't even get yourself to commit for two weeks? Or, what if you try, and discover it's not really something you want to do? 'Then it's probably not a goal you wanted to achieve anyway,' Haden says. 'And that's a good thing—because if you try it and find out you don't really want it, it comes off your list of things you want to do. You get rid of the guilt associated with not doing it.' 'And now, you can focus on some of the things you really want to do instead.' So, whatever major project you're trying to tackle, try the two-week rule: Commit to doing it for just two weeks. Once you do, you'll finally have gotten started eating the elephant. And at the end of those two weeks, there's a good chance you'll have improved your efforts, you're starting to see progress, and most importantly, you've found the motivation to keep going.

Family Move Into New House—Chills at Message Found Scratched Inside Closet
Family Move Into New House—Chills at Message Found Scratched Inside Closet

Newsweek

time5 days ago

  • Newsweek

Family Move Into New House—Chills at Message Found Scratched Inside Closet

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A homeowner endured a few sleepless nights after discovering an unsettling message scratched in the back of a closet in her 1920s home. Madeleine Jones and her family moved into their new home in Arlington, Massachusetts, a year ago, but didn't notice anything was amiss until she recently began reorganizing her clothes. That was when she saw the chilling 15-word message written in the back. "It's way in the back of a probably a 3ft+ closet, scratched into the contact paper," Jones told Newsweek. "It totally creeped me out!" Etched crudely into the wood at the back of the vintage piece of furniture were the following words: "A red river clogs my eyes as I slide down deeper from despair to death." Jones' home dates back to 1924, meaning the message could have been written anytime in the past century. So far, her efforts at finding the origins of meaning behind it have been fruitless. "I initially thought it must be song lyrics, but my Google search didn't turn up anything," Jones said. "I showed the photo to all of my friends and family who were equally spooked." The lack of answers and the fact it felt like something out of a horror movie left Jones suffering from a few sleepless nights. "Who could sleep 5 feet away from something like that," she said. Jones would be forgiven for thinking something paranormal was at play. While it's not the majority, a significant proportion of Americans do believe in the supernatural world. Earlier this month, a Gallup Poll revealed nearly half of U.S. adults, 48 percent, believe in psychic or spiritual healing. Slightly fewer, 39 percent, believe in ghosts, while between 24 percent and 29 percent say they believe in six other supernatural phenomena, including telepathy, communication with the dead, clairvoyance, astrology, reincarnation and witches. Eager to get answers, Jones took to Reddit, posting a picture of the message under the handle u/vitaminmm. "I love posting on Reddit, you get such a wide range of reactions! My personal favorite are the people who accuse you of staging something like this for upvotes," Jones said. One user described the message as an example of "high school teenage angst." Another, meanwhile, shared a memory of doing similar. "When I was 12 -ish I distinctly remember writing weird things on the wall of my closet, over the door where they'd never really be seen," they said. "Things like I will burn this house down and I hear voices at night. Why? I wanted someone to be scared if they stumbled upon it. Will have to check if it's still there next time I visit." It turns out that that may not be a million miles from the truth of Jones's situation. "I talked to our neighbors who have lived next door since the 1970s and they told me that three daughters shared our bedroom, which is a maximum of 100 square feet, in the '70s and early '80s," Jones said. "Upon further investigation of the closet, there are a number of things written inside: 'Eileen '84' and 'I love Gary' with Gary crossed out. My ultimate conclusion is that this was the early 1980s emo musings of a teenage girl. Still not the kind of thing you want to find etched into your 100-year-old closet wall though!" Despite the unsettling nature of what was written, Jones has no plans to get rid of the wardrobe. "It's a closet so we're pretty stuck with it," she said. "I may wallpaper over it at some point, but I am enjoying the creep factor for the time being!"

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store