Every morning at 6 am Alan Swallow gets out of bed, has breakfast and reads the paper. And for that he is an unsung hero.

When he reads The Southland Times in the morning, he reads it aloud and records if for people who are visually impaired(受损的).

The Blind Foundation provides its members with the Telephone Information Service(TIS) which has articles from more than 70 newspapers, radio and TV schedules, finance information, public and government notices and updates from the Blind Foundation. For 17 years Swallow has read the paper for the service. In the early days someone would head down to the local studio to record the news for the day and they had one chance to get it right. Nowadays, the news readers can work from home suing their phones.

The TIS service is available 365 days a year, and it could sometimes take him an hour to get through the local news items he had chosen. “It doesn’t take much effort, but it does take a commitment because people are relying on it.” He said.

The service had struggled for some time with volunteers because not many people knew about it. Swallow said, “It was fulfilling to know that people were benefiting from what he was doing.”

For Blind Foundation social function organiser Liz Anstice, the opportunity to give back to a foundation that had given much to her, was a nice aspect of the role. She has been involved with the foundation for five years after she became visually impaired. She said the biggest challenge was building the trust that people had in the local branch of the foundation.

Anstice reformed the social committee group and changed things so people did not get bored. The Christmas celebrations had been so well received members from the Blind Foundation in Balclutha were coming down for them. However, sometimes getting members to the events was a challenge because of a lack of volunteers available to transport them, she said. She was proud of being a finalist for the Volunteer Recognition Award.

Asking for a little can go a long way

Throughout this book we’ve attempted to provide evidence to support our claims that we can successfully move people to say yes.【小题1】

Along with several colleagues, one of us set out to do just that. We thought that, when asked to make a donation, even those who would like to support the charity in some way say no, because they can’t afford to donate very much, and they assume that the small amount that they can afford wouldn’t do much to help the cause. 【小题2】

To test this hypothesis (假设) our research assistants went door to door to request donations for the American Cancer Society. After introducing themselves, they asked the residents, “Would you be willing to help by giving a donation?” For half the residents the request ended there. 【小题3】

When we analyzed the results we found that, consistent with our hypothesis, people in the “even a penny will help” half of the sample were almost twice as likely to donate to the cause. And the amount the individuals gave was also found to be more or less the same in both halves, so the people in the “even a penny” half did not donate less.

【小题4】Applications in the workplace might be: to a co-worker regarding a joint project, “Just an hour of your time would really help,” to a co-worker whose handwriting is illegible, “Just a little more clarity would help.” The chances are that this little step in the right direction won’t prove so little after all.

Twenty-five young musicians from around the world have come to California to train and perform this month.   They will take part in an international program called iPalpiti. The name comes from the Italian word for heartbeats.

Eduard Schmieder is the program's conductor and musical director, Schmieder and his wife started the program in 1997 with help from violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin.

This year, the musicians come from 19 countries, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Israel and Italy.   Schmieder notes some of the musicians are from countries that are at war with each other.

And they are sitting next to each other, and they become friends, He says through their music and friendship, they are making the world more peaceful.

The musicians taking part in the program range in age from their late teens to their 30s.

Schmieder said they include winners of major music competitions. Peter Rainer is a violin player from Germany. He serves as concertmaster, the link between the musicians and conductor. "lt’s so great that you have so many sensitive musicians. They all are very alert and awake and listen to each other and it's a lot of fun. " Turkish viola player Can Sakul says the international group works we’ll together. "The experience is a cultural as well as a musical exchange," said Russian violinist SemyonPromoe.   " Everyone has their own opinion of music, how to play every composition.   It's very interesting to interact with everybody, to play together and to create one opinion for everybody. "

This year, the festival focuses on music from the 1600s to the 1900s. But cello player Franciaco Vila of Ecuador said the music has no geographic boundaries Vila added that the musicians get to know more about each other as they perform great music.

"It's interesting to see where we intersect(交集) , how many things we have in common. And also the music world is quite small, so you're only one person away from knowing everyone else" Can Sakul said the musicians who have taken part in the training and festival make up a big family. He added that he is proud to be a part of it.