I just want to compliment you on your special section on the Charity Awards 2013. The selections you made were so worthy; and the content, the photos, the choices of volunteers to recognize and those descriptions were all outstanding! I found it all very touching.

Thirty shows. Five venues. Five days. Em Piro, founder of the St. Lou Fringe Festival, has upped the ante for the second annual extravaganza in midtown St. Louis, which will occur from Thursday, June 20 through Monday, June 24.

LN’s 2013 Charity Awards had something new this year: an online system that offered readers the opportunity to nominate individuals and organizations for their community service. Congratulations to our winners!

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are largely considered a ‘female problem,’ but men also develop UTIs and the unpleasant symptoms that accompany them.

On Saturday morning, June 15, Susie Knopf will join tens of thousands of friends, family, survivors and community members in downtown St. Louis for the 15th annual Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure. A long-term breast cancer survivor, Knopf will be walking in a sea of pink to raise funds and bring attention to the quest to cure breast cancer, the No. 2 killer of women after heart disease. “We are all one for those few hours and each shares a passion to end this dreaded disease,” she says. “Although we have come a long way, breast cancer is still a killer and 40,000 people in the U.S. will die of the disease this year.”

The devastating scene of an unwanted cat or dog being left in a box, on a curb or in the rain is not simply an emotive scene from the movies—it is the world many animals live in. With the earnest goal to help animals, the Animal Protective Association of Missouri (APA) is there to take in lost, stray or unwanted pets and work to find them loving forever homes.

The Immigrant & Refugee Women’s Program’s (IRWP) clients come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and dozens of other countries. While each of the women served has a different story and faces her own challenges, they all share a desire to learn. “One of our first questions when we meet them is, Why do you want to learn English?” says executive director Pat Joshu. “I’ve had several look at me and say that nobody has ever asked them that before: What do they want?”

Retasha Smith arrived at The Haven of Grace’s doorstep alone, pregnant and confused. But the organization quickly came to her rescue. A dependable support system and resources to become independent led her to a productive family life. 

St. Louis designer on-the-rise Jessie Miller made her debut June 9 on HGTV Star, which offers opportunities for undiscovered home renovation virtuosos to win life-changing prizes.

“We serve some of the most frail and fragile people in the whole world,” says Sue Hockensmith, co-founder of Pony Bird Inc., a care provider for non-ambulatory individuals with profound mental and physical disabilities.

Many of us are already making plans for Father’s Day—to show Dad just how much he’s loved and appreciated. In an ideal world, all dads should be celebrated. Of course, in the real world—at least in the world where Father’s Support Center operates—the issues of responsible fatherhood are complex. But so, too, are the solutions.

There were merely seven Mexican gray wolves left worldwide in 1971. Today, the population is past 300 living in captivity, with more than 70 additional wolves living in the wild, thanks to Missouri’s Endangered Wolf Center.

In 2009, Gateway Children’s Charity was founded by a group of eight people who wanted to make a tangible difference in the lives of local kids. “In our opinion, there was a void or gap that existed in funding projects that were on the smaller side, which maybe didn’t qualify for or were overlooked by bigger charity groups. We wanted to help fill that void,” says Michael Todorovich II, the nonprofit’s president and one of the founding board members.

A region-wide cakewalk, a Valentine’s Day ‘Burnin’ Love’ festival at Forest Park, and a giant heart sculpture in the Grand Basin are some of the highlights on tap for ST. LOUIS’ 250TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION in 2014. This week, before a gathering of the city’s civic and community leaders, the new nonprofit, stl250, announced some of the key events to commemorate the city’s founding by Pierre Laclede in 1764. The 2014 celebration will be co-hosted by Mayor FRANCIS SLAY and St. Louis County Executive CHARLIE DOOLEY. Stl250 co-chairs are Ameren’s TOM VOSS, and his wife, CAROL; with ERIN BUDDE as the organization’s executive director. Stay tuned, LN will have more details about the semiquincentennial milestone in the coming weeks!

Michael Russell is realizing his dream as a biology major at Webster University. Thanks to ACCESS Academies, he is the first person in his family to go to college. 

Countless clients credit Bethany Place with saving their lives.

Anyone can talk about making a difference in teens’ lives, but at Wyman Center it’s the numbers that do the talking. Take, for example, Brittany Woods Middle School in University City, where Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program is being offered to all seventh grade students. At the end of the first semester this year, school principal Jamie Jordan looked at the students’ comportment data, explains Wyman president/CEO Dave Hilliard. “Among the 200 sixth-graders, she had 40 referrals to the office for disruptive behavior,” he says. Among the seventh-graders, who had gone through half of the Wyman program, there were half as many referrals. “Among the eighth-graders, who had gone through the entire program, she had only four referrals to the office in the entire semester. There was a 95-percent difference among kids who had the program and learned how to use skills to be successful and avoid conflict.”

If anybody was destined to have a career in sports, it was Jay Delsing. But Jay decided not hit curve balls or blast penalty kids: He wanted to hit wedges.

MISSION: Fathers’ Support Center works to improve the lives of children by bettering the father-child relationship. Fathers enroll for at least one year of program involvement, which starts with an intense six-week course meant to grow family, communication, relationship and employment skills.

BRIAN HALL, chief marketing officer for the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, has been named chairman of Christmas in St. Louis Foundation, which produces Macy’s Festival of Lights and the Ameren Missouri Thanksgiving Day Parade.

My wife and I are parents with tweens. As our kids straddle the line between independence and dependence, our child care needs have changed. Now, it is about efficiently maximizing our baby-sitter usage, which includes driving assistance, house management and Saturday night parental respites. When our boys were babies, however, our child care concerns were focused on social interactions, developmentally appropriate challenges and safety. Different life stages require different levels of care.

Marsha Mason’s horizons have expanded significantly from her childhood in St. Louis. The one-time Catholic schoolgirl attended Holy Rosary grade school in North St. Louis and later Mary Queen of Peace when her family moved to Crestwood. She became interested in theater while attending Nerinx Hall High School and the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University before embarking on her illustrious stage and film career.

Ladue News is proud to announce the 2013 Charity Award finalists. In the following weeks, each of the 15 organizations will be profiled, with the top winners officially announced in LN’s June 13 issue.

If you are of a certain age, you probably remember the jealousy induced when another young classmate announced he or she was having his tonsils removed. From the vantage point of an elementary-school student, this meant a few days off and lots of post-surgical ice cream. And several decades ago, tonsillectomy seemed a routine part of childhood.

Big congrats go out to MATT SEITER, bar manager at Sanctuaria Wild Tapas in The Grove. His book, The Dive Bar of Cocktail Bars, is one of 10 semi-finalists for Best New Book at the Spirited Awards at the 2013 Tales of The Cocktail, which will be held in July in New Orleans. The list of finalists for the category will be released next month. Good luck!