Latest news with #Blondell
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
New track build efforts recognised
Family, friends, officials and fellow Green Hut Track Group members surround dedicated volunteer Arthur Blondell after he was presented with an Outdoor Access Champion Award last Thursday at Orokonui Ecosanctuary. Pictured in the front row are (from left) Herenga ā Nuku — Outdoor Access Commission board member Dr Hugh Logan, Mr Blondell's wife Teresa Wasilewska, Mr Blondell with his award, Department of Conservation ranger Felicity Sime, Green Hut Track Group co-ordinator Graeme Elliot and commission acting chief executive Phil Culling. Photo: Brenda Harwood The dedication of Dunedin man Arthur Blondell, who has spent the past 12 years building a safe public walking track in the Silverpeaks Scenic Reserve, has been recognised with a national Outdoor Access Champion Award. Mr Blondell's extraordinary efforts to build the 7km "Arthur's Track" along the south branch of the Waikouaiti River were celebrated at a special award presentation ceremony at Orokonui Ecosanctuary last week Thursday, which was also his 76th birthday. Herenga ā Nuku — Outdoor Access Commission acting chief executive Phil Culling and board member Dr Hugh Logan presented the award to Mr Blondell at the celebration, which was attended by about 50 people — family, friends, officials and fellow members of the Green Hut Track Group. Dr Logan saluted Mr Blondell's achievement, saying building tracks was a major effort, requiring time, planning and care. "And if that work is done by hand, it is even tougher," Dr Logan said. Building the track had been "a fantastic contribution to the city" and would help people to connect with nature, he said. Green Hut Track Group co-ordinator Graeme Elliot said many of the group members who were at Thursday's ceremony had worked alongside Mr Blondell on constructing the track. "A lot of us here have worked with Arthur and have been challenged and inspired by him — it has been quite a journey and I want to thank him for that," Mr Elliot said. Mr Blondell told the gathering he was motivated to start work on the track in 2012 after the remote Philip J. Cox Memorial Hut — established in memory of his late friend — was built. Arthur Blondell at the junction of a series of tracks in the Silverpeaks Scenic Reserve near Dunedin. Photo: Graeme Elliot The hut was the second shelter on the Silverpeaks Circuit Track, which traversed steep, slippery slopes and dense undergrowth, and included river crossings that could be treacherous in poor weather. "The [new] track had been talked about for a long time, but no-one had gotten around to starting it — so I decided to pick up a shovel and get going," he said. Every Monday, Mr Blondell drove 40 minutes to the Silverpeaks Scenic Reserve, then walked a 200m descent to the track site. Self-funded and resourced, he carried his own tools in, as well as timber and other resources, storing them on-site. After navigating the track and clearing vegetation by hand, Mr Blondell embarked on the back-breaking work of digging and benching the track by hand, establishing water channels and constructing drainage. The Green Hut Track Group, a collective of mostly retired volunteers who have worked together every Wednesday to maintain tracks in the Silverpeaks for more than 20 years, found Mr Blondell in 2015, and spent many subsequent Mondays working alongside him. After five years, Dunedin Tracks and Trail guidebook author Antony Hamel led the inaugural tramp along Arthur's Track in August 2017. Following that milestone, Mr Blondell has continued his work to improve and maintain the track over the past seven years, to ensure it caters for trampers of a broad range of abilities. This has involved refining and re-routing the track to remove some of the steeper sections, introducing switchbacks and zig-zags to ease the gradient. The whole track now follows an easy contour, making it an enjoyable tramping experience, while still providing access to spectacular Silver Peaks views. "The track also links up the other tracks in the area, which helps to provide a better experience for trampers," he said. Dedicated volunteer Arthur Blondell (left) receives the Outdoor Access Champion Award from Herenga ā Nuku — Outdoor Access Commission board member Dr Hugh Logan during last week's award presentation ceremony at Orokonui Ecosanctuary. Photo: Brenda Harwood The Department of Conservation formally incorporated Arthur's Track into the Silverpeaks Circuit Track in May 2024. Mr Blondell paid tribute to the members of the Green Hut Track Group for their long-standing support for his passion project. "I want to thank all those who came along and helped throughout my time working on the track," he said. He was very pleased with the high standard of the track, which he hoped would encourage more people to use it. "Having the Silverpeaks in such close proximity to Dunedin makes it an ideal place to have a first outdoor experience. "It is a wonderful asset, and I hope we have enhanced it by putting the track through," he said. Dunedin Department of Conservation ranger Felicity Sime added her voice to the praise for the efforts of Mr Blondell and the Green Hut Track Group for their phenomenal work in completing Arthur's Track to such a high standard of safety and accessibility. "Arthur's relentless hard work and dedication will enable generations of people to explore and enjoy the Silverpeaks Scenic Reserve. The track is an absolute treasure," she said.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Maryland migraine headache research advocates head to Capitol Hill
MYERSVILLE, Md. () — Advocates for more medical research to treat neurological diseases associated with migraine headaches made their way to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Advocates say it's an epidemic, and they want lawmakers to improve care. Their crusade is called Headache on the Hill, their health advocacy initiative for those challenged by headache disorders. Western Maryland nonprofits fear impact of federal budget cuts Heather Eig is a 51-year-old school counselor struggling to overcome this common medical condition. 'I suffer from headaches that are often caused by barometric weather change, stress,' Eig said. 'Sometimes I don't even know why I have them.' Eig even wears a wrist device to help monitor her symptoms. 'I'm part of a medical study at the National Institutes of Health looking at brain issues,' Eif said. It's a study she and other advocates across the country hope will be expanded to improve access to care for migraines. Thirty-one-year-old Shelby Blondell, a singer-songwriter and artisan, also wants more federal attention to neurological disease. 'I'm a chronic migraine patient, but it leads to much more,' Blondell said. 'Speech difficulties, brain fog, nausea, dizziness, all kinds of things that come along with headache and migraine disorder.' Eig said she has a 17-year-old daughter who has had a migraine disorder since she was diagnosed at 8 years old. 'She started having headaches at age five,' Eig said. Hagerstown City Council poised to approve tax hike Eig and Blondell are crusading with other advocates from across the country to make treating headache disorders a much higher public policy priority. They said 40 million people need improved diagnoses. 'We need that research to be able to understand,' Eig said. 'We need the funding to be able to have the research.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: ‘Rise Above' is about the surprisingly upbeat life of a Masters caddie for more than 50 years
To help support his family, a tiny 11-year-old named Carl Jackson took a walk. He walked from the scraggly neighborhood where he lived with his parents and eight siblings in a rural town named Sand Hills in Georgia to the pristine greenery next door. The little boy had dropped out of school and was looking for a job, which he found after walking through a fence that bordered the famous Augusta National Golf Club where the Masters Tournament is annually held, this year's beginning on April 10. He became a caddie, and that is what he would proudly be for the next 54 years. It's been some journey, usually with a heavy golf bag on his shoulders, and it has brought him a decent living, a stable family, many encounters with wealthy golfers and talented professionals and some powerful mentors and friends, including golfer Ben Crenshaw, whose bag he carried to two Masters titles (1984 and 1995), and induction into the Caddie Hall of Fame. Now, nearing 80, he is a movie star, the compelling center of a tender and inspiring documentary available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+ titled 'Rise Above: The Carl Jackson Story.' It has been a hit on the festival circuit, a 10-time official selection in international fests. It won for best feature documentary at the Cannes Indie International Film Festival last year. 'I appreciate all of that. It is touching people, and not only festival judges. I think people are impressed, even amazed that Carl has never forgotten his humble beginnings,' says the movie's director, producer and writer, whose name is Maryilene Blondell, who lives on Chicago's North Side. Before becoming involved with Jackson and his story, she knew little about golf, her experience limited to a teenage visit to watch one round of the Masters years ago. But she knew journalism and television. And she knew people and knew a good story. 'Carl is so genuine and sincere,' Blondell says. 'There wasn't any person I asked to be in this film — Gary Player, Scottie Scheffler — who turned me down.' Raised in Glenview, she studied journalism in college, became a New York-based network television news producer and freelance writer, moved to Los Angeles where she produced sports and entertainment programs, worked in the nonprofit world, came back to the Chicago area where she co-founded a production company and has started to dip her creative feet into features films, including with 'The Road Dance.' She has two adult sons and a daughter still in high school. She met Jackson through a friend who knew Carl's brother. Carl had signed an entertainment contract for an independent production company to make a feature starring Denzel Washington. Big talk, typical of dreamy deal makers. 'I helped him get out of that deal and we kept in touch,' says Blondell. A couple of years later and a handful of Hollywood's empty promises, Carl told Blondell that he was ready to tell his story. 'And he asked me to do it.' That she has done and it has been quite a learning experience, more about how to live a life than how to read a green. 'We got a lot of help,' says Blondell, who tells of a Chicago financier named Paul Purcell. He called out of the blue and said, 'I hear you're making a documentary about my friend Mr. Jackson. If he says he believes in you, I believe in you. What do you need?' Blondell tells me, 'There would not be a 'Rise Above' without Paul Purcell.' And so you'll watch and learn the rather amazing story of Jackson's friendship with Augusta member and former club chairman Jack Stephens, an oilman and investment banker, philanthropist and Arkansas resident. He employed Jackson not only on the golf course, but as a jack-of-many-trades personal assistant and confidant, and Jackson moved with his wife and increasing number of children to spend part of each year in Little Rock, where Stephen lived. When Stephen invited Jackson to play Augusta as his guest, he became the first Black nonprofessional to play the course and the first to stay in one of Augusta's 12 guest cabins. There are, of course, other stories that could be told about the Masters. 'I know that if anyone had reason to be filled with rage and anger over racism and poverty, it was Carl,' Blondell says. The Masters did not invite a Black competitor to play until 1975, when Lee Elder broke the color barrier. Augusta, which is secretive about its membership roster, didn't admit its first Black member until 1990. 'Carl and I were determined to tell an inspiring story that might bring people together rather than tear them apart,' Blondell says. In any case, caddies are likely due for extinction. In many parts of the U.S., caddies have gone the way of bowling-alley pin setters, available at less than 10% of the country's 15,000 golf courses. Jackson retired in 2015. What has steadily diminished their number and threatens, some would say, their very existence, is the golf cart As I have written, 'If the most aggressive assault on the status of caddies is technological, the other is more subtle and psychological. Most golfers stink — an oft-cited statistic has it that 70% of golfers can't manage to shoot below 100 — and who wants a stranger observing their ineptitude?
