Let’s start 2012 out on the right foot, the correct path, a good mindset, have the best intentions, etc etc, etc. No, I’m not going to talk to you about personal resolutions. I’m not going to give you five steps to healthier living or have you add blueberries to you daily food pyramid. Nor am I going to tell you to drink more water, eat less red meat, walk faster or sleep more. However, all those are excellent recommendations; I should try them myself.

What I am going to ask you to do is choose. Choices are what define us as individuals. This past Sunday as I sat in the football stadium in Cincinnati and watched The Ravens warm up against The Bengals (the Ravens won the game if you were curious) and everyone was scurrying about getting ready for the game to start, I thought how much life is really like a football game. I thought we have two options, just like the game I was getting ready to watch. We can either get in the game or stand on the sidelines. For me the view is much better being in the game. But…that is a choice we make.

Being from Memphis, Tennessee, I’m going to use a line from an Elvis Presley song. We need to have “a little less conversation and little more action.” Let’s stop all the lip service about what we are going to do or need to do or are thinking about doing. For goodness sake let’s just do something! I hope that “something” is not just going to have an impact on you and you alone.

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Lindsey D. Fry | 12/28/2011

 It may be Christmas break at Minot State University, but the campus was filled with people today as Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy, the family who inspired the book and movie “The Blind Side,” arrived on campus to spread their message of hope to a community that continues to recover from a major disaster.

Last March, the Minot Alliance Group had planned to fly in the Touhys for National Philanthropic day, but due to a tight budget and this summer`s flood, the trip was postponed. But on Wednesday, the family came to Minot on their own dime where they spoke to the community about keeping hope.

It was two words “turn around” that started the Tuohy family on their journey. “Turn around” are the words said by Leigh Anne Tuohy as they drove past a teenager in need of help. Now, the world knows them as the “Blind Side Family.”

Andrea Lang came to MSU to hear the Tuohys message of hope. “It`s exciting to hear about a family who has worked with a child in need and see them succeed.”

Jenny Striha is a Minot resident and said she has watched the movie and it’s close to her heart. “Minot has really struggled this year” she said. “This is really a chance for Minot to have some hope.”

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 One Solitary Life He was born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty.  Then, for three years, he became a wandering preacher. He never wrote a book.  He never held an office.  He never had a family or owned a house.  He didn’t go to college.  He never visited a big city.  He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.  He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him.  His friends ran away.  He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial.  He was executed by the state.  While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.  When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress.  All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.                     

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life.” — John 3:16

Over the years, a very typical comment we would hear during this time of year from our three kids went something like this, “I really need this for Christmas.” Then my husband or I would respond, “You might want it, but you certainly don’t need it.” There is a difference in the two. So many of us honestly don’t truly need anything for Christmas. It is very tricky during the holidays just not to go out and splurge on getting everyone whatever it is you think that they just can’t live without and that will fulfill all their dreams.

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The parents who helped inspire the New York Times bestselling book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” and blockbuster movie “The Blind Side” have themselves been so inspired by Minot they are coming next week to speak about their life and the importance of charitable giving.

“The Blind Side” follows the lives of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, their daughter Collins, and son Sean Jr., as they bring a troubled African-American teenager, Michael Oher, into their family. Oher is eventually adopted by the family and becomes a first-round selection by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2009 National Football League draft.

The Tuohys will speak in Ann Nicole Nelson Hall, located in Old Main on the campus of Minot State University, December 28, at 12:45 p.m. A special VIP lunch will take place at 11:30 a.m. in the Slaaten Center, on the third floor of Old Main.

The speaking engagement is sponsored by the Minot Alliance of Non-Profits. Shelly Weppler, executive director of St. Joseph’s Community Health Foundation, a member of the alliance, said the Tuohys will speak about their philosophy of giving.

“The Tuohys will talk about their life and their charitable philosophy to life, in that you need to give back, and you need to give back in the form of doing,” Weppler said.

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