Adopting Older Children
There are 800 children in foster care in Massachusetts waiting to be adopted, but finding families for older children can be a challenge. Teenagers in foster care often have been waiting years to finally have a family to call their own.
Carolee McGrath discusses adopting older children with Joseph Sandagato of the Massachusetts Adoptive Resource Exchange and his son Devin, who he adopted when he was 15 years old.
No One Dies Alone
Ute Schmidt, Manager of Spiritual Services for Baystate Medical Center, discusses “No One Dies Alone”, a volunteer effort aimed at making sure no one in the Springfield-area is without companionship in their final hours of life.
Automated External Defibrillators
A new law was signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker at the start of this year requiring all schools to have AEDs, or automated external defibrillators, which can be used to save someone’s life who is in cardiac arrest. The bill was inspired largely by Kevin Major, a 19-year-old athlete from Westfield who died in 2011 when he was swimming in Congomond Lakes. He had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which can go undetected. Carolee McGrath sat down with Kevin’s mom, Susan Canning, to learn more about the law and her efforts to save lives.
