Well, If you haven’t heard, the Godfather of Fitness has passed at the age of 96. Most of us know him from his Power Juicer infomercials but some may remember him from his fitness show in the 50s and all of his incredible fitness stunts.

This revolutionary vegetarian practiced what he preached and he lived to help others reach their optimum fitness via exercise and proper nutrition. Sure he may have swam handcuffed from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf at 40 and then again 60, but his main love was showing people how they could live better lives, simply. And did you know that the jumping jack was named after him and was always behind the fight against childhood obesity?

Here’s a quick little bio on this health king:

Jack LaLanne  was an American fitness, exercise, and nutritional expert, celebrity, lecturer, and motivational speaker who is widely referred to as “The Godfather of Fitness”. LaLanne gained worldwide recognition for his success as a chiropractor and bodybuilder, and for his incredible and prodigious acts of strength and endurance. Through his career, LaLanne has won numerous awards including the Horatio Alger Award from the Association of Distinguished Americans, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Hall of Fame.

Early Life
Jack LaLanne was born September 26, 1914 in San Francisco, CA and admittedly, during his childhood days was addicted to sugar and junk foods. At age 15, young Jack heard Paul Bragg speak on health and nutrition which had such a powerful influence, it motivated Jack to focus on his diet and exercise habits.

Jack was truly a pioneer, as he studied Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body and concentrated on bodybuilding, chiropractic medicine, and weightlifting, something virtually unheard of in the 1930s.

Health Clubs
In 1936 LaLanne opened his own health spa in Oakland, CA, and dedicated his life to encouraging people to better themselves through exercise and fitness. LaLanne designed the world’s first leg extension machines, pulley machines using cables, and weight selectors, now a standard in the fitness industry.

His list of accomplishments goes on and on. But what he did for folks like me was lay the groundwork for mainstream exercise and nutrition delivery via the media. He was a visionary, a beloved husband and a fellow veggie head!

Jack LaLanne
1914-2011

From Tonic.com By Diane Herbst | Thursday, August 5, 2010 5:00 AM ET

Millions in Pakistan need clean water, sanitary food, housing and medical care. Organizations are now on the ground helping those displaced by the worst floods in 80 years. Here’s how you can support their efforts.

In Pakistan, an estimated 3 million victims of the worst floods in 80 years are searching for hope. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, drinking water is filthy and contaminated, and food is scarce. One look at the devastating images of men and women walking through brown water up to their chests makes all of us feel grateful for our comfortable — and dry — homes.

The Pakistanis need us. So Tonic compiled this list of organizations working on the ground in Pakistan in need of donations. We know that many of you want to do more and volunteer. Unfortunately, as of now, opportunities are sparse. If you know of any ways to get involved, please let us know in the comments section below.

So please, share the gratitude. Send that text to donate, or click on that link. It only takes a minute to help.

• Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday that Americans could text the word “SWAT” to the number 50555 to donate $10 per SMS message to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to provide tents, clothing, food, clean water and medicine to Pakistan.

• American Red Cross seeks to raise $100,000 to aid its Pakistan equivalent — Pakistan Red Crescent — with teams on the ground providing food, other relief items and medical care. To donate, go to their website.

• UNICEF is providing help with water, sanitation, health and nutrition for displaced children and families. To donate, please click here.

• Stamford, Conn.-based AmeriCares is sending medical and other aid to the hardest-hit areas of the flood. Readers can donate through the AmeriCares website.

• CARE needs donations for its health teams, mobile clinics and distribution of food, which will help 100,000 flood victims. To donate, go to their website.

• Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres is providing water, sanitation help, hygiene kits, cooking utensils and other items to Pakistanis. Doctors Without Borders has also prepared itself to care for patients in case of cholera outbreaks. To donate to Doctors Without Borders, give to its emergency fund.

• The International Rescue Committee, founded by Albert Einstein in 1933, is on the ground assessing the disaster, planning to make clean water accessible and to provide shelter to people who have lost their homes. To donate to the IRC’s efforts in Pakistan, click here.

• The International Medical Corps (IMC) has sent mobile medical teams of doctors and paramedics to assist victims in the hardest hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the northwest. To make a donation to the Santa Monica, Calif. based organization, founded by a UCLA doctor, go to the IMC website. The organization is also seeking doctors, nurses and trained professionals from a wide variety of fields. For more information and to volunteer, visit the Corps’ website.

• Westport, Conn.-based Save the Children, dedicated to helping children worldwide, is already providing medical care, food and shelter kits. To donate to its Pakistan efforts, click here.

• Mercy Corps‘ Pakistan Emergency Fund supports Mercy Corps workers with their efforts in helping displaced families in the hard-hit Swat Valley. Visit the Mercy Corps website to donate to the Pakistan Emergency Fund.

• Oxfam hopes to reach 400,000 people affected by the devastating floods, supplying clean water and preventing the spread of waterborne disease. To support Oxfam’s efforts, go to the Oxfam America website. Those outside the US can donate to its UK emergency relief fund for Pakistan.

• The World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger, is supplying food to the tens of thousands affected by the floods. To donate, visit the WFP website.

• Islamic Relief Worldwide, a relief organization based in Birmingham, England, has launched a £2 million (or $3.2 million USD) appeal to deliver clean water, food and health care. You can donate here.

• BRAC has temporarily halted its normal operations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to provide relief work. Due to the acute food shortage, BRAC Pakisan has begun to deliver food packets containing such items at rice, lentils, flour and water purification tables. In the immediate future, the team will also be distributing Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and sending out a medical team to begin assessing health needs. To donate, click here.

About the Author

Diane Herbst is a freelance writer based in New Jersey, and a regular contributor to People Magazine.
Tonic is a digital media company dedicated to promoting the good that happens around the world each day. We share the stories of people and organizations that are making a difference by inspiring good in themselves and others.
At Tonic, we also see ourselves as a service company — one that strives not only to inspire our readers, but to equip them with the resources to make a difference.

By Diane Herbst , originally published on tonic.com Friday, July 2, 2010 5:30 AM ET

Mikael Hardy was horrified to see how many people near her home in South Carolina kept their dogs chained up, outside, every hour of every day. So she got up off the couch, knocked on their doors and did something about it.

When Mikael Hardy (right) moved from Atlanta to Greenville County, S.C., she discovered a frightening way of life. Some of her new neighbors kept their dogs chained up outside every day and every night — oftentimes emaciated, sad creatures with empty water buckets and no food. “I saw all these chained dogs, and I said, ‘What is this?’” Hardy says. “I knew I needed to save them.”

Last year, Hardy, 40, started knocking on doors, asking these neighbors if she could build them a fence, get their dog spayed or neutered, and provide dog food, toys and veterinary care. For free. “At first they thought there was a catch,” she says. “They probably thought I was on crack.”

Since August of 2008, however, Hardy has persuaded almost 60 different owners to allow her to build a fence and provide romping room for some 70 dogs. The only requirement: each owner must spay or neuter their dogs before construction begins, paid for by Hardy and her nonprofit, PAWSitive Effects. Incredibly, Hardy has a 90-percent success rate. “We’ve approached this as a friendly venture, I keep on talking and eventually they say yes,” she says in her fast Southern drawl. “It is just so emotionally and physically abusive to keep these dogs at the end of a chain.”

For her first few fences, each 600 square feet, Hardy borrowed money from her mother. “We had no money,” says Hardy, whose husband, Brad, 40, two teenage children and a loyal group of volunteers all pitch in to build the fences, which cost $400 a piece; medical costs for each dog is another $130. “The people she builds the fence for are so grateful or so thankful, and they can’t help but notice the change in their dog,” says regular volunteer Jami McLean, 32, a human resources manager for a Fortune 500 company.

“You have a dog that is snarling, defensive, and as soon as you release him into the fenced area, the dog changes immediately,” she continues. “They begin running around, sniffing, throwing their toys in the air. It is by far the most rewarding part of building the fence.”

Most everyone Hardy has encountered who chain their dogs are uneducated and poor. They tell her the dog is chained for protection. Or they need the money from the puppies. Hardy’s gift of gab works wonders. “I tell them it’s a lot easier for me to break in if they are chained,” she says. “I tell them no one wants the puppies, they just end up in a shelter.”

When not building fences, Hardy juggles co-owning a flooring company with Brad, and raising daughter Tatum, 13, and son Tyler, 14, who has bilateral ophthalmia (no eyes), autism, obsessive compulsive disorder and a low I.Q. Both kids work on the weekly fence-building projects, with a waiting list through September.

“Tyler tells people what to do,” says Hardy, laughing. The Hardy family also includes eight dogs — four rescued from living on a chain. “It’s hard not to gush about Mikael and the whole Hardy family,” says McLean. “You see Tyler, with a lot of obstacles to overcome, and not once do you hear the kid say ‘I don’t want to do that.’”

Hardy tackles each home that she visits knowing the result will be a fence. Occasionally, she skips the fence and rescues the dog. One dog (above, left) was all skin and bones, so thin that her front left arm slipped through her collar, which embedded deep in her skin. Sores enveloped the pup’s body. “I said, ‘Keeping a dog like this is illegal,’” Hardy recalls.

The owners gave their dog to Hardy, who found a loving family — one that includes two dogs and a 30-pound cat — to adopt her. However, an angry Hardy pressed charges against the owners, who were allowed to settle their case and 30 days later obtained another dog — who they chained up. Says Hardy: “It’s deplorable.”

Hardy’s efforts are part of a burgeoning number of volunteers across the US working to let chained dogs free, sometimes with unintended results. Hardy had volunteered for the Pennsylvania-based group Dogs Deserve Better, whose founder was convicted of theft in 2007 for rescuing a chained, dying dog who could not stand, refusing to return him to his abusers. Hardy’s experience with the group eventually led to her founding PAWSitive Effects.

Since Hardy built her first fence last year, she has raised and spent some $45,000 — all from private donations. “At least I’m making a dent,” she says. “At the end of the build, when I put that dog in that fence, you’ve dramatically improved that dog’s life. It makes you feel so good.”

To take a stand and help Mikael better the life of local pups, click here to donate.

Photos courtesy of Mikael Hardy.

Diane Herbst is a freelance writer based in New Jersey, and a regular contributor to People Magazine. Diane Herbst’s full profile »

Tonic is a digital media company dedicated to promoting the good that happens around the world each day. We share the stories of people and organizations that are making a difference by inspiring good in themselves and others.

At Tonic, we also see ourselves as a service company — one that strives not only to inspire our readers, but to equip them with the resources to make a difference.

In my years as The Healthy Voyager, my main goal was to spread the message of health in a positive way.  I have always been touched by charity and philanthropy and felt that it was time to combine my passion for health and helping others who are unable to help themselves together. It was only a matter of time when I found a way to do so and so I have launched Well Fed America.

By Katherine Gustafson – first published on tonic.com on Monday, May 17, 2010 8:25 AM ET

At StudentsRebuild.org, middle and high school students worldwide are challenged to creatively raise funds and then deeply engage with the country and people they are helping.

Who better to rebuild schools in earthquake-ravaged Haiti than students? While Haitian students are struggling to stay afloat as their country gets back on its feet, their counterparts in other countries are busy raising funds to help get their lives back to normal.

Through a new website called StudentsRebuild.org, launched by Architecture For Humanity, the Bezos Family Foundation and Global Nomads Group, junior high and high school students worldwide are getting the opportunity to engineer creative fundraising efforts and engage deeply with the nation and the people they are trying to help.

These organizations are offering a $500,000 challenge grant to match what students raise. Students work in teams with the goal of raising $2,500, which the matching grant will make into $5,000, an amount that can go very far in Haiti. The three teams that pull in the most funds will be recognized at the end of the challenge.

Taking the students beyond fundraising, the site’s interactive videos, interviews with builders and real-time links with Haitian students will expose students first-hand to the ways people work together to make the most of philanthropic dollars in providing humanitarian assistance.

“Schools and learning are vital to rebuilding,” says Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture For Humanity. “We urgently need to restore a sense of normalcy in these young hearts and minds and not allow this tragedy to dictate how they see their future. This is an opportunity for young people here to see how they are connected to the global community and learn the real challenges of rebuilding after disaster.”