Dallas Morning News Blog Piece About Marigold Ideas for Good Contest Winners

What are the odds? 2 of the 5 winners of the international Marigolds for Good contest are from Dallas! By Nancy Churnin nchurnin@dallasnews.com 3:35 pm on August 14, 2012 | Permalink

I have to admit now, I was anxious when I wrote separate pieces urging you to vote for Karen Blessen and Vicki Hill for the Marigold Ideas for Good contest. Both were so worthy, but only five people from across the world could win and what are the odds that TWO of them could be from Dallas? Karen developed MasterPEACE, an art-based, hands-on curriculum that teaches kindness, compassion, problem solving, conflict resolution and analytical thinking to thousands of children including refugees, pregnant and parenting teens, and at-risk youth. Vicki championed training for autistic adults through the nonPareil Institute in Plano, where those on the spectrum, like her son, Ryan Riedel, 24, learn to successfully create video games and apps. And evidently I wasn’t the only one who thought they both deserved to win because THEY BOTH WON! They were each one of the five selected to receive $5,000 for their projects.