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There are many ways to contribute to New Hanover County. You could pick up trash in your neighborhood, donate to a local charity, or volunteer. There are many places to volunteer in New Hanover County. You can volunteer at Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, The Good Shepard, Stop Hunger Now, and many other local food banks and organizations.

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MLK was a good citizen to America because he fought for change peacefully and made sure that everyone is viewed equally and has the same opportunities as one another.

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Dr. Steve Sullivan is the principal of Hoggard High School. He contributes to being an effective citizen by supporting the school and the events.

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Contributing to the common good means to do something to benefit your community and your nation. Volunteerism is an example of contributing to the common good, and volunteerism is the practice of offering your time and services to others without payment.

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Anyone can contribute to your community, no matter who you are, or where you live. You can help the community by doing something as small as picking up trash in your neighborhood or donating to a local organization or charity. Volunteerism is a great way to contribute to your community.

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One important thing to be a good citizen is stay updated about what is happening where you live. A few ways to make sure you stay informed is to read the newspaper, watch the news, look online on news sites, or just ask

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One of the duties effective citizens must do is defend the nation. All men ages 18-25 must register for selective services. All men registered must join military forces if there was a war and the military was in need of men.

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To vote in elections is a Responsibility so it is not required to vote. This is the most important responsibility, the U.S has lower voter turn out due to voter apathy. Apathy is the attitude of not caring about things.

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Harry Swimmer is from Charlotte North Carolina and he is an effective citizen. He runs a horse farm for kids with disabilities. He met a girl at a local grocery store who had Cerebral Palsy and he wondered what would happen if he put her on a horse. She loved it and ever since then he has run this horse farm for children with disabilities.

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He met a girl in a wheelchair named Stacy. She was deaf and nonverbal. Swimmer learned she had cerebral palsy.

"I wondered what might happen if I put her on a horse," said Swimmer, who owns a farm near Charlotte, North Carolina.

Stacy and her grandmother visited his farm, where Swimmer helped her ride a pony.

"She just lit up like a candle," said Swimmer. "That's when I knew what I wanted to do."

Soon after, Swimmer retired from the insurance industry, and he and his wife turned their lucrative for-profit horse farm into a nonprofit oasis for children with special needs.

Now, at age 87, Swimmer and his organization, Mitey Riders, continue to provide free, certified equine-assisted therapy to young people with a range of disabilities, including muscular dystrophy, Down syndrome and autism.

"Horses are very special animals," said Swimmer. "(They) are attuned to these children."

Since 1994, Swimmer's farmstead has hosted more than 800 children.

CNN's Marissa Calhoun spoke with Swimmer about his work. Below is an edited version of their conversation.

CNN: What kind of success have children in your program had over the years?

Harry Swimmer: These children come to me with all kinds of disabilities. Some come to us as young as 5 years old and grow up out here with us. Mitey Riders is a place where they can come and be themselves, and be with other children just like them. They bond with each other. They bond with their horses. And besides the fun, it is therapy for them.

The gait of a horse moves forward and backwards, side to side and up and down. When a child rides a horse, they're getting feedback from the natural movement of the horse's body, and that strengthens their core. I have had children take their first steps from our program when they weren't able to stand or walk before. I've had children riding with me who became verbal when they were nonverbal. And I've also had children who have left me and gone off to college, graduated and done wonderful things.

CNN: How did you become involved in therapeutic riding?

Swimmer: Everybody knows somebody who has some type of disability. And I decided I wanted to work with that population. Before this, I was in the insurance business for more than 50 years.

When I was in my 60s and getting ready to retire, meeting Stacy made me realize that I wanted to learn more about equine-assisted therapy. So I went back to school and took a course in therapeutic riding in order to become a certified instructor.

Today, we ride more than 60 kids a week. At my tender age of 86, I'm very fortunate to be able to work with these children, and I hope to be able to do it for many years to come. It may be nice to lay on a beach someplace and not do anything, but it would absolutely kill me. This has become my life, and I don't ever want to do anything else.

CNN: Wow, 86 -- that's great! What keeps you young?

Swimmer: I've been extremely lucky to have this program, and I've been doing this now for 22 years. Every day has been a blessing to me. And I also take a good two hours each morning to work out.

I love swimming; its great exercise. But in case you were wondering, being a swimmer has nothing to do with my name (laughs). I suggest that everybody, when they get to be my age, does something to stay healthy.

CNN: You don't charge the families of children in your program. How are you able to keep the farm running and offer this therapy for free?

Swimmer: The farm takes a lot of work. We have about 200 volunteers that come out every week and help us with the program. Some work for an hour; some work for a whole day. They're all re-trained to work in the program every year. We couldn't operate without them.

Parents of children who have special needs have so much on their plates; you wouldn't believe what they go through. Having a child with disabilities is very expensive. As a nonprofit, we've never charged for what we do, and we never will charge for what we do as long as I'm able to run this program.

Want to get involved? Check out the Misty Meadows Mitey Riders website and see how to help.
You can make a donation right now to the Mitey Riders. Just click the CrowdRise widget below!

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special needs horse farm gives kids a leg up - cnn

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Horse farm gives special needs kids a leg up

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He met a girl in a wheelchair named Stacy. She was deaf and nonverbal. Swimmer learned she had cerebral palsy. "I wondered what might happen if I put her on a horse," said Swimmer, who owns a farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. Stacy and her grandmother visited his farm, where Swimmer helped her ride a pony.

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As an effective citizen all students must to go to school until the age of 16. Once you reach 16 you are allowed to drop out but your job choices will be limited because most businesses look for high school and college graduates.

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As an effective citizen you must obey the law. This is the most important duty as a citizen of the United States of America. The Law helps keep the country in order so that our country does not lose order.

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As an effective citizen you must pay taxes. Taxes are a contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income. Business profits are added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions. There are also things that are put on tax like property sells, and income taxes.

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View this article online at https://www.fedsmith.com/2016/10/19/social-security-taxes-set-to-rise-for-some-employees-in-2017/ and visit FedSmith.com to sign up for free news updates

About 6 percent of workers are in for a jolt from higher Social Security payroll taxes in the coming year.

The Social Security Administration announced yesterday the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax would climb 7.3 percent to $127,200 in 2017 from the current $118,500 (see fact sheet below for details). This is the largest jump in more than three decades, and will generate $1,078 per worker who reaches the contribution plateau.

This amount will be divided between the worker and employer. People who are self-employed pay both the employer's and employee's share of the tax. Remember, most economists believe that wage costs such as the payroll tax are passed over time to the worker in the form of lower wages. So there is a question of how these changes will affect the individual worker.

This increase contrasts sharply with the COLA adjustment of 0.3 percent for benefits. That amount is small by historic standards whereas this year's change for the tax base was the largest in history. As a percentage increase, the change was the largest one-year jump since 1983.

The Social Security Administration reports that this discrepancy reflects the mechanics of the adjustment process. Benefits are indexed to inflation, CPI-W, and the tax base is indexed to average wages - provided that the system has a COLA adjustment in the year. There wasn't an adjustment in 2016, so 2017 serves as a catch-up year.

For additional information, also see Ben Leubsdorf's WSJ piece.
2017 Social Security Fact Sheet
About the Author

Brenton Smith (A.K.A. Joe The Economist) writes nationally on the issue of Social Security reform with work appearing in Forbes, FedSmith.com, MarketWatch, TheHill.com, and regional media like The Denver Post.

More from this author "

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Social Security Taxes Set to Rise for Some Employees in 2017 : FedSmith.com

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View this article online at https://www.fedsmith.com/2016/10/19/social-security-taxes-set-to-rise-for-some-employees-in-2017/ and visit FedSmith.com to sign up for free news updates About 6 percent of workers are in for a jolt from higher Social Security payroll taxes in the coming year.

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A requirement to being a citizen is to serve in court doing jury duty. This means you will go in to court, listen to the case, then make a decision with the rest of the jury regarding the outcome of the case.