Critical Week in a Step Toward Covering All Children
Your response to our calls for action in the past few weeks has been overwhelming — CDF supporters have sent over 18,000 emails and made hundreds of calls to their Members of Congress. We can't thank you enough and your actions have been well-timed. Legislative action around children's health has really been heating up in the past few days on Capitol Hill and bills to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will be voted on in the House and Senate this week! Although our ultimate goal is to provide comprehensive health coverage to all children and pregnant women in America, supporting the SCHIP legislation under consideration in Congress this week is a step towards this critical goal.

This week is crucial!

New Videos from the Elect Susie Campaign
Susie Flynn has been busy in the last few weeks as well. (Susie's the 10-year-old presidential candidate behind CDF's "Elect Susie" campaign to build awareness of the nine million uninsured children in America.) Although the video question she submitted for the CNN/YouTube Democrat debate wasn't used, she's going to give it another shot and resubmit her question for the Republican debate in September. You should submit a question too! The more people who ask the candidates about their solution to the crisis of the uninsured children in America, the less the issue can be ignored.

Susie also took her election campaign to the premiere of SiCKO earlier this month where she asked people on the street what they thought about the crisis of America's uninsured children and how they think we should fix the problem. Check out the video on her website!

New National and State-Level Data Book on Children
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2007 KIDS COUNT Data Book which provides national and state-by-state information and statistical trends on the conditions of America's children and families is now available. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children. Data from this latest edition of the Data Book is also available in an easy-to-use, powerful online database that allows you to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles.

Meet Some Who Beat the Odds
Have you heard of CDF's Beat the Odds® scholarship program? The program was started in 1990 to affirm the success of young people who are overcoming tremendous obstacles in theirs lives while working hard, demonstrating academic excellence, and giving back to their communities. Beat the Odds recipients continue to be leaders in their schools and mentors to those in need in the community, while developing academic skills necessary to pursue a college education.

One Beat the Odds 2006 recipient is Michael Downey who faced an abusive home environment in which his parents forced Michael to engage in criminal activities that finally resulted in the authorities intervening. Michael now lives with his uncle and aunt and has adopted the motto, "You can follow the destiny you were born into or you can carve your own path." Michael has spent the past few years carving out a new path for his life. Striving to be a role model for his younger sister, he looks to the future refusing to end up living like his parents. He will begin his freshman year at the University of Mary Washington and wants to become a politician to help those who are less fortunate.