Pediatrician Sharon Dunski Vermont always thought she had two daughters.She pictured them wearing white dresses at their weddings and then giving her grandchildren. “That was my dream for my children,” said Vermont, 48, who belongs to Congregation...

Suzanne Epstein-Lang only recently started putting her name on her work. Epstein-Lang & Ohler is a law firm that helps families deal with legal, emotional and financial challenges related to a loved one struggling with addiction. But before opening...

Returning from a fact-finding mission to Chicago, Jeffrey Cohen found himself so full of ideas he couldn’t even wait until he got home. He and his travel companions from the board of directors at the Gladys & Henry Crown Center for Senior Living...

Growing up in St. Louis, Cindy Lander Wallach remembers that whenever a family member had a birthday, her father would stop at Missouri Baking Co. for a special cake, and a great celebration would follow.  As a young adult, Wallach, her husband...

No longer technically “unsung,” Lois and Dave Zuckerman were honored April 24 with the Parkway School District’s Pillar of Parkway award “for providing extraordinary service to the Parkway community and beyond.” Still, the couple will be hailed...

Stan Shanker can barely knock on the front door before he’s greeted with excited yelps of “Uncle Stan! Uncle Stan!” They come from the four children of recent immigrants Ali and Israa, who range in age from 11 to 3. The older ones like to high-five...

Jay Umansky can still recall an elderly Russian army veteran he helped many years ago. The man was in his late 80s and spoke little English but needed a divorce from a younger woman he’d married who apparently just used him to obtain American residency. “Just...

About four years ago, Lenore Pepper and Susan Balk were at a board meeting for Camp Sabra, a Jewish overnight camp, when Pepper recalls getting “on the subject of things that were hateful.”“I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I have got a story, too,’...

ABOVE: Cindy Lander Wallach started Birthday Joy in 2012. The nonprofit organization helps provide birthday gifts for children in homeless shelters or receiving help from social service agencies. Behind Wallach are her children, Abby, 13, and Dylan, 15....

Harvey Ferdman of Chesterfield is surprisingly calm for a man dealing with officialdom’s glacial response to what everyone agrees is a serious, perhaps imminent threat: a fire under a landfill that is adjacent to a radioactive waste site. He sighs;...

Ann Frank, a volunteer at Project Backpack, will ask others on her trips to collect toiletries from their hotel rooms so she can donate them to the organization’s clients. “She brings in bag and bags of toiletries,” said Judy Pearlstone, executive...

Shirley Mosinger’s bookshelves are filled with impressive volumes, from Irving Howe’s “World of Our Fathers” to a book of Chinese poetry her father gave to her when she was a child.Books and learning were cherished in her Jewish household when...