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Samantha Van Dyke

Multimedia Journalist

Shine Online | Your Healthy Living Resource •

VIDEO: Social media star without arms takes on motherhood

Hundreds of thousands of people have watched Kashmiere Culberson online — driving a car, eating, and putting on makeup without arms. Now they’re watching her take on motherhood.
“I just want to show people that I’m normal,” says the 28-year-old Dallas native, who’s known as Kash to her followers. “I just do things a little different.”
Kash was born at Methodist Dallas Medical Center with a rare condition known as bilateral phocomelia. She returned to the hospital in June 2025 to deliver her own...
Shine Online | Your Healthy Living Resource •

VIDEO: Spine surgery puts TV cameraman's life back in focus

Photojournalist Robert Flagg spent his career capturing breaking news for TV stations across North Texas, but all those years hauling heavy cameras nearly broke him.
“I call it the comeback,” Robert says. “I was knocked down, but now I’m coming back.”
More than a year after spinal fusion surgery at Methodist Charlton Medical Center, Robert has fought back from near-paralysis to become one of those feel-good stories he once covered for the TV news — but this time on the other side of the lens.
“I...
Shine Online | Your Healthy Living Resource •

VIDEO: Hats off to this 'cold-capping' cancer survivor

When longtime paramedic Sheila Elliott was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was determined to maintain her identity — and her hair — even if it required her to be a woman of many hats.
“I wanted to look in the mirror and still see me,” Sheila says. “I did not want to look sick.”
During her chemotherapy sessions at Methodist Richardson Medical Center, Sheila began cold capping, a technique that constricts blood vessels in the scalp to help reduce the amount of chemotherapy that reaches hair foll...
Shine Online | Your Healthy Living Resource •

81-year-old won't let heart disease box him into a corner

Fighting for his life is nothing new for Steven Pratt, a Vietnam veteran who recently took up boxing to battle Parkinson’s disease. So it’s no surprise that when he found out he needed a lifesaving heart surgery, the 81-year-old tackled it head on.
“I had faith that the good Lord was going to take care of me,” he says. “He hasn’t failed me to this point in time, and I didn’t feel that he would drop the ball now.”
Steven, a retired child psychologist who ran a Catholic charity in Denver before mo...
Shine Online | Your Healthy Living Resource •

VIDEO: Horses and hugs help breast cancer survivor recover

Brooke Jayo’s life has revolved around horses ever since she climbed into the saddle at age 8. She later joined a rodeo drill team in her native California and also trained horses alongside her husband.
Nothing can shake that lifelong passion, not even a devastating riding accident three years ago at her home in Rhome or the breast cancer diagnosis that came during her recovery from that fall.
“There’s always something good that can come from anything,” Brooke says, reflecting on that shocking m...
impact •

Grapevine Garden Club celebrates 90th anniversary

Joetta King (left) and Pam Braak, former Grapevine Garden Club presidents, said that anyone who loves nature is encouraged to join the club. (Samantha Van Dyke/Community Impact Newspaper)

On a deck at the Botanical Gardens at Heritage Park, surrounded by flowers, trees and greenery, past Grapevine Garden Club presidents Joetta King and Pam Braak talk about the club that they said has come a long way from when it first formed 90 years ago.“We’re one of the fastest-growing garden clubs in Texas,”
impact •

Chicken N Pickle breaks ground on Grapevine location

Chicken N Pickle held a ground breaking ceremony with the city of Grapevine and the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce on April 27. (Samantha Van Dyke/Community Impact Newspaper)

Chicken N Pickle held a groundbreaking ceremony on April 27 at its new location at 4600 Merlot Ave., Grapevine. Chicken N Pickle is an indoor and outdoor dining and entertainment complex where patrons can order food and beverages and play pickleball and yard games. The Grapevine location, which managing partner Bill Crooks
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