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For families in need, 'a miracle came'

Last Christmas, Shalynda Brown had cardboard boxes for seats and Styrofoam plates on which to serve dinner in her North Miami home.

The single mother of three, who is deaf in one ear and legally blind, was making do with public assistance and disability payments. But Brown couldn't afford new clothes or much-needed school supplies for her children. She faced mounting bills and had depleted her bank account.

``Then a miracle came, a true blessing,'' she says.

20 People Who Changed Black Music: Michael Jackson, the Child Star-Turned-Adult Enigma

When it comes to the history of black music - or simply music, period - very few people have achieved accolades, success and the adoration of fans throughout the world like Michael Joseph Jackson.

Not only has Jackson dominated pop and R&B charts over the course of five decades, he ushered in the MTV era, helping the burgeoning network draw viewers in the 1980s with his music videos that were more feature-film than a few minutes of smoke and mirrors to sell a song. The most awarded recording artist in history, Jackson is a double inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Jackson 5 and as a solo artist.

With his albums reaching platinum status multiple times over, Jackson has truly earned the symbolic Guinness World Records title "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time." And the electrifying dance moves he displayed in his sold-out shows - brilliantly captured in his Emmy Award-nominated, "moonwalk"-punctuated performance at "Motown 25" in 1983 - are still being imitated by today

Jackson fans come together to thrill Miami with their moves

Zombies are notoriously flatfooted -- cadavers trudging after victims, arms extended forward, mouths hideously agape.

That's not Aaron Bowling of Miami, though. For starters, he's alive. And come Saturday night, Bowling will don costume and make-up, and join an estimated 50 others at the University of Miami in a performance of the plodding dance of the undead immortalized in the 1983 music video for Michael Jackson's Thriller .

``It's not hard to do,'' Bowling, 25, said after a recent rehearsal. ``It's hard to look good doing it.''

Jackson fans come together to thrill Miami with their moves

Zombies are notoriously flatfooted -- cadavers trudging after victims, arms extended forward, mouths hideously agape.

That's not Aaron Bowling of Miami, though. For starters, he's alive. And come Saturday night, Bowling will don costume and make up, and join an estimated 50 others at the University of Miami in a performance of the plodding dance of the undead immortalized in the 1983 music video for Michael Jackson's Thriller .

``It's not hard to do,'' Bowling, 25, said after a recent rehearsal. ``It's hard to look good doing it.''

Mom hoping for belated Christmas

For several years, Carol Miller has played the role of mother and father to her sister's three children, ages 6 through 8. A single parent with three children of her own, Miller manages to support the two combined families, providing the basics for each of them. Even though the holiday season has ended, she is hoping the children will get some of things she could not put under their Christmas tree.

``I'd like for them to have some toys,'' says Miller, who is most concerned about getting a doll, a computer and some educational video games for her sister's oldest child, Annalesha.

Annalesha, 8, is smart but needs to improve her behavior, says Stephanie Ellis-Watson, Annalesha's therapist at Jackson North Community Mental Health Center, which nominated Miller and her family for the Wish Book.