By Lee Cowan

Rachel Beckwith had a simple wish for her ninth birthday. No presents. Instead, she wanted people to donate to a charity that provides clean, safe driving water for kids in far away lands. Her goal: $300. She almost made it. By the time her birthday came and went, she had raised $220, just $80 short. She vowed to forgo presents on her birthday next year too, but she never got the chance to try.

Rachel was killed in a chain reaction crash on I-90 outside of Seattle. There was nothing the doctors could do. Rachel's family and friends figured the best memorial was to keep Rachel's water drive going. So they did -- and in came a flood of love and caring.

Her story spread -- on Twitter and Facebook.  Actress Alyssa Milano tweeted her millions of fans. So did Seahawk quarterback Matt Hasselback.  

Rachel's $220 has now exploded into well over $600,000 and isn't done yet.

She set out to help 15 kids in Africa get clean water -- she's now helping more than 30,000.  

If there's any consolation for her inconsolable parents, it may be that their daughter touched more lives by nine years old than most of us will in a lifetime, and in her death she taught the rest of us how to live.

Click here to contribute to Rachel's cause.

I spent close to 14 hours on Capitol Hill yesterday -- and everyone on our team was there longer than I was.  Our cameras and producers witnessed (and recorded) things never seen on camera before. We arrived on the Hill with a staff of 80 including 30 cameras in all.  We recorded the entire day, during a critical time for the country.  We are in the midst of culling through 75 hours of video -- and distilling it all down to one hour. 

During our first production meeting, I got up and took this photo with my Blackberry today -- many of the folks in the room made the trip from DC to New York  (walking through the Amtrak train at 9 am today, it looked like a staff meeting on rails) and this photo doesn't show half the people working on our Sunday night special.  It's a very impressive group of people -- including some of the best producers, editors and Congressional experts in our news division.  We are awfully excited for the broadcast on Sunday night's Dateline and we hope you will be, too.

First things first: we hope you can join us tonight.

While we are preparing for a huge, 30-camera shoot called "Taking The Hill: Inside Congress," knowing it will take up all of our available time this week - and while I was doing silly things like Letterman on Monday - I also came across something so strikingly sad, I'd like you to read it. While it's no GQ Larry King interview (have you heard about THIS?), it's so poignant - and as I started to read it, I realized the date - pulled from a clump of old papers I carry around in my long-suffering bag. And there it was. A time capsule. Amy's still here and with us. Right up until she wasn't.

We hope you can join us tomorrow night from the Speaker's Balcony in the Capitol.

We found out about the 100-year-old doctor Ephraim Engleman featured on tonight's show the way we often hear about stories. Producer Jane Derenowski and I were in San Francisco on other projects and we asked the media folks at the University of California San Francisco what other interesting things were going on in the hope of gathering additional reports on the same trip. They  told us about Dr. Engleman and we jumped at the opportunity.

Until I got the details I did not realize that it was the same physician whose son Ed, who is now a professor of Medicine at Stanford, had been in my high school class. So was his wife Judy and yes, the high school sweethearts are still married. Judy and I were also classmates in college. We also photographed two of the younger scientists Dr. Engleman works with, and one turned out to be Dr. David Wofsy, the son of Dr. Leon Wofsy, who was my thesis advisor in graduate school.

So the project turned out not just to be enjoyable for me, but an amazing reunion.

Read all the materials here.

And here are some highlights:

• David Gergen
• Diane Sawyer
• Ben Stein
• George H. W. Bush

The Nixon Library has done another document and tape release -- we're putting all the raw materials on the Web. Of special note: a memo from Ben Stein, before we knew him as Ben Stein. Wait til you read what he suggests as possible promotional tools for Richard Nixon. Classic stuff.

I spent last night with my family and 80,000 of our closest friends at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands, witnessing a great rock and roll band.  Four guys from Ireland who first played Jersey at the Fast Lane in Asbury Park. They make a sound unlike anything on earth -- like a beautiful, well-tuned jet engine. It was a magnificent evening. It contained a magnificent tribute to Bruce (who was in attendance) and Clarence. We'd give anything to have the Big Man back. Thanks to Bono for remembering him so fondly. And for making such a beautiful sound. Personally: I look forward to hearing human voices again soon, when the ringing in my ears stops. That's the sign of a good night. Last night was a good night.

We hope you can join us tonight.

Brian Williams writes:

I have had non-stop meetings and events after work, and what free time I've had has been consumed by news stories this week. I apologize for disappearing from this space -- I'm linking to the saddest article of the day  as I continue to lament and mourn the end of the manned space program. The International Space Station will now no longer be visited by an American spacecraft -- the Russians are our new ride to space -- and to those space boosters who have argued in e-mails that my view is too dire, I ask a series of simple questions: "Where are we going next?" "When?" "In what spacecraft?" Until we have answers:  The United States manned space program is over. As I said on the air a few nights back: my biggest fear is what it might mean for American ingenuity, imagination and exploration. Onward!

We hope you can join us tonight.

Robert Bazell writes:

 
Tonight we profile an extraordinary family, the Heinrichs of Davenport, Iowa.  They have a rare gene that will likely afflict some of them with Alzheimer’s disease at an early age. They  have been extraordinarily generous volunteering their time for research.  Their generosity could help millions around the world.
 
Long before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his 40’s, Vince Heinrichs, was a graduate student, who began his own research, when he realized that his family had a high incidence of senility at an early age.  He was diagnosed in 1983 and died in 1988.  After his death his wife Denise vowed to carry on the research effort which clearly had huge implications for their six children. She has taken her children to labs around the country starting with the National Institute of Health.  Today, she is in Paris at the Alzheimer’s Association's annual meeting as part of the group representing the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) study run out of Washington University in St. Louis.
 
Most cases of Alzheimer’s disease are called “sporadic”.   Several genes are known to affect the risk but not make the disease a certainty.  But there  are three genes APP, PS-1 and PS-2  that determine destiny.  The genes are dominant so if a person inherits just one copy from either parent he or she will get Alzheimer’s usually before age 60.  Vince Heinrichs carried PS-1 and thus each of his 6 children has a 50/50 chance of having it and if they carry it their children have a 50/50 chance of carrying the gene.
 
Fortunately these three dominant deterministic genes are rare, affecting only a few hundred families in the world.  But the DIAN study focuses on them allowing researchers to know who is going to get Alzheimer’s and follow them closely watching for changes in the brain while trying to discover drugs that will stop or slow the damage.
 
The first discovery from the DIAN study – out today at the Paris meeting -- is that changes in the brain occur decades before any symptoms of dementia.  This could mean that it may be necessary to start treatment that early, but future studies will determine that.
 
Meanwhile the Heinrichs' face critical decisions.  The researchers studying them through coded number know which family members carry the genes and which do not.  The family for now has decided not to know the information themselves until there are effective treatments.  They also are bracing themselves for the days ahead when according to the odds some of them will get Alzheimer’s.  They believe that moment will be harder on those who escape that fate than those who are diagnosed.  

Brian Williams writes

To get this posted today, I had to sneak it around our web editor...on her last day as our web editor.

Let me put it this way: Ole Miss' gain is NBC News' loss.   Cynthia Joyce has been our stellar friend and partner -- a superb journalist (most notably to me, a Katrina Survivor and veteran of nola.com in New Orleans) and a master of the web.  She has made us all better, and I'm proud to call her a friend.  She's leaving for the University of Mississippi to apply her skills and her trade there.  We will miss her every day.  She will kill me for this.  Cynthia: good luck, we will miss you and we wish you the very best in life.

We hope you can join us tonight.

Ann Curry writes:

Sitting at Brian's desk tonight as he attends Betty Ford's memorial, I am remembering how fragile and yet unbreakable she seemed.

An unlikely combination, I know—but that dichotomy is what you felt in the company of this woman, who spoke so fiercely for the rights of women, and also so painfully acknowledged the struggle of her addictions.

I ask myself now: Could she have been as strong as she was had she not faced her vulnerabilities?  Maybe--beyond her legacy of teaching us we can survive breast cancer and alcoholism--Betty shows us the power of letting the unvarnished truth about ourselves light the way for others.

This reminds me of something my Dad once told me, about the tree that bends in the wind being stronger than the one that doesn't.  Betty did not break, despite the odds.  She survived, and so should we.

Here for your consumption is the former first lady Betty Ford being kind to a new reporter at NBC News, who hasn't forgotten the encounter.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As for today's broadcast, we are, as the British say, chock-a-block.

Brian will report from Mrs. Ford's funeral.  Looks like our lead is about this heat spell that, stunningly, is affecting half of America's population. What is going on with all these weather-related disasters?

The President raised concerns today that unless there is a deal in DC, social security checks won't go out on time.   Is that really possible?

And if you don't know the name Sherwood Schwartz, you will after our broadcast—we'll take you down memory lane as we remind you what he gave us, including "Gilligan's Island" and "Brady Bunch."

Looking forward to the broadcast tonight.

Luc Novovitch / AP

Former first lady Betty Ford in 1994.

As anyone in this newsroom will tell you, I've been saying the same thing for years: When the time comes for our country to say goodbye to Betty Ford, I hope she is celebrated as a former President would be.  She had an enormous impact on our country.  Think of it this way: Breast cancer, as a disease, used to be whispered about.  Alcoholism, as a disease, used to be whispered about.  She played a bigger role in social acceptance and understanding of both diseases than any other identifiable individual. She saved countless lives and changed others forever. She was a monument to empowerment. She was a giant of American society. 

Tomorrow it will be an honor to remember her life in Palm Desert, California.  On tonight's broadcast, we'll hear from someone who got an up-close view of her life as first lady. We hope you can join us tonight.