15 firefighters were dispatched to the middle of a swamp where a 13-year-old horse had fallen into muddy waters.
Cupcake and her owner took a ride in a rural area near Denver, Colorado just before the horse collapsed. By the time help arrived on the scene, Cupcake was lying knee-deep in water, exhausted from their trip.
A black California man named Sampson McCormick was left speechless at a market after an elderly white man offered to pay his $20 grocery bill as an apology for racial inequality and police brutality in the country.
Every driver knows the nerve-wracking feeling of seeing police lights in their rear view mirror, but what about the sweet relief of being given an ice cream cone instead of a ticket?
Officer Brian Warner and Police Chief Kevin Lands of the Halifax Police Department in Virginia spent a swelteringly hot day pulling drivers over and claiming they were in violation of a vehicle code only to declare it’s “against the law” to drive on a hot day without an ice cream cone.
When Dion Leonard signed up for an intensive 7-day desert run, he didn’t think he would be taking home anything but a medal.
But after a tough little pup joined him for 125 kilometers of the 250 kilometer race – he knew it belonged with him in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Dion met Gobi the dog on the second day of the 2016 Gobi March 4 Deserts in China. Gobi had been keeping up with the other 101 competitors the day before, but eventually decided to stick with Dion.
“She would run ahead of me and wait for me 20 or 30 meters down the road and then I’d have to catch up with her,” Dion told Good Morning Scotland. “She’s such a small dog but has a massive heart.”
Even though the competition was grueling, Gobi matched Dion step-for-step, leading to the two becoming fast friends.
“There were times during the race when, you know I’m there to race and compete and I’m trying to do my best to win the race but we had to cross some really large rivers where I would have to carry her over them. I didn’t actually have the time to do it but I realized then that I had to take her with me and the bond was made.”
Once the race was finished, Dion created the Bring Gobi Home crowdfunding campaign to raise money for his running buddy’s quarantine and veterinary bills. The adoption process can take up to 4 months with a staggering €5,000 price tag.
A state of emergency was declared on Saturday when torrential rainfall caused raging floodwaters throughout Elliot City, Maryland.
While Dave Dester and his wife were taking refuge in their Main Street shop and watching the fast moving currents sweeping cars down the road, they saw that one of them still contained a female driver.
Four nearby shop owners and pedestrians quickly formed a human chain to pull the woman from her vehicle, while Dave filmed the rescue.
Though the woman refused to climb completely out of the car for fear of being swept away, one of the men in the chain eventually scooped her into his arms and carried her to safety amidst encouraging cheers.
(WATCH the heroic rescue above)
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Tune in at 1:00 PM Eastern today for the new Facebook Live show, “Within Good” where two friends, Anthony Samadani and May May Ali, Muhammad Ali’s daughter, will discuss some of the good things going on in the world and some good ideas that may appeal to viewers.
They also want to hear from you on these topics and find out about the good things you are up to. May May and Anthony will also cover some of the trending topics on GOOD NEWS NETWORK in a fun, relaxed setting.
This show is all about being empowered to focus on the good things going on in the world and finding good in ourselves because… WITHIN GOOD – we like to say, THERE IS GOD.
Anthony is an Attorney and TV producer. May May is a Social Worker in the juvenile delinquency prevention & family development field. @SamadaniAnthony @MayMayAliOfficial @Within Good
Every child enrolled in school must face the difficulty of passing tests, but for Ben Twist, that difficulty was multiplied by his autism.
So, when the 11-year-old didn’t get the grade that he was hoping for, his assistant headteacher Ruth Clarkson went out of her way to remind him that test scores aren’t everything.
She says that since Ben struggles with social, sensory, and communicative issues, just taking the exams was a huge achievement – and having the world acknowledge that meant even more.
A volcano in Hawaii broke into a “smiley face” last week as its slow moving lava flow finally reached the ocean.
The Kilauea volcano, active since 1983, has been dribbling toward the sea since May, according to CNN, and offered a helicopter film crew the perfect photo to mark the occasion.
The 6.5 mile-long lava flow is now cooling in the waters of the Pacific, and turning to rock, making the biggest island in Hawaii even bigger.
This ring of fire isn’t the only place in the universe to deliver a grin. A much colder spot, on Mars, is also beaming a happy face.
The much bigger grin was discovered by NASA in 1999, when the Mars Orbiter Camera captured a smiling crater on there Red Planet. The Galle Crater, nicknamed the “Happy Face Crater” crater, has a diameter of about 134 miles (215 kilometers).
(WATCH the video below courtesy of Paradise Helicopters)
After living a life of crime, abuse, and violence, and spending 15 years in prison, Patric McGuinness is now a changed man.
He’s not about to waste his new perspective either – when he’s not volunteering with at-risk youth, he’s studying to take The Knowledge test: a series of intensive exams and quizzes for cab drivers which requires him to memorize more than 3,000 streets in London.
The tests can sometimes take up to 3 years to complete, but McGuinness doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. There’s something oddly therapeutic for the ex-con when he is researching the English roads.
This jovial little garden gnome isn’t the kind of lawn ornament to hang around in the yard all day – in fact, he’s just been returned home from an 8 month trek across North America.
When Bev York noticed that the gnome was missing from her Victoria’s Highlands property in British Columbia late in 2015, she figured it had just been misplaced or stolen.
Then on July 25th, 2016, the statue reappeared once more on her front lawn in a plastic bag tied to the gate with a hardcover photo book of the newly-dubbed “Leopold”.
“Hi, my name is Leopold the traveling gnome,” read the first page of the book. “One morning back on December ’15, I saw a motorhome toddle along Finlayson Arm Road and I thought to myself, ‘There’s got to be more to life than standing knee-deep in rainwater, being peed on by neighborhood dogs and staring at the same view every single day.”
The photos document Leopold traveling from the Grand Canyon, to Route 66, to what appears to be the beaches of San Ignacio, Mexico.
He also can be seen enjoying a margarita or two.
On the last page of the book is an inscription that Bev took to heart: “Hope you enjoyed my album. Sorry I disappeared for so long, and remember: adventure before dementia.”
The gardener couldn’t help but laugh as she browsed through the album, declaring that the prank was in very good taste. Wherever the anonymous travelers are, she would like to thank them for the gift and – next time they embark on an adventure – should bring her instead.
Let Leopold Travel The Internet Too – Click To Share With Your Friends (Photos by Bev York)
Gift certificate, layaway plan or voucher. Call it what you want, but an innovative organ donation program has started to spread to other transplant programs across the United States.
It all started when Howard Broadman approached the UCLA Medical Center with the concept of donating a kidney to a stranger, so that if his ill grandson needed one in the future, he would be guaranteed the lifesaving organ.
UCLA agreed. They instituted a program that allows for living donors to give a kidney in advance of when a friend or family member might need a transplant.
“Sometimes, patients may be heading toward transplantation in the next few years, but it would be more convenient for a friend or family member to donate a kidney now,” said Dr. Jeffrey Veale, a transplant surgeon who helped initiate the program. “Their intended recipient who is nearing dialysis would receive a gift certificate to redeem for transplantation when needed.”
“It is such a simple concept,” Veale said. “It’s the brainchild of a grandfather who felt he would be too old to donate in a few years when his grandson would likely need a transplant.”
Broadman, a lawyer and retired judge in Laguna Niguel, California, was 64 at the time, and his grandson Quinn was four. “I approached UCLA and asked, ‘Why don’t I give a kidney to someone who needs it now, then get a voucher for my grandson to use when he needs a transplant in the future?’ And that’s just what we did.”
This program was also recently used for a teenage girl in New York who has a functioning kidney transplant. The girl’s father donated a kidney so that she would have a gift certificate for a second transplant if she needs it.
Nine other transplant centers across the U.S. have agreed to offer the gift certificate program, under the umbrella of the National Kidney Registry’s advanced donation program. Veale anticipates that more living donors will come forward to donate kidneys, which could trigger more transplant chains.
Veale said some potential donors who have given thought to helping a stranger that needs an organ are reluctant to donate a kidney for fear that a family member might need one in the future. But if the gift certificate approach is successful, altruistic donors could donate a kidney and their spouse or child would receive a gift certificate for a future transplant.
“We have seen an increase in the number of altruistic donors over the past few years,” Veale said. “Often these people start off as blood donors or bone marrow registrants.”
There were 5,538 living donor kidney transplants in the U.S. in 2014. If just 0.5 percent of the nation’s adults became living kidney donors, the kidney transplant waiting list would be wiped out 15 times over.
At his home in southern California, Broadman’s eyes welled with tears as he reflected on the implications of what he started. “I’ve left a legacy for my grandson,” he said. “I may not even be here when he realizes it, but I changed his life. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
A group of kids ages 8-11 who spent their summer learning entrepreneurship skills in Hong Kong have written a book called How To Be A Good Babysitter in just four days.
After only three days of crowdfunding, the campaign, produced by the new Jumpstart Kids program, successfully raised 100% of its goal. With more funding, they’ll be able to start printing their more books and raise more money for the Hong Kong Dog Rescue, a charity that the kids selected for this project.
“We were quite surprised that by day 3 of the program the kids brainstormed 30+ book ideas, narrowed it down to one title and wrote most of it,” Yana Robbins, the founder of Jumpstart, says. “In the following sessions they continued writing, worked on the layout, learned about sourcing images, wrote sponsorship letters, cold called sponsors, conducted mock media interviews and had a passionate discussion about which charity they want to support.”
The 38-page book will be in English and Cantonese and filled with 60+ tips and illustrations on how to be a good babysitter. The book is meant to be an introduction for 7-10-year-olds on how how to play with the baby or toddler, what to do if they cry, and what they should and shouldn’t do, like always washing hands before handling the child.
Jumpstart Kids is a new program developed by Robbins’s Jumpstart Magazine, a print/online publication for startups in Hong Kong. The goal is to instill a confidence in kids to teach them that they can do anything and they can make a difference.
The sale of their book has already been approved at eight Bookazine shops and its publication date is set for October 15, 2016.
This tea-riffic police officer wasn’t just attending this adorable party to get free Oreos – it was a celebration of the day he saved one 2-year-old’s life in 2015.
Almost a year before this photo was taken, Corporal Patrick Ray was dispatched on a call to save 22-month-old Bexley Norvell from choking on a coin.
Thanks to his quick actions, the little girl was able to breath again, while the officer’s bodycam filmed the whole scene.
Bexley’s mother – eternally grateful for her daughter’s hero – invited the policeman back to their house a year later to celebrate with some tea at their home in Rowlett, Texas.
Chelle Cates, a professional children’s and newborn photographer, captured some snapshots of the adorable exchange to commemorate the anniversary.
Photos by Chelle Cates Photography
You can check out more of Chelle’s work on her website and Facebook page.
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As a thank you to his favorite civil servant busting his butt during the hottest days of the year, this little boy put out a cool surprise for his beloved mailman.
Before 8-year-old Carmine McDaniel and his mother left their home in Virginia for the day, he left a note with a smiley face on top of a welcoming cooler filled with icy Gatorade and water.
Though no one was home to see Henry Bailey the mailman discover the boy’s gift, the home security system taped the whole thing.
With temperatures rising into the triple digits, it’s easy to see Bailey’s appreciation and relief.
This isn’t the first time that Carmine has celebrated his local postal workers —the little boy dressed up as a mailman for Halloween and even got a tour of the post office because of his enthusiasm.
Aikins has over 18,000 jumps and has performed a variety of skydiving stunts.
“I pushed myself further physically and mentally than ever before,” said Aikins, who practiced the dive, called ‘Heaven Sent’, using an even smaller net.
“I had to prove that it could be done.”
In the amazing aerial footage below, you can see Aikins practicing his landing move, flipping over on his back, in mid-air.
Not every person could walk away from $3,000, but this Ukrainian emigrant is lucky enough that his Uber driver was the kind of man who would.
Jose Figueroa picked up a passenger from O’Hare International Airport who had just sold his business and emigrated from Ukraine.
Once Jose dropped off the man at his destination in Chicago, Illinois, he noticed that the Ukrainian had left his wallet – with all $3,000 of his life savings inside – in the backseat of the car.
Even though the temptation was strong, he knew he had to do the right thing.
Jose returned to the house with the wallet and money where the man’s sister saw his arrival and burst into tears. The grateful siblings urged the driver to join them for dinner and take $100 as a reward for his good deed.
Carla Welch may have been in real trouble if she hadn’t been saved by a courageous 7-year-old pit bull appropriately named Hero.
When a man was assaulting an unidentified woman with a knife on July 22nd, Hero came to the rescue with barred teeth at the ready.
Though he managed to separate her from the attacker, Hero was stabbed five times and rushed to the local Baldwin, Georgia animal hospital by police officers arriving on the scene thanks to a call about the disturbance.
After learning of the pooch’s survival from Facebook, Carla from the Fighting For The Bullys pit bull rescue in Knoxville, Tennessee raised all the money to pay for his medical bills – all which had been discounted by the vets in honor of Hero’s bravery.
It’s every mother’s nightmare. Somehow a toddler had a mishap in the water and was next seen floating lifelessly down the stream.
A Seattle mom of three, Darci Gillen Dawson, was vacationing in Montana with her family when she looked over her shoulder and saw the boy’s body, and took off running.
When she scooped him up, his face was gray and he was “not alive”.
She told KING-5 News he likely had been in the water for at least six minutes.
Darci performed CPR on the boy for twenty minutes until he finally took a breath.
“There’s no better feeling than that, that’s for sure—you can tell by the huge grin on my face,” she said looking at the photo taken after that moment.
What could be more perfect than using the “sharing economy” to deliver food that people don’t want to those who desperately need it?
That’s what the Unsung app sets out to do. Being tested in Austin, Texas, the app has delivered 1,000 meals that would have otherwise gone into the trash.
The Unsung app works kind of like Uber’s ride-sharing service to “hack hunger,” as it’s creators say.
Restaurants, grocery stores, or even individuals click on the app to announce they have food to give to the hungry. The app sends the information to nearby volunteer drivers who pick it up and deliver it to people in need.
The app will even calculate the value of your food donation so you can declare it as a tax deductible contribution on your income taxes.
Every meal that’s donated appears on the app’s live feed. This video shows how the app works.
