A Canadian ice hockey goalie made the save of his life – when he rushed into the stands to give CPR to a fan who’d suffered cardiac arrest.
Gander player Patrick O’Brien was getting ready to play when he raced from the Flyers’ dressing room to begin pumping with chest compressions for an unconscious middle-aged man with no pulse.
He had just been trained as a paramedic 5 months earlier.
(READ the full story from the NY Daily News)
Photo via his Twitter feed @PatrickOBrien29
A handwritten note at the Pasta Pizzeria and Grill in Prattville, Alabama alerted regular customers that the eatery would be closed for Thanksgiving.
But, for the fourth year, the restaurant’s doors were wide open for all fire fighters, police staff, military personnel or lonely seniors who want to feast on a buffet brimming with turkey, ham, dressing, squash and green bean casserole.
“Often for them, this day of feasting and celebration is just like any routine workday.”
(READ the story from the Montgomery Advertiser)
Story tip Sally Meek
Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s garden and studio will be recreated at the New York Botanical Garden next year, reports the BBC.
Opening May 16, Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life will be the late artist’s first solo show in New York in more than 25 years.
The exhibition will include original paintings by Kahlo, including this Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Humming-bird, all reflecting the use of botanical imagery in her work.
(READ the story from the BBC)
Top Photo, La Casa Azul, where Kahlo lived with Diego Rivera, which is now the Frida Kahlo Museum, by Anagoria (CC license)
Story tip from Sally Meek
“I’ve never felt such love,” said Natalie DuBose, a Ferguson baker who was not only cleaning up the mess made by rioters this week but trying to fulfill a slew of Thanksgiving orders.
A friend suggested she set up a fund-raising page, and initially DuBose set a goal of collecting $20,000 in donations.
On Monday, after vandals broke windows and some equipment inside, an AP photographer captured an image of Natalie crying outside Cake’s & More, which she had just opened this summer.
“I’m overwhelmed by the amazing generosity I’m receiving,” said the mother of two. “The outpouring of support on Twitter, Facebook, and in the media has been amazing. I was in tears.”
DuBose is just one of the business owners in the suburb of St. Louis, Missouri to take to GoFundMe to try to recoup loses quickly. Ferguson Market and Liquor has raised $22,000 from compassionate strangers and friends.
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Vancouver’s parking enforcement agency awakened the spirit of Christmas early in a one-day toy drive yesterday for residents with unpaid tickets.
To benefit children served by The Salvation Army’s Belkin House, violators were invited to trade new toys in exchange for forgiveness of all their parking fines..
Staff working at the toy drive, cheered when people brought in armfuls of gifts.
An IMPARK official called the one-for-one exchange a win-win.
“We forgo a bunch of money and that’s OK. If people save money on their fines and children receive gifts, everyone wins.”
(READ the story from the Vancouver Sun)
Story Tip from Rhona Young
Volunteers for the California-based Village Harvest picked more than 900 pounds of persimmons to give to people who might not have the money to purchase costly produce, so they can enjoy the seasonal bounty.
Village Harvest began two years ago, when Craig Diserens founded a backyard gleaning effort that now gathers thousands of pounds of fresh fruit from historical orchards (some planted during the Gold Rush 150 years ago) and private property.
The Village Harvest van was equipped with all of the tools needed to carry out the mission– ladders, telescoping pickers to reach the highest branches, crates, gloves, rakes and more. Three hours later the bounty included 900 pounds of fresh persimmons and a happy volunteers who had come together to benefit their community.
Villageharvest.org volunteers gleaned nearly 500,000 pounds last year alone, and delivered it to local hunger programs.
What differentiates Village Harvest’s Orchards Harvesting Program is their commitment to preserving and restore old orchards for future generations.
The Good People Fund, founded by Naomi Eisenberger (pictured above, with Craig) provides grants to keep the harvest going.
12 days before the big U.S. feasting holiday of Thanksgiving, mentors for Befriend-A-Child in Northern Virginia helped teach their young charges how to make pumpkin pie for their families.
Under the direction of The Aubergine Chef, Jason Shriner, who volunteered his time and expertise, the mentees followed directions, and meticulously decorated their own pies.
After the “big bake” mentees and mentors, along with staff, moved to another room to enjoy a few extra pies before taking their own baked goods home.
“This Thanksgiving, BeFriend-A-Child is grateful for all the volunteers who shared their time and resources with us,” said Fairfax County worker, Angie Carrera.
“This is a skill these kids can take with them and use to create a happier Thanksgiving every year to come.”
File Photo by Aimee Ray (CC license)
The woman was a ‘random stranger trying to do the right thing,’ the store’s manager told the Daily News. She saved the restaurant from destruction as 25 other buildings along the strip near Ferguson were burned down by looters.
As agitators tried kicking in windows and shoving her, the brave do-gooder eventually wins out as the criminals move on to an easier mark.
(READ the story from the NY Daily News)
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube video
This photo epitomizes a grateful heart, with a young lady in Minnesota giving thanks for the snow and the trees and her life.
What are you grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day?
For me, I am thankful for my health; our healthy, happy family; my purpose-driven work; Good News Network supporters, especially CT; my home, the river, and my kitchen; the Foo Fighters music and documentary, Sonic Highways; delicious food and drinks year-round; our Facebook community, and the freedom to choose happiness here in America.
May good bless!
Photo by Shena Tschofen – CC license on Flickr
I was invited to an open studio session at Art InDeed one Saturday afternoon. Being guided by founder, Danah Beaulieu I felt empowered, nurtured, spontaneous and even dared to be experimental. She has a natural and intuitive ability of fostering creativity in a non-judgmental environment with the emphasis on the process rather than the end product.
Being an artist myself and recalling my education as a child with the focus only being on the end product; I found it rather restrictive. So, I find Danah’s emphasis on the process very refreshing. The combination of the home based studio and Danah’s intuitive abilities along with her love, compassion and her desire of helping others results in making a monumental difference in our community.
Art InDeed began when Danah wanted to bring her ideas of incorporating the use of the arts as an activity for increasing well-being and seeing first-hand the benefits it provided others. She desired to develop her own “brand” of healing through art, nurturing creativity and building artistic skills and creative self-expression to life as a service…art as a service…art as a mission with a vision…therefore art as a deed, hence Art Indeed!
Art InDeed will be celebrating ten years in November, 2015! Art InDeed initiated as a Community Arts Practice and has expanded to a private holistic arts-based, process-oriented service and practice with an open space studio on Victoria Ave. in downtown Windsor, Ontario, Canada. A celebration is in store! Danah would like to see a combined arts-music-poetry exhibition/performance celebration along with the opening of a larger premise/location in a natural setting and expanded staffing to serve more clients.
In the future Danah would like to see what has been brought to life, expanded: An expanded: clientele, staff, community arts practice and larger location to serve more individuals with a new premise in a natural setting to continue programming and to also hold retreats. She also envisions training on her intuitive based processes in process-oriented art-making for increasing well-being. Expansion would also include studios in various locations, nationally and internationally to help more clients on a global level.
Art Indeed is a precious gift to this community having helped over 25 organizations and 700 individuals! A breath of fresh air…the organization’s main focus is helping others by “wellness through creativity”.
For more information please visit www.art-indeed.com or find them on Facebook.
A rare and valuable William Shakespeare First Folio from 1623 has been discovered in a provincial town in France.
The book – one of only 230 believed to still exist – had lain undisturbed in the library at Saint-Omer for 200 years.
A Medieval literature expert was searching the archives, according to the Guardian, when he stumbled across the battered book in September.
(READ the full story from the Guardian)
Story tip – Mike McGinley
San Francisco-based artist Hannah Rothstein has created a brilliant photo series that imagines how famous artists would plate their Thanksgiving dishes, using turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries and green beans to illustrate.
Above is how Van Gogh might play with his food. Mondrian’s and Jackson Pollock’s are shown below. Also featured are Rothko, Warhol, and more…
(SEE all her photos at hrothstein.com)
Story tip – Mike McGinley
It’s not all chaos and violence in Ferguson. There are scores of good people hitting the streets to help repair and rebuild after Monday’s riots… and NFL Hall of Fame athlete Aeneas Williams is one.
He told TMZ Hollywood Sports that people from all walks of life, all races, all religions were joining him as he helped board up windows and clean up the small business owners who were hit.
Elsewhere, reporter Ryan Reilly took these photos of crews out at the crack of dawn cleaning the streets and sidewalks:
Cleaning up on South Florissant #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/Pp9DfYUr9r
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 25, 2014Terrence Williams, 23, has been out here cleaning up since 7 a.m. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/JIrDTjq65z
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 25, 2014One restaurant owner thought her business would be one of the worst hit in the rioting because it is located next to the police department, but she learned later that a group of loyal customers had linked arms through the night to prevent any serious damage.
By the time the owners, Cathy and Jerome Jenkins, arrived the next morning, supporters were already cleaning up the glass from a single broken window.
“It represents what people don’t know about Ferguson,” said Jerome.
“The people who were doing looting, they weren’t protesters,” added Cathy. “They were criminals.”
(WATCH the interviews with Cathy and Aeneas Williams below)
During the Christmas season of 2000, a young Filipino girl received a gift-filled shoebox and she couldn’t have imagined that one day she would actually meet the 7-year-old boy from Idaho who packed the box in a small town 7000 miles away.
Furthermore, she never dreamed that she would marry the American boy, all grown up 14 years later.
In November, 2014, Joana and her new husband Tyrel Wolfe dropped off their own homemade gift shoeboxes at Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in North Carolina, where Operation Christmas Child is run. Coming full circle, they told their remarkable story to the nonprofit group that had started it all.
Joana received the shoebox at a vacation bible school in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila. Included in the box was a small photo of a little boy in a cowboy shirt holding a lariat. The boy had included his name and address.
She wanted to write to him and describe how the box had impacted her, but when Joana mailed the young blonde boy a letter, he never received it.
Eleven years later Joana decided to use Facebook to see if she could find the boy who packed her box: “I still wanted to thank the person who gave me the box that had meant so much to me.”
She searched for Tyrel Wolfe. Numerous options appeared, but one name popped up from Idaho. The boy in the photo was dressed in cowboy-type attire with a rustic mountain background. She had never been to the United States, but she knew that Idaho had mountains. Was this ‘Tyrel Wolfe’ the one? She clicked on the link and submitted a friend request.
In the rural community of Midvale (pop. 160), Tyrel was intrigued by a message from “a random girl in the Philippines.”
Thus began their Facebook friendship and an exchange of letters and pictures over the next year. The more they corresponded, the more things Tyrel and Joana found they had in common. They were both passionate about music—albeit different styles—and both sing and play at least one musical instrument. And Joana had always dreamed of a quiet life in the country.
WATCH: Man Builds Tiny House for Homeless Woman Sleeping in the Dirt
Despite the 15-hour time difference, they set aside moments in the morning and again at night for daily Facebook visits. But if their relationship was to progress, they needed to see each other in person.
In June 2013, after saving up money for a plane ticket and receiving cautionary blessings from his parents, Tyrel flew to Manila. He had been on overseas Christian missions before, but had never been to Asia—and had never traveled alone.
“Once I saw his face, an amazing feeling came over me,” Joana said. “I was so happy I cried.”
Tyrel stayed for 10 days and got to know Joana in her hometown. Prior to the trip, they had agreed not to officially date until Tyrel had asked her father’s permission in person. Midway through his visit he gathered the courage to ask the protective pastor, and Joana’s father gave his approval without hesitation.
“I wanted to spend every moment I could with Joana while I was there, because once I left I didn’t know what would happen next,” Tyrel said. “All I knew was Joana was the one.”
Tyrel returned to Idaho fully determined to go back to the Philippines. He accepted extra hours at work as a trails- and bridge-builder at state parks, saving every dollar he could in order to visit Joana during the holiday season. This time he stayed for a month.
At last he was ready to pop the big question. Speaking in the Tagalog language, he asked her dad for permission to marry the girl of his dreams.
The couple held an engagement party in the Philippines and obtained a fiancée visa for Joana.
On October 5 they got married in an outdoor ceremony on Tyrel’s parents’ 400-acre cattle ranch and Tyrel wore a barong, the traditional embroidered shirt worn by Filipino grooms.
Tyrel’s mom came up with the idea of asking invited guests to bring gift-filled shoeboxes for donation. “Operation Christmas Child is what brought Joana and me together, so we wanted to somehow make the project a part of our celebration,” Tyrel recalled.
Joana loved the idea and included “Pack a Shoebox” brochures with every wedding invitation. Some guests brought boxes; others gave a donation.
Rather than leaving the shoeboxes at one of the many Samaritan’s Purse drop-off location in Idaho, the Wolfes agreed it would be more meaningful if they delivered the boxes to the Christian aid group’s headquarters, bringing their own shoebox–journey full circle.
Now six weeks into married life, Tyrel and Joana are looking forward to their first Christmas together in the United States. They have started a tradition that they hope to continue every year for the rest of their lives—packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.
“And when we start having children, we want to involve them in packing boxes too,” said a smiling Tyrel as he held his wife’s hand. “I remember as a little boy, I was so excited to know the toys and other items I put in the box would bring joy to another child somewhere else in the world.
“I just didn’t know the joy it would bring back to me one day.”
Google is throwing its money, brain power and technology into developing adaptive equipment for people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease.
In September they bought a company, first funded by the National of Institutes of Health, that has revolutionized the humble spoon.
Hundreds of algorithms are used in a new way to give the Liftware spoons the ability to allow to eat without spilling, reports the AP. “The technology senses how a hand is shaking and makes instant adjustments to stay balanced.”
The four scientists and engineers who started Lift Labs explained, “Seeing our own friends and family suffering has motivated us to create Lift Labs and focus on improving overall quality of life and independence.”
The Liftware Stabilizer with battery charger and soup spoon attachment costs around $200, which the company says averages to 27¢ per meal over the first year. “After that it’s paid for.”
Liftware sells their products on Amazon, here.
(WATCH the video about Liftware below, or READ more in the AP story via SFGate.com)
SHARE the Good News Using the Buttons Below! – Story tip – Mike McGinley
Trista Hopkins, a U.S. Army veteran in Dallas who was raising two daughters in a dilapidated home with holes in the roof and no running water, now has a renovated home with new furnishings — just in time for Thanksgiving.
Thanks to Rebuilding Together of Greater Dallas, Dwell With Dignity, and many volunteers — including R.O.T.C. students from the Cary Middle School where she works as a cafeteria server — the home that once was barely livable, is now a beautiful tribute to her service.
Trista’s aunt nominated her at Rebuilding Together, which handed over the keys to the remodeled home in a ceremony yesterday. She plans to marry her fiance at the home next week.
– WATCH the big reveal below in 2 videos
– READ the story with before and after photos at WFAA
SHARE the Joy with the Buttons Below – Photos via Facebook
It all started with a meatball.
During the 430-mile Adventure Racing World Championship in Ecuador, Swedish teammates were chowing down, trying to refuel for the next ordeal: a muddy 20-mile trek through the Amazon rainforest.
“Mikael Lindnord, the captain of Team Peak Performance, tossed part of his lunch to a thin, scruffy street dog begging for food at his feet — and inadvertently enlisted a fifth team member,” reports PRI.
Then, when they were about to start the last leg, a kayak race down the river, and leave Arthur behind, he dove into the water, desperately doggie-paddling to keep up. Despite the danger for them and the dog, Lindnord grabbed Arthur and pulled him onto his kayak.
In a very happy ending, the dog is now in Sweden, adopted by the team’s captain.
(READ the story or LISTEN to an interview on Public Radio’s The World)
Story tip from Mari-Anna Reiljan-Dillon
Chad Houser is about to open a restaurant that takes kids released from jail and teaches them to play with knives and fire, sparking a passion and a purpose for their new lives.
Bolstered by $1 million in crowdfunding and traditional donations, the Dallas chef is set to open his Café Momentum downtown in December, with a staff composed mainly of boys and young men who previously served time at a detention facility for nonviolent juvenile offenders.
The cafe’s tag line is: Eat, Drink, Save Lives.
– WATCH the inspiring video below
– READ the story from CS Monitor’s Making A Difference
Featured Photo by Santon J. Stephens via Cafe Momentum
Comedian and former Tonight Show host Jay Leno said his favorite part of doing USO shows overseas for the troops was meeting some of the soldiers one-on-one.
He decided that although young soldiers back from war have numerous services that help them with their every day needs, they don’t often receive the luxuries that Jay gets to enjoy.
He decided to compile a list of names of wounded warriors, place them in a barrel and draw a winner.
Cpl. Ethan Laberge, who is suffering from pain sustained in a roadside bomb injury in Afghanistan, met Jay at a local garage and was asked if he wanted to go for a ride in a hot new car, the 2015 Dodge Hellcat.
Leno, 64 let him drive the red beauty on country roads outside his Army base of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. They stopped for barbecue and talked about cars, one of the comedian’s favorite topics.
When they arrived back to base, Leberge gave an instant review of the Hellcat, “That was awesome … I wouldn’t mind having one of these.”
“It’s yours,” Leno said handing Leberge the keys. “America loves you. Thank you buddy.”
I wanted to let Good News Network viewers know that I am trying to maintain a ban on auto-playing video ads sitewide. Nothing annoys me more than having sudden blaring sound coming from my speakers when I hadn’t clicked on anything to cause it.
I fired a small ad agency recently after they could not keep these obnoxious ads away from our ad space. On November 4, I hired a new bigger agency that reported they do not allow such ads.
However, we need your help to keep the website ‘auto-play’ free by alerting us IF YOU EVER experience this on our website. Please use the Comments form below if you are logged-in. Or, type your message here on the Contact Us form (You can find “Contact Us” link at the bottom of any GNN page).
PLEASE try to note who the advertiser was — meaning, which product or service — and tell us which browser and device you were using.
(I sometimes hear a video ad play, but I think it is a Google ad following me around, because I only hear it in Chrome. What’s your experience been if you use Chrome?)
THANK YOU!
P.S. If you were wondering, we use the advertising funds to pay for the IT services needed to maintain the site and improve it — and to pay my modest salary.
– Geri Weis-Corbley, Founder, Managing Editor