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Bill Gates Turns Out to be Reddit User’s Secret Santa

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Dec 20, 2013

Bill Gates plays secret santa

While everyone knows the best part of a Secret Santa gift exchange is finding out the identity of the gift giver, a Reddit user participating in this year’s online Secret Santa gift giving got the surprise of her life during the big reveal.

The user, identified only as Rachel, posted a list of gifts she hoped to get from her Reddit Secret Santa – makeup, nail polish, “glittery things” and an iPad. But that’s not what she got from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

It turns out, all of the gifts were perfectly tailored to her interests.

(READ the story from ABC News)

Thanks to Bryan Huffman for submitting the link on our Facebook Page!

Unique Festival Lets Artists Trade Their Work for Healthcare

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Dec 20, 2013

painting a mural-ThirteenOrgVideo

More than 100 musicians, painters and performers took part this year in the second annual “O+” Festival in Kingston, New York.

Named for the blood type, the festival allows artists to barter their works and performances for health care in the form of back adjustments, blood work, dental fillings and eye exams.

Kingston dentist Thomas Cingel initially came up with the idea as a way to lure artists upstate. Dr. Cingel settled in the Hudson Valley for its natural beauty, yet missed the big city’s music scene.

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PETA Donates Furs (Yes, Furs) to Detroit Homeless

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Dec 19, 2013

PETA gives furs to poor-ORGphoto

PETA, the animal-rights organization, has donated more than 100 fur coats — and dozens of leather jackets, wool scarves and angora sweaters — to needy residents at a Detroit homeless shelter earlier this week.

“We can’t bring these animals back to life… but we can try to use these coats for an ethical purpose now,” the group’s spokesperson told TODAY.com.

Every year, the organization receives hundreds of furs from people who no longer want them, she said.

(READ the story from TODAY)

5-Year-old Signs for Deaf Parents During Holiday Concert

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Dec 19, 2013

signing girl shares concert with deaf parents

A kindergarten student at a holiday concert enthusiastically sang the songs with her classmates, but also used sign language and animated facial expressions to help her deaf parents in the audience enjoy the show.

This cutie has earned six million hits on YouTube in the nine days since it was posted.

WATCH the video below…

Social Media Mobilizes to Help Blind Man Keep Hero Dog

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Dec 18, 2013

blind man saved by guide dog

A heroic guide dog named Orlando is getting praise for saving his owner, a blind man named Cecil Williams, who fell onto the subway tracks in New York, and barking for help, which ultimately saved the man’s life.

The clever Orlando is set to retire — and Williams’ insurance will only pay for an actively working dog, so people are now tweeting the story and donating money to keep his hero by his side, along with a new service dog.

GM to Invest $1.3B in 5 Midwest Factories

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Dec 18, 2013

Ford painting plant

General Motors announced plans to invest $1.2 billion in new equipment and expansions at five Midwest factories. GM’s investment, mostly in three Michigan plants, will retain or add about 1,000 jobs, many of which are in the company’s Flint hometown.

The expansion plans were announced Monday, the same day a new study was released, compiled by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, that estimated the rescue of GM and Chrysler saved 2.6 million jobs in 2009 and 1.5 million in 2010.

New Zealand Man’s Offer of Home is ‘Miracle’ for Rescued Senior

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Dec 18, 2013

old-men-embrace

James Barber’s home goes up for auction today, but a “white knight” has rescued the 77-year-old from homelessness.

An anonymous Christchurch businessman was so taken by Barber’s plight that he is offering to buy him a house “to live out his days in peace”.

“I didn’t know there were people like this still about,” Barber said.

“Miracles do happen, there is no doubt about it.”

(READ the story from New Zealand’s Stuff)

File photo – Thanks to Michelle Keenan for submitting the link!

Secret Bids Guide Hopi Indians’ Artifacts Home

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Dec 17, 2013

Native American Hopi mask-EVEAuctionHouse

The U.S. Embassy tried to delay the auction of sacred Hopi and Apache artifacts in Paris but a French judge ruled that the items, irreplaceable and historic, would be sold to the highest bidder. More than 100 American Indian artifacts (24 of which were masks of religious value that were stolen many years ago) were about to go on sale December 9.

That’s when Annenberg Foundation Vice President and Director Gregory Annenberg Weingarten made the unprecedented decision to intervene. He knew he had to keep the plan a secret, even from the Hopis, so as not to inflate the prices.

There Is Some Good to Come Out of the Marathon Bombing

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Dec 17, 2013

FaceBook photo of the couple

For James “Bim” Costello, April 15th was one of the worst days of his life. At the finish line of the Boston Marathon when the bomb exploded, he suffered not only physical wounds but emotional trauma, after learning about his friends and their injuries.

“I soon wondered why and for what reason this had happened,” he wrote in a Facebook post this week.

Recovering in Spaulding Hospital, and still wondering what good could come from the tragedy, he met a nurse named Krista.

“After sharing a handful of conversations I realized not only how beautiful she was but also what a kind heart she had (and) somehow convinced her to attend a benefit with me,” Costello wrote.

After a few “inseparable months” he realized the silver lining of his involvement in the tragedy eights months ago: “It was to meet my best friend, and the love of my life.”

“We got engaged last night in the middle of the beautiful French city Lyon!!!”

(READ the story from CBS Local)

Mystery Donor Erects Batkid Billboard To Thank Him For Saving ‘Gotham City’

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Dec 17, 2013

Batkid billboard-PatriciavWilson tweeted this

Remember the boy with leukemia who donned a batman suit last month and was treated to a day of ‘pretend crime fighting’ that involved thousands of participants in San Francisco? (See the original story here)

Now someone has paid for a billboard featuring a picture of the 5-year-old Miles Scott dressed as ‘Batkid’, to thank him for “saving the city”.

Patricia Wilson, executive director of Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area, tweeted a photo of the huge sign near the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

(READ the story from NY Daily News)

Coffee Shop’s Incredible Response To Neighborhood Robberies

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Dec 16, 2013

christmas tree A Cup of Common Wealth

Where a string of robberies in local shops might have made Lexington, Kentucky a more sad place, one coffee shop has conjured up a few pay-it-forward Christmas miracles.

After thieves broke into A Cup of Common Wealth, the coffee shop’s owners were blown away by the huge outpouring from their community.

“They came out in full force and showed us so much love and support that we weren’t focused at all on what happened, just on what we were a part of,” said owners, Salvador Sanchez and Chris Ortiz, in an email to the Good News Network.

Reports of more robberies in local shops inspired them to rally the community.

What to Do When You’re Down and Out: Brake Mechanic Makes the Best of a Situation

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Dec 16, 2013

delivery truck driver shakes w urban mom-NBCvid

There was no point in waiting inside the house for customers on that December morning because there’s no heat in there, either. No electricity. Not even glass in all the windows. He paid $500 at a county auction for the battered former drug house and he got what he paid for.

Many others in the city are living just as close to bottom. Some drink away their problems, sell drugs or steal their way through life. But Hakeem Muhammad the brake mechanic did something else — he decided to embrace poverty until things got better.

It would be a way to start over, he thought. To build character.

(READ the story, w/ photos, in the Detroit Free Press)

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World’s Most Big-hearted Nation: The United States

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Dec 16, 2013

Act In Kindness project Tillamook Or

The United States is the world’s most generous nation, according to a global index of giving, as a higher proportion of Americans helped a stranger than any other country in the world.

The 2013 World Giving Index – published annually by international nonprofit organization Charities Aid Foundation – looks at three measures: monetary giving, volunteering and helping of strangers in a typical month. The survey, published on December 2, was carried out in 2012 across 135 countries.

(READ the story from CNBC)

Photo by Act In Kindness project Tillamook, Ore.

RELATED: NASCAR Driver Jeff Gordon’s Generosity Continues With Congo Trip to Help Refugees

Entrepreneur Gives His Air Miles So 76 Others Can Be Home for the Holidays

Coffee Shop Holds Food Drive for Man Who Stole from Tip Jar

Santa Visits Remote Eskimo Village Thanks to National Guard

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Dec 15, 2013

Santa in Truro Foter-CC-Ennor

Christmas in Alaska came early this week to nearly 300 students attending school in an Eskimo village, thanks to the volunteer program coordinated by the Alaska National Guard.

Santa and Mrs. Claus greeted children in the western Alaska community and took pictures with them before helper elves handed out gifts.

“It’s all to make the kids’ Christmas and bring a little joy to them,” Banez said.

(READ the AP story via CTV)

Photo credit: Foter-CC-Ennor

6-Year-Old’s Christmas Wish for Prosthetic Arm Comes True, Thanks to Online Donors

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Dec 14, 2013

boy gets Christmas wish for new arm-familyphoto

When Christopher Kiezek sat on Santa’s knee recently, like a lot of kids, he asked for an Xbox One. But he also asked for a new arm so can play it.

He was born without fingers and his mother says the insurance company won’t pay for a prosthetic device because it wasn’t necessary for the boy’s life.

A family friend known as Uncle Bobby was moved by the story of the boy’s Christmas wish so he set up an online page on Go Fund Me to raise the $25,000 needed.

Thanks to a New York television station sharing the story, the Long Island boy will get the new device — and the Xbox.

(WATCH the video HERE or READ the story from the Dailymail)

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