Toys ‘R Us has drawn inspiration from the actions of so-called ‘layaway Santas’.
The toy retailer has promised to donate $200 worth of toys, which it said is the average value of a layaway order, whenever a “Layaway Santa” visits one of its stores and pays off an order for someone in their community.
A 25-year-old dynamo who has been feeding hot meals to hundreds of families every day since Staten Island, NY was hit by Hurricane Sandy was named a “Holiday Hero” for her extraordinary service.
Food is not the only thing that Cat Guarnieri has been supplying to Sandy victims.
“Food, blankets – everything – socks, clothes for the kids,” Rachel Alhadad said in appreciation of Cat, who also has two kids and a husband.
(READ the story from CBS-2 NY)
This week, a Walmart store in Hastings, Mich., received a $10,000 check from an anonymous donor to pay off 43 customers’ layaway accounts in their entirety, no strings attached.
Anonymous donors such as this one are showing up across the country at some of the nation’s biggest retailers.
The so-called “layaway secret Santas” are handing over checks and cash ranging anywhere from $200 to $10,000 to pay off the remaining balances of customers who put Christmas presents on layaway.
(READ the story in the Huffington Post)
People are seeking to spread good in the world after the loss of 26 people at a school in Connecticut by doing random acts of kindness in the names of those killed. Connected through the Twitter hashtag #26Acts (or #27Acts, which includes the shooter’s mom) and at Facebook.com/26Acts, people are sharing their kindness details to inspire others.
Some are baking dessert treats for local firemen, some are leaving cards with money on strangers’ cars. Some are even sending donations to the town of Newtown, like the man in California who contacted a cafe to arrange to buy coffee for every patron who came in.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from NBC)
Al Capri pays just 50 cents for his therapy sessions and thousands of children have benefitted.
Al’s therapy comes from sitting in front of the claw machine, meticulously grabbing stuffed toys with the claw using concentration of a surgeon.
He always wins the toys, which he donates by the boxful to needy kids.
(WATCH the video below, or read the intro to the story from Bay Area Proud’s Garvin Thomas)
It started with an impassioned letter from a Parkland, Fla., teenager to Nike Chief Executive Mark Parker. It ended with a dream come true.
Matthew Walzer told Parker he has cerebral palsy, that at birth doctors told his parents their son would never walk.
Now he is readying for college and, inspired by the Nike slogan, ‘If you have a body, you are an athlete, he needed a pair of shoes that he could easily get on his feet.
On the face of it, 2012 revealed the worst of the society’s ills — toxic partisan politics, horrific shootings and devastating natural disasters. But many positive trends, some blooming through social media and the internet, also cheered our souls. Here is the Good News Network’s year in review: the top ten stories of hope and achievement.
We began the year with January 12 marking a milestone in the march for children’s health as India celebrated one year without a recorded case of new polio infection.
10) India Hails its First Polio-Free Year$1 billion and 23 years of volunteer work donated by Rotary club members worldwide made the dream a reality. The incidence of infection plunged during that time from 350,000 cases in 1988 to fewer than 1,000 cases in 2010. Tens of millions of dollars was also donated to the cause by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who declared, “Children in India are now protected against this debilitating, but preventable disease.”
In May, Scott Shaver and Katie Buell were crowned prom king and queen at Westview High School in San Diego. Katie is an all-American girl, class president, champion in girls basketball, and an absolute sweetheart, according to her teachers. Yet, it seems every student, no matter their ability, is accepted and treasured. Scotty, as the kids call him, is a HUGE personality at the school, brought out of his shell over four years by the nurturing attention given, not only by specialized staff who have tutored him as a special needs student with autism, but by the accepting student body. The senior class nominated Scotty to the ballot not as a joke, said Scott Wild, a teacher and student advisor at the school, “but as a sincere tribute to him because they love him, respect him, and appreciate him.” (Read more)
8) Aung San Suu Kyi ‘Wins Landslide Landmark Election’ as Burma RejoicesThe Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, along with other leaders in the National League for Democracy claimed a landslide victory in a series of election contests in April, after spending much of the last two decades under arrest. They were freed in 2010 in a surprise move by Myanmar officials, and benefitted from a series of political reforms, which ended that country’s isolation. President Obama visited the country, formerly known as Burma, in November, to help sustain the momentum toward change.
Even though pit bulls are known to attack and maim, they can also be wonderful pets — and often, heroes. In May, a bull named Lilly pulled her unconscious owner from the path of a freight train, and was severely hurt in the process.
But another story, in March, truly revealed an instinct of this breed to protect, even if the person is a stranger. A Florida woman was leaving a playground with her toddler in Port Charlotte when a man approached her in the parking lot and threatened her at knife point. Suddenly a Pit Bull who had been wandering the area charged the man, growling and barking until the attacker fled in surrender. The dog had never met the woman or child before, yet defended them as their guardian angel.
Swimmer Michael Phelps won 4 gold and 2 silver medals in the London games — his 18th career gold medal and 22nd overall — becoming the most decorated Olympian ever. Other stories of athletic achievement also warmed our hearts for two weeks in August. The Games of the XXX Olympiad were also the greenest Olympics ever, planned with an emphasis on sustainability.
The most precious and unexpected result of the London Olympics, though, was the mood of national confidence and enthusiasm they generated in Great Britain. “Hosting the Olympics has boosted national morale more than any single event in most people’s living memory,” reported the Independent. “The capital and the country have been transformed.” British audiences applauded even victorious rivals, and displayed special affection toward those who came in last.
— Three independent studies have now shown that our understanding of the physical makeup of cancer tumors may have been based on a myth. Researchers have identified “cancer stem cells” to be responsible for causing a tumor to grow and develop.
— A new breakthrough that provides early detection for the most lethal form of cancer was created by a 15-year-old Maryland teen, after his mom drove him to Johns Hopkins University every night after school to test his theory in a lab. Jack Andraka won the top prize at the Intel Science Fair for his new and simple dip-stick method to detect pancreatic, lung and ovarian cancer, which is 90% accurate and 28 times less expensive.
— Stanford researchers identified an antibody that was found to dramatically shrink or eradicate human cancer tumors that were transplanted into laboratory mice, no matter which type of cancer created the tumor. The research is unique because seven different types of cancer responded to the antibody.
When so many examples of bullying were in the news this year, it is heartening to hear of several uplifting outcomes. A tiny farming town in Michigan rallied around a 16-year-old girl in September who became humiliated when her high school voted to elevate her to the homecoming court as a joke and then laughed at her in the hallways. In an inspiring turnaround, Whitney Kropp’s embarrassment gained her thousands of friends and supporters who helped make her night unforgettable.
Also in the Midwest, a high school football captain seeing classmates taunted on Twitter decided that online bullying should not be a spectator sport for his Minnesota town. So the 17-year-old, Kevin Curwick, quietly set up a Twitter account, @OsseoNiceThings, to praise students in need of a social facelift. Since then, Twitter posts attacking his classmates have disappeared — and other towns are copying his uplifting actions. (See more inspiring stories about anti-bully heroes here, and here.)
Curiosity, the largest and most advanced spacecraft ever sent to another planet, stuck an extraordinary landing in triumphant and flawless fashion on August 5. NASA’s $2.5-billion mission involved the work of more than 5,000 people from 37 states, some of whom had labored for 10 years to hear the two words, “Touchdown confirmed.” Inside mission control, engineers who had been chewing the insides of their cheeks and bouncing their legs nervously leapt to their feet, embracing, high-fiving and, in some cases, weeping with joy, wrote Scott Gold in the LA Times. (Watch the video of scientists cheering)
A former bus driver, who in her senior years works as a bus monitor, sat patiently through ten minutes of relentless and brutal bullying by middle school kids on her route, while a video camera recorded the sorry scene. The video went viral and an online social media community so sympathized with her that they raised money to send her on a vacation — to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The woman, Karen Huff Klein, now retired, started a foundation with some of the money.
The goal of reducing by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water has been achieved well ahead of the 2015 deadline for reaching the globally agreed target. Over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources between 1990 and 2010, the United Nations said in March.
“Today we recognize a great achievement for the people of the world,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said upon the release of the report. “The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water are a testament to all who see the Millennium Development Goals not as a dream, but as a vital tool for improving the lives of millions of those in extreme poverty.”
As the world’s fastest animals, the big cats can run up to 65 mph and need to get up to speed to burn off metabolic compounds. But the two who live at the Houston Zoo don’t have much opportunity to do that. Until now.
In early November, an entourage of 10 people took a pair of 5-year-old cheetah brothers to the Sam Houston Race Park.
As the world’s fastest animals, the big cats can run up to 65 mph and need to get up to speed to burn off metabolic compounds. But the two who live at the Houston Zoo don’t have much opportunity to do that. Until now.
In early November, an entourage of 10 people took a pair of 5-year-old cheetah brothers to the Sam Houston Race Park.
In October, oystermen on the Chesapeake Bay began to experience the best year in decades with officials estimating the harvest to double over last year.
2012’s dry weather encouraged high water salinities this season, playing a big part in oyster growth.
It’s been a “blessing” for watermen, who have endured a gradual reduction in past seasons.
Thousands of bus drivers around Britain are being given special training so they can help passengers with dementia.
It’s part of an initiative by the Prime Minister which is trying to encourage everyone to be more aware of the needs of older people who have dementia, to help them in their daily lives.
The briefing includes details about how different forms of dementia affect the brain. This leads into a discussion about how drivers can help confused passengers.
The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists.
The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought.
A mysterious package arrived last week at the University of Chicago addressed to Henry Walton Jones, Jr., which looked like it had been postmarked in Egypt. Admissions officials had no clue who Jones was, but a student “snapped out of his finals-tired haze” realizing who Dr. Jones was: the fabled archeology professor, Indiana Jones.
The mystery grew deeper when they realized the postage was faked and inside was an incredibly detailed replica of “University of Chicago Professor” Abner Ravenwood’s journal from the film, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
A mysterious package arrived last week at the University of Chicago addressed to Henry Walton Jones, Jr., which looked like it had been postmarked in Egypt. Admissions officials had no clue who Jones was, but a student “snapped out of his finals-tired haze” realizing who Dr. Jones was: the fabled archeology professor, Indiana Jones.
The mystery grew deeper when they realized the postage was faked and inside was an incredibly detailed replica of “University of Chicago Professor” Abner Ravenwood’s journal from the film, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
A surprise gift during an Eastman School of Music concert drew a standing ovation and prompted the conductor to say it was the best moment he’d ever witnessed.
Tara Fayazi, a tuba player, works really hard to afford classes at the conservatory but she’s never been able to own her own instrument. 11 months ago, her friends began organizing fundraisers to help pay for one.
But, recently, the parents of a student who had died heard about the effort and donated their son’s beloved Mirafone tuba, worth $8,000. Her colleagues surprised her while she was in the midst of a solo during a school concert, which was videotaped.
(WATCH the video below)
Are you tired of misplacing your keys, remote control or iPad? A clever invention called Stick-N-Find can help you find anything within 100 feet using your smart phone and Bluetooth. The application uses small tokens that you can affix to anything — a device, a child or an animal — for instant location using your Apple or Android phone.
The Stick-N-Find is small and thin, the size of a quarter and looks like a black Necco Wafer. The stickers have a buzzer and light, so that you can also find stuff in the dark. More than 4,500 people on the internet were impressed enough with the device that they’ve funded the project to the tune of $340,000.
In the midst of unspeakable tragedy in Connecticut , all kinds of offers of help have been pouring in from around the world, including assistance of the four-legged variety.
A group of Golden Retrievers arrived on the scene to bring the kind of comfort that, one little girl says, “help you get over how sad it is.”
Researchers in the United States have developed a robotic arm controlled directly by thought with a level of agility closer than ever to a normal human limb.
Jan Scheuermann, 53, from Pittsburgh, who is paralyzed from the neck down, has been able to feed herself chocolate and move everyday items using a robotic arm directly controlled by her mind.
“It’s so cool,” said Scheuermann during a news conference. “I’m moving things. I have not moved things for about 10 years.”
(WATCH the video below, or READ the Reuters story at Fox News)
The number of New York City homicide deaths this year, already plummeting to historic lows, is actually lower than police statistics show.
That’s because of the way older killings are counted.
Removing four of those older cases further reduces the homicide count to 388 through Wednesday; compared with 493 during the same period in 2011.
Six-year-old Noah Pozner’s family wanted letters from his friends and relatives buried with him, and now thanks to social media and the compassion displayed by one airline, their wish will be granted –and some family members who live far away will feel closer.
On Sunday, Noah’s aunt, who lives in Seattle, tweeted to Delta and JetBlue asking for help getting notes from her and the boy’s 5-year-old cousin to Connecticut in time for today’s funeral.
JetBlue immediately sprang into action and got the letters onto the red-eye flight from Seattle to New York.
In response, Noah’s aunt, Victoria Heller (@VDog) tweeted, “Deepest thanks to @JetBlue flight attendant Craig Myers for carrying the notes from Seattle (and) Trisha & Heather @JFK for helping receive them”.
