When this 16-year-old boy started having anxiety in the middle of a haircut, his mom figured he would be walking away with half a head of hair – that is, until the barber went the extra mile for her son.
Evan O’Dwyer has nonverbal autism and sensory disorders, making it very difficult for him to process sounds and commotion. His mother Deirdre usually resorts to clipping his nails and moisturizing his skin while he is asleep.
So when she first took her son Dylan to get his hair cut by Donncha O’Connell at the Baldy Barber in Blackpool, Ireland 21 years ago, she saw how good he was with kids – and Deirdre has been taking her sons to the barber ever since.
Evan usually feels at ease around Donncha, but when he went in to get a haircut on Monday, he was strangely agitated. Every time Donncha attempted to use his clippers, Evan would jump out of his chair in anxiety.
In an effort to calm her son down, Deirdre took him back to his “safe place” – also known as her minivan.
Though it would have seemed that the haircut was over, Donncha offered to finish the trim inside the car. With the help of Evan’s brother, the two were able to finish the cut in the back seat of the van.
“It’s great when you have a brilliant barber and who totally understand autism and who will go to any lengths to make your child feel comfortable,” wrote Deirdre. “Fair play Donncha always making Evan feel at ease”
Pass On The Positivity: Click To Share (Photo by Deirdre O’Dwyer)
This small village in Indonesia has gone from slum to stardom.
Kampung Pelangi, a hamlet consisting of about 325 homes, was previously described by its residents as a “filthy” neighborhood. Because of the debilitated condition of the area, their local economy suffered.
Then, in an effort to attract tourists, a local teacher named Slamet Widodo suggested that they give the village a colorful makeover.
The project came with a $200,000 price tag that was paid for through donations and corporate sponsorship. After one month of hard work, however, 240 houses have already been painted with bright rainbow patterns.
The village’s cheerful design has attracted tourists from all over the region, giving local businesses a much-needed boost. Because of the influx of visitors, the community has become an Instagram hit.
Kampung Pelangi’s rebirth is not unlike the city of Palmitas in Mexico – when the Mexican government hired a team of graffiti artists to give the village a new paint job, they covered every building in rainbow paint and designs. As a result, crime rates plummeted and village residents were reported to be more cheerful and confident.
It’s a wonder what a lick of paint can do.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share This Colorful Story With Your Friends
Carolina Williams is telling her fellow college applicants that they shouldn’t be afraid to take risks.
This is evidenced by how she was accepted to Yale University after writing a 200-word essay on how much she loves pizza.
“When the delivery person rings my doorbell, I instantly morph into one of Pavlov’s dogs, salivating to the sound that signals the arrival of the cheesy, circular glory,” writes Carolina.
“It smells like celebration, as I love to rejoice in a happy occasion by calling Papa John’s for my favorite food. It tastes like comfort, since having pizza delivered to my quiet home is a way for me to unwind. It looks like self-sufficiency because when I was younger, ordering pizza made me feel grown-up, and it still provides that satisfaction for my child at heart.”
The prospective student goes on to finish the poetic epithet by saying: “Accepting those warm cardboard boxes at my front door is second nature to me, but I will always love ordering pizza because of the way eight slices of something so ordinary are able to evoke feelings of independence, consolation and joy.”
The Yale admissions officer who read her essay was so tickled by the subject choice, he responded by saying: “As a fellow lover of pizza, I laughed out loud (then ordered pizza) after reading your application.”
Carolina was also noticed by none other than the king of pizza himself: Papa John.
The pie delivery chain sent her a tweet saying: “CONGRATS, CAROLINA!! We’re so honored that you wrote about us in your essay!”
In addition to the romantic verse on Italian food, the Ravenwood High School student of Brentwood, Tennessee carries a sparkling educational resume, featuring a high GPA, several volunteering positions, and a position on the National Honors Society.
Though the teen celebrated her acceptance by ordering pizza while dressed in a brand new Yale University tee shirt, Carolina instead chose to attend Auburn University for their business program.
I just want @PapaJohns to know that I wrote a college essay about how much I love to order their pizza and it got me into Yale ???????? pic.twitter.com/lDlzEErHCn
This 17-year-old trumpet player may have never been able to pursue his passion if it weren’t for the kindness of an American musician living thousands of miles away from him.
Ahmed “Baset” Azizi grew up in Afghanistan, living in constant fear of the Taliban finding out about his love of music. He spent his childhood hiding under desks while his city was bombed, witnessing atrocities that most children should never have to witness.
When he wanted to formally study music, his father sent him to the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul. Unfortunately, Baset’s trumpet teacher soon left the school, leaving the youth without an instructor. He then turned to YouTube videos.
“I could not play in the house because playing some Western musical instruments is forbidden by the Taliban and other people,” says Baset. “If a neighbor heard my playing and reported it to those groups, my family and myself were in danger: first because I was playing music and also because my dad works for the Army.”
Baset persisted with his learning until he came across a clip of David Bilger, Principal Trumpet of The Philadelphia Orchestra – and he was mesmerized by the sound the American was able to make.
Baset then sent a message to Bilger over Facebook with a special request.
“Baset introduced himself as ‘the best trumpeter in Afghanistan – because there are only 2!’” Bilger told Good News Network. “Once I learned a bit about his early musical experiences at the Afghan National Institute of Music, and the fact that he was now without a teacher, I offered to give him some advice and coaching over the Internet.”
For several months, the two musicians would connect at 11PM EST every week for one hour of coaching – despite there being an 8.5 hour time difference. Eventually, the Afghani teen expressed his wish to study at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan – and Bilger was more than happy to make that wish come true.
Bilger – along with the help of Robin Korevaar, a Texas clarinetist who Baset met during his school term in Kabul – started working on how they would bring their young prodigy to the United States. While Baset trained for the school’s audition with the hope that he would receive an academic scholarship, the two American musicians began a crowdfunding page to raise the money for travel expenses, food, and lodging.
Then, after four months of tireless work, Baset was accepted to Interlochen on full scholarship for one year. Additionally, $30,000 was donated to the crowdfunding page, covering all of his expenses.
Since he started studying at Interlochen in the fall, Baset says that he has not taken his education for granted.
“Playing the trumpet is not just a casual activity for me,” says Baset. “My family has sacrificed and I have lived in fear while in Afghanistan so that I could play. And I am totally committed to becoming the best musician I can be.”
Since Baset was recently accepted into the University of Kansas’s music program on a full-ride four year scholarship, Robin and Bilger – with the help of Baset’s current teacher and “Interlochen mom”, Leann Burger– have since set up a second crowdfunding page to pay for their student’s living arrangements. The page only requires $5,000 more to fulfill their $65,000 goal.
“Baset is a wonderful young man,” Bilger told Good News Network. “He has an amazing work ethic, especially for everything trumpet. And he has expressed to me his desire to make the most of the opportunities that are now available to him through the generosity of so many people. The miraculous reality of his current situation is not lost on him.”
In recognition of their compassionate efforts, Burger, Bilger, and Korevaar have all been named GoFundMe heroes of the month.
(WATCH the video below)
Multiply The Good: Click To Share With Your Friends (Photo by Beth Price Photography)
Thanks to the online efforts of Islamic groups, over 10,000 people have stepped up to assist in the aftermath of the Portland, Oregon attacks last week.
Three men are being honored as heroes after they defended two teenage Muslim girls on Portland public transportation when a crazed nationalist started yelling racial slurs. The three onlookers intervened, causing the passenger to start wielding a knife, killing two of the men and injuring another.
In honor of the men’s compassion, the Muslim Education Trust and CelebrateMercy created a LaunchGood crowdfunding page to – at the very least – pay for the funeral costs of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Ricky John Best. The funds would also assist in paying for the hospital bills of the surviving hero: Micah David-Cole Fletcher.
When the groups started the campaign, however, the link was shared widely on social media, garnering $1,000 in donations every five minutes.
The campaign reached its original goal of $60,000 in just five hours. As the donations continued to pour in, the goals were set higher and higher: from covering the funeral costs, to paying for Micah’s hospital bills, to starting a college fund for Best’s four children, to creating an inclusionary scholarship that will provide educations for future generations.
As of today, the page has raised $530,000 in just five days.
“Although this campaign is organized by Muslims, we welcome people of all faiths to contribute,” wrote the campaign’s creator Wajdi Said. “No amount of money will bring back the victims, but we do hope to lessen their family’s burdens in some way and also show our heartfelt appreciation for their heroic acts against Islamophobia. Let’s all stand together against hate.”
Click To Share The Inspiring News With Your Friends (Photo by Wajdi Said)
These good Samaritans didn’t waste time in rescuing an unconscious police officer whose car had fallen 30 feet below the road into a creek.
The officer – whose name has not been released – was on his way to a burglary call in Dallas, Texas when he was sideswiped off of the road by another car.
Though the drivers immediately took off after the accident, over a dozen bystanders rushed to the fallen cruiser.
Rescuers say that the officer was found unconscious with several gashes across his forehead. Since he was immediately rushed to the hospital, however, he is currently in stable condition.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share The News With Your Friends – Photo by Rebecca Lopez
Due to an increasing amount of New York subway delays, this poor grad student missed his official commencement ceremony.
Because he missed such an important event, however, his fellow stranded New Yorkers hosted a makeshift graduation ceremony on the crowded subway car.
Jerich Marco Alcantara and his family were taking the E train to Hunter College’s Brookdale on Tuesday morning when the car came to a halt. Though Alcantara was set to arrive at 9:15AM, the train continued to languish for another three hours without moving.
When the nursing student noticed that the other passengers were looking surly due to the delay, he “thanked them for coming out” in a joking manner. Everyone laughed and began to clap.
One passenger pulled up a diploma on his phone, which he then presented to Alcantara while another passenger blasted the nostalgic tune of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day on their phone.
As the crowd clapped and wooed, Alcantara gleefully shouted: “If you want a copy of my diploma, turn on your AirDrop!”
Alcantara and his family rushed their way to the ceremony only to find that it had, in fact, already ended. But he was treated to another makeshift commencement by his friends.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share The Good Grad News With Your Friends
The 30-year-old student knew that she wanted her final portfolio project to somehow be canine-related; so, she hit the craft store, spent $200 on colored feathers, glitter, and rhinestones, and she got to work.
For her photography final, Erin redesigned “cones of shame” that dogs wear after they’ve undergone surgery into “cones of fame”. She figured that by transforming those sad, plastic shapes into fun and fancy crowns, it would make dogs feel less ashamed.
Additionally, since dogs are made to wear the cones after they have been spayed or neutered, Erin believed that the cones would raise awareness about the importance of getting dogs fixed.
And it makes them more likely to get adopted when they look so cute and colorful.
“I wanted to empower the dogs, instead of shame them, while shedding light on the importance of spaying/neutering your pet,” Erin told the Good News Network. “Spaying and neutering your pet is a positive thing!
“I also wanted to use my creativity to help dogs find homes,” she added.
Thus far, all of the pups that Erin photographed at the One Tail At A Time animal shelter have been adopted and given forever homes.
The student is going to be continuing her work by hosting an art show featuring the photographs in June. All proceeds will go towards the animal shelter where she volunteers.
As for how the project did in school, Erin seems pretty confident that she did okay.
“The classes at the school of the art institute of Chicago are pass/fail,” she told Good News Network with an online smile. “I definitely passed.”
Click To Share This Pawesome Story With Your Friends (Photos by Erin Einbender)
Most people don’t necessarily enjoy mowing the lawn – but Rodney Smith Jr. has made it his calling.
The Greensville, Alabama student is spending his summer cutting 50 lawns in 50 states in order to inspire others to do the same.
All the lawns that Rodney mows are owned by elderly or disabled homeowners, single moms, and military personnel – and he mows them all for free.
The Bermudan native first got the idea when he saw an elderly man struggling to cut his grass. Rodney figured that since he was young and able-bodied, he had a responsibility to step up and help take care of his community.
After mowing over 100 lawns in his region, Rodney started the Raising Men Lawn Care Service. For every ten lawns that are mowed by participating young men, they earn a differently colored tee shirt – much like the karate belt system. Participants are then given a sense of accomplishment for assisting those in need.
Rodney is currently on his 22nd stop in Elgin, Illinois, while his “50-yard challenge” has already been accepted by several other volunteers.
Once Rodney finishes with his lawn care road trip, he reportedly plans on going back to school in order to get his master’s degree in social work.
Sharing is caring – and judging by what this teacher is sharing, she cares a lot.
Nancy Bleuer is a preschool teacher at Washington Charlie Brown Preschool and Childcare in Mason City, Iowa who will go to any and all lengths to ensure the wellbeing of her students.
So when she heard that the father of one of her 4-year-old students had been diagnosed with renal kidney failure, she leapt at the chance to donate her own.
Darreld Petersen, father of Camden, went on dialysis after his diagnoses in January. He managed to find a match after being put on the donor list, but the donor flaked on the transplant, leaving Darreld on yet another search for a kidney match.
Upon hearing the news from Camden, Bleuer filled out the necessary paperwork and found that she was a match. The two have been scheduled to undergo transplant surgery next month.
“It’s just amazing,” Petersen told ABC News. “There are people waiting every day for a kidney, for an organ in general. I wish there were more people like her. She’s giving me a second chance at life.”
“She’s an amazing lady and from day one she was gungho.”
Beloved singer and songwriter John Legend has just helped to ensure that Seattle students won’t go hungry while at school.
His quiet contribution of $5,000 towards a GoFundMe page raising money to pay off student lunch debt in the Seattle Public Schools district is being hailed as a grand gesture of compassion throughout Washington state.
The crowdfunding campaign, which was originally started by John Lew, was created with a goal of $20,000 – enough to pay off any and all lunch debt wracked up by families who can’t afford to pay for their children’s lunches.
So when Lew saw that someone had contributed a quarter of the goal in one donation over the weekend, he was blown away. The $5,000 had come from a donor named John Stephens.
After doing some quick Google sleuthing in an effort to thank the donor, he found that John Stephens was the birth name of rock and roll musician John Legend.
Lew then composed a thank you note with a quick addendum before his signature saying: “By the way, are you also known as John Legend? Regardless of who you are or not, thank you. You’ve helped a lot.”
Legend soon responded with “Yes, it’s me.”
Lew then took to Twitter to publicly thank the singer, to which the Grammy-award winning musician replied: “My pleasure! We should have free lunch for all of our public students!”
Since the story has gotten such widespread media attention, the crowdfunding page has now raised $41,000. All the additional funds will go towards paying nutritious student meals in the future.
In Seattle, students who wrack up over $15 in lunch debt are reportedly given modified lunches consisting of less nutritious components, such as dry white bread with cold cheese. This policy has been called an act of “lunch shaming”.
Lunch shaming is considered the practice of shaming or humiliating school children who are behind on their meal fees. Examples of this practice have surfaced around the country; one boy in Alabama was reportedly sent home with a stamp on his arm reading: “I need lunch money”. Lunch ladies have been forced to throw out students’ hot meals because they didn’t have enough funds on their student accounts. Other schools have made children wipe down tables and wash dishes as payment for their meals.
Though there has been no talk of higher-level action protecting children from this kind of treatment, New Mexico is reportedly on its way to becoming the first state to pass legislation prohibiting lunch shaming.
In the mean time, however, Lew has started additional crowdfunding campaigns for the Tacoma and Renton school districts as well. Tacoma has already raised $20,000 of its $30,000 goal, while the Renton campaign has reached about half of its attempted $18,000.
Click To Share The News With Your Friends(Photo by Benny Chandra, CC)
Mack may only have three legs, but that doesn’t stop him from having fun.
Mack was reportedly found wandering around Claremont, California with his leg partially amputated from a hunting trap. When rescuers determined that he had been orphaned, he was taken in for care and protection.
His new enclosure with the Performing Animal Wildlife Society (PAWS) has been specially made with his disability in mind.
Mack’s favorite part of his new home, however, is definitely the pool.
When temperatures in California got particularly scorching this week, PAWS posted a video of Mack’s summertime fun, much to the delight of the internet.
Around two and a half minutes into the clip, Mack gets especially rambunctious.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share This Unbearably Cute Story With Your Friends
Babies in the neonatal intensive care unit may not look like stereotypical comic book superheroes, but they do to this nurse.
Stephanie Treherne of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal is being hailed for going above and beyond the call of duty of her job by hand-stitching tiny superhero capes for the intensive care babies.
For the last nine months, she has made about 100 felt capes featuring the baby’s initial emblazoned on the front. Since Treherne generally prefers to leave them with the baby, rather than handing it to anyone directly, parents never get to thank her properly – until now.
That’s because one of the intensive care baby’s mothers, Michelle Cooper, was so overwhelmed with gratitude for the nurse’s gesture, she asked the hospital staff how she could go about meeting and thanking Treherne.
Cooper’s two-month-old son Benjamin was born prematurely and had to be supervised by medical staff until he was healthy. On one of Cooper’s visits to see her son in the hospital, Treherne’s cape was hanging from the IV pole with a note that read: “To our little Superhero, love Stephanie T.”
“We were very surprised that one of the nurses that we haven’t even worked with or seen or anything yet had left that,” Cooper told CTVNews.ca “Given the hormones and everything, I was very emotional and I just started bawling my eyes out when I saw that cape.”
Treherne says that she just “wanted to do something nice for the babies”.
Be A Hero: Click To Share With Your Friends (Photo by Michelle Cooper)
This group of Muslim volunteers are being hailed for their compassionate gesture of solidarity towards an abused Mosul church earlier this week.
According to the Facebook group This Is Christian Iraq, young community Muslims volunteered to help rebuild the Monastery of Mar Georges in the Al Arabi neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq.
The church had been damaged during the two-year reign of ISIS jihadists. Since the city was only reclaimed after a siege in November, rebuilding has been slow.
The volunteers became inspired to help after they heard rumors that Christian families were still being attacked within the city.
So, able-bodied men and women stepped up to remind local Christians that “Mosul is yours as it’s ours” and “our differences are our strength”.
Click To Share The Inspiring News With Your Friends (Photos by Mohammed Al-Zakaria)
Thanks to the wonders of technology, people have been offering up the most common gesture of gratitude to paramedics, police officers, and hospital workers who have been working around the block following the Manchester Arena bombing last week.
A crowdfunding campaign started by Edmund Hall has raised over $16,500 to buy drinks for health care workers in the city.
Hall started the initiative by leaving roughly $100 behind the bar at the Turing Tap, a pub across the street from the Manchester Royal Infirmary.
“I listened to the awful news the morning after the bombing and thought I’d like to put a few quid behind the bar at a pub near the Manchester Royal Infirmary,” said Hall. “I know alcohol isn’t the answer to the stress and trauma that the emergency services have experienced today, but it seems a simple and easy way to say thank you.”
Within a day of starting the campaign, the page soared past its original goal of $1,200. And according to Richard Perrin, a manager at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, the tab has already been put to good use.
“Me, my colleagues from Children’s Theaters and the Pediatric Wards, and all the other staff from the Central Manchester hospitals who had a pint or two on Friday night because of your generosity would like to say a massive THANK YOU. It was very gratefully received,” said Perrin.
“As you say, alcohol is not the answer to dealing with stress, but being able to go out in a non-hospital space with colleagues who have worked their behinds off this week and not have to think if they can afford a round did really help.”
Hall responded to the compassion by commenting on the page saying: “I am speechless. We have raised ten thousand pounds to buy a drink for the wonderful men and women who are working so hard to help those affected by the terrible events in Manchester. Nothing we’ve done today will fix the damage, or lessen the pain of those directly affected, but emergency service and hospital workers should know that if we were there now, we would buy them a drink. Of course we would.”
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This 98-year-old grandmother doesn’t just write birthday cards to family members – she also writes thousands of letters to military members who are deployed overseas.
Aileen Cooper started writing to service members sometime after WWII. In the past six years alone, the senior has written almost 7,000 letters.
All of her notes are four pages long, and all of them are different from one other. For those of you who aren’t math buffs, that’s about 28,000 pages of thoughtful, individualized writing.
Though her hand must cramp up from time to time, Aileen has made it abundantly clear that she is going to keep writing for as long as she possibly can.
Renewable energy isn’t just good for the environment – it’s good for the worldwide workforce, too.
A new report published earlier this week by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says that the renewable energy sector now employs 9.8 million people worldwide. That figure is expected to reach 24 million by 2030.
“Falling costs and enabling policies have steadily driven up investment and employment in renewable energy worldwide since IRENA’s first annual assessment in 2012, when just over seven million people were working in the sector,” said IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin. “In the last four years, for instance, the number of jobs in the solar and wind sectors combined has more than doubled.
According to the report, Asia accounts for 62% of the jobs, as China, Brazil, the United States, India, Japan, and Germany are the leading nations in renewable energy employment. Most of the installation and manufacturing jobs for solar photovoltaic products are centered in Thailand and Malaysia.
Solar power is shown to be the most lucrative sector, accounting for 3.1 million jobs, which is 12% more than 2015. In the United States alone, the solar market has increased 17 times faster than the overall economy.
“Renewables are directly supporting broader socio-economic objectives, with employment creation increasingly recognized as a central component of the global energy transition. As the scales continue to tip in favor of renewables, we expect that the number of people working in the renewables sector could reach 24 million by 2030, more than offsetting fossil-fuel job losses and becoming a major economic driver around the world,” said Mr. Amin.
Click To Share The News With Your Friends(Photo by Green Energy Futures, CC)
The 31st annual Italian Street Painting Festival was held this weekend at the grounds of the historic Mission in Santa Barbara, California—and these gorgeous creations may inspire you to go chalk your own sidewalk.
Inspired by its sister festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy, the Santa Barbara event known as ‘I Madonnari’ was the first festival of its kind in North America. Using colorful pastels on pavement, artists and young people create 150 large-scale street paintings—and all proceeds from the event benefit arts education, workshops, and performances in the local public schools.
25,000 spectators over the Memorial Day holiday weekend will visit, marvel at the paintings, stroll the Italian Market with its array of Italian cuisine, buy souvenirs of the event, and enjoy live music.
The festival benefits the Children’s Creative Project, a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara County Education Office. The Project serves 50,000 children in more than 100 schools with visual and performing arts workshops and performances throughout the region.
Businesses and citizens sponsor the squares of pavement, as large as 12-by-12 feet, to advertise their business or celebrate a friend or family member, or nonprofit you support.
The festival will even provide an artist to anyone sponsoring a square, and provides all painters with an endless supply of pastels for their work over the three days.
Street painters are called ‘I Madonnari’ in Italy because they historically recreated images of the Madonna. The Italian Madonnari have been traced to the sixteenth century, when itinerant artists were brought into the cities to work on the huge cathedrals.
When the work was completed, they needed to find another way to make a living, and thus often would recreate the paintings from the church onto the pavement.
They traveled to join festivals in towns across the country to make a living from observers who would throw coins if they approved of the artist’s work.
For centuries, many Madonnari were folk artists, reproducing simple images with crude materials such as tiles, coal, and chalk. Others, such as El Greco, would go on to become household names.
The origins of modern street painting can be traced to Britain. Pavement artists were found all over the United Kingdom and by 1890 it was estimated that more than 500 artists were making a full-time living from pavement art in London alone.
There is one day left in the Santa Barbara festival (with hours from 10-6, ending May 29). Some artists are using the last day to put the finishing touches on their masterpieces.
Learn more at www.imadonnarifestival.com (All photos by Geri Weis-Corbley except Aerial photo, courtesy of festival website)
CLICK to Share the Inspiration – and start one of these in your own town!
This woman isn’t waiting for someone else to address her city’s homelessness problem.
Instead of investing in a second house for her and her family, Jessica Pearce of Melbourne, Victoria recently bought four houses for the homeless.
The houses, which she says she only bought a few days apart from each other, are apparently an easy bargain since they’re located in the cheaper areas of the city, rather than the expensive, according to ABC Radio Melbourne.
Pearce is currently in discussion over the legal management of the buildings, which will be located in Moe, Lara, Morwell, and Coria. All four will provide either shorter-term transitional housing, or more long-term accommodation for families seeking permanent homes.
The businesswoman reportedly first became inspired to help people living in poverty when she and her romantic partner accidentally stumbled upon a Melbourne street that was flooded with sleeping bags and mattresses of homeless people. The couple attempted to satiate their philanthropic inclinations by handing out $20 and $50 bills, but it still wasn’t enough.
They then took in a down-on-his-luck homeless father who couldn’t afford housing back to a hotel that they were staying at until they were able to buy him one month of motel accommodation.
Finally, they decided to give back in the biggest way that they could: buying the four properties.
And Pearce says it is all because of that street in Melbourne.
“I guess we felt shocked and I suppose a bit guilty — we didn’t realize how bad the housing situation in Melbourne was,” Pearce told ABC Radio Melbourne. “I guess it just touched me and I thought that maybe there was something that we could do.”
Click To Share This Inspiring Story With Your Friends (Photo by Jessica Pearce)
Memorial Day weekend isn’t all just about barbecues and beach parties – it’s also about honoring service members who have fought for the values of our country.
That’s why Josh Rainey didn’t mind spending a couple hundred bucks on a young service member trying to get home to see his family.
Keaton Tilson, after being stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, was given permission at the very last minute to fly home to Granite City, Illinois and see his family for Memorial Day weekend. But after spending two days at the airport attempting to wait for a seat on standby, the Army mechanic was starting to lose hope.
When Josh overheard his story at the airport, however, he offered to give his ticket to Keaton. The airport staff explained that their policy prevented people from exchanging tickets, but Josh didn’t give up. He then called his wife, who agreed that they should buy a ticket for the young man themselves.
The ticket, which cost $341, was a small price to pay for the heartfelt hug, the memory of which will last Josh a lifetime.
“He walked away and came back and asked if he could hug me, and I think we both had to fight back the tears after that,” Rainey told KTVI. “It was pennies, pennies on the dollar compared to what I got back from that hug.”
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share This Inspiring News With Your Friends –Photo by KTVI
