This Detroit gang doesn‘t ride motorcycles—they get out their lawn tractors to volunteer their time to clean up the city’s park and schools so kids have a safe place to play.
In 2010, Tom Nardone founded the Detroit Mower Gang in response to overgrown city parks and playgrounds caused by Motown’s financial problems. Open to everyone—and growing in numbers—the mowing gang meets every other Wednesday evening in the spring, summer and fall to manicure more than 40 parks and playgrounds.
To fertilize the altruistic efforts of these renegade landscapers, the Craftsman tool brand this year donated $18K worth of lawn and garden equipment, including five riding mowers, trimmers, hedgers, gear.
The company was so inspired by the Nardone‘s group, it’s now calling for submissions for other like-minded organizations to which they can donate products.
When a New Jersey police officer arrived on the scene of a car accident, he found a South Carolina man traveling with his beloved basset hound, Bella.
The man was in need of medical attention so Bella was taken to the local Humane Society. The organization said they could only keep the dog for a week.
But the victim was unable to retrieve his dog, and Bella’s co-owner was unable to get up to New Jersey from Myrtle Beach to take her home.
“It pulled on my heartstrings a little bit,” officer Frank Kuhl told CBSNewYork.com. “I have two dogs at home, and I got a vibe that this guy feels the same way about dogs that I do.”
He and his squad mate Michael Tancredi made the nearly 650-mile drive down the Eastern seaboard, finally getting Bella back home.SHARE the Kindness—Spread the Love…
Before we began cheering on our national teams, President Obama and the First Lady teamed up to share their favorite Olympic memories.
The Summer games in Rio de Janeiro are now in full-swing, but as Team USA prepared to bring home the gold in swimming, gymnastics, and more, Barack and Michelle Obama looked back at a few of their favorite golden moments from Olympics past.
Oprah surprised a Washington, DC charity with a huge announcement and a donation that would make Tom Cruise jump on her couch again.
The philanthropist who has given millions to help girls in Africa opened her checkbook in June and gave one million dollars to N Street Village, an organization that helps homeless and low-income women with housing, employment, and health services in the nation’s capital.
The group was already thrilled to have Oprah Winfrey’s attendance at a luncheon there, and were eager to be inspired by her words, but ended up in tears, inspired by her stunning generosity.
No matter how young you are, you can still make eggsellent achievements like 14-year-old Lucy Gavaghan.
Since the young teen took to Change with a petition demanding major UK supermarket chain Tesco to stop selling eggs from caged hens, 280,238 people signed in agreement.
Tesco, one of the only major grocery stores remaining that hasn’t switched to free range chickens, recently announced a plan following the petition to transition to 100% cage-free eggs, moving to alternative sourcing methods, such as barns, free range, and organic.
At present, some 43% of the 1.4 billion eggs sold by Tesco each year come from caged eggs, also known as enriched colonies. Some 57% of eggs sold by Tesco in the UK come from free Range or organic methods.
“Our decision on caged hens is one of a number of Tesco initiatives designed to ensure sustainable sourcing, and improve animal welfare.” said Matt Simister, Tesco’s Commercial Director for Fresh Food. “We carried out an extensive and collaborative review with our suppliers and key industry experts to help us work through how best we can move to 100% cage-free eggs. This will ensure we give our supplier partners the certainty they require, to make the significant and necessary investments needed for the new farming systems.”
Click To Share The Good News With Your Friends – Photo by Lucy Gavaghan
Sometimes the smallest act of kindness can make a huge difference. That was the case at a rental car agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month.
After a hit-and-run accident left Coty Vincent in need of a rental car, she was forced to bring her two twin babies along with her to fill out the paperwork.
Without a double stroller for her twin boys, she fully expected to spend an exhausting morning holding and entertaining both 11-month-old boys while attempting to rent a car.
That’s when John Goodlet, an Enterprise Rent-A-Car employee who had just started working at the new job, stepped in to help. He went above and beyond what was expected, scooping up one of her twins into his arms before starting to process Coty’s rental request.
That small act of kindness prompted Coty to snap a photo to share with the world.
Her original caption on Facebook read, “One of the most compassionate and caring people I’ve ever met. We need more people like John who go that extra step. Be a John. #BeAJohn”
After she posted the photo, the story earned 250,000 likes, and moved people to share it more than 30,000 times.
“As a mom of twins, simple gestures go a long way, so it was a great feeling that John recognized I needed help,” Coty says. “Without a blink of an eye, he just jumped in and said he could help hold one of the twins. The world needs more people like John.”
When asked why he took it upon himself to help Coty, John explained, “I’m a twin myself and it was instinctual. I understood she just needed somebody to help her out. I try to be a positive influence in the lives of anyone I meet, and I wanted her to have to do less work.”
The former Oklahoma State University football player was amazed by the reaction. “I’ve never had this much attention, especially for just doing my job. I was a college athlete so I try to take the hard work it took on the football field and apply it in the branch. It’s really motivating to see people like who I am and what I do.”
Once Enterprise saw the post, their corporate team wanted to help, too. They gave Coty a much- needed double stroller as a thanks for sharing her experience and also gave John a gift card and a large donation to his favorite charity, The Boys and Girls Club.
We can all hope that someday when we are struggling, someone will #BeAJohn for us and go that extra mile.
Even though Brenda Jones had been on the organ donor wait list for over a year, she didn’t mind waiting a little longer if it meant keeping a young woman from dying.
Doctors at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, Texas received a liver donation while Brenda and 23-year-old Abigail Flores were both waiting for a transplant – however Abigail wouldn’t last more than a few days if she didn’t get a replacement organ fast.
So they asked the 69-year-old if she was willing to give up the transplant so Abigail could live, to which Brenda didn’t hesitate to say yes.
“In my heart, I wouldn’t have been able to live with the liver if I had let this little girl die,” Jones told WFAA. “And I still had more time … I would have been a very selfish person.”
A couple of New Zealand’s businessmen are making a big splash in the country’s rising homelessness population.
Homelessness is a huge problem in Auckland, New Zealand: property prices have increased almost 80% over the past five years, making the city’s housing market one of the most expensive in the world.
That’s why Gary House and his colleagues are considering purchasing a 400-bed cruise liner to dock in Auckland.
“Living on a cruise ship is not a long-term solution,” House told The Guardian, “but things are so bad for so many families now, it could help ease the pressure for two or three years while longer-term strategies are put into place.’
The philanthropists have received some negative responses about the quality of life in the cruise ship, but House’s enthusiasm is unmoving.
“People would not be on the ship 24/7. They’d be getting off, going to work, living normal lives. But at least, at night they could return to a bed and not a park in the middle of winter.”
Currently, dozens of families are sleeping incars, garages, and parks due to homelessness. Houseestimates he could have the cruise liner ready in a month.
Huriomoan Dennis, the chairman of Te Puea Marae – an area providing shelter to homeless families in Auckland – supports House’s plan.
“It is obviously a short-term solution but I support any proposal that will get people out of cars and into something warmer and bigger,” said Huriomoan. “At the moment there is nowhere short term for people in desperate housing situations to go, and a cruise ship would allow the social agencies to catch up with families and help them while they have a roof over their head.”
Cruise ship or not, the huge waves House and his colleagues have made towards the awareness of homelessness in Auckland can only bring support and more ideas for solutions.
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Two teenage Brazilian students, 15 and 18 years old, won the Latin America Google Science fair that awards young scientists for innovative projects in science and technology with a magic seed that cleans polluted water.
João Gabriel and Letícia Pereira’s project on supplying clean water for regions in need proved that seeds of moringa oleífera can be used to filter contaminated water, remove impurities, and make water drinkable again. The idea is to use the plant as an easy access alternative to remove pollution instead of using chemicals.
According to the students, the idea came to them after an incident left a nearby city without clean water.
“We wanted to do something to help the ones in need after the disaster in Mariana, where a broken dam sent tons of mining residues to the rivers, and help them to filter [the] water” says Leticia, a recent high school grad from Fortaleza, Ceará in northeastern Brazil.
The project, Magic Seed: Transforming Polluted Water Into Drinkable Water, has been developing since the beginning of the year and only just finished before the competition deadline.
With the award, Joao and Leticia are searching for sponsors in order to compete in the finals of the international competition taking place in California come September.
Filter Out Negativity, Click To Share With Your Friends –Photo by Olhar Digital
Alex Rios knows the value of loyalty and hard work—and doesn’t hesitate to reward it.
As the owner of a daycare center in Edinburg, Texas, he cherishes not only the children he teaches but also his workers. His employees at Kids’ Kollege Learning Center make it the best it can be—and earned him the city’s Business of the Month award in June 2016.
One employee had been with the company almost from the beginning. Veronica Solis cooked homemade meals for the kids every day. Despite being treated for cancer, she remained a stellar employee, never missing a day—until Rios noticed she was suddenly always late.
After he learned about her transportation problems, he decided to buy her a new car. He videotaped the surprise, saying on YouTube, “Maybe someone out there will be touched and also continue this chain of paying it forward.”
“It is not every day that we can do something like this for other people, but right now that I am able to, why not do it for someone that cares for you and takes good care of your business?” he added. “It‘s because we love her, and she has inspired my life to never give up and always work hard.”
(WATCH her being surprised on YouTube)
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Prisoners in the regional penitentiary of Pelotas, a country side city in the south of Brazil, are building houses for dogs and – since the project started roughly three months ago – over 50 houses have been already been built.
Every three days of work reduces one day of jail time. When the wood and shingle houses are ready, they are placed around the city and dogs can come and go as they please.
“I [leave] a blanket and a few sheets of newspaper and they love to stay inside” Says the local resident Maria Queiroga.
Some citizens have enjoyed the projects contributions so much that they have donated materials to the prison and requested shelters for their own yards.
“Most of the residents who request these animal houses for their backyards are people that have street dogs around their houses and decide to keep them”, says Fluvio Bubolz, the director of the facility.
The project also helps to resocialize the criminals.
“It’s good for nothing to just lock the person in a cell. So we try to give them something they can do, give some meaning in life.”
The prisoners like the idea. “I would work all day and all night if I could because winter here is very cold. [It is hard] for people, so is for an animal”, says a prisoner.
“This really helps to make time goes by faster and keep our ideas out of crime. Besides, one of the residents that asked for the shelter visited us and told me about Jesus. That changed my life, this is the best place of this jail”, says another prisoner. For privacy purposes, we didn’t disclose prisoner’s names.
These abandoned pups were taken out for the time of their lives thanks to a nearby high school cross country team.
Coach Luis Escobar of the St. Joseph High School Cross Country Team in Santa Maria, California had been trying to figure out how his students could have fun while logging their necessary volunteer hours that their curriculums require.
Then he thought of the pups cooped up at the Santa Barbara County Animal Services and got an idea: his runners could do their daily jog while tracking volunteer hours and giving the shelter dogs some exercise.
The teens were paired with twelve dogs for a few miles of romping and – judging by the adorable video below – it was a great success.
“I am not sure who was more excited and having the most fun…the dogs or the kids,” he wrote in his Facebook post. “Either way, it was a great time and I am sure we will do it again sometime soon.”
The same group of 1,000 musicians that demanded a Foo Fighters concert in their town by simultaneously playing “Learn To Fly” is back to pay homage to the late and great rock visionary David Bowie.
After the Rockin’ 1,000 in Cesena, Italy – also known as the biggest rock and roll group in the world – performed their plea in 2015, the Foos actually ended up visiting their town to play a show.
This week, they organized the “That’s Live” concert with a performance of Ziggy Stardust’s “Rebel Rebel”.
(WATCH the rock and roll video above)
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When Olivia Sievers paid attention to this poor homeless pooch outside her hotel, it was love at first sight—afterwards, he only had puppy eyes for her.
In February 2016, the German flight attendant flew to Argentina for business. On her way to the Hilton in Buenos Aires, she met the amiable stray for the first time and offered him some love and attention. The dog refused to leave her side and followed her all the way to the hotel, hanging out with her for two days whenever she left the building.
When it was time for Olivia to fly back to Germany, she sadly bid a fond farewell to her new friend expecting to never see him again.
But in April she returned and they reunited for two more days. They spent many hours walking many miles together—and he always followed her back to the hotel.
Afterward, she didn’t fly to Buenos Aires for three months. When she returned in July, she wanted to sleep for a few hours and planned to search for the dog and continue trying to find him a home.
When she came down to the lobby, he was already sitting in front of the Hilton’s glass doors.
‘How did he know I was back,’ she wondered.
“The Hotel staff told me later that day, that he was sitting in front of the hotel for three months—sometimes returning a few times a day—looking for me.”
This time, she tried to arrange an adoption with a manager in a nearby hotel in San Telmo. She delivered the dog, whom he named Rubio, but after one week he escaped, faithfully backtracking the 1.7 kilometers to join the flight attendant once more at the hotel in Puerto Madero.
Olivia realized their long-distance relationship had to end.
To save Rubio from his dangerous life as a street dog, she decided to adopt the hound herself, bringing him all the way home to Germany. He has settled in happily with her other pooches and now spends long afternoons romping in the back yard never having a care in the world about where in the world Olivia might be.
A famed US swimmer won back the gold medal that is closest to his heart on a day of pure dominance for the most medaled Olympic athlete of all time.
By his own admission, Michael Phelps “couldn’t have scripted it any better,” but Tuesday would also be the toughest day of his career.
The 200m butterfly was the event in the last Olympics, in London in 2012, where he was beaten by a fingertip by South African Chad Le Clos. But yesterday the 31-year-old exacted revenge in Rio and won it one last time.
“Mission accomplished,” he said on Tuesday after claiming the 20th Olympic gold of his career. “That was the last time I’ll ever swim it and I didn’t say anything to anyone else, but there wasn’t a shot in hell I was losing it.”
Remarkably, his historic tally of gold medals rose to 21 after he helped Team USA win the 4x200m freestyle relay, just 70 minutes later.
Phelps said he had been prepared to leave “every ounce” in the pool, and it paid off when he won by just 0.04 seconds. “Just being able to see the number one next to my name again, one more time in the 200 fly, I couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
The London 2012 gold medallist swimmer Le Clos just missed out on the bronze, which was won by Tamas Kenderesi of Hungary, and the silver went to Japan’s Masato Sakai.
Toni Powell’s delightful and funny ‘once upon a time’ time style tale ‘How A Yellow Car Saved Me’ tells the story of how one little car changed her life. Just a few moments of epiphany, in a quiet suburban street, gave her the simplest of tools to reduce her anxiety, stress and whining.
If you’d like to be happier, smile more, and stress less – watch this video. To find out more and get the book ‘The Yellow Car – How I Stopped Driving Myself Crazy’ (which tells the rest of the story and includes a second epiphany) visit Toni Powell’s website.
The fire department didn’t even have time to arrive before Jesse Gavic had extinguished the blaze ravaging a pontoon boat on Saturday.
When Jesse and his brother Caleb saw the smoke climbing over the Minnesota lake, they got their flyboard ready and took to the skies over the boat.
After politely seeking permission to put out the fire from the sailors who had jumped overboard, Jesse used the flyboard’s water to spray the boat until it stopped smoking two minutes later.
“It’s different than anything anyone has probably ever tried,” Jesse Gavic told WCCO. “You really do feel like Iron Man.”
A flyboard is a jet-propelled pair of boots that is connected by hose to a jet ski or watercraft. The water shooting out of the boots is enough to carry someone up to 50 feet into the air.
The brothers are international flyboarding competitors and help run the Sky High Flyboards company in Minneapolis.
A ball girl at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California prevented certain disaster when she caught a 103 mile per hour fly baseball that was headed straight towards a fan who was not paying attention.
