This military mom had a lot on her plate, so a positive pranksters TV show decided to take away some of the burden.
Janis Miller works a full time job while taking care of her new-born baby and donating any free time to assisting other military families. Because her husband Nate is serving overseas in Afghanistan, the overwhelmed 40-year-old has found it difficult to find time to move all their possessions into their newly-purchased dream home.
That’s when the kindness-based Random Acts television show produced by Brigham Young University stepped in.
While Janis was at work, a BYU-TV crew and a team of volunteers –co-workers of hers from the National Abilities Center and friends of her husband– moved everything the couple owned from the old house to the new one. The ordeal took about 6 hours of hard work, but when Janis returned from work, she was shocked to walk into a completely empty home.
In the center of the living room was a table carrying a laptop and webcam featuring her husband Nate explaining what happened.
“My first thought: shock and bewildered,” Janis told Good News Network. “Second thought – there’s noooo way my mom could’ve done all that packing while I was at work. Where’s the furniture? And wait! Why is Nate’s face on a laptop?”
With tears of happiness in her eyes, she was ushered by the host of Random Acts to her newly furnished home.
“I was overwhelmed with relief. I had this undercurrent of stress of whether or not I was actually going to be able to do it all—the working full time, fixing up the new house, moving out of the old house, cleaning it, cleaning the new house, moving in and setting it all up,” she recalled. “I kept telling myself there are so many other spouses with so much more on their plates and they do it–I can do this too! But I truly didn’t realize how stressed out I was about getting it all done until I walked thru that door and saw it all done.”
(WATCH the reveal from the Random Acts episode above)SHARE the Random Acts TV SHow…
This eight-year-old boy with autism may be the next Mozart in training.
Jacob Velazquez has been playing piano for the last four years and has already started playing concerts.
“Shortly after his fourth birthday I heard the song playing from our family piano that my husband was playing the night before…but my husband was at work. I went to look to see who it was and to my surprise it was Jacob–I couldn’t believe my eyes! ” wrote Jacob’s mother, Tina, on the Autism Speaks website.
“It took us a while but we finally found a piano teacher that would take a 4-year-old. His teacher soon became aware of his gift as he was flying through books learning 2-3 songs per week,” she added.
The young musician has already released an album and become a member of the the National Musician’s Guild.
“My son who could never sit still could focus so intently on learning his songs on the piano,” says Tina. “It seemed to be an outlet for him, helping him to express his feelings and emotions.”
(WATCH the video below and Click To Share) –Photo: Jacob Velazquez on Youtube
Eight months after their journey began, 33 lions have arrived at their new home in Africa in the largest airlift of big cats ever.
Animal Defenders International (ADI) freed the big cats from circuses in Columbia and Peru – last year with the help of those countries’ governments. Many needed medical and dental attention for missing claws and broken teeth.
“The lions are returning to where they belong,” the sanctuary’s founder, Savannah Heuser said in a statement. “This is their birthright. African sun, African night skies, African bush and sounds, clouds, summer thunderstorms, large enclosures in a natural setting where they can remember who they are.”
(WATCH the video below from Animal Defenders International and READ more at TODAY) — Photos: ADI
A ragtag team of football players that have tugged on the heartstrings of a city in the East Midlands for 132 years have just been crowned champions of England.
The Leicester City Football Club (pronounced Lester) has completed what many people believe to be, certainly the greatest story in English football, but perhaps the greatest story in the history of the game. In a season where huge cash transactions made the nation’s favorite sport seem more like a cold and gluttonous game run by billionaires, the scrappy roster of Leicester City has proven that a love of the game, old fashioned grit, and an indomitable togetherness, are worth more than gold. So, how did they pull it off–winning the ultimate prize as 2015/2016 Barclay’s Premier League Champions?
They climbed up, only last season, from the second level of English Football –the equivalent of AAA baseball in America– where they had played for the majority of their 132 year history. But it all began to change in 2011, after a fairly disastrous season that pushed them to the third division. They appointed a new manager, Nigel Pearson, who in four years with the club, lifted them all the way to the big show.
Once they did reach England’s Premier division in 2014, Leicester City had a torrid time and found themselves spending Christmas day in last place. For all their hard work, it looked as if they would be sent back down to triple A status at the end of the season–a harsh reality of Soccer in Europe.
But a remarkable and record breaking “Great Escape” at the end of the season saw Leicester clinch seven wins from their last nine matches and secured their spot in the Premier League for their historic run.
The final piece in this Cinderella comeback story arrived when the club sacked their coach and hired the kind, lovable Italian manager, Claudio Ranieri, who had led some of the best teams in the world to second place, but had been fired for failing to reach the top in the various leagues. If he couldn’t lead those multi-million dollar rosters to victory, it seemed unlikely that Ranieri would be able to accomplish anything with The Foxes, whose odds of winning the title were a staggering 5000-1 at the start of the season.
The team was–like their manager–a collection of “Almost” stories. Many of the players had at one time or another in their careers, been brought to a big club as an exciting prospect. This was a squad of players who had seen the harsher side of professional sports. Many of them, such as Robert Huth, the 32 year-old German center back, or Danny Drinkwater, the 26 year-old English midfielder, had been sold from one club to another on a trail of unfulfilled potential before finally ending up with Leicester in the second division.
Now the starting eleven of The Foxes is exploding with potential, a mix of young starlets, experienced veterans, and hungry castaways. Players, like the one just named PFA Player of the Year, Riyad Mahrez, an Algerian international found playing in the third tier of French football, signed for a fee of 500,000 pounds, a truly poultry sum by the standards of the times. The right-winger this season has contributed 17 goals and 11 assists at the time of writing, and at 25 years of age is looking like one of the best in his position in world football.
Another new star is Jamie Vardy, a 29 year old English striker who, until he began banging them in for The Foxes, was playing with tiny teams such as Halifax Town, and Stockbridge Park Steels, deep in the bowels of the English Football System. He’s bagged 22 goals in 36 games with his stunning speed and savagery, and scored in a record eleven consecutive Premier League matches.
With exquisite counter-attacking football Ranieri has engineered one of the great classic underdog stories in the history of sports. The charismatic coach has fostered a wonderful relationship with his players, letting them relax during the week–with two days off instead of one–and even drink before games. He insists that playing must be fun, rather than a job.
He has been a darling in the papers since day one. He’s done it with charm, saying things like “Why can’t we continue to run, run, run? We are like Forrest Gump; Leicester is Forrest Gump”. He’s done it with passion, inspiring lesser teams around him with quotes like “I told my players: It’s this year or never. In an era when money counts for everything, we give hope to everybody”. And finally, he’s done it with humor, like this gem, responding to a reporter who asked which actor he would like to portray him in a movie: “Robert De Niro would be good. I’ve heard that’s who they want to play me”.
The Foxes have become just the sixth team to win the Premier League since its inception in 1992, and the commanding 38 game performance has become an example to small town football clubs the world over, that maybe, just maybe, they can be like Leicester.
Just because you’re an Ivy League professor with a PhD from Harvard doesn’t mean you haven’t seen your share of failures. That’s why this academic success decided to list all the times he came up short, just to show people that no matter how smart you are, you don’t always get everything you want.
Princeton’s Johannes Haushofer points out that failure is often invisible and people only notice the successes in a person’s career. His Curriculum Vitae — or resume — of Failures is an impressive list of his deficiencies.
He figures if people only look at others’ successes, they may take their own failures too hard.
“As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves,” he wrote in his CV of Failures, “rather than the fact that the world is [randomly determined], applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days.”
He lists six degree programs he didn’t get into, three academic posts for which he was interviewed but not hired, and nine scholarships, eight grant applications, and five academic papers for which he was rejected.
Haushofer caps it all off with his “Meta-Failures” which he sums up as: “This darn CV of Failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work.”
Posting it to Twitter set of a chain reaction of other successful people talking about their shortcomings — and the lessons they learned.
One tweet even claimed credit for creating the hashtag #CurriculumMortae — substituting the Latin word for “death” in the place of the usual “vitae,” meaning “life.”
Haushofer points out that most of what he tries, fails, and that his “CV of Failure” is a work in progress. He plans to keep adding to it and reminding people failure is all a part of eventual success.
The hungry, homeless, and poor always have a hot meal waiting for them at this Indian restaurant.
Parkash Chhibber, owner of Indian Fusion in Edmonton, Canada, has posted a sign on the establishment’s back door promising free meals for anyone who needs one. The sign reads:
“Dear Friends, If you are hungry and have no money to pay, just ring the bell below or come in for a free meal box/coffee any time.”
Immediately after paying off his business loan two years ago, Chhibber began helping others. He started offering the free meals in October, 2015, and says he next plans to create an additional seating area if those coming for free meals want to stay.
(READ more at CBC News) — Photo: Indian Fusion, Facebook
Two University of Washington undergraduates have won a $10,000 prize for their invention of gloves that translate sign language into audible speech, on the spot.
SignAloud wearable technology can recognize hand gestures that correspond to words and phrases in American Sign Language (ASL). Each glove contains sensors that record hand position and movement and send data wirelessly via Bluetooth to a central computer. The computer looks at the gesture data, and then the associated word or phrase is spoken through a speaker.
The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize is a nationwide search for the most inventive students. The team of UW sophomores, one majoring in science and the other in business, won the undergraduate category that recognizes technology-based inventions to improve consumer devices.
Navid Azodi and Thomas Pryor, who is studying aeronautics and astronautics engineering, honed their prototype until it could translate ASL into a verbal form instantaneously and in an ergonomic fashion.
“Many of the sign language translation devices already out there are not practical for everyday use. Some use video input, while others have sensors that cover the user’s entire arm or body,” said Pryor, a researcher in the school’s Composite Structures Laboratory and the software lead for the Husky Robotics Team.
“Our gloves are lightweight, compact and worn on the hands, but ergonomic enough to use as an everyday accessory, similar to hearing aids or contact lenses,” said Pryor.
The duo met in the dorms during their freshman year and discovered they both had a passion for invention and problem solving. Azodi has technical experience as a systems intern at NASA. His long history of diverse volunteer work — which includes organizing dozens of blood drives — provided motivation to build a device that would have real-world impact.
The MIT prize money will help Pryor and Azodi reach their first target audience– the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and those interested in learning and working with American Sign Language. But the gloves could also be commercialized for use in other fields, including medical technology to monitor stroke patients during rehabilitation, gesture control and enhanced dexterity in virtual reality.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s has featured circus elephants in their show for the last time, officially retiring the animals last night and ending the policy of using performing elephants two years earlier than previously planned.
In March of last year, Feld Entertainment announced all of touring elephants would move to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation by 2018.
With the final show Sunday night in Providence, Rhode Island, all 11 of the Asian elephants from the traveling circus units are being moved to their permanent new home in Florida. There they will join the rest of the Ringling Bros. herd of Asian elephants, for a total of 42 at the 200-acre Conservation Center.
Similarly, SeaWorld announced a plan in March to phase out their performance shows featuring orcas, and in a partnership with the Humane Society, to end captive breeding of the whales. The move effectively sun-sets there use, because SeaWorld ended their wild capture program years ago.
When a Miami judge recognized a defendant in her courtroom as a childhood friend, the burglary suspect broke down sobbing.
Courtroom cameras revealed the moment when Judge Mindy Glazer announced that Arthur Booth had been “the nicest kid in middle school” and they used to play football together. Through his sobs, Booth could not have heard his old friend wonder aloud how things could have gone so wrong.
But this pitiful scene was the catalyst for Booth to regain his pride and launch a happy new beginning.
Ten months later, when he finished his sentence and left jail, Glazer was waiting for him alongside his family with a welcome hug and a promise that she would help him get his life back on track.
“You’re going to do something good for somebody else,” Judge Glazer told him Booth as he was released. “This is a group effort to see you succeed. Don’t let us down.”
An Alabama college student has been cutting grass for free to help single moms, the elderly, and disabled, while teaching local youth the values that can turn boys into men.
Rodney Smith, Jr. (pictured, right) started mowing the lawns in Huntsville, Alabama last fall, using his time between classes at Alabama A&M to reach a goal of mowing 100 yards before winter.
Rodney is from Bermuda, where he says people help each other and are always friendly. “That’s what drives me to help people.”
Last month he was getting ready to launch his mowing service for the summer, when he heard about this 93-year-old woman in the photo trying to cut grass by herself. Smith and a friend showed up to do the job for her.
“Have no fear, Raising Men Lawn Care is going to make sure her lawn is done every two weeks!” he wrote on Facebook.
In November, when a local TV station gave him $300, calling it a “pay it forward” gift for his good work, he used it to create the non-profit service group, Raising Men Lawn Care Services. He also launched a crowdfunding page to buy lawn equipment and other supplies — including t-shirts emblazoned with a logo to promote unity and pride.
He thought it was quite impressive that the homeless woman never asked for money. It was the reason a Florida man decided to take the time to ask her about herself— and those answers changed both of their lives for the better.
Greg Smith is resigned toward the many homeless people asking him for money. He wears a suit and tie as he travels around downtown Orlando, Florida for his job, and looks like he has cash to spare.
But one homeless woman stood out. Amy Jo never asked for money, just wished him a good day as he hurried by. Smith decided to start buying her lunch once a week.
“For 30 minutes to an hour I get to hear how positive she is, even though she really has nothing,” Smith wrote on his Facebook page.
During one of those lunches, she “dropped a bomb” on Smith: the reason she remained homeless was because she couldn’t read. Any money given to her by strangers, she spends on reading lessons, hoping it will help her get a job.
“So now not only do Amy Joe and I sit and have lunch, I’m teaching her to read,” Smith wrote. “I rent one library book a week and we read it together Tuesday and she practices on her own throughout the rest of the week.”
He’s even created a GoFundMe campaign that’s raised more than $2,000 to help Amy Joe learn to read and get back on her feet.
Smith encourages others to seek out “their Amy Joe,” and thinks that such helpfulness for someone in need could begin by simply smiling and saying hello.
(WATCH the video below from Greg Smith) — Photo: Greg Smith, Facebook
For their wily method of catching crooks, this group of kids is being honored for exceptional creativity in the service of police.
The children from Red Hill, Surrey formed a human arrow, by arranging themselves on the ground, to point to two escaping burglars and convey their whereabouts to the pursuing police helicopter.
Former Daily Show comedian, Larry Wilmore was the featured funny man, but President Obama delivered the most anticipated speech of the night– his eighth and final standup routine for the annual gala in D.C.
During his remarks, the president poked fun at himself and others–including all the presidential candidates– and got huge laughs.
It’s a miracle this 2-year-old beagle is still alive.
Found in a shelter in Whitesville, North Carolina, Boscoe had heartworms so bad they weren’t sure he would survive the treatment.
It’s not clear how the 30 lb. dog got there, but Boscoe’s foster parents, Amber and Cory, fought hard for him and cared for him through rough medical treatments until it all ended in success. It took 6 months for the pooch to get healthy enough to finally travel to Pet Match for adoption.
That’s when Pam Knichel and Christine Farrell of Pet Match Rescue, outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, contacted the Pilot.dog Foundation about delivering Boscoe to them several states away. Steve Rhode, the pilot for the non-profit group, flew with his wife to pick up Boscoe in Lumberton, just two more of the many people who worked together to save the adorable dog.
“Corey brought him to us at the airport and you could tell it was really hard for him to give up Boscoe, he’s such a good dog, but they already had two other fosters and two dogs of their own. Corey gave the hound a big hug and a kiss and they said goodbye in a touching moment.”
After they were up in the air, Boscoe settled in to snuggle on the lap of Steve’s wife, Pam, who is the group’s logistical manager and dog handler.
“He liked being under the blanket and at times he’d put his head in Pam’s jacket so you couldn’t see him at all,” Steve told Good News Network. “He was such a sweet boy, despite his hard life.”
Landing in Pennsylvania the couple finally got to meet the Pet Match Rescue team in person.
“It’s so great to finally put a face to someone you’ve gotten to know but have never personally met.”
The Rhodes couple wished the pooch a wonderful and happy life and flew back to their home airport in Raleigh, North Carolina, knowing Boscoe was safe–and ready for adoption in Latrobe.
”It was a long day, but so happy we could be a part of taking this beagle to his last chance at a wonderful life.”
(CHECK OUT more airlift rescues at the Pilot.dog website)Share Boscoe’s Happy Travels With Your Friends
Every child would like to know what their mother looks like. For this boy, he’s been wondering for 12 years.
Christopher Ward Jr. has been considered legally blind his whole life–until he was invited to Washington D.C. from his home in Forest, Virginia and looked through a pair of electronic goggles.
eSight’s hands-free headset contains a small, high-speed camera that captures live video, which is sent to an LED screen in front of the user’s eyes, allowing them to see with “unprecedented visual clarity,” according to the company’s website.
“The very first thing he did was turn to me and say, ‘Oh, Mommy! There you are!” his mother Marquita Hackley, told ABC News. “And then to hear him say, ‘I saw my mom, and she was very pretty,’ was so heartwarming.”
“Aside from pretty, just the fact he could even see me meant the whole world to me.”
He already completes his school assignments with enthusiasm using a braille typewriter, and Marquita hopes the new technology will open more doors for the precocious pre-teen.
Today, Rosario’s life changes forever. Today, the mother of six becomes a homeowner. Tonight, she will not sleep on a dirt floor. Today means her family will soon be reunited.
On this cloudy day in April, International Relief Teams and Project Mercy, a local nonprofit dedicated to improving the living standards of families in the shantytowns of Tijuana, are partnering to build the Lopez/Campos family of Tijuana, Mexico a home.
WATCH: Virginia Jeep Club Shuttles 150 Nurses to Hospital During BlizzardFor the past year, Rosario and her husband Gerardo have been cramped in a makeshift shack, comprised of scrap materials and tarps, with their three boys in the desolate squatter’s community of Fuentes Del Valle, located just 15 miles south of the US border. Their tiny structure that is divided into two rooms: a bedroom with a bunkbed and a dresser, and a kitchen with a stove connected to a gas tank, a basin, a countertop, and a broken table propped up by a chair.
Fuentes Del Valle is made up of a network of rocky, dirt roads and makeshift dwellings, housing about 150 families, migrants from central Mexico who have come in search of a better life and opportunity. There is no running water; water is trucked in every day, for a fee. Life is very challenging for these very poor families, but they are most likely better off than where they came from.
Rosario is from Sinaloa, Mexico and could barely make a living working in the fields to support her family. She and Gerardo, made the difficult decision to move with her three oldest kids with the hope of finding more steady work near the border. Rosario questions her decision every day to leave her three youngest kids with her mother in Sinaloa, including 16-month-old Mateo who is asthmatic and needs frequent nebulizer treatments.
On a typical day, after Rosario cooks breakfast for the family, Gerardo walks to his job at a hardware store nearby where he works seven days a week. Fifteen-year-old Ivan works with his father most days to help support the family. Rosario takes seven-year-old Emmanuel to and from school every day and 14-year-old Juan Carlos walks both ways to his school. Rosario grocery shops nearly every day because she doesn’t have refrigeration to help preserve food and then returns home to wash clothes and cook. When Gerardo comes home, he brings a new gas tank for the stove. After the family eats dinner, they go to bed early because they lack electricity. They wake up to start the routine over the next day.
However, today is not a routine day for Rosario. Today, a group of 50 IRT volunteers have arrived to build her a house.
“I never imagined I would ever own a home,” said Rosario. “I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so excited.”
She believes this house is her chance to reunite her family. Since they have been separated, she has ached to bring all of her children together again. Ivan, who just had his tenth birthday, told his mother living together under one roof is the best birthday present he could ask for.
Since June 2015, International Relief Teams has been working in Tijuana communities building homes for needy families. In collaboration with partner organizations Corazon and Project Mercy, IRT volunteers are helping to change the lives of families by building homes, bringing stability, and hope.
Over 600 people in this tiny corner of Guatemala have been given 720 pairs of reading and distance vision glasses, as well as 332 sets of sunglasses.
“We need a lot of help here,” says Hubert Ayala, a resident of San Agustin, a remote, colonial village in Central Guatemala. Located over 50 miles to the northeast of the capital city, the region has few resources, its residents live on less than two dollars a day, few have running water or electricity, and poor vision problems are widespread.
International Relief Teams (IRT), a San Diego-based nonprofit organization working to alleviate suffering from poverty and disasters around the world, is helping to abate this problem in this region of Guatemala and is changing lives in the process.
During the course of five days, IRT’s team of volunteers visited the town and screened its residents for correct vision prescriptions.
In this photo, a woman is amazed by how clearly she can see with a new pair of eyeglasses.
American dreamboat actor and star of Marvel comics latest film Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds just wrote the most heart-wrenching farewell to one of his biggest fans and bravest friends.
Colin McGrath has been called the biggest Deadpool fan in the world and thanks to the Make-A-Wish foundation, Reynolds traveled to Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital in Alberta to surprise the teen with the first ever showing of the comic book movie.
Even though the youth struggled with cancer, Reynolds described him as sharing his great wit and gumption with everyone around him.
The two only met in person twice, but stayed in contact through texting. Since Colin passed away earlier this week, the celebrity actor penned a beautiful tribute to his courageous friend.
(READ Ryan’s Facebook post below…)
Don’t Cry Alone… Click To Share This Beautiful Story With Your Friends
In a serenely beautiful series of interviews, photos, and clips, Sam has captured the essence of Alfred and Sylvia to serve as a reminder during memory loss, and to share as a lesson in love with the rest of the world.
(WATCH the video above, from Sam.Maller.com)Share This Inspiring Idea With Your Friends…
Students at TERRA Environmental Research Institute in Miami, Florida organized a prom for ‘senior’ residents of a nursing home.
They decorated the Palace Nursing and Rehab Center and supplied flowers, corsages, and tiaras. They even brought along their school’s mascot to urge residents to get on the dance floor.
There was a king and queen of the prom and the oldest resident, 101-year-old Eleanor Bessin, showed off the picture of the boy who took her to her first prom more than 80 years ago.
