The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Heaven-Sent Help to Pay Their Baby’s Bills

We couldn’t afford our newborn’s nursery bill...
by Grace Booth

How could my husband, Doug, be so calm? Sitting on the edge of my bed in the maternity ward, casually flipping through the newspaper like everything would be fine. Everything during my first pregnancy in 1967 had gone fine up to that point. Doug got me to the hospital in plenty of time; six hours later, baby Liz arrived, perfectly healthy, weighing in at exactly eight pounds. I couldn’t wait to be on our way and start our new life as a family of three. Then came the hitch.

“We just need to settle your bill before you can be discharged,” one of the nurses told us.

“The bill?” Doug and I shared a look. Hadn’t we already handled that? We had accounted for every cost—the hospital fee, the doctor’s delivery fee, and all the maternity fees. We’d budgeted down to our last dime.

“Yes, for use of the nursery. It comes to $50,” the nurse said. “Just head to the front desk and they’ll handle your paperwork.”

Fifty dollars! In the 1960s, that kind of money was hard to come by for us. It would be almost $400 today. “We’ll find a way,” Doug said. He turned back to his newspaper, seemingly unconcerned.

We prepared for this day for months, I thought, frustrated. Lord, don’t you want our family to have a good start?

“Grace, look at this!” Doug pointed out a want ad in the paper. I leaned over to read it. Lost: 1964 Cadillac, Louisiana license plate 835-N62.

“So?”

“I saw this car outside the hospital,” Doug said. “I remember it because it was parked oddly, and one of the tires was flat.”

I was sure he was mistaken. Why would the stolen car be here? But Doug wouldn’t be discouraged. “I’ll be right back,” he said. I wasn’t going anywhere.

Doug darted out to the parking lot and returned minutes later. The car was still there, he said—with the license plate 835-N62. Within the hour, the owners arrived and Doug went out to meet them. He came back smiling.

“The owner was so grateful, he gave me a reward,” Doug said, handing me a check.

A check for exactly fifty dollars.

[kuhio98]

Local (Orlando, Florida) girl runs lemonade stand to help baby get heart transplant
8-year-old raises money for baby's new heart

A local girl's lemonade stand may help a baby boy get a heart transplant.

Caitlyn Lezott, 8, decided to post on social media that she would be selling lemonade to help 3-month-old Beckett get a new heart after her mother told her Beckett's story.

"She read me the story about Baby Beckett and I said I wanted to help," Caitlyn said.

Beckett was born with a bad heart.

"So he's less than 3 months old and is on a donor list for a heart transplant," said Cynterra Lezott, Caitlyn's mother.

"I hope he gets out of surgery soon and has a happy life," said Caitlyn.

Beckett is in a hospital in Gainesville. His mother writes on her blog he is looking good after getting his mechanical heart while awaiting a permanent heart.


Beckett's mother said that she can't wait to meet Caitlyn, Beckett's biggest cheerleader.

[kuhio98]

Country's BBQ waitress returns $1,300 found on table

COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) -

A social media post helped find a couple who left behind a big chunk of change while visiting a local restaurant, and its how the money was returned that has lots of people talking.

Kantessa Smith, also known as Tessa, has worked at Country's Barbeque location on Mercury Drive for nearly four years. But her Tuesday was not like any other - she found $1,300 left on the table.

"I had clean off the tables and I saw a bunch of trash on the tables, so I tried to grab it but when I did, it wouldn't bend so I opened it and I found a lot of money in an envelope so I just went and found my manager," Smith said.

The single mother of two kids returned 13 $100 bills to her manager.

They then turned to social media to find the rightful owners.

"We got cameras everywhere so he found the time that they came and the time that they left and we went in the office and found them on the camera and zoomed in on the camera and we took pictures and posted on Facebook to see if anyone would notice them," Smith said.

The restaurant posted pictures of the couple on their Facebook page, and it spread quickly on social media Tuesday night and Wednesday, with hundreds of shares and comments until the couple was finally located. They returned to the store the next morning to retrieve the money.

Why did she return it? Smith says she was raised to return things that didn't belong to her.

The restaurant is calling Tessa a hero for the good deed. And people love her story so much, someone started a GoFundMe campaign for her. You can donate by clicking here. http://www.gofundme.com/Kantessa

Link to video: http://www.wtvm.com/clip/11330272/co...d-returns-1300

[kuhio98]

From People: Heroes Among Us

After a Tragic Loss, Corey Bergman Gives Sick Kids the Gift of Music

Corey Bergman's son, Jared, was 20 years old, a college student who dabbled in drums and keyboard and was a fan of the Dave Matthews Band, when he died from a viral infection on March 26, 2010.

"When a tragedy like this happens, there's one of two ways a person can go," Bergman tells PEOPLE. "They can fall down and collapse or get up and move forward to try to make a difference."

Bergman and his wife Edda decided to make a fresh start after the tragedy, moving from New York to Miami in 2012. Shortly after, Bergman, now 60, started volunteering at Miami Children's Hospital and Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Bergman, who had been playing guitar since he was 11 and has been in a band for many years, would play for patients and their families.

He would even let the kids play his guitar, but it was a bit too big for the youngest kids' small hands. So he decided to try teaching kids the ukulele. Placing it in the hands of one little girl at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, "it was magical," Bergman tells PEOPLE.

[kuhio98]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I completely agree with the interpretation, but it's an interesting take. It's hard when something "bad" happens to us to see that it might be something "good" for another.

If you find someone's wallet -- no matter how much you need the $$ -- I don't think it's ever the right thing to take the money. I wouldn't see it as the "Lord providing" myself. I've been told that I'm a "Pollyanna", but even I have a hard time seeing the good in this situation....

How to Become an Angel
When a purse goes missing, it's found by an angel in just about the nick of time...
by Colleen Hughes

I’d driven all the way home before realizing I didn’t have my purse. I’d left it in the baby seat of the grocery cart I wheeled out to the parking lot. My iPhone, a week’s worth of spending money, my date book full of appointments– how could I have been so absent-minded?

My daughter Evie was with me in the passenger seat, which was highly unusual, and distracting. I mustn’t have checked to be sure I’d gotten everything out of the cart. “I forgot my purse, Evie. We have to go back.” A 15-minute drive. I pulled out of the driveway, immediately sorry I didn’t put Evie out first: “You left your whole purse?”

This wasn’t the first time I chanted the “Please let me find it” prayer. People are good, I told myself at the red light. The huge Lost and Found room at Grand Central Station proved it.

I’d been happily reunited with everything I’d ever left on the commuter trains that run in and out of the city. Even a bag of brand-new Christmas toys anyone could have claimed. But finders didn’t seem to be keepers, as far as I could see.

Evie’s cell phone rang at the next light. Her sister got a call at home. My purse was at customer service in the grocery store, ask for Tia. Halleluiah!

“Did you turn in my purse?” I asked the kid rounding up the carts in the lot. I’d give him a tip. “No,” he said, “I didn’t see it.”

Inside Tia handed me my purse. “A customer rolled it in, left it right there in the cart where he found it.”

“Are people the best, or what?” I said. “Thank you so much.”

Back in the car I pulled out my phone to call home. Date book, wallet… all there. On a lark I opened the wallet. “Evie, all the cash is gone. Every dollar.” Who was to blame?

“Well, Mom, you left it there for anybody…” She was blaming me? “And maybe for somebody who needed it more than you.” I didn’t agree, not completely. But it was a better thought than blaming her, or the cart kid, or the customer, or who knew who, and it didn’t matter.

The world is full of angels on earth, and maybe a little windfall will help someone out there become one.

[Karen]

Hmm, maybe? Hard to know what to feel, isn't it! At least the purse, phone and credit cards were intact!

[kuhio98]

Second Helping: Cafe Gives Juvenile Offenders Second Chance

DALLAS — This is one place that will give you a second chance. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was on hand to break bread and officially welcome Cafe Momentum to Thanksgiving Square downtown.

“It’s so important for our business to understand that greatness can come from tough times,” Mayor Rawlings said.

It may look like your typical corner cafe, but this place has something special that isn’t on the menu.

“Our running joke at Cafe Momentum is that we take kids out of jail and teach them to play with knives and fires — and makes Dallas a better community,” Cafe Momentum Executive Chef Chad Houser said.

Yeah, you heard right. For the past five years, Cafe Momentum has taken 160 young men from juvenile detention centers and given them the chance to get real world work experience, serving up something other than jail time.

“We’re seeing kids that never thought they would have hope, didn’t have inspiration in life, actually going on to great things,” Houser said.

Tamarrion Washington is one of those kids. “When I was 14, I committed a crime, and I ended up going to JDC,” he said.

It took going to a detention center for Washington to realize he was definitely on the wrong path. But that was then, and this is now.

“I learned how to, you know, go to work, come home and take care of my daughter,” Washington said. Eight-month-old Leah is his biggest motivator.

“I want her to know that she do have a father, you know, and that her dad always been there, since day one for her,” he said.

And this dad is now getting the momentum he needs to turn his life around.

[kuhio98]

Norwalk High School Students Get Lesson In Giving Back, Raise $20K For Charity

NORWALK (CBSLA.com) — Several high school seniors Tuesday donated more than $20,000 to several charities as part of a fundraising project at Norwalk High School.

According to school officials, each student researched a variety of charities and presented the organization they felt connected to within their government classes.

When presentations concluded, every class voted for a specific charity as the recipient of their fundraising efforts.

The following charities were chosen as recipients: Autism Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Doorway for Women and Families, Dream Big Project, National Hemophilia Foundation, National Kidney Foundation, Rady Children’s Hospital, Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, Susan G. Komen Foundation, Relay for Life, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

Around 10:15 a.m., students presented representatives of the 12 charities with checks inside the school gymnasium.

Many seniors were personally affected by the issues that the selected charities address. Students explained their reasoning for the selection of each charity.

Two students — Arianna Real, whose mother is on dialysis, and Jian Bravo, whose little sister had her kidney replaced to treat cancer — presented a check for $1,500 to the National Kidney Foundation.

“My sister was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age. We weren’t sure if she was going to make it or not because she developed a tumor that was the size of a football ,” Bravo said.

As of Monday, the students raised more than $20,000 for the charities in only three weeks, doubling their original goal of $10,000 officials explained.

[kuhio98]

Brooke Thomas Gives Away 1,000 Lunches a Week to Needy Kids

Brooke Thomas remembers being just seven while going through the lunch line at Centennial Elementary School in Dade City, Florida, and catching her friends staring at her full tray.

"They didn't have money in their account and I felt bad so I bought them food,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Her mom, Dianna Thomas, had no idea what was going on.

"Brooke was going through the lunch money in her account so quickly – quicker than you normally would – so I started asking her what she was buying," Dianna, 42, tells PEOPLE.

"It turned out she was buying food for some of her peers at school," she says. "I realized it was happening on more than one occasion, and that's when we realized the issue with hunger in the area."

It turns out more than seventy-five percent of the kids at Brooke's school are on free and reduced lunches, so the family decided to do something more permanent to help.

They came up with the idea for what is now The Thomas Promise Foundation, a non-profit that has packed 200,000 meals – about 1,000 every week – for schoolkids in the Tampa area since its inception in 2012.

Brooke, now an 11-year-old who takes dance and horseback riding lessons, also spends several days a week at The Thomas Promise headquarters helping load backpacks full of food.

Her teachers say the adorable and bubbly blonde is an inspiration to her classmates.

"I wish I had more students like Brooke in the building that looked at life like she does," Peggy Gilbert, her third-grade teacher, tells PEOPLE.

"She is the student that the other students know they can go to if they need anything," she says.

"I think the foundation is remarkable," she says. "I watch these kids go home with food that they might not have access to on the weekends and to know this all stemmed from Brooke's young mind, it just blows me away."

Each week, volunteers at The Thomas Promise Foundation pack and give away about a thousand backpacks filled with enough food to get students at 19 elementary and middle schools through the weekend.

They also offer a food pantry to the high school students in the area.

Dianna now runs the foundation. Brooke's father, Wade Thomas, 44, the owner of a local car dealership, donated an empty building on his property that now serves as the foundation's headquarters.

Area businesses donate money that the Thomas Promise then uses to shop with their partner, Feeding America, getting food at drastically reduced prices.

When Christy Cook, a mother of two boys, lost her husband – her high school sweetheart and the family's sole provider – she could barely pay the bills.

The Thomas Promise gave the family food and school supplies for weeks.

"They helped us in our time of need," Cook, 40, of Zephyrhills, Florida, tells PEOPLE.

"We lost everything," she says. "They didn't have to help us. They went above and beyond. What an amazing little girl."

Dianna is amazed at how her daughter has stayed so involved in the cause over the years.

"I'm very proud of her," she says. "It was very nice to see that she was so compassionate and so concerned at such a young age.

"You hope you're raising them to be compassionate," she says, "but to really see her want to make sure kids are receiving everything they need, she is just a great kid."

As for Brooke, she's just glad she's able to help other kids.

"I feel good knowing they have food to eat over the weekend," she says.

[mon]

Everone should be proud of Brooke, I am.

[kuhio98]

Recovered Shelter Cat Spends His Time Helping Other Animals Heal

He may have the best bedside manner in the game. Meet Rademenes the healer cat of Poland's Bydgoszcz Animal Shelter.

The doting black feline first arrived at the shelter as a patient, according to the New York Post. Rademenes was dropped off with a serious respiratory infection. His chances of recovery looked bleak for a while, but the feline pulled through.

After helping to save Rademenes's life, veterinarian Lucyna Kuziel-Zawalich decided to keep the kitty and let him hang around the shelter. That's when Rademenes started doing something rather remarkable.

Without any prompting, the cat started sitting with and comforting animals recovering at the shelter. The nurse cat now spends his days cozying up to cats and dogs who just got out of surgery, helping them stay calm and feel loved.

Ear licks, hugs, nuzzles and purrs are just a few of Rademenes's many affectionate treatment plans. Love is the best medicine, indeed.

[momcat]

What a wonderful story and what a beautiful kitty! This story absolutely made my day. I'd love to give him non stop lovies

[Felicia's Mom]

Rademenes is a wonderful cat.

[phesina]

Oh, how wonderful! God bless you, dearest Rademenes and all the animals you help heal and all the good people who got you better and then realized you were turning into the shelter's nurse.

[kuhio98]

$5,000 Bicycle Donated To Upland Girl, 10, To Help Alleviate Disabilities

UPLAND (CBSLA.com) — A 10-year-old girl Thursday received a special bike to help alleviate her disabilities.

Kayla Hall has suffered from a congenital disease, known as Prader-Willi Syndrome, since birth. The syndrome causes low muscle tone, reduced mental ability and insatiable hunger. Kayla also suffers from a severe form of juvenile scoliosis, and wears a cast to correct her spine.

Unfortunately, the back condition left her unable to do the one thing she loves the most, which is to ride a bike, unaided.

Kayla’s mother, Melissa, was unable to afford the $5,000 bicycle that would accommodate the special needs.
CBS2 and KCAL9 viewers stepped up to help out after Melissa — a single working mother — set up a GoFundMe page.

“I thought it was a dream,” Melissa told CBS2’s Kristine Lazar, “I thought this kind of stuff doesn’t happen.”

On Thursday morning the dream came true when Kayla got a bike.

The dream started in February when CBS2 first did a piece on Kayla and her need for wheels.
After the piece aired, funds poured in.

“That night, I was in my living room,” says Castillo, “I was crying and laughing all at the same time.”

One individual alone gave $3,000. The $5,000 goal was quickly shattered.

And then the news got even better, a local non-profit — Variety: The Children’s Charity of Southern California — offered to donate the bike so Castillo could save the GoFundMe money for Kayla’s daily care.

“When you put a child with disabilities on a bike,” says Elizabeth O’Neill with Variety Children’s Charity, “those disabilities often just fade away.”

Castillo is in awe of the generosity of the public and Variety.