The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Hmmmm, I wonder what it would be like to be so financially secure that I could simply forget I had $98,000 in a plastic bag in a desk drawer? Well, I can dream, can't I?

Rabbi returns $98,000 he found in desk he bought on Craigslist

(CNN) -- A Connecticut rabbi returned $98,000 in cash he found in a plastic bag hidden behind drawers of an ordinary office desk he bought on Craigslist in September.

Rabbi Noah Muroff, a high school teacher at a private Jewish school in New Haven, discovered the money while dismantling the $150 desk to move it through a narrow doorway.

"The desk did not fit ... by just a fraction of an inch," Muroff said.

He said he unhooked file cabinet drawers and removed the top of the desk. Then came the unexpected surprise.

"Without detaching the desk, Muroff said, "this money, which was behind the drawers, was totally inaccessible."

The rabbi and his wife, Esther, were in total shock.

"We were looking at each other and laughing," he said. "This kind of thing only happens in the movies."

On the evening of September 2, just days before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Muroff and a friend picked up the desk from a woman, Patty, who lives just outside of New Haven. Muroff declined to identify the owner further.

"I knew this was her money," he said. "She told me she bought the desk from Staples and put it together herself."

Within 20 minutes of finding the money, around 11:30 p.m. that same evening, Muroff called Patty.

"She was speechless, without words," he said.

Muroff said the former owner told him she put her inheritance in the desk and after a while forgot it was there.

"I do not think there are too many people in this world that would have done what you did by calling me," Patty wrote in a thank you note to Muroff that CNN obtained.

The couple took their four children with them to return the money the next day, hoping their good deed will send "the message of honesty and integrity," he said.

[kuhio98]

La Pine-area dog, shot in head, recovering at home
Stranger in parking lot offers to pay hefty medical bill

LA PINE, Ore. - A La Pine-area dog that was shot in the face and faced possible euthanasia -- but was saved thanks to a chance encounter with a helpful stranger -- went home Saturday, his grateful owner said.

Santia Reed said in a Facebook posting that the vet told her Zeus "was shot at point-blank range," so they were unable to remove the fragments. He has a side of his jaw wired and a drain tube in his neck, to be removed next week.

For now, Reed said, Zeus "is on a diet of soft food, cannot be outside alone for 10-12 days, is on antibiotics and pain medicine" -- but "is so happy to be home."

She also said, "The man that helped save him even came by the vet's office today to see him" before the trip home.

The La Pine-area family was awakened by gunshots early Friday morning, only to find their yellow lab Zeus had been shot in the face.

"We heard gunshots about one or two in the morning. My boyfriend got up out of bed came outside and Zeus was covered in blood," Reed said Friday evening.

Zeus, in shock, ran away from the Santia and her boyfriend.

"We looked for him until 8 a.m., when we found him curled up on the porch," Reed said.

With the dog resting, she called animal control to see if they could have Zeus put down, because they couldn't afford his medical bills.

We don't have the money to do anything," Reed said. "They were offering to put him down, to pay the expenses, if we could get him to the vet."

The dog was loaded into a car and they made the eight-mile drive to the La Pine Animal Hospital, when fate stepped in.

"There was this man," Reed said. "He asked if we could save him, and I said, 'No we don't have any money.' And he told the vet whatever he had to do, he would pay for it."

Dr. Lani Voyles of the La Pine Animal Hospital said, "It's kind of refreshing to see someone who is willing to help for a complete strange. It makes me feel better. We see a lot of the other side of it, so it's nice to see it."

Voyles says Zeus had fragments of bullet removed from his mouth, and part of his jaw wired.

"As we got further in, I called (the donor) back again and said, 'It's going to be this much more.' And he said, 'That's great, whatever they needed,'" said Voyles.

Resting comfortably, Zeus is expected to make a full recovery. And Reed is ever thankful for the man in the right place at the right time.

"I want to say, 'Thank you for saving the dog, making the kids happy and not having to go through that,'" Reed said through her tears.

[kuhio98]

From People Magazine:

Bao Tran Reunites with Baby He Saved in Vietnam



Bao Tran still remembers an old man shuffling onto the bridge to hand him a tiny bundle tucked into a straw hat.

It was May 1972 and Tran was in the South Vietnamese Army fighting alongside the Americans. His company was about to blow up the bridge outside Quang Tri.

"The man said the baby was trying to nurse on its dead mother," Tran, now 65, recalls.

He carried the baby in that hat for 60 miles – "I was in full combat gear, with explosions all around," he says – to an orphanage, where he left her with the name he'd planned for his own daughter someday: Ngoc Bich.

"That is what I named this baby," he tells PEOPLE. "Precious Pearl."

That would have been the last time Tran saw the girl he thought of as "my con gai, my daughter" but for an astonishing coincidence that led to their reunion this year.

Finding Each Other

After seven years as a prisoner of war for the conquering North Vietnamese, Tran returned to the orphanage, but it had moved. Even as he and his wife had their own kids, he thought of his Pearl.

"I hoped she was okay," he says. She was.

Adopted by a Wisconsin couple who renamed her Kimberly Mitchell, she grew up on a farm, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, rose to Lt. Commander and now runs the Washington, D.C., non-profit Dixon Center for veterans.

"I'd always wondered," says Mitchell, "was it out of love I was put in the orphanage?"

After stumbling upon information on the orphanage's new location, Mitchell visited while on a 40th-birthday trip to Vietnam in 2011.

A U.S.-based Vietnamese-language newspaper wrote about her trip, mentioning the name on Mitchell's first passport as a baby: Precious Pearl.

Tran had since emigrated to the U.S. A worker of odd jobs in Albuquerque, he happened to read that paper.

"I knew it had to be the girl!" he says. He searched Mitchell out to reassure her that "she wasn't abandoned; she was rescued."

The pair met in New Mexico on March 29 and embraced like lost relatives.

"I was hugging this man, thinking, 'Why would he want to save me? '" she says. "He must have compassion and love in him that is beyond any comprehension."

Like Family Now

Today, as Tran and his wife Bau, with their children and grandchildren, ply Mitchell, 41, with flowers and Vietnamese food whenever they and their newfound "daughter" get together, there is not only joy all around – but also peace.

Mitchell knows that she was loved from the start; that her biological mother died with her baby in her arms.

"I was obviously important to her," Mitchell says.

And Tran's story of the war now has meaning.

"I was meant to find Precious Pearl that day," he says. "Finding her again has brought peace to my life."

[Taz_Zoee]

San Francisco turns into Gotham City for Batkid

Miles is a 5-year-old with leukemia who has always wanted to be Batkid. Thousands of volunteers crowded into San Francisco’s streets to help the Make-A-Wish foundation make the child’s dream come true.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...#ixzz2kl0dRYyD

[kuhio98]

Pass it on!

Act of kindness honoring late daughter spreads around the world

CNN) -- Alyssa O'Neill sent a text to her mother earlier this month asking her whether she would take her to get a pumpkin spice latte the next day. Although her mother agreed, Alyssa was never able to try the drink.

On September 4, the morning she was supposed to get the treat, the 18-year-old died of an epileptic seizure.

"We were just shocked at the sudden loss and didn't know what to do," her father, Jason O'Neill, said. "So we tried to fulfill the one thing that she asked us. If Alyssa couldn't get a pumpkin spice latte, we would get them for other people and try to pass the kindness forward."

O'Neill had no clue how many people this random act of kindness would affect.

Two days after Alyssa's funeral, the O'Neills went to a Starbucks in Erie, Pennsylvania, where they live, and purchased lattes for 40 strangers. O'Neill asked the manager to write the hashtag #AJO with a purple marker on each cup.

According to O'Neill, the manager and employees, overwhelmed with the gesture, donated 50 drinks on top of the 40.

"It just kind of exploded at that point. We had somewhat of a following, but nothing like this," he said.

Now the movement to raise awareness about epilepsy has gone beyond lattes.

"It was just random acts of kindness. People have been paying others' Christmas layaways and buying meals," O'Neill said. The Facebook memorial page AJO Forever in our Hearts has more than 28,000 likes.

O'Neill said his daughter's initials have nearly turned into a verb. "People are saying, 'I got AJOed this morning,' 'Have you AJOed today?'"

From Erie to Sri Lanka, the O'Neills have been receiving photos showing #AJO.

The family knew of Alyssa's seizure disorder before the fatal episode.

Alyssa was a high school cheerleader who hoped to become a nurse and help others with epilepsy. She was a first-semester student at Penn State Behrend.

The O'Neills started the AJO Forever Fund to assist families of children with epilepsy and to bolster a scholarship fund for local cheerleaders looking to go into nursing.

[kuhio98]

First dog saves man from fire, then man saves dog

DES MOINES, Iowa —As a Des Moines man slept Tuesday morning, a fire was growing just 10 feet away.


Paul Kemp's dog, a 3-year-old Sheltie named Sheba, was the first to spot it. Kemp said he awoke on the living room couch to Sheba jumping onto his chest.

"It was unusual, and startled me -- and then I saw the fire," said Kemp. "So, I went and got my coffee pot, and threw some water on it and it didn't help, and it just grew really quickly."

Kemp ran outside and assumed Sheba was with him like always, but she wasn't.

"I was yelling outside for her, and I didn't see her and I figured she had to be back in the house, so I went in the house and yelled for her, and then she came running and ran outside," said Kemp.

Co-workers were shocked to see Paul and Sheba at work just hours after their ordeal, but at the Animal Lifeline this story of dog saves man, man saves dog goes hand in hand with the mission of the no-kill animal shelter.

It's where sick, injured and abused animals get a second chance.

"I love her, she's my little girl. I mean I've always loved her but now she saved my life, ya know," said Kemp. "She showed me that she's my best friend, because she was worried about me. I mean she wasn't running around when she first saw the fire. Her first instinct was to wake me up, ya know, thinking about me first."

Kemp suffered some burns described as minor in the fire.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Authorities said the home is a total loss.

Kemp and Sheba are staying in a hotel. Kemp said he had homeowner's insurance.

[kuhio98]

Little girl has big heart for books

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - There's a little girl with a big heart for books.

Addie Bleu Short says reading is her favorite past time, and she wanted to find a way to share that love with kids across the world.

Over the past several months the third grader has collected enough books to donate a "entire library" to a village in Africa.

But now there's one thing standing in her way - enough funds to pay for the shipping.

Addie Bleu Short is a tall order, and she loves books more than an average third grader.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," she says. "I really like fiction with adventure and mystery in it."

According to her mom, the love has been there since picked up her first book.

"I started out only wanting books for presents on my birthday and for Christmas but then I thought, I have so many books!"

So Addie Bleu wanted to something special with all those books she had, to spread the joy she finds inside the pages of the books.

it's a part of the African Library Project, and the goal is to send 1000 books to a library for kids in Africa.

"She was excited because she could send a whole library and that idea was really neat to her."

The books are sent to rural parts of Africa, with project partners to organize the libraries in various African communities.

So far she has collected enough books for an entire library.

"Right now there are 1,600 books in the living room of the Short family, all waiting for enough money to ship them out to Africa."

The books must be sent by Dec. 10, but without enough money to cover shipping that day could come and go.

But the 9-year-old is far from being done.

She is asking for even more books to be donated to help spread the love of reading.

She's also trying to raise $2,500 for the Addie Bleu's African Library Project.

You can donate used children's books to the YWCA or Rush Elementary.

To donate or find more information, visit

http://www.gofundme.com/addiebleusafricanlibrary

https://www.facebook.com/addiebleusALP