The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

TECHNICIAN WILLIE GANTT, 42
Carrying precious cargo from a raging house fire

Working on his tax returns in the wee hours of Feb. 28, Willie Gantt was startled by an urgent banging at the door of his Wichita, Kans., home. It was a breathless Sharanda Beard, 12, clutching a baby and shaking with fear as she blurted out that the house next door, where she was babysitting seven younger cousins and siblings, was on fire. Gantt, 42, barefoot and in boxer shorts, dashed out the door and "leaped over the fence," says his wife, Vera, 32. "He looked like a lion." Opening the door to the neighbor's house, "the fire knocked me to my knees," says Gantt, the father of three. Racing to the side of the house and crawling through the basement window that Sharanda had broken to escape, Gantt found the children and carried them to safety one by one. The fire, started by clothes near a space heater, gutted the house. "A few more minutes," says fire investigator Don Birmingham, "we'd be talking about eight fatalities."

[kuhio98]

Jonathan Kitto Has Rescued 1,100 Greyhounds Over the Past 13 years



Back in 1999, Jonathan Kitto and his partner, Alonso Saldivar, were running a commercial cleaning company and were growing weary of the grind.

"I came home one day and said, 'I need a dog,' " says Kitto, 58, who is also an Anglican priest.

The next day they went to a local pet supply store, which was having a greyhound meet and greet.

"Alonso was a little scared of dogs," he says. "But a few minutes later I looked over and a big greyhound was sitting in his lap."

Her name was Gigi. They adopted her and took her home.

"She was a wreck," he says. "She was scared of everything."

They called the rescue group for advice about Gigi's behavior.

"They said, 'You need to get another one,' " he recalls.

Mister Buck, who was up on the table about to be put down, soon joined their family. Three more dogs followed. Inspired, Kitto formed Gbark http://www.greyhoundbark.org/ , rescuing 1,100 retired greyhounds who were bred to be racers, some of whom were abused or neglected.

"We have some very unusual cases," says Kitto, who now lives in Bloomfield, Ind. "From one dog that was kept locked in a closet for two years to another who has a joint disease that leaves him barely able to walk."

But he always found them homes.

"I have never met anyone like him," says Kathy Murray, 47, who adopted Moose through his rescue. "Everything he does is for the dogs. He has a huge heart."

Kitto eventually shifted the focus of the rescue to being a "last stop" for unadoptable dogs. He's kept 60 greyhounds and mixed breed rescues who were about to be put down over the years.

"Some were elderly or sick or had a leg amputated," he says. "In some cases they'd bitten somebody. When we get them, that's their last stop. They stay with us forever."

To keep costs down, Kitto began making his own dog food, which led to him starting Mr. Buck's Genuinely Good Pet Food Company, http://www.mrbuckspetfood.com/ named in honor of his now deceased dog pal, Mr. Buck. Proceeds from the sale of the food go to support Kitto's rescue efforts and other rescue organizations.

Nicole Graves, foster coordinator for American Greyhound in Hobart, Ind., http://www.americangreyhound.org/ met Kitto a year ago and has since sent three unadoptable greyhounds his way.

"Gbark is a great home for dogs that need a special home," she says. "Jon has just dedicated his life to caring for these dogs. I would be lost without him."

But Kitto says he is the lucky one.

"It's a huge selfish pursuit," he says. "I'm sure some people don't quite get that but these dogs, starting with the first ones, were life changing."

[phesina]

God bless Mr. Kitto and his partner and all the dogs they have saved.

[cassiesmom]

God bless Mr. Kitto and his partner and all the dogs they have saved.

What a great story!

[kuhio98]

Good Samaritan returns $4K in cash left in Walmart parking lot
'It's OK to do something right,' he said


ANTELOPE, Calif. (KCRA) —What would you do if you found thousands of dollars in cash at a Walmart parking lot?

It happened to Paul Williams. He was leaving work last Thursday at a Walmart in Antelope when he stumbled upon a wallet in a shopping cart. Inside the wallet was $4,000 in cash, a $1,000 check and multiple credit cards.

"I was surprised to see that much money and no ID, no phone number. But there was a check in there with a phone number, so at least I had something to go on," Williams told KCRA 3.

He looked for a manager, but couldn’t find one, and had to catch the bus home.

His wife, Debra, was shocked when he told her about what he found.

"All I could say was, 'Wow!' And then I told him, 'Baby, you know we got to do the right thing,'" she said.

He agreed.

"Nowadays, people are losing their homes, not being able to pay. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for someone trying to pay a mortgage and had to miss it," Williams said.


The money belonged to Lynn Andries, who said it was to pay off her second mortgage. She had been planning to go to the bank while running other errands, and was in a rush while shopping at Walmart.

"I was just sick. I thought there was no point to even go back to the store. Lori, my sister said, 'You have to,'" Andries said.

She came back about an hour later, but couldn’t find the wallet. While she was in the parking lot, however, two Walmart employees told her a call came into the store regarding the wallet.

It was Williams on the other end of the line. He verified that it was indeed the person whose name was on the check. Andries arranged to meet with Williams and his wife.

"I looked at her right in the eyes and I asked, 'Is the money still there?' She said, 'Every single penny.' I just started crying and hugging them," Andries said. "It was absolutely awesome."

Andries said it gives her faith in humanity, in kindness from strangers like Williams.

Williams said he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t return the money to its rightful owner.

"This is just to show people that there are some good people in the world that do the right thing. And it’s OK to do something right," he said.

[kuhio98]

How Troubled Teen Found a 'Forever Family' After 29 Foster Homes

There are cases of hellish abuse – and then there was Jed.

Born to severely mentally ill parents, he was found in rural Robeson County, N.C., at age 3, emaciated and chained to a bed, eating from a dog bowl on the floor. Child protective services tried to place him in foster homes – some good and others troubled – but the traumatized youngster stole, attacked his foster parents and ran away.

"One time Jed came to my office, crying and said, 'Won't I ever have a family? Won't anybody ever love me?' " says Denise Little, a social worker, who worked with Jed for years.

By the time he was 13, Jed had cycled through 29 families, including four who had initially wanted to adopt him. After his 14th birthday, therapists at the Alexander Youth Network (AYN), the Charlotte, N.C., treatment center where Jed had stayed on and off since he was 8, reluctantly concluded there was no more they could do for him and he was transferred to a mental institution.

When AYN volunteers Billy Maddalon, 46, a businessman who had himself spent two years at the facility during his own troubled youth, and his partner, Brooks Shelley, 46, heard Jed was being sent away, they knew they had to try to help him.

"It just felt like somebody had to save him," says Maddalon. "I said, 'We're the right people.' Even if 29 families thought the same thing, we're naive and optimistic. We believe in happy endings."

In October of 2008, after they were certified as foster parents, Jed came to live with Maddalon and Shelley.

"That first night we made spaghetti," Maddalon recalls. "He sat underneath the table and ate with his fingers. He didn't know how to bathe, couldn't write his name."

Despite finally living in a stable home, Jed often ran away.

"I was nervous. I didn't trust anyone," he says. "I didn’t think anyone would ever want me. Everybody had been saying I was a lost cause and I believed it."

But his parents didn't give up, formally adopting him two years after he came to live with them.

"One time he jumped on a train," says Shelley, "and we tracked him on the computer using the GPS on his phone. But when he ran away he would call around dinnertime and ask to come home."

Today, a high school junior at 19, Jed hopes to attend North Carolina State, Maddalon's alma mater.

"No matter how much I acted up, they said I wasn’t going anywhere," says Jed. "They gave me my first birthday party. It’s pretty straightforward. They care about me. I’m not going anywhere. This is my forever home."

[kuhio98]

Chicago – USA

A teenage girl is safe at home thanks to the help of a stranger who didn’t hesitate to act when he saw the girl in trouble.

A 49-year-old North Center man was sitting on his front porch late Monday night when he says he saw a man pushing a beat-up Dodge van down the street with a young girl steering the wheel.

The man went over to help push the van. Once they steered it to a parking spot the Good Samaritan turned to go back home. That’s when he says the young girl jumped out of the van and ran to him, begging for help. She told him the man in the van had tried to rape her.

The Good Samaritan rushed her into his home before her alleged attacker even knew she was gone.

The man is now being called a hero. He didn’t want to be identified but he says he gives all the credit to the teenage girl.

23-year-old Richard Velasco left to go get gasoline for his van and when he returned a short time later, police were there to arrest him. He is being held on $300,000 bail charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse and attempted criminal sexual assault.

The girl apparently told the man who helped her that she knew Velasco because he was a friend of her family. She said she thought she would be safe with him. The Good Samaritan had a chance to meet the girl’s mother at the police station.

He said she thanked him and said she was very grateful that he rescued her daughter.