-
Florida Crocheter Is Dedicated to Helping Kids Beat Cancer in Style
Samantha Mutschler has turned her hobby into a way to help others.
The West Orange, Florida, resident spends as much time and money as she can creating colorful and cozy hats for children fighting cancer, reports the West Orange Times & Observer.
Mutschler's mission to cover the head of every young cancer patient began when her family friend, Katie Karp, was diagnosed with bone cancer. Wanting to comfort the 12-year-old in some way, Mutschler, 24, decided to make a blanket for the girl. The creation was such a hit that soon Mutschler was being asked to make wraps for the patients of the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children through Katie's Kause, a nonprofit set up by Karp's family that works to keep kids with cancer optimistic.
Wanting to give more to the children she was cheering up, Mutschler began crocheting in 2011, making simple hats to include with her blankets. In a few months Mutschler had created her own cancer support program, Unraveled by Samantha Dawn, and was taking requests from young patients and their families for hats.
From SpongeBob SquarePants to sharks, she has crocheted beanies featuring all kinds of characters and animals, with Disney princesses being a big favorite. Mutschler has donated more than 160 of her hats so far, sending some as far as Holland and Australia.
Mutschler is willing to add and alter any details a child desires in order to make their hat perfect for them. To add even more magic to her gifts, she often makes care packages with stuffed animals and dolls to send along with her hats.
Mutschler is currently working on turning this passion project into a nonprofit, and she has a GoFundMe page to help support her drive to bring smiles to young cancer patients.
"It brings joy to them; it brings joy to me," Mutschler said. "I know I'm doing what God wants me to do. My dream is to one day see a team of ladies working for me in getting more hats out to these precious warriors."
If you would like to commission a hat from Mutschler or donate to her work, visit Unraveled by Samantha Dawn's Facebook page.
http://img2-2.timeinc.net/people/i/2...veled-1600.jpg
-
Homeless Man in Florida Discovers Forgotten Bank Account Collecting Pension With Cop's Help
A homeless man who has been living in a cardboard box in downtown Tampa, Florida, for over three years may soon have a modest-sized apartment and a pension check coming in every month, police said.
With the help of a cop and homeless shelter case manager, John Helinski, 62, discovered a forgotten bank account that has been collecting Social Security disability benefits for years, he told ABC News today.
Helinski is looking forward to having a place of his own to call "home" and thankful for the help he has received, he added.
Tampa Police Department Officer Daniel McDonald and Helinski’s case manager, Charles Inman of Drug Abuse and Comprehensive Coordinating Office Inc. (DACCO), have spent the past few weeks trying to help Helinski locate his personal identification documents to get him into housing, Officer McDonald said.
“John came to the DACCO Community Housing Solutions Center last December when it first opened,” McDonald said.
Inman, he added, asked him to help with Helinski’s case because all Helinski’s personal identifying documents and ID were stolen and lost while he was out on the streets.
“As a homeless liaison officer, the bread and butter of my work often involves hopping department to department trying to help homeless people find the ID they need in order to get things like work and housing,” McDonald said.
It’s unclear how Helinski became homeless, but Helinski did say he was born in Poland as a U.S. citizen because his mother was a U.S. citizen just visiting, McDonald said.
Helinski added he believed he had a Social Security number and benefits but thought it was cancelled, McDonald said.
“First, I drove him personally to the local tax collector’s office, where he was able to get a temporary State of Florida ID card,” McDonald explained.
Using the temp ID McDonald was able to help Helinski order his birth record from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, he said.
“With his consular birth certificate and temporary ID, we went to the Social Security office, and I just walked up to them and said, ‘This man used to have benefits, can you help us?’” McDonald said.
It turned out Helinski had always been receiving benefits, and he just wasn’t aware because he lost his debit card and had no access to his bank account, McDonald said.
McDonald then drove Helinski to his old bank, where they found his account, "which had still been collecting pension money over time,” he said. “And since he now had his temporary ID card, he could get access to the account.”
Helinski is still at the DACCO Community Housing Solutions Center, but McDonald said Helinski would likely be able to get permanent housing soon.
Though Helinski did not want to disclose the amount in his bank account, McDonald said he was receiving enough in monthly pension payments to have enough to pay for rent for a modest apartment and food without having to work.
Helinski's case manager Inman added he and McDonald are extremely happy for their client.
"This situation looked really difficult, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to end up," Inman told ABC News today. "If it failed, it meant we’d put a 62-year-old man on the street, and Officer McDonald and I were not OK with that."
McDonald is one of few police officers whose work revolves around helping homeless people in their assigned areas.
“We’re uniformed cops with police cars, but we want homeless people to trust us,” he said. “Our job is not to arrest someone. It’s to help them. Homeless people are still accountable to the law, but they’re now starting to see we can be trusted, and this new model and field of policing is gaining popularity very quickly, I think.”
https://gma.yahoo.com/video/homeless...150219454.html
-
How nice they were able to help, and he will be homeless no more! Thank goodness the bank had not closed his account!
-
Another article on Radamenes. http://blog.theanimalrescuesite.com/...0420113838.jpg
http://d1vmcse0jge0ha.cloudfront.net...Radamenes2.jpghttp://d1vmcse0jge0ha.cloudfront.net...Radamenes3.jpg
http://d1vmcse0jge0ha.cloudfront.net...Radamenes4.jpghttp://d1vmcse0jge0ha.cloudfront.net...Radamenes1.jpg
Quote:
Originally Posted by
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.
http://img2-1.timeinc.net/people/i/2...at-vet-800.jpghttp://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/201...-vet-1-435.jpg
-
From People Magazine Heroes Among Us: 'SoupMan' David Timothy Has Provided More Than a Million Meals to Dallas's Hungry
Every weekday at lunch time, a white van pulls up in a nondescript parking lot in south Dallas.
People expect it. The van – called the SoupMobile – has never missed a single lunch in 11 years. And it makes quite an entrance, with the Rocky theme song blaring from the speakers.
"There's a method to the madness with the song," says David and Timothy, founder of SoupMobile.
"It's a story of hope about someone who's down and out, and who literally rose to the top. Our message is that you, too, may be down and out, but with hard work and perseverance, you can also rise up out of that."
SoupMobile's mission is to reach out to the homeless and feed them. Since 2003, Timothy and his band of volunteers have served 600 meals a day to those who are hungry. That adds up to about 1.7 million plates of hot, nutritious food. And counting.
"It's way beyond, 'Here's a bowl of soup,' " says Timothy, who is known around town as the SoupMan. "We consider the homeless to be our friends and family."
Before he became SoupMan, Timothy, 66, was living a more conventional lifestyle as a pension consultant.
"I think most people would have said I was a decent person," he recalls. "But everything in my life was pretty much focused on myself. I was not helping my fellow man. It wasn't rewarding."
Having grown up poor, one of four children raised by a divorced mom in Detroit, "I experienced hunger first-hand as a child," he recalls. "I have vivid memories of that – and not just memories of being hungry."
"A lot of nights, dinner was two pieces of white bread and butter, with sugar sprinkled on it. And when we had cereal, it was with water poured on it. To this day, I still eat my cereal with water."
Although he often went to bed hungry, that isn't the most difficult memory: "The hardest part was seeing my mother going through all of that pressure and stress. It tore her apart to send us to bed hungry."
His childhood is one of the main reasons Timothy is so passionate about feeding the homeless today, because he knows what extreme hunger feels like."
"Everybody can understand if you skip a meal. But you and I know we're going to get that next meal. When I was a child, we didn't know if there would be a next meal. So it's not just the hunger, but the fear that went along with that."
In 2003, Timothy asked by a friend what he truly wanted to do with his life. His reply: "I want to feed the homeless." So he quit his corporate job, bought a 1985 van (the "Soup 1") with more than 250,000 miles on it, gathered up a few volunteers and started serving the hungry.
His wife, Peggy, was on board for the life change from the start. Although she passed away from multiple sclerosis a little more than a year after the SoupMobile started, "every time I get in and start the vehicle, I feel her there with us," Timothy says.
During lunch service, which gets going quickly thanks to an advance team that sets up the tables, Timothy and his staff greet the people in line with hugs and laughter. There are no limits on how many times someone can go through the line; they can continue filling up as long as there is food on the tables.
One afternoon, Timothy recalls, a homeless man approached him after lunch and thanked him for the meal, as often happens.
"He said, 'I hadn't eaten for awhile, so I was really hungry. I want to help you; I want to donate something.' " Timothy insisted it wasn't necessary.
"But he reached into the pocket of his threadbare blue jeans and gave me all that he had, which was nine cents," Timothy says. "Nine pennies, and he gave them to me. It was all I could do not to have tears in my eyes. It was the best donation I've ever received."
Timothy has seen first-hand the transformations that can occur with a little assistance and belief in someone. SoupMobile's head chef, Thomas Waters, 59, was homeless himself for years. After learning about the SoupMobile, he worked up the nerve to ask for a different kind of help.
"I came in one day and just asked him for a chance," says Waters, who grew up poor and started stealing cars when he was still in school. "I'd hit rock-bottom, and it was the hardest thing to face. You feel lost when you don't have any help."
When Timothy learned that Waters had experience as a cook, he offered him the job as head chef for SoupMobile.
"By the grace of God, he gave me a second chance," Waters says. "I told him he'd never regret it – and he tells me all the time that he doesn't."
When he's out serving meals these days, "people come up to me to say thank you," Waters says. "It feels great to give back. Anybody can receive, but giving back is the most important thing."
Back at the SoupMobile headquarters in a nondescript building in downtown Dallas, Timothy sits at his desk, surrounded by Rocky memorabilia.
Timothy, who draws a salary now but was paid a dollar for the first two years, has a staff of about five to 10 people, depending on the time of year. Although he's the boss, his chair, however, doesn't seem too comfortable; it's held together by what appears to be duct tape.
Lon Ricker, the foundation's director of development, has been one of many to offer to buy him a new one, "but [Timothy] says, 'No, no, no,'" Ricker says. "It helps him to remember his roots."
"This chair goes back to the founding of the SoupMobile," Timothy explains. "It helps keep me humble and to remember it's not about me."
"We've all heard the expression, 'There but by the grace of God go I,'" he adds. "We've changed that to, 'There go I.' We're the same. We're all just people trying to make their way in this life."
http://img2-3.timeinc.net/people/i/2...p-man-1024.jpg
-
From People Magazine Heroes Among Us
Band of Brothers: Young Guitarists CJ and Max Teas Rock to Help Veterans
Like most boys their age, brothers CJ and Max Teas spend their days shuttling from middle school to baseball practice. But it's the end of the day when they work the hardest.
The brothers rock out at least an hour a night in the family’s Charlotte, North Carolina, guest bedroom turned music studio, rehearsing with their band. They play to crowds at area restaurants and festivals, but don't earn a dime. The boys give away everything they make.
Before moving to Charlotte two years ago, CJ, now 13, and Max, now 12, grew up in a town devastated by the 9/11 attacks. Middletown, New Jersey, lost 37 first responders and residents that day, more victims per capita than any other town in the state.
So the brothers grew up hearing about loss, terrorism and the veterans serving in the wars that grew out of the 9/11 attacks. They felt a strong need to do something.
"We've been raised to give back," CJ says. "The feeling you get when you do it is the reward, and we thought it would be special to help the veterans that have helped our country."
CJ is the more outspoken of the two, but he takes a backseat to his younger brother Max, 12, when the two perform on stage in their band, called CJ and Brother Max. They formed the band two years ago, after winning a bet with their dad, Christopher, a Wall Street executive who commutes between New York and North Carolina.
"Our parents have always played rock music, and then we started playing Guitar Hero and our dad promised he'd buy us guitars if we got to expert level." They did.
Their specialty is music made long before they were born. They count Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard as their musical idols. Last summer, they met guitarist Ryan Roxie, who has played with Alice Cooper. "This world needs more heroes, especially guitar heroes," Roxie tells PEOPLE. "I think what CJ and Max are doing for veterans is not only inspiring to kids their own age, it's inspiring to all of us."
The brothers performed more than a dozen concerts last summer, donating all their performance fees and tips to The Patriot Charities, a nonprofit that raises money for wounded military heroes and their families.
"We are amazed at the caring and commitment of CJ and his brother Max at such a young age," says Dana Bradley, president of The Patriot Charities.
Helping a Veteran with PTSD
So far, the boys have donated $4,500 to pay for a specially trained service dog for a veteran who has suffered from PTSD. They presented "Tiger" to retired Army gunner Angela Simpson late last year.
Simpson, a 31-year-old single mother of three, has suffered from PTSD since witnessing a violent explosion while serving in Iraq in 2008. "The only thing I remember was seeing a big black puff of smoke," she tells PEOPLE. One of her platoon leaders was severely hurt, and Simpson has struggled emotionally ever since.
"I have nightmares, panic attacks and anxiety attacks," she says. Buts Tiger has helped with all of that, and she is grateful to CJ and Max for their gift.
"I think they're amazing," Simpson tells PEOPLE. "I couldn’t stop hugging them. They are incredible young men to just come up with the idea to start a band and help veterans. What young child does that? They are going to go on to help a lot of people and do a lot of amazing things."
CJ and Max were overwhelmed the night they presented Tiger to Angela. "It was an unexplainable feeling. It was an amazing feeling to know this has helped somebody in such a big way," CJ says.
Now that they see the huge need, they just want to do more.
"One dog helps one person, but there are huge waiting lists to provide service dogs," Max says.
So along with the help of their parents, the boys are planning a tour for this summer and hope to raise money to buy more service dogs and to help veterans in other ways.
"I'm happy they found something they love to do," says their mom, Jennifer, an at-home mom. When the boys aren't rehearsing or playing, CJ, an eighth-grader, is busy as a varsity wrestler, and Max, in seventh grade, does kickboxing.
"I love just listening to them," Jennifer says. "I sit on the stairs outside the room and just listen. It makes me so happy that they've found something they love in the music and have found a way to use it to give back. As a parent, I couldn't be prouder."
http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/201...others-800.jpghttp://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/201...hers-2-800.jpg
-
Shelter Cat Sisters Help Each Other with Baby Duty
http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/201...ittens-800.jpg
Your sister will always be there for you – these are words that Kanji and Sushii live by.
The kitty siblings both gave birth to kittens recently and have been helping each other raise their babies.
The cats – who are currently being fostered through the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association (VOKRA) – have twelve kittens between them and are sharing the mother lode of a responsibility together.
The inseparable sisters nurse each other's kittens, according to TheDodo.com, who first reported the story.
"We always work hard [to] adopt bonded pairs together," reads a Facebook post by VOKRA, who says the cat's babies will be ready for adoption at 8-weeks-old. "These mamas sure are a great team, aren't they?"
A-fur-mative!
-
What a great story.:) I hope the sisters are adopted together after the babies are grown & adopted.
-
WONDERFUL!!! Well done, Kanji and Sushii! And well done, Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association!
And may you two sisters be adopted together to a loving good home, once your babies have all found loving good homes.
:love::love::love::love::love::love::love::love:
