The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Ian’s story:

My event took place two weeks ago at the Eagle River Carrs (A grocery store here in Alaska). My daughter and I were standing in line to purchase some items for dinner that night. As my daughter and I were talking and waiting I would periodically look up to see where we were in the check-out process. As the last item was rung up for the woman in front of me, she reached into her wallet to pull out her payment method and realized her bank cards were left at home and the $7 she had on her wouldn't cover the cost of her groceries.
As tears began to well up in her eyes and her child screamed out from impatience I told the cashier that her items were part of my daughter and my own bundle of items. She looked at me with confusion and I leaned over and told her not to say anything but if she ever got the chance to return the favor for a random family in the future, that she take the opportunity. She smiled, had her items loaded into her cart, then went on her way. I never got her name but as she walked away I looked down at my daughter and the smile on her face let me know she learned a valuable lesson. And that is all the payment I need.

[momcat]

Elyse,
Thank you so very much for sharing this wonderful story! There are good kids out there and this proves it. All of these team members deserve all the credit they can receive for stepping up to help and protect this young girl from further abuse. How great that they had such a decisive victory! This story belongs on the front page of every newspaper everywhere! May this wonderful team enjoy many many more victories for the good they're doing!

[kuhio98]

Free Gas
I was pumping gas on a day when I had only $10 until payday. When I went inside to pay, the pump had been pre-paid with a twenty dollar bill by a stranger! The clerk said the person's instructions were simply, when the next person who comes in to pay with cash, surprise them with free gas. I was so surprised and have repeated the act of kindness twice since. The clerk has fun too!

[kuhio98]

When Allison Winn was eight and her family adopted a dog named Coco, they had no idea how much the little bichon frise would change her life. “Coco helped me feel better,” says Allison, who was recuperating from 14 months of treatment for a brain tumor at the time. “She would cuddle with me when I didn’t want to play.” Allison loved Coco so much that she told her parents she wanted to help other sick kids find the same kind of comfort.
She started small, raising money by selling lemonade and homemade dog biscuits in front of her house. Her first customer was the mailman. By the end of that summer, she had raised nearly $1,000, enough to adopt, train, and spay or neuter two dogs and give them to children with cancer. Now, a little more than two years later, corporate groups and civic organizations gather to make dog treats at a Denver kitchen for Allison’s cause.
Her organization, the Stink Bug Project, named after a picture she drew commemorating the end of her chemotherapy, is run and managed in partnership with the Morgan Adams Foundation. Stink Bug helps families adopt pets from the Colorado Correctional Industries Prison Trained K9 Companion Program, where inmates teach commands to rescued dogs. To date, the program has raised $33,000 and facilitated the adoption of ten dogs, paying for the $450 adoption fee plus a starter kit of a dog bed and crate, food, toys, a leash, and a collar, which gets embroidered with the pet’s name and phone number. “We ask the kids their favorite color,” Allison says, so she can coordinate ribbons for the dogs.
With the leftover funds, Allison’s mother, Dianna Litvak, who helps run Stink Bug, hopes to extend the pet-adoption program statewide and continue donating some of the proceeds to help fund pediatric cancer research.
Her daughter is just as ambitious. “I wanted to do a million adoptions, but my mom made me lower it,” says Allison. Still, she’d eventually like to get dogs to sick kids in other states.
“Allison has figured out how to help—in a way that no one else has,” Litvak says proudly. “We involve her younger sister, Emily, her friends, the adopting families, and the women at the prison. It took the love of a little girl to wrap all that together into one amazing package.”
Go to stinkbugproject.org to donate or to buy Allison’s dog biscuits.

[kuhio98]

Thankful for Safety
I live in the midwest where we get a lot of snow. One night I got off work late and it was nearly a white out with all the driving snow. I caught up to a county snow plow and followed him the next 20 miles to my home town. We were the only two vehicles on the road. He pulled into the same gas station I did to fuel up. When I went inside to pay I picked out a big chocolate chip cookie and told the clerk to give it to the plow truck driver when he came in to pay. I appreciated that he was out working late in terrible conditions so that I could make it home safely!

[kuhio98]

Nancy Lawlor collects bouquets—flowers from hotels and weddings and corporate events, in cities like New York and Los Angeles. Then she gives them away to people in need, often breaking down larger bouquets so there’s more to go around.

Lawlor was inspired to start her nonprofit organization, FlowerPower, eight years ago. Sitting in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria, she was riveted by its towering floral displays. Where did they go at the end of the day? After getting her answer — a Dumpster — Lawlor volunteered to take them away instead. Once the hotel agreed, Lawlor delivered $2,000 worth of large pink bouquets to a New York City hospital. “It all started with one person saying yes,” she says.

To date, FlowerPower has distributed more than $2.5 million worth of flowers to hospitals, rape crisis centers, and rehabilitation clinics. The bouquets last several days, giving patients a healthy dose of good cheer. “I’ve seen thousands of people transformed,” she says, “all over a simple bouquet of flowers that originally would’ve been thrown away.” Now, that’s a beautiful arrangement.

[kuhio98]