The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Corrections
I have been a Corrections Officer in Ohio for a little while now and as most people can imagine, you see a little bit of everything. Whenever someone new comes in to serve their jail sentence, I have to book them into the jail where I also talk to them and get a sense of their personality. This particular man told me of his massive run of bad luck which eventually ended with him in this position. He got into a fight with his wife that will most likely end in a divorce and drove off angrily into the night. Unfortunately, he drank literally one too many before he left and he totaled his car in a ditch which resulted in his arrest. Now, I must have heard a MILLION sob stories from people who got busted, but for some reason… I felt really bad for this guy. During the booking the man unexpectedly began to cry so naturally, I asked him what he was crying about. He told me that his wife was going to leave him because of his drinking problem and that he said some things to her that he believed he couldn’t take back. I said, “You’re not a bad man, you just made a mistake. I’m not here to judge you for anything that you’ve done. We all make mistakes and we’ve all said something in anger that we later regretted. In a couple days when you get out of here, apologize to your wife and work it out. I can’t guarantee she’ll forgive you, but I will guarantee that an apology will make a huge difference to her. The man looked up at me in shock and said, “You’re the first person I’ve met in law enforcement who cares about my side of the story. All they see is a miserable drunk.” When the man was released a few days later, I noticed him walking out the door as my shift was ending and I remembered that he totaled his car. His house was at least 10 miles away from my facility and he just started walking. I hopped in my car, still in uniform, and pulled up next to him. I said, “You want a ride?” He hopped in and nearly cried with relief. When I dropped him off I shook his hand and wished him good luck. To my surprise, he shook my hand and hugged me with the other, then said, “Thank you… thank you for your kindness. I wish there were more officers out there like you.” I drove home knowing that I helped that man with his personal problem and I restored some of his faith in law enforcement.

[kuhio98]

Bright sun
I was driving along a country road on a lovely sunny day when I saw an elderly gentleman walking on the footpath in the opposite direction. He was holding his hand above his eyes to shield them from the very bright sun. We were at least a mile from the nearest house so he was quite clearly going to be struggling to see for some distance ...... so I did 2 U turns to bring myself back to him and stopped alongside him and gave him my baseball cap. He was amazed that I would do something so kind. He was really grateful and offered to pay for the cap, but I said no and told him it was a gift. As we parted I saw him walking off with a smile and a renewed vitality.

[kuhio98]

[kuhio98]

“Am feeling both good and a little stupid.” This is the comment Carolee Hazard posted on Facebook after a woman ahead of her in the grocery line said she’d lost her wallet. The woman was so upset that Hazard paid her $207 grocery bill “and just asked her to send me a check,” Hazard says. She figured now the money was as good as gone.
But a day later, a check arrived in the mail for $300, along with profound thanks from Jenni Ware, 45. Ware suggested that Hazard use the extra $93 for a nice massage.
Instead, Hazard went back online and asked her friends to recommend a better use for the money. Times are tough, one friend wrote back, and suggested a donation to Second Harvest, a Bay Area food bank.

Hazard agreed and then matched Ware’s original $93 with her own. Word spread. A little kid gave 93 cents. A single mother donated $9.30 from the last $25 in her monthly budget. By the end of its first year, the newly christened 93 Dollar Club had bequeathed $100,000 to Second Harvest.
But the story doesn’t end there. “We want to raise $200,000 this year,” says Hazard. And they just might. The 93 Dollar Club recently received a second donation of $9,300—its largest yet.

[kuhio98]

A Cup of Kindness
In college I had a job as a counter person. Every morning the same people lined up for their coffee. Eventually, whenever I saw a regular customer, I'd just hand over "the usual." On my last day at the job I mentioned to a couple of my regulars that I was leaving. They came back at lunchtime with a bouquet of flowers. That gesture made me feel as though I mattered, that I wasn't just another nameless, faceless service provider.
-- Sabrina Regan, Rosedale, New York

[kuhio98]

[kuhio98]

Four years ago, after hearing about a boy with a program to give away backpacks, Jacob Rice decided to do something similar for disadvantaged kids in East Tampa. A local social services agency tipped him off that kids’ shoes were needed, and Rice had found his cause. At his first event, a back-to-school night, 72 kids signed up for shoes.

Rice found a local store that agreed to provide him with shoes at a bargain price. It took private donors and a foundation to help, but eight months later, Rice was able to deliver every last one of the 72 pairs of shoes. Now Rice’s nonprofit charity, Shoe Giver of Tampa, works with Soles4Souls of Nashville, Tennessee, a group that collects and distributes shoes worldwide. Every few months, Rice measures dozens of kids’ feet and sends the sizes to Soles4Souls founder Wayne Elsey, who finds the shoes and has them delivered to Rice. Then Rice distributes them to the youngsters. To date, Rice has handed over more than 1,300 pairs of shoes, not only in East Tampa but also in the Dominican Republic and Liberia.
His current goal: to donate 10,000 pairs of shoes. “I’ve learned how important it is to help your community,” says Rice. “When you’re in a position to help, you have an obligation to do it.”