The good guys thread

[Taz_Zoee]

This was posted on Facebook by someone I went to highschool with.

So, last Sunday in church Pastor Peder talked about how Christ is the homeless, hungry, imprisoned, etc. Well, my husband took a second job at a gas station and has had a homeless guy coming in to get coffee and sometimes food if he was able to find enough money. When my husband works he buys him his coffee and food like hotdogs. He does it because he realizes we don't have everything but the least he can do is buy him a couple of dollars worth of food and drink. We have more than we need. Well, the homeless guy was not coming in for the last couple of weeks and my husband was worried that something happened to him. He showed up last night at the gas station cleaned up and told my husband, he got a job and just got his first pay check and he wanted to buy my husband supper. My husband thanked him and told him he was very happy for him but he had already had supper. As my husband told me this today we both had tears running down our faces. I have never been so proud of my husband. Thank you God for taking away his overtime so he could meet this man by trying to support his family. I am seeing a path that God is laying for us.

[kuhio98]

Randy's Kindness

Randy and his wife Beth are very kind people who GAVE us a car! We are not family. My husband worked with Randy. They just saw that our car was very, very old (1980), and they gave us a safer, much, much newer, beautiful red car. I will never forget their kindness. They also gave us a large container of gumballs for our little girl. The car and gumballs were given as a surprise! One of the best days of my life! Thank you!

[kuhio98]

Boy grows hair out for cancer patient

HAMDEN, Conn. -- He's just 10-years-old but a Hamden boy is making a big difference in the life of a cancer patient.

It was a two year odyssey that recently had a big payoff.

One could argue there is no such thing as a "bad hair day" in the Carrano family.

"She's a hairdresser and he's a barber, so, it's basically just an important part of our family," said Damian Carrano.

When your Mom cuts hair for a living, your dad cuts hair for a living, chances are, their kids are going to have good hair as well so 10-year-old Damian Carrano had an idea about his hair, inspired by the Ronald McDonald House.

"Two years ago, my mother used to take me to the Ronald McDonald House to just play with the kids, know what it's really about," said Damian.

"There was this one particular little girl that he took too, he was playing with her, she was 2, 3-years-old, so cute, and she was missing hair," said Grisel Carrano, Damian's mother.

"I wanted to do this since my mother has cut her hair, and I feel like I really did a good thing for people," said Damian.

Mom Grisel shed and donated her locks for wigs to be used for cancer patients so Damian, then just 8-years-old, vowed to do the same thing, must to the astonishment of his brother.

"Well it would go in his eyes sometimes, and it will cover his face," said Cameron Carrano, Damian's brother.

Much to the astonishment of everyone else, amazed that two years passed without a single clip.

"People in school used to say, "Why do you have long hair? You look like a girl," said Damian.

"It started to go through that funky stage, and I thought that would crack him, and that didn't crack him," said Ron Carrano, Damian's father.

It wasn't the weight of the world on young Damian's shoulders, just hair, 12 inches of it.

"The worst thing about my hair is I had to wash it for like five minutes," said Damian.

His silky mane is now on the way to help a sick child and that, would be a true definition of a "good hair day."

"I just kept on going because I knew it was for a good cause," said Damian.

[kuhio98]

Gonzo the blind sled dog



BRETTON WOODS, NH - If you see him in action, you can tell Gonzo is meant to be a sled dog.

"He just throws his head in the wind. He's just wagging his tail -- he's just along for the ride," says dog musher AJ Norton. "He's such a ham."

But sudden illness threatened to take him off the team. Three years ago, Gonzo went blind in the span of just a couple weeks. Treatments didn't work, and no surgery could restore his sight. His future as a sled dog was in limbo.

"We kind-of went to our vet and we said, 'You know, what do you think?' And he said, 'Run this dog. You know, just take him out and see what he does,'" Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel owner Karen Tolin says. "He looked excited to go, so we harnessed him up, slowly reintroduced him, and over the span of about a year reintegrated him into running with the team. Because he wanted to. He was very sad when he got left behind."

A solution developed when Gonzo's brother, Poncho, became his seeing eye dog. It was a process that took time.

"When Gonzo began to lean into Poncho at first, that's when he became frustrated. But eventually he began to allow that when he realized there was something different about his brother," says Tolin.

And with that realization, Gonzo's future as a sled dog didn't seem so far-fetched anymore.

"Poncho might lean into him, nudge him, bark at him. They've developed a system of commands far beyond what we could teach," Tolin says.

"If they're back there Poncho will kind-of give Gonzo a little nip like, 'Hey bro, there's a hill coming up,'" Norton says.

Though Gonzo and Poncho work quite well as a team, they are trying to make Gonzo more comfortable with other dogs, that way he isn't too dependent on his brother.

"If something were to happen to Gonzo's brother we would want him to feel like he could stand on his own two feet and be confident," says Tolin.

Gonzo's neck line also helps keep him running straight, but his brother has his back when Gonzo's blindness lands him in trouble.

"Gonzo stepped, literally fell off the trail into the deep snow and went 'Poof!'" Tolin says. "The story goes, Poncho literally leaned over and on the X of the X-backed harness, grasped with his front teeth, brought him up, and then they kept going."

And their wagging tale of inspiration has given his handlers a new perspective on disability.

"We perceived him as having a limitation, so we were a bit more hesitant, but for the dogs, the sky's the limit," Tolin says. "He says 'Okay, I'll adapt and keep going.'"

"I figure that if I was blind, I'd rather be out running doing something for fun than sitting at home, you know," says Norton.

They told us that as long as this dynamic duo wants to pull sleds, they're not going to stop them.

Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel also has an active sled dog rescue and adoption program for other dogs. You can learn more about that here: http://www.dogslednh.com/

[kuhio98]

Take a book, leave a book, it's free

FOLSOM, Calif. —Kelly Friesen was struck the moment she saw it at the intersection of Stoney Hill Drive and Gable Street in Folsom.

"Wow. What a great idea," said Friesen, a Folsom resident.

A 6-year old girl took a few looks and expressed satisfaction.

"Yeah, I like it," said Alison, who lives down the street.

Duane Samples watched it all from across the street this week and smiled.

"It's a great feeling," Samples said.

Last week, Samples built a free, mini-library perched atop a wooden post at the corner of his front yard.

"It's named a Little, Free Library," Samples said.

The two-shelf box, with a wood-framed glass door, was built to hold books for anyone to take or leave, at no cost or obligation.

"A lot of times, neighbors don't know neighbors anymore," Samples said. "Hopefully, this will help bring our community a little closer."

[kuhio98]

Made with Love

These moms rallied their community to sew more than 3,000 dresses for girls in Zambia.

Darla Senecal had heard that children in Zambia need help but it wasn't until she saw a talk show featuring Mothers Without Borders (MWB) founder Kathy Headlee Miner that she really understood why: There are millions of kids living in poverty there (more than 800,000 who lost one or both parents to AIDS). Inspired to take action, she told her friend Nancy Luke that the two of them had to find a way to pitch in. The prospect of making a difference in the poverty-stricken country definitely seemed daunting: Few of the children have access to the most basic necessities, like food, shelter, and clothing.

Still, as mothers themselves, Senecal and Luke were determined to help. They formed a local chapter of MWB in their hometown of Bristol, Vermont, with eight of their friends and neighbors. Shortly after their second meeting the women spotted an announcement on the national MWB Web site: Thousands of Zambian girls desperately need dresses. Instructions for making a basic dress, done by stitching a skirt onto the bottom of a T-shirt, were included in the posting. "The concept was so simple, yet genius," says Senecal. The Bristol group made it their mission to contribute as many dresses as possible to the cause -- and to get their community involved. They posted flyers inviting everyone in the area to a Saturday sewathon at their town hall and left collection boxes for T-shirts, skirts, and sewing supplies at local stores. "This project seemed so doable, especially since I knew many other moms would be inspired to help," says Luke.

In fact, the Bristol MWB members and nearly 200 local volunteers stitched more than 1,000 dresses. One of their group members even flew to Zambia to help deliver the clothes. Thrilled by their success, the group held a second sewathon the following year and another two events each year after that, bringing their grand total to more than 3,000 dresses. The women are planning a fifth event next year, with no plans to stop anytime soon. For Luke the experience proved that you don't need to have a lot of money to make a difference in someone's life. "Everyone was able to make a contribution whether it was fabric, thread, or simply their time," she says. "Bit by bit we got the job done."

[kuhio98]

Greenwood Mayor Marvin McGee putting in overtime to plow the streets himself


One city leader in Missouri is working overtime to make sure everyone can get out of the snow.

Marvin McGee is the mayor of Greenwood.

He's been plowing city streets for the past few days.

"I'm a citizens’ mayor,” McGee said. “I would like to think that if I was a citizen, I would want my mayor to pitch in. That's what mayors do."

McGee says residents have been asking the city to clear the snow, but since they only have a two-man crew, he stepped in to help.

This has many people in Greenwood shocked.

"It blew me away,” resident Doyle Garner said. “I mean I was totally shocked. I mean, I grew up in a small town and I never expected to see the mayor himself getting in a Bobcat and coming out and doing all that."

McGee has been using the city's Bobcat to plow the snow since 2010.