The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

The Cervantes Family Gives Birthday Joy to Homeless Kids

When Amy Cervantes and her husband John wanted to teach their three kids about giving back to the community, they found a way to do it that ended up helping thousands.

Inspiration struck when their oldest son Alex turned 3 and the family was celebrating with a small party at the park. Cervantes, 40, looked at the stack of presents and Thomas the Tank Engine cake and thought about kids who weren't able to celebrate the day they were born.

She came up with a simple, but powerful idea – they would throw a birthday party for a homeless child in a shelter.



"After seeing our own son, it just kind of struck us on that day," Cervantes says of her eldest, now 10. "Realizing how blessed he was to be surrounded by and filled with the sense of care and love from others on the day. It just struck us, made us think about kids who don't get to experience that."

Starting with a luau-themed party for kids at a homeless shelter, Amy, John, 40, a financial adviser, and their three boys Alex, Adam, 8, and Eli, 5, have since feted more than 10,000 needy kids through their nonprofit Bright Blessings. Relying on donations and volunteers, they hold monthly birthday bashes for groups of children, with face-painting, cupcakes and gifts like footballs and board games.

"It never gets old," Cervantes says. "It's a little piece of childhood that many of them are missing because of their life circumstances and that really comes out in their laughter and smiles."

Since their first party in 2005, the Cervantes family – based in Matthews, N.C. – and a small army of regular volunteers throw parties for homeless kids throughout a four-county region in North Carolina. The program has expanded beyond just the area shelters to include the transient homeless – kids who may sleep with their families in their car, at a hotel or even under a bridge.

Bright Blessings works with the school system (and 16 other agencies) to make sure elementary school students can celebrate in their classrooms with cupcakes sent in anonymously to school. Older kids get a backpack full of presents and a bag with a blanket, pillow, and toiletries.
The Family's Far-Reaching Impact
"They have impacted countless families just here at our site alone," says Kenya Henderson, director of the YWCA's Families Together Program. "I think it's a stress reliever for our families, because while they're in the program they're trying to gain stability ... and it's hard for a mom to not acknowledge a birthday. Knowing their kids will get a gift, it meets a great need and it's a huge burden off of the parents. I just see lots of happy children, they burst through the doors, they are genuinely excited to be there."

Alexis Odugba, who lives with her mom in Charlotte's YWCA shelter, celebrated turning 14 in February with pizza and gifts of perfumes and lotions. "I got to blow out a candle, and people sang 'Happy Birthday,' " she says. "I felt very special."

Moments like that help the volunteers understand the true meaning of giving, says Cervantes.

Says Amy, "We had a 10-year-old volunteer helping a 7-year-old boy who was one of the guests of honor. We sang 'Happy Birthday' and the volunteer told the little boy to blow out the candle on his cupcake and make a wish. The boy didn't know what to do. He'd never blown out a candle on a cake before. After he did it he looked up smiling and said, 'Can I do it again?'"

And an added bonus for Cervantes is that her initial goal to teach her kids to give back has grown more than she ever anticipated.

"They all get it," she says of her three boys. "It really is a fabric of our family and they are so involved. They shop with me for the gifts and supplies and snacks and they help pick things out. We all go to the parties together."

Son Alex agrees.

"When I get there the kids light up when we're unloading gifts," he says. "When they hear the [birthday] song, they just get so excited, their faces light up. It's really nice and I feel pretty blessed. They might get a party once or twice in a four year span, but I get it every year."

It's a party that parents like Jasmine Billey, 25, a single mother of three toddlers, says has changed her family's lives. She and her kids have been living in a shelter since an injury kept her out of work as a nurses aid caused her to lose her home.

"It meant a lot because this year I wasn't able to do anything for Christmas for the kids," she says. "And when their birthdays came a month later I still couldn't do anything. Although they're one and don't know, I know, so for them to be able to celebrate it just meant a lot."

[kuhio98]

Meet the Great Dane Who Raised a Deer


For three days in June 2008, Isobel Springett heard the fawn crying.

Apparently abandoned by its mother, the deer was weak and shivering when Springett placed it on a dog bed with her Great Dane Kate.

"She tucked her head under the dog's elbow," says Springett, 54, a former animal control officer. And Kate took the deer to heart. "Her whole demeanor changed," says Springett. "I knew she was a good dog, but I didn't expect her to mother the fawn."

The deer her family named Pippin trailed Kate until returning to the wild weeks later. "But every morning she'd show up, tail wagging, looking for Kate and a bottle." The bond continued, even when Pippin didn't need mothering. When she was a teen, "Pippin and Kate started to play like two deer, leaping and running into each other."

Years on, she now visits with her own fawns. The wild offspring keep a distance, but not Pippin. "They still love to rub noses," says Springett of the deer and her dog, now 11. "There's a strong connection, but they have no idea it's a weird one."

[kuhio98]

Good Samaritan saves newborn's life along Macomb County roadway

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. - A Macomb County man is being credited for saving the life of a newborn after he was flagged down by a hysterical father near Garfield and 22 Mile Roads in Macomb Township March 16.

21-year-old Ryan Cornelissen said he was driving down the road, on his way to the bank, when he was flagged down by a frantic driver.

On the 9-1-1 tapes Cornelissen can be heard telling the dispatcher, "A guy stopped me, I think something’s wrong with his wife. He doesn’t speak very good English. He stopped me on the side of the road."

Cornelissen said, "The mom was sitting in the front seat, she had a blanket and all I saw was the top of the baby's head."

It turns out the man and his wife were on the way to the hospital to have a baby. They didn't make it in time and the woman gave birth in their car. The new dad flagged Cornelissen down after the couple discovered the baby wasn't breathing.

Cornelissen said, "The mom was sitting in the front seat, she had a blanket and all I saw was the top of the baby's head."

The 9-1-1 dispatcher walked Cornelissen through how to give the infant CPR.

"Oh, yes! The baby is whimpering," Cornelissen said after several minutes of performing CPR. "He's breathing!"

Cornelissen said, "I remember the baby's face. I will never forget."

The baby is doing fine but will stay in the hospital for several weeks.

Cornelissen is a Macomb County Community College student who wants to become a police officer. He may be waiting for the badge, but he is already protecting and serving.

[kuhio98]

The Angelic Dog Next Door
She'd certainly touched my life in a way no animal ever had.
By Sara Whalen, Middletown, New York

My 18-month-old son, Adam, called from the front porch. "Look, Mama! Doggie." I dropped what I was doing and stuck my head out the door. Brandy, our next-door neighbor's 11-year-old Golden Retriever, was over again. "Scat!" I said, scooping up Adam and brushing the dog hair off his T-shirt and shorts.

Brandy's owner had died about a month earlier. The woman's family emptied the house, and a real estate agent stuck a For Sale sign in the front yard. But the family had overlooked the old Golden. For weeks she'd been sniffing around the neighborhood, living on scraps and handouts.

It wasn't that I disliked dogs or anything like that. I just didn't think about them much. I never had a dog growing up and never thought to get one.

Brandy loped off and I stayed out on the porch with Adam. The phone rang. I ducked inside to take the call. When I came back out, Adam was gone. I scoured the yard, front and back, then the basketball court and public pool down the block. No trace of him. My worry built to panic. I ran home and called the police, then my husband. Please, Lord, keep Adam safe until we find him.

Police combed the neighborhood. Amid the sirens and commotion of voices, I heard another sound: a dog barking. "It's coming from the woods," one of my neighbors said. We followed the barking to a wooded cliff overlooking a creek. There we found my son, flush up against the trunk of a tree just inches away from the edge of the cliff, fast asleep. Brandy had pressed herself against him. I picked Adam up and leaned down to pat Brandy. She sank down on her side, panting. She must have been holding Adam there for hours!

I thanked the police and brought a safe and sound Adam back to our house. Brandy too. She hesitated a moment on our doorstep, no doubt remembering the times I'd shooed her away. "Come on, girl," I said. "This is your home now." Brandy stepped in, and once she saw she was really welcome, she eased herself onto an old throw rug in the hallway, as if she knew that spot was now hers. She closed her eyes. Her breathing deepened. Her whiskers twitched as she slept. She'd done an incredible thing and I wondered if she knew it. She might have saved my son's life. She'd certainly touched mine in a way no animal ever had. What a shame a dog like Brandy was abandoned. Were there more out there like her?

I learned about other homeless Goldens and took them in, and found homes for many more. It's become a kind of calling for me. Those with disabilities—the old, the blind, the sick—have a special place in my heart. A place I'd never known I had until Brandy opened it.

[kuhio98]

Carpool passenger leaves money behind; driver searches for owner

What would you do if you found money in the back seat of your car? A Woodbridge woman is lucky that the driver who found her money was Reginald Day.

Day carpooled or "slugged" home from work the other day, and a passenger left behind hundreds of dollars. But rather than pocket the cash, Day and his wife, Angela, started looking for the rightful owner.

So he called ABC7 and NewsChannel 8. A viewer saw our story and contacted Gloria Smith.

"I said, 'Oh my God, that's my money.' God is taking care of his children," Smith says. "I had borrowed it for my mortgage. I was short."

Not only did the couple give her the money back. They gave her a ride back home to Woodbridge Thursday night. And say they've found a new friend.

Since 1991, Day has been able to use the HOV lanes during rush hour by "slugging" or picking up passengers at designated stops.

Tuesday, his 22-year routine took an unusual turn. Right after he dropped a woman off at the Horner Road commuter lot in Woodbridge, he made a surprising discovery in the back seat.

"We found a white envelope with some money in it," Day recalled. "It has approximately $617."

Day picked up the passenger at the corner of D and 7 streets Southwest in D.C., located near the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station, around 5 p.m. Tuesday.

"She was probably 5'2'' to 5'4'' in her early 40s, late 30s..and she was wearing a brown jacket," he explained.

He says the money belongs to her since she was his only passenger this week.

"Times are hard for everybody, and I hate to think of the fact that somebody might be missing out with their rent money or car payment money," he says.

Day says he's had people leave behind cell phones and other small items before, but this is a first.

[kuhio98]

Redmond coffee stand customers still pay it forward - $5 gift keeps getting passed on through Easter Sunday

REDMOND, Ore. - In Redmond, Three Peaks Coffee stand is a usual stop for many. But over the last three days now -- the latest Easter Sunday -- the shop has not only offered customers their usual drinks, but a chance to pay it forward.

"I got here at 6 (Friday morning) and my very first customer pulled up, and she randomly just gave me five extra dollars to pay it forward to the next customer," said Three Peaks barista Ashley McNeill said Saturday.

"Really, she was just anticipating one person get their free drink -- and all day, every single person just paid it forward,"she said.

McNeill said every customer she had Friday passed on the money. She was so inspired, she left a note for her co-worker to make sure the act would continue into the next day.

And it did.

When she came in for her afternoon shift Saturday, the five dollar bills were still there on the counter.

McNeill said customers continued to pass on the money all day Saturday -- and one customer even added $2 to the cause.

And then, we're told, the same thing continued throughout Easter Sunday's hours, so the coffee stand will be keeping up on Monday morning.

"It feels so good to be a part of something that's contributing to others," McNeill said. "Because its so easy to get stuck in your ways, and just do your own thing for yourself."

Fellow Three Creeks barista Sheri Lin McGarry agreed.

"Everyone is really happy to go along with it," said McGarry. "You know, they are excited to pay it forward. It makes them feel like they're a part of something bigger."

The shop says they will continue to pass the money on until someone takes the gift. But for now, they are happy to help carry out such an inspiring act of kindness.

"I think it brightens everyone's day just a little bit, to know there's still so many good people out there," McNeill said.

"That's what it's all about," added McGarry. "It has to start somewhere, and if it can start here and spread to other areas and other places, then we've done something good."

[kuhio98]

Rebecca Constantino Brings Books to Disadvantaged Schools

Back in 1999, Rebecca Constantino was doing research for her Ph.D. about what happens in schools when kids have access to luxury. That's when she saw boxes of brand new books stacked up in the hallway of a school in Brentwood, an affluent section of Los Angeles.

"I asked the librarian what she was doing with the books," says Constantino, 49, a Reno native who now lives in L.A.. "She said, 'Well, we just don't have room. I'm throwing them away.' I said, 'Really? Can I have them?' She said, 'Sure.' "

So Constantino packed up all the books and drove them to an elementary school in Compton, an underprivileged section of the city about 15 miles away where schools were shuttering their libraries, unable to afford new books.

"A few days later, someone from Brentwood called me and said, 'I hear you collect books,' " she says. "I told her, 'I don't really but you could bring them to me if you'd like.' The next day I took them to another school." After that she began getting calls from other schools and parents. "My car could fit about 4,500 books," says Constantino, "I was really cramming them in there!"

Fourteen years later, Constantino has donated more than 1.3 million books through the non-profit she eventually created, called Access Books. She's also helped to refurbish more than 200 libraries. "In California, there is absolutely no state funding solely designated for school libraries," says Constantino, "But access to books changes a kid's life."

The schools she has helped agree. "When these kids are given books, they light up, they beam," says Chris Stehr, principal of Vine Street Elementary School, where Contantino has supplied books and refurbished the library. "For a lot of low socio-economic communities, books are a luxury. They view these books as treasures."

With the help of volunteers and donors, Constantino spends her Saturday afternoons making deliveries and renovating run-down school libraries. "It only takes a day," says Constantino, "We paint and give each library a rocking chair, a reading rug and a couch."

An adjunct professor at the University of California-Irvine and UCLA, Constantino says the kids she serves are truly grateful. "People think that kids aren't reading and they aren't interested in books," she says, "but they love books. They're so excited to get them."

And they need them. One young boy, who was being raised by his grandmother while his parents were imprisoned, requested books on Martin Luther King. His grandmother later told Constantino that the books were keeping him off the streets. "Now he's up in his bed reading," the grandmother told her. "He's up all night. Reading and reading."

So Constantino asked the little boy what he liked about the books. "He looked up at me and said, 'Oh, Miss Becky, they take me to a world I've never known," she says.

"It's the best thing anyone's ever said to me."