The good guys thread

[cassiesmom]

I heard about this on the radio, way to go Palos Heights FPD and the people who called them!

(From the Chicago Tribune)

Three Palos Heights firefighters this week rescued a mother duck and her ducklings who snarled traffic while trying to cross Harlem Avenue before eight of the brood fell through a grated sewer cover as rush hour commuters watched in horror.

The firefighters were called to the scene Thursday evening after bystanders saw the duck and her 10 ducklings step off the curb to cross Harlem near Illinois Highway 83, causing drivers to slam their brakes to allow the flock to pass, said Bryan Mueller, a firefighter with the Palos Heights Fire Protection District.

Their plight worsened as the ducklings, walking single file behind their mother, began to disappear, one-by-one falling through a sewer cover on Harlem. By the time the mother realized some of her brood was missing, eight of them had fallen about six feet into a storm water runoff pipe underneath the grate, Mueller said.

While the bystanders attempted to herd the remaining two ducklings and their mother out of the street and back to the sidewalk, a bystander called the police for help. Two squad cars arrived and attempted to control the southbound traffic, which was beginning to snarl, but neither officer knew how to get the ducklings out of the rain sewer.

The Palos Heights Fire Protection District was called and Mueller said that as they boarded the engine, the chief handed them a large fishing net explaining that they would probably need it for the rescue. "The net was actually purchased just for this type of rescue," Mueller said.

Mueller said he pried open the large sewer cover and spotted the ducklings swimming in circles in the water left from last week's storms. The ducklings, however, were not close enough to bring up by hand.

"This is where the net came in," Mueller said. "We just started scooping them out."

Meanwhile, drivers in the southbound lanes who were unable to move began to become irate, said one witness who works at the Palos Animal Hospital at the corner of Route 83 and Harlem. At one point, the mother duck began to frantically swoop down at the firefighters because she thought they were trying to harm her ducklings, Mueller said.

Two veterinary technicians from Palos Animal Hospital who came out to watch the rescue brought a large plastic kennel to aid the firefighters, Mueller said.

After about 45 minutes, the eight baby ducklings were safely placed into the crate and carried across Harlem where the firefighters found a secluded spot to let them out. Within minutes they were reunited with their mother who had followed them.

Firefighters Matt Gruca and Bryan Mueller and Lt. Adam Casper remained for about an hour to make sure the brood did not try to return to Harlem Avenue.

[kuhio98]

All involved agree, sand dune rescue 'a miracle'


CHICAGO (AP) — One minute, 6-year-old Nathan Woessner was scampering up a massive dune in northern Indiana with his dad and a friend. He was gone the next, without a warning or sound.

More than three hours later, rescuers pulled Nathan out from under 11 feet of sand on Friday. He showed no signs of life: He was cold to the touch, had no pulse and wasn't breathing. His limp body was put into the back of a pickup truck, which started toward a waiting ambulance.

The plan was to take him to the hospital rather than the coroner's office, even if he was dead, in order to "give the family and rescue workers hope," La Porte (Ind.) County Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Huffman said Monday.

As the truck bounced over the dune, a medic noticed something astonishing: The boy took a breath. Then, the cut on his head started bleeding. The jolt apparently shocked Nathan's body back to life, Huffman said. Nathan was rushed to the hospital and was crying in the emergency room when Huffman arrived a few minutes later.

"Man, I tell you that was such a great feeling," Huffman said. "This is not something that I as the chief deputy coroner get to report that often. It's an absolute miracle this child survived."

Nathan, of Sterling, Ill., remains in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, but he is expected to recover and be released in 10 to 14 days, Dr. Tracy Koogler said Monday. Of greatest concern is his lungs, as the amount of sand he breathed in could lead to asthma-like symptoms, she said.

Don Reul, Nathan's grandfather, was getting ready for bed after a long day of tooling around on motorcycles in New York state with his wife and another couple when the phone rang. On the other end was the "hysterical" voice of his daughter, Faith Woessner.

In this July 12, 2013 file photo, Michigan City police and firefighters dig with shovels to r …"She said, 'Dad, Dad, we can't find him, he's under the sand," said Reul, a minister from Galva, Ill.

But he understood little else, and by the time he hung up, he believed that his grandson had fallen on the beach at Indiana Dunes National Seashore and had been pulled into Lake Michigan.

"I said Nathan has died, he's drowned," Reul told his wife.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, running for about 25 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, is a popular vacation spot that has long attracted families, hikers and birdwatchers. The dune Nathan fell feet-first into is one of the tallest, the 123-foot-tall Mount Baldy.

Nathan's 8-year-old friend rushed to where his dad and Nathan's dad were, and told them Nathan had vanished. Reul said that by the time Nathan's father found the hole, he could hear his son, but not see him.

The two men frantically dug sand from the spot where Nathan had fallen, but stopped after it was about four feet deep, Reul said, realizing they may have driven Nathan "deeper and deeper." Faith Woessner, meanwhile, was begging people to help them dig.

Michigan City, Ind., firefighters soon arrived and excavating companies brought backhoes and other heavy equipment to try to catch up with the boy, who was still sinking into the sand. According to media reports, the first responders pushed a rod down into the sand in the hopes of finding the boy.

In this July 12, 2013, photo rescue workers with heavy equipment working to free 6-year-old Nathan W …Hours passed without a sign of Nathan. Huffman, the coroner arrived, which Reul said must have been a sure sign that the rescuers feared the worst: It wouldn't be a rescue.

Then, volunteer firefighter Ryan Miller, the vice president of an excavating company, spotted the outline of what looked like a rotten tree about 11 feet down — maybe more — and pushed the rod until it stopped at the boy. Michigan City firefighter Brad Kreighbaum reached down and "felt what he believed to be Nathan's head," Miller said.

It was just in time, as there was no air pocket surrounding Nathan.

"He was fully encapsulated in sand," Miller said, noting it took about five firefighters to pull him out.

Once the family heard the boy was bleeding, Reul said, "Hope began to bubble up... that Nathan's not gone."

He was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital from an Indiana hospital Friday night.

"I expected him to arrive much sicker than he did," said Koogler, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit.

In this July 12, 2013, photo rescue workers with a stretcher carrying 6-year-old Nathan Woessner aft …Nathan was sedated so doctors could remove as much of the sand in his lungs as possible. She said Monday doctors don't see any more sand particles, but believe some is still in there.

Doctors also said early neurological tests didn't reveal any brain damage; Nathan can move his arms, legs, fingers and toes. Koogler also said Nathan's eyes appear to be fine, adding he must have had closed them while buried in the sand.

She said the biggest concern remains the boy's lungs, telling reporters Monday that Nathan could develop asthma-like symptoms in the months to come, but that the injury to his lungs was "not nearly as severe as I expected it to be."

Koogler said if Nathan continues to recover at the same rate, he would likely be taken off the ventilator by the end of the week and released from the hospital in 10-14 days, but may need another month in a rehab facility.

In six months, she said, 'I'm hoping that he's going to be acting like a normal 6- to 7-year-old, riding a bicycle, doing what a normal 6- or 7-year-old does."

Reul said that before he and his wife heard anything about his grandson, he experienced sharp, stabbing pains in his chest. Reul was not ready to say Monday that those pains happened at approximately the time his grandson fell into the sinkhole.

But he was sure of what happened after: "It is a miracle."

[kuhio98]

Mark by Avon M.Powerment Gift Set

For the glamorous ladies on your gift list, this gem-crusted compact mirror and gorgeous lipstick make a perfect present.

When you purchase this set, 100% of the proceeds go to Mark's m.powerment program which raises awareness about domestic violence.

Buy it now at shop.meetmark.com, $24

[kuhio98]

From Ladies Home Journal: Loving Dogs & Neighbors

I met a woman on assistance who was struggling to feed her two dogs, so we stepped in and have provided her with food and treats for both and will continue to do so as long as she needs it. She is a good owner, and loves them both dearly.

[kuhio98]

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - A local mom is producing a line of T-shirts inspired by her little boy and his glasses.

Jessica Butler said her son Scott was born with a congenital cataract, and required surgery when he was just 4 weeks old. Since then, glasses and eye patches have been a part of his everyday life.



And so have the questions from strangers. Many people ask whether the toddler's glasses are even real.

"With an infant in glasses, you get asked that every time you leave the house," Jessica Butler said. "People always think that they're just toys or fake, but they aren't, they're really prescription glasses."

It's all inspired a line of T-shirts and a company called Eye Power Kid's Wear. The goal is to make people of all ages, but especially children, feel good about their glasses. One of the most popular shirts says, "My glasses give me superpowers."

That particular shirt can even be ordered with a detachable cape.

Butler launched a Kickstarter.com page in May hoping to raise $3,000 to get the project off the ground. She ended up with nearly $5,000 in donations to launch her business.

She's hoping this project will inspire others, especially families who have to go through the patching process of a child with an eye disorder.

There's even a shirt for that. It says, "Will patch for cake," because sometimes you have to bribe children with a sweet treat to keep the patch on, Butler said.

"It's really hard some days," she said. "They cry and they fight it. Some days you go through five or six patches, so it's just kind of inspiring people to not give up."

For more information, go to eyepowerkidswear.com.

[kuhio98]

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A Bakersfield girl in the hospital with cystic fibrosis has a simple birthday wish -- and you can help make it happen.

Emma Ritter,6, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was only 18 months old.

She currently is hospitalized at Children's Hospital Central California in Madera. Although this is her 14th time being hospitalized, things are looking up.

"This year I think has actually been our best year with this… we have gotten nothing but good news every time we have gone to the hospital," said her father, Matt Ritter.

Her birthday is on Monday, July 22 and she has one birthday wish -- 100 birthday cards.

"My wife just asked her what do you want for your birthday and she is all simply, I just want a hundred birthday cards," said her father.

Her family says they'd like the cards to be "special," including drawings for Emma or personal messages of hope.



If you'd like to help, you can mail a card to the following address:

Emma Ritter Room 506

c/o Children's Hospital Central California

9300 Children's Place

Madera, CA 93636



You can also e-mail a special birthday wish to the following address:

http://www.childrenscentralcal.org/S...=thankYou.aspx

[kuhio98]

The owners of Blue Marble ice cream shops, in Brooklyn, New York, are expanding their business to Butare, Rwanda. Alexis Miesen and Jennie Dundas are building their first store there, which will be run (and co-owned) by Rwandan women.

[cassiesmom]

This little guy was discharged from the hospital today. He's truly a miracle kid.

All involved agree, sand dune rescue 'a miracle'


CHICAGO (AP) — One minute, 6-year-old Nathan Woessner was scampering up a massive dune in northern Indiana with his dad and a friend. He was gone the next, without a warning or sound.

More than three hours later, rescuers pulled Nathan out from under 11 feet of sand on Friday. He showed no signs of life: He was cold to the touch, had no pulse and wasn't breathing. His limp body was put into the back of a pickup truck, which started toward a waiting ambulance.

The plan was to take him to the hospital rather than the coroner's office, even if he was dead, in order to "give the family and rescue workers hope," La Porte (Ind.) County Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Huffman said Monday.

As the truck bounced over the dune, a medic noticed something astonishing: The boy took a breath. Then, the cut on his head started bleeding. The jolt apparently shocked Nathan's body back to life, Huffman said. Nathan was rushed to the hospital and was crying in the emergency room when Huffman arrived a few minutes later.

"Man, I tell you that was such a great feeling," Huffman said. "This is not something that I as the chief deputy coroner get to report that often. It's an absolute miracle this child survived."

Nathan, of Sterling, Ill., remains in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, but he is expected to recover and be released in 10 to 14 days, Dr. Tracy Koogler said Monday. Of greatest concern is his lungs, as the amount of sand he breathed in could lead to asthma-like symptoms, she said.

Don Reul, Nathan's grandfather, was getting ready for bed after a long day of tooling around on motorcycles in New York state with his wife and another couple when the phone rang. On the other end was the "hysterical" voice of his daughter, Faith Woessner.

In this July 12, 2013 file photo, Michigan City police and firefighters dig with shovels to r …"She said, 'Dad, Dad, we can't find him, he's under the sand," said Reul, a minister from Galva, Ill.

But he understood little else, and by the time he hung up, he believed that his grandson had fallen on the beach at Indiana Dunes National Seashore and had been pulled into Lake Michigan.

"I said Nathan has died, he's drowned," Reul told his wife.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, running for about 25 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, is a popular vacation spot that has long attracted families, hikers and birdwatchers. The dune Nathan fell feet-first into is one of the tallest, the 123-foot-tall Mount Baldy.

Nathan's 8-year-old friend rushed to where his dad and Nathan's dad were, and told them Nathan had vanished. Reul said that by the time Nathan's father found the hole, he could hear his son, but not see him.

The two men frantically dug sand from the spot where Nathan had fallen, but stopped after it was about four feet deep, Reul said, realizing they may have driven Nathan "deeper and deeper." Faith Woessner, meanwhile, was begging people to help them dig.

Michigan City, Ind., firefighters soon arrived and excavating companies brought backhoes and other heavy equipment to try to catch up with the boy, who was still sinking into the sand. According to media reports, the first responders pushed a rod down into the sand in the hopes of finding the boy.

In this July 12, 2013, photo rescue workers with heavy equipment working to free 6-year-old Nathan W …Hours passed without a sign of Nathan. Huffman, the coroner arrived, which Reul said must have been a sure sign that the rescuers feared the worst: It wouldn't be a rescue.

Then, volunteer firefighter Ryan Miller, the vice president of an excavating company, spotted the outline of what looked like a rotten tree about 11 feet down — maybe more — and pushed the rod until it stopped at the boy. Michigan City firefighter Brad Kreighbaum reached down and "felt what he believed to be Nathan's head," Miller said.

It was just in time, as there was no air pocket surrounding Nathan.

"He was fully encapsulated in sand," Miller said, noting it took about five firefighters to pull him out.

Once the family heard the boy was bleeding, Reul said, "Hope began to bubble up... that Nathan's not gone."

He was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital from an Indiana hospital Friday night.

"I expected him to arrive much sicker than he did," said Koogler, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit.

In this July 12, 2013, photo rescue workers with a stretcher carrying 6-year-old Nathan Woessner aft …Nathan was sedated so doctors could remove as much of the sand in his lungs as possible. She said Monday doctors don't see any more sand particles, but believe some is still in there.

Doctors also said early neurological tests didn't reveal any brain damage; Nathan can move his arms, legs, fingers and toes. Koogler also said Nathan's eyes appear to be fine, adding he must have had closed them while buried in the sand.

She said the biggest concern remains the boy's lungs, telling reporters Monday that Nathan could develop asthma-like symptoms in the months to come, but that the injury to his lungs was "not nearly as severe as I expected it to be."

Koogler said if Nathan continues to recover at the same rate, he would likely be taken off the ventilator by the end of the week and released from the hospital in 10-14 days, but may need another month in a rehab facility.

In six months, she said, 'I'm hoping that he's going to be acting like a normal 6- to 7-year-old, riding a bicycle, doing what a normal 6- or 7-year-old does."

Reul said that before he and his wife heard anything about his grandson, he experienced sharp, stabbing pains in his chest. Reul was not ready to say Monday that those pains happened at approximately the time his grandson fell into the sinkhole.

But he was sure of what happened after: "It is a miracle."

[kuhio98]

This little guy was discharged from the hospital today. He's truly a miracle kid.

Definitely a miracle survival. If he was a cat, I'd say he used up all of his 9 lives!

Nathan, little buddy, I pray you have a long and happy life.

[cassiesmom]

NFL Rookie Rescues Woman and Her Three Kids while Driving to Training Camp
JULY 26, 2013
Ryan Gorman, Daily Mail
An NFL rookie is being called a hero after pulling a family to safety from a burning car Tuesday. Jonathan ‘Tig’ Willard, an undrafted free agent rookie with the Tennessee Titans, and another man pulled a mother, her three children and their dog from their car as it burned on the side of a Tennessee highway Tuesday while driving to Titans training camp. ‘They’re my angels, they’re a Godsend, it was a miracle that they were there,’ Cheri Hubbard told Good Morning America.

[kuhio98]

GENESEE COUNTY, MI (WNEM) - A Genesee County woman is counting her blessings after she lost her wedding ring in a waterfall – only to have it returned by an upstanding citizen.

"And I go, ‘you're kidding me, oh my God no, you're kidding me'," said LeLonnie Alexander on the moment she was reunited with her wedding ring.

She lost it during a vacation in northern Michigan while at a waterfall, and figured it was gone for good. "I slipped and fell down into the water and I'm waving my hands back and forth … and all of a sudden the ring flies off and I said, ‘I lost my ring.'"

After a long search in the water, Alexander lost all hope of finding it. She notified the campground area police department and posted about her lost ring on social media. Several days later, she received a phone call.

"I got a call and they asked me to describe my ring because they thought somebody had found it," said Alexander.

A boy all the way from Nashville, TN, heard about what had happened. When his family visited the waterfall while on vacation, he decided to search for the ring himself.

"He heard about the story and went into the water with his little snorkel and his mask," explained Alexander.

And he found the $4,000 ring.

This week his family returned it to Alexander. She says she can't thank the boy enough for his honesty. "I get goose bumps because that little boy deserves every bit of praise that he can get," gushed Alexander.

Now the ring holder says she's doing whatever she can to make sure she doesn't lose her ring ever again. "This baby's getting insured and resized," said Alexander.

Alexander did give the boy a $200 reward for returning her ring.

[kuhio98]

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - For his 50th birthday, Steve Marshall wanted to do something special, but a cruise in the Caribbean or a vacation in Hawaii wasn't exactly what he had in mind. "When the family started asking, 'What do you want to do for your 50th?' I prayed about it and said I don't have any interest in having a party for myself, but how awesome would it be if I could find a family and spend the day honoring them?"

Instead, Marshall wanted to make a difference for someone in need of a little help and care.

Marshall said his friend, a pastor at a church in north Portland, helped him find Kimberely Dixon.

Dixon lost her husband two years ago and her son died in a gang shooting last month. Her granddaughter passed away from a typically treatable illness a few weeks ago.

Marshall and dozens of family and friends turned out to fix up Dixon's home.

"I've probably got about 75 to 100 people here today and I've had generous donations from businesses all over the place," he said. "It's become a bit of a home remodel, something far beyond what I ever expected."

"He started kind of marking out what he wanted to do. I was like, 'That's what you want to do?'" Dixon said. "And he did a walk through the house and here we are today, celebrating his birthday in this unique and different way."


Dixon, who has four children, said she hopes Marshall's decision will inspire people to make a difference in the lives of others, even if it's as simple as sharing a smile.

"To have somebody spearhead such joy is overwhelmingly amazing. And we as a family and hopefully as a community are so blessed by this effort," she said.

[cassiesmom]

CHICAGO (CBS) – A Chicago man said Sears is lucky he’s honest; otherwise, the retailer could have exposed hundreds of its former employees to identity theft.

WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, on Saturday, Hersey Mallory went to a liquidation sale at the Sears store in Chatham — which has since closed — and bought three file cabinets.

As he was loading them, he noticed something different about one of the cabinets.

“I couldn’t imagine why it would be so heavy,” he said.

When he opened the file cabinet, he found sensitive employment records — including bank information — for hundreds of fired and retired Sears employees.

“It shows their birth certificate, it shows their Social Security number, it shows how much they were being paid,” Mallory said. “In this day of identity theft, I’ve got all of these people’s whole Social Security numbers, whole addresses.”

He claimed he got the run-around when he called Sears, so he tried the human resources department.

“That was even worse, because we got some chick on there who started talking to me about ‘Well, I’m going to have to do an investigation,’” Mallory said. “I said ‘What are you talking about, doing an investigation? Come over here and get this stuff.’”

After going to the media, Mallory said Sears promised to pick up the records, and promised him a $100 gift certificate to thank him for his honesty.

Mallory said he didn’t want a reward, he did it because it was the right thing to do.

“It could have been somebody that I cared about, somebody that I knew. It just wouldn’t have been right,” he said.