The good guys thread

[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.

[kuhio98]

SECURITY TECHNICIAN GUY BURNETT, 27
He rescues two trapped babies from a roadside canal

Last June 13 was a brilliant Sunday in South Florida, and Claudia Cox, in the backseat of a friend's Mitsubishi, was going from Miami to Naples to visit her boyfriend Otasha Barrett with their year-old twin daughters, Kendia and Kenisha, strapped into car seats beside her. Heading west through the Everglades on 1-75, Cox, 23, a hospital lab assistant, was singing gospel tunes with her cousin Simone Hyatt, who was sitting in front with driver Tashana Brown. But just after 3 p.m. a front tire blew, and the car crashed through a fence, flipping over and landing upside down in an alligator-infested canal. "All I could think was 'I'm going to die,' " says Cox. "Then I thought, 'Please, God, don't let anything happen to my babies.' "

The answer to her prayers was Guy Burnett, who had been just minutes behind Cox, driving with his wife and two children. Burnett pulled over and saw that all three women were out of the car, but that Cox was standing in the water screaming, "My babies!" Then a serviceman for a security firm, Burnett dove into the murky canal and tried vainly to open the car doors. "It was like pea soup," he recalls. "I wouldn't have seen my hand if I'd held it in front of my face." Finally, finding an open window, he unlocked a door and freed Kenisha from her car seat and brought her to safety. That's when he heard Cox screaming, "There's two of them!" Diving back in, he found Kendia and brought her to the surface. But it seemed too late. "She was like a rag doll," Burnett says. Cox's friend Brown, a flight attendant with first aid training, began administering CPR. Then Burnett, who learned the technique as a lifeguard in high school, took over. "C'mon, baby, breathe!" he exhorted. After a couple of minutes, Kendia whimpered. "That progressed to a good cry," he says. "It was like music to my ears."

[kuhio98]

An AWOL cockatiel is watched over from above until he turns himself in.

By Kim, Schenectady, New York

"Rocko! Get back here!” I heard Dad calling to our one-year-old cockatiel from the front porch. Dad whistled the special high-pitched tune he used to communicate with him. Normally Rocko whistled the song right back. Not this time. Rocko must have flown the coop! I thought, running to the porch.

“I was cleaning Rocko’s cage,” Dad said. “He got excited and flew out.”

I went into the yard and spied Rocko in a neighbor’s tree. Dad and I followed him from tree to tree, whistling. “He’s probably afraid it’s not us,” Dad said. Eventually we lost sight of Rocko’s gray and white feathers.

After driving around the neighborhood late into the night, we had to accept that Rocko was gone. I hoped angels flew with him, keeping him safe.

A week later a neighbor surprised us. “I just saw Rocko on the news,” she said. “During a segment on the police academy, he landed on a recruit’s hat!”

We raced over to the police academy. When we arrived Dad whistled his special song. Rocko perked his head up and whistled right back. What safer place for angels to have led him?

[kuhio98]

Whistle Necklace

Giving back never looked so good. This necklace from Falling Whistles is the perfect conversation piece for awareness. It comes in different metals, so you can add it to any outfit -- becoming a whistle blower for peace.

One hundred percent of proceeds go toward helping war-affected kids in the Democratic Republic of Congo through rehabilitation programs and stateside advocacy.

Buy it now at store.fallingwhistles.com, $34