The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Sgt. Kevin Briggs Stops Suicides on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge


More than twice a month, on average, those who've lost all hope come to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, climb over the railing and, tragically, plunge 220 feet into the Pacific Ocean to end their pain.

That number would be higher, if not for California Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Briggs, nicknamed the "Guardian of the Golden Gate." Since 1994, through sheer compassion and expert listening skills, Sgt. Briggs has helped convince more than 200 people on the precipice of death not to take their lives (so far, he's only lost one).

"People who come to jump don't necessarily want to die," explains Briggs, 50, who calmly introduces himself just a few feet away to the despondent person, often standing for hours in bone-chilling wind or heavy fog.

"I try to find out what brought them to this point," says Briggs, a cancer survivor and father of two boys. "If I can get them to break down, that's a good sign, it shows they're listening and thinking. If someone says they have no plan for tomorrow, I say, 'OK, let's make one.' "

"Sgt. Briggs not only saves lives, he inspires us all with his compassion and dedication," says Robert Gebbia, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention director. "He's a true American hero."

In March 2005, Kevin Berthia, then 22, a former postal worker who'd battled lifelong depression and was overwhelmed as a new father, was about to jump when Briggs, who happened to be passing by, spotted him.

"I know you must be in tremendous pain," Briggs told him. "If you want to talk, I'm here to listen."

It was a life-changing moment for Berthia.

"Sgt. Briggs got me to open up about stuff I'd never dealt with before, like not knowing my real parents," says Berthia, an adoptee, who now takes medication for depression. "He made me realize we're all here for a purpose, and life is about finding just what that purpose is. I owe every bit of my second chance to him."

[kuhio98]

FISHERMAN SHAUN CURNOW, 32
A helping hand for a deer in deep water

As he headed out at dawn last June off the coast of Cornwall, England, fisherman Shaun Curnow of the village of St. Keverne was hoping for a standard day's haul of 500 pounds of mackerel. Instead, as he scanned the sea a quarter-mile offshore, he spotted a disturbance in the water. "The gulls were really going in on something," says Curnow. "I could see this little brown blob. I thought it was a bit of driftwood at first."

But it wasn't. As Curnow pulled his 19-ft. fishing boat, the Bold Venture, toward the scene, he made out an object moving against the tide. "As soon as I saw the antlers, I knew what it was," he says. " 'That's a blinkin' deer!' " After several attempts to pull alongside the flailing animal, Curnow finally managed to grab hold of the exhausted creature and haul him over the side. "He was huffing and puffing and panting," says Curnow, who offered the deer a bit of a Kit Kat bar. "He kept looking at me, and he was a sad little thing." Onshore in 20 minutes, Curnow, who had radioed ahead, was met by local veterinarian David Cromey, who examined the winded but healthy 3-year-old male—which weighed in at 65 lbs.—and later released him into the nearby woods.

To date no one in St. Keverne, where few deer are ever seen, has been able to explain how the hapless animal wound up in the sea. But his rescue briefly made Curnow, a divorced father of two, a national celebrity. "They were all ready for big brown eyes and a story with a happy ending," says Cromey. "And that's what they got."

[Karen]

fter several attempts to pull alongside the flailing animal, Curnow finally managed to grab hold of the exhausted creature and haul him over the side. "He was huffing and puffing and panting," says Curnow, who offered the deer a bit of a Kit Kat bar. "He kept looking at me, and he was a sad little thing." Onshore in 20 minutes, Curnow, who had radioed ahead, was met by local veterinarian David Cromey, who examined the winded but healthy 3-year-old male—which weighed in at 65 lbs.—and later released him into the nearby woods.

Who knew a deer would eat a Kit Kat bar! That's an ad in the making! I bet that's one buck who will never go for an ocean swim again!

[kuhio98]

A Heavenly Hero in a Black Chariot

By Margaret David, Tujunga, California

I wasn’t as spry as I used to be, but I liked to walk, rather than drive, around my small town. Shopping, the doctor’s office, the bank were all nearby, clustered around a busy five-way intersection that connected to the thruway.

Seeing the traffic as I strolled back home, I was glad to be on foot.

Then I heard a growl. A dog—not looking quite right—stalked toward me. I backed up. Grrrrr! A snarl from behind. I nearly jumped out of my skin. At my heels was a second dog, as angry as the first. Oh, no, I’ve stepped in the middle of something....

We have strict leash laws in California, but no owner was in sight—no one except the people driving by. I knew I wouldn’t get far trying to run. “Nice doggie...” I whispered.

From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a black car exiting the thruway. Shiny like it had just come from the dealer’s lot. It suddenly stopped on the opposite side of the street. A tall, slender man stepped out and calmly crossed the street toward me, dodging the slowing cars without a second glance.

“Go home!” he commanded the dogs. “Go home!”

The dogs turned tail and ran. The man headed back to his car.

I shouted after him, but he didn’t seem to hear over the traffic noise. He got in his car, started it and drove out of sight.

A black car? I wondered. Shouldn’t it have been angel white?

[kuhio98]

Barb Bratvold's First-Graders Send Get Well Cards to Thousands of Strangers

One week after Donna O'Malley's 23-year-old son died last February, the retired Montevideo, Minn., nursing-home worker found a large manila envelope stuffed inside her mailbox.

Inside were 15 handmade sympathy cards from a group of first-graders O'Malley had never met.

"We're so sorry about your loss," read one card in a crooked scrawl, covered with pink and purple hearts.

"We care about you," read another, embellished with rainbows and a smiling sun.

O'Malley wept as she sifted through the stack of cards, savoring each message.

"It touched my heart that these young kids took the time to think about me and my son," she says. "I still have the cards on display in my sun room. I'll treasure them forever."

O'Malley is among 50,000 people who have lost loved ones, are ill or just need to know someone cares who have received surprise packages from the Kindness Club at Evansville Elementary, a student charity started in 1995 by teacher Barb Bratvold.

Bratvold had assigned her students to make get-well cards for a guest speaker who became ill shortly after visiting their class.

The kids enjoyed the project so much, she says, that they asked if they could continue making cards for others in the community who needed cheering up.

Whenever anybody in Evansville, Minn., learns about a friend or relative going through a tough time, they know to tell the Kindness Club, says Hallie Richter, 6.

"I like to write 'I love you' on all of my cards and decorate them with lots of stickers," says the first-grader. "I hope they help people to get better faster."

Meeting twice a week, "the Kindness Club is a way to teach my kids that the world isn’t all about them, there are people out there who are hurting," adds Bratvold, 57.

"Even though they’re only in first grade, this is a way they can make a difference," she says.

She recalls the story of one boy who initially didn’t want to make cards for people he didn’t know until he came to school one day in tears.

His favorite babysitter had been killed in a car accident.

"He spent a lot of time making a beautiful sympathy card," recalls Bratvold, "then he delivered all of the students' cards to the family."

After he saw how much it meant to her family, he always wanted to participate.

"Those are the kind of lessons I hope stay with my students," she says.

"I always tell my kids, 'Once you're a member of the Kindness Club, you're a lifetime member,' " she says. "I'm hoping that they'll still be making cards when they’re 99."

[cassiesmom]

(source: Fox News, where I was looking for something else - but I found this!)

Less than a week after rescuing a pit bull that would have been put down, a Minnesota mother says the dog returned the favor by detecting a dangerous drop in her son's blood sugar and rescuing the young boy from a life-threatening situation, Fox 9 News reported.

Christi Smith took in TaterTot just hours before he was scheduled to be put down by Minneapolis Animal Care and Control. She planned to foster the four-legged friend until she could find him a permanent home, but she says he's already become family for good.

When watching Peyton Anderson play with his dog, it's clear the two have a special bond -- but Smith didn't know how special that bond was until last week when the pooch alerted her that the 4-year-old was not well in the middle of the night.

"He just seemed kind of weird," Smith recalled. "He wasn't really coherent -- deliriously tired."

Although the 10-month-old pit bull rescue had only been in her home for a few days, TaterTot quickly sensed something was wrong and began licking and jumping on the boy when he wouldn't wake up.

"He kept on whining and barking and running between the two of us," she told Fox 9 News. "I checked on him, and he was barely breathing."

After rushing her son to the emergency room, doctors ran a battery of tests to discover the boy's blood sugar was dangerously low.

"If his blood sugar was that low, he may have been producing ketones," explained Isis Sanchez, of Blue Pearl Veterinary Clinic. "That may have been what the dog picked up on."

Sanchez said TatorTot's keen sense of smell likely helped him realize the change in Peyton's body.

"What, for us, is barely a whiff of something gives them a huge picture of what's going on," she said.

Aside from smell, Sanchez said dogs may also have a sort of "sixth sense" that can detect changes in electrical activity, which is how some dogs may be able to warn people with epilepsy that a seizure may be looming.

"Doggie heroes come in all sizes," she said.

[kuhio98]

People Pets The Daily Treat: Boy and Miniature Horse Became Best Friends Over Shared Disability

Nothing brings two individuals together like common ground – and that's exactly what happened in the case of miniature horse Judd and Tyler Cribbs.

Judd was born at the Capital Area Therapeutic Riding Association in Grantville, Pa., two months ago with a condition that prevents him from supporting his own weight without splints. The association offers horseback riding as therapy to patients with disabilities, but in the case of Judd, the organization was faced with an opportunity to do the opposite.

"It's our turn to give therapy back," CATRA's Ben Nolt told local station WHTM, adding, "There are horses who have had this in the past and recovered normally. We're sort of a wait and see."

While undergoing physical therapy, Judd has become an inspiration to local children, like Cribbs, who also requires splints to stand.

"[Judd] uses them the same way Tyler uses them to strengthen his legs," said his mother, Heather Cribbs. "For Tyler to have an animal that is akin to him, it helps him want to do better because he sees the animal strengthened by the braces."

Though CATRA is committed to helping Judd recover, the cost of his care, which ranges from X-rays to bandage changes, is growing day by day. For those interested in lending a hand, click here http://www.catra.net/Judd.htm to visit the donation page for Judd's treatment.