The good guys thread

[cassiesmom]

A waiter at a Boston-area restaurant witnessed an act of kindness on Tuesday night that's warmed hearts across the internet.

"While waiting tables tonight, a mother and daughter started crying mid-meal. I had no idea what happened until a single guy at the table next to them handed me this note [**] with his bill," wrote the waiter in a Reddit post. "Faith in humanity, restored."

HuffPost reached out to the waiter, who clarified that he couldn't confirm the relationship between the two women, but he was fairly certain they were mother and daughter. After they'd ordered, the woman whom the waiter believes was the daughter took a phone call. Both women then started crying.

What happened next was truly heartwarming:

The single guy who had been sitting next to them had been friendly to me all evening, making jokes and such. When he was finished I gave him his check, and inside the billfold was his credit card and the note that I took a picture of. I combined the 2 checks, and he paid for both. I waited until after he had left to tell them their check had been taken care of. The mother was overwhelmed with gratitude, as was I. It was a great evening.

We're glad people like this man exist in the world.


** Elyse here: I can't copy the picture, but the note says, "Do me a favor and bring me their check too. Someone just got diagnosed."
Here's a link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...n_4109542.html

[kuhio98]

Elyse ~ Wonderful story that goes a long way to prove there are angels all around us. It feels so wonderful to do something nice for someone else.
Sharing another restaurant story that just made the news.



Ellen DeGeneres Gives $10,000 to Waitress Who Paid Soldiers' Tab

A New Hampshire waitress who picked up the lunch tab of two National Guard soldiers affected by the federal government's shutdown has been repaid – more than 300 times over – by television star Ellen DeGeneres.

Sarah Hoidahl, a waitress in Concord, N.H., just wanted to do a nice thing for the soldiers, so she paid for their lunch. It cost her $27.75. On Friday, DeGeneres squared the tab and then some, giving Hoidahl $27.75 in cash and a check for $10,000.

An emotional Hoidahl buried her face in her hands and thanked DeGeneres as the talk show host repeated, "You're a good person."

DeGeneres caught wind of Hoidahl's act of kindness when the New Hampshire National Guard posted a picture on its Facebook page. The story spread quickly online, producers saw it and invited Hoidahl to Hollywood. Ellen also gave her a 50-inch television.

[kuhio98]

Grateful boy dresses up as his doctor for Halloween

SEATTLE -- A Seattle surgeon made such a huge impact on a second grader that the little boy decided to honor the doctor for Halloween.

Of all the costumes 7-year-old Landon Browne could have picked for Halloween, he didn't go for Spiderman, a fireman, a ninja or a warrior. Instead, he showed up to Seattle Children's Hospital on Wednesday dressed as Dr. Jay Rubinstein.

Browne hears pretty well for a deaf child. And what he lacks in hearing, the precocious and gifted child makes up for in smarts.

"I'm pretty smart," he said. "I don't mean to be not humble."

On Wednesday, Browne showed up at the hospital wearing a lab coat, just like the one Rubinstein wore when he performed the two Cochlear implant operations on Browne.

"Well, he worked on both my ears and he's a great surgeon," Browne said.

Rubinstein performed the first surgery when Browne was just nine months old. Browne became an important part of the doctor's research, and last summer he added a Cochlear implant to the child's left ear.

"I'm pretty grateful to him for all the efforts he's made on our behalf, and for him to do this makes it clear that he feels the same way," Rubinstein said.

Rubinstein is now helping develop advances in the way implant patients hear music. They often struggle following melodies and deciphering changes in pitch.

"I do like beat boxing," Browne said.

Browne's dad is a musician and his mom is hopeful about what her son will one day hear thanks to Dr. Rubinstein.

"I completely got goosebumps, because who would want their child to not experience the beauty of music," said Browne's mom, Alysia Browne.

Browne said if he didn't go with the Dr. Rubinstein costume he probably would have dressed up like a vampire or a prince.

[kuhio98]

Good Samaritans get repossessed car back for fallen Tampa police officer's mom

A couple of Good Samaritans got a repossessed car back for fallen Tampa police officer Jeff Kocab's mom.

"That car represents part of Jeff," said Dave Williams. "So she’s got Jeff back in a way."

Williams along with Kevin Crofton surprised Sandy Kocab with a $3,000 check on Thursday to cover the back fees and principal on her 2006 Suzuki Forenza.

"I just want my car back," Kocab said. "Now I can have it back thanks to two wonderful people."

Kocab said on Oct. 5, she and her daughter, Stephanie, woke up to find their car missing outside their Brandon apartment. At first, Kocab thought it had been stolen and called Williams who discovered it had been repossessed.

"I called Hillsborough S.O., it turned out, unfortunately, she was two payments past due," Williams said. "They repo’d it at 3:25 in the morning. At that point, I knew I had to act fast because it’ll go to auction in two weeks."

Kocab said she has been having a tough time since her son was shot and killed during a traffic stop in June of 2010.

"We got behind with the car payment. Things have been on hold since Jeff passed away," she said. "I was a teacher and I quit teaching and so things have just been rough. And then I got sick with asthma.”

To help Kocab out, Williams said he called Crofton, the owner of Uncle John's Pride Sausage, to see if he'd be willing to split the cost to get the car back.

"When Dave told me about it... I was like, 'Sure I’d like to help. Anything I can do,'” Crofton said. "This was so dear to my heart, right around the corner from where my business is, and I just thought it really fit for what I like to do."

Crofton said he's a philanthropist who normally likes to stay behind the scenes.

"God does for me, what I like to do for people. So, it’s not really me, it’s what he’s done through me," he said. "I give all my credit to God.”

Kocab said another reason she wanted that car back is because of the tribute to her son that's on the back window.

"It’s got Jeff’s name on the back,” she said. “I just love these guys that have come through for us. It’s amazing.”

It's one less worry for the fallen officer's mom who has to mentally prepare for Dontae Morris' double murder trial next month. Morris is the man accused of gunning down officers Jeff Kocab and David Curtis.

"We know we have a car and it’s not going to be taken away and it’s ours," Kocab said. "I can get everything else under control.”

"We’ve got your back,” said Williams.

[Catty1]

Vancouver man tracks down owners of SD card filled with world-tour photos



By Nadine Kalinauskas | Good News – 23 hours ago






On October 10, Vancouver photographer Thom Hamilton found an SD card containing 1,200 photos of an around-the-world trip on a sidewalk in Stanley Park. On October 19, he was finally able to track down the owners of the card: Maree and Jock Lindberg of Busseltown, Western Australia.

He mailed the couple their SD card via FedEx this morning.


The Australian couple were just a week away from completing their trip around the world when their camera was stolen.
"They were devastated," Hamilton told the Province. "That was all their memories."

To identify the card's owners, Hamilton combed through their photos and traced their journey, which started on July 22, to Norway, Denmark, Holland, France and Canada. Vancouver was their final destination before returning home.

"As I started seeing images, I kind of saw a really big story developing in front of my eyes," he recalled. "It started painting a picture that it was a retirement couple who are on the trip of a lifetime, possibly."

Hamilton posted some of their photos on his Facebook page and appealed to local media, but no one identified them.

"I empathize with the people in the pictures," he explained his motivation for trying to help to the Province. "Being a photographer, I could image what it would feel like to lose an entire vacation of pictures. I hope that someone would put in some effort to find me."










On closer inspection of the photos, Hamilton realized the couple was probably Australian. Their itinerary was a logical one if they started there, and a T-shirt in one of the photos promoted an annual charity event in Western Australia.

Hamilton contacted Perth Now, the largest newspaper in Western Australia, which ran the story of the lost photos.

"This was a trip literally around the world, so these memories need to find their way home," Hamilton told the newspaper.

Readers recognized the couple.
"Next thing I know is I had a friend request, someone was telling me they’re the cousin of the couple in the photos, and then the whole thing just took off," Hamilton told CTV British Columbia. "Within about half an hour I had an email from Maree, who was actually the owner of the card."

"It's a little bit mind-blowing that there’s almost 7-billion people on the Earth, they could have been from anywhere, and within 10 days, by the start of a Facebook page, this all fell into place," he added.



The Lindbergs had been travelling the world this summer, visiting apprentices who had lived and worked on their farm over the past 20 years.
"So they were going from country to country to country to check in on some people they had taught throughout their life," Hamilton said.

Maree Lindberg told Hamilton that their camera bag had been stolen in Vancouver.
"I can still hardly believe it, I never imagined that I would see any of the photos again," Maree wrote in an email to Hamilton. "I also want to say a huge thank you to you for all the effort you’ve gone to to locate us."

Hamilton is now considering a trip to Australia to meet the Lindbergs.

[kuhio98]

Brandon Elementary students swap birthday presents for charity work

LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - It's not every day that a 10-year-old would decide to swap birthday presents for charity work, but that's exactly what five Brandon Elementary students did.

The girls asked the community over the weekend to donate $1,000 to the American Cancer Society for their birthdays and the community listened.

"We really didn't want presents this year because we just really like to help other people and there are some other people that go [to Brandon Elementary] that don't ever really get any of that kind of stuff," said Autumn Squires.

Lauren Lear, Paige Rawlinson, Reagan McDuffie, Aubrey Lindsey and Autumn Squires decided a couple weeks ago that they wanted to host a birthday party to help raise money for several organizations they liked. They even asked guests to bring canned goods to donate to local food banks.

"It feels good. Our goal is trying to do like people can copy like they can do the same thing that we did," Lauren Lear said.

"Yeah, like, we're trying to get more people to not get presents and start doing donations to give to other people," Paige Rawlinson said.

Sheila Skelton, the director of the HOST lab at Brandon Elementary, said she felt so inspired by what the girls were doing she even donated.

"I think it shows leadership skills. I think—well, I know their families personally so I know how they've been brought up in their homes, and I know they've been taught that to give to others and to help other people and I think it just shows good leadership skills," Skelton said.

The girls say they are unsure if they will donate each year, but would like to send donations to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

"Half of the kids in America or in the World or something go to St. Jude's to get surgery because they have some kind of cancer and we just don't want," Lauren Lear said.

The American Cancer Society's Lufkin office says they think the girl's charitable work is great, and are very impressed with the girl's initiative to help aid cancer research.

[kuhio98]

The Daily Treat: 'Subway Kittens' Find Fur-ever Home with Brooklyn Couple



No need to do away with the hipster wardrobe, Arthur and August – the 'Subway Kittens' have permanently moved to Brooklyn.

In August, the feline duo stopped service along New York City's B and Q lines for several hours when they somehow managed to find their way onto the subway tracks. Following their rescue, the pair was fostered by Steven Liu, a 25-year-old Bushwick, N.Y., resident, and his roommates to prepare them for adoption. "They're still really shy. I think they've been stray for a while," he told the Daily News at the time.

Last week, roughly six weeks after their rescue, Animal Care & Control designated them ready to be brought home by a loving family – and Katherine and Keith Lubeley rose to the occasion. The married couple tell New York magazine they were immediately interested in bringing home the pair.

"We had been thinking about adopting rescue cats for a while and specifically wanted two bonded kittens, so it wasn't out of the blue," said the couple. "Just perfect timing. And these two have a crazy special bond!"

Keep up with your favorite celebs in the pages of PEOPLE Magazine by subscribing now.

And with a few days under their belts in their new surroundings, Arthur and August seem to be adjusting well, as evidenced by the photos Katherine has shared on her Twitter feed.

"They've found all the apartment's soft, sunny places and quiet nooks," said the couple. "They are having a rollicking good time getting to know their new kingdom."