The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Lost Teddy Bear Tours Disney Before Heading Home to Alabama


Toby the teddy bear isn't just any old stuffed animal to Brooklyn Andrews.

He's a cherished link to a father who died far too young.

"She's slept with it every night since she got it when she was 3 years old," says her mother, Marsha Andrews, 39, of Chunchula, Ala.

It even has a special message in it recorded from her father, Tony Andrews, a police officer who died of a heart attack on duty in 2006.

"She presses the button every night before she goes to bed and listens to her daddy," says Marsha.

So when the 14-year-old girl lost him on a visit to Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa last month, she was devastated.

After we got home "we were unpacking," says Marsha. "And Brooklyn said, 'Where's Toby?' She was freaking out."

Luckily, Mom saved the day. When a phone call to the resort didn't yield any results, she took to social media.

"Very special bear (Toby) is lost!!" wrote Marsha on January 15. "Toby was given to the little girl by her by her daddy before he left for Iraq with his voice recorded in the bear telling her how much he loves her."

Marsha also belongs to a Facebook group for spouses of police officers who have died in the line of duty.

"I posted in there for them to pray," she says. "They were sharing it everywhere."

That posting somehow caught the eye of a Disney employee who called two days later to say they found Toby.

"Brooklyn was ecstatic," she says. "She was jumping up and down."

Disney not only found the bear, they sent him on a fun-filled day around the park before shipping him home with photographs of his adventures.

"She loved it," says Marsha of the photos. "She said the next time she goes to Disney she's going to take him to the park with her and get more pictures."

The whole experience has been amazing, says Marsha.

"I was shocked how much people cared," she says.

"You'd think people would say, 'He's just a bear.' But he's not just a bear to us – and especially to her."

[Karen]

How sweet! I bet the Disney employees were tickled that that got to return him to his person, I am sure they see many lost toys that never get home again!

[kuhio98]

7-Year-Old Has Raised Over $600,000 to Help Cure His Best Friend's Disease

The next time you think about the power of friendship, think about Dylan Siegel.

Dylan is 7 years old. His best friend, Jonah, has an extremely rare liver disease, and funding for his treatment almost dried up at one point. So Dylan decided to help by writing a book, The Chocolate Bar Book, which has helped raise over $600,000 for research into Jonah's disease.

Jonah has Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1b, which is a rare liver disorder that causes dangerously low blood sugar. As one of 500 children in the world with the disease, Jonah has to be fed every few hours through a feeding tube in his stomach. There is currently no cure.

Dylan describes his friendship with Jonah as "awesome as a chocolate bar," which is where he got the title of his book. People in all 50 states and 42 countries have purchased copies of The Chocolate Bar Book, with every cent going to Dr. David Weinstein's Florida lab, where a cure for the disease is apparently near to being reached.

"It is now reality. It's not just a dream that these children can be cured," Dr. Weinstein told ABC affiliate KGO-TV.

Dylan seems to think so, anyway. Asked where he and Jonah would be 10-15 years from now, he told KGO-TV, "Um, high school and probably [Jonah's] disease would be cured."

Jonah's answer to the same question?

"Friends."

Dylan and Jonah http://chocolatebarbook.com/

[kuhio98]

Backes returns from Sochi with stray dogs

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)– A star St. Louis Blues player who was part of Team USA in the Olympics brought back much more from Sochi than just memories of playing on Olympic ice.

Blues captain David Backes and his wife rescued two of the thousands of stray dogs that were all around Sochi.

We were there as the charter plane with the Backes`, the dogs and others landed at Lambert.

Backes says the two dogs he rescued and other animals kept on showing up at the resort where the players` families were staying.

As the days went by, Sochi Junior and Sochi Jake as Backes calls them, just wouldn`t leave.

So the Backes` went through all the red tape to get them out of Russia.

“By the end of it those two were living in hotel rooms where they shouldn`t have been getting baths in bath tubs where they shouldn`t have been,” explained Backes.

The Backes` are animal lovers. In fact, they run a foundation called Athletes for Animals.

Backes says all the stray animals in Sochi and the amount that were reportedly killed or euthanized touched him.

“When they`re timid and you can kind of tell they`ve been mistreated or you see one with mange or that`s really skinny or fighting over some scraps of food that really tears your heart out because we feel that every dog should have a great home that`s well fed,” explained Backes.

The dogs stayed with the Backes` on the 13 hour plane ride home.

They even tweeted out a picture of them smiling with the dogs while on the flight.

“It`s almost like they knew they were going to somewhere where they wouldn`t have to worry about food or fighting over food or worried about who was coming after them next,” said Backes about the dogs.

After a quick potty break when they landed, the dogs were taken away by the Five Acres Animal Shelter from St. Charles.

They will stay there for 30 days to make sure they are healthy before becoming available for adoption.

“We`re going to be caring for them in that time, socializing them, teaching them English, you know fun things like that,” said Brittany Broombaugh with Five Acres.

Backes added, ‘The story being told of how these dogs are just like yours and mine at home and how you know we should treat our animals with respect and be responsible pet owners is a story that a lot of people wanted to tell and I think we`re telling it now.”

[kuhio98]

Taco Restaurant Employee Hailed As Hero For Stopping Kidnapping

WESTCHESTER (CBSLA.com) — Families in Westchester said they are breathing a sigh of relief following a kidnap attempt Wednesday.

The families are crediting an employee of T2 Tacos, a restaurant in the 7100 block of Manchester Drive, for being the hero who stopped the kidnap attempt.

Residents told KCAL9′s Brittney Hopper that a nanny was walking with a 4-year-old boy Wednesday afternoon — in broad daylight — when a man attempted to steal the child.

The employee — a man named Jesus Delgado – intervened, stopped the man and held him until authorities arrived. (The suspect has been arrested and charged with kidnapping.)

On Thursday evening, the boy’s grateful parents and several mothers from the community went to the restaurant to thank Delgado for his efforts.

The mothers told Hopper that crime was increasing in their neighborhood. In addition to praising Jesus, they also asked police for a larger presence in their community.

Hopper spoke to the baby’s emotional father who said he couldn’t ever thank Delgado enough.

“How can you explain, the feeling that you have of gratitude for someone who saved you son’s life? It’s really an amazing thing that he did,” said Tom O’Brien.

The suspect grabbed the boy and started running. The nanny screamed for help and Delgado ran after the suspect.

Delgado, a husband and father of a little girl with special needs, told Hopper running after the suspect was just instinct. He doesn’t think he did anything heroic.

“It’s incredible,” he said, “Never have I [felt] this.”

A group called Moms With Westchester & Playa del Rey heard about Delgado’s act of heroism and wanted to say thank you.

The group started a GoFundMe account to raise money for Delgado and his special needs child.

“We just wanted to say thank you for being alert and being aware,” said mom Jessica Echeverry.

[kuhio98]

Pay It Forward: Texas Woman Returns Habitat for Humanity Home to Help Others

his article was originally published by NationSwell, a website dedicated to sharing the stories of innovative Americans who are working to effect social change and move the country forward.

It’s not every day that a person asks to return a Habitat for Humanity home.

But that's what happened recently in Kerr County, Texas. Laci Kocurek, who built, maintained and lived in the home with her children for many years, called Karen Quanstrom, executive director of Habitat Kerr County, and said she wanted to deed the house back to the organization. "I had to tell [Quanstrom] several times what I really wanted, and even after that first phone conversation, she called me back several times and said, 'I want to make sure you know what you're doing,' " Kocurek told Habitat World. "She was pretty shocked."

In return, Kocurek wanted something very simple: for the organization to sell the home to another family who needed a place to live.

More from NationSwell: Why Austin, Texas, Is America's Best City for Stray Dogs

Kocurek and her new husband were recently able to buy a home for their expanding family of five. In many cases, Habitat for Humanity will take back homes from owners and return the money that they have put into the mortgage.

But for Kocurek, the family wanted to deed the home back to the organization in order to pass along the positive experience. "That was mine and my kids' first home together – just us – so it was a little sad, but knowing that somebody else who didn’t have a home was going to be moving into it really overpowered that sadness," Kocurek said. "It felt good. It really felt good."

Thanks to the family’s generosity, Habitat Kerr County is able to provide an additional family with a home this year.

"That’s the wonderful joy of it," Quanstrom said.

[kuhio98]

Hingham Bakery Customer Surprises Employees With Large Sum Of Money

HINGHAM (CBS) – You may have heard of the phrase “pay it forward.” The employees of a Hingham bakery just got a good taste of it.

Last week, a man walked into White’s Bakery and ordered a danish. While the employee was wrapping up his treat, he reciprocally treated the employees. He put an envelope on the glass counter, paid for his danish, and quickly walked away.

When employees opened the unmarked envelope, they found thousands of dollars. This act of kindness was no accident.

Security cameras captured the whole interaction. But the man, who is about 55-years-old, saw the camera and turned his back to it, masking his identity.

Nobody has come into the bakery claiming to have lost a large amount of money.

[kuhio98]

An update to this story. Dylan has now raised nearly $1,000,000 for research. And he and Jonah are still best friends. http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/...e/?hpt=us_bn10

7-Year-Old Has Raised Over $600,000 to Help Cure His Best Friend's Disease

The next time you think about the power of friendship, think about Dylan Siegel.

Dylan is 7 years old. His best friend, Jonah, has an extremely rare liver disease, and funding for his treatment almost dried up at one point. So Dylan decided to help by writing a book, The Chocolate Bar Book, which has helped raise over $600,000 for research into Jonah's disease.

Jonah has Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1b, which is a rare liver disorder that causes dangerously low blood sugar. As one of 500 children in the world with the disease, Jonah has to be fed every few hours through a feeding tube in his stomach. There is currently no cure.

Dylan describes his friendship with Jonah as "awesome as a chocolate bar," which is where he got the title of his book. People in all 50 states and 42 countries have purchased copies of The Chocolate Bar Book, with every cent going to Dr. David Weinstein's Florida lab, where a cure for the disease is apparently near to being reached.

"It is now reality. It's not just a dream that these children can be cured," Dr. Weinstein told ABC affiliate KGO-TV.

Dylan seems to think so, anyway. Asked where he and Jonah would be 10-15 years from now, he told KGO-TV, "Um, high school and probably [Jonah's] disease would be cured."

Jonah's answer to the same question?

"Friends."

Dylan and Jonah http://chocolatebarbook.com/

[Karen]

Aww that's fun - and I like both boys' answers to the question at the end!

[kuhio98]

Tattoo artist pays it forward to help baby who must wear helmet

An Eastlake (Ohio) tattoo artist used his time and talents to help a five-month-old boy suffering from a unique disorder.

“Well everyone thought it was his Halloween costume when he was wearing it cause he has an aviator jacket that he wore with it,” said Lauren Rowan of Perry.

It’s not a Halloween costume but a special cranial helmet that Talen Rowan is wearing. Talen suffers from Plagiocephaly which causes flat spots on his head. He has to wear the helmet for seven months.

“So we took him to specialists and they said this helmet was the right treatment for it. He’s gotta wear it 23 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Rowan.

The Rowan family was looking for an artist to customize Talen’s helmet so they posted an ad online and that’s when tattoo artist Greg Chadwick came forward and gave them a great offer.

“If I can make somebody’s day better, opening a door, saying something nice, I’m just doing what I do,” said Greg Chadwick of Eastlake.

Chadwick spent more than 12 hours airbrushing Talen’s cranial helmet to look like an aviator helmet complete with goggles and Talen’s name on the back. Chadwick usually gets $100 an hour for his work at Iron Clad Tattoos, but he airbrushed the helmet for free.

“I contacted Lauren and Matt and said I’d like to do it no charge. Don’t worry about it, just pay it forward or just do something nice for somebody down the road when you can you know and here we are,” said Chadwick.

The family can’t thank Greg enough.

[Karen]

Chadwick spent more than 12 hours airbrushing Talen’s cranial helmet to look like an aviator helmet complete with goggles and Talen’s name on the back. Chadwick usually gets $100 an hour for his work at Iron Clad Tattoos, but he airbrushed the helmet for free.

“I contacted Lauren and Matt and said I’d like to do it no charge. Don’t worry about it, just pay it forward or just do something nice for somebody down the road when you can you know and here we are,” said Chadwick.

The family can’t thank Greg enough.

Hee hee - and maybe he will grow up to be a pilot - you never know!