The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

From children's kindness acts website:

Turning a Frown Upside Down
One of my classmates was sitting alone at a table, crying because he just got bullied. Friends and I were all sitting together at our table talking and we noticed him. First Brianna went to go sit with him. Then Hannah and Molly thought it was a good idea too. Eventually everybody from our table went over to sit with him! It felt great, and he stopped crying.

[kuhio98]

Dog alerts deaf child to burning home

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH)-Indianapolis firefighters were calling a dog named Ace a hero on Wednesday after they said he saved a boy from a fire.

The fire happened Wednesday afternoon in the 6400 block of Perry Pines Court, near Gray Road and East Edgewood Avenue on the south side.

Inside was a 13 year-old boy who’s deaf and was sleeping.

As 24-Hour News 8 anchor Daniel Miller discovered, the boy escaped the fire unharmed, thanks to his four-legged best friend.

“He’s always been good with people that comes over; he’s never been really aggressive,” said James Bernard of Indianapolis.

Two and a half year-old Ace, the Bernard’s family dog is getting a lot of attention.

“He’s just like one of the family members basically,” he said.

Wednesday afternoon, Ace, a Pit Bull, became an instant hero

“He is; he saved my life,” said Nick Lamb.

13 year-old Lamb, who is legally deaf, was sleeping without his cochlear implants inside his home on Perry Pines Court.

“He woke me up because I couldn’t hear anything and I was asleep and I looked around my room and I smelled smoke and I could see a little bit of smoke in my room,” Lamb said.

“He had to get up on him in his face and stuff; he’s a hero,” said Lindsay Bernard, Nick’s mom.

IFD took pictures of the fire when they arrived on the scene. Flames quickly took over the home.

“There was a bunch of loud popping noises and everything else, but the dog obviously knew something wrong and he went and woke him up,” Bernard said.

Lamb was in his bedroom on the second floor. He said when Ace woke him up, he quickly grabbed one of his two cochlear implants and they escaped.

“I took a breath and I went downstairs with Ace and the whole house was covered in smoke and a little bit of fire,” Lamb said.

The Bernard family said they have so much more to be thankful for.

“I would have never seen this from him. I didn’t see this coming,” said Bernard.

And most of all they are thankful for Ace.

“I love him a lot more now,” Lamb said.

Firefighters were able to rescue the family’s cat who was still inside the home when they arrived on the scene.

[kuhio98]

8-Year-Old Raises $10K to Buy Police Bullet Proof Vests
Tribune 1:36 mins

Andrew Troxell, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer, says the death of his co-worker, Perry Renn, hit his family hard. His 8-year-old son wanted to do something to help, so he started raising money for bullet proof vests.

https://news.yahoo.com/video/8-old-r...142007774.html

[kuhio98]

From People Magazine Heroes Among Us:

GIVING TROUBLED KIDS A SECOND CHANCE
Judge Jimmie Edwards, 56

St. Louis, Mo.

In 2009 Family Court Judge Jimmie Edwards launched the Innovative Concept Academy, an alternative, last-resort school for young offenders in the same neighborhood as the gang-ridden public housing complex where he grew up. His unique approach seems to be working: Only four of 700 students have returned to jail. Says Edwards: "It doesn't make sense to lock a 12-year-old up for six years and put him back in our community when he's 18. Every child, and especially those who have made mistakes, deserves a chance to see the good in this world and to dream of what possibilities life has to offer. I truly believe I can rehabilitate children. Most are good and decent. I know they can do better; they can achieve. They want somebody to teach them what's right."

[kuhio98]

This 84-Year-Old Woman Rescued a Dog from a Pack of Wild Coyotes

On July 11, Dolores Jefferson became a local hero after she rescued a neighbor's dog from a pack of wild coyotes.

The 84-year-old Bensenville, Illinois, resident was enjoying a cup of coffee when she heard noises coming from behind her home.

Jefferson went outside to investigate and found her neighbor's dog, Roxie, an Egyptian Pharoah Hound, surrounded by five coyotes.

According to Jefferson, one of the coyotes had Roxie by her head.

"He was huge. He was as big as any German Shepherd I've ever seen," Jefferson told NBC Chicago. "He turned around, looked at me, and Roxie got farther away from him."

As for how Jefferson scared the coyotes away?

"All I could remember, my son told me to yell, make a lot of noise if you see one, and that's what I did," she said.

Roxie was examined by a vet and is expected to make a full recovery, and her owner, Rich Parent, can't thank Jefferson enough.

"Here's this lady, pushing 85 years old, and she's my hero," he said.

[phesina]

God bless her! And God bless Roxie too.

[kuhio98]

Heroes Among Us
Brenda Jones Create Unique Hospital Gowns for Ailing Women

When Brenda Jones was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, she used her experience to create what she calls her "Vera Wang moment."

It all started when she went for her first day of radiation in January 2009.

The technician "just pointed to the dressing room and said, 'Go on in there, and put on a hospital gown. You're going to wear them for the next seven weeks,' " Jones, 56, tells PEOPLE.

"I opened that door and literally when I saw those stacks of those hospital gowns, that's when I lost it," she says. "I just stood there crying. In my head I'm screaming, 'I'm not wearing those things!' "

At the same time, an idea popped into her head of what she would like to wear.

"I knew exactly what I was going to make," says Jones, a former veterinary technician who had never sewn a day in her life.

That one moment led to her creating Hug Wraps, a nonprofit that has made more than 1,000 kimono-style gowns in a variety of patterns, colors and designs to women with all sorts of illnesses. A friend helped her learn how to sew.

The old gowns "take away patients' dignity, respect, comfort, it strips them of everything," says Jones, of Southampton, New Jersey. "But when you put on a Hug Wrap, you put on a smile."

Jones says the 501(c)(3) nonprofit relies heavily on monetary donations to create the wraps. Many of her customers are people buying the wraps for their family members or friends. She then tries to match the design of the gown as closely as possible to the patient's interests and needs.

Mary Carty got a Hug Wrap from Jones's niece, Althea McIlwee, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2012.

"It was a cold, cold rainy night and it was like 9 o'clock at night and she said, 'I have something to bring you, I know it will cheer you up,' " says Carty, 62, of Mount Holly, New Jersey.

"It was red – it makes me cry every time I think about it – it was red with yellow owls on it," she says. "Red is one of my favorite colors and owls are a spirit animal for me."

Carty says her husband Richard and their two sons were supportive but having the Hug Wrap was the female connection she needed during her battle with breast cancer.

"It gave me a positive feeling, like somebody cared," Carty says. "It really made me feel connected to a bunch of people, like we're all going through this same thing. It was a hug; it was literally a hug!"

Jones also includes a personal note with every Hug Wrap she makes.

"[Brenda] said that this was her hug that she wanted to give to me so when I went to my treatments and stuff I won't feel alone," Carty says, crying.

"You know, I just couldn't stop crying and every time I try to read that note, I cry," she says. "It's something special and Brenda has brought a lot of peace to a lot of people. I've always said if I won the lottery, she's the first on the list."

Carty officially became cancer free on March 12, 2013, but she says she still sports her Hug Wrap.

"It was just nice to have that item, and I still have it," she says. "I think I'll frame it. I'll never get rid of it."

Jones has donated Hug Wraps to Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia, greatly impacting the cancer community, according to radiation therapist Candy McLaughlin.

"It's absolutely amazing and profound what this simple, little piece of fabric does for the patient when they have to come in for treatment every day," she says. "It presents a positive feeling to the patient that this is something the hospital is offering them but I really make an effort for them to understand that this is coming from Brenda."

Jones said her ultimate goal, besides appearing on Ellen DeGeneres's show, is for any patient that is handed a diagnosis of cancer to be handed a Hug Wrap.

"For me to have gotten that angry when I did is not like me," says Jones, who is now cancer free. "But, really looking back, if I hadn't gotten that angry I wouldn't have been pushed to change those hospital gowns."

Brenda Jones: Mary McCarty: