The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Local (Orlando, Florida) girl runs lemonade stand to help baby get heart transplant
8-year-old raises money for baby's new heart

A local girl's lemonade stand may help a baby boy get a heart transplant.

Caitlyn Lezott, 8, decided to post on social media that she would be selling lemonade to help 3-month-old Beckett get a new heart after her mother told her Beckett's story.

"She read me the story about Baby Beckett and I said I wanted to help," Caitlyn said.

Beckett was born with a bad heart.

"So he's less than 3 months old and is on a donor list for a heart transplant," said Cynterra Lezott, Caitlyn's mother.

"I hope he gets out of surgery soon and has a happy life," said Caitlyn.

Beckett is in a hospital in Gainesville. His mother writes on her blog he is looking good after getting his mechanical heart while awaiting a permanent heart.


Beckett's mother said that she can't wait to meet Caitlyn, Beckett's biggest cheerleader.

[kuhio98]

Country's BBQ waitress returns $1,300 found on table

COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) -

A social media post helped find a couple who left behind a big chunk of change while visiting a local restaurant, and its how the money was returned that has lots of people talking.

Kantessa Smith, also known as Tessa, has worked at Country's Barbeque location on Mercury Drive for nearly four years. But her Tuesday was not like any other - she found $1,300 left on the table.

"I had clean off the tables and I saw a bunch of trash on the tables, so I tried to grab it but when I did, it wouldn't bend so I opened it and I found a lot of money in an envelope so I just went and found my manager," Smith said.

The single mother of two kids returned 13 $100 bills to her manager.

They then turned to social media to find the rightful owners.

"We got cameras everywhere so he found the time that they came and the time that they left and we went in the office and found them on the camera and zoomed in on the camera and we took pictures and posted on Facebook to see if anyone would notice them," Smith said.

The restaurant posted pictures of the couple on their Facebook page, and it spread quickly on social media Tuesday night and Wednesday, with hundreds of shares and comments until the couple was finally located. They returned to the store the next morning to retrieve the money.

Why did she return it? Smith says she was raised to return things that didn't belong to her.

The restaurant is calling Tessa a hero for the good deed. And people love her story so much, someone started a GoFundMe campaign for her. You can donate by clicking here. http://www.gofundme.com/Kantessa

Link to video: http://www.wtvm.com/clip/11330272/co...d-returns-1300

[kuhio98]

From People: Heroes Among Us

After a Tragic Loss, Corey Bergman Gives Sick Kids the Gift of Music

Corey Bergman's son, Jared, was 20 years old, a college student who dabbled in drums and keyboard and was a fan of the Dave Matthews Band, when he died from a viral infection on March 26, 2010.

"When a tragedy like this happens, there's one of two ways a person can go," Bergman tells PEOPLE. "They can fall down and collapse or get up and move forward to try to make a difference."

Bergman and his wife Edda decided to make a fresh start after the tragedy, moving from New York to Miami in 2012. Shortly after, Bergman, now 60, started volunteering at Miami Children's Hospital and Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Bergman, who had been playing guitar since he was 11 and has been in a band for many years, would play for patients and their families.

He would even let the kids play his guitar, but it was a bit too big for the youngest kids' small hands. So he decided to try teaching kids the ukulele. Placing it in the hands of one little girl at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, "it was magical," Bergman tells PEOPLE.

[kuhio98]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I completely agree with the interpretation, but it's an interesting take. It's hard when something "bad" happens to us to see that it might be something "good" for another.

If you find someone's wallet -- no matter how much you need the $$ -- I don't think it's ever the right thing to take the money. I wouldn't see it as the "Lord providing" myself. I've been told that I'm a "Pollyanna", but even I have a hard time seeing the good in this situation....

How to Become an Angel
When a purse goes missing, it's found by an angel in just about the nick of time...
by Colleen Hughes

I’d driven all the way home before realizing I didn’t have my purse. I’d left it in the baby seat of the grocery cart I wheeled out to the parking lot. My iPhone, a week’s worth of spending money, my date book full of appointments– how could I have been so absent-minded?

My daughter Evie was with me in the passenger seat, which was highly unusual, and distracting. I mustn’t have checked to be sure I’d gotten everything out of the cart. “I forgot my purse, Evie. We have to go back.” A 15-minute drive. I pulled out of the driveway, immediately sorry I didn’t put Evie out first: “You left your whole purse?”

This wasn’t the first time I chanted the “Please let me find it” prayer. People are good, I told myself at the red light. The huge Lost and Found room at Grand Central Station proved it.

I’d been happily reunited with everything I’d ever left on the commuter trains that run in and out of the city. Even a bag of brand-new Christmas toys anyone could have claimed. But finders didn’t seem to be keepers, as far as I could see.

Evie’s cell phone rang at the next light. Her sister got a call at home. My purse was at customer service in the grocery store, ask for Tia. Halleluiah!

“Did you turn in my purse?” I asked the kid rounding up the carts in the lot. I’d give him a tip. “No,” he said, “I didn’t see it.”

Inside Tia handed me my purse. “A customer rolled it in, left it right there in the cart where he found it.”

“Are people the best, or what?” I said. “Thank you so much.”

Back in the car I pulled out my phone to call home. Date book, wallet… all there. On a lark I opened the wallet. “Evie, all the cash is gone. Every dollar.” Who was to blame?

“Well, Mom, you left it there for anybody…” She was blaming me? “And maybe for somebody who needed it more than you.” I didn’t agree, not completely. But it was a better thought than blaming her, or the cart kid, or the customer, or who knew who, and it didn’t matter.

The world is full of angels on earth, and maybe a little windfall will help someone out there become one.

[Karen]

Hmm, maybe? Hard to know what to feel, isn't it! At least the purse, phone and credit cards were intact!

[kuhio98]

Second Helping: Cafe Gives Juvenile Offenders Second Chance

DALLAS — This is one place that will give you a second chance. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was on hand to break bread and officially welcome Cafe Momentum to Thanksgiving Square downtown.

“It’s so important for our business to understand that greatness can come from tough times,” Mayor Rawlings said.

It may look like your typical corner cafe, but this place has something special that isn’t on the menu.

“Our running joke at Cafe Momentum is that we take kids out of jail and teach them to play with knives and fires — and makes Dallas a better community,” Cafe Momentum Executive Chef Chad Houser said.

Yeah, you heard right. For the past five years, Cafe Momentum has taken 160 young men from juvenile detention centers and given them the chance to get real world work experience, serving up something other than jail time.

“We’re seeing kids that never thought they would have hope, didn’t have inspiration in life, actually going on to great things,” Houser said.

Tamarrion Washington is one of those kids. “When I was 14, I committed a crime, and I ended up going to JDC,” he said.

It took going to a detention center for Washington to realize he was definitely on the wrong path. But that was then, and this is now.

“I learned how to, you know, go to work, come home and take care of my daughter,” Washington said. Eight-month-old Leah is his biggest motivator.

“I want her to know that she do have a father, you know, and that her dad always been there, since day one for her,” he said.

And this dad is now getting the momentum he needs to turn his life around.

[kuhio98]

Norwalk High School Students Get Lesson In Giving Back, Raise $20K For Charity

NORWALK (CBSLA.com) — Several high school seniors Tuesday donated more than $20,000 to several charities as part of a fundraising project at Norwalk High School.

According to school officials, each student researched a variety of charities and presented the organization they felt connected to within their government classes.

When presentations concluded, every class voted for a specific charity as the recipient of their fundraising efforts.

The following charities were chosen as recipients: Autism Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Doorway for Women and Families, Dream Big Project, National Hemophilia Foundation, National Kidney Foundation, Rady Children’s Hospital, Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, Susan G. Komen Foundation, Relay for Life, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

Around 10:15 a.m., students presented representatives of the 12 charities with checks inside the school gymnasium.

Many seniors were personally affected by the issues that the selected charities address. Students explained their reasoning for the selection of each charity.

Two students — Arianna Real, whose mother is on dialysis, and Jian Bravo, whose little sister had her kidney replaced to treat cancer — presented a check for $1,500 to the National Kidney Foundation.

“My sister was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age. We weren’t sure if she was going to make it or not because she developed a tumor that was the size of a football ,” Bravo said.

As of Monday, the students raised more than $20,000 for the charities in only three weeks, doubling their original goal of $10,000 officials explained.