Human Interest Archive: Jul 2009
Little Boy With Big Heart Helps Feed The Needy
(CBS4) A little boy with a big heart is helping feed the needy in South Florida during the final week of the Neighbors 4 Neighbors Food 4 South Florida campaign. It's a Friday afternoon in July, a time when most kids are at camp, or playing with friends. But a church in Miami Gardens is where 8-year old Joshua Williams wants to spend his day. Joshua is the founder of Joshua's Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization that collects food and distributes it to those in need.
Friars Trudge 300 Miles and Find Kindred Souls on the Way
(William Wan, Washington Post) They've been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They've been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks. After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God. For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them.
Kindness turns lives around
(Western Leader) Good samaritan Tony Fallahi started something bigger than he could ever have imagined with a simple act of kindness. The west Auckland taxi driver was on the job when he picked up Dean Viall. Mr Viall, 30, and wife Sacha, 34, had their lives turned upside down about a year ago when she contracted an infection caused by a common coldsore virus and suffered a rare brain inflammation. That put the former accountant in a coma and she is now in a wheelchair and struggling to get her life back in order.
5-Year-Old Girl Feeds Nearly 18,000 Hungry San Franciscans
(Toan Lam, GoInspireGo.com) Little Phoebe, from San Francisco, California has a big heart. That's an understatement. Actually, her kindness and compassion is bigger than most grown ups I've crossed paths with while reporting TV news for nearly a decade. It started off with a simple question by Phoebe, an adorable little girl with long brown locks, peach-colored cheeks and big doe eyes, like a character straight out of a Disney after-school special. After seeing a person holding a cardboard sign begging for food, Phoebe wondered, "Why does that man look so sad, and why is he holding a sign in the street?"
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Pa. climbers will take on Kilimanjaro for charity
(Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer) Since he was a teenager, Berks County school principal Brad Hart has been going blind slowly, and within five years it's likely he'll have no sight. Today, he leaves for a trip to Africa, where he hopes to catch the sight of a lifetime and help others in his predicament along the way. The 38-year-old, his older brother, and a childhood friend plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, an eight-day trek that ends with a six-hour ascent through darkness, capped by a sunrise at the 19,340-foot summit.
Healing With Humor
(Christian Davenport, Washington Post) He knows they're going to stare. They always stare. As soon as Pat Murray steps in the elevator, they'll notice his prosthetic leg and maybe accurately surmise that, yes, he is an Iraq war veteran, and, yes, he got blown up. Then the sadness will sink in, the pity, and they'll give him that look, which he can sense even if he doesn't see, and it will be an uncomfortable few floors up. So as Murray approaches the elevator and the woman thrusts her hand between the closing doors for him, he says, "Careful, you can lose a limb that way."
Heartbreaking art helps kids with inmate parents
(Dana Rosenblatt, CNN) The drawings are macabre, especially because they're created by children: stick figures writhing in pain and confusion, a knife dripping with blood and a broken heart. Next to the heart, the child artist has written: "My heart is bleeding, my heart is a broken bleeding heart." Another child has drawn a red bubble, inside of which is written: "I want 2 die." All of these young artists -- members of a program called No More Victims -- have at least one parent who has served time in prison.
People Making a Difference: Lyndon Harris
(Marilyn Jones, Christian Science Monitor) Forgiveness didn't mean much to the Rev. Lyndon Harris on Sept. 11, 2001. He was too busy helping rescuers at the World Trade Center towers. He couldn't have known that one day he, too, would require rescue from his own ground zero. After the twin towers fell, Father Harris spent the morning evacuating children from the nursery school at Trinity Church Wall Street – two blocks from the crash site. As he prayed and worked, he had no idea how dramatically his life would change.
Childhood sweethearts reconnect after 85 years
(Georgia Garvey and George Houde, Chicago Tribune) The bride wore blue. She carried a new pink rosebud with a touch of baby's breath, and on her wrist dangled a silver bracelet lent to her by a family friend. But she wasn't worried about completing the tradition of being married with "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue." "I'm the something old," she said with a laugh. The bride, Lorraine, 92, and groom, Roland "Mac" McKitrick, 93, said their vows 85 years after becoming childhood sweethearts in Wisconsin. In the interim, they'd moved away, lost touch and built families, only to fall in love again decades later.
Astronaut John Grunsfeld followed his dream to space
(William Mullen, Chicago Tribune) Like a lot of boys growing up during the space race, John Grunsfeld was fascinated by astronauts. But even then, as a 7-year-old back in 1965, the lengths to which Grunsfeld pursued his dream of space travel set him apart. There was the canister vacuum cleaner strapped to his back for an air tank. The old ice cream container, tweaked with an innovator's eye to serve as a space helmet. The times spent sitting alone in dark closets, practicing for the isolation of space.
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Holiday spirit alive and well in Stanwood
(Gale Fiege, Everett Daily Herald) One person asked for a garden hose. Another’s wish list included a $10 grocery store gift certificate. Most are small requests, written on tags and attached to a little Christmas tree at Susanna "Z" Mantis’ Stanwood shop and studio. Christmas in July is the goal of a campaign by Mantis, who wants to help Stanwood-area people who are struggling to make ends meet this summer.
Amid Poverty, a Family of Riches
(Steve Hartman, CBS News) Even though a lot of the people at this year's Chandler family reunion weren't even born the first time CBS News covered it, the event began almost identically. "With much cheering and much hugging, the nine children of Alex and Mary Chandler were coming home," reported Charles Kuralt. Kuralt first came to Prairie, Miss. 31 years ago, and the story he found in this family was easily one of the most inspirational of his career. "The Chandler family started with as near nothing as any family in America ever did," Kuralt reported.
Local woman saves lives in Ghana by teaching health
(Margaret Smykla, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Naomi Blaushild could not have known when she enrolled in her first French language class in middle school that it might one day save lives. It happened recently in Nima, an urban slum situated on the outskirts of Ghana's capital, Accra, where the Mt. Lebanon resident was teaching health and nutrition to young students at a private school.
Double amputee loses legs, finds a cause
(Amy Chillag, CNN) An annual family fishing trip to the Florida keys took a bloody and life-changing turn for Jordan Thomas. "It was a beautiful day and we were going to go out spear fishing that night," said Thomas, who was 16 during the 2005 trip. But when he jumped into the water, the boat's wake dragged Thomas hard into its sharp, whirling propellers. He immediately knew what was about to happen
Brooklyn teens still on mission to serve
(CNN) Several of the kids who participated in "Journey for Change," a youth empowerment program founded by activist Malaak Compton-Rock, were asked to blog about their experiences last August when they traveled to South Africa. They have continued to blog about their journey and share what they've learned from their experiences after they returned home to Bushwick, Brooklyn. Here is a look at their most recent entries.
People Making a Difference: Nadia Bitar helps Liberian orphans
(Danielle Shapiro, Christian Science Monitor) Nadia Bitar has experienced life's extremes. As a young child, she rode in a BMW driven by a chauffeur. The car was a gift to her then-13-year-old older sister from their father, she says. But she has also seen dead bodies strewn in the streets of her hometown, Monrovia, Liberia, and lived as a refugee. These extremes have shaped Ms. Bitar. Despite the hardships, she insists that she is "blessed," both for what she has been given and what she has survived. These days, as an adult, she's trying to help Liberia recover from 14 years of devastating civil war.
A wave of forgiveness
(Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times) It's another beautiful day in paradise and I'm out on the ocean, riding waves with a former national surfing champion and onetime prostitute who's about to join a seminary. Go ahead, try to name one other state where I could have written that sentence. "Terrific!" yells Mary Setterholm, my instructor, who forgives my every wipeout and cheers when I finally ride a wave all the way to shore. Setterholm, who now runs a Santa Monica surfing school, won the U.S. Women's title in 1972, at age 17. And you're not going to believe where her trophy is: On Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's desk.
Kelly Hildebrandt to wed…Kelly Hildebrandt?
(Michael Inbar, TODAYshow.com) It’s enough to make a romantic comedy film writer drool over their keyboard. A young Meg Ryanesque Florida gal named Kelly Hildebrandt discovers a shirtless, Matthew McConaughey-type Texan with the exact same first and last name on Facebook. Kelly girl sends a cyber shout-out to Kelly boy, and he answers back. Three weeks of viral flirting leads Kelly boy to head east to Florida to meet Girl Kelly. A couple of months later, he’s relocating – and come October, just eight months after their first connection, Kelly Hildebrandt will marry Kelly Hildebrandt.
Homeless vets get helping hand
(Leslie Berestein, San Diego Union-Tribune) Andre Ogden knew his wisdom tooth would have to come out, even before a Navy dentist told him so yesterday. Ogden, a former soldier, had nursed a toothache for months. But he didn't have the money to do anything about it. He has been living at a local homeless shelter. "That tooth has been bothering me for a long, long time," said Ogden, 26, who still sports a military-style crew cut. He and dozens of other military veterans sat in the shade of a camouflage tent waiting for free dental work, one of the many services provided to homeless vets as part of the 22nd annual Stand Down at San Diego High School.
Charity kick-starts funding for Africa
(Leonel Sanchez, San Diego Union-Tribune) Kristen Chandler's life changed last summer after her teenage son, Michael, returned from visiting an orphanage in Africa. He told her that the children at the orphanage loved the soccer balls she had collected for them. “It made a huge difference. I didn't realize soccer was so big there,” said Chandler, a La Mesa resident. That's when she started asking herself, “What else can we do?” Chandler, 46, founded Kick for Hope, a nonprofit that organizes soccer tournaments to raise money for charities in Africa.
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People Do Good Deeds as Mandela Birthday Gift
(AP) Nelson Mandela's fans celebrated the anti-apartheid icon's 91st birthday Saturday by emulating him with good deeds, reading to the blind, distributing blankets to the homeless or refurbishing homes for AIDS orphans. Mandela had called on people to spend time doing good Saturday, the first Mandela Day, which his charity foundations hope will be an annual event. South Africans collected clothing for poor children, painted schools, planted trees near Mandela's boyhood home in eastern South Africa, and renovated a building in downtown Johannesburg for people left homeless by a fire.
Olympian transforms poor children's lives through judo
(CNN) Flavio Canto spent most of his teenage years training in judo, in hopes he would achieve Olympic gold. But today, the Brazilian athlete considers his defeat at the 2000 Olympic trials one of his greatest victories. The loss led Canto -- who later won bronze at the 2004 Olympic Games -- back to his native Rio de Janeiro. Since then, he has helped thousands of young people from the city's toughest shanty towns find hope in the midst of hardship.
NYPD officer provides bedside lift for fellow amputee policeman
(Alison Gendar, New York Daily News) A cop hit by an out-of-control car awoke from surgery to the grim reality of an amputated leg - and the inspiration of a fellow officer who overcame the same injury. When Officer Eric Grimes came out of the operating room at Kings County Hospital Tuesday, Officer Rachid Elkadi was waiting for him. Doctors had just taken off Grimes' left leg below the knee. But Elkadi, 31, was walking - and running - proof that amputation doesn't have to destroy your life or career.
California teen becomes youngest to sail world solo
(Steve Gorman, Reuters) A 17-year-old U.S. mariner piloted his battered sailboat into a Southern California harbor on Thursday to complete a grueling 13-month voyage and become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. Sandy-haired teenager Zac Sunderland arrived in Marina Del Rey aboard his 36-foot (11-meter) sloop Intrepid at about 10 a.m. local time. During his 28,000-nautical-mile (52,000-km) journey, he braved storms, equipment failures, close calls with freighters and a run-in with suspected pirates.
'Incredible' Journey: From Paralyzed to Helping Others Walk
(Rich McHugh, ABC News) On August 5, 2006, Janne Kouri dove into the ocean off California and crashed his head into a hidden sandbar. He knew immediately his life would never be the same. "Instantly I could tell I was paralyzed," said Kouri, then 31, of Hermosa Beach, Calif. "I was just floating in the water and I got flipped over on my back and there were waves crashing over me so I knew something bad had happened, because I could not move my body at all so I just took a deep breath and basically hoped for the best."
Cancer patients get day of pampering
(Janice Gaston, Winston-Salem Journal) Sometimes medical treatment doesn't come in a pill or through an IV. Sometimes, it can be a haircut when you need one or a lesson in makeup that brightens your face or some soul-stirring music that lifts your spirits. Cancer patients, their families and caregivers were treated yesterday to "Just 4 You Day," a day of pampering, entertainment and food, at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The quarterly event, which is staffed by volunteers, provides free food and pampering services to about 200 people.
Dog is this museum docent's 'co-pilot'
(Steve Liewer, San Diego Union-Tribune) Mark Carlson's knowledge of the planes and rockets at the San Diego Air & Space Museum is encyclopedic. What really sets him apart from the other volunteer docents, though, is his partner – the one who helps him navigate among the museum's mazelike collection of warbirds and spacecraft. That would be Musket, the yellow Labrador retriever who leads Carlson – who is legally blind – from the Apollo 9 capsule to the Fokker triplane, from the Spitfire to the Hornet.
Baby cuddlers: Infants benefit -- but so do hospital volunteers
(Bonnie Miller Rubin, Chicago Tribune) Holding a baby barely larger than her hand, Barbara Whitfield coos to the infant, his translucent eyelids fluttering slightly before surrendering to sleep. But in the neonatal intensive care unit at Rush University Medical Center, it would be difficult to tell just who in this duo is more serene. "How many people get to surround themselves with this kind of peace?" she asked, tightly wrapping a receiving blanket around the 4-pounder. "A few hours here will carry me for the rest of the week."
Church garden feeds mind, body, soul
(Shelia M. Poole, Atlanta Journal-Constitution) The Rev. Richard S. Bright has a calling: to feed the body as well as the soul. Just about every morning, before the sun peeps over the roof of Good Shepherd Community Church, Bright comes to work in his garden, which spreads out over an acre of land adjacent to the church. He bends over a row of collard greens and plucks out a tiny green worm that is snacking on the leaves. Nearby, a young girl is spreading wood chips between rows of green beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and squash. "You see the girl over there?" he asks. "I baptized her and her mother."
Struggling school gets a boost
(Sandy Banks, Los Angeles Times) She telephoned me in desperation, pitching a story about the Compton middle school students her group had taken to the Century City office of the investment firm Bear Stearns, to learn about money management and careers in finance. "We're trying to teach them about portfolios and they can't even spell the word, never heard of it!" Veronica Coffield told me in a voice shot through with urgency. "They're still learning 'less than' and 'greater than' in eighth grade, and they're supposed to make it through high school?"
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Boy, 11, walks 59 days and 668 miles for homeless
(Mashaun D. Simon, Atlanta Journal-Constitution) While most other 11-year-old kids are spending their summer vacation at swimming pools or playing video games, one young boy walked to bring awareness to youth homelessness. On Thursday, Zach Bonner arrived on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. after walking 59 days and 668 miles from the steps of the Georgia State Capitol. It was a daunting feat. Bonner said it was the most difficult thing he has ever done.
Cleveland woman writes own obituary
(Cincinnati Enquirer) An Ohio woman who lived a varied life - with roles that included being a hippie, a rifleman and a welder - reveals some of her "unmentionable adventures" in a self-written obituary that has become an Internet hit. "She often volunteered as an ombudsman to help disadvantaged teens find college funding and early opened her home to many children of poverty, raising several of them to successful, if unwilling, adulthood," Nancy Lee Hixson wrote in a death notice published after her June 30 death of lymphoma at 65.
Click here to read Nancy's obituary
Uneasy Riders: Adults Learn To Master Two Wheels
(Tovia Smith, NPR) For many, it's a rite of passage: Around the time you lose your first tooth, you also learn to ride a two-wheeler. But for others, it never happens. And it becomes more and more embarrassing to try to learn with every year that passes. Now, a growing number of adults are trying to find out what they've been missing.
Teen sailor nears end of trip around the world
(People.com) Like a lot of 17-year-olds, Zac Sunderland can get a bit tongue-tied at times. Only for Sunderland, it's not on account of hormones or nerves. "I've been out at sea for a long time," says Sunderland, who has nearly reached his goal of becoming the youngest sailor to single-handedly circumnavigate the earth in a sailboat. "You kinda forget how to talk. Sometimes I'll get into a port and it'll take a week before the words I'm wanting to say can come out of my mouth the right way. It's annoying."
Little Dude opened their hearts
(Ted Gregory, Chicago Tribune) The Lacewells are known in their Naperville neighborhood as a family of exemplary generosity. On Thanksgiving they open their home to those with nowhere to go. Near Christmas they circulate a gift wish list for the needy, then deliver the presents. When one of their children's friends broke an arm, they were the first to drop by with a get-well gift. Then their 6-year-old son, Max, was diagnosed in October with a terminal brain stem tumor. The Lacewells had to get used to a different role: recipient of others' generosity.
Injured Aptos teen needs time to heal, doctors say; friends, strangers feel inspired to help Kirkendall family
(Jennifer Squires, Santa Cruz Sentinel) Jacob Kirkendall's family reported Tuesday there is nothing more the doctors can do for the Aptos High senior right now. They just have to wait for him to heal. Kirkendall was badly hurt when he came into contact with fallen power lines near Rio del Mar State Beach in late June. The 17-year-old remained in a medically induced coma Tuesday in the burn unit at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Dalai Lama contributes to students' message of hope for hospitalized children
(Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times) One of the best-loved murals on the campus of 186th Street Elementary School in Gardena depicts some of the world's most inspirational figures -- Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez -- underlined by a question, "Are you a peacemaker?" When artist and poet Fereidun Shokatfard visited an art show at the school where his wife, Rika, works as a special education teacher, he thought the mural would make a perfect backdrop for a book to be shared with children in hospitals around the world.
Immigrants' aspirations converge at shoe-repair shop
(Dianna M. Náñez, Arizona Republic) This is a classic American story of hard work and earned success - of immigrants' struggle to find independence in America. It involves two men who never met but shared the same dream. Their paths started thousands of miles apart but would lead them to the same spot, the same career and a better life. One could say Luis Angulo and Abe Shahin were bound by a dying craft. Their fathers were cobblers. They handed down the art to sons who wanted nothing more than to carry on that tradition.
The Joy Of Work: A Disabled Man's Quest For A Job
(Rachel Dornhelm, NPR) Michael Medina is nostalgic for the days when he had a job. Just ask him about where he used to work, and he gushes with enthusiasm. "Stacey's Bookstore. That's No. 1, that's a wonderful ... it's the biggest bookstore I ever been to," Medina says. "A wonderful store. You can work as you want — long as you want." Medina, 52, has developmental disabilities. He was working as a janitor at the independent bookstore that was a San Francisco institution for 85 years until it went out of business in March.
From P.S. 176X, kids with autism get joyful launch
(Claudia Wallis, CNN) All parents have hopes and dreams for their children. Parents of kids with serious disabilities are no different. But in their moments of wildest imagination, the parents of Vicki Martinez, Chase Ferguson and Travis Cardona could not have envisioned high school graduation -- certainly not in the dark days when they first learned their children had autism. But last month, in a spacious high school auditorium in the Bronx, New York, Vicki, Chase and Travis marched down the aisle to "Pomp and Circumstance," resplendent in their caps and gowns, along with 15 classmates at P.S. 176X, a New York City public school with 560 students ranging in age from 3 to 21, all of whom have autism.
CompUSA Donates Laptops To Soldier's Wife
(John MacLauchlan, CBS4) A soldier serving in Afghanistan will be with his wife 'virtually' on the day she gives birth to their child. Vanesia Butler, who is six months pregnant, has been preparing for the birth knowing that her husband Darvin's military service will keep him overseas. Wednesday the Coral Springs couple received an unexpected gift from CompUSA and Forgotten Soldiers Outreach. "I was overwhelmed with happiness when I found out that my husband will get to be by my side in the hospital room, at least virtually, to experience the birth of our baby," said Vanesia.
Those down on their luck find SOME help
(Stephanie Green, Washington Times) In 1995, Bonnie McDonald was a 34-year-old lost soul adrift in a sea of addiction. "I was co-dependent on men. Many of them were drug dealers," she reflects. She says she spiraled so far down in life with drugs and alcohol abuse that she became a neglectful parent to her four children, who eventually had to be put into foster care. Without a job and family support, she agreed to visit an organization she knew little about, So Others Might Eat, known as SOME.
Honest pedestrian seeks to return wad of cash found on sidewalk
(Don Cuddy, South Coast Today) Somebody in New Bedford has lost some money, and North End resident Arthur Bourgeois wants to give it back. When Bourgeois was walking on Acushnet Avenue on Monday afternoon, he spotted an envelope on the ground with the name "Krystal" written on it. It was found on the sidewalk in front of the Table 8 restaurant near Baylies Square. "I guess I was just curious. I thought it might be a letter that someone had dropped, so I touched it with my foot," Bourgeois, 63, said.
The astonishing story of the man born without arms or legs... who plays golf, surfs, and swims
(Daily Mail) Nick Vujicic was born with no arms or legs - but he doesn't let the details stop him. The brave 26-year-old - who is mainly torso - plays football and golf, swims, and surfs, despite having no limbs. Nick has a small foot on his left hip which helps him balance and enables him to kick. He uses his one foot to type, write with a pen and pick things up between his toes. 'I call it my chicken drumstick,' joked Nick, who was born in Melbourne, Australia, but now lives in Los Angeles. 'I'd be lost without it. 'When I get in the water I float because 80 per cent of my body is lungs and my drumstick acts as a propeller.'