A dying man’s last wish was to impact a stranger, to make their day with a lasting gift.
While alive, 30-year-old Aaron Collins, a computer technician, didn’t have the means to make it happen. After his death on July 7, Aaron’s family set about to fulfill his wish, ordering a pizza and leaving the waitress a $500 tip.
Actor Charlie Sheen will donate at least $1 million of profits from his show, “Anger Management”, to help the nation’s injured troops.
The “Platoon” star announced Monday that he’ll donate 1 percent of the profits from the show, with no cap on the final amount, to the United Service Organizations. Popularly known as the USO, the group called the gift one of the largest donations ever from a private individual.
The Prague zoo on Monday shipped out four rare Przewalski’s wild horses sending them to their ancient homeland in the Mongolian steppe as part of an ongoing project to save the critically endangered species.
Of four horses reintroduced last year, two mares have already given birth in the steppe.
The Czech zoo runs a breeding program and is charged with keeping records for the equines which previously survived only in captivity since becoming extinct in the wild in 1969.
Mexico’s president said homicides dropped in Mexico by 15-20 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the same period of 2011.
“Today, violence related to rivalries between criminals is declining,” President Felipe Calderon told the newspaper El Pais.
Veterinarians in Berkeley and a Santa Cruz doctor teamed up to save a dog who was poisoned by mushrooms — trying a procedure that may help save human lives, too.
California owner Helen Abel was told her dog, like so many toadstool-eating dogs before him, would die after eating death cap mushrooms.
But, weeks later the two-year-old Mini Australian shepherd is still alive thanks to innovative doctors.
(READ the story from CBS San Francisco)
Just ten years old, Clara Pilley started Keys for Hope last September decorating keys and selling them to raise money for the local homeless shelter in Charleston, S.C. Since then, Clara and her friends have sold 2,000 keys and raised $12,000.
The girls use beads, buttons and ribbons to embellish old keys for use as necklace, key chain, zipper pull or ornament. The decorative keys symbolizes “shelter” and the hope for a better future for Charleston’s homeless families.
Federal maritime officials have approved a plan to protect whales in and around San Francisco Bay.
Shipping industry representatives joined with whale researchers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish new cargo lanes that will likely take effect next year for one of the world’s busiest ports.
Federal maritime officials have approved a plan to protect whales in and around San Francisco Bay.
Shipping industry representatives joined with whale researchers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish new cargo lanes that will likely take effect next year for one of the world’s busiest ports.
80-year-old Ruby Dunson has been raising abandoned children for 42 years — a job she first embraced after she agreed to babysit and the mother never returned for her infant.
In all, she raised 10 successful children in her small brick home on Detroit’s west side, eight of whom she agreed to take in after they were abandoned at birth or abused as kids.
Dozens of elderly Poles who helped save Jews during World War II have gathered in Warsaw to be recognized by Jewish representatives who hailed them for their heroism.
The meeting, over a kosher lunch Sunday in an upscale hotel, comes amid a growing appreciation in Poland for the thousands of people, most of them Roman Catholics, who risked their lives to help Jews during the brutal six-year-long Nazi occupation of Poland.
After reading an article in the local newspaper, Cassandra Lin of Westerly, Rhode Island discovered that many residents could not afford to heat their homes. Inspired to do something, she formed a team of five seventh graders to recycle waste cooking oil and turn it into biofuel for distribution to needy families.
Started in 2008, TGIF (Turn Grease Into Fuel) works with local biofuel companies to recycle the grease from residents and restaurants, and refine it into biodiesel. The award-winning project has been collecting more than 36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year, bringing an estimated value of $60,000 of alternative energy that keeps 92 needy families warm in the winter.
After reading an article in the local newspaper, Cassandra Lin of Westerly, Rhode Island discovered that many residents could not afford to heat their homes. Inspired to do something, she formed a team of five seventh graders to recycle waste cooking oil and turn it into biofuel for distribution to needy families.
Started in 2008, TGIF (Turn Grease Into Fuel) works with local biofuel companies to recycle the grease from residents and restaurants, and refine it into biodiesel. The award-winning project has been collecting more than 36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year, bringing an estimated value of $60,000 of alternative energy that keeps 92 needy families warm in the winter.
A bereaved husband painstakingly planted a tribute to his late wife, Janet using 6,000 oak trees to imprint a giant heart-shaped meadow in the middle of his 112-acre farm in South Gloucestershire, England.
In a sudden flash of inspiration to mark her legacy, Winston Howe hired a gardener and spent weeks planning and setting out each oak, carefully creating an acre-long heart, which points in the direction of Janet’s childhood hometown.
The huge heart, with hedges planted around the perimeter, was spotted by a hot air balloonist soaring over Mr. Howe’s estate.
(WATCH a slideshow below or READ the story in the UK Sun)
A bereaved husband painstakingly planted a tribute to his late wife, Janet using 6,000 oak trees to imprint a giant heart-shaped meadow in the middle of his 112-acre farm in South Gloucestershire, England.
In a sudden flash of inspiration to mark her legacy, Winston Howe hired a gardener and spent weeks planning and setting out each oak, carefully creating an acre-long heart, which points in the direction of Janet’s childhood hometown.
Gang leaders in El Salvador declared an unprecedented truce that authorities say has cut the homicide rate in half in just four months.
In March, rival gangs surprised the country by releasing a joint statement declaring an end to violence and pledging to freeze recruitment of new adolescent members, especially in poor neighborhoods and around schools.
Since then, the change has been dramatic. Murder rates are down by more than half, and on April 14, El Salvador recorded its first day in three years without a single murder.
(READ the Reuters story in the Chicago Tribune)
A baby deer whose mother likely was killed by a car in Bellingham, Washington, nuzzled up to a state trooper on the scene of the accident, apparently choosing him to be her caretaker.
Washington State Patrol Trooper Scott Brown put the fawn in his car and drove it to a wildlife rescue center on Tuesday, July 10, after he believed the two-month-old deer might not make it on his own.
Many drivers commonly see homeless people carrying cardboard signs asking for money at intersections, but commuters who passed Doug Eaton on Wednesday were surprised instead that he was handing out money.
In honor of his 65th birthday, Eaton decided to distribute free money to people, advertising his giveaway with a hand-painted sign that read: “I have a home and a car and a job. Do you need a few bucks for some coffee?”
The Oklahoma City man gave away five-dollar-bills for 65 minutes to anyone who wanted to take them.
He told the ABC news crew it was the best birthday gift ever. “It’s just been fantastic. Some people who don’t take the money say, ‘Man, I love what you are doing. Give it to someone who needs it.’”
(WATCH the video from KFOR below)
Many drivers commonly see homeless people carrying cardboard signs asking for money at intersections, but commuters who passed Doug Eaton on Wednesday were surprised instead that he was handing out money.
In honor of his 65th birthday, Eaton decided to distribute free money to people, advertising his giveaway with a hand-painted sign that read: “I have a home and a car and a job. Do you need a few bucks for some coffee?”
Betty Tisdale is doing again what she does best, saving and caring for orphans in war zones.
Known as the Angel of Saigon dating all the way back to the Vietnam war, Betty established an orphanage there and constantly raised money to build new additions for more orphans and better facilities. These days she brings her halo and heart to Afghanistan.
Her organization in Seattle called HALO — Helping And Loving Orphans — has built the first Afghan Montessori nursery school for their new orphanage in Kabul.
HALO, officially established in July 2000, has also helped other orphanages in Colombia, hiring a physical therapist for the handicapped children housed there, and in Mexico.
(WATCH a video about Betty from ABC News)
(Update: Betty died in 2015 in Seattle)
Maurice Miller remembered how his mother was a poor Mexican immigrant, and somehow figured out — on her own — how to get out of poverty.
As head of social service programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, he wondered, why don’t we pay poor families to show us what they would do to similarly lift themselves up?
The result was the Family Independence Initiative, a nonprofit now run by Miller. Its purpose is to encourage low-income families to form small groups and help each other figure out how to get ahead.
And the initial results have been impressive.
