Inspirational: Best of the "Good News"
College Student Sacrifices to Save Money, Eliminates Grandparents’ Mortgage
Tired of all the "negative news"? Here is the best of the most recent inspirational news. Love works...
This college student secretly saved up thousands of dollars so he could give his grandparents the surprise of a lifetime. They burst into tears of joy as he presented them with an oversized check announcing he’d paid off their mortgage with $15,000.
Stefun Darts could always be seen helping his mother and family around the house, but he’d kept the idea of a gift for his grandparents secret for 14 years.
“I promised God in the second grade I would pay off you guys house and help you retire,” he wrote on Facebook after revealing the surprise.
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The generous young man had saved so much money, that he was also able to send them on an island vacation to the Bahamas.
Stefun had socked away the money while going to college, holding down a full time job, and running two non-profits in Houston, Texas. He seldom went out with friends, choosing to bank the cash instead. So eager was he to eliminate that mortgage and show gratitude to his grandparents that he practically lived on microwave pizza.
For the 24-year-old, the payoff was worth every penny.
“I don’t do this for accolades,” he told KHOU News. “To see tears of joy, to experience that in a lifetime, it’s like how many people can say that?”
Ex-Homeless Man Gives $10K to High School After 2 Teens Buy Him Ticket Home
A former homeless man’s $10,000 gift will inspire and reward random acts of kindness for years to come, thanks to two Illinois teens.
The generosity and compassion shown to Wade Herter by a pair of high school boys was never forgotten. Herter was a homeless drifter, freezing and alone in a blizzard three years ago when the two seniors helped him.
Ryan Kodat and Luke Arnold found him some warm clothes and a jacket and purchased a train ticket that would let him see his father. They never expected anything in return, but Herter has always wanted to do something special to thank them.
When his father passed away, Herter was stunned to learn that he’d left behind a $1.2 million estate. It helped Herter get back on his feet and move to California where he writes while doing film work and stand-up comedy.
Herter kept thinking about the students who helped him get home during the blizzard, and decided to thank them by giving a gift to their school in Dwight, Illinois.
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He sent a letter to the school telling his story, along with $10,000 for the district to spend any way they wanted – only asking that the school use the money to honor his father.
It was the first time anyone at the school had heard about what Kodat and Arnold had done for a homeless man, and after reading Herter’s story, school administrators knew exactly what to do with the money.
They created the “Warren Herter Pay It Forward Award.”
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Every year, for the next decade, it will award students in the small town $500 for performing a random act of kindness. And the school has asked Kodat and Arnold to judge the nominations.
She Adopted a Dog Nobody Wanted, Then an Amazing Thing Happened
Every year, approximately 1.2 million dogs are put down in animal shelters across the United States. There are so many reasons why people choose to give up their dogs for adoption – they bark too much, they ruin furniture, they’re aggressive towards other people or dogs, etc – but what most people don’t know is that all of these bad habits can be caused by one thing: anxiety. That’s right, just like people, dogs can be anxious too. It’s this stress that can lead to many different types of behavior problems, which make many dog owners frustrated with their pets.
Instead of trying to treat the cause, they just give up on their “best friend” and send them to a shelter hoping that someone else will be able to give them a good home. They turn a blind eye to the high chance that their once beloved pet will get put down.
Brittany Stone from Minnesota has always had a soft spot for abused
animals, so when her and her family decided that they wanted a new pet,
they went down to their local ASPCA.
We didn’t expect to adopt a dog on our first visit,
Brittany told us
But when we met Ronny our whole family fell in love!
We didn’t expect to adopt a dog on our first visit,
Brittany told us
But when we met Ronny our whole family fell in love!
Ronny is a 3 year old Golden Retriever who was born into a family that neglected him. He had been at the ASPCA for month and was in danger of being put down. The constant neglect from his first family had lead Ronny to develop high anxiety and he was showing all of the signs – he was underweight, paced excessively around his cage, and hated loud noises. The shelter workers warned Brittany that Ronny might not make a good pet, especially with her young children in the house, but Brittany wanted to give him a chance at a better life.
After we brought Ronny home he was whining constantly. It was keeping
my kids up and night and we were all exhausted, but we didn’t want to
give up.
I spent some time researching Ronny’s behavior and found an alternative treatment called Therabis that claimed to help high-anxiety dogs
I spent some time researching Ronny’s behavior and found an alternative treatment called Therabis that claimed to help high-anxiety dogs
Therabis
is a natural treatment that was created by veterinarians to relax dogs and lower their stress levels.
Canine stress is extremely common in pure breds and shelter dogs alike, and Therabis
can help dogs of all ages and breeds to become obedient, happy and
loving companions. It has been specially formulated to reduce all of the
symptoms of canine stress, including aggressiveness towards strangers,
excessive whining, chewing, paw licking and fear of loud noises.
After we started giving Ronny his Therabis
treatments, he turned into a completely new dog. We can take him
anywhere now, and he is so relaxed, even with strangers! His barking and
whining is so much better too. I wish more people would consider
adopting, especially because treatments like Therabis make them even easier to love!
Whether you’re having problems with your dog at home and want
to try a safe, effective and 100% natural way to relieve their anxiety,
or you’re considering adopting a stray from your local shelter
Baby Born with "Perfect Hair" Goes Viral!
Ohio Mail Carrier Delivers Easter Act of Kindness to Teen With Smith-Magenis Syndrome
A Springfield, Ohio, mother says she thought "it was fantastic" when her
mail carrier delivered an Easter act of kindness to her teenage son,
who has a rare genetic disorder.
Tina McGrevy's son Garrett was born with Smith-Magenis syndrome, which
causes him to become fixated on certain things. So when Garrett, 16,
became obsessed with a guitar he saw at a local Goodwill store, he told his mother he wanted to write the Easter Bunny a letter asking for it.
According to Genetics Home Reference, a website developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Smith-Magenis syndrome or SMS is a developmental disorder caused mostly
when a portion of chromosome 17 is deleted. It affects people in
different ways, but mostly it causes delayed speech and intellect
development along with other behavioral problems such as anxiety,
tantrums, head-banging and other self-injury behaviors. Researchers said
that 1 in 25,000 people worldwide are living with the disorder.
"I knew he wouldn't stop asking for the guitar if he didn't get that letter," McGrevy, 44, told ABC News.
The mother said that's why she played along when Garrett asked for her
help to write a letter to the Easter Bunny asking for the guitar, along
with "Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog," two stuffed animals he had
fallen in love with.
Putting a square ticket on the letter "that Garrett thought was a stamp," McGrevy put it in the mail last Friday.
"I just assumed it would get thrown away," she added.
Instead, a day later the McGrevy's received a post-it note on their
mail, saying that the Easter Bunny had received Garrett's note. "I heard
that a letter from the Easter Bunny is on its way," the note read from
the unidentified mail carrier.
McGrevy said the mail carrier and her son have formed a bond because
"Garrett runs out there to get the mail. I knew she knew Garrett so I
knew the note was from [my local mail woman], but I don't know her. I
don't even know her name," the mother said.
By Tuesday, Garrett received the Easter Bunny's card thanks to the kind
mail carrier. The card -- sent all the way from Bunny Village -- also
came with a small bag of candies. The card was even signed with a bunny
rabbit paw print.
"Garrett was ecstatic. He was jumping up and down," his mother said.
"And I just thought it was fantastic. ... Garrett has SMS and it's very
difficult for him to do a lot of things like go out to eat or go to the
movies. He gets very overwhelmed. So when someone takes the time to get
to know him, it means a lot to him and it means a lot to my husband and
I. It made his day."
McGrevy, who is also the awareness chairperson for advocacy organization Parents and Researchers Interested in Smith-Magenis Syndrome, noted that her son even sleeps with the card under his pillow.
And to help the Easter Bunny fulfill Garrett's wish, she had to come up
with a plan to purchase the guitar her son saw at Goodwill. After asking
for her aunt Sheri Ehnie's help, McGrevy discovered that the guitar was
already gone. Thankfully Ehnie turned to eBay to secure the Easter
Bunny's very special gift for Garrett.
Click here for the video: http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/ohio-mail-carrier-delivers-easter-act-kindness-teen/story?id=37951512
Miracle Patient Finds He’s Working With Doctor Who Saved His Life (WATCH)
Speaking on stage at a Veteran’s Day event for hospital staff, Dr. Richard Brilli started telling a marvelous story about a “miracle kid” from Portsmouth Naval Hospital in the late 80s.
In the audience, Tim Duer was about to fall out of his chair–realizing that the kid was him, 26 years later. He was suddenly looking at the doctor who saved his life, and the two had even been working in the same hospital.
The ‘miracle kid’ from the story was 19-years-old, healthy, and serving in the United States Army when he suddenly came down with a life threatening lung infection that quickly progressed to multi-organ system failure. At the time, Dr. Richard Brilli determined the young man’s probability for survival was zero percent.
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Duer’s father spent 3 weeks by his son’s hospital bedside while Tim’s doctor did everything he could to save the patient’s life. The soldier’s father recalls promising his son, “I’m not leaving until you get through this.”
Hopeful that he could increase the young man’s chances of survival, the determined Columbus, Ohio doctor put him on high-dose medications to drive his blood pressure to above normal levels.
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“As a physician in the ICU we always know the statistics. That’s not how you take care of patients. You don’t take care of patients based on statistics, you take care of the person in front of you.”
Despite the grueling odds, the doctor’s strategy worked. After weeks in the ICU, Tim was finally healthy enough for release.
26 years later, Duer, now a veteran, was hired to work in Information Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Just a few weeks after he was employed, the hospital held the event which reunited the men.
Duer’s heart raced as he listened to his own story of survival being retold by Dr. Brilli, now the Chief Medical Officer at the hospital. Afterward, he walked up to the doctor and launched the unexpected, heart-warming reunion.
Dr. Brilli choked up when recalling the moment. “The most remarkable part for me is it just tells me how lucky I’ve been and what a God-given gift it was that I got to go to medical school, and do what I do… It’s amazing to me.”
WATCH: WWII Vet Meets Girlfriend After 70 Yrs Thanks to Strangers Funding Reunion
Duer–now a husband, father, and grandfather–struggled to find words that could express his gratitude.
“How do you thank the guy who saved your life 26 years later; what can you say? I think a new word needs to be invented other than thank you, because it’s a thousand times stronger than thank you.”
Dog Steps In as Nanny to Orphan Cheetah Cubs (WATCH)
Blakely the dog is an unlikely nanny for a litter of jungle cats, but the Cincinnati Zoo had to think outside the spots.Five cheetah cubs were born by C-section on March 8th in Ohio, a difficult birth that caused the mother, Willow, to pass away in labor.
Now Blakely the resident nursery dog is the cubs’ new companion, stepping in when they needed a caring adult.