Grocery store clerk allows man with autism to help him stock shelves

Jordan Taylor was just doing his job at Rouses Market in Baton Rouge, LA, stocking shelves and cooler cases. He noticed a man and his teenage son, and as he later told a reporter, "Something in the back of my mind was just like, 'Ask if he wants to help you.'" Taylor did as his heart directed, and the teen accepted the offer to help stock the cooler while his father and sister videotaped.

Why? Because the teen, Jack Ryan, is autistic. Interaction of this type is difficult for him. But with Taylor's gentle instruction, Jack Ryan stocked the cooler case for 30 minutes, which his dad Ed calls "a miracle." 

Ed asked Taylor what plans he had for the future. Taylor shared his hope to become a teacher, and Jack Ryan's sister Delaney promptly set up a GoFundMe page. In just one day, over $92,000 has been pledged to offset Taylor's future college expenses. 

And what might be the best outcome of all - Rouses Market has offered Jack Ryan a job stocking shelves.  

This teacher's written belief in her student reaps benefits - at Harvard

Back in 1997, Judith Toensing wrote on the report card of one of her sixth-grade students: "It has been a joy to have you in class. Keep up the good work! Invite me to your Harvard graduation!" 

Twenty-one years later, Christin Gilmer did just that.

Now 33, Gilmer kept the note all these years, touched that someone aside from her own mother could believe so strongly in her dreams and her abilities. So when she graduated with a doctorate in public health from Harvard last week, she invited Ms. Toensing to attend.

In fact, Gilmer personally delivered the invitation to Ms. Toensing, who describes her reaction as "flabbergasted and humbled." What's more, Harvard Dean Michelle Williams got wind of the invitation. In her commencement speech, Dean Williams thanked Toensing by name, as well as all public school teachers. She said, "You don’t just teach young people. You inspire them, and you propel them along a path of fulfillment and service to others. Your work is what makes our work possible. Thank you for everything you do, and please keep sending students our way!"

Gilmer believes Toensing also influenced her chosen field. "She lit a fire in me that helping people is a powerful tool, and through education, you can better serve populations in need." 

Fish seller buys 70-pound octopus just to release it back into the sea

Giovanni DeGarimore, owner of a fish market in Morro Bay, California, got a call from a local fisherman. A 70-pound octopus had been caught in a crab trap and he thought DeGarimore would be interested in buying it. He was indeed interested, and paid the fisherman a couple hundred dollars for it.

Truth is, DeGarimore does not sell octopus at his market. A few years ago, he met an octopus face-to-face while scuba diving in Fiji and was impressed with its playfulness. That led him to read more about the creatures, including research findings which point to their intelligence. They can navigate mazes and solve problems, and are well-known for their skill as escape artists. 

So DeGarimore bought the octopus, named it Fred, and kept it safe at his shop for a day or two. Then he transported Fred to an undisclosed location far from possible predators and released it into the sea. 

“I can’t be a savior to everything, so I had to pick one thing and do what I can," he told local news. And to his followers on Facebook, he said, "It'll hit me in the pocket, but I'd rather stand for something." No doubt Fred appreciates DeGarimore's conscience.

If you're as fascinated with these creatures as I am, you'll enjoy the amazing National Geographic video below.  

A generous eavesdropper

Ella Johannessen graduated from college last year, and like many folks just starting out, she has money worries. While on a train from London to Leeds last weekend, she spoke to her mom by phone about her financial concerns. Specifically, a bank transfer of £35 (about $50) did not go through as expected and Johannessen poured out her heart to her mom long distance. Then she fell asleep. 

When she awoke, she noticed something in her lap. Under a napkin was £100 ($141) in cash. No note. No explanation. No witnesses. 

Johannessen wept. 

She posted the story of the Good Samaritan on Facebook. She'd like to thank the generous person, and to let them know she is paying it forward by volunteering with a local charity. 

Restaurant employee returns lost diamond, claims her action was 'common sense'

Anchorage Alaska has a new hero, Patricia Christophersen. This unassuming young woman was busing tables at Carlos Mexican Restaurant last week when she noticed a customer in panic. Rachel Saldana was frantically searching the restaurant for the diamond which had fallen out of her wedding ring. 

Rachel was with a group at the restaurant planning a fundraiser for the Alaska Miss Amazing Pageant, a pageant for young girls and teens with disabilities. Folks at the dinner joined restaurant staff in the search for the missing diamond. No luck. Rachel left broken-hearted later that night, sharing her cell phone number just in case the stone was found.

After closing, Patricia decided to take another look in the ladies room. She knew Rachel had taken her baby into the ladies room for a diaper change at one point, and Patricia had a hunch the diamond may have been jarred loose there. Sure enough, she found it behind the bathroom door. 

When Rachel received the call after 11pm, she was obviously surprised, but delighted. She and her husband gave Patricia a cash reward for her honesty.

Patricia's honesty is even more remarkable given her circumstances. She was involved in a multi-vehicle pile up a few weeks back and cannot afford to fix her car. She has no money for her own apartment and is currently living in a friend's paint store. 

But Patricia wouldn't have it any other way. She told interviewers that her decision to return the diamond was simple. She believes it was common sense to return something that did not belong to her. 

This English pub fed the homeless on Christmas Day

I've often heard of churches, social service agencies, and non-profits hosting holiday meals for the homeless. But I've not heard of a business doing that, especially a business that depends on food and drink purchases for its livelihood.

That's exactly what happened yesterday in Manchester, England. A pub leased by Sean Brett opened its doors to over 300 homeless people on Christmas Day. They enjoyed food and drink, and received donated haircuts and gifts. Helped by two staff volunteers, Brett reports that donated items kept rolling in all day while his patrons socialized and chatted in the friendly pub setting.

Brett was inspired to act when he happened upon a homeless woman on the sidewalk on his way to work one morning. He's realistic; he knows he's only giving folks one meal on one day. He hopes that the publicity his dinner has received will inspire other people to reach out and do something to help this vulnerable population.

One doctor's ingenious fake epidemic

When the Nazis moved into Poland in 1939, Eugene Lazowski had just finished medical school. He was made an officer in the Polish army and stationed in the town of Rozwadow where he worked for the Red Cross. The fence which marked the border of the town's Jewish ghetto was right behind his house.

Dr. Lazowski had heard of recent discoveries by fellow Pole Dr. Stanislaw Matulewicz. It seems that a certain strain of the typhus bacteria, when killed and injected, will allow the patient to test positive for the deadly epidemic disease while remaining symptom-free. Dr. Lazowski tried it, and sent the patient's blood sample to a German lab for testing. 

The response was a red telegram - the patient has epidemic typhus and must be quarantined.

The patient was not ill.  

So Dr. Lazoswki came up with a plan. Whenever a patient came to him, be it a villager or a Jew from the ghetto (who he was forbidden to treat but did so anyway), he injected them with the bacteria. Blood samples left the village, red telegrams returned.

Soon the village and the ghetto seemed to be a hotbed of epidemic typhus. Nazis avoided the area - Germany had not had an outbreak of typhus in a generation, and officials worried about their soldiers' vulnerability. When a medical inspection team was sent to check on the epidemic's status, Dr. Lazowski planted ragged, dirty villagers in the hospital. The nervous doctors took one look and left quickly. The village quarantine was official.

The Nazis stayed away from Rozwadow for the duration of the war. Over 8,000 villagers and ghetto residents were spared the fate of other Polish villages, all because of one doctor's kind heart and his ingenuity.

He fled, then turned around to help

Ramon Lopez was at West 23rd and Sixth Avenue when a pressure cooker bomb exploded in that Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan about 10 days ago. He told USA Today, “It felt like a building was coming down.” 

Adrenaline kicked in, fight or flight. He ran from the blast. 

He only got about a half-block away before reason and compassion took over. Lopez did the right thing. He turned around and ran back to the scene to help. There, he talked to the injured and worked to keep them calm until ambulances and police arrived. 

This teen says, "Sit with us"

For Natalie Hampton, a high school junior from Sherman Oaks California, lunch periods back in seventh grade were dismal. She ate lunch alone the entire school year and felt embarrassed that her classmates could see how lonely and vulnerable she was. Her status as 'the girl with nowhere to sit' left her open to bullying.

Natalie eventually changed schools, made friends, and is now thriving in her new school. But the experience haunted her. She decided that no other student should ever have to endure that kind of torment.

So this 16-year-old developed and released an App called Sit With Us available free in the iTunes store. App users can, privately and without well-meaning adult interference, locate 'ambassadors' within a school's lunch period. Those student ambassadors have agreed to allow anyone to sit with them at lunch. Natalie hopes this gives all students a chance to connect and make new friends.

This young lady saw a problem and did something about it. Well done, Natalie.

Gotta have sole

Nicholas Lowinger started donating his used clothes to a homeless shelter near his Rhode Island home when he was a small child. One day, he was present when a boy received a pair of his old boots. The boy was thrilled with the boots even though they were used and too big for him. Nicholas was touched by the boy's enthusiasm and decided to do something more.


So for his bar mitzvah project in 2010, Nicholas launched Gotta Have Sole, Inc. The mission statement of his non-profit's organization is to provide children living in shelters across the United States with brand-new footwear to call their own. Since then, he has gained private and corporate sponsors and has given away tens of thousands of shoes in dozens of states.



Nicholas' story and his organization have been featured on the Today Show and he has been given a Nickelodeon HALO Award. His organization has now branched out to include Gotta Have School , clubs, and other ways of harnessing support for others. He has recently been awarded an AXA Achievement Scholarship which he plans to use to pursue his desire to become a social entrepreneur and to be part of the solution to end global poverty.

The Cajun Navy

During the recent floods in Louisiana, a loosely organized group again came out to help their neighbors. They call themselves the Cajun Navy. Similar to the 9-11 Flotilla and the local response after Hurricane Katrina, a call for help went out through unofficial channels, this time a local radio station. Anyone with a seaworthy vessel was to meet at a local mall. Organizers expected a couple dozen boats and volunteers. They got almost 400 boats, some high-water trucks, and 10,000 people willing to help. How awesome is that?

The official channels of help like the Red Cross, local police, National Guard, etc. are of course essential in management of rescue operations during disasters like this. But there's something touching and genuine about coming to the aid of another person, not because it's your assignment, not because it's your job, but because it's the right thing to do.

A hero in Baton Rouge flooding

This man, David Phung, risked his own life to rescue a stranger (and her dog!) caught in the high water of Baton Rouge's flooding this weekend. Check out these unbelievable videos.
I hope we all encounter strangers willing to turn hero if we need them to do so.
And I hope I'd find the courage on a moment's notice to be that hero for someone else.

A tent, a college, a community, and a car

This story is full of remarkable people, each of whom did one right thing.

Nineteen-year-old Fred Barley was determined to register for college. Even if it meant getting to the Gordon State College campus in Barnesville, Georgia by bicycle, a 50 miles trek which took him 6 hours. Even if it meant sleeping in a tent until classes started in August. He is homeless; he has slept in tents before.


As local word spread about Barley's situation, a number of people stepped up to help. Police didn't charge him with trespassing or vagrancy; they put him up in a motel. A pizzeria offered Barley a job. A Barnesville resident set up a GoFundMe page to help with Barley's college expenses, raising over $183,000 in a month!

The story went viral. One person who heard about it, Andy Ungaro of Philadelphia, wanted to help too. He runs a repair shop and had just received a 2004 Hyndai Elantra as a trade. He fixed up the car so it would run another 60,000+ miles, drove it down to Barnesville, and presented it to Barley as a gift. Ungaro hopes Barley will pass the gift on to another needy college student when he's done with it.

Kindness for the dumpster diver

Ashley Jiron runs P.B. Jams in Oklahoma, a cafe specializing in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When she noticed some dumpster trash torn open with the food contents removed, she knew someone in her neighborhood was hungry. She decided to do something about it.

She posted this sign on the dumpster. Her kindness went viral when a customer shared the sign on Instagram.

A hero even before the Olympics

As this New York Times article reveals, 18-year-old Yusra Mardini is a swimming champion with a unique story. She'll compete in the Rio Olympics, not for her homeland of Syria, not for Germany, the country which has taken her in and enabled her to continue training, but for a new entity: a refugee team. These are athletes who are currently stateless or would otherwise not be allowed to compete under their home country's banner. Until I read this article, I didn't even know such a team existed. Kudos to the IOC for making that happen.

But back to Yusra and her unique story. Last August, she and her sister fled their country's civil war. In Turkey, they boarded a dinghy built for 6 people along with 18 others in the hopes of reaching mainland Europe. Twenty minutes in, the engine died. Then the dinghy started taking on water.

Afraid to go back and unwilling to wait for help that probably wouldn't come, Yusra, her sister, and two men jumped out of the dinghy into the Aegean Sea. They swam. They pulled and pushed and swam with that dinghy in tow for over three and half hours. Partway through, the two men stopped from sheer exhaustion and allowed themselves to be dragged along. But the two Mardini sisters kept swimming. The dinghy made it to the shores of Greece.

Unbelievable story, right? An Olympic medal may or may not be in her future, but this young lady has my vote as true Olympic hero.

Unity in balls of yarn

What's red, was constructed by thousands of hands, and seeks to identify commonalities while celebrating the differences between us? The answer is UNITY, an interactive public arts project launched this summer in Alexandria, Virginia.

Nancy Belmont and the folks at Vessence Corporation are behind the idea. They decided to do something about the divisive labels so common in America today.

In an open green space they anchored dozens of poles, each marked with an identifier --  I am a parent; My ancestors came from Asia; I believe in a higher power, and many many more. Members of the community then tied their yarn around each of the poles whose labels described them.

Well over 1000 people later, the resulting canopy is an interwoven visual representation of the community. It tells a story of individuals and connections, of commonalities and differences that lend texture to the tapestry of our country.

UNITY is art doing what art does best - giving voice to the human spirit.

Unsung Heroes Project

Another site that shares great stories of personal integrity and courage is the Unsung Heroes Project. Not only does the site give story overviews, it provides resources for educators and collaborates in project-based learning opportunities for students, teachers, and parents. The project even offer cash-prize awards to students whose art communicates these untold tales to a greater audience.


Many of their featured projects, that is, stories which have been brought to the public through the arts, involve people who chose to do One Right Thing. One which struck me in its simplicity deals with the difficulties faced by the Little Rock Nine during the 1960s Civil Rights era. Those black students were the first to break the race barrier and be integrated into the all-white Little Rock School District. They had to walk through lines of jeering students and adults just to enter the school, endure untold threats and horrors in an attempt to receive an education. I'm sure they all remember those horrible days well.

And yet, even decades later, Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Nine, still remembers the names of two white students who showed her kindness during her ordeal, Ken Reinhard and Ann Williams. These two unlikely heroes didn't stand by when Elizabeth and the new students came to class. Ken repeatedly offered to walk with Elizabeth despite the verbal and phoned threats he received. Ann saw Elizabeth sitting alone in class and sat beside her, chatty and welcoming. The story of these small acts of standing up for what's right has been immortalized in this short film.

Nicholas Winton, Or how an unmarried stockbroker rescued hundreds of foreign children

Last night, Michael and I watched Nicky's Family on DVD (thank you, Netflix.) It was the story of Nicholas Winton and the lasting effect of his pre-WWII efforts.

Back in December 1938, British-born Nicholas was packing for a ski trip to Switzerland when a friend named Martin Blake called and asked to meet him in Prague instead. Martin was involved in with the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia and needed Nicholas' help in figuring out how best to aid Czech people fleeing the German annexation of the Sudetenland. So, the ski trip was off.

Nicholas was moved by the plight of these displaced Czech people, their desperation. They expected that war would soon be upon them, and young parents were understandably anxious about the safety of their children. Using Martin's contacts and then establishing his own official network (including a spy and some fake documents and rubber stamping), Nicholas created the pipeline called the Czech Kindertransport which functioned until the Nazis shut it down at the start of war on Sept. 1, 1939. His work resulted in 669 Czech children, mostly Jewish, being transported safely by rail and boat to England and placed with British families for the duration of the war.

Many of the parents who sent their children off to the homes of foreign strangers themselves perished in the war and the Holocaust. It is therefore believed that Nicholas' program saved the lives of those 669 children.

A humble man, Nicholas never spoke of his efforts afterward. It wasn't until 1988 that his wife discovered a scrapbook he kept with photos and names of each of the children. She led the effort to contact these now-grown children and organized the first of many 'family' reunions. When he died at age 106, Nicholas' 'family' had grown to a world-wide, multi-generation family well over 5000 strong.

All because one man decided to do One Right Thing.

Meanwhile, at the RNC...

As this New York Times article relates, the conflicts which underscore our country are in plain view at the Republican National Convention. If we give in to our differences, it would be easy for us to become a divided people, us vs them, those with authority vs those who feel powerless. 

Thankfully, some people don't focus on differences. They focus on peace.

I'm so grateful for people like these. Sometimes, all we can do in the face of tension and anxiety is join hands and pray for peace. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not naive enough to believe that our nation's problems will be solved by holding hands and singing Kumbaya. But I'm realistic enough to know that if we face a potentially difficult situation with an attitude of peace, we can move forward and hopefully be that peace. 

The courage to try

Sometimes I wonder how I'd react in a threatening situation. I like to think I'd act for the good, that I would instantly know what to do and how to do it. But seriously, when faced with a fight-or-flight moment, would I try to change the outcome? Would I even recognize the opportunity to try?

A day or so after the latest terror attack, this time in Nice France during the Bastille Day celebration, an amazing story has emerged. It seems that two quick-thinking bystanders attempted to stop the terrorist and his rampaging truck. One rode his motorcycle alongside the truck and tried to break into the truck's cab. The second actually did get in the truck's cab and wrestled with the armed driver. We may never know the extent these acts changed the outcome as neither was successful in stopping the madness alone. Perhaps their efforts slowed its attack. God knows.

These courageous individuals are as yet unnamed by the press, but they are true heroes in every definition of the word. I hope the media shares their names and their stories. We need reminders of how to behave well in the face of evil if we're ever going to learn how to subdue it.