Extend Your Hand, Don’t Point It

ANCHORAGE — Kenyada Waters was driving through town when she noticed a man on the side of the road. He was holding up a cardboard sign that read, “Laid off 2 long. Anything helps.” Waters noticed all of the cars in front of her drove right past him.

Something in her told her to stop and hear his story.

The man introduced himself as Richard and explained his situation. He told her how he’s been a tree-trimmer for nearly 20 years but found himself down on his luck after getting laid off.

Richard said his cellphone was cut off because he ran out of money. Standing on the side of the road with a cardboard sign was his last resort. He told Waters that people would drive by him and yell out, “Get a job you stupid, lazy bum!” Richard told Waters that he had submitted over 20 job applications but since his phone was turned off, he wasn’t able to hear back.

Waters says his story inspired her to help. She decided to pay for two months’ worth of cellphone service for him. “This man cried in AT&T!” Waters said.

As soon as his phone powered back on, there was a job opportunity waiting for him in his text message log.

“It might be you one day!” Waters wrote on a GoFundMe page she has set up for Richard.

“Extend your hand don’t point it!”

Enjoy!

This story originally appeared in USA Today:

Peace Amid Chaos

I doubt taking care of toddlers is part of police training, or is it? First responders must continually assess and make split second decisions while on the job. Some even go beyond what is required (a lot, probably). That is what officer Nick Struck did for a family and a little girl he didn’t know when he responded to a fatal automobile accident.

 

story credit: USA Today / KUSA

“I’m Making Them Happier”

Yes you are, Jeweleen Reiter …and they’re not the only ones.

Innocent, precious, and beautiful.

Enjoy!

 

Ohio Teen Takes His Great-Grandmother To Her First Prom

It was a senior prom like no other.

Along with many others nationwide, Ohio resident Delores Dennison had the prom experience of her life this week, including the perfect dress, the perfect dance and the perfect date — her great-grandson, Austin.

Austin Dennison, a 19-year-old senior at Parkway High School in Rockford, Ohio, asked his 89-year-old “Granny DD” to be his date after learning she’d never gone to prom when she was a teen, the Times Bulletin reports.

Inspired by his government teacher, whose brother took their grandmother to his senior dance, Dennison called up his great-grandma and asked her to be his guest..

“He said, ‘Grandma, I want you to go to the prom with me,'” Delores Dennison told the Times Bulletin. “I had a bad heart attack and stroke. ‘I’m not that good on my feet,’ I told him.”

But she agreed to go, and the rest is (adorable) history.

Austin bought his great-grandmother a pearl necklace the day before the prom, and played his guitar and sang Iris for her.

The night of prom, they ate dinner at Bob Evans, which is one of her favorite restaurants. And when they arrived at the dance, they had classic prom pictures taken, then danced together.

The band played the Frank Sinatra song Delores, a song her husband used to sing to her (“I love the kisses of Delores”) and “there was a standing ovation when we came out,” said Austin, who plans to attend Florida Gulf Coast University in the fall.

The night ended well: “We got home shortly after 9 p.m., later than I go to bed these days,” said Delores.

 

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This story originally appeared on USA Today Network:
Lindsay Deutsch, USA TODAY12:15 p.m. EDT May 2, 2014
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Helping Others See

California doctors restore eyesight of agricultural workers, needy patients

To many, Sonoma County, California, summons images of fine wines, lush scenery and elegant dinners. But Daniel Rabkin, program manager of Sonoma County Operation Access, and his colleagues are well aware that many in the community live in poverty with limited access to medical treatment.

On Make A Difference Day, Rabkin banded together with a group of ophthalmologists and their staffs to save the eyesight of 24 area agricultural workers and day laborers and another six needy cataract patients.

“By the end of Make A Difference Day, 30 people with limited means who never expected to get the help that they needed — and at no cost — were seeing a bright future ahead,” says Rabkin.

Ophthalmologists Robert Anderson, Gary Barth and Daniel Rich of the Eye Care Institute, Santa Rosa, Calif., fueled the project. They performed surgery on agricultural workers with pterygia, a blinding growth often caused by excessive exposure to sunlight.

On the same day, Dr. Naveen Chandra and his surgical team at Kaiser Permanente in Martinez, Calif., restored the sight of six needy cataract patients.

Those in need learned of the program through news media and word-of-mouth campaigns organized by Rabkin and others.

“These patients are enormously and rightly grateful to the doctors who donated their time and skill for surgery that the patients definitely needed but could not afford,” says Sally Giovinco, office manager of the Eye Care Institute “They lined up all the way out the door to check in an office most had never been to before and some didn’t speak any English. … From beginning to end, the patients and all of us were privileged to be part of something so completely positive.”

This article was written by Nancy Dunham, and first appeared in USA TODAY WEEKEND

 

credits: Martin E. Klimek, Nancy Dunham, USA Today

Last Wish: To Serve Others

Don Vogel of Spokane, Wash., who committed his life to serving others, is excited to do it one last time. “Because it gives me self-worth,” Vogel said. “And since I’ve had these strokes, it’s kind of important to me to revive my feeling of self-worth.“

What a wonderful man, wonderful attitude, wonderful life!

 

credits: KREM, USA Today