Uplifting Stories Thread

[China]

Life-long link, woman donates liver to man who cut her grass for years

 

Two Pittsburgh area neighbors are now lifelong friends after a living organ donor transplant.

 

Rina Kader knew Wayne Livingston as the nice guy who cut her grass. When Wayne told her he may need to stop due to an illness. He had liver failure. Rina immediately offered to donate part of her liver to Wayne. She was a match and the surgery was a success. Now, two people who were mostly strangers, are linked forever due to one woman's kindness. Wayne says he will cut her grass for free now.

 

Click on the link for the full article and video

[LD0506]

 

 

 

 

 

[LD0506]

<sigh> this thread is simply never going to get any traction or attention, is it?

 

I don't care, I'm stubborn

 

 

 

 

 

 

[China]

Seven Reasons Why the World is Improving

 

The late Swedish academic Hans Rosling has identified a worrying trend: not only do many people across advanced economies have no idea that the world is becoming a much better place, but they actually even think the opposite. This is no wonder, when the news focuses on reporting catastrophes, terrorist attacks, wars and famines.

 

Who wants to hear about the fact that every day some 200,000 people around the world are lifted above the $2-a-day poverty line? Or that more than 300,000 people a day get access to electricity and clean water for the first time every day? These stories of people in low-income countries simply doesn’t make for exciting news coverage. But, as Rosling pointed out in his book Factfulness, it’s important to put all the bad news in perspective.

 

1: Life expectancy continues to rise

2: Child mortality continues to fall

3. Fertility rates are falling

4. GDP growth has accelerated in developed countries

5. Global income inequality has gone down

6. More people are living in democracies

7. Conflicts are on the decline

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Fergasun]

WSAW.com: Bus Driver Rescues Toddler from Overpass in Frigid (WI) Weather
https://www.wsaw.com/fox/content/news/Milwaukee-bus-driver-rescues-wandering-toddler-504166401.html

I saw the video (not sure which is with this news article). Kudos to the bus driver and passenger who provided jacket. When I read headline I didn't imagine it would be America.

[China]

Dog gets 3D-printed skull after vet removes massive tumor

 

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A dog who lost part of its skull to cancer is now getting international attention.

 

When Danielle Dymek goes to the barn to feed her horses, her 10-year-old Dachshund Patches usually comes along for the ride. A senior dog, Patches needs some help getting around. For the most part, though, Dymek said her Dachshund has been fairly healthy.

 

That's why four years ago, when she noticed a small bump on Patches' head, she went straight to the vet.

 

"They didn't know what it was. It might be a calcium deposit. They weren't sure. We decided if it didn't grow, we weren't going to do anything about it."

 

Last summer, that bump started to grow fast. It was a cancerous tumor.

 

"By the time we got into surgery, it was the size of an orange," she recalled.

 

Patches needed to have a portion of her skull removed.

 

Dr. Michelle Oblak, a veterinary surgical oncologist with the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College, worked with Cornell University small-animal surgeon Galina Hayes to remove the tumor. They removed about 70 percent of Patches' skull and replaced the missing bone with a 3D-printed plate, which was made by medical technological company Adeiss.

 

The university said the procedure was a veterinary first in North America.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

---------------------------

 

In related news...

 

Surgeon replaces man’s cancerous pelvis with 3D printed implant

 

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Col. — It is no longer the stuff of science fiction, printing body parts is reality. In January, an orthopedic surgeon in Highlands Ranch replaced part of a man’s pelvis with a customized 3D printed implant. He used state-of-the-art technology to tackle bone cancer.

 

For Scott Ritchie from Loveland, this was the chance to survive a rare form of cancer and still be able to walk on his own.

 

Leaning a little bit on crutches, Scott was able to climb the stairs to his doctor’s office. That was impressive considering just two weeks ago, the 52 year old had major surgery.

Scott is an outdoorsman. About a year ago, he first noticed pain in his right hip after fly fishing.

 

“The pain was getting worse as time went on,” Scott told CBS4 Health Specialist Kathy Walsh.

 

An MRI showed chondrosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer in Scott’s right pelvis. Scott was told, with this tumor, chemotherapy and radiation aren’t effective.

“It had to be cut out and removed is what I was told,” he said.

 

Dr. Ronald Hugate is an orthopedic oncologist at Panorama Orthopedics and Spine Center. He was ready to tackle the complex problem.

 

“You basically have to plan a surgery that’s going to be successful in removing all the cancer cells,” Hugate said.

 

This planning would be done with cutting edge technology.

 

“You can see this dark area right here is his tumor,” explained Hugate pointing to Scott’s MRI.

 

Using the MRI and CT scans, Hugate made a 3D virtual model of the pelvis. Virtually, he was able to map out the surgery and plan precisely what needed to be removed to get rid of the tumor safely.

 

Hugate then designed an implant that was an exact replica of the missing bone.

 

“And you can see it fits in there just like a jigsaw puzzle,” he said.

 

The body part, made of titanium, was printed on a 3D printer.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

@Renegade7 here you go:

 

‘I Just Try My Hardest’ | 10-Year-Old Maryland Girl Born Without Hands Wins Handwriting Contest

 

FREDERICK, Md. (WJZ) — Sara Hinesley is your typical 10-year-old girl, but this resilient girl is overcoming obstacles with a smile.

 

Sara is a remarkable student who’s proving when it comes to academics, nothing will stop her.

 

“I like to play, I like to watch TV,” Hinesley said, who recently came to the U.S. from China.

 

She excels in the classroom at St. John Regional Catholic School in Frederick and she recently won a national handwriting contest that recognized for her excellence in cursive, the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest.

 

“I think’s it’s kind of hard — well sometimes easy and sometimes kind of hard — cause you don’t really remember all the letters to write,” Sara said.

 

All the more remarkable because Sara was born without hands.

 

Her sister Veronica wanted to help, so in science class she built an artificial hand for Sara so they could play together.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Spaceman Spiff]

15 hours ago, China said:

@Renegade7 here you go:

 

‘I Just Try My Hardest’ | 10-Year-Old Maryland Girl Born Without Hands Wins Handwriting Contest

 

FREDERICK, Md. (WJZ) — Sara Hinesley is your typical 10-year-old girl, but this resilient girl is overcoming obstacles with a smile.

 

Sara is a remarkable student who’s proving when it comes to academics, nothing will stop her.

 

“I like to play, I like to watch TV,” Hinesley said, who recently came to the U.S. from China.

 

She excels in the classroom at St. John Regional Catholic School in Frederick and she recently won a national handwriting contest that recognized for her excellence in cursive, the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest.

 

“I think’s it’s kind of hard — well sometimes easy and sometimes kind of hard — cause you don’t really remember all the letters to write,” Sara said.

 

All the more remarkable because Sara was born without hands.

 

Her sister Veronica wanted to help, so in science class she built an artificial hand for Sara so they could play together.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Went to high school with a kid who was a grade ahead of me, had no arms.  He wrote by wedging a pen between his big toe and index toe with his notebook on the floor.  Impeccable handwriting.  

 

Here's a good one:

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-lands-job-after-officer-gives-him-ride-interview-instead-n997146

 

Quote

An Illinois man starts a new job Tuesday and he has a police officer to thank for getting him to his interview.

Ka'Shawn Baldwin, of East St. Louis, was pulled over Wednesday in Cahokia by officer Roger Gemoulesfor allegedly having expired license plates. Baldwin also did not have a valid driver's license.

 

"I was nervous. I was thinking, I was just going to get some more tickets and have some more fines that I really can't afford to pay," Baldwin told NBC News.

Gemoules, a high school resource officer with the Cahokia Police Department, was on patrol that day because school was closed for spring break.

Baldwin, 22, said he knew his driver's license was suspended but he was unaware the license plates on the car he had borrowed from a friend were expired.

 

 

[Bang]

Not an article, but this guy will give you a smile

 

 

~Bang

[HOF44]

Great story!

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/04/24/ive-been-crying-all-dayhappy-tears-young-cellist-with-tormented-past-is-disbelief-donations/?utm_term=.457534c5f51f

[China]

Dog Saved By Workers On Oil Rig, 135 Miles Off Thai Coast

 

Workers on an oil rig about 135 miles offshore from southern Thailand noticed something stunning in the water: a dog.

 

The animal swam toward the rig's platform on Friday and clung to it as team members tried to figure out how to save him, Vitisak Payalaw, an offshore planner for Chevron Thailand Exploration & Production, told NPR.

 

Video that Payalaw posted on Facebook shows the shivering animal partially submerged in water, staring up at the workers.

 

 

In the first photos Payalaw posted, the dog looks exhausted — "especially on his eyes" — and despondent. Workers provided him with water and pieces of meat on the deck of the rig, and they set up a kennel for him indoors.

 

They named him Boonrod, Payalaw added, a word that means "he has done good karma and that helps him to survive."

 

 

Click on the link for the full article and video

[LD0506]

Quote

Greg Dunston and Marie Mckinzie lived on Oakland’s streets for almost 10 years, pushing their carts around with all their belongings and sleeping in the doorway of an Alameda County building.

But for the past three months, the couple have lived among the wealthy — on a nearly $4 million property in one of the Bay Area’s most exclusive neighborhoods in Piedmont. The homeowner, Terrence McGrath, did something few in his position would dare do: He opened his doors to homeless people in need.

 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/A-homeless-Oakland-couple-moved-into-a-4-million-13812019.php

[China]

Memphis girl faces rare disorder with humor as St. Jude steps in with a cure

 

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - Imagine growing up allergic to the sun, trapped inside while all your friends play outside.

 

That was one Memphis child’s reality until she got treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

 

But how she handled the agony of chemotherapy is a social media inspiration.

 

“It’s like burning from the inside out," said Madelyn Havard.

 

At just 4 years old, Madelyn was diagnosed with Erythropoietic Protoporphyria, or EPP.

 

“If she got too much, the skin would swell,” said Polly Havard, Madelyn’s mom. “It could blister and just feel like it was burning for days.”

 

Exposure to the sun was toxic to Madelyn.

 

“It was really hard,” she said. “Because I could see my sister go out in the pool in a bathing suit and I’d sit under the umbrella. Or if I wanted to go swimming, I’d have to wear a rash guard and swim tights and swim socks and a hat. And just the looks that people would give...”

 

Fewer than 10,000 people on the planet have EPP. Less than 5 percent develop life threatening liver disease, but Madelyn did at age 12.

 

Last summer, she became the first EPP patient to receive a bone marrow transplant at St. Jude. The procedure required 10 rounds of chemo in nine days.

 

“(It was) awful," said Polly Havard. “She had every side effect you can imagine. It was pretty intense because they have to kill all that bone marrow in such a short amount of time. It was a lot of chemo.”

 

Nine months after her transplant, doctors told Madelyn her EPP is cured.

 

She celebrated with her mom and dad and twin sister with a vacation under the sun.

 

“I went to the beach this past weekend and it was crazy,” said Madelyn. “Right when my foot hit the sand I was just smiling and laughing, and it was so fun.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

This man scours thrift stores and basements for wheelchairs and crutches. Then he gives them to the needy.

 

Mohan Sudabattula was 10 years old when his parents took him on a trip from their home in Utah to their family’s ancestral village in India in 2006.

 

Along with visiting family and historic landmarks, Sudabattula's mother took him to an orphanage and school for disabled children. She thought it was important for him to see it.

 

Sudabattula, now 23, vividly remembers that some of the children were missing limbs, and used old lawn chairs with bicycle tires attached as wheelchairs.

 

“But most of them were still laughing and smiling and happy to meet us,” said Sudabattula, who was born in the United States.

 

After returning home to West Jordan, Utah, where his parents had immigrated three decades ago, Sudabattula often thought about the cheerful children in those lawn chairs.

 

“It always stayed with me — they didn’t even have a proper wheelchair,” he said.

 

So in 2016, when he came up with an idea to help people in wheelchairs — not only poor people in India, but those in his own suburban hometown — he went all in.

 

Sudabattula was a triple major at the University of Utah (health policy, biology and philosophy) and a volunteer measuring disabled children for prosthetics at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Salt Lake City.

 

He noticed that the children frequently removed their prosthetics because they weren’t comfortable, and they also quickly outgrew them.

 

“Their parents would bring the prosthetics back, and the protocol was for us to throw them away,” he said.

 

That seemed wasteful to Sudabattula as he recalled the makeshift wheelchairs in India.

 

The unwanted prosthetics from Shriners couldn’t be reused because they were each designed to fit only one child. But the throwaway devices got Sudabattula thinking: What other mobility equipment could be rescued from dusty attics and basements, cleaned up and given to somebody in need?

 

"I knew that something as simple as a pair of crutches would change a person's life,” he said.

 

After doing some research, Sudabattula created Project Embrace from his dorm room — a nonprofit that collects gently used wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches, slings, orthotic shoes and braces and redistributes them to disabled children and adults who can’t afford them.

 

Since July 2017, he estimates that Project Embrace has collected, cleaned and given away about 500 pieces of used mobility equipment to low-income people in Utah and to organizations that help the disabled in India and Swaziland.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[FrFan]

 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by FrFan

[China]

‘It wasn’t in his job description’: Metro police officer escorts a mom and her tantruming autistic child home

 

Taylor Pomilla had just picked up her 4-year-old son, Andrew, from school Friday and they were heading home on the Metro when Andrew decided he wanted to run around inside the car while it was moving.

 

Pomilla told him that wasn’t safe, but Andrew, who has autism, insisted. She tried all the tricks in her bag for 20 minutes to get him to sit. Soon, Andrew became agitated and started a tantrum. It was rush hour.

 

“That is when his regular toddler tantrum turned into a meltdown, or what I call, the point of no return for him,” Pomilla wrote in a now-viral Facebook post.

 

Andrew rolled on the floor, he screamed, he flung his shoe across the train, she said in an interview. Pomilla, a single mom who moved to Ballston from Texas six months ago, was desperately trying to calm him down.

 

“Then he starts the kicking, hitting, pulling my hair while everyone in rush hour stares on the train, most thinking I was a bad parent who had an out of control child, even though really he can’t help it,” she wrote.

 

Sometimes, she said, Andrew becomes flooded with emotions and is unable to process or handle the wave of feelings. Pomilla, who was still in her work dress after a day in the office at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Bethesda, said she felt like everyone was staring at him.

 

“I blurt out loud, ‘I’m so sorry he has autism!!!’ in an attempt to stop the stares,” wrote Pomilla, 24. “He was getting worse and I knew we had to get off.”

 

They exited the car at Gallery Place, as she carried her flailing son, his backpack, her purse and a bag of groceries she had recently bought. It was one stop before Metro Center where they usually change trains to get home. She thought Andrew would calm down once they got off the train. But things got worse.

 

“Now we’re rolling around on the dirty station floor. He is covered in black dirt. I try picking him up but he continues to kick which now gets dirt on me,” she wrote, adding that it went on for about 15 minutes.

 

Feeling defeated and judged by onlookers, her bags splayed around her, tears sprang from Pomilla’s eyes. She said this was Andrew’s worst meltdown in about a year.

She saw someone approaching and felt a sense of panic. Then the two looked up to see a Metro Transit Police officer. Andrew froze.

 

“She definitely looked like she needed a little help,” said the officer, Dominic Case, who has been with the department for five years. “He was having a tantrum and she was carrying a lot of bags.”

 

Case asked whether she needed a hand. Pomilla explained what was going on, and that they needed to get to Ballston, about 30 minutes away.

“Without hesitation he said, ‘Okay I’ll come on the train,’ ” she wrote.

 

Case, who has a 4-year-old son of his own, crouched down to Andrew’s eye level and started chatting with him, showing the boy his police gear. He said he did that because he knows how much his own son likes police equipment. Pretty quickly, Andrew stopped crying.

 

Case then took off his adhesive police badge from his vest and asked Andrew: “Can you be a police man with me and help me do police work on the train?” Pomilla said.

Andrew said yes, and as they walked toward the escalator, Andrew put his hand in Case’s and held tight, Case said.

 

Case, 27, said he felt honored Andrew grabbed his hand because in training classes he learned that people with autism often don’t like to be touched.

 

“Being that he really wanted to hold my hand, it seemed like a calming thing at the time,” he said. “It seemed the right thing to do.”

 

Case got on the train with them and rode a stop to Metro Center. As they exited to switch lines, Pomilla thought Case would leave them. But he didn’t.

 

“I was like, ‘Thank you again so, so much,’ ” she said. “Then I was like, ‘Wait, are you not leaving?’ ”

 

She wrote on her Facebook post: “The officer ends up riding the metro THE ENTIRE train home with us!!!.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Over 110 Million Trees Were Planted in 2 Days by 2.4 Million Volunteers - Record Breaking Reforestation

 

Different states in India seem to be battling for the Guinness World Record of reforestation, and their efforts are massive!  Back in 2016 the state of Uttar Pradesh had set the record when almost 1 million participants planted 50 million trees in 24 hours.  Then, a year later the central indian state of Madhya Pradesh set a new Guinness World Record when 1.5 million volunteers planted more than 66 million trees in just 12 hours along the Narmada river. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Wounded veterans teach children with missing limbs how to play ball in Virginia Beach

 

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - A group of wounded veterans are taking action for children with disabilities this week in Virginia Beach.

 

The coaches and players come from all over the country.

 

This week, leaders with the group USA Patriots are teaching kids who live with congenital limb loss or have suffered amputation from illness or injury the basic fundamentals of playing ball sports.

 

Mother of six Kristy Filbrun drove 12 hours from Ohio with her six children to attend the group's Kids Camp, which is formerly known as the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team.

 

Her 9-year-old son Wyatt and 12-year-old daughter Jemma both participated in the camp.

 

“My injury is honestly one of the biggest blessings in my life,” said Josh Wege.

 

Wege said he signed up for the U.S. Marine Corps when he was 18 years old. He said he lost both legs in Afghanistan when his vehicle hit a 200-pound IED.

He said his injuries put life into perspective.

 

“I don’t put socks and shoes on in the morning. I literally have to strap legs to my body to be able to walk,” said Wege. “It changed my perspective, and I could share that with anybody else that comes out.”

 

He and the other veterans are sharing that positive perception with 17 kids.

 

“They deserve to be kids. We get to bring them out to teach them how we’ve gone through it and also learn from them, too,” said Wege.

 

Organizers say Virginia Wesleyan University allows them to use the fields and stay on campus for free, which saves the organization about $30,000. They said they fundraise all year to pay for the kids and one parent to be flown to Virginia Beach. They said they pay for all activities and meals while they are here.

 

“We want them to come here carefree and simply have a great time,” said Ellison.

 

“We’re here to pop that bubble that society has put on them that they’re disabled. They’re not. They’re just kids - they just got a couple more challenges to go through,” said Wege.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The cat man of Aleppo: rescuing battle-weary Syrian strays

 

Mohammad Aljaleel looked after homeless cats during the aerial bombardment of Aleppo. He has since set up a dedicated sanctuary and veterinary clinic for stray felines

 

Mohammad Aljaleel, also known as the cat man of Aleppo, at Ernesto’s cat sanctuary, which he runs in Kafr Naya. 

 

Aljaleel rescues a cat from the rubble of a bombed area of Khan Sheikhun as he searches for surviving felines to take to his sanctuary

 

 

 

Aljaleel with a cat he rescued from a destroyed area of Khan Sheikhun

 

Rescued cats are checked by a vet.

 

Aljaleel helps the vet Mohammad Youssef examine a cat.

 

 

 

Dinnertime!

 

 

Click on the link for more

[China]

He was bullied for his homemade University of Tennessee T-shirt. The school just made it an official design

 

A Florida student obsessed with the University of Tennessee wanted to represent the Volunteers during his elementary school's "College Colors Day," but didn't own any of their apparel -- so he took the matter into his own hands.

 

Laura Snyder, his teacher at Altamonte Elementary School in Altamonte Springs, says he drew a "U.T.", the university's logo, on paper and pinned it to an orange t-shirt.

 

"When the day finally arrived, he was SO EXCITED to show me his shirt," Snyder wrote Wednesday on Facebook. "I was impressed that he took it one step further to make his own label."

But by lunch time, the spirited Vols fan was in tears.

"Some girls at the lunch table next to his (who didn't even participate in college colors day) had made fun of his sign that he had attached to his shirt. He was DEVASTATED," said Snyder.

 

In hopes of raising his spirits, Snyder said she planned on buying him an official University of Tennessee T-shirt, and asked friends if they had contacts with the school who could "make it a little extra special for him."

By Thursday, her Facebook post had gone viral among Vols fans, with lots of people leaving supportive comments. And it wasn't long before the University of Tennessee reached out wanting to send the student a care package full of swag and apparel.

"You all have taken this above and beyond what I had ever imagined," wrote Snyder.

Synder updated the Facebook post on Friday to let everyone know how excited the student was to receive the care package.

"My student was so amazed at all the goodies in the box," she said. "He proudly put on the jersey and one of the many hats in the box. All who saw had either goosebumps or tears while we explained that he had inspired and touched the lives of so many people."

What's more, University of Tennessee said it was turning his "U.T." design into an official T-shirt.

 

"Share in a Florida elementary student's Volunteer pride by wearing his design on your shirt too!," the university's official campus store said on Twitter.

According to the university, a portion of the proceeds from every shirt sold will go to an anti-bullying foundation.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

‘Bumblebee! Bumblebee!’: A 4-year-old got an epic surprise, and the strangers who gave it to him got something, too

 

To get to Northern Virginia in time to surprise a boy he had never met, Shannon Rogish couldn’t just roll out of bed and drive a few miles.

 

He had to plan.

 

He had to take the day off, wake up to a still-black sky and drive for hours.

 

The map app told him it would take about three hours to get there from his home in Staunton, Va. So on Tuesday, he went to bed at 7 p.m., and on Wednesday, he woke up by 2 a.m. and was on the road by 3.

 

“I was just praying the whole time as I was driving that I wouldn’t hit anything and that traffic wouldn’t be that bad,” he said while sitting in his car, a Mountain Dew in the center console, just in case he needed the caffeine. “And I got lucky with all that.”

 

Rogish’s 2015 Camaro was among the 100-plus yellow vehicles that lined several blocks of an Alexandria neighborhood on Wednesday morning, providing a bright moment on an otherwise solemn day. Later, across the region and country, there would be remembrances for those who were lost on Sept. 11, 2001. But for a few hours, at this speck on the map, strangers came together to celebrate a life.

 

They came to surprise a boy who turned 4 that day and was healthy for the first time ever on his birthday.

 

“I’m just doing it because I want to see the kid smile,” said Rogish, a volunteer firefighter and an engineer at a manufacturing plant. “I can only imagine the hell he’s gone through.”

 

That hell began just weeks after Whitaker Weinburger’s first birthday. A blood test led to a concerning call from his pediatrician and soon, his mother, Erin Weinburger, was sitting in the hospital, listening to a doctor tell her that her 13-month-old had Stage 4 neuroblastoma.

 

In a recent column, I told you what the family went through in the years that followed that cancer diagnosis. I also shared with you how after a double stem-cell transplant, only one potentially concerning spot now remains on Whitaker’s scans and he is healthy enough to attend preschool.

 

When his mother and his father, Seth Weinburger, first started talking about how to make his walk to school special on his birthday, their idea focused on a single yellow car. Whitaker often begs them to drive by one in their neighborhood because it reminds him of Bumblebee, a character from the Transformer cartoon and movie series. They considered asking their neighbor to park in front of their house on Whitaker’s birthday.

 

Then, Erin Weinburger took that idea further. She posted a call for yellow cars on a private Facebook page. That request then made its way onto other pages, into the media and onto the calendars of more yellow-vehicle owners than she ever expected.

 

When she thought 50 drivers might show up, she told me, “I hope that all those people that come connect with each other, too, because they’re seeing something great. They’re seeing something great in each other.”

 

On Wednesday, more than 100 came. I wish I could tell you exactly how many, but it was impossible to count them all. There were bulldozers and buses, Camaros and Corvettes. There were yellow cabs with “Happy Birthday” balloons dangling outside their windows.

 

 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Elessar78]

^^^ They need to change the air filters in my building. The pollen is making my eyes water reading this story this morning. Props to all those people that came out. 

[First Colony]

On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 12:48 AM, China said:

Tennessee T-shirt story

 

 

 

 

Turns out, UT is also offering the boy a scholarship.

 

                                         It was already a great story, and now it's even better: The 4th-grade boy who was bullied over his homemade University of Tennessee shirt, only to see his design turned into an official UT shirt, has been offered a four-year scholarship to the university as a member of its Class of 2032. The boy lives in Florida but is a huge UT fan, and the university says that as long as he meets the admission requirements, his tuition and fees will be covered starting in fall of 2028, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The university is covering those costs; all proceeds from sales of the boy's shirt design are going to the organization STOMP Out Bullying

 

Link for article

[MisterPinstripe]

Major props to UT. Its amazing what they did for that kid. Heck I was tearing up when I saw the shirt they created from his design.

[China]

Homeless Man Reunites With Dog He Thought He Might Never See Again

 

Rogers is an artist from Tennessee who has, unfortunately, fallen on hard times. Though homeless and struggling, he's not without a loyal companion by his side — a pup named Bobo. Rogers always ensures the dog is never left wanting, but a few weeks ago, Rogers woke up and found himself alone.

 

Bobo had gone missing, sparking a desperate search. Rogers made flyers in hopes someone would spot Bobo, his dear dog whom he feared he might never see again.

 

But then, just last week, an employee at Memphis Animal Services who'd seen the flyers noticed a newly-arrived pup looked like the missing dog. Could this really be Bobo?

 

When Rogers arrived to check, their heartfelt reunion erased any doubt.

 

 

"Bobo got neutered, microchipped and vaccinated, and we found out he was heartworm negative," Memphis Animal Services wrote. "We sent him back to Anthony with a year’s supply of heartworm prevention, a bag of dog food, and a harness, leash, collar and ID tag. Bobo is healthy and happy[.]"

 

Click on the link for the full article