A German shepherd who was wandering the streets of Detroit with a stuffed toy after her owner died has been rescued. Her road to recovery started in early May when pictures of the pup, named Nikki, circulated among rescues in the Metro Detroit area. When Gail Montgomery, the cofounder of Almost Home Animal Rescue saw the pictures of Nikki alone in the rain, clutching a plush toy in her mouth-it channeled an emotional response and she knew she had to help.
She reached out to her contacts at South Lyon Murphy Lost Animal Recovery for help finding the dog and getting her off the street. People with It Is Pawzable Dog Training, Sugar Mutts Dog Grooming, and others came together to find the German shepherd by showing photos of her to nearby residents.
Once they found her, she was taken to an emergency animal hospital to be treated. Unfortunately, she is heartworm positive and has other internal problems. They found plastic bags, twigs, and bones in her stomach but thankful she is being treated and has been placed in a foster home until she is ready for her forever home.
Montgomery later learned that Nikki had been on her own for months, likely due to the death of her owner. The canine was living off the generosity of neighbors and scrounging for scraps. South Lyon Murphy Lost Animal Recovery posted a heartwarming thank-you message to everyone who helped save Nikki.
“There’s so many people to taink it’s a really long list. Without Almost Home backing the dog or another rescue, unfortunately, we can’t recover them. Thank you to Rebeka who watched out for her and has been feeding her for the past several months. Thank you to SugarMutts who will be doing her grooming. I can tell you she is absolutely filthy and her double coat is still in there and she’s going to feel so much better when that’s all washed and blown out. Thank you to every single one of you who donated, wanted to know how she was, called, message, communicated and posted, wanting to know what her status was. All of us can do what we do but without you guys, we are nothing. United, we stand and divided we fall.”
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Three time NBA Championship winner Rick Fox co-founded and is the CEO of Partanna, which manufactures concrete that absorbs more carbon from the air than it contributes during the manufacturing process. Fox believes tropical storms are becoming more intense due to carbon content in the atmosphere.
Fox got involved in 2019 when he got a call from his manager just after Hurricane Dorian smashed into Fox’s home in the Bahamas. His manager, who was also displaced by a natural disaster—the fires in California in 2018, said she had met an architect called Sam Marshall who was developing carbon-negative concrete.
Instead of using Portland cement, which is a major source of carbon emissions, they use a special mixture of natural and recycled ingredients that’s cured at ambient temperature rather than the high temps that make concrete and cement responsible for the largest share of the manufacturing emissions pie chart.
The binder components consume CO2 as they cure, which means they actually remove carbon from the atmosphere. They use a brine activator that’s found in natural pozzolans, which helps avoid using the energy-intensive clinkering process. Every part of the concrete process is designed to reduce its environmental impact.
Believing in the cause, Fox went all in and became the co-founder and CEO of Partanna “I’ve been a part of a lot of amazing journeys and industries, from entertainment to movies and TV. I’ve been on sets with Oscar-winning actors and directors, and I’ve been on championship NBA teams. There’s been nothing more rewarding for me in my life than to be a part of this team where we’re leaving something behind,” Fox said.
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Donna Herter, watched her 24 year old son, Christian Bowers, struggle with making friends. Christian has Down Syndrome, and making friends was never hard for him until he finished school and found, as many people do, it’s not as easy and straightforward to maintain a social life.
Bowers’ mother, Donna Herter, watched her son sink further and further into depression. He occasionally attends gatherings and groups of other special needs men and women his age, but longed for friendships. Eventually, Herter put up a post on Facebook asking if any local guys near Rochester, Minnesota, would be interested in coming to hang out with Christian for two hours, with a compensation of $80,00.
Herter put up the post at 4AM, the end of her night shift as a nurse. She headed home and went to sleep and woke up to over 5,000 comments on her post. Hundreds of commenters volunteered to help free of charge. She eventually found 7 fellows from Wentzville, Minnesota, who visit Christian once a week on a rotating schedule. Herter says her son goes to sleep with a smile on his face now, and is excited about life in general, and of the future as well.
One of the 7 friends, James Hasting, said he felt terrible seeing the post and that Herter had reached the point where she was trying to pay people to visit her son. Hasting, who volunteers with special needs folks, said hanging out just for a few hours to watch a movie or play video games with Christian has changed the way he looks at the world.
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Emmy-winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph shared the story of what experiencing kindness from a white teacher meant to her during the early days of desegregation. Ralph’s primary school education came at a time when racial tensions were high across the country with the push for desegregation in public schools.
Ralph, who attended Driggs Elementary School in Waterbury, Connecticut, described the moment shared with her kindergarten teacher that has stuck with her all these years. She remembered her teacher, Ms. Spencer, grasping her hand and even remembers her scent. “This young woman held my hand. This is a young white woman in Waterbury, Connecticut. I’m a child of the ’60s right, and the idea that your teacher was holding you close, no matter what your color was, just spoke volumes to me.”
“I can still feel it to this day, I’m left handed … and I can still feel it and see where I stood with that teacher” In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, Ralph partnered with the Sonic Foundation to match up to $1.5 million in public donations sent on May 9 through DonorsChoose.org. The website consists of wish lists from public school teachers across the country. Teachers will have full discretion on how they allocate the money raised for them.
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A Michigan seventh grader is being hailed a hero for his quick thinking when his bus driver suffered a medical episode while behind the wheel. Dillon Reeves, a student at Lois E. Carter Middle School in Warren, took immediate action on a bus ride home from school. Warren Consolidated Schools Superintendent Robert D. Livernois called Reeves’ actions “an extraordinary act of courage and maturity.”
The bus driver experienced dizziness while driving and followed protocol by alerting ‘“home base” that she wasn’t feeling well and was going to pull over to allow the transportation department to dispatch someone to provide relief to her. But the driver lost consciousness before she could make it to where she planned to park and the bus started to veer into oncoming traffic.
Reeves, who was seated five rows back, jumped from his seat, threw his backpack down, ran to the front of the bus, grabbing the steering wheel. He pushed the brake to bring the bus to a stop in the middle of the road. In a video released by authorities, Reeves is seen taking control of the steering wheel, slowly pushing the brakes, and then yelling to the other panicked students: “Someone call 911. Now. Someone should call 911. I don’t care! Someone call 911!”
Warren police and fire departments responded to the scene within minutes and treated the bus driver. Livernois commended his actions saying “He had the wherewithal to push it slowly, likely in anticipation that the bus was full of passengers. So despite the justifiable panic on the bus, you could imagine this is probably a 66-passenger bus and it was full at the time.”
All of the students were loaded onto a different bus to make their way home. The driver, a 40-year-old woman, is “stable but with precautions” and was transported to a hospital for examination. Thanks to Reeves, no students suffered any injuries and there was no damage to the bus or any of the surrounding property.
Reeves’ parents, Steve and Ireta Reeves, praised their son and called him “our little hero.” Steve Reeves said “First off, we are very, very proud. I mean, this is overwhelming for all of us.”
His mother Ireta Reeves added “Dillon, he’s really been a great guy this year. He has come a long way. He has surprised us with great grades and with his performances at schools with friends, with peers. And to do something like this just fills my heart, makes my heart skip a beat.”
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A Welshwoman with late-stage renal failure met a kidney donor on the beach while vacationing with her two Dobermans. Forty-four year old Lucy Humphrey has lived her whole adult life with lupus and in 2017, her doctors told her that if she couldn’t find a new kidney in 5-year’s time, there was a chance she would die. Requiring kidney dialysis, Humphrey and her partner Cenydd Owen had to cancel their campervan holiday and so decided to drive to the beach for a barbeque instead.
While there, one of their two Dobermans, a big lug called Indie, kept running over to another camper to pester her while she was crocheting. By the third time, Owen went over to apologize and the camper, Katie James, was soon over at the barbeque chatting with Humphrey. That’s when James learned that Humphrey needed a kidney.
James mentioned that she had just joined the kidney donation register and offered to swap phone numbers. Humphrey said “To be honest I didn’t think anything else would come of it.” Blood tests later revealed the two campers were a perfect match, something which Humphrey described as a 1-in-22 million chance. The transplant took place in October of 2022, after which Humphrey needed 4 weeks to be discharged from the hospital due to James’ donated kidney not “waking up” fast enough.
James said when she first signed up she was told she wouldn’t receive any information on what her donated kidney would accomplish, whether it saved a life or not, or even who it went to. Now, she not only knows for sure it saved a woman’s life, but it has created a lasting friendship. Humphrey said “I’m so grateful for her… I told my partner in 2019 if I didn’t find a transplant within five years it was possible something would happen and I would die. I just want this to be a message to other people not to give up hope.”
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Cincinnati barber Vernon Jackson, doesn’t mind working on his day off. Since 2021, Jackson has opened his barber shop, Noble Barber and Beauty, for VIP clients: children with special needs. Jackson said having an empty shop helps some children who are sensitive to new environments and sounds. Not only does he work on his day off, he does it for free.
His goal is to help the children get acclimated to the barber shop so they can feel comfortable coming in when other employees and clients are there. “I was hearing so many horror stories that parents were going through with other barber shops and just the barbers or stylists having no patience with their child. So I figured I would compromise by coming in on my day off so there would be no other barbers or stylists in the shop and I could give them the full attention that they need.”
“When I first started promoting that I was going to come in on my off day to do haircuts for children with different needs, a friend of mine just randomly inboxed me and said, ‘Hey Vern, can I sponsor a haircut?'” he said. More and more people asked to donate money for haircuts and Jackson started a GoFundMe. He calls the free haircuts the “Gifted Program.”
“These are parents that would pay any amount of money just for their child to be able to have an experience like any other person. And at the end of it, I can tell them ‘It’s covered,'” he said. “[They say] ‘I got to give you a tip.’ I say, “No, trust me, this is part of the Gifted Program, this is a gift from the community, myself — please receive it.”
Jackson said he has clients that come to him from other cities in Ohio, and he hopes to put the money he raises towards travel, so he can provide free haircuts to children with special needs across the country. He said “I’ve been getting inboxed from people from Denmark, Australia, London, Uganda and all across the country. It’s really been a beautiful experience. This has allowed me to love to my fullest capacity and to see what happens when I do.”
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A group of good Samaritans in Florida helped police rescue a father and daughter who never returned after taking out a jet ski on the lake. Christopher Snow, 31, and his daughter, Alexis, 13, had gone out on Baker Creek Park for a ride at sunset, but his girlfriend, Carolyn Joyce, went to the dock around 8 p.m. after being unable to get in touch over the phone with the pair.
Seeing that Snow and Alexis had yet to return, Joyce alerted Deputy Kevin Reich, who was on routine patrol at the dock. Samantha Conover, her fiancé and some friends were out Saturday night having dinner on the water in Lake Thonotosassa. Afterwards, they brought their pontoon back to the public boat ramp where they saw Deputy Kevin Reich, who was looking for two jet skiers. Conover had seen the two earlier so she offered Deputy Reich a ride on her boat to work together to search the lake.
Within 40 minutes of first speaking with Joyce about the missing father and daughter, Reich and the others heard the teen frantically scream “Help!” The rescuers shouted back “We’re coming, baby, we’re coming!” The father and daughter had been treading water for about an hour after their jet ski sank in the middle of the lake. Deputy Reich’s body camera captured the thrilling yet emotional moment as the two were successfully pulled aboard the boat.
The pair appeared exhausted on the video when the rescuers pulled them aboard, and officials said they had been treading water for nearly an hour. Conover said “ It was nerve racking for all of us. I don’t think I ever could be able to get it out of my mind, the screams I heard from her”. She added about finding them “It was amazing. Like, I cried. I held my husband, I cried. We would do it a thousand times again.”
At a press conference, grateful Snow said “I want to thank both the boaters that helped and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for being on patrol and noticing something wasn’t right. My life jacket wasn’t sized properly, so this is a good reminder to make sure yours is fitted correctly.”
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In 1995, Lamar Johnson was wrongfully convicted of fatally shooting a man and received a life sentence. A couple of years later, a minister at Ginny Schrappen’s church handed her a letter. It was from Johnson and addressed to anyone who would write back. The two struck up a fast friendship and corresponded constantly for decades while Johnson was in prison, serving time for a murder he didn’t commit.
Johnson always claimed he did not commit the murder. After the Midwest Innocence Project got involved and the real killer confessed, Johnson was exonerated and released from prison at 49 years old. Twenty-eight years later his conviction was overturned. On February 14, 2023, Johnson was released from prison at 49 years old.
He spent the next few weeks doing all the things he couldn’t do in prison, including traveling to see one of his best friends for the very first time. Johnson went to Schrappen’s house for the first time, where she greeted him with a warm welcome. She gave him a tour, a box of his favorite cereal and one last letter.
Johnson said that the greatest gift, though, is the confidence his friend instilled in him and it’s inspired him to serve a life of friendship. Johnson said that Schrappen’s belief is what helped him get through nearly 30 years of injustice. “Especially when somebody is innocent, you want someone to believe in you. Because when you have people who believe in you and they won’t give up on you, then it makes it harder for you to give up on yourself” he said.
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Isaiah Márquez-Greene, a survivor of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, got the surprise of a lifetime when he went to a New York Rangers game and met one of his favorite players. Márquez-Greene knew he was going to receive a jersey from Rangers captain, Jacob Trouba, at the game. But what he didn’t expect was for Trouba to present him with a scholarship for law school.
Márquez-Greene, lost his sister Ana, who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting at age 6. Now 18, he is getting ready to attend the University of Connecticut and had already been accepted into the school’s special law program. In a video from the game, Márquez-Greene met Trouba on the ice and shared that he’s been a fan of the hockey star since he played for the Winnipeg Jets.
After signing his jersey, Trouba invited him to sit on the Rangers bench. Calling him an “amazing human,” Trouba shared that he knows Márquez-Greene’s story and asked the incoming freshman what he wants to do in the future. After Márquez-Greene responded that he wants to be a lawyer, Trouba handed him a certificate.
“This is for you,” he said. “It’s from the Garden of Dreams. It’s a scholarship for law school.” “No way,” Márquez-Greene responded. Trouba continued, “You’re going to graduate from college, you’re going to go to law school and you’re going to have no debt coming out of school. You deserve it, man” he said. After the pair took a picture together, Trouba gave Márquez-Greene his number and told him he wanted to check in with him when he goes to college next year.
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