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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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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Ten year old Olive Wallace comes from a musical family. Her grandmother is a retired Californian music teacher. Olive’s aunt also teaches music. Olive herself is a musician and plays two instruments- the violin and the clarinet. The fifth grader sings in her school’s choir and honor choir at Avon Grove Intermediate School.
Her mother Michelle Wallace says her daughter sketched out her first musical composition in pencil. When Olive shared the composition she had written with her mom, Michelle shared it with the TikTok community. “So my 10-year-old daughter wrote this,” Michelle explained in a TikTok video. “Could somebody play this? I need to know — I need to know if it’s any good or if it makes any sense.”
Days later, the musical piece went viral with musicians and orchestras worldwide. Musicians from all over the world shared recordings of themselves playing variations of Wallace’s song on social media. She was able to hear her music played on the guitar, the piano and the harp, as well as performed by string orchestras comprised of music instructors and middle school students. Six million views later, the composition had been played and shared by hundreds of TikTok musicians, including well-known professionals, and was turned into a full string orchestral arrangement.
“I never in a million years would have expected this to happen,I’m blown away by how many people put their time into that, it was just really amazing and beautiful,” Olive said. “I’m happy it reached so many people and brought so many people joy, I think that’s what music does for people,” she added. Olive hopes her music inspires others to pursue their love for music.
AGIS orchestra teacher Emily Lucas described Wallace as “always creative and imaginative.” She said other students at AGIS think the media attention is awesome and some have even asked Wallace for her autograph. Lucas added that she doesn’t think anyone was necessarily surprised by the response, simply because of how creative Wallace is every day. “If this type of thing was going to happen to anybody in the school it would be Olive, and Olive’s mom would be the person to make it happen,” said Lucas.
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In 2018, a homeless man found a check for $10k and his only thoughts were returning it to its rightful owner. Because of his good deed, he was rewarded with a chance at a whole new life. Elmer Alvarez had been living on the streets of New Haven, CT for several years battling addiction. The unexpected death of his brother from a heart attack spurred him into a dark spiral of addiction and crime.
Having finally kicked his addiction, he never considered keeping the check despite still living on the streets. Alvarez said “It never crossed my mind because I made a decision to turn my life over. I’d been clean for three years. I was just thinking about how that person was feeling by losing an amount of a check like that, an amount of money like that. I’d be feeling kind of desperate.” It turns out that the check belonged to real-estate broker Roberta Hoskie.
Luckily for Elmer, Roberta was full of compassion for his situation due to her own experience with homelessness as a teenage mother. “He didn’t know whose name was on the check, he didn’t know that at one point I was a single mother, I was at one point on welfare, and at one point found myself homeless” Hoskie said.
She offered him a reward for returning the check, which brought tears to Elmer’s eyes. Roberta also offered Elmer a place to live, paying his rent for seven months, and had him attend her real estate school for free. Hoskie said she was in awe of his actions. “There needs to be more people like Elmer Alvarez, he’s a golden heart guy, he’s a phenomenal guy.”
Years later, Alvarez is able to support himself as a realtor and is on the board of directors of Outreach Foundation, a non-profit Hoskie started to help with housing and resources for homeless teens and young adults. Hoskie also wrote a book- “Poverty Curse Broken: The Roberta Hoskie Story” with the hopes of inspiring others to break the poverty cycle.
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Students at Glen Lake Elementary School in Minnesota raised $300,000 for a new disability-friendly playground. Some students in Betsy Julien’s fifth-grade class took note of the complete lack of playground equipment, such as a wheelchair merry-go-round or swings that kept students with disabilities from joining in on the fun of recess.
Students Wyatt Feucht and Rhys Riley believed that every student deserved the chance to have fun during recess, so they asked their teacher why the school couldn’t buy the equipment themselves. Ms Julien explained that it was expensive, with an estimated cost of $300,000. The pair made a mission to raise money for a disability-inclusive playground.
They began collecting spare change, held a bake sale, printed flyers, and went door-to-door to raise money. They even reached out to local businesses and restaurants, asking them to donate a portion of their profits. The students’ hard work continued for several months, with support from the Glen Lake Parent Teacher Organization, until they finally reached their goal- raising the $300,000 needed.
Hall of Famer John Randle and current special teams ace Josh Metellus were on hand at Glen Lake Elementary School on Wednesday as part of a rally for students that are raising money for playground equipment to allow some of their classmates to better participate in some of the outdoor activities. The fundraiser originally had a goal of $300,000, but is now over $700,000 with the goal having moved all the way to $1,000,000.
Their teacher Betsy Julien said “My future as an adult is bright knowing that this generation of students, of changemakers, sees something that needs fixing, and they go for it headfirst.” Now the class has set a new goal: to buy adaptive playground equipment for other schools in the district. Their fundraising efforts can be found at: https://www.glenlakepto.org/glen-lake-accessibility-project
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A Kenyan high school teacher is using old laptop batteries to turn petrol-powered bikes into electric ones. Paul Waweru, a Physics teacher based in Nairobi, is turning second-hand electronics destined to become waste products into something useful. Waweru said he had to import an electric bike but the bike didn’t last long which prompted him to get innovative.
He buys old batteries that can cost as little as 0.50 Kenyan shillings, which he then cannibalizes for the cells that still can hold a decent charge. Once he has enough battery cells, he configures them into battery packs to replace the internal combustion engines of existing scooters and bikes.
A full charge on the laptop battery pack is around 60 miles and it can fully charge in 45 minutes for less than half the cost of a full tank of fuel. He founded a company called Ecomobilus which sells Ecomobilus bikes. They require zero maintenance because there are no mechanical parts that need to be repaired.
Many African cities are choked with air pollution, especially during the dry seasons, and some are seeing electric bikes as the perfect solution to quickly and effectively improve on this vital issue. Ecomobilus Bikes are now being used by many couriers and delivery drivers as a cost effective solution to the air pollution problems.
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NFL player K.J. Osborn of the Minnesota Vikings found himself in the right place at the right time recently. Osborn was riding in an Uber in Austin, TX when he and his driver saw the car had crashed under a bridge and had flames coming out from under the hood. His Uber driver hopped out of the car and said they should call 911.
Osbornknew they had to see if the driver was ok. The two of them went to the burning car and realized the driver was still alive but unable to move. “I don’t have experience in this. So in my head, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, this car can blow up at any second. It’ll all be over. But my, you know, my Uber driver, he went right up to the car, he opened the door.” The two of them, along with two other people, pulled the driver away from the burning car before it was fully engulfed in flames.
Osborn tweeted about the incident on March 6 with pictures from the scene of the accident. “Last night myself and these 3 absolute heroes helped save a man’s life by rescuing him from a vehicle up in flames after a bad crash. A situation I’d never imagine being a part of in a million years.” Both Austin Fire and Police Departments confirmed there was a one car crash incident at 2:35 a.m. A spokesperson for the Austin Fire Department said the driver had driven off the road into a grassy area and then hit a concrete overpass pillar at a high rate of speed.
An Austin Police Department statement said when EMS arrived on the scene, the driver had already been rescued by Good Samaritans from the Audi A4 and the car was by then “fully involved” in fire. The driver was treated on scene and transported with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Osborn said that though the saying goes “wrong place at the wrong time,” he was glad to be there in that driver’s time of need. “I was at the exact place, the right place at the right time. So I was happy we were able to do that” he said.
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In a story that sounds like an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, a Philadelphia surgeon ran about a mile to and from a hospital to pick up a liver for his patient after a courier’s route was blocked by thousands of marathon runners. Charles Rowe, 66, was waiting on an operating table with his surgeon Adam Bodzin, scheduled for a life saving liver transplant. Meanwhile, an out-of-town van driver for Philly-based Gift of Life Donor Program found his route to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital would be blocked by the Dietz & Watson Philadelphia Half Marathon at two separate points.
Event organizers and police have access points for emergencies going towards the hospital, but the courier couldn’t find them even after consulting police. When Bodzin heard about the delay he decided to get the liver himself. Clad in sneakers and teal scrubs, Bodzin weaved his way at a full run from the hospital entrance through the stream of runners.
Reaching the driver and taking the sealed container with the liver on ice, he zigzagged back the same way before hitching a ride with the police back to the hospital on the other side of the marathon route. Thanks to Bodzin’s quick thinking, they managed to transplant the liver successfully, an hour after the time when the liver begins to deteriorate.
Rowe made a full recovery and left the hospital 6 days later and considers Bodzin a hero. “He went beyond the call of duty. I guess he’s got a cape underneath that white jacket” Rowe said. When asked about his hero status he modestly said he would describe himself as “more of a biker” and he hopes the story inspires people to become organ donors.
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Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl spent over 24 hours volunteering at an LA shelter preparing barbecue for hundreds of homeless people. Grace Ancheta, director of development at Hope the Mission said brisket, pork butt, ribs and more were delivered to Hope the Mission’s Trebek Center in Northridge, California on Feb. 22.
Grohl arrived around 3pm and worked away cutting up and preparing the meat for the smoker to be served for dinner at 6pm on Feb 23. Once the meat was ready to be put in the smoker at midnight, Grohl and his fellow barbecuers took turns smoking the meat overnight — even as a major winter storm moved through Southern California, dumping hail and rain on the shelter that night.
Once the meat was ready at 3pm, Grohl helped prepare and served hundreds. Ancheta said Grohl was very gracious, taking pictures with people who recognized him. “He wanted no glory for it, he was like, ‘I just want to do this for you guys and give back in that way” Ancheta said. Grohl told staffers at Hope the Mission he finds getting into the barbecue pit therapeutic after he comes offstage.
“Whenever he comes off of work or anything else, that’s what he wants to do,” Ancheta says. “He wants to cook for people. And by the way — it was amazing. It’s the best barbecue we’ve had.” Grohl’s visit came as Hope the Mission’s CEO Ken Craft and president and CFO Rowan Vansleve are running 350 miles across the desert from the Las Vegas Strip back to Los Angeles to raise money for the mission’s latest campaign. Vansleve posted a video Grohl sent to support the “All in for Housing” campaign. “Keep it up, we’ve been out here all night cooking, you got to get back here soon, because we’re all in” Grohl said in the video.
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Michael Jordan celebrated his 60th birthday with the largest donation to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in history. His $10 million donation will go to “create an endowment to provide the funds needed to make future wishes possible for kids with critical illnesses,” the foundation said in a release. The gift is the largest given by an individual in the foundation’s 43-year history.
Jordan said “Witnessing the strength and resilience of the organization’s kids has been a continuous inspiration. Witnessing their strength and resilience during such a tough time in their lives has truly been an inspiration. I can’t think of a better birthday gift than seeing others join me in supporting Make-A-Wish so that every child can experience the magic of having their wish come true.”
The Chicago Bulls legend has partnered with the organization for 34 years and has become increasingly generous with his fortune over the years. The first wish Jordan granted happened in 1989 and the organization said he has granted hundreds of wishes to children all over the world. In 2008, Jordan was named a Make-A-Wish ambassador “for the life-changing impact he has had on wish kids and their families.” In 2021 he donated $10 million to Novant Health for the opening of two new children’s hospitals in his home state of North Carolina, the same company to which he gave $7 million 4 years before that.
President and CEO of Make-A-Wish America Leslie Motter applauded Jordan’s ability to create a legacy both on and off the court. “Everyone knows about Michael’s legacy on the basketball court, but it’s what he has consistently done off the court when no one’s watching that makes him a true legend for wish families and the wider Make-A-Wish community. Michael, using his birthday as a chance to make history for Make-A-Wish speaks to the quality of his character and his loyal dedication to making life better for children with critical illnesses. We hope that the public will be inspired to follow in his footsteps by helping make wishes come true.”
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