The teen driver from a viral video of his truck being tossed and flipped around in a tornado has been gifted a brand new truck. Just days after 16-year-old Riley Leon’s fateful crossing of paths with one of more than a dozen twisters that struck Texas Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet dealership in Fort Worth, Texas announced they were giving him a brand new vehicle.
In the video captured by a passerby, a funnel cloud and debris spin around Leon, his red Chevrolet Silverado is flipped on its side, rotated around once, and then flipped back upright again — and Leon continues driving. Leon had been interviewed by local news outlets and said he had just finished applying for a job at Whataburger.
“Everything was going good, it was a nice good day for me, then, out of nowhere, the twister came. It just happened so fast. It looks like I drove off but in reality I didn’t; I just landed in the center of the road and I was just driving to get off on the side of the road” he said. Elgin Police Dept. Commander Aaron Crim, said he spoke to Leon after the incident and asked Leon if he was okay. “He just kinda shook his head and didn’t really answer me. After seeing the video, now I understand why he had just come out with a blind stare,” Crim said. “He was probably scared to death.”
Leon’s truck was totaled but he appeared to be okay. Leon originally did not go to the hospital after the incident, because the family does not have health insurance and nothing appeared to be physically wrong with him. Unfortunately, he began to experience body aches and severe back pain, as one would expect after, after the shock wore off.
When he went to school he ended up leaving early due to severe back pain so Leon’s mom came to pick him up and took him to the hospital. The doctors found fractures to the teen’s back. A GoFundMe set up by Leon’s school nurse for his medical bills surpassed its goal of $30,000-raising over $43,000 so far.
When Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet heard of Leon’s story on the news they decided to give him a new one. Riley and his family have received a brand new 2022 Chevrolet Silverado LT All Star Edition in Cherry Red along with a $15,000 check that was presented to him. The dealership made the announcement on their Facebook page “We are thankful Riley is safe, commend his driving skills during a frightening situation, and our hearts are with other families in Texas that have been affected by these storms.”
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An Atlanta teen is raising money for a friend’s recovery from a traumatic brain injury during a football game. Marcos San Miguel and Jordan Sloan have been best friends since 6th grade. The two bonded over their love of sports, San Miguel is a star on the basketball court and Sloan on the football field. Sloan was 15 when he took a hit in the 3rd quarter of the homecoming football game at Pace Academy in September 2020.
Sloan walked off the field but was rushed to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta where he underwent brain surgery. Jordan had suffered a very rare brain stem injury that made it difficult for doctors to give a prognosis for his recovery. He would remain hospitalized there for the next several months before being moved to the Shepherd Center for rehabilitation.
His recovery has been a long road from being on a ventilator and unable to blink to doing rigorous physical therapy and taking virtual classes back at school. Sloan goes to rehabilitation sessions 6 days a week to regain his mobility and strength-with the goal of being able to one day play sports again.
San Miguel has been by his best friend’s side cheering him on and found a way to support him through basketball. San Miguel began taking pledges for every charge he took in a basketball game, in order to give Sloan’s family the money necessary to buy items not covered by insurance, like a manual wheelchair and reformer machine. He said “I really just wanted to do whatever I could to help. He would have done something similar for me.”
So far, he has raised over $14,000 through his fundraiser “Take a Charge for Jordan Sloan”. The remainder of all funds raised will go to Shepherd Center for their Adaptive Sports program.
San Miguel hopes that once Jordan has a manual wheelchair and reaches a few new therapy goals, he can arrange for a wheelchair basketball game for Jordan and some of our former teammates. Sloan’s mother, Jasmine Jamieson said she is grateful for the way San Miguel has stepped up to help and while she doesn’t know if she will ever be able to really thank him- she will try for the rest of her life.
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Army Sgt. Christopher Kurtz, was serving in the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan in 2010 when an IED went off nearby. Kurtz, who lives in TN, lost both of his legs and two fingers. After many surgeries, Sgt. Kurtz returned to active duty before medically retiring from the Army in 2013. He was recently honored with the keys to his new specially adapted smart home, courtesy of the Gary Sinise Foundation.
He received a brand new “smart home” that has been customized to make living easier for Kurtz. The foundation built him a four bedroom, three bath home with an open floor plan, wide hallways, low counter tops, and smart technology to control everything in the home with the touch of an iPad. The house was provided to the Kurtz family mortgage free by the Gary Sinise Foundation program R.I.S.E. (Restoring Independence, Supporting Endowment), which builds specially adapted smart homes for our nation’s most severely wounded veterans and first responders, their caregivers and families.
A “Walls of Honor” ceremony was held at the site of the house in Adam, TN to celebrate handing the keys to Kurtz. In a video prepared for the event, Sinise said “The house that stands before you today is a small symbol of appreciation and respect from a grateful nation.” Mike Thirtle, CEO of the Gary Sinise Foundation said “We want to make it as customizable and tailorable for them and their family. So when you go inside the home you’re going to see countertops lowered and you’re going to see a Dutch oven that opens a certain way. You’re going to see a sink where they can wheel up with their wheelchair to have access. You go to the bathroom and you see how it’s easier for them to get around because there’s a lot of wheelchair considerations.”
Sinise, who played wounded war veteran Lt. Dan in the movie Forrest Gump, said that experience opened a whole new world for him. For the past 10 years, Sinese has been providing mortgage-free homes for veterans through his foundation. “Shortly after the movie opened, I was contacted by the Disabled American Veterans Organization inviting me to their national convention where they wanted to present me with an award,” Sinise said. “I met hundreds if not thousands of people who were not playing a part in a movie.”
Sgt. Kurtz said the home has changed his life. “I am incredibly grateful to the Gary Sinise Foundation, not only for what they do for the military community, but for changing my life with this home that will help restore my independence and make life easier for our family. This place is awesome, it’s going to be a great place to grow the family, my kids are going to be in great schools, this entire community is very supportive. I can’t ask for more, this is an incredible opportunity, and I can’t be more thankful, it’s just a blessing,” Kurtz said.
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A short-handed school cafeteria manager called into a BBC Radio 2 talk show asking for help in her kitchen and got the shock of her life. Tina Clarke had been listening to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay talk about his latest TV show, Future Food Stars. She called into the show and told the host Vernon Kay she was “cooking on her own” at Edward Peake Middle School. One of her cooks was out sick and the alternate staff member was unavailable after testing positive for COVID.
She jokingly asked for Ramsay to come help her in the kitchen later that day to help her prepare school meals for 300 students. During the call to the radio show, Tina said: ‘I’m cooking here on my own. I’m working here in a school kitchen and my chef has gone off sick. I’ve got another one off with Covid and just wondered if Gordon would help me today, give me a hand after his interview?” Ramsay had to decline but said he’d make a call and get it all sorted out if she needed help.
Clarke said “When I phoned in, I really did not expect for him to send a chef. When I finally got a message saying, ‘Your chef will be with you in an hour,’ I thought, ‘Oh, my God. I’m going to have to fess up to the head teacher, I hope she doesn’t give me detention.” The Kitchen Nightmares star kept his word and sent one of his chefs, Rob Roy Cameron, to lend a hand. The school staff welcomed Rob Roy into the kitchen, which “sent a huge buzz around the school”. Roy got right to work and even put on a cooking demonstration for the pupils. He then helped Clarke serve the students their meal.
Later that day, the school tweeted: “We had a very exciting visitor today at Edward Peake. Rob Roy Cameron was sent to us by @GordonRamsay all thanks to our wonderful chef for asking Gordon Ramsey to come help her in the kitchen on @BBCRadio2 #TeamPeake #GordanRamsey #RobRoyCameron #HugeThankyou #BBCRadio2. Here’s an appreciation post for @GordonRamsay @BBCRadio2 and Chef Rob Roy Cameron for helping us out in the kitchen today! #TeamPeake #AppreciationPost #ThankYou”
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After two tornadoes touched down leaving a path of destruction in New Orleans, rapper and entrepreneur, Master P sent a crew from his foundation to help clean up his hometown. Team Hope helped clean the streets of New Orleans, retrieved items from homes that suffered damage, and provided assistance to senior citizens as they completed damage claim forms.
Master P, whose real name is Percy Robert Miller, is a proud New Orleans native and has consistently shown up for his city. This time was no exception, his crew was on site the morning after the tornadoes to help assist with clean up efforts. They also handed out water and food to displaced residents.
Master P said “It happens so much and you don’t want to get used to it, but it just happens so much. New Orleans is a place that we just have to keep getting back up and be thankful for everyday of life. Anybody else across the country that’s experiencing any type of thing where you say to yourself ‘I’m not where I want to be at..’ New Orleans is a place where you could have a house one day and then it’ll be gone and all your stuff is outside on the road. We are stronger together and we’re going to get through this.”
He added “It’s a blessing to be able to be out there, especially for the elderly. We’re making sure the elderly have wheelchairs, glasses, food, water. I want to thank everybody for supporting us and getting out there and volunteering because without us coming together, this wouldn’t happen so quick.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana declared a state of emergency in four parishes in the New Orleans area after the National Weather Service confirmed that two tornadoes had hit the area: one in Lacombe, north of the city across Lake Pontchartrain, and another that tore through both the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.
One person was killed, hundreds injured and over 8,000 were left without power after the storm. Search-and-rescue crews surveyed heavily damaged homes and debris-filled streets after tornadoes ripped through the New Orleans area. The weather service rated the St. Bernard tornado was at least an EF-3, characterized by wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph, making it the most powerful tornado to hit the region since 2017.
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The Chancellor of Vanderbilt University is recognizing all the school’s employees for their diligent work over the past two years with a surprise bonus in their paychecks. As part of the Chancellor’s Recognition Award, all eligible staff, faculty and postdocs will get a one-time payment of $1,500 added to their paychecks at the end of March, according to the university.
Around 9,000 workers, including part-time employees, are getting the generous bonus. While announcing the award on March 17, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier expressed appreciation for staff members’ “extraordinary efforts” during the tumultuous time, saying they are “at the heart of Vanderbilt’s educational mission.”
Diermeier said “It has not been easy, especially during the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. However, your dedication to our vision and goals enables our university to operate at its highest level. I am indeed grateful as we approach Vanderbilt’s 150th anniversary in a position of strength and with optimism about our path forward.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across America suffered from a national teacher shortage. Every year teachers leave the profession and fewer people are entering the field each year. According to the National Education Association, the pandemic has exacerbated a challenge that has seen massive staff shortages in public schools in every state. The shortage has left teachers increasingly burnt out, with an alarming 55 percent now saying they’re ready to leave the profession they love earlier than planned.
There are over 50 million US public school students and about 3.5 million teachers. The shortage is particularly acute in areas like maths, science, languages and special education. Throughout the pandemic, administrators have been struggling to fill vacancies for teachers, substitutes and other vital school staff positions in order to keep operations going.
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A rare kind of reunion recently took place at Houston Methodist Hospital. Five strangers who received a donated kidney meet the five strangers who volunteered a kidney. They are linked in a life-saving kidney swap that involved 10 people and it has left them with a life-long bond. With all its complexities from matching antibodies to patient health, a kidney swap is where your loved one needs a kidney, but you’re not a match. So you donate to someone else in exchange for one that is a match.
The chain of the swap is similarly complex and intertwines them all by a sacrifice to save a loved one. Michael Wingard, 20, donated his kidney to 30-year-old Heather O’Neil. Because Michael is donating a kidney that will go to Heather, her twin sister, Staci, donates a kidney to a 47-year-old man named Javier Ramirez Ochoa while Lisa Jolivet, a 43-year-old mother of three, donates one that matches up with Michael’s friend, Kaelyn Connelly, so that Lisa’s 72-year-old mother, Barbara Moton, can receive a kidney from 67-year-old David McLellan, who donated so that his son Chris, who is 31, can receive a kidney from 33-year-old Tomas Martinez so that Javier Ramirez Ochoa can receive that kidney from Staci O’Neil, Heather’s twin sister.
A swap of this size is difficult to pull off and with all the complexities to be synchronized – matching antigens, patient health and COVID – this kidney swap had already been postponed three times since December. The extraordinary 10 person life chain took place over four days. All recipients in the swap are doing well and met for the first time, with the strangers that gave the gift of life.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, there are about 100,000 people in the U.S. on the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network waiting list needing a kidney yet only about 20,000 transplants are performed each year. A patient on the waiting list typically waits an average of three to five years to receive a kidney. In 2020, about 5,000 people on the list died while waiting for a match. Matching kidneys, typically donated after death, never became available.
Living donor kidney donations greatly increase the number of organs available to those still waiting for a match. Kidney swaps are an option when a patient who needs a kidney transplant has a willing donor but they aren’t a good match due to incompatible blood types. The paired exchanges give a ray of hope to life in a dire situation and free up spots on a long waiting list.
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Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott revealed in a blog post that she has donated nearly $4 billion to 465 nonprofits including a $436 million donation to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its affiliates to create affordable housing. That donation is the largest publicly disclosed gift from Scott so far. Her policy is to let the organizations she donates to make the announcements in the hopes of minimizing attention. Her recent post confirmed announcements by several organizations.
The announcement brings Scott’s publicly disclosed donations to more than $12 billion since 2019. In total, Scott says she’s donated to 1,257 organizations. Scott, who is worth about $48 billion according to Forbes, signed the Giving Pledge through which many billionaires have promised to donate more than half of their wealth. Scott declines interviews and only discusses her philanthropic choices through her blog posts. Her recent post touched off a wave of nonprofits announcing their plans for the donations.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America and 21 of its affiliates received its largest gift ever from Scott— $275 million. Boys & Girls Clubs of America announced a $281 million donation similarly dispersed among local chapters of the organization. HIAS, the international Jewish humanitarian organization, said Scott donated $10 million to its campaign to raise $40 million for its emergency response in Ukraine. Community Catalyst, a healthcare reform nonprofit in Boston, announced it received $25 million and would use the funds to help “create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice.”
In her blog post, Scott said 60% of the groups she and husband Dan Jewett donated to are led by women and 75% are led by people with lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address. “Our team’s focus over these last nine months has included some new areas, but as always our aim has been to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds. Scott believes in “supporting people directly experiencing inequities is essential, both because it is informed by insights no one else can contribute, and because it seeds power and opportunity within the community itself.”
In the newest blog post, Scott said her team is working on building a website that will include a searchable database of her grants. The expansive list of organizations that received her latest round of donations have a broad range of missions and mandates—from improving women’s health to solving the climate crisis to helping military families, incarcerated people, and teachers.
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People from around the world booked 61,000 nights in Ukrainian cities via Airbnb in a social media campaign to get funds into besieged cities. The campaign saw $1.9 million raised for Ukrainians in just 48 hours. These bookings have amassed more than $15 million in aid, according to Airbnb. Out of the 61,000 stays booked at the start of March, 34,000 came from Americans, 3,000 from Canadians and 8,000 from the U.K. The company, which normally takes about 20% of each booking, waived its fees in Ukraine. Airbnb said they received more than $5.2 million in small-dollar, direct donations from a total of more than 59,000 individual donors across 92 countries.
Airbnb previously committed to setting up temporary housing for 100,000 Ukrainian refugees across Europe and North America. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wrote “We need help to meet this goal. The greatest need we have is for more people who can offer their homes in nearby countries, including Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania.” Airbnb hosts that want to help need only register on the Airbnb.org Help Ukraine page. Within one day of the announcement, Airbnb hosts had answered this generosity with their own. More than 29,000 individuals have signed up to open their Airbnb-listed properties to Ukrainians, including 14,000 across Europe and 4,000 in the U.S.
The Utah Jazz Foundation is also partnering with Airbnb.org to provide more than 32,200 nights of temporary housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine, a number representing exactly 200% of the capacity of their Vivint Arena home stadium. Airbnb said they have contacted leaders in 14 European countries offering to place refugees in Airbnb properties. They are working closely with governments to best support the refugee housing needs in each country, including by providing longer-term stays. The United Nations reported that over 2 million Ukrainians, about 4% of Ukraine’s population, have fled to neighboring countries, more than 1 million of them to Poland. According to UNICEF, at least half of the 2 million refugees are children.
Celebrities around the world have also responded to the need for aid to refugees. Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher raised over $30 million and Ellen DeGeneres pledged to match $10 million in donations.
Harry Potter author J.K Rowling pledged to match up to $1.3 million in donations. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively also pledged to match $1 million in donations. Bethenny Frankel’s disaster relief organization, BStrong, has raised more than $5 million in relocation aid, in addition to the $10 million the organization already pledged to support Ukraine.
South Korean actress Lee Young-ae made an $80,000 donation, Leonardo DiCaprio donated $10 million, singer-songwriter The Weeknd donated $500,000 and committed another $500,000 from his upcoming tour, David and Victoria Beckham donated $1 million and model Gigi Hadid pledged to donate her earnings from participating in Fall 2022 Fashion Week shows this month to support humanitarian relief efforts.
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Former mayoral candidate and Chicago businessman Willie Wilson donated $200,000 in free gas across the city, causing a massive gridlock in the city. Every vehicle at participating gas stations received $50 until all the money was exhausted. Wilson is donating another $1 million in free gas this week.
Fifty gas stations across the city will participate in the free gas giveaway. Each station is also agreeing to lower their gasoline prices during the event to allow more families to benefit from Wilson’s generosity. The gas will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 7am Thursday
Wilson said “The need among the community is so great, soaring gas prices have caused a hardship for too many of our citizens. I am confident that with God’s help and wisdom we will get through these tough times together. This is our second gas giveaway in one week. The need is great, I want to help. If I can help somebody as I pass along this way, then my living is not in vain.”
Wilson, was one of the first African Americans to own McDonald’s franchises in Chicago back in the 1970s. He sold all of his restaurants in the 1980s and is president and CEO of Omar Medical Supplies, one of America’s largest distributors of disposable products for use in medical, industrial and foodservice areas.
He is no stranger to making headlines for his philanthropy. In 2018, he handed out checks for $100,000 to homeowners in danger of losing their homes. People lined up at the Cook County Building for checks from the Dr. Willie Wilson Foundation, a nonprofit organization. He also handed out envelopes of cash at a Southside church totaling $200,000.
In 2020, he donated 1 million face masks to hospitals across all 50 wards of Chicago and another 1000 masks to Chicago fire and police departments. Through his foundation, he also sent $100 to 10,000 people through Venmo and Paypal. Homeless people, senior citizens, and those who lost their job due to the pandemic just had to apply for the support.
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