Thousands of runners rally around the U.S. to finish the run by Eliza Fletcher, the Memphis teacher who was kidnapped and killed during an early morning jog. In cities across the country, runs were organized to honor the mother of two on September 9th, one week after her abduction while on an early morning jog near the University of Memphis campus.
The runs were organized on social media in multiple cities across the U.S. At 4:20 a.m. — alluding to the last time Fletcher was seen alive — friends and strangers wearing bright colors and lights ran, jogged and walked in her honor. Runners in Memphis ran the same 8.2 mile path Fletcher regularly ran. Runners in Boston, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Tupelo and elsewhere organized their own events as a tribute to Fletcher. Hundreds logged their runs on a website dedicated to the event.
Fletcher’s Sept 2nd abduction, which was caught on a surveillance camera on Central Avenue, sparked an intense search for the vehicle. Members of the U.S. Marshals Service located the GMC Terrain in a parking lot the next day and the suspect was arrested after trying to flee the area.
Many organizers of the Finish Eliza’s Run events have declined interviews out of respect to her family saying they want the focus to stay on Eliza Fletcher and other women who have gone missing, been harassed or felt unsafe while exercising. Fletcher’s family have requested privacy while they grieve and released a statement thanking people for their support.
“Now it’s time to remember and celebrate how special she was and to support those who cared so much for her. We appreciate all the expressions of love and concern we have received. We are grateful beyond measure to local, state and federal law enforcement for their tireless efforts to find Liza and to bring justice to the person responsible for this horrible crime.”
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The cast and crew of the Gravesend TV series reunited with the teenager they saved while filming in Brooklyn last November. Nam Phuong, 14 was walking his dog when a driver lost control of her vehicle and hit him along with a parked car. The teen and his dog were trapped under the vehicle when the cast heard the commotion.
Good Samaritans and members of TV mob show “Gravesend” acted quickly to free the 14-year-old. The crew was shooting a scene in a video store when they heard a loud crash but they didn’t see anything in the street. When Michele Frantzeskos, a producer for “Gravesend,” wandered outside, she heard yelling bystanders and saw the crash. She immediately grabbed the elderly couple out of the car.
That’s when she heard a voice saying “Help me, help me!.” She looked under the cae and saw the child injured and pinned underneath. Frantzeskos grabbed actor William DeMeo as he was walking to his trailer and called on other crew members to help. They quickly rushed over to help and assess the situation.
Members of the film crew and neighborhood banded together to lift the car up, allowing the teen to get out from under the car. The teen’s dog also escaped from under the car as its leash was released. The dramatic video of the rescue, taken by a bystander, shows the teens legs flailing from underneath the car around 10 people begin lifting it off of him.
Paramedics transported the teen to the hospital in critical but stable condition. The teen says he remembers looking behind him just before the car hit and then blacking out and waking up to being dragged by the car. Phuong sustained serious injuries but is recovering. He and his family visited the scene of the crash to meet the cast and crew that saved him. He said he is thankful for their quick thinking.
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#BeKind21 Kindness Challenge is an invitation for you to practice kindness toward yourself and others each day from September 1 to September 21 to build kinder, more connected communities that foster mental wellness. Inspired by the idea that habits are formed by repeating an activity for 21 consecutive days, Born This Way Foundation annually hosts #BeKind21 and invites participants to build a habit of kindness.
Those who sign up pledge to be kind to themselves and their community and share their experiences on social media using the hashtag #BeKind21. Born This Way Foundation, founded in 2011 by Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta launched #BeKind21 with the aim to make kindness cool, validate the emotions of young people, and eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health.
#BeKind21 had more than 6.8 million people last year who collectively pledged and encouraged over 143 million acts of kindness in just 21 days. Over 400 partners, including entire school districts, cities, nonprofits, and corporations, participated in the campaign and helped to spread the word. The annual program is now in its fifth year and has generated over 291 million pledged acts of kindness since it’s launch in 2018.
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Brian Schwartz, a former ad agency vice-president from Wayne, New Jersey started mowing lawns for free after being laid off due to the pandemic crisis in the summer of 2020. Schwartz said he started it just as a way of keeping himself busy during a difficult time while doing some good in the world.
I Want To Mow Your Lawn now operates in 42 different states, with 300 volunteers. They mow the lawns of the elderly, disabled, veterans, and anyone in need. They have mowed hundreds of lawns across the country. Anyone in need of help can submit a request on the website and they match them with a local volunteer or landscaping company volunteering their services.
They welcome any and all help, which can range from college students to professional landscapers, community service organizations, educational institutions, charitable corporations, families, busy working professionals, early retirees & their neighbors with a bit of extra time. Anyone with a desire to help however much time they can is welcome.
Vietnam veteran Larry Dbowsky and his wife Sandra met Brian two years ago, and since then, a volunteer has been showing up at their home twice a month to provide free mowing. Volunteers donate their time for various other landscaping tasks as well. Schwartz founded the non-profit I Want To Mow Your Lawn as what started out as a way to cope and help others but it has become a national movement that is still going strong.
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A beloved math teacher in L.A. entered what he believed was a faculty appreciation ceremony but instead walked out with the keys to a car. Julio Castro, 31, lives in Santa Clarita Valley and teaches at YULA Boys High School. He had been commuting about four hours a day by scooter and bus to get to and from school because he didn’t have a car, sometimes getting home as late as 9:30 p.m. — long after his three young children went to sleep.
Joshua Gerendash, a senior at the private, all boys school said “He still makes sure to devote all this time to students,“he made sure I understood all of the material by sitting down with me during his lunch breaks and sacrificing his time after school where he could be getting to the bus stop going back home.” Gerendash said Castro even helps students who aren’t in his class and that he’s “really dedicated to our futures.”
Gerendash was determined to get Castro a car after he happened to see him looking at cars online. After a months-long fundraising campaign, Castro’s students secretly raised more than $30,000 to buy him a 2019 Mazda CX-3. They also bought him a year’s worth of gasoline and car insurance.
Castro said “I feel surprised. I feel special. So thank you to my students. They are like my kids as well. Now that I have a car, I get to drop off my kids every morning. And then coming here with time to spare, I can use it on my lesson plans. Then on my way back, traffic is still bad, but I’ll be able to make it for dinner.”
Another senior at the school, Charlie Leeds said “No matter what happens with him, he is gonna find some way to pay it forward. We’ve been taught certain values like empathy” and to “treat your fellow person as you’d want to be treated. Mr. Castro is the embodiment of that. With this car, with this new opportunity, he’s only going to find more and more ways to help other people around him.”
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A group of high school football players in Georgia are being recognized for helping get a woman out of her wrecked car. The six students ran to the aid of a woman trapped in her car minutes after an accident near the school. As the vehicle began to smoke, they worked together to pry her bad mangled door open to get her out.
The Rome High School football players were identified as Cesar Parker, Treyvon Adams, Antwiion Carey, Messiah Daniels, Tyson Brown and Alto Moore. As soon as they saw the wrecked car they leapt into action. “We just ran as fast as we could to the lady and check on her to see if she was alright. We saw she was in pain, she was screaming and asking us to help her. We used all our muscles,we’re pretty big people, we’re strong. We play football, so we lift weights a lot, but the door was just extremely bent and broke.” Adams said.
It all happened in about a minute, once the woman was freed the teens checked on the other driver involved in the accident and carried on their way back to class. The 50 year old woman was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. Their heroic actions were witnessed by staff at the school and they have been recognized by both the Rome City Schools and the Rome Police Department.
Ninth grade teacher Luis Goya witnessed the incident and praised them in a social media post that included a picture of them while they pulled the door open. “This morning I witnessed something amazing that our Rome High Football players did. While I was in front of the school during my morning duty, I heard a loud noise at the intersection that appeared to be a wreck. While I was running to the intersection, I noticed that two cars were involved. There was a 50 year old lady trapped in her car and couldn’t get out. Smoke started to come out of the car, and fluid started to spill everywhere in the intersection. The door was jammed and in terrible shape. While I was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, the football players who witnessed the wreck, ran to the car and started helping the lady. They literally started using their strength to pry the door open, so the lady could be released. After a few seconds of pulling and pushing the door, the boys ended up opening it and helped her get out of the car. She was shaking and still in panic, but our RHS boys gave her comfort and were able to help her. The Rome High School football players really showed up today. They went above and beyond to help this lady without hesitation” Goya said.
Adams admitted that the team has been getting a lot of love and recognition for their act, which teachers said they deserved, and the school has helped drive. In true hero fashion, the teens say while the recognition was nice, it was something anyone would do.
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A British mother is channeling her grief in an effort to save other families from the devastating loss she’s experienced. Jamie Rees, 18, was at a friend’s house when he collapsed in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Though his friends performed CPR, he did not get enough oxygen before paramedics arrived and he died in hospital on January 5.
Through numerous fundraising efforts, his mom Naomi Rees-Issitt is getting 20 defibrillators installed across her son’s hometown of Rugby. The 43 year old mother of two said there are defibs out there but unfortunately for her son, the nearest kit was locked away in a school.
“You can’t pre-plan your cardiac arrest. Defibrillators that are locked in buildings are pretty pointless. The ambulance pulled up to Jamie’s side in 19.5 minutes,” Naomi explained. “If you reach a person in cardiac arrest in seven minutes the chances of getting his heart beating again is 70%.”
Within weeks of losing her son, she enlisted friends and family to raise enough money to equip Jamie’s hometown of Rugby with defibrillators. Through Jamie’s JustGiving campaign, they initially intended to raise enough money to have one defibrillator installed outside her son’s school but thanks to the overwhelming local support, that plan quickly turned into 20 kits at various locations in town.
They will be installing the 20 defibrillators by January 5, 2023—the one year anniversary of her son’s passing. Naomi said they can’t thank the community enough and the support has been amazing. “We know Jamie is out there. He’s meant to be saving lives” she said.
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A New York City Uber driver is being hailed as a hero after he stopped mid-ride to rush into a burning brownstone to help rescue people before firefighters arrived. Fritz Sam, 54, was taking a passenger to LaGuardia Airport when he noticed a commotion on the street in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood. He saw flames and dark smoke coming out of a second floor window of a brownstone.
Sam said he asked his passenger “Can I pull over? Maybe we can help.” They got out and joined a group of bystanders who were yelling for people to get out of the residence. When he asked if everyone was out of the building, someone said they thought at least one person remained inside. “At that moment, I was like, ‘You have to decide, you know, what are you going to do?'” Sam said. “I just knew that something had to be done at that moment. So I just took my phone, ran inside and around the staircase.”
Sam said that inside the building, he first found a man who said he had to retrieve something from another floor. Elsewhere, he found a woman who was hesitant about leaving the building. Sam was able to convince the woman to leave and walked out by her side. Once she was safely on the sidewalk, he went back into the building to find the man who he had encountered earlier. As he was leaving with the man, Sam said he ran into a police officer and a firefighter with a hose, who both ran into the building.
Sam’s passenger, Jemimah Wei, said that after firefighters arrived on the scene, they agreed the people would be safe and they could continue on their ride to the airport. “We got back into the Uber, and Sam was like, ‘Do I smell like smoke?'” Wei said. “I was like, ‘Dude, seriously? It’s fine, you just saved a life.'” Wei tweeted about the heroic experience and said she still caught her flight despite the unexpected detour.
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California has become the first state to implement a statewide Universal Meals Program for all public school children. The Universal Meals program will be used to reach more students with the federal National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The Meal Mandate is expanded to include both a nutritious breakfast and lunch for, not just needy children, but all children each school day.
The Universal Meals program is designed to build on the foundations of the federal National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP). The program is powered by both state and federal funds. The California State Legislature allocates funds to provide additional state meal reimbursement to cover the cost of the Universal Meals Program. High poverty schools will be required to participate in a federal provision.
Prior to this program, students qualified for free meals under particular criteria which included aspects like their parents’ income taxes, the level of poverty in the school’s surrounding area and the zip code where the family lives. With over 327,000 students in California public schools, 60% of students qualified for free school meals.
The state recently implemented the Universal Program to address rising food insecurity. While California produces nearly half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables, on average one in five residents — about 8 million people — struggle with food insecurity, according to the California Association of Food Banks.
Now, with the state launching the mandatory Universal Meals Program, parents will be sure that their children can get at least two free, full meals at schools daily and not have to incur the expense for preparing breakfast and lunch for them. All students will be automatically enrolled in the program, although students will not be required to participate. Instead, meals will be served to the students who ask for them.
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An 18 year old lifeguard is being hailed a hero after delivering a baby on a pool deck. Natalie Lucas, who’s been a lifeguard for 3 years, was working her morning shift at the YMCA of Northern Colorado when a woman’s water broke. Tessa Rider was nine months pregnant with her third child and a few days past her due date. Rider and her husband, Matthew Jones, were visiting their local Y — about five minutes from their home in Longmont, Colo. — for a swim on July 24.
The couple said they knew the baby was coming but didn’t know if it was going to be a week, two weeks, or today. Rider slipped into the pool at around 10:45 a.m. and said she felt a sense of complete relaxation but the 30 seconds of calm swiftly shifted to chaos. She said she suddenly felt the need to push. She instructed her husband who was scrolling casually on his phone on the pool deck to grab their things and meet at the car. That plan quickly went awry when she took two steps out of the pool and collapsed onto all fours with her water breaking as she hit the ground.
Within seconds, she felt a sensation that the baby was coming out. Lucas — who was the sole lifeguard on duty at the time — sprinted over and saw Jones rubbing his wife’s back while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. Jones told the teen “We’re having a baby,” and before he could give the 911 operator any details, he saw the baby crowning. Lucas said her adrenaline kicked in and she immediately grabbed towels and an emergency first-aid kit. She used a walkie talkie to alert other staff of the situation and asked a man who was swimming laps to call an ambulance. Rider, still on all fours, screamed and pushed as bystanders watched in disbelief. Lucas supported her head as Jones guided the baby out.
Lucas then sat back to back with Jones as she held her seconds-old son, Tobin “Toby” Thomas Rider. An ambulance arrived shortly after and paramedics gave baby Toby a clean bill of health.
The couple said Lucas was quick-thinking and calm, intuiting what they needed in real time.
“I would not have traded Natalie for anybody in that situation,” Jones said. “I’m just so thankful that she was a part of that, and that she supported us the way that she did. She really played her part perfectly, and was so sweet to us. I really, really appreciated her being there, and I’m glad she had that experience with us.”
Lucas said the experience was profoundly fulfilling and pointed out the irony is as a lifeguard, “you’re trained for death rather than life, so it was a very eye-opening experience.” In this case, rather than preventing death, she was helping to welcome new life. During her training and certification, Lucas learned how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, first aid and water rescues. Helping someone give birth was certainly not a part of the curriculum.
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