A Hanover man is being called a guardian angel for rescuing a missing five-year-old girl with autism who had wandered from her home in Plymouth, MA. Jake Manna, 20, was at work installing solar panels at a home when he learned the neighborhood girl was missing. Manna didn’t know the area but decided to join the search.
A spokesperson for the police department said Manna and one of the girl’s neighbors decided to search an area other searchers hadn’t headed and walked down a rural trail that ended at a stream. There, he noticed a diaper and t-Shirt in the stream. Manna panicked and said his heart dropped when he saw the clothing. He ran down the stream to a marsh area where he spotted the girl waist deep in the water.
He called out to her but she continued wading outward so waded out and put her over his shoulder, carrying her to safety. Officer Vinnie Roth, who responded to the original call, called Jake “a guardian angel” for the young girl. “Jake is not from Plymouth and doesn’t know the area. If he didn’t pick that path and see the missing clothing, we hate to think about what the outcome would have been” Roth said.
Plymouth Police Department said in a Facebook post “If he didn’t pick that path and see the missing clothing, we hate to think about what the outcome would have been.” Manna later met with Plymouth police officers Chief Dana Flynn and Captain LeBretton to receive a certificate and Command Coin for his heroic deed who described him as he’s the nicest, most unassuming young man that one could meet.
The mother of the young girl said it was the worst moment of her life and she’s very grateful for Manna and others involved in her rescue. Manna was humble about his actions, crediting the many people who helped bring the girl home safe. “I wouldn’t call myself a hero. It was just the right time, right place. And I think anyone else would’ve done the same,” Manna said. “It’s good the community came together and everyone helped.”
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A Kentucky woman decided to pay it forward after a lottery win by handing out gift cards to strangers. Earlier this month, Crystal Dunn of Louisville won $146,000 playing the Bank Buster Jackpot Instant Play game online after wagering just $20. A few seconds later, she got a message on her computer screen saying that she had won the progressive jackpot which starts at $100,000 and increases with each ticket purchase.
Dunn said she didn’t believe she had actually won until she received an email from the lottery officials confirming the win. “I saw that and didn’t believe it at first. It’s a pretty exciting feeling. I never thought I would win something like this, but this goes to show it can happen.” Dunn decided to pay it forward after receiving her winnings, which amounted to $103,909.73 after taxes.
After depositing the check in the bank, lottery officials said she immediately made a stop at a local Meijer grocery store where she purchased $2,000 in gift cards. She then walked around the store giving the gift cards to random strangers. Dunn said “A few were taken back, thinking I was wanting something in return. I got an unexpected gift and I believe in paying it forward and wanted to pass it along.”
Dunn told lottery officials she wanted to pay it forward and she also plans to use the remainder of winnings on things she was already working toward, such as buying a car and paying off bills. “I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve had. This is a pretty amazing gift,” she said.
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Brody Ridder, 12, of Westminster, Colorado made headlines after his mother Cassandra posted a photo to Facebook, revealing that his classmates refused to sign his yearbook. She also shared a note her son wrote to himself on the blank pages, “Hope you make some more friends — Brody Ridder.” People around the world have been sending him encouraging notes in the weeks following the heartbreaking post.
Over the past several weeks, Brody has received hundreds of letters written in various languages. People are not only offering advice and words of encouragement but also sharing their own personal experiences with bullying. “I cry with the majority of them I read because these people are just … they relate,” she said. “They’ve been through it, too: Cassandra said.
Cassandra said her son struggled to make friends this past year while attending The Academy of Charter Schools in Westminster which consists of students from kindergarten through 12th grade. “He was just bullied, teased … you name it, it’s happened to him,” Cassandra said. “He’s tried to put himself out there to make friends … he’ll get kids’ phone numbers, and he will try to text them, but they will never respond to him. Or they’re like, ‘I don’t want to talk to you’. I don’t know if the kids are just struggling socially from returning to in-person learning,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on” she said.
She said when her son came home one day during the last week of school, he teared up. His classmates told him they were too busy and that he wasn’t important when he asked them to sign his yearbook, she said. When she looked through the book, she recalled seeing two names. There were no notes beside them, either. When she saw that he had signed it himself she felt her heart break.
Shortly after, Cassandra posted about the incident in a Facebook group filled with other parents at the school. She also reminded the parents to teach their kids how to be kind. What she didn’t expect was for several parents to message her back. They asked her what class Brody was in, so their kids could stop by and say hello on the last day of school.
Before Brody left for the last day of school, Cassandra reminded him that “Ridders aren’t quitters” and handed him his yearbook. On May 24, during the school’s end-of-year celebration, dozens of students from other grades lined up to sign Brody’s yearbook and send him off with warm messages for the summer. He had over 100 signatures and notes by the end of the day.
His story even caught the attention of Paul Rudd, who plays the title character in Marvel’s Ant-Man, who also contacted Brody. Rudd sent him an Ant-Man Helmet signed with a special note to encourage him. Cassandra plans to make a book out of all the letters one day so whenever Brody is having a tough day, he can pull out it out for some encouragement.
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A Mississippi teen is being hailed a hero after saving three girls and a police officer from a river. Moss Point city officials presented Corion Evans with a certificate of commendation for his heroism and bravery in rescuing four people. One of the teens rescued said the GPS thought they were on the interstate and because the area was pitch black, they had no idea they were even near water until their car plunged in. She said she’s very grateful Corion was in the right place at the right time.
Evans was at a boat ramp in Moss Point, MS at 2:30am when the three girls, who were following their GPS, drove into the Pascagoula River. The girls managed to get on the roof of the car as it started to sink and dial 911. Evans heard them crying for help and immediately jumped into the water. The car had sunk quickly and only the roof of the vehicle with the girls on top was visible. Moss Point Police Officer Gary Mercer arrived on the scene, and he too swam out to aid in the rescue. During the rescue, Officer Mercer was pushed under water by a struggling victim and swallowed water. Mercer called out for help and Evans immediately went back to save him.
Evans said “‘They need to get out the water’. So, I just started getting them, I wasn’t even thinking about nothing else. I turned around. I see the police officer, he’s drowning. He’s going underwater, drowning, saying, ‘Help!” So, I went over there. I went and I grabbed the police officer and I’m like swimming him back until I feel I can walk. I was just like, ‘I can’t let none of these folks die.”
Evans has been a strong swimmer since the age of 3 and didn’t hesitate to jump in the river. The car had floated 25 yards from shore when Evans dove in the water but his thoughts were only on rescuing everyone. “Twenty-five yards out, it was a lot of swimming. My legs were so tired after. Anything could’ve been in that water, though. But I wasn’t thinking about it” Evans said.
Evans’ mother, Marquita, expressed relief and spoke proudly of her son in the wake of the rescue. “I’m glad nothing happened to him while he was trying to save other people’s lives. I was really proud of Corion because he wasn’t just thinking about himself. He was trying to really get all those people out of the water.”
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A Texas bartender got a shock on a typical Tuesday night shift at Chances Dance Hall in Cleburne, Texas. Chelsea Lantrip, a single mom, received a $4000 tip. Lantrip said that two girls she had not seen at the bar before came in among the crowd of regulars. One of the women ordered a round of drinks for everyone at the dance hall. Bell said that their bill came to $179.50.
When it came time to pay the tab, the woman tipped Lantrip $1000. When Lantrip started to cry, the woman said ‘No, that’s not good enough,’ and raised it to $2,000,” Bell recalled. By the time that Bell ultimately picked up the receipt, the woman had increased the tip to $4,000. “I didn’t believe it until it went through the credit card machine, I still didn’t believe it until it hit the bank,” Bell said.
The owner of Chances Dance Hall said the tip was crucial because Lantrip is a single mom living paycheck to paycheck, tip to tip, without money to spare. “Her son will be heading off to Texas A&M University in the fall and while he has a scholarship and a grant to attend the college, it’s not quite enough to cover the full cost of tuition,” Senese said.
Lantrip said she’s going to take her family to dinner, pay some bills and help her son. Senese said all she knew about the two was that the woman who gave the tip received an inheritance recently and felt compelled to “tithe it to a stranger.” She expressed how grateful she was to the good Samaritan who shared her good fortune with her during what would have been a regular Tuesday shift. “I believe in guardian angels, I believe in people coming into your life at the right time that you need them. And she was definitely one of them” Lantrip said.
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Craig Clark of Tara, Fl is known as the Tech Fairy. Clark uses his skills to give new life to old computers. He puts out a call on the Nextdoor website for laptops and desktop computers in need of repair. Once he’s done fixing them, Clark gives the computers away to people who need them, with the goal of “hopefully improving their lives.”
His days as the Tech Fairy began five years ago when he came across an employee at a 7-Eleven. Clark complimented her on how she dealt with a complaining customer. During their conversation, Clark learned the employee had dropped out of college because someone had stolen her laptop when she was taking online classes. The two met at a McDonald’s when the employee wasn’t working, and Clark gave her a refurbished laptop for free. She went on to get her associate’s degree in business.
Clark has distributed more than 430 repaired computers since. He has given devices to a Vietnam veteran who wasn’t able to afford a desktop computer, a Wawa employee who has two sons and needed a laptop, and a McDonald’s employee who had to study online by using her phone. Clark, 74, fixes about 6 devices per month and most of the people he’s helped he’s met by happenstance while out running errands.
“I’ve got the skill; I’ve got the time; I’ve got the resources. So who wouldn’t do it?” he said. “For me to spend my time productively to the benefit of others is my reward. I have to be doing something, and this filled a huge need in my personal psyche,” Clark said. “It keeps me busy, keeps me challenged. This is a 50-50 reward because I help others, but I’m also keeping my brain alert and keeping up to date with current technology. If I didn’t do this, I don’t know what I would do.”
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Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, auctioned his Nobel Peace Prize to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees. The prize sold for $103.5 million, shattering the old record for a Nobel. Muratov also donated his $500,000 cash award. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Muratov said the idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Muratov said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine. “We want to return their future,” he said. The auction was held by Heritage Auction, who is not taking any share of the proceeds.
Muratov started out as a journalist for Soviet newspapers. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, he and other journalists co-founded the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which soon became a leading advocate for democracy and freedom of expression in Russia. Muratov was co-awarded the peace prize in 2021 for defending freedom of expression in Russia. He was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Under Mr Muratov’s leadership, Novaya Gazeta has criticised the Russian authorities for corruption, electoral fraud and human rights violations. Six of the newspaper’s journalists have been murdered because they wrote critical articles on Russian military operations in Chechnya and the Caucasus. The best known of them is Anna Politkovskaya.
The sale of the gold medal in New York will benefit Unicef’s humanitarian response for Ukraine’s displaced children, Heritage Auctions said in a statement. “The most important message today is for people to understand that there’s a war going on and we need to help people who are suffering the most,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions.
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The New York Public Library launched a Summer at the Library initiative that includes a slew of free programs to entice readers. A full list of free programs and offerings—ranging from baby lapsit programs to arts and crafts for teens—can be found at their website. The library, which serves the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island-is highlighting the centerpiece of the program, a large scale book giveaway.
They are giving away 500,000 books for free to kids, teens and families at all of its branch locations. The initiative is an effort to help folks build their at-home libraries and “strengthen the city’s ecosystem of learning,” according to an official press release. Some libraries will even offer Spanish, Chinese and large print titles to keep.
The program started June 9th and anyone 18 and under can go to one of the branches with their library card or sign up for one and select a free book. The Summer at the Library project offers a list of over 100 summer reading recommendations from expert librarians. It also offers programs like storytimes and podcasting workshops; outdoor pop-ups that include library card sign-up events and others involving the NYPL’s famous bookmobiles; and a number of other initiatives targeted directly to adults.
Educators agree that reading over the summer is critical to helping kids maintain learning while school is out and also for fostering social-emotional development. Eighty-three-percent of educators say reading helps students understand people that are different from them, 81% say reading helps students develop empathy, and 81% say reading helps students see themselves in characters and stories.
Multiple studies have shown that owning books is a big boost to children’s literacy. Chidlren growing up in a home with at least 80 books are associated with higher literacy levels. Teens who grew up with a library of books at home “become as literate, numerate and technologically apt in adulthood as university graduates who grew up with only a few books.” A child who owns just one book of their own is six times more likely to read above grade level and three times as likely to enjoy reading.
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Three major organizations in San Diego have joined forces with a unique program to end homelessness. The Salvation Army, Feeding San Diego and the Lucky Duck Foundation are collaborating on a program that gives Salvation Army clients job opportunities as Food Rescue Drivers. The trio of organizations in San Diego, California, have created a model that could be replicated across the country.
With funding from the Lucky Duck Foundation, The Salvation Army hires residents of its homeless shelter and trains them to be food rescue route drivers, who then operate routes for Feeding San Diego to pick up food before it ends up in landfills. The drivers are trained and then given routes for weekly food pick ups from grocery stores, like Costco and Vons, from Starbucks, and Amazon warehouses, among other businesses.
It’s then distributed to those in need—often to the residents back at The Salvation Army shelter.
The partnership announced a milestone they hit in June. The program, which started 2 years ago, has saved more than half a million pounds of food so far and every one of The Salvation Army residents who has participated in the program has secured full-time employment and are still housed.
Lucky Duck Foundation funds the operation and pays the drivers’ wages. Executive Director of Lucky Duck Foundation, Drew Moser said “It’s a chance for folks who are suffering from homelessness to get a real job that’s sort of a stepping-stone. It’s an opportunity to get practical skills and relevant work experience and go onwards and upwards from there.”
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Two Ohio women, who refer to themselves as “split-liver sisters,” received a liver transplant on July 1, 2020. Both were part of a rare transplant surgery called a split-liver transplantation, in which a donor’s liver is divided into two distinct portions, which are then implanted into each patient. The procedure is risky because blood clotting and other complications are more likely with split-liver transplantation, though the long-term survival rate is the same.
Koji Hashimoto, a surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, who performed the operation said it’s an extremely rare procedure for adults. The size of the patient determines the size of the liver needed,” Hashimoto said. “It’s also very important to take into consideration how sick the patient is. If you have a really sick patient, you need a bigger liver. The health of the donated liver, which grows to be a standard size about six to eight weeks after the transplant, is also crucial to consider.”
The women shared the same diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver and had been on the transplant list. An average of 17 people die every day while awaiting their turn to receive an organ. Both women, Maria Contreras and Monica Davis, knew their odds and didn’t hesitate when they received the call that if they agreed-would be in surgery within hours.
Contreras’s operation used 40 percent of the donor liver while the remaining 60 percent went to Davis, whose surgery was performed simultaneously by a different surgeon. Both surgeries were successful and the two women were eager to meet after their operations. Contreras recalled “I was asking my nurse, ‘Do you know about my liver sister?’” “I was so excited to see her. When we met, I cried, I hugged her, I was jumping with her. I could feel the connection.”
Both women say the closeness they have with each other is hard to describe. Contreras said “I was so happy, and I said, ‘Thank you God,’ because He didn’t only give me a new life, but He gave me a new sister, too. We’re going to be friends, she’s a part of me.”
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