It is currently 03/28/24 1:45 pm

All times are UTC - 6 hours




Go to page Previous  1, 2   Page 2 of 2   [ 40 posts ]
Author Message
 Offline
PostPosted: 07/04/17 9:40 pm • # 26 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 05/05/10
Posts: 14091
Ok people! Don't make me carry this thread by myself. Start searching for good stories!! That's orders from headquarters.....as my Mom used to say. :b

For some reason I can't c/p this article, but it's worth the read:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fort-worth- ... nditioner/


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 07/11/17 4:45 pm • # 27 
User avatar
Administrator

Joined: 11/07/08
Posts: 42112
What an awe-inspiring story!!! ~ :st ~ Sooz

A riptide swept away a Florida family. Then beachgoers formed a human chain.
The Washington Post / Katie Mettler / 5 hrs ago

[Video entitled "4 heroic rescues by ordinary people" accessible via the end link.]

When Jessica and Derek Simmons first saw the beachgoers pausing to stare toward the water, the young couple just assumed someone had spotted a shark.

It was Saturday evening, after all, peak summer season in Panama City Beach for overheated Florida tourists to cross paths with curious marine life. Then they noticed flashing lights by the boardwalk, a police truck on the sand and nearly a dozen bobbing heads about 100 yards beyond the beach, crying desperately for help.

Six members of a single family — four adults and two young boys — and four other swimmers had been swept away by a powerful and deceptive riptide churning below the water’s surface.

“These people are not drowning today,” Jessica Simmons thought, she told the Panama City News Herald. “It’s not happening. We’re going to get them out.”

She was a strong swimmer and fearless in the face of adversity. But others had tried to reach them and each previous rescue attempt had only stranded more people.

There was no lifeguard on duty, and law enforcement on the scene had opted to wait for a rescue boat. People on the beach had no rescue equipment, only boogie boards, surf boards and their arms and legs.

“Form a human chain!” they started shouting.

Roberta Ursrey was among those caught in the treacherous riptide. From 100 yards away in the Gulf of Mexico, between crashing waves and gulps of salt water, she heard the shouting, she told The Washington Post.

By then, Ursrey and the other eight people stranded with her had already been in the water for nearly 20 minutes, fighting for their lives. Ursrey and the others had ventured into the water to rescue her two sons, Noah, 11, and Stephen, 8, who had gotten separated from their family while chasing waves on their boogie boards.

Tabatha Monroe and her wife, Brittany, in Panama City for a birthday getaway, were the first two to hear the boys’ panicked cries for help. The couple had just gone into the water when they saw the boys far from shore. They swam over and grabbed hold of their boogie boards.

But when they tried towing them back to shore, the women couldn’t break free of the current.

They tried to swim straight and they tried to swim sideways, Tabatha Monroe told The Washington Post, but nothing worked. After about 10 minutes, a few young men with a surfboard snagged Brittany and towed her back to shore, just as the number of people who needed rescuing grew.

Soon Ursrey, who had heard her boys’ cries from the beach, was also caught in the riptide, followed in close succession by her 27-year-old nephew, 67-year-old mother and 31-year-old husband. Another unidentified couple struggled to tread water nearby.

“The tide knocked every bit of energy out of us,” Ursrey said.

So much water went up Tabatha Monroe’s nose that she was sure she would drown, she told The Post.

“I was exhausted,” she said.

On shore, the human chain began forming, first with just five volunteers, then 15, then dozens more as the rescue mission grew more desperate.

Jessica and Derek Simmons swam past the 80 or so human links, some who couldn’t swim, and headed straight for the Ursreys, using surf and boogie boards to aid their rescue efforts.

“I got to the end, and I know I’m a really good swimmer,” Jessica Simmons told the News Herald. “I practically lived in a pool. I knew I could get out there and get to them.”

She and her husband started with the children, passing Noah and Stephen back along the human chain, which passed them all the way to the beach.

By the time Jessica Simmons reached Ursrey, the 34-year-old mother could hardly keep her head above water.

“I’m going to die this way,” Ursrey thought to herself, she told The Post. “My family is going to die this way. I just can’t do it.”

Ursrey remembered Simmons coaxing her to carry on.

“I blacked out because I couldn’t do it anymore,” Ursrey said.

She woke up on the sand to the sound of more screams in the water.

Someone yelled that Ursrey’s mother, Barbara Franz, still in the water, was having a heart attack. Simmons told the News Herald that Franz’s eyes were rolling back. At one point, the 67-year-old woman told the rescuers “to just let her go” and save themselves. Instead, Ursrey’s husband and nephew held Franz’s body up as they struggled to keep their own heads above water.

“That’s when the chain got the biggest,” Ursrey said. “They linked up wrists, legs, arms. If they were there, they were helping.”

Nearly an hour after they first started struggling, just as the sun prepared to set, all 10 of the stranded swimmers were safely back on shore.

The entire beach began to applaud.

“It was beachgoers and the grace of God’s will,” Ursrey said. “That’s why we’re here today.”

Both Brittany Monroe and Franz were transported to a hospital. Monroe was later released after being treated for a panic attack and Franz remains hospitalized, her daughter said. She suffered a massive heart attack and an aortic aneurysm in her stomach, but has been taken off the ventilator and is considered to be in stable condition.

The Ursreys plan to meet up with Jessica and Derek Simmons once Franz is released from the hospital, but Roberta said she could give hugs to the dozens of strangers who rescued her family.

“It actually showed me there are good people in this world,” Ursrey told The Post.

In a Facebook post, Jessica Simmons expressed a similar sentiment: “To see people from different races and genders come into action to help TOTAL strangers is absolutely amazing to see!! People who didn’t even know each other went HAND IN HAND IN A LINE, into the water to try and reach them. Pause and just IMAGINE that.”

The whole ordeal has given the Ursreys, who just moved to Florida from Georgia a month ago, a newfound respect for the power of the water.

“She’ll take you with her,” Ursrey said. “She almost took nine of us that day.”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-riptide-swept-away-a-florida-family-then-beachgoers-formed-a-human-chain/ar-BBEdU0P?ocid=U145DHP


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 07/14/17 1:16 pm • # 28 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 02/09/09
Posts: 4713
“To see people from different races and genders come into action to help TOTAL strangers is absolutely amazing to see!! People who didn’t even know each other went HAND IN HAND IN A LINE, into the water to try and reach them. Pause and just IMAGINE that.”

:tup


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 08/13/17 9:12 am • # 29 
Administrator

Joined: 01/16/16
Posts: 30003
Toronto shoplifter gets job after policeman bought him interview shirt

Last Monday, a shoplifter in Toronto was caught stealing an outfit for a job interview. But when Constable Niran Jeyanesan arrived to arrest him, he was moved by the 18-year-old's story and decided to buy him the clothes instead.

Now the officer has revealed that the young man got the job, and will begin work next week.

"He is starting Monday," Mr Jeyanesan told Canada's CP24 by email.

"He told me he actually wore the shirt and the tie - I'm just so happy!"

Speaking last week, the officer said Walmart staff had apprehended the would-be thief for attempting to steal a dress shirt, tie and socks.

"This young person has been facing his own difficulties in life and he was looking to straighten out all that by providing for his family and trying to get a job," Mr Jeyanesan said.

"This individual didn't have any resources.

"He wanted to go get that job. That was in his mind. I think he truly made a mistake."

The teenager had told the officer that his father was sick, and that the family had suffered difficult times as a result.

Constable Jeyanesan said that thanks to "some friends who were willing to help out", the elder man is now employed as well.

Speaking to the BBC on 7 August, Mr Jeyanesan's staff sergeant Paul Bois praised his actions.

"Arresting him [the 18-year-old] wouldn't have been in the best interests of anyone," he said.

"I reacted very positively to the news; all issues were resolved by the action the officer took.

"It reiterates our goal of being positive role models in the community."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40914118


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 08/13/17 9:45 am • # 30 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 05/05/10
Posts: 14091
That's what happens when a police officer takes the time to talk to a suspect, and listen, instead of shoot. Everyone has a story. Many are fraught with difficult times and challenges that can be turned around by the kind act of one person. Thanks for posting oskar. :fl


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 11/08/17 7:47 am • # 31 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 05/05/10
Posts: 14091
Police officers found a mom stealing food for her kids, so they bought her groceries

Police in Hillsborough, N.C., went above and beyond the call of duty after they received notice that a woman stole from a local grocery store.

Officers Keith Bradshaw and Candace Spragins were told by employees of the Food Lion supermarket that a woman was seen fleeing with stolen food on Saturday morning. They soon showed up at Theresa West’s home and demanded answers.

That’s when West told the officers that she was sorry, but stole to feed her children who had not eaten in three days.

“We called the churches and everything and everyone was like: ‘We go through Interfaith Council, we go through this and go through that and nobody would give us anything. We had nothing,” West later told WRAL News.

“I had to go out and steal food, and that’s desperate, and I’m sorry for doing what I did but my kids were hungry.”

Bradshaw checked the family’s fridge and found it empty. That’s when the police officers knew they had to help.

“This was not a crime out of greed but one seen as necessary by a mother trying to feed a child,” they explained in a Facebook post.

West gave back the $36 worth of food she stole. The officers then took her back to the grocery store, where they bought her $140 in food.

On Facebook, the officers explained why they helped the woman, even though she had broken the law.

“Sometimes police work is not cut and dry. We are people first and cops second.”

The police department has received international attention for the act of kindness and asked anyone who was touched by the story to pay it forward.

“This is to ensure that maximum gain be achieved from this random act of kindness.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/3848546/hill ... paign=2014


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 08/29/18 7:53 am • # 32 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 02/09/09
Posts: 4713
Crowd makes fun of girl with Down syndrome: Then the players stop the game and make everything all right

https://en.newsner.com/family/crowd-makes-fun-of-girl-with-down-syndrome-then-the-players-stop-the-game-and-make-everything-all-right/


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 07/10/19 9:42 am • # 33 
Administrator

Joined: 01/16/16
Posts: 30003
Can't pay? It's OK: St. John's restaurant feeds hungry for free


Every day at 3 p.m., Peter Boland sits at a table in Big Bite Pita in Churchill Square in St. John's, waiting for his meal.

More-> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfound ... VLEdFyDZFY


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 08/28/19 7:57 am • # 34 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 02/09/09
Posts: 4713
2nd grader befriends classmate with autism on 1st day of school: 'He found me and held my hand'

Image

https://abcnews.go.com/US/2nd-grader-befriends-classmate-autism-day-school-found/story?id=65204829&cid=share_facebook_widget&fbclid=IwAR0wG1NKHYqN_wAyTpVQe20VtELQKWWDBlcU6r8rG2NJAbgmGFe6h5V97as


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 11/01/19 2:32 pm • # 35 
Administrator

Joined: 01/16/16
Posts: 30003
'Guardian angel': Contractor tricks senior into accepting free roof
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-sco ... 5VzZylX4Iw


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 12/27/19 4:19 pm • # 36 
Administrator

Joined: 01/16/16
Posts: 30003
Passengers stranded in Deer Lake get Christmas dinner from residents

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfound ... j6GHPV466Q


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 04/30/20 9:01 am • # 37 
Administrator

Joined: 01/16/16
Posts: 30003
Perth, Ont., woman’s grocery money found, returned by passerby: OPP

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/p ... spartandhp


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 04/26/21 7:45 am • # 38 
Administrator

Joined: 01/16/16
Posts: 30003
The house a community bought: man who needs kidney receives gift of new home

As Alaya Wiggins sprinted through her new home for the first time, the four-year-old asked: "Mommy, are we going to live here forever?"

Her mother, Chelsie Wiggins replied "Yes."

Taking their first steps in the new house was a special moment for the Wiggins family. It was extra special because it was bought with more than $100,000 in donations from friends, family and strangers.

"It's amazing, it's overwhelming when I think about it," said Alaya's father, Alvero Wiggins. "It's awesome. I'm thrilled. It's incredible."

The family's journey to the house started two years ago.

MORE-----> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-sco ... kt_jpn1FiI


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 07/24/21 9:46 am • # 39 
Administrator

Joined: 01/16/16
Posts: 30003
Mission accomplished!

Surprise donation finishes campaign to buy home for Halifax family

A community fundraiser to buy a home for a Halifax family has reached its goal with a surprise donation this week from another group of well-known advocates in the city.

MORE----> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-sco ... KV_1wC-C6w


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 10/22/21 5:02 pm • # 40 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 05/05/10
Posts: 14091
I saw this thread and had a fleeting feeling of despair. Humanity is having to be forced into getting vaccinated (passports requirements) instead of thinking of others. Sigh.


Top
  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  

Go to page Previous  1, 2   Page 2 of 2   [ 40 posts ] New Topic Add Reply

All times are UTC - 6 hours



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
© Voices or Choices.
All rights reserved.