Kind Neighbors Restored And Painted The House Of A Lonely Retired Teacher For Free

by Mayukh Saha
October 21, 2019
Source

Life becomes difficult if you are old and lonely unless you have the right neighbors. Anne Glancey, of New Jersey, was lucky on that count.

When the city authorities threatened to fine her for necessary repairs to her house and other code violations, she didn’t have the financial means to do so.

Nor had she any friends or relatives to turn to. Her only contact was with the neighbors, Kristin and Adam Polhemus. But that was enough to see her through.

The list that the city authorities of Hamilton Township had sent was daunting for someone in her situation. Anne had to repaint the house, get rid of a derelict car lying in her front yard, and trim the lawn; or she would face three violations with fines that could add up to $3,000 per day. This had always been her home and naturally, Anne was quite upset.

She showed the letter to Adam and Kristin. They decided to help and posted on Facebook inviting neighbors in Hamilton.

In her post, Kristin invited them to spare a few hours over the weekend for the tasks at their elderly neighbor’s house. She mentioned the letter and also that Anne wasn’t in a position to physically or financially attempt the task herself. The task required at least 20 volunteers. She mentioned the timings and requested them to bring the tools and a ladder each. Kristin requested a reply to the invitation to know whether they planned to attend. She had even made arrangements for lunch and dinner for all the volunteers.

The response they received was overwhelming. Almost 25 people in the neighborhood chipped in. Kristen, Adam, and Anne were delighted at the response. Over 2 dozen kind neighbors volunteered for several weekends and donated supplies to complete the job before the deadline.

Adam found it amazing that people turned up to help a stranger just because their heart compelled them to do so. Each volunteer used their tools and supplies to first scrape the paint off the exterior before repainting it. They repaired the broken siding, spruced up the yard, repaired the porch, and gave away the old car to the Purple Heart Foundation.

It is estimated that the total work that was done and the cost of the materials would have cost Anne anywhere between $10,000 and $15,000. Her kind neighbors did it all for free. She is grateful for their support and generosity. Adam and Kristin are happy for Anne. They know that her life has been restored as she has developed a new relationship with her neighbors. She has now become more outgoing too.

Anne feels that through these little deeds of kindness, her neighbors have not only transformed Anne’s home but also lit a light in the elderly neighbor’s heart.

Anne’s kind neighbors have shown that little acts of kindness make a world of difference in the lives of lonely and helpless people living out the last years of their lives.

We are too busy in our own worlds, our own people and affairs. But we become true neighbors when we can cross the road once in a while and pay a little attention to what is happening in the next door. A little initiative by Kristin and Adam and the help of those unknown neighbors transformed Anne’s lonely world.

Source:  Good News Network

Charity Has Been Secretly Fulfilling Small Wishes for Homeless Kids Who Could Use the Self-Esteem Boost

by  McKinley Corbley
May 9, 2019

Homeless families struggling to make ends meet are usually more concerned about providing food and shelter for their children – and that’s why this organization is working to take care of the little things along the way.

Alice’s Kids is a nonprofit that grants the smaller wishes and requests of homeless children.

Sometimes it’s giving a new trumpet to a struggling music student; other times, it’s buying new shoes for a young athlete living in poverty – or it’s simply providing prom tickets, a bike lock, or new glasses to disadvantaged teenagers.

Regardless of the gift, the organization has found that fulfilling these small requests has a huge impact on the child’s self-esteem and happiness.

The organization was founded by Ron Fitzsimmons and his sister Laura in 2011 after they were motivated to start the nonprofit based on their own experiences growing up in a poor New York household during the 1960s.

After their father left, their mother worked tirelessly to pay for food and rent – but they were still living paycheck to paycheck.

Fitzsimmons told The New York Times that he often skipped school because it was too “humiliating” to wear tattered clothing around his well-dressed peers.

He and his sister now believe that their organization is helping other children to avoid that very same social anxiety.

Alice’s Kids grants wishes based on the requests that are submitted to them by teachers, social workers, counselors, and homeless shelter staffers.

The nonprofit then grants the wish by sending gift cards to the parents so they can purchase the gift themselves.

Since the child is unaware of the charitable exchange, parents are given an opportunity to feel supportive of their child’s additional needs – and the child may be given a chance to feel proud of their parent.

Over the course of the last eight years, the nonprofit’s services have expanded to 27 US states.

In 2018 alone, they spent $59,000 on 862 students across the country – and they have already spent $26,000 on children since the start of this year.

Since The Times published an article on Alice’s Kids in March, the organization is delighted to say that they have been flooded with donations – and they hope the financial support will continue.

“We’re not going to solve all the pains of all the children,” Ron told The Times. “But we just want to be part of the answer at least.”

https://youtu.be/9gNrwkLvafs

Source: CBC

400 students wave final surprise goodbye to grandmother who waved them off to school for years

“I was shocked again that’s there’s so many kids that want to say goodbye to me.”

Tinney Davidson, 88, sitting on her front porch on Thursday. The great-grandmother has waved to students going to Highland Secondary School from her front window every morning for 12 years. (CHEK News)

Hundreds of students in Comox, B.C., have waved to Tinney Davidson on their way to school over the past 12 years.

She lives in a white rancher on Guthrie Road near Highland Secondary School. Every morning, she’s sat in a chair by her front window and waved to teenagers heading to class.

Soon, Davidson won’t be in her window when students go to school. At 88, she’s moving to an assisted living home.

More than 400 students walked to Davidson’s house together to give one more wave goodbye on Thursday. They crammed together on her front lawn with bouquets of flowers and handmade signs.

Hundreds of students marched to Davidson’s house on Thursday. (CHEK News)

Davidson clapped her hands when she opened her door and saw standing-room only on the grass.

“Oh, lovely, thank you,” she said, holding a tissue.

Davidson after seeing the students on her front lawn on Thursday. (CHEK News)

Davidson and her late husband, Ken, started waving to the teenagers after the couple moved into the house in 2007. Soon the students were waving back.

“I just liked the look of the children and they all looked in and I thought, ‘If they’re looking in, I’ll wave to them,’ and that’s how it started,” Davidson said during an interview in 2014.

Davidson, waving to students in 2014. (CHEK News)

Davidson continued the waving tradition after her husband died. By then, the high school students were visiting her at home. In 2016, they surprised her with a school Valentine’s Day assembly in her honour and decorated her house with red and pink paper hearts.

Davidson, then 86, stood in her doorway and gave students hugs when they came to give her Valentine’s cards.

Tinney Davidson opened her door to a massive surprise when teens from Highland Secondary visited her for Valentine’s Day in 2016. (CHEK News)

On Thursday, the teenagers counted down from three to blow her a group kiss.

“Love you,” one student said before turning to leave.

Davidson waved and said bye back, sitting in a chair that had been set out for her on the front porch.

“I was shocked again that’s there’s so many kids that want to say goodbye to me,” she said.

Source: KOLR10 News

Newton, Massachusetts – At the far end of Islington Road in Newton, Massachusetts, lives a little girl near and dear to the neighborhood. Two-year-old Samantha Savitz is deaf, but she loves to talk to anyone who knows sign language.

“She’s super engaging. She wants to chat-up with anybody.” said her father, Raphael. “Yea, her whole personality changes when it’s someone who can communicate with her,” said her mother, Glenda.

On the other hand, if someone can’t, that makes Sam just a little sad. Her desire for engagement has been painfully obvious to everyone in the neighborhood. Whenever they see her on a walk or in her yard – and Sam tries to be neighborly – they find themselves at frustrating loss for words.

“I didn’t know what to say back. Wouldn’t you like to talk to her?” said one neighbor. “Basic conversation that one would have with a child,” said another. “Asking her about her day,” said a third. “And make her feel that she is part of the neighborhood,” said another neighbor. “Just be her friend,” another neighbor added.

Unfortunately, this isn’t something you can solve with a casserole. You’d need the whole community to learn sign language – just for a little 2-year-old girl – can’t expect neighbors to do that. You can only appreciate them when they do.

On their own, Sam’s neighbors got together, hired an instructor, and are now fully immersed in an American Sign Language class. The teacher, Rhys McGovern, says this is remarkable because a lot of times even the parents of deaf children don’t bother to learn sign language. “But here Sam has a full community that’s signing and communicating with her and her family, and it is a beautiful story,” Rhys said. And he says this level of inclusion will almost certainly guarantee a happier, more well-adjusted Sam.

Which is why her parents say there aren’t words in any language to express their gratitude.”Yea, it’s really shocking and beautiful,” Glenda said. “We are so fortunate,” Raphael said. In fact, they said they’re already seeing a difference in their daughter.

“You should see her when she comes in at the end of class,” said one neighbor. “The first thing she says to us is ‘friend,'” said another neighbor. “I think your heart would melt just as mine did,” said another neighbor.

Sometimes it feels like America is losing its sense of community – but then you hear about a place like this – where the village it takes to raise a child is alive and well and here to remind us – that what makes a “good neighborhood” is nothing more than good neighbors.

Source:  Corbett Report Extras
Published on Apr 9, 2019

Watch this video on BitChute / DTube / YouTube or Download the mp4

SHOW NOTES:

PositivePropagandaPeople.com

#PositivePropaganda on Instagram

Positive Propaganda Flyers

Source:  The Dodo
Published on Feb 14, 2019

Source: Mother Nature Network

by Christian Cotroneo
November 3, 2018

The sight of a massive humpback whale thrashing in the sea doesn’t usually elicit an invitation to splash around with him.

Humpbacks can weigh in at a whopping 40 tons and stretch 50 feet from nose to tail. That’s the kind of heft that easily overturns small boats. And woe to anyone who should jump on the back of one of these behemoths.

But that’s just what Sam Synstelien did when he saw a humpback in distress in Central California’s Morro Bay this week. The animal was hopelessly tangled in a rope that was attached to a buoy.

Synstelien, along with crewmate Nicholas Taron, had already tried reporting the unfortunate whale to the U.S. Coast Guard — but they were told it would be hours before rescuers could be dispatched.

Hours, the commercial fishermen figured, this whale didn’t have.

“If we wanted the whale to survive we had to go get it,” Taron later told Inside Edition. “We thought there was no other option for the whale; we decided to go for it. We were so pumped up full of adrenaline, I don’t think we were that scared.”

Easy for Taron to say, of course. His role in the rescue was mostly in the enthusiastic cheering department.

In the clip, you can hear him quarterbacking the operation from the side of the boat while filming the entire operation.

“Swim! Swim!” he yells. “Move! Just get it! Get it!”

“[The whale] was just swimming in counter-clockwise circles,” Taron later told KNTV. “You could tell he was stressed and being held to the bottom.”

The very agitated whale didn’t take well to human intervention and even slammed its massive tail against the boat. But Synstelien hung in there, at last slicing through the rope that bound the creature. And then with an unceremonious whoosh, the great whale dove deep down beneath the roiling waves.

It wasn’t much of a thank you, but Synstelien and Taron were left with a whale of a tale.

Short summary of Paul Barton’s work:

by  AsiaWorks
April 1, 2016

Music for Elephants is a unique and moving documentary about a British concert-pianist playing music to blind, injured and orphaned elephants with extraordinary results. For more information visit http://www.musicforelephants.com

Co-Produced by AsiaWorks http://www.asiaworks.com

by  Paul Barton
June 17, 2013

12 Bar Blues – Piano Duet with Peter the Elephant – Thailand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjsu3SGAdLs

Please read the description for more information about the content of this video.

More videos: “Music for Elephants”

Piano Duet

Watch Peter the elephant discover/play the clarinet:

http://youtu.be/4iyxUK_e5nU

Light-heated musical mayhem when Peter the elephant joins in a 12 bar blues on piano with his trunk — entirely of his own accord.

I’ve noticed elephants, such as Peter have moods at different times of day. Usually in the cooler early evening before nightfall (In Thailand) they are in a more relaxed and potentially playful mood.

Peter the elephant lives at http://www.elephantstay.com Thailand.

Photos playing piano for elephants in Thailand

There are other similar albums on this Goggle+ account.

With reference to recent comments (19/11/2013)

* The “guy” in the background is Pat, Peter’s mahout. He is Thai. A mahout is a person that devotes his or her life to looking after an elephant, usually in Asia. This is a dangerous job.

* Pat is responsible for Peter’s well-being, day and night, all year round. Pat’s daily duties include keeping Peter safe from other bull elephants as well as looking after visitors to Peter’s home at the Royal Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya, Thailand.

* Pat and Peter have a special bond.

* Pat is not reading a magazine in this video, he is filming with his tablet.

* Pat is not prodding Peter, he is just reminding him not to get too carried away and smash the piano keys with his heavy trunk as he has, unintentionally, on previous occasions.

* The chain around Peter’s neck is flimsy. It is there so Pat can walk at Peter’s side and guide him occasionally around vehicles or other potentially harmful bull elephants on the way to bath and drink in the river, for instance. Those with experience working with elephants in Thailand know this flimsy chain is no restraint to an elephant whatsoever. It is not there to cause Peter any harm, just the reverse.

* Peter has NOT been trained to play piano. This video is Peter’s spontaneous reaction to a piano during a brief encounter one evening between Peter and Paul Barton, a visiting pianist to the elephant Kraal where Peter lives.

* This video is one of a series in “Music for Elephants”. There are 23 videos with piano and elephants in this playlist

* Piano keys are no longer made of ivory. The piano in this video has plastic keys. All piano keys are made from synthetic polymers and plastics. The use of ivory for piano keys decreased dramatically after World War II and thankfully stopped altogether in 1989 with the CITIES worldwide ban on ivory trade.