After surviving a year and a half of homelessness in the early 1980s, Lucinda Yates moved back to Portland and started putting her life back together by waitressing. After surviving a year and a half of homelessness in the early 1980s, Lucinda Yates moved back to Portland and started putting her life back together by waitressing. But her true breakthrough came when she noticed some colorful mat boards in a frame shop's trash can. She pulled them out of the garbage and started cutting them into elementary shapes, eventually creating wearable pins. She has sold more than 5 million pins to date to benefit homeless causes.
When asked to reveal the secret to her longevity, Bea Abrams Cohen credits her do-good attitude, helpfulness toward others, and the power of prayer. The chatty 102 year-old has worked for more than seven decades supporting philanthropic organizations and especially the U.S. military, since her service in World War II.
At the White House yesterday President Obama honored this year's recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor. "I have to say, just looking around the room, this is a packed house, which is a testament to how cool this group is," chuckled the President, whose broadest grin came as he bestowed the medal upon the shoulders of Bob Dylan.
The World Trade Center hero who saved thousands of lives on 9/11 will now be remembered each year by the federal government, with the creation of the Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience that will be given to civilians who respond extraordinarily to disasters. If you haven't heard of Rick's heroics, which were memorialized by documentary films and even an opera, he was Vice President of Security for Morgan Stanley, on September 11, 2001, when he personally led a massive evacuation of that company's 2,700 employees.
In 1985, Stan Brock started a nonprofit, Remote Area Medical. Since then, the all-volunteer group has held more than 663 medical clinics worldwide, providing free health care to half a million people, particularly in America where large swaths of population have no dental, eye or general health care.
Today is Take Your Daughter (and Sons) to Work Day, and while we don't begrudge the right of kids to tail their parents on this special day, we can't help but feel a little jealous of what some of them get to experience. Moms working in television, business, politics, and even Olympic-level athletic competition undoubtedly have some really cool jobs to drop in on, and we've picked several of our favorite working moms that we'd like to spend a day with.
In a country blessed with an abundance of extraordinary educators, what does it take to stand out as the Teacher of the Year? According to President Obama, who honored Rebecca Mieliwocki, a 7th grade English teacher from Los Angeles County, it is passion that makes great teachers go above and beyond.
A New Zealand neighbor who crawled into a burning house to rescue a baby was terrified at the time, but said he could not ignore the screams and pleas of family members, when another man had already failed to find her.
Before she died last September, Lelia Boroughs, 84, told her attorney she had no family to whom to leave her estate. So she crafted her will to leave her $400,000 condo to the city to turn into a homeless shelter.
After being the target of terrible racial violence as a young black girl in Oklahoma, Dr. Olivia Hooker went on to fight prejudice throughout her distinguished career as the first African American woman to be accepted into the US Coast Guard (in 1945) and as a psychologist who taught respect for all people.
Twice a year since 2002, local dentists donate free treatment to young folks through their Give Kids A Smile clinic. The organization said more than 8,900 dental professionals and lay volunteers donate time and talent through the clinic, and have provided 10,632 children with $4.6 million in free dental service.
Once again the creative genius of the Washington DC community is on display in the Easter candy parade of homemade art that is the annual -- and always humorous -- Peep diorama contest. Each spring the sticky critter-confections are decorated and transformed by readers of the Washington Post into scenes depicting famous books, paintings, or movies.
Thanks to the efforts of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), there are now 64 endangered whooping cranes migrating across the skies of eastern North America for the first time in more than a century using their eastern ancestral route.
A heartwarming update to a story that aired on NBC in September about a family in Florida down on their luck and facing foreclosure: A Texas businessman and his family, after being moved by the tears of the teenage daughter, decided to help.
CNN's Top 10 Heroes of the Year will walk down the same red carpet as the celebrities for the 5th annual CNN Heroes awards show broadcast LIVE on CNN. Televised award shows normally hail athletes and entertainers for their latest career accomplishments. But tonight in Los Angeles, the celebrities will honor inspiring citizens working to make the world a better place.
Christmas came early for three people in West Michigan when a stranger picked up the tab on some presents. It happened Monday night at the Big Kmart in Plainfield Township. A woman, described only as being in her 30s, walked up to the layaway desk and asked, Can I, you know, pay off some people's layaway?
Knowing that even if a foster child is placed with a family, it doesn't guarantee a Christmas gift under the tree, Frances Smith for 15 years has used her annual vacation to amass new dolls, clothes, bikes, and games for every child in the foster care system of Coweta County, Georgia.
A businessman has taken charge of local slum children in New Delhi -- kids as young as two years old, whose impoverished parents sent them out begging on the streets. He envisioned a brighter future for the youngsters outside his door and agreed to be a daily caretaker, hiring tutors to teach them to read. Over the past decade, Arora and his wife have brought about 150 children under their wing.
Over the past three decades, gold and silver coins have turned up during the holidays in the Salvation Army's red kettles in at least 10 states, including Illinois, Colorado, Texas and Florida. While some people drop a few dollars into The Salvation Army's iconic red kettles at this time of year, others emerge and discreetly share diamond rings, real silver and rare gold coins — and many choose to do so anonymously.
