31-year-old Spencer West recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. That's an accomplishment for anyone, but when you see Spencer West, you wonder how it could have been possible. This climber has no legs. My family and I were told by doctors that I would never sit up by myself, never walk by myself, and I probably wouldn't be a functioning member of society.
Jarell Brooks, 19, who risked his own life to save three total strangers, is lucky to be alive. He was in the theater during the premier of Dark Night Rises when James Holmes opened fire. When the shooting started, everyone scrambled to the exits, including Brooks who saw a young mother struggling and made it his mission to get this family out safely even after he was shot in the leg.
Three young men are being hailed as heroes for their old-fashioned chivalry and courage under fire in saving the lives of their girlfriends. While using their bodies as shields, Matt McQuinn, 27, Jonathan Blunk, 26, and Alex Teves, 24, were killed in the worst mass shooting in US history.
Even though she was well known as a physicist, Sally Ride became famous for being the first American woman astronaut to enter space. A trailblazer at age 32, when the 1983 Challenger mission launched, she also became, and remains, the youngest American to enter space. Ride died peacefully on July 23, after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to the obituary released by her company, Sally Ride Science, which creates programs to keep preteens and their teachers engaged in science.
Five years ago, Leo McCarthy lost his 14-year-old daughter, Mariah, when a drunken driver hit her and two of her friends as they walked down a sidewalk near her home. But he refused to let her tragic death become just another statistic. Knowing that the driver was 20 years old -- not even old enough to drink legally -- McCarthy made an unusual promise to the teenagers attending Mariah's memorial service in Butte, Montana.
A young man with Down's Syndrome has earned a black belt in karate, inspired by Bruce Lee movies he studied as a child. Dustin Bean of Longview, Washington worked for 13 years, quickly moving from a special abilities class to regular classes to earn the coveted black belt. His mom said her son has high expectations for himself. He doesn't think he can't do something... He can do anything.
For more than three decades, nine women have been secretly baking and delivering hundreds of pound cakes in the middle of the night to people in Tennessee who could benefit from knowing that somebody out there loves them. They also secretly pay utility bills for widows or single moms in need. In all, they have contributed nearly $900,000 to the happiness of others.
A sudden gust of wind blew a baby stroller onto the tracks as a train rumbled into a NY station — but an unemployed Brooklyn man on his way to a job interview jumped off the platform and saved the tot from certain death, authorities said. He missed the job interview but after news of his heroics spread, he received numerous job offers.
A gray whale that had been tangled in a fishing net for more than three weeks as it swam up the California coast was finally disentangled Thursday by a fishing boat crew out of Bodega Bay.
A Yugoslavian-born custodian at New York's Columbia University will be trading in his uniform for a cap and gown this weekend when he graduates with honors after working on his degree for 12 years.
A mother whose son was stabbed to death by four members of a hooded gang plans to sell her family heirlooms to help his killers. Fatemah Golmakani, 56, also said she wants to "tell them that someone loves them".
A business owner realized, It's time to give back, after years of seeing needy people selling their stuff in his jewelry-exchange business. Rankin Paynter was shopping at a Kmart that was closing its doors in Winchester, Kentucky and decided on-the-spot to buy the rest of its contents and give it away to charity -- $200,000 worth of clothing, shoes, pharmacy items and supplies.
A retired man in California is one of three winners of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation's Kindness Challenge. The wood-working carpenter is bringing smiles to the faces of hundreds of kids with handmade toys created in his workshop garage. I just love making things for people.
A 32-year-old British woman paralyzed from the chest down has finished the London marathon after 16 days of walking with the help of a bionic suit. Although Claire Lomas was not eligible to receive a medal, more than a dozen runners donated theirs, in a touching tribute after an Olympic rowing champion launched a Twitter campaign to get her one.
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.
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