Eight members of the Philadelphia Orchestra who were stuck on a tarmac in Beijing for three hours gave fellow passengers an experience of a lifetime when they took out their violins and cello and played an impromptu concert.
When a new neighbor moved in and began writing messages on a chalkboard in his front window, the funny and inspiring messages about happiness, or finding a wife, made Ayden Byle the toast of his Toronto neighborhood.
Wandering around the airport terminal, after learning my flight had been detained four hours, I heard an announcement: "If anyone in the vicinity of Gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately." Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. "Help," said the Flight Service Person. "We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this." In my halting Arabic, I was able to soothe her worried mind. Not only that, by the end of four hours, all the women at the gate were as one, bonded by the old woman sharing her cookies.
A retiring Massachusetts principal was tricked into going on the school rooftop to receive a very memorable going-away present. Students, parents and staff stretched across the parking lot below surprising the 36-year veteran educator with a loving flash mob of thanks.
Over the past 30 years, the charity Good 360 has redistributed over $7 billion dollars worth of products to the poor. The online marketplace makes it easy and profitable for corporations to donate unused surplus to charities, rather than storing it or shipping it to a landfill.
Janette Camba, a temporary worker and familiar barista at Tim Hortons, for more than three years, is now back in her home country of the Philippines, recovering from a life-saving kidney transplant, paid for by almost $30,000 in donations raised in North Vancouver.
After being gifted a life-changing sum of $703,000 following a school bus bullying incident seen around the world, former bus monitor Karen Klein says she really hasn't changed all that much.
A man whose mission is to clean up the lakes and rivers of the United States has removed more than 7 million pounds of trash. By 2010, has had already pulled 775 refrigerators and 55,000 tires from American waterways. But the work also yielded some treasure -- 64 messages in bottles.
When a motivational speaker read about a 100-year-old woman being evicted from her apartment, he paid her rent for the next two years.
The University of Portland gave a standing ovation this month to one of their own, Sam Bridgman, a finance major who was forced into a wheelchair by a condition known as Friedreich's ataxia (FA), a rare, degenerative disorder that causes progressive loss of muscle strength. It was graduation day and Sam was determined to walk across the stage to get his diploma. When he did, the entire arena lifted him up with prolonged cheers.
James Cleaveland decided to devote himself to helping drivers in the city of Keene, New Hampshire, avoid the disgust of finding a parking ticket on their car. Cleaveland and a group of friends took to the streets with pocketfuls of change and began shadowing the city's three parking enforcement officers, stuffing coins in expired meters before they could issue $5 tickets -- so far, helping 2000 motorists.
Something strange is happening at Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center. Residents are so eager to get into a Russian literature class led by the University of Virginia that prison officials use it as a reward. The youths are clamoring to read thick books like War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, a moral thinker and non-violent pacifist who was said to have had a profound impact on Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
A high school physics teach became well known in Louisville, Ky., for his exploding antics in the classroom. But Jeffrey Wright's most influential lecture is delivered annually teaching the life-lessons learned via Mr. Wright's son, who has a developmental disorder.
Glamorous gowns and high heels took the place of Hurricane Sandy's damage and destruction for teens at East Rockaway High School in New York who are getting the chance to have their dream prom after winning a contest held by internet company Rent The Runway.
Saving a life sometimes could take something as simple as a call back. Just ask Thomas Buck, an 84-year-old from Pennsylvania whose life was saved by a complete stranger more than 1,000 miles away – who called him back.
As 91-year-old John Jack Potter faced eviction from the house he built and lived in for 56 years, his granddaughter decided to act. She set up a donation campaign on the website, Go Fund Me, and her story about the WWII combat vet losing his home attracted more than 5000 people who gave $138,000.
They volunteered for Iraq and Afghanistan. Now they are volunteering to help people in Oklahoma to dig out from utter devastation. These veterans have answered the call for duty because their drive toward service and helping their country has not ended just because they hung up their uniform.
Katie Jones set up a big white board in her kitchen, numbering 1 to 34, she listed ways to make people happy in celebration of her 34th birthday. She placed a bag of quarters in a Laundromat. She left five dollars on the floor in the dollar store. She gave a Subway sandwich gift card to a homeless man.
The Eastern Market neighborhood near Capitol Hill was the scene of a remarkable community rescue during a sudden eviction of one of their most colorful residents. On a recent day when Michael's possessions began filling the sidewalk under the orders of federal marshals, a few of his neighbors wondered if there was something they could do to help. In the end, the neighborhood characters each played a role in protecting the dignity of one of their own.
A blogger on Tumblr shared an inspiring story about her mom who is a waitress and her long-time dream to go to Italy and visit her family's roots. She was telling a diner that her family is from Florence, but she's never been there. This man who we have never seen before tipped her $1,000 dollars for a trip to Italy. Walked out, not another word.
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