Feel-good stories

[oneh2obabe]

Businessman Befriends Autistic Girl on Flight, Makes Everyone's Day.

The mother of an autistic toddler- whose open letter to a kind stranger she sat next to on a plane made headlines- has reconnected with the man who made her daughter smile during a 2-and-a-half-hour flight.

On Jan. 6, Shanelle Mouland was on a flight headed from Orlando to Philadelphia, to catch a connection to her hometown of New Brunswick, Canada. After spending a week at Disney World, Mouland's husband and their 5-year-old daughter, Grace, sat in one row on the flight back, while Mouland and 3-year-old Kate, who has autism, sat behind them. Mouland was a bit nervous. Depending on Kate's mood, the little girl's behavior can range from affectionate to hysterical - so a patient and understanding seatmate would be crucial.

In an open letter titled, "Dear Daddy in Seat 16C," posted Thursday on her blog "Go Team Kate," Mouland writes, "I watched the entire Temple basketball team board the plane, and wondered if one of these giants might sit by Kate. They all moved toward the back. She would have liked that … I watched many Grandmotherly women board and hoped for one to take the seat but they walked on by. For a fleeting moment I thought we might have a free seat beside us, and then you walked up and sat down with your briefcase and your important documents and I had a vision of Kate pouring her water all over your multi-million dollar contracts, or house deeds, or whatever it was you held. The moment you sat down, Kate started to rub your arm. Your jacket was soft and she liked the feel of it. You smiled at her and she said: 'Hi, Daddy, that's my mom.' Then she had you."

"Any time we go out in public, we have to plan for anything because Kate has sensory issues and when she's overwhelmed, her behavior becomes unpredictable," Mouland tells Yahoo Shine. "Most people warm up to Kate, but interacting with her can be off-putting for those that don't understand autism."

Luckily, Kate's seatmate was Eric Kunkel - a businessman and father of one from Villas, New Jersey - who for the duration of the, entertained Kate by allowing her to fiddle with his iPad and playing a video game with her. The pair talked about dogs (Kate will be getting a service dog soon) and Kate's experience meeting Winnie the Pooh and the Disney princesses at the theme park. Kunkel even tried to distract Kate with her toys when, at the end of the flight, she began screaming to remove her seatbelt, then allowed the Mouland family to exit the plane ahead of him.

"Thank you for letting us go ahead of you," wrote Mouland. "She was feeling overwhelmed and escaping the plane and a big, long hug was all she needed. So, thank you. Thank you for not making me repeat those awful apologetic sentences that I so often say in public. Thank you for entertaining Kate so much that she had her most successful plane ride, yet. And, thank you for putting your papers away and playing turtles with our girl."

"I travel a lot for work and Kate was, by far, the most well behaved kid I've sat next to," Kunkel tells Yahoo Shine. "Shanelle is also an incredible parent - she didn't apologize for Kate and she shouldn't have - but she was very attentive to her."

A few days after the flight, Kunkel's son and girlfriend spotted Mouland's blog post while perusing a site for autism and forwarded it to Kunkel, who couldn't believe the coincidence. He then contacted Mouland on Facebook to thank her.

Mouland is grateful for the experience and says she created her blog to teach others about autism, but she was the one who learned a lesson. "I assumed that a man in a business suit wouldn't be patient with Kate," she says," and I'm so fortunate to have been proved wrong."

[oneh2obabe]

Widower Lee Ballantyne of Barrie is more than a little dazed by the viral online reaction to a note he wrote on a napkin to a young couple in a local restaurant.

He’s also pleased in a way that’s very hard to describe.

Ballantyne was dining alone on Jan. 7, grieving the death of Carol, his wife of 43 years, from lung cancer on Dec. 30.

Looking across the restaurant at the young couple reminded Ballantyne of happier times.

On the napkin he wrote: “You don’t know me but my beautiful wife of 43 years died last week. Tonight I dined alone for the first time. You remind me of us many years ago. Please allow me to buy your dinner. Enjoy! It will put a smile on Carol’s face and make me happy . . . for now. Happy New Year! Lee B. Pay it forward.”


Within a week, his private note to the young couple had an estimated one million views around the world.

It went viral after a waiter posted the napkin note on Reddit, a website of user-generated links.

It touched British readers of The Daily Mail and moved strangers in Australia.

Stories were accompanied by Facebook photos of Lee and Carol.

At the time he wrote the note, the newspaper columnist was planning on taking a break from writing humour for a while.

The viral response to the note pushed Ballantyne to write about it in his column for the Barrie Advance

“I’m astonished by the reaction,” Ballantyne said Wednesday. “At the end of the day, what makes me feel good about it is that thousands of people got to see my wife and see what a wonderful person she is.”

Ballantyne said he sometimes mentioned Carol in his column, which is a light, humorous look on life.

“She would always reprimand me but she had a smile on her face. I’m sure she’s smiling now.”

Lee and Carol Ballantyne had been married for 43 years when she died of cancer on Dec. 30.

[oneh2obabe]

Unique skill turns into a business for Edmonton man with autism.

The next time you are cursing the assembly instructions for an IKEA desk or bookshelf, you will wish you were living in Edmonton.

Residents in the Alberta capital can hire Brad Fremmerlid, a 24-year-old man with severe autism who can build anything.

Although he doesn’t read or speak, Fremmerlid has an amazing ability to understand the most complex diagrams, blueprints and pictorial instructions.

And for a small fee — currently about $20 — he will build any piece of furniture in your home.

“Everyone tells us we should be charging more, but we’re not really looking for money,” said his father, Mark Fremmerlid, an air ambulance pilot, who launched the business for his son this month. “We just want him to have something meaningful to do.

“It’s just started, but it seems to be so good for him to go to someone’s place and have a problem to solve,” he said in a telephone interview this week.



Since Brad was a preschooler, his father has been bringing home models, Lego kits and other toys for Brad to build “as therapy for his mind.” He figures Brad has assembled more than 2,000 objects since then.

The boy didn’t show an interest at first, noted Mark, who stresses his son isn’t an “autistic savant.”

“I just told him he had to build it and he did. Gradually, he took more and more interest in doing it, especially if it was something different or interesting.”

Moving to furniture assembly seemed like a logical transition.

“It just didn’t seem like a good solution to be always buying things for him to put together,” said Mark, who with his wife Debbie has three other children in their 20s.

“It’s much better if he actually builds somebody else’s project. It’s just so much more practical.”

So far, the business — Made by Brad ( http://www.madebybrad.com/ ) — has had eight clients, who have asked the young man to assemble everything from a shower caddy to a filing cabinet.

Mark books appointments through the company’s website. Brad communicates through rudimentary hand signs. But a support worker, who drives him to the jobs, assists with any questions a client may have.

Edmonton homemaker Elzbeita Broz hired Brad on Wednesday to build her two young boys an “Ultimate Chef’s Kitchen” that she bought from HomeSense after Christmas.

The wooden play kitchen had been sitting in a box in the family’s hallway for about three weeks waiting to be put together by her husband Rafal, who was “not very excited about it,” Broz said in a telephone interview.

After reading a local newspaper article about Brad’s new business, Broz called to make an appointment.

“When we opened the box this morning before Brad came and I saw how many small pieces there were, I was a little bit afraid it would be too challenging for him,” Broz admitted. “But he had no trouble. It was amazing.”

With the parts spread out on Broz’s living room floor, Brad studied the instructions for several minutes and then started to work. What would have taken her husband three days took Brad three hours, Broz said.

“He was very focused on the job. He didn’t need to look at the instructions as he worked,” she said. “When he was finished, you could see he was very happy and proud of himself, and so were we. He almost did a happy dance.”

Broz, who had no experience with autism before she met Brad, insisted on paying him double what he charged, as his work was “certainly worth it and I don’t see why I should pay any less.”

“People with disabilities are often not recognized and their talents are not discovered or appreciated,” she said. “Showcasing Brad’s talents is a great opportunity to spread awareness.”

[JLives]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/2 ... lp00000008

It's Cold, But This Gesture For D.C.'s Homeless Warmed Our Hearts
The Huffington Post | By Megan Griffo
Posted: 01/28/2014 6:04 pm EST | Updated: 01/28/2014 6:59 pm EST

Earlier this month, Danika Oriol-Morway felt sad when she passed a pile of dirty, frozen blankets strewn on the ground in McPherson Square in Washington, D.C.

The 29-year-old graduate student from Cambridge, Mass., was on her way to the bus stop on Jan. 7 when she first noticed the mess. She watched a man pick up the blankets and throw them into a big trash can. He was dressed like a city worker, Oriol-Morway told The Huffington Post in an email, but she wasn't sure who he was.

"It was incredibly cold," she told HuffPost. "I just hoped that whoever had been using those blankets was inside somewhere."

But the next day, while on the same route, Oriol-Morway discovered that the blankets hadn't been thrown away after all. Instead, they'd been cleaned, folded and placed on a nearby bench.

She took a picture of the scene and posted it to Facebook -- a friend later put the picture on Reddit:



"It just made me smile," Oriol-Morway told HuffPost. "I appreciated that this person's stuff was actually taken care of and not just thrown away."

[oneh2obabe]

Two weeks ago, Korey Soderman served as best man at his twin brother's wedding.

Because Korey has cerebral palsy and can't speak, he had the groom, Kyle, read the hilarious and heartfelt speech out loud.

Instead of delivering the speech to his brother, he delivered it through him.

Watch the moving speech here. (Starts at 2:50.)


The Ontario-born brothers, now based in Florida, were featured in an A&E documentary about their mother's decision to fight for Korey's life when he stopped breathing in the womb.

In an interview six years ago, Wendy Soderman spoke of her boys' special bond:

"I remember when the boys were little and they were playing in their room. Korey was laying on the floor — he couldn't sit — and his brother leaned into his face and out of the blue stated, ‘I'm glad you listened to me in mommy's tummy and didn't die.'"

[oneh2obabe]

A lesson in friendship.

[maryjane48]

Passengers aboard a B.C. Ferry got quite an eyeful yesterday while waiting to leave Departure Bay near Nanaimo B.C. as dolphins and orcas cavorted near the vessel.

A large pod of dolphins can be seen swimming near the ferry. As passengers look on, a pod of orcas shows up.

Both the dolphins and the orcas put on quite a show as you can see in this amateur Youtube video.

http://youtu.be/9BKPv1aZh9c

[oneh2obabe]

A brave boy fearlessly risked his own life and showed astonishing bravery to save a helpless baby deer from drowning.

The boy, called Belal and believed to be in his early teens, defiantly held the young fawn in one hand above his head as he plunged through the surging river.

During the ordeal onlookers were unsure whether the boy was going to appear again.


Complete article w/more pictures
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... wning.html

[grammafreddy]

http://www.castanet.net/news/Kamloops/1 ... University

Millionaire helps Kamloops' University
by Wayne Moore - Story: 109194
Feb 18, 2014 / 11:32 am


Photo: Contributed - TRU
Ken Lepin, right, announced a pledge of $2.25 million (topping up his contributions to $2.5 M) to TRU during the annual Foundation Gala on Feb. 15. With him is Alan Shaver, TRU President and Vice-Chancellor.

Amidst the spectacle of the TRU Foundation’s carnival-themed Gala on Saturday evening, a moment of generosity shone brighter than the finery and beads of the city’s more than 350 glitterati in attendance.

A well-known Kamloops businessman, and long-time supporter of a myriad of community causes, stood and announced a gift of $2.25 million to Thompson Rivers University.

The pledge brings Ken Lepin’s lifetime contributions to TRU to $2.5 million, making him the single most generous private donor in Kamloops history.

Lepin, who started his career as a chartered accountant and branched into sand and gravel supply before settling into property development, has been a supporter of TRU for decades.

“I have always found that location and timing is everything in real estate, and I believe now is a critical time to help this well located, good university become a great university,” he told guests gathered at Gala Saturday night.

In part Lepin said, his gift is a thank you to Kamloops and all the men and women who have contributed to his success.

“I am making this donation to help educate, among others, your children, grandchildren and succeeding generations, and to provide money for much-needed research in several areas.”

“Ken has spent his lifetime literally building Kamloops and now he has become an integral founder of our university. It is a great honour to become a part of his legacy, for this gift will improve thousands of lives and strengthen our community in countless ways,” said Christopher Seguin, TRU VP Advancement.

Like Lepin’s past gifts, the specific allocations for yesterday’s announcement are to directly benefit students.

This gift will increase his earlier Prizes of Excellence and create new awards in the Master of Business Administration, Veterinary Tech, Law, Arts and Adventure Tourism.

There will be a $250,000 Innovation Endowment to support students that will enter trades that do not exist yet, letting the university build new and innovative programming to meet the evolving needs of students and industry.

Lepin has founded a $500,000 Research Endowment to support awards for students participating in research at TRU. This fund is TRU’s first major endowment to support student research and will acknowledge, celebrate and support the university’s growing research portfolio.

This gift will see to the completion of the Wells Grey Science Centre; buy much needed equipment for the Nursing Simulation Lab, and create a President’s Initiative Fund, to support future special projects.

With this gift Ken Lepin is now Kamloops’ largest philanthropist, and has become one of the largest private donors to education in Canada.

[mexi cali]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#109300

This is an amazing story about sportsmanship and honor and the lesson was taught by a 12 or 13 year old boy.

Teared me up it did.

[oneh2obabe]

Free Calgary home awarded in Kijiji contest

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/free-hom ... 00631.html

[flamingfingers]

Sweet 84-year-old lady smiles and waves:

http://twentytwowords.com/sweet-old-lad ... s-to-them/

[oneh2obabe]

How One Man's Trip to Toys 'R' Us Brought Mobility to Hundreds of Disabled Kids.
This $200 alternative to a power wheelchair could get thousands of physically impaired kids mobile.

[prairieflower]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-110042-1-.htm#110042

Campion becomes champion after fire

Like many other motorists on the road Wednesday morning, the president of Campion Marine learned about the fire at Northern Lite Mfg. while on his way to work.

Brock Elliott was driving into Kelowna from Winfield when he first spotted the large plume of smoke. He pulled over on Totom Road and recognized a few of the workers. Passing along his business card, he told them to make sure their boss called him if there was anything he could do to help.

“It’s the old story, you wouldn’t want to wear their shoes. Basically what it came down to was, if we can help them, then let’s help them,” says Elliott.

“We’re not competitors. They’re building campers and we’re building boats. We’re both working in fiberglass."

Campion Marine is located just around the corner from Northern Lite and has the room to accommodate their campers. in fact they have over five acres and 100,000 square feet of warehouse space.

Offering many of the same tools needed to build fiberglass campers the fit seemed natural, Elliott calls it a win-win situation.

“All I know is they were good people. They’re a family business, I knew they were good people and that’s basically it,” he says.

“I had a couple of key questions (for the owners) and once they answered them to my satisfaction, I just said ‘we’d like to help you out’.”

While nothing has been decided upon, Elliott doesn’t see there being any problems working in the same space together and expects to know more by early next week.

The fire department released this statement about the cause.

Fire Investigators from the Kelowna Fire Department and representatives from two insurance companies have concluded their investigation of the Fire at 322 Totem Ave. that occurred February 26, at 05:30 a.m..

"There has been no determination of cause and origin. Damage to the building was extensive. An area of the origin within was determined, but excessive heat and the roof collapsing into the building left few indicators as to the cause," reports Dale Calhoun, Platoon Captain for the Kelowna Fire Department.

[flamingfingers]

This is only one of the many feel good stories there are about the RCMP:

Mountie carries lost man to safety
by Trevor Rockliffe | Story: 110704 - Mar 10, 2014 / 5:08 pm

Photo: RCMP
RCMP

An elderly male is now home safe after becoming disoriented then lost during a long walk with his dog yesterday.

On March 9 at 8:15 p.m., the Williams Lake RCMP received a report that an 80-year-old male had not returned home after going for a walk with his dog.

He reportedly left his residence in 150 Mile House at 4 p.m., but had not been seen since.

Family members were concerned as the male suffered from Alzheimer's disease and the temperature was falling rapidly.
RCMP along with Search and Rescue, 150 Mile House Fire Department and Police Service dog "Clive" were called to assist in locating the missing male.

At 10:30 p.m., RCMP Dog Handler, Cpl. Gord Rutherford and PSD Clive, located the male on a trail a few kilometres away from his house. The male appeared to be suffering from hypothermia and he was unable to walk.

After notifying family and emergency crews that he had located him, Cpl. Rutherford carried the male out on his back, through the deep snow. The man was later transported to the Cariboo Memorial Hospital, he's expected to make a full recovery.

"The actions of Cpl. Rutherford were integral in ensuring a positive outcome in this event," Stated Insp. Warren Brown of the Williams Lake Detachment.

The Williams Lake RCMP thanks Williams Lake Search and Rescue, 150 Mile House Fire Department, friends and neighbours for their swift response and assistance to this successful search.

http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/110704/ ... y#comments