This story really made my day brighter when I read it!

Yosemite Junior Ranger returns two sticks to the park
By Mike Krumboltz | The Sideshow – Wed, Feb 27, 2013

When visiting a national park, one should always leave things exactly as they were. Hats off to Evie, a junior ranger at Yosemite National Park, for living the motto. After returning home from a trip to the internationally known park, young Evie discovered that she had "accidentally brought home two sticks."

Honest Evie put the sticks in the mail and sent them back to Yosemite along with a letter that even the most jaded nature-hater would find completely charming.

Dear Park Rangers,

I am a Yosemite Junior Ranger. I went to Yosemite recently and accidentally brought home two sticks. I know I'm not supposed to take things from the park, so I am sending them back. Please put them in nature.

Thank you,

Evie

A photo of the letter was posted on Yosemite's official Facebook page with this explanation: "The rangers that answer the phone and mail in our public information office receive a lot of letters, but this might be one of the best in recent years."
read the rest:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...001225972.html

I'm bumping because something happened to me tonight. I signed up for a somewhat expensive couch-to-5k program, and then got laid off before it started. I'd originally planned to buy some new shoes, etc. but since the layoff, money's been really tight and I've been running in my "fashion sneakers" I bought for rush 5 years ago (flat-soled Pumas). It was okay for a while, but as we've been running more I started developing blisters. I tried to run them into callouses, but it was just agony. Eventually I went to my coaches and told them the problem and admitted that I couldn't afford the $100-some shoes they recommend and asked if what cheaper alternatives were still good shoes. They told me they would look into it.

Today they went ahead and had me fitted for some expensive new shoes "to see what sort of show will work best for you" and then the salesperson told me the shoes were already paid for.

Guys, I want to cry. I really didn't expect that at all and my run was so much better today because of these shoes! Someday I hope to pay this forward, once my life gets back in order.

Where is the "like" button? No, the LOVE button!

:D:D:D:D:D
:cool:

I guess I can tell my story--
I just started back to work on 02/25/13 and just got my full paycheck on Friday (whhhooo-hoooo). As I was running around Saturday--getting things for my nieces and nephew-I was passing through the town of my Goddaughter (shes almost 2). I called her Grandmother (really great gmother) and asked her "does Taiden have her Easter dress yet?" Miss. S told me "no" I asked her what size does she wear and what size are her feet.
She told me a sz 2T and siz 7 toddler.
I went to Wally World and went to get her a dress, but didn't like the ones that I saw. I wanted her a pink one, but I just wasn't feeling the ones that Wally World had for a 2T. I went to buy the shoes and found some of the cutest white shoes with a sequined bow on the top (all the while, I was thinking about my "black biscuts" or what my older cousins unmercifully called my patent leather black church shoes).
Anyways, on the way out, I found stockings that were white and pink in the package-2 for 3 bucks! I picked up one for my Goddaughter and one for my baby neice.
I went to the nearest store that sold decent dresses and found a lovely lavender and white satin dress with a white overlay with colored embroidery on it. I also got her the hairbows-two purple flowers with "diamonds" on each center and some other hair bows, etc.
I couldn't resist, and got her an Easter basket that I filled with a large bunny wunny, and tons of candy, and coloring books. Wrapped that sucker up in the parking lot of Wally World.
I went back to Miss. S's house and brought all said items. Miss. S. was overjoyed with happiness. She told me that she hasn't been working herself (she's usually a sitter with the elderly) and that she just couldn't afford to get Taiden or "Puddin Pie" as they call her, her Easter stuff!
Tried the dress and shoes on Puddin and she twirled, twirled, and twirled! Looked at herself in the mirror, showed her Uncle her dress and "choes" and got madder than a wet hen and threw a fit when her dress had to come off! Threw a screaming fit when her dress had to be put up to wait until Easter!
Miss S. was just too overjoyed, but I think that God just put Puddin on my mind!

Again, where is the like/love button?

i've found that when God puts something on your heart, He puts it there for a reason!

BTW--Pudding looked like an angel!

D'awwwwwww :)

If you find one let me know. ;)

Actually, I'm liking this thread as well. It might inspire me to see about getting a like button setup on GC.

This story continues!

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdate...ous?source=pkg

Talk about a coach who not only gave his team a VERY teachable moment, but gave that lesson to the other team too. I know this family.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/z...stie-team.html

DaffyKD

The World Needs More People Like Mr. Rogers
 

"My mom got white-hot furious, and she read an editorial written by Mr. Rogers about the importance of respecting a child’s work, and she wrote him and told him what happened, and that she was at a loss as far as what to tell this teacher."

Some of these are oldies - but still goodies: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/momen...umanity-this-y

College athlete puts athletic career aside to save a stranger
 

"Cameron Lyle, a senior at the University of New Hampshire where he throws the discus, hammer and shot put, is placing his athletic endeavors on hold to be a bone marrow donor."

Little heart warming story

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...psb0db10c5.jpg

Got a couple of War stories where I saw the best in people I'll get up sometime.

Bringing this back because we need it.

Love a teen doing the right thing!
 

http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/ar...nds-up-for-her

"Always nice to hear a good nursing in public story. This is from Julia, a mom in my local AP group: "If you're ever at Starbucks in Trainyards (Ottawa), give them a good tip! This morning I was nursing my son in Starbucks and a woman very loudly complained (so she knew I could hear) to the baristas that they should get me to stop doing that in public as it was disgusting. The barista smiled at her and said he would handle it. I was gearing up for a fight, but he came over with a free drink for me and said loudly "And here's a voucher for a free drink next time you're in here, I am so sorry that you had to deal with such unpleasantness today." Coming from an at most 19 year old guy!"

Bumping this thread because I just found GoodSearch yesterday. I notice that most GLOs' foundations are on there, but not many have raised more than $2,500 through the website.

At $0.01 a search, I may not use it exclusively for search, but I will make an effort to use the GoodShop links when I shop online. Almost any retailer I can find is on there, and they average about 2-5% donation of your purchase. Plus, the site also provides a pretty good list of coupon codes.

I'm surprised our GLOs aren't advertising this more.

I've never heard of this before now! Great idea. I have all android devices, so Chrome is obviously my default but I will try to use this at least a couple times every day!

I just saw yesterday that you can also use Amazon "smile" and donate 5% of your purchase price at Amazon to a charity of your choice. AOII Foundation was an option.

Does yours say 5% or 0.5%? I raced to Amazon Smile to set up my preferences because GoodSearch only donates 1.5% of Amazon purchases. I found the Gamma Phi Beta Foundation, but then it said 0.5%.

I might have read that wrong. :)

I give is another such site. I know Delta Gamma gets some thru shopping at their sites.

Something small but wonderful: a young boy, age ten, laying across a sidewalk and peering into the grass with a magnifying glass. Ah, the joys of Spring Break!

People being awesome, as they are wont to do:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-w...ace#.oxryX1KW1

Thanks for the pick-me-up, SWTXbelle.

I thought I'd update, since I've re-discovered GoodSearch.

Well, it's more that I cleared my cache, and now GoodSearch pops up in my address bar before Google. Google is definitely the better search engine, but GS works ok for most things.

So - I joined in July 2014, and so far I've raised $35.43 for the Gamma Phi Beta Foundation:
$1.85 in searches
$33.58 in online purchases

I'm sure this total should be more, but any commissions from Amazon don't get tallied in your individual account, I guess.

And - I've made SO MANY additional purchases this last year that I didn't use the GoodShop website for. This total could have been so much higher!

I wish that our organizations would advertise this, at least for the online shopping. So many of our members buy things online on a regular basis. Yes, it's an extra step to go through the GoodShop website, but it all starts adding up!

Theta Phi Alpha also uses GoodSearch and is an option for Amazon Smile.

University of Missouri Football Strike
 

http://www.thenation.com/article/3-l...s-resignation/

I don't know how widely this bombshell was noted, but the 69% of the Mizzou football team (closely followed by the complete support of the rest of the team and the coaching staff) refused to practice or play until the president of the university resigned. It worked! This article I think is a great manifesto for how to get things done on campus.

And if sorority women understood the power they wield, if not the same amount as the football players, still they wield A LOT of power. Tired of the fraternities controlling your social schedule? There is one damn easy way to fix that. And these guys had a lot more to risk than a social calendar.

I'm not exactly sure what the President and Chancellor failed to do. I've read that there were a few incidents of some individuals (do we even know these were students?) yelling racial slurs at students. Then there was the fecal swastika--which could easily be as attributed to mental illness as actual racism.

At Oklahoma, when we had those SAEs singing racist songs on a bus, the President and university are now probably going to lose some lawsuits. I'm not sure what these protesters really want--administrators to overcorrect and get themselves sued?

Glad I'm not a college administrator.

Have you heard about what's happening at Yale right now? It's ridiculous.

Any sort of good will these culture warriors used to have with mainstream America is quickly being expended. These children and their granola-munching communication teachers are quickly becoming the face of the civil rights movement. These classless clowns are going to set back the real civil rights movement by decades with these silly antics.

I find it absurd that these kids think they are standing for something, but can't be bothered to roam beyond the safe confines of their college campuses to take their 'courageous stands.' These people are not coming off as courageous or even victims. They're bullies who haven't even really articulated exactly what it is they want.

The Yale thing, I think has blown up way beyond that single party where a black brother allegedly told a black would-be attendee that she was being turned away because it was a white girls only party--in reality, they were turned away because they were Columbia students and the Yale Police required them to check for Yale IDs before admitting people to the party.

The protestors have articulated exactly what they want. One thing on their list is that their requests from 1969 (that's 46 years ago!!) are met. These aren't new problems or a result of an isolated incident. This has been building since the university was founded and especially since the Ferguson protests last year and there's a long history of race issues on this campus (and pretty much every campus in the country). They aren't only protesting racism as the media would have you believe, a huge part of the reason they wanted Wolfe gone was the grad student controversy. Students met with Wolfe and he was disrespectful toward their experiences and failed to care about the racism that is prominent on campus. A man who doesn't care about students shouldn't be the president. everyone protesting recognizes that removing Wolfe and Loftin isn't going to solve the problem of racism on this campus. They have plans for the future and know that it will take time and a lot of work. Getting new administration is just the first step. While removing someone doesn't change much at all (immediately), replacing them with someone who truly cares to make changes to improve the campus will make a difference.
Educate yourself before posting next time. Even if you don't agree with everything they've done you don't get to invalidate their experiences because yours aren't the same. They have faced racism and systemic oppression and that's what they're fighting for.

Did you read the article? Never mind. Racism is made up and those black people should just suck it up and accept their status as an invisible nuisance except when making the university millions of dollars. They should know better than to think that human poop swastikas would be considered actionable by the university.

How does my disagreement and believing they are a bunch of entitled brats "invalidate their experiences"? The language of culture warriors is fun stuff.

So here is a list of their demands:

http://www.abc17news.com/blob/view/-...of-demands.pdf

These clowns accosted the President's car in a parade, then had the nerve to issue this list of demands. That is just absurd. If you want to meet with the President of a major university, maybe during the homecoming parade isn't the best time for that. Then demanding that he "admit his white male privilege"? Way to start a helpful dialog. I'd probably quit too. Good luck to the next President.

Yeah, human poop swastikas.

It would help to have an actual alleged perpetrator for the campus to take action. Does the school need to immediately issue a policy telling students that vandalism and spreading of human feces in non-designated areas (probably both illegal already) is not okay?

And don't put words in my mouth. I'll happily extend you the same courtesy.

Is there an article someplace that says what all these incidents were? It looks to me like the football team is striking because of the Greek system?? :confused: