Man catches child by feet in midair after boy fell 30 feet from escalator

 

It was the catch of a lifetime…and that ‘good catch’ by a San Diego man may have saved the life of a 4-year-old boy.

21-year-old Antonio Jones was at the Mission Viejo Mall Friday with his girlfriend.

The couple craved a burger from Islands Restaurant.

Jones was standing outside the restaurant on the ground floor when he noticed little Jimmy Lavin get tangled in an upstairs escalator.

The escalator hand-rail pulled Lavin upstairs to the second floor.

In an instant, the sobbing boy was carried upward as he dangled off the staircase.

Jones was a few steps away when Lavin hit the top wall was knocked off the escalator rail.

The boy plummeted 30 feet head-first toward the concrete walkway.

Jones reacted… jumping forward and catching the child with one hand on each leg.

It was a near perfect catch… Lavin’s head just barely touched the ground.

The child was taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated for a minor bump on the noggin and released.

Jones is being credited for saving the boy’s life.
SOURCE: San Diego Man Saves Boy From 30-foot Fall

Nanny runs barefoot through flames to save 5-year-old boy

A Shelby County nanny is being hailed a hero. 22-year-old Alyson Myatt is at University Hospital, recovering from severe burns after she saved a 5-year-old’s life.

Around 6:20 a.m. on March 23, Myatt was sleeping in a downstairs bedroom at a home on Golden Rod where she is a live-in nanny for 5-year-old Aiden Hawes, whose father was out of town.

“I just heard a big boom. I thought it was Aiden,” Myatt said.

After hearing the boom, Myatt immediately sprinted upstairs – barefoot. When she got to the hallway, she was met by flames on the carpet.

“I was calling him. He said, ‘Aly, I’m in here. I’m in my room underneath my covers.’ I was like okay and I ran there, grabbed him and ran out,” said Myatt.

Myatt said her focus was rescuing Aiden. At the time, she didn’t even think about getting burned.

“After I ran off the carpet, my feet were just … it was like I was walking on goo ’cause all the skin. My feet were just burned off,” Myatt described.

Myatt then ran out of the house with Aiden, drove to a neighbor’s house to call 911. Although Myatt suffered burns to her hands, legs and feet, she said Aiden was not injured.

“I’m just happy Aiden is okay,” said Myatt. “I care for that kid a lot.”

“The boy, probably, without her wouldn’t have been able to survive until we arrived,” said Chief Willard Tucker of the Shelbyville Fire Department.

Tucker believes Myatt ran through 400 degree flames to reach and rescue Aiden, something he believes a lot of people would not have done.

SOURCE: Nanny runs barefoot through flames to save 5-year-old boy

Man Runs From California To Georgia Raising Funds For Juvenile Arthritis [VIDEO]

Patrick McGlade is running a marathon. But you won’t find a pack of competitors in front of him or behind him. He’s running this one alone. He’s raising awareness and money for juvenile arthritis.

The idea came to him when he was running a marathon. Actually I was in the middle of a 24 hour race and I decided well if I can run for 24 hours straight, I think I can run a marathon a day. That’s when I started looking for charities,” says McGlade.

The Arthritis Foundation welcomed him with open arms. The charity has been there every step of the way lining up support, food and shelter for McGlade.

“For the most part, it’s been a very good experience.”

But very challenging, says McGlade. He runs 30 miles a day. He stops to take photographs along the way. He was drawn to a sign on the 13th Street Bridge recognizing the 2006 Little League World Series Champions from Columbus. Once he snapped his photos, it was back to work.

McGlade’s Huntington Beach, California to Tybee Island, Georgia run is expected to end April 23rd. His goal is to raise $50,000. So far McGlade has raised $17,000. To see photos of his journey, his route, and to donate, visit http://patricksrunblog.blogspot.com/

SOURCE: Man Runs From California To Georgia Raising Funds For Juvenile Arthritis

Woman Opening Up Food Bank for Pets [VIDEO]

We have all heard of food banks and the impact they make on our community, but how about a pantry for pets?

It is the idea of Newberry’s Star Chappell, who within the last year learned about the special gift of owning
an animal.

“He’s truly changed my life, I mean he opened up my heart. I just never had to care for something that needed me that much,” said Chappell of her cat Trainor.

Last year Chappell was going through a very difficult time in her life when she found an  abandoned and very sick outside her restaurant.

She took him to a vet, where he needed a blood  transfusion and lots of tender loving care.

The cat’s name is Trainor and he’s all better now.

 
For as much as the animal needed a friend, Chappell did too.

Watch this story: Midlands Woman Opening Up Food Bank for Pets

Math tutor uses numbers to fight red light camera ticket [VIDEO]

A woman was caught on camera running a red in Collier County. But after her husband fought the ticket, it was thrown out. Now officials say there may be other drivers who were wrongly ticketed as well.

About 28,000 drivers have been caught on camera running a red light in less than a year. The excuses range from bad weather to not wanting to be rear-ended.

But Collier driver Mike Mogil claims the yellow lights are simply too short. And as it turns out, he’s right.

Armed with a stopwatch, Mogil may be driving a hole in the credibility of Collier County’s red light camera system.

“If the county, they are not going to follow their own rules, then why should we be required to follow the rules?” he asked.

When his wife received a ticket in the mail recently, the first thing she said was the yellow light was too short.

So Mike, who works with numbers all the time as a math tutor, put it to the test.

“I said, ‘If it’s really short, then you got short-changed and you got a ticket illegally,’” said Mogil.

The speed limit on Collier Boulevard, where she was cited, is 45 mph. According to county guidelines, the yellow light should be 4.5 seconds.

Mogil said he tested it 15 times with an average of only 3.8 seconds.

“And I said, ‘We’ve got a problem,’” he said.

He challenged the ticket Monday and a special magistrate dropped it when the county conceded the yellow wasn’t long enough.

“I think it was an oversight more than anything,” said Gene Calvert of the Collier County Transportation Department.

The county has already fixed the Collier Boulevard light, and says it will check 200 other intersections to make sure they meet the standard.

NBC2: Do you think there are other lights that may not be timed correctly?
Calvert: I doubt it very seriously, but I will be looking into it.

But Mogil says he’s already checked 65 intersections and found that only seven yellow lights are long enough.

“There’s a much, much bigger issue here and it has to be addressed,” e said.

The county says it will be checking the intersections with red light cameras first.

They encourage anyone who thinks they may have gotten a ticket incorrectly to challenge it, just as Mogil did.

Watch this story:  Math tutor uses numbers to fight red light camera ticket

Honest taxi driver reaps rewards

The donations started after a website was set up in his honour calling for gestures of gratitude for what is seen as an extraordinary act of honesty.

So far the equivalent of $14,580 has been donated, according to the site.

Santiago Gori, a taxi driver in the coastal city of La Plata, found the money after driving an elderly couple.

They only went a short distance but when he dropped them off, they left a bag in the back of his taxi.

A few days later he managed to locate his passengers again and he returned the bag.

For Argentines used to corruption at all levels of society, this was an extraordinary story.

Two young advertising agency employees decided to set up a website to thank Mr Gori further for his exemplary behaviour.

Now thousands of people have accessed the site and have left hundreds of rewards and messages for Mr Gori.

One visitor offered to produce in his studio a song chosen by Mr Gori to kick-start a potential artistic career.

Another offered a snow-boarding lesson in Argentina’s ski resort of Bariloche, while an Argentine abroad promised to bring back a second-hand GPS satellite receiver for his taxi on his return.

“Thank you”, say many of the messages and one said it all: “I wish more people were like you.”

For his part, Mr Gori seems a bit bemused.

He said he only did what had to be done – and that he does not quite know what to do with all the things he has been offered.

Read more: Honest taxi driver reaps rewards

Girl’s dream to end childhood hunger gets national attention [Video]

Here’s one from one of my friends, Joey Sovine.

Ten-year-old Katie Stagliano dreams to end childhood hunger across the world.

The 4th grader from Pinewood Preparatory School in Summerville was recently featured in NBC Nightly News “Making a difference” segment.

Her dream began in her backyard where a 3rd grade project turned into a 40 pound cabbage.

“We decided that my cabbage was too special to be eaten so I contacted the organization fields to family. They are an organization that brings extra crops from farmer’s fields and other places to people in need and they told us that Family Crisis Ministries’ soup kitchen would greatly appreciate it,” explained Katie.

The 40 pound cabbage went on to feed over 275 people and triggered a dream that is spreading throughout her school.

With help from environmental science teacher Michael Newman, a garden has been constructed on the school’s property where Katie’s classmates help to grow food for the homeless.

Katie has now helped to feed over 800 people and hopes to inspire more people to grow food for those less fortunate.

Watch this story: Summerville kid dreams to end childhood hunger

Homeless man saves teen from drowning

 

A homeless Winnipeg man risked his life to save a teenager from the Red River on Sunday afternoon.

Faron Hall, 44, who lives on the banks of the Red in St. Boniface, said he saw the male teen fall from the Provencher Bridge above where he was sitting with friend Wayne Spence. Hall said the teen appeared to jump.

“He was saying, ‘It’s cold! Help me!’ and I just threw off my backpack and ran down and dived in,” said Hall, who is originally from Dakota Tipi First Nation but mostly grew up in foster care in Winnipeg.

Hall said he managed to get a grip of the teen about 30 metres from the bank but was afraid both would be swept away by the rapid, cold waters.

“He was fighting me and I told him, ‘Don’t fight me! I’m trying to save you. Otherwise we’re both going to drown’,” Hall said. “He was pushing me under and I had to slap him in the head. I hated to do it, but I said, ‘I’ll bring us to shore. Just trust me.’ He went limp and I got him to the grass.”

Hall said his friend Spence helped pull the exhausted and freezing Hall and the teen out.

“The firefighters said to me, ‘You’re a hero, you saved a life’.” Hall said. “I said, ‘Well, possibly, but can I get a blanket? I’m kind of cold.’ “

Hall downplayed the hero tag.

“I don’t think I’m a hero. I’m just a human being,” he said yesterday.

Hall was transported to St. Boniface General Hospital — along with the teen, whose condition is unknown — where he warmed up for several hours before being released. Before leaving the hospital, he visited the teen he pulled from the river.

“I just asked him, ‘Why?’ That’s all I said to him,” Hall said. “He just said he was sorry.”

Hall said he’d like to see the teen and his family in the future.

“I’m not ever going to forget what I saw,” Hall said of the incident. “That boy’s got his whole life ahead of him.”

Hall is no stranger to tragedy. His sister Kristi Hall, 36, was stabbed to death in a random attack in July 2007 in the North End.

“Maybe that’s why I didn’t want to let anyone else die,” he said of the river rescue.

Hall, who has been homeless for about seven years, said he spent Sunday night at the Main Street Project shelter on Martha Street but sleeps year-round along the banks of the Red near the rescue spot, where he said he plans to continue living.

“I just do my own thing,” Hall said. “I don’t bother anybody.”

After graduating high school, Hall said he worked as a teacher’s aide while studying education at the University of Manitoba for two years before his life took a turn for the worse.

“That’s when I hit alcoholism,” Hall said. “I’ve had so many pitfalls in my life.”

Hall said he last worked on construction jobs in Saskatchewan before returning to Winnipeg about 10 years ago.

Read more: Homeless man saves teen from drowning

Alert cop halts runaway SUV, saves marathon runners

Keith Lewis didn’t have time to think.

The Land Rover headed toward the Mariemont police officer and a pack of Flying Pig marathon runners Sunday morning.

He turned, jumped on the hood, swung his body toward the passenger side and hopped inside.

At the same time, a bystander reached through the driver’s side window and pulled the emergency brake. Lewis shifted the car, driven by a woman having a seizure, into park.

“It was instincts, just pure instincts,” said Lewis, who has been with the Mariemont department four years. “I didn’t have time to think about what was happening. My main thing was trying to stop the car before it went right through the crowd. It was just the adrenaline and trying to put in practice everything I’ve learned.”

Lewis, 37, had worked overnight.

He was less than three hours into an extra traffic detail when the sports utility vehicle came toward him at 20 miles per hour – “almost like she didn’t see me standing there.”

The SUV stopped about 100 feet from the East Street and Miami Road intersection where Lewis was standing.

The driver, who has not been identified, was taken to a local hospital.

It is unclear what happened in the minutes before the incident.

The woman started to regain consciousness and become more alert soon after medics arrived. She didn’t remember the accident – or even getting into her car, according to police.

No one was injured.

That’s a miracle, Mariemont Police Chief Richard Hines said, considering all of the commotion happened just as a large group of runners passed through the area.

“(Lewis) happened to be in the right place at the right time and did everything right,” Hines said. “It could have been a very different outcome. But it’s just one of those things where we have a happy ending, and I’m glad.”

 

Read more: Alert cop halts runaway SUV

Photo: Flickr user Green Marrow

FDR secretly pushed to get Jews to safety during Holocaust

Newly uncovered documents reveal that President Franklin D. Roosevelt worked quietly in the late 1930s to find havens for European Jews, contradicting the view that he ignored their plight in the years leading up to the Holocaust.

 

Roosevelt was “a master politician who tried to carry out some humanitarian steps while juggling political and military considerations,” writes historian Richard Breitman, co-editor of Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald (1935-1945) released today. The book draws on papers at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.

McDonald was chairman of Roosevelt’s advisory committee on refugees. He met Adolf Hitler in 1933 and was convinced the Nazi planned to exterminate Europe’s Jews, prompting him to sound warnings. He later was the first U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Despite FDR’s popularity with Jewish Americans, the influential 1984 book The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust argued that he did little to save their European brethren.

Breitman says McDonald’s papers soften that view, showing that in 1938, Roosevelt:

• Cut red tape that kept immigration quotas from being filled, allowing entry for 27,370 Germans — most of them Jews.

• Hoped to resettle millions of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe to other countries, mostly in Latin America. He called an international conference to line up money and support.

• Promised to ask Congress for $150 million to help resettle refugees if Britain allowed more Jews into Palestine and private funds could be raised.

Read more: FDR pushed to get Jews to safety in 1930s