Sliver of Hope

[SubGod22]

Man Finds Diamond Ring Worth $40,000 On The Beach And Happily Returns It

Joseph Cook, 37, found the ring while combing Hammock Beach in St Augustine, St Johns County using his metal detector.

The video shows Cook digging the ring out of the sand.

"No way, man, woah, look at that bad boy, holy crap, yo that's real, I swear to god this is the biggest diamond I ever found on the beach!" he says in the video.

Cook went to the jewelers and they told him it was worth $40,000.

"I just said, 'oh God that's been sitting in my scooter for almost a week', I couldn't believe it," he said.

He immediately posted the video footage to his social media channels and called local jewellery stores looking for people who may have lost rings.

How many people would have been tempted to capitalize off of something so expensive? It would be hard not to think about something like that. Sounds like it's not in this guys nature and that's a beautiful thing.

[SubGod22]

Not a new story, but one that makes me smile every year.

Year 7.

Grandma And Man She Accidentally Texted Spend 7th Thanksgiving Together

An accidental text message has led to a Thanksgiving tradition that is now continuing into its seventh year.

On Tuesday, Jamal Hinton confirmed on social media that he spent Thanksgiving with Wanda Dench, who in 2016 thought she was texting her grandson to invite him to Thanksgiving when she actually texted Hinton.

"From year 1 as strangers, to year 7 as family but now BUSINESS PARTNERS!" Hinton captioned this year's post, which included an ad for BlackMP water.

In 2016, Hinton was 17 years old when he received the accidental text from Dench.

Hinton has documented the holiday each year since on his social media.

It's a story many people look forward to seeing on Thanksgiving.

[WuShock16]

Not a new story, but one that makes me smile every year.

Year 7.

Grandma And Man She Accidentally Texted Spend 7th Thanksgiving Together

Isn't the act of breaking bread together such a powerful thing? These lives have been changed forever for the better because she invited him to join her family for a meal. I just love this story.

[SubGod22]

Adrenaline is crazy

Teen Lifts a Truck to Free His Trapped Father: 'My Son is My Hero' (WATCH)

A 15-year-old is being hailed as a hero after lifting a truck that had fallen on his father’s chest.

The brakes on the truck that Matthew Wilkinson uses for work needed immediate repair last Monday and, fortunately, his son had come out to the garage and agreed to help his dad.

As Mr. Wilkinson tried to take off the rotor, he found it was stuck and needed a better angle for leverage, so he slid his body underneath the truck

“The second it popped off, the truck fell,” he told KCRA news. “All I could think about was the breath coming out of me. I was just squished. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t yell.”

Dalin Wilkinson, a freshman in high school, told the news team it was “crazy” scary.

“I heard him make a noise like his soul was leaving his body.”

Dalin tried as hard as he could to lift it just enough to get him out—and the adrenaline of the moment helped him succeed.

While the Oakdale, California dad was in the hospital being treated for a punctured lung and broken ribs, he couldn’t figure out how he was able to get free—until he later checked the surveillance camera.

[SubGod22]

Redemption is possible!

He's Up for Hero Award After Transforming Lives on City Streets Where he Once Sold Drugs

If you walked into Tyrique’s community center on Taney Street in South Phillidelphia, you’d see a kind man devoting his working hours everyday to supporting the children of his neighborhood.

What you wouldn’t see is the long, hard, and tragic road Tyrique Glasgow took to arrive there, through a life of drug-dealing, crime, prison, and accumulating 11 gunshot wounds.

“When you run a block, like, you are the face. You’re the one who that community of people know. You set rules and boundaries,” Glasgow, now 39, told CNN. “It’s a dangerous life, but it’s a normal life.”

“I got tired of my community following me in a negative direction and I wanted them to follow me in a positive direction,” he said. “The kids really gave me a purpose.”

Today, Glasgow is up for a CNN Hero award. He runs the community center out of a building he used to use for drug-dealing, and which now gives children a safe place to enjoy summer camps, afterschool activities, or just play and get away from the violence and despair that has become all too common in the area.

He coaches a flag football team, a girl’s dance squad, and runs the Young Chances Foundation to create safe programing for urban youths and low resource families to grow and thrive. He recently renovated a vacant lot from an eyesore and known drug stash into a community vegetable garden.

[SubGod22]

This is a wonderful gesture to thank employees for their services.

Employer Gifts A Month's Worth Of Groceries To All 100 Employees, With No Limit

More than one hundred Yonego employees all received a folder, a shopping bag and a gold envelope. Yonego's owner, Joris Toonders, then told them to put all of their receipts from the supermarket in the envelope throughout the month of December.

"No one knew and it took a while before the penny dropped. There was dead silence for a few seconds. Then people started clapping. I think I've said thank you a thousand times," an employee told Omroep Brabant, a Netherlands news station.

"I have never seen a hundred colleagues so quiet together," Toonders said.

Toonders did not put any limitations on the groceries. He told the news station that he trusts his employees to not take advantage of this gift.

[SubGod22]

This one is a little different, but I love the way so many in the community rallied around her with their own stories.

After Debut Author's Lonely Book Launch, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood Swoop in With Support

New author Chelsea Banning tweeted to being “a little embarrassed” after the first book signing of her first book was attended by no one but her two friends.

A blessing in disguise it was, as her tweet somehow attracted a large crowd of authors ranging from successful to legendary, sharing their own stories of book-signing flops.

The first to comment was bestselling crime author Linwood Barclay.

“Once sat out front of mall bookshop for a signing,” Barclay tweeted. “No one stopped, until the very end, when an old guy paused, looked at me, looked at the books, looked at me, approached and asked, ‘Do they sell flags here?’”

This was followed by even more famous names: maybe you’ve heard of them.

Tweets are in the article. I have to admit, having your very first book published and having a signing has got to be an exciting time. And when you have 37 RSVP that they're going to attend, and then not show up, it has to be pretty disheartening.

The book sounds like it could be interesting if you're into the genre. I'm half tempted to order it.

[SubGod22]

Dramatic Rescue Shows Community Teaming up to Save 4 Horses That Fell Through Ice into Freezing Pond

A team of neighbors, firefighters, and animal control officers worked for hours in the freezing weather to rescue four horses that fell through an icy pond.

The South Kalispell Fire Department responded to the scene near Patrick Creek in Montana, after the four horses fell through the ice, and were stuck up to their necks.

A video shared by Amber Countryman shows the numerous attempts to pull out the horses, each one failing until the rescuers eventually harnessed some extra ‘horse power’ when they brought in a tractor.

A dozen people, including firefighters, staff from Flathead County Animal Control, as well as neighbors, all worked together to free the horses.

They first tried to make makeshift pontoons from pallets and other pieces of wood in an attempt to make a ramp.

They then tried to pull one horse out of the water by using a long rope, taking care to avoid breaking any its legs, but they still couldn’t free the animal completely.

I like this sort of thing. I also saw video recently, not sure if it was new or old, of a number of people saving a herd of elk I believe from a frozen pond. They tried to cut through the ice to allow the elk to get to shore, but the ice was up to 2 feet thick and they felt they were running out of time. Ended up using rope and pulling them all up to safety where they then ran off like elk would do.

Horse or elk or anything else, I can't imagine anyone being able to stand by and watch something suffer in freezing water.

[SubGod22]

Not everything in California is ****

First Official Unicorn Husbandry License Given to Intrepid Young Girl in California - LOOK

California just granted the first ever state license for Unicorn Husbandry, provided the young applicant can find one, and ensure it has appropriate exposure to sunlight, moonbeams, and rainbows.

Department of Animal Care and Control added that its horn needed polishing every month with a soft cloth.

“Dear LA County, I would like your approval if I can have a unicorn in my backyard if I can find one,” wrote a girl named Madeline.

In response, DACC sent an emblazoned “Permanent Unicorn License,” in fuschia-colored metal, alone with a white unicorn plushie with pink hooves and a silver horn.

DACC Director Marcia Mayeda praised Madeline’s “sense of responsible pet ownership to seek permission in advance” and for thoughtfully considering “the requirements of providing a loving home to animals.”

In the grand scheme of things, this is nothing. But for a little girl, it is everything. This is something that would be easy to ignore or laugh off, but responding in this way harms nobody and makes someones day. I approve.

[SubGod22]

I'd never heard about this program. A bit more info in the article.

National Guard Brings Santa To Frigid Alaska Village To Surprise Kids

Children in a small community in northern Alaska were so delighted for a visit by Santa that they braved wind chills of 25 degrees below zero just to see him.

Alaska National Guard's "Operation Santa Claus" is a program that helps bring Santa and Mrs. Claus to children in native villages.

Nuiqsut, Alaska is a roadless village of about 460 residents. It's just 30 miles south of the Arctic Ocean.

So, Santa left his reindeer at home and caught a ride on an Alaska Air National Guard cargo plane.

Excited kids were waiting for him at the snow-covered airstrip.

"Some of them were out on the deck and they were jumping up and down, excited to see the plane coming in," Principal Lee Karasiewicz of the Trapper School told the Associated Press. "They knew right away by the size of the plane, who was on that plane."

When Santa and Mrs. Claus stepped off the cargo plane, children rushed to greet him with hugs.

[SubGod22]

Employee Immediately Gives Her Favorite Shoes to Man Walking With Boxes on his Feet

The manager of a Minnesota liquor store was surprised to come back from lunch yesterday to find his counterhelp walking around in her socks.

That’s because security camera footage revealed she had just given her favorite shoes—a pair of purple retro Jordans, to a homeless man she saw strapping boxes to his feet.

Brooklyn Center Liquor employee Ta Leia Thomas, known locally as “Ace” said the split-second act of kindness “was an easy decision.”

“He said nobody would ever give me shoes like that,” Thomas told CBS. “And I said, well, I’m not everybody.”

“I was always taught to help others. You never know what their problem is, or what they are going through.”

Ace has her own financial struggles as well. She's better than me.

[ShockTalk]

Employee Immediately Gives Her Favorite Shoes to Man Walking With Boxes on his Feet



Ace has her own financial struggles as well. She's better than me.

Ace, you're aces with me!!

[SubGod22]

This one brings a smile to my face.

Heartwarming Moment Ex-Foster Kid Asks to Be Adopted by Family He Sold a Car To

There’s no substituting the need for family, and one young man raised in the foster care system hoped to find one in a pair of perspective car buyers he met last year.

Video shows the Wilkinsons family, who walked off the lot with a car and a new friend in April 2021, reacting tearfully to salesman Davon Woods’ recorded message asking them to become his ‘forever family’ and whether he could take their last name.

Growing up in the foster care system, the 27-year-old Woods said he never had a relationship with any parent ever, and after Sarah Wilkinson heard his story, she kept her and her parents in touch with Woods, attempting to reach out when they could

The Wilkinsons invited Davon for dinner on his birthday in August 2021 and to join them again for Thanksgiving later that year at their Savannah Georgia home. More than a year after their first encounter, Woods asked to become part of the family.

Although no legal adoption process has taken place, the Wilkinsons now treat Davon like family—which is all that really matters—and gave him the green light to become Davon Wilkinson.

“It was weird to be in a loving environment. I’ve never had a relationship with any parents ever, adoptive or biological,” said Woods. “It was something I’d always wanted. I’ve always wanted to say ‘this is my family.'”

As they say, there's the family you're born with (blood) and the family you choose (your people). So happy that this man found people to call family. Also beautiful that he's now started an organization to help serve foster kids.

[SubGod22]

We hear a few stories like this from time to time, but it's not often a local one.

KAKE - Wichita restaurant server receives $2,200 tip for Christmas

"It was time for them to pay and I asked how they were going to do their checks and they said they will be all together. Then I bring the check over and all the family, friends started whipping out their phones.. and they got out a large amount of money like- 'Alright each year during the Christmas holiday we all bring out $100, and so we are gonna let you keep all the money. It's 22 of us and we all brought $100, so that's $2,200 for you to take home...and we hope you enjoy your Christmas and that everything goes well.'" said Sullivan.

"I was shocked most of the day. I was in disbelief until it was time to come home and I was taking a large amount of money more than I ever take home and working in customer service.. you never expect that amount of money coming in at a table. And with them giving me that...it's helped a lot. I'm gonna save it for a new car or moving," she said.

However, she didn't keep all of the money to herself. She tipped everyone at the diner, saying they are like family to her. Sullivan says to be grateful for every tip during the holidays and that she believes what goes around comes around.

A short video clip from KAKE is also in the link.

[SubGod22]

This is a tradition I can get behind.

Every Penny Thrown into Rome's Trevi Fountain Goes to Help the City's Poor

Every year, the more than €1 million in coins thrown into the Trevi Fountain in Rome are hoovered up to feed, clothe, and house the city’s poor.

Completed in 1762, the marble marvel is one of the Eternal City’s most popular attractions. Commissioned in the 1730s by Nicola Salvi, it depicts the taming of waters.

Oceanus the sea god is pulled by a shell chariot of seahorses, all around which lie shells, coral, fishes, and other sea-things.

Normally it’s a tourist madhouse, taking up a third of the space in the already small Piazza di Trevi. Tradition has it that tourists put their back to the fountain and toss a coin over their left shoulder with their right hand—an act which supposedly guarantees they shall return to the Eternal City.