Writing on HelpOthers.org, Jill, a college student in New York City, recalled feeling depressed because her mother had been laid off from her job.  Just then, while walking through a ferry terminal, Jill heard a young woman’s voice singing about love and overcoming challenges.  After listening for 15 minutes, she gave the keyboard-playing singer some money, told her how good she was, and said, “I’ve been going through a rough time, but you’ve made me hopeful again.” The singer asked... Read more

It was a hot July day in Brooklyn, New York, when seven-year-old autistic girl Keyla McCree snuck out the window in her parents’ third-floor apartment and perch herself on the room’s air conditioner outside.  When she started dancing on top of the air conditioner, neighbors on the street below got worried. Steven St. Bernard, a 52-year-old bus driver and father of four who lives in the same apartment complex, happened to be nearby and rushed over, knowing that she would... Read more

Maggie exited the New York City subway on a Monday morning—back to work after a busy weekend, longing for just one more day off. Seated on a bench outside one building, an older man played classical music on a small radio.  Maggie felt her spirits rise as she listened, marveling at the composer’s genius.  Looking up she saw the beautiful details in the façade of an old building just a block from her Manhattan office, admiring designs from years past. ... Read more

On the first anniversary of his death, Kerry Trotter, the content manager of Word on Fire Ministries, recalled the life of her grandfather, Jack Leonard, who was nicknamed “Spoose.” Though the 94-year-old Chicago native had been “a big, Irish personality full of stories and songs and…wit,” Spoose had known his share of hard times.  He endured them because of his Catholic faith which was “formed by his parents who fled their homes in Ireland as teenagers, hungry, poor and terrified.... Read more

Many people around the world are disabled by degenerative disc disease in their backs and necks, according to Cornell University’s Chronicle Online. Fortunately, medical and engineering professionals work daily to find new and better ways to offer relief from chronic and debilitating pain. For example, Cornell engineers and doctors in New York “have created a biologically based spinal implant that could someday mean relief for countless sufferers,” writes Ann Ju in the Cornell Chronicle. New biologically based discs might have... Read more

The day before she was leaving for vacation with her husband and two sons, author Lisa Hendey had planned to finish her extensive “to do” list.  After the first item, however, her plans started to go awry. She had to care for her mother-in-law, who underwent outpatient surgery which lasted two hours longer than expected.  Then she had to pick up her own mother from the airport which cut into the time she had set aside for packing and laundry.... Read more

Former Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner made treasure out of trash at the school where she worked in Guatemala. While enjoying a bottle of soda one day, she noticed that the bottle had the same width as the walls of a classroom that was under construction.  In order to create eco-friendly insulation for the walls, Kutner led parents, students and volunteers in the effort to fill 8,000 bottles with inorganic trash, wrap the bottles in chicken wire, then put them... Read more

How did a broken washer and dryer lead Antonio Diaz Chacon to save a six-year-old girl from a kidnapper? The 24-year-old New Mexico father of two and his wife, Martha, had to travel to a relative’s house to do their laundry because their washer and dryer weren’t working.   When they arrived, Chacon spotted suspicious activity down the street: namely, a man roughly tossing a little girl into a blue van. “The way he grabbed her and threw her into the... Read more

When New Jersey resident Tami C. Gaines’ twins, Trey and Bria, were born prematurely, the babies barely weighed 1 pound 13 ounces, and weren’t expected to live.  Though Gaines was tempted to sink into despair, her two other children helped her discover the strength to cope with what was happening. In the ensuing months, the twins fought numerous health problems including a blood infection (Bria) and heart issues (Trey).  Yet the babies were resilient and survived, though they have lingering... Read more

When Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip killed his three daughters, Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish astonished the world by not calling for revenge.  Though angry and grieved, he called for peace and cooperation so there would be no more needless suffering. His memoir “I Shall Not Hate,” which won a 2011 Christopher Award, follows Dr. Abuelaish through his struggles growing up in Gaza, the friendships he made as the first Palestinian to work in an Israeli hospital, and his realization... Read more