He did what anyone would have done (?)

Today's crumb was donated by a faithful reader in Bloomington, Indiana. Richard Taverna was riding the New York City subway this month. At Lincoln Center in Manhattan when he noticed a blue Chanel bag on the train platform. He picked it up searching for ID, and found a note written in Russian. He could not locate a subway agent, so he took the bag home.

Later he found something else in the bag. An envelope. It contained one hundred $100 bills. He knew whoever lost it was going through a lot of stress, so he decided, "Well, it's not mine" and turned it over to the New York Police Department's 20th Precinct. It was the same Precinct where a woman went to file a report about the lost bag as she headed off to Russia, according to police officials. "I don't think I did anything extraordinary," Taverna said.

A crumb of comfort from Nigeria

In Nigeria, religious violence intensified during 2018. So residents in the city of Kudanden were nervous when construction began on a new mosque. It was located next to the Living Faith church, and the buildings even shared a fence line. But despite clashes between Christians and Muslims in other parts of the country, worshippers in Kudanden are determined to work together.

"The issue of peaceful religious coexistence cannot be over-emphasied," said Christian resident Isiah Benjamin. If the mosque is going to be used to worship and serve God, and the church is going to be used to worship and serve God, there is no big deal about it. It shows that we as human beings must learn to live as one."

Pair of baseball fans get standing ovation

Today's crumb is shared by a reader in Cockeysville, Maryland. It happened at Coco-Cola Field in Buffalo, New York, when the Buffalo Bisons hosted the Syracuse Chiefs as part of the Independence Eve Celebration. One fan in the front row was 11-year-old little leaguer Ty Barber. Between innings, he caught a ball from the first baseman. Sitting in the same section was 96-year-old WWII veteran Richard Snethen, dressed in his full uniform. When the game was over, unprompted by his parents, Ty went to Richard and gave him the ball. "We really have to honor our veterans," he explained later.

Richard described the exchange as "one of the most treasured moments of my life," but there were more to come. Nearly two months later, the Bisons invited Richard and Ty back to the ballpark to watch a game together. In the middle of the third inning, the Bisons honored them on the video board in center field, and they received a standing ovation.

Good advice for the new year, and every year

Muslims clean up after New Year's Eve

Over 1,000 young members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association took to the streets in 50 different cities in Great Britain for a New Year's Day cleanup. They woke up early, as thousands of Brits were still in bed sleeping off the effects of their festivities.

Muslim youth kicked off the event by hosting a special prayer for the new year before they donned their high-visibility vests and tackled the streets with garbage bags in hand. According to British Iman Qamar Zafar, "Islam urges every Muslim to partake in charitable giving, community service, and to promote cleanliness."

Getting a "free ride" to college

For the past eight years, 76-year-old Paul Goetchius, a retired toxicologist, has been offering free rides to college students -- not a free tuition ride, but an actual free ride in his car. Since he first started volunteering his automobile to college students, he's logged about 64,000 miles getting them to class on time.

His passengers have gone on to become doctors, teachers and visual marketers, but what they also got from school was Goetchius as a role model and friend. Some call him "Grandpa." Nina Irby rode with Goetchius for all four years of college. She said it meant much more than transportation. "You're not just sitting there with your headphones on," she remembered. "He asks you questions and actually remembers what you tell him, so the next time you ride, he'll check on those things.

"Are you Santa Claus?"

Curtis Jenkins has driven a school bus for his school district in Dallas, Texas, for seven years. This year he wanted to do something more at Christmas. Originally he thought of a gift exchange, but his wife remarked that some kids' parents might not be able to afford a gift. So he simply started saving money from his pay checks to buy gifts for all his 70 students at Lake Highlands Elementary School.

                                                                                                                 Photo by Merrill Hope
After asking each student what they wanted for Christmas, he waited until the last school day before winter break to load up his bus with wrapped gifts, and dole them out to the kids. One child remembered, "He even had a bicycle on the bus!" Jenkins recalls, "When I opened the bus door, one of the kids asked me, 'Are you Santa Claus?'" He admits he also received some financial contributions from a co-worker, and from a compassionate parent who was touched by his gesture.