No matter what your religion is....

The massacre at a Jewish temple in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, left 11 worshippers dead. But a few hours after the attack ended, two charities launched fundraising campaigns to raise money for the victim's families. Both charities are Muslim.

These two communities have a long, complicated history, and that's the point of the fundraisers -- to show that no matter what your religion is, we should all have each other's backs. They started by trying to raise $25,000 but the total quickly rose to over $185,000. All the funds will go to cover short-term needs the victims have, like medical bills and funeral expenses.

Coats (and more) for the homeless

Today's inspiring "crumb" was recommended by a reader in Wake Forest, NC, USA.

Veronika Scott was a student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, majoring in industrial design. In the fall of 2010, she was given a project: design something to meet a social need. To prepare she worked at a local homeless shelter, and after five months she designed a heat-trapping coat that transforms at night into a self-heated, waterproof sleeping bag. At the end of the semester, she continued working with the homeless to improve the coat's quality and design. When one homeless woman yelled, "We don't need coats, we need jobs!" she began hiring and training homeless mothers to make the coats.

Veronika Scott, CEO of The Empowerment Plan

Her class project expanded into a non-profit organization called The Empowerment Plan. By making coats, the Plan brings women out of poverty, helping them build a better life and regain their independence. In 2012 she became the youngest person ever to receive the JFK New Frontier Award, and she earned it the old-fashioned way, by dedication and hard work.

"I didn't know how to sew, and my mother taught me as we sat upstairs in my grandmother's house using her home sewing machine," she remembered. "I seam-ripped five wool coats to make a Frankenstein-like monstrosity of a jacket. It turned out awful, smelled funny and weighed 20 pounds, but I was proud of it." Her homeless friends told her it looked like a body bag, so she made three more prototypes to get a good grade in class. By the end of the project, she was known on the streets as The Coat Lady and many homeless asked for coats. She wondered, "why on earth would they want something that was a school project? I'm just a student. It was just for a grade."  But it became much more than that.

One of her first employees was a homeless Mom named Elisha. After sewing coats for Scott for three months, Elisha used her modest salary to leave the shelter and get an apartment and furniture. Her three kids enrolled in a charter school. Scott now employs 15 mothers who are or were homeless. If you have five spare minutes to hear Veronika tell her story, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=he3oPyKpw5w

Children understand Halloween

Emily and Richie Bolusky live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They love Halloween. But they know that the Halloween costumes kids love to wear can be expensive. A few years ago, a child showed up on their doorstep trick-or-treating without a costume. She said her parents could not afford one.

That gave the Bolusky's 9-year-old daughter an idea. She quickly got an old costume she wanted to give away to the girl. And the rest is history. In 2016 the family set up a free costume shop in their driveway, where any kid could pick up a costume for free. They gave out about 150 costumes that year, including some they bought and some that were donated. Last year they gave away about 175 costumes, and this year they have FIVE HUNDRED available.

The most unpromising boy of the whole lot

Much is said today about dangerous immigrants. But few remember that, following a wave of immigration, New York City in the 1800's had thousands of orphaned children called "street urchins." They begged for food to survive. A few lived at the Children's Aid Society Orphanage, but founder Charles Brace felt kids need families, not orphanages, so he organized the orphan trains. Between 1854 and 1929, about 120,000 abandoned children were given a set of new clothes and sent on trains to rural towns in the south and midwest for adoption by farm families. Upon arrival at each town, they were lined up for inspection. If an adult wanted a child and the child agreed, the deal was done. Most farmers preferred boys who could be raised as farmhands. Girls were last to be chosen, since many farm wives felt threatened by them. Most adoptees picked well-groomed, polite children, but not Judge John Green. He picked John Brady. Perhaps he remembered the Bible verse where God reminds the prophet Samuel, "...I do not judge as people judge. They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart." (I Sam. 16:7)

John Brady was an Irish Catholic boy who had lived on the streets of NY to avoid his father's drunken beatings. When he turned 11, he declared himself an orphan and boarded an orphan train bound for Indiana. After it arrived in Noblesville, he and fellow-orphans were fed at the Ferguson Hotel and put on display for possible adoption.

"It was the most motley crowd of youngsters I ever did see," said Judge Green, who lived in the nearby town of Tipton. "I decided to take John home with me because I felt he was the homeliest, toughest and most unpromising  boy in the whole lot. I wanted to see what could be done with such a specimen of humanity." What was done?

John grew into a fine young man, respected by everyone. After high school, he was appointed master of the Mud Creek Public School in Sharpesville.  Eventually he continued his education, graduating from Yale University in 1874. He moved to Alaska, where in 1878 he founded a college to train Eskimos. He then served three terms as Governor of Alaska, all because Judge Green picked him instead of a "more promising" orphan.

Pranking it forward

Pranking it forward is an organization which surprises unsuspecting but very deserving people with amazing good news. If you have five minutes, turn up your sound and watch the video about a recent prank. Remember that many of the "customers" in the restaurant are actors, but the waitress does not know that. Here's the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTtRdHbl0CU

When a bride looks like a princess

A couple named Caleb and Olivia Spark got married recently near Buffalo, New York. While they were being photographed in a nearby park, a five-year-old girl with autism saw Olivia in her dress and ran up to her, because she thought she was Cinderella. The child's name is Layla Lester, and her mom says she's not usually comfortable around strangers, but she loves princesses.

They talked a while, and Olivia played the part of Cinderella. She said she was thrilled that someone thought she looked like a princess on her wedding day. The wedding photographer got a few shots of them, but nobody got the name of Layla's mom. So Olivia and her family posted the photo online, hoping she'd see it, and she did. Then the photo went viral. Someone who saw the story started a GoFundMe page to send Layla to Disney World, so she can meet more Disney princesses. It's already raised over $11,000.

Cops and donuts?

A Krispy Kreme van was reported stolen recently in Lake City, Florida. Police found it a few hours later, about 200 miles from Clearwater, Florida. They called the store manager, since the van was still loaded with dozens of fresh donuts. But they would have been stale by the time he got them back. So the manager told police to keep them.

Instead of eating them, the police decided to give them to the homeless. Yes, they held back a few for themselves, but they have a daily event next to the police station where they hand out food. So they made the next day DONUT DAY, and had people line up behind the van until all the donuts were gone.