Another police "incident" worth noting

Recently in Riverside County, California, sheriff's Deputy Cody Ballard and his partner were  called to the Red Lion Inn because an employee was concerned about a woman sitting on a bench outside the hotel. The woman and her 4-year-old daughter had missed their bus, and planned to sleep on the bench overnight until they could catch the next bus to San Diego in the morning.

Ballard went to a local motel, negotiated the lowest room rate, and dug into his own pocket to pay for a night's stay for them. He wasn't expecting his partner to take this photo. He prefers to obey one of his favorite Bible verses, which (in some translations) says, "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets." Perhaps the picture spread far and wide because Ballard is white, and the woman and her child are Black, but he says this difference never crossed his mind.

No student went hungry

An award-winning "hero" teacher in England spends each day preparing food for his students. So far, he's delivered 7,500 packed lunches. Zane Powles, who works for Western Primary School in the seaport of Grimsby, feared students might miss lunch while classes were cancelled during the pandemic. So he prepared 85 lunches each morning and walked 7.5 miles each day, making his rounds for 17 weeks in North East Lincolnshire.

The 48-year-old estimates that he carried roughly four tons of food during that time, but says it was "well worth it" after seeing the smiles on the kids' faces. He delivered lunches because "I needed to know if they were safe, if the kids were healthy, and if they had access to food."

A promise is a promise

Back in 1992, Tom Cook and Joe Feeney shook hands on a pact. If either of them every won the lottery, they'd split the winnings. It's not like it would ever happen, right? Wrong. Twenty-eight years later, Tom won a $22 million jackpot, and sure enough, the Elk Mound, Wisconsin, man called his old fishing buddy Joe to share the news.

At first, Joe didn't believe Tom had won. He asked, "Are you jerking my bobber?" The two used their joint windfall to comfortably retire, and even took a couples road trip with their wives to celebrate. If that's not friendship, we don't know what is.

Here comes the bridal gown

Brides Across America (BAA) donates wedding gowns to military couples or first responders who are planning a wedding. But since medical professionals are now risking their lives because of the pandemic, the organization decided they also qualify as heroes and deserve free wedding gowns.

Every year since 2008, BAA has donated around 2,000 wedding dresses, totaling 25,000 gowns over their history. "The girls are so happy," says BAA's founder, Heidi Janson. "They're like, 'I'm working and I'm planning a wedding. I really don't have time to find a dress.' And they can't believe it's free."

Another incredible lottery story

When Shetara Sims won $100 on a lottery ticket, she was down to her last seven dollars. But her 12-year-old daughter Rakiya suggested donated the winnings to the family of a Kansas City police officer who had been wounded in the line of duty. Sims agreed with her daughter, and made her $100 donation anonymously.

But word soon spread through the police department. One they learned her identity, officers started a GoFundMe campaign for Sims, Hundreds of people who heard the story reached out and so far they've raised $59,000. Sims and her family also met the coworkers of the injured officer, who is still hospitalized.

The children were the real heroes

It happened recently in a poor, immigrant section of Grenoble, France. A third floor apartment caught fire. Passers-by ran up the stairs and tried to open the apartment door, but could not. As they returned to the street below, they saw two children at the window. Six of the men held hands and yelled at the kids to jump.

The boys were three and 10 years old. In this photo, the older boy holds his younger brother by his t-shirt, before dropping him. When he saw his brother was safely caught, the ten-year-old thought, "Either I jump or I die," so he jumped, and was caught by waiting arms nearly 40 feet below. Some of the catcher's arms and wrists were broken, but the boys are okay. Said one rescuer, "We saved their lives, but they were the brave ones. They were the heroes."

She was determined to see her husband again

Mary Daniel just took a part-time job on the cleaning crew at an assisted-living facility. Its not that she needed the money, but it was the only way she could see her husband Steve Daniel, 66, who has early-onset Alzheimer's disease and is a resident at RoseCastle at Deerwood in Jacksonville, Florida. She works two days a week, scrubbing dishes, mopping floors and cleaning the grill. Afterward she spends several hours with her husband.

After not seeing her husband for more than three months, being with him again has been "just amazing," she said through tears. "It didn't matter what I had to do to get there," she added. "I was willing to do whatever it took to fulfill my promise that I was going to be there for him every step of the way"