Dropout donates to college he could not afford

Nearly 60 years ago, Calvin E. Tyler, Jr. dropped out of college because he couldn't afford it. This month the same school Tyler once attended announced he had donated $20 million to increase a scholarship fund established in his name. He enrolled in what was then Morgan State College, a histoically Black college in Baltimore, in 1961, but left in 1963 due to lack of funding. He became a UPS driver.

He started out as one of the first ten UPS drivers in Baltimore, and worked himself up in the company, eventually becoming senior vice-president of operations, before he retired in 1998, but he never forgot where he started. He decided to donate $20 million, believed to be the most the school has ever received from an alum. "We want to hae more full-tuition scholarships offered to young people," he said, "so that they can graduate from college and enter the next stage of their life debt free."

A crumb from New Jersey to Texas

Cold weather is no big deal in New Jersey, but it certainly is in Texas.That's one of the reasons Andrew Mitchell, a New Jersey plumber, and his wife Kisha decided to make the 22-hour drive to Houston to help out during the recent horrific storms.

The couple heard that local plumbers were completely overwhelmed, so they brought along as many supplies as they could. As soon as they arrived, locals put them in touch with people in desperate need of plumbing services, and within days they had finished a dozen jobs. The need was so great that they decided to stay a full two weeks.

Man's best friend branches out

The temperature read minus 58 Fahrenheit on a Saskatchewan farm recently when a calf that couldn't wait decided to be born. Bonnie Potoroka had gone out to check on her pregnant heifer only to find the cow's newborn calf had arrived ahead of schedule and was already in danger from the elements.

"It just wasn't warm enough," she said. "A baby calf is wet when it's born, and she was already getting cold and her ears were starting to freeze, so I took her into the heated shop and that's where she stayed. She may have missed her mama, but along with the heater, the new calf also got an extremely warm reception from Potoroka's collie, Mickey. In fact, when the baby isn't in the barn with her mom, the pair are pretty much inseparable.

A college sport we all can play

This past January, two Ohio colleges began competing for bragging rights to a worthy cause, showing support for local restaurant workers financially hamstrung by the pandemic. First, an Xavier College alum left a $1,000 tip on a $54 bill at Zip's Cafe. His note read, "Please share this tip with all your employees as they work so hard and are dealing with COVID. Go Xavier!"

The next week, two anonymous University of Cincinnati fans left a $1,001 tip at the nearby Keystone Bar & Grill, along with a challenge. "Let's see how long we can keep this going. Bearcats up by 1!!" The game is not quite over yet, and so far this year's "Tipoff Bowl" has scored close to $34,000 for Cincinnati's resturant employees.

"The most unpromising boy of the whole lot"

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 families 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.

KFC serves chicken and love

 Jason Schweitzer first met Emilia when he was 5-years-old and his mom would stop at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Toronto, Canada, for a weekly meal. There was an almost instant rapport between the little boy and the sweet-natured worker who took a shine to him. He remembers, "She would always hook me up with some French fries. She was always very kind and very funny." Recently, Schweitzer grew concerned for Emilia's well-being during the pandemic, so he came up with a plan to honor the woman who'd been serving her own brand of KFC customer service to the community for almost fifty years.

In order to be sure that 70-year-old Emilia would have transportation, PPE, rent money and other necessities, as well as a financial cushion for the future, he set up a GoFundMe on her behalf, "so Emilia can continue being an amazing person." In a matter of days, donations totaling more than $25,000 flooded in, and were on target to reach the campaign's $30,000 goal. Schweitzer is extremely grateful.
 

She still hasn't stopped singing

 At the end of the Great War (WWI), Amy Hawkins was 7-years-old and loved to sing and dance. When she was a teenager she decided to be an entertainer, until her mom said it was not a respectable occupation for a young lady. Today, the supercentenarian chanteuse lives in Monmouth, South Wales, surrounded by her four generation family, including granddaughter Hannah Freeman, and Freeman's 14-year-old son Sacha. Even thought she no longer does it professionally, Hawkins has never stopped singing. 

"She's like a clock," says Freeman. "Once you wind her up, she won't stop. She just keeps asking, 'Would you like another one?'" On Hawkins' 110th birthday, Sacha videoed his great-gran singing one of her favorite WWI tunes, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." When Freeman jokingly suggested Sacha post it to TikTok, neither of them could have imagined the upbeat response it would receive, reaching 100,000 views and a bevy of emotional accolades in just days.