positive quotes

The Daily Positive: Metro-North crash passenger helps in aftermath

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After the deadly devastating crash with the Metro-North train, there was plenty of commotion and panic. One man shares his role and observations:

“People started to panic and were starting to run back toward the back of the second car,” Wallace said. “There was a tremendous amount of billowing smoke coming through at that point, we could see people moving, shapes moving around in the smoke, so we wanted very much to get in there to help people.”

Wallace, 44, a former Volunteer Ambulance Corps member, searched for a way off the disabled train, while calming fellow passengers.

James Wallace. Here’s a little something he did:

“I wanted to help people if they were injured, so I went up to the cemetery and found a couple of people there,” he said. “A broken leg and a woman with broken ribs and we were able to hang on until EMS arrived.”

Good job, James.

The Daily Positive: Man Shovels Nearly 20 Driveways for Free

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A young man decided to spend his time shoveling snow for people. He posted on Facebook that he was available to help. In the end, he helped clear out nearly 20 driveways among other things. He did this for free. Very nice of him.

 

The Daily Positive: Teen Raises Money to Buy Man A Car

be a light

Let me first start by saying that the news is awesome that the teen got the money and all of that. But, when you find out why this man needed a new car, you might just lose your mind…and be a little more thankful…

Robertson, 56, begins his day at 8am and doesn’t get home until 4am, after travelling most of his journey to and from work on foot. The factory worker can’t afford a new car on his $10.55 an hour salary, and has been making the massive trek every day for 10 years to keep a perfect attendance record.

Holy crap. He comes home, sleeps for a couple of hours, and does it all over again. Holy crap.

So, Evan Leedy decided to do something about it.

The student’s original goal was to crowdfund $5,000 for bus fare, but it quickly reached enough to purchase a vehicle. I initially set the goal for $5,000 just to get him something, bus fares and taxi rides,” Leedy said. “I went to go get ready and an hour later we had $2,000 donated already. Within four hours we had over $10,000. I bumped it up again and by the end of the day we had over $30,000.”

Soon after, car dealerships offered to give the man a free car. It’s a great story, but I love the quote from Robertson’s boss:

“I set our attendance standard by this man,” Todd Wilson, Robertson’s manager, told The Detroit Free Press. “I say, if this man can get here, walking all those miles through snow and rain, well I’ll tell you, I have people in Pontiac 10 minutes away and they say they can’t get here – bull!”

Welp!

There’s a fantastic image in the story of Robertson’s daily commute. Take a look at it. Thank God for public transportation!

The Daily Positive: Man Survives Getting Ran Over By Farming Equipment

good every day

 

This piece of news is somewhat gruesome and painful, but it’s worth a read! Our friend, Vander, was doing his usual farm work when:

After tripping over a corn stalk hidden beneath the snow, Vander Zwaag fell backward into a running power take-off, or PTO. The device, which sends power from a tractor into an attached piece of farming equipment, took hold of the farmer’s clothing and pulled him through the mechanism.

The force of spinning gears and rotating parts crushed and bruised much of the left side of Vander Zwaag’s body, before finally spitting him out onto a loosely-packed bed of snow. Having worn multiple layers of clothing in preparation for working in the cold, Vander Zwaag said his apparel wrapped around the PTO’s gears, finally stopping the machine from doing further damage.

Christ. Turns out he was on the ground nude. He couldn’t call for help if only because his cell phone was all messed up. His only chance was to get to his tractor. Here’s the damage:

Dealing with a concussion, a total of eight fractured ribs and vertebrae, a displaced hip, a broken femur, a ruptured spleen and a completely crushed left ankle, he reached out for the step he needed to climb to mount his tractor. Despite a nearly 2-foot gap from the ground, he eventually found himself at the tractor’s helm.

With all of that, he managed to find help. In the end, he seems to be pretty normal.

While he picked up the habit of using his right foot to operate the clutch, nearly everything else has returned to normal. With the help of his family, his faith and his community, Timothy Vander Zwaag only has one word to describe the last year’s series of events: a miracle.

The whole story is quite a read. I swear I didn’t do this on purpose but the quote at the top really goes with this story. Ha!

The Daily Positive: Man Stopped From Committing Suicide; Now Helps Others

thinking and steering

 

A 15 year old was ready to jump off a bridge.

“I had already climbed over the railing and I remember this person coming up behind me – this man and I didn’t see his face and I don’t really remember what we talked about but I remember he was wearing a light brown jacket and he was a little taller than me. He just talked to me. He didn’t try to solve all my problems or give me any magic solutions or anything, we just talked like any two people meeting on an overpass in Cape Breton.”

As it turned out, there was another person there that was encouraging the teen to jump. Anyway, Mark Henick’s life was saved by this stranger. Now:

That stranger made a huge difference to Henick, who has since devoted his life to helping others who may have mental health issues. Henick has the unique qualification of having survived mental illness.

“I extend a hand to someone who may need help now,” said Henick. “I know first hand just how effective that is.”

Lastly, Mark is trying to find this stranger, who saved him in 2002.

Now he wants to find that person so he can thank him. As part of the #BellLetsTalk initiative to get Canadians talking about mental health, Henick has spoken on Canada AM and has tweeted his desire to find this person.

It now looks as though this will actually happen – Henick said he had a credible lead that he hopes will lead him to the person.

“What if I find him, what will I say – I don’t know,” said Henick. “And I still don’t know. But here we are.”

Read the entire story to find out more about Mark’s charity and more stuff.

The Daily Positive: Sick Boy Sends Friend on Vacation

Welcome to The Daily Positive. This post is meant to provide a quick, positive boost to your day. Good News is the center of this post, and it will have other items like quotes, scripture, and other stuff I decide on.

Let’s start with a quote:

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For the good news

Let me set it up. So, Six year old Levi was sick enough that he qualified for a request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He used it on his best friend, Emma. She was by his side during his illness and he wanted…well, look…

To show his gratitude, Levi wished for Emma to take a special trip to Florida, “to visit the theme parks and see the ocean.” For the little Indiana girl who’d never been on a plane, the surprise vacation was truly the trip of a lifetime.

When Emma and her family went to Florida, they brought along a “Flat Levi” figure, which they included on all of their adventures. At their welcome home party, they gave Levi a scrapbook of photos from “Emma and Levi’s trip.”

Sometimes, when I’m doing research for stories, I run into stuff like this. These stories…ahem…get me a little…uh…emotional. You gotta hit the link and look at some of the photos.