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Ordinary people doing extraordinary things

Raising Heel

Raising Heel

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Aug 31, 2008
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A van down by the river
The presidential election news cycle is depressing. Let's talk about people doing cool things for personal achievement, helping others in need, or simply leaving the world a better place than they found it.

I'll start with a story I read last night. This man swam by riverboard nearly 2,000 miles down the Yukon River in Canada. Why? He wanted "a wonderful life experience." It wasn't about attention. He didn't even tell anybody but his family and close friends what he was attempting.

http://www.adn.com/outdoors-adventu...board-nearly-2000-miles-down-the-yukon-river/
 
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Great accomplishment, Mr. Denis Morin . . thats a tough way to lose 40 lbs.


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Raising Heel said:
The presidential election news cycle is depressing. Let's talk about people doing cool things for personal achievement, helping others in need, or simply leaving the world a better place than they found it.

I'll start with a story I read last night. This man swam by riverboard nearly 2,000 miles down the Yukon River in Canada. Why? He wanted "a wonderful life experience." It wasn't about attention. He didn't even tell anybody but his family and close friends what he was attempting.

http://www.adn.com/outdoors-adventu...board-nearly-2000-miles-down-the-yukon-river/
Click to expand...

Now this is a great thread to start. Thank you. I will post a story later. Gotta start din-din ;)
 
Here's another story in a similar vein. "The Great Alone" is a documentary on Netflix about a man who overcame cancer to race in the Iditarod. Very interesting look into the subculture of dog racing -- as if Alaska itself isn't weird enough -- and a heckuva comeback story. Here's the trailer:

 
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chick_bleeds_carolina_blue said:
This story really touched me. It is about forgiveness. I know it is hard because a man murdered my aunt about 27 years ago and forgiving this man was difficult but freeing for me. I didn't want to carry that anger with me forever. This woman went beyond forgiveness though and changed this man's life.

http://www.rd.com/true-stories/inspiring/how-i-forgave-my-husbands-killer/
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Wow. There's a lot of pain in that story. What an incredible tale of redemption, though. The killer's quote says it all: “Your family’s forgiveness saved my life.”
 
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TarHeelNation11 said:
This is an amazing story....

Woman supports head and neck of child, who had suffered 'internal decapitation,' until paramedics arrived.
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To reach Killian, her husband broke a window of the Gonzalez vehicle, then squeezed through, cutting himself on the glass. He then told his wife to hold the child upright, keeping his head steady, until help came.

“My first instinct would have been to cradle the little guy, but clearly that would have been the wrong choice,” Ms. Woodward said....

Dr. Theodore ... said: “You don’t ever want to move an injury patient unless a car is on fire. Immobilizing a child is exactly what you want to do.”

Important note about not moving injured patients. Many people don't know that. I was holding my breath for most of that story.

ETA: Okay, so of course I had to find out what happened to this boy and his mother. Shockingly, they were able to simply immobilize his head with neck braces and reset his arm without surgery. Looks like he was in neck braces -- which had to be changed every few hours to vary the pressure points -- for two or three months. His eyes were crossed after the accident but apparently that's common and they will revert to normal soon.

11858693_1469942778.0512_updates.jpg


His mom arguably took the worst of it. There are some gory pictures on their gofundme page of her surgeries: both arms and her left leg were broken. But she seems to be doing well now and recently entered physical therapy. This quote from one of her updates is pretty hilarious:

"So we found one of the guys that helped the day of the accident. I'm very excited to meet him while I'm not dying."
 
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Raising Heel said:
To reach Killian, her husband broke a window of the Gonzalez vehicle, then squeezed through, cutting himself on the glass. He then told his wife to hold the child upright, keeping his head steady, until help came.

“My first instinct would have been to cradle the little guy, but clearly that would have been the wrong choice,” Ms. Woodward said....

Dr. Theodore ... said: “You don’t ever want to move an injury patient unless a car is on fire. Immobilizing a child is exactly what you want to do.”

Important note about not moving injured patients. Many people don't know that. I was holding my breath for most of that story.
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I had an advantage that my brother had already told me about the story before I googled to find it. But yes, very scary.....and I totally related when she said she was glad she didn't know the extent of his injuries until after the fact.

This quote from the child, if true, is amazing and heart-breaking:

His eyes rolled around in his head, or flashed in fear, she recalled. At one point, she said, he spoke: “I don’t hurt anymore. I am all done.”
 
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This was actually a very simple gesture, not an extraordinary one, but powerful nonetheless. From the mother of an autistic boy, poasted on Facebook yesterday:

I do remember middle school being scary, and hard. Now that I have a child starting middle school, I have feelings of anxiety for him, and they can be overwhelming if I let them. Sometimes I'm grateful for his autism. That may sound like a terrible thing to say, but in some ways I think, I hope, it shields him. He doesn't seem to notice when people stare at him when he flaps his hands. He doesn't seem to notice that he doesn't get invited to birthday parties anymore. And he doesn't seem to mind if he eats lunch alone. It's one of my daily questions for him. Was there a time today you felt sad? Who did you eat lunch with today? Sometimes the answer is a classmate, but most days it's nobody. Those are the days I feel sad for him, but he doesn't seem to mind. He is a super sweet child, who always has a smile and hug for everyone he meets.

A friend of mine sent this beautiful picture to me today and when I saw it with the caption "Travis Rudolph is eating lunch with your son" I replied "who is that?" He said "FSU football player", then I had tears streaming down my face. Travis Rudolph, a wide receiver at Florida State, and several other FSU players visited my sons school today. I'm not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I'm happy to say that it will not soon be forgotten. This is one day I didn't have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes. Travis Rudolph thank you so much, you made this momma exceedingly happy, and have made us fans for life! #travisrudolph #gonoles #autismmom #fansforlife

travis-rudolph-fb-ftr_yddi90pg6g51r3zku1bs7xgm.jpg
 
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Raising Heel said:
This was actually a very simple gesture, not an extraordinary one, but powerful nonetheless. From the mother of an autistic boy, poasted on Facebook yesterday:

I do remember middle school being scary, and hard. Now that I have a child starting middle school, I have feelings of anxiety for him, and they can be overwhelming if I let them. Sometimes I'm grateful for his autism. That may sound like a terrible thing to say, but in some ways I think, I hope, it shields him. He doesn't seem to notice when people stare at him when he flaps his hands. He doesn't seem to notice that he doesn't get invited to birthday parties anymore. And he doesn't seem to mind if he eats lunch alone. It's one of my daily questions for him. Was there a time today you felt sad? Who did you eat lunch with today? Sometimes the answer is a classmate, but most days it's nobody. Those are the days I feel sad for him, but he doesn't seem to mind. He is a super sweet child, who always has a smile and hug for everyone he meets.

A friend of mine sent this beautiful picture to me today and when I saw it with the caption "Travis Rudolph is eating lunch with your son" I replied "who is that?" He said "FSU football player", then I had tears streaming down my face. Travis Rudolph, a wide receiver at Florida State, and several other FSU players visited my sons school today. I'm not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I'm happy to say that it will not soon be forgotten. This is one day I didn't have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes. Travis Rudolph thank you so much, you made this momma exceedingly happy, and have made us fans for life! #travisrudolph #gonoles #autismmom #fansforlife

travis-rudolph-fb-ftr_yddi90pg6g51r3zku1bs7xgm.jpg
Click to expand...
http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...h-makes-fans-life-eating-lunch-autistic-child
 
Raising Heel said:
This was actually a very simple gesture, not an extraordinary one, but powerful nonetheless. From the mother of an autistic boy, poasted on Facebook yesterday:

I do remember middle school being scary, and hard. Now that I have a child starting middle school, I have feelings of anxiety for him, and they can be overwhelming if I let them. Sometimes I'm grateful for his autism. That may sound like a terrible thing to say, but in some ways I think, I hope, it shields him. He doesn't seem to notice when people stare at him when he flaps his hands. He doesn't seem to notice that he doesn't get invited to birthday parties anymore. And he doesn't seem to mind if he eats lunch alone. It's one of my daily questions for him. Was there a time today you felt sad? Who did you eat lunch with today? Sometimes the answer is a classmate, but most days it's nobody. Those are the days I feel sad for him, but he doesn't seem to mind. He is a super sweet child, who always has a smile and hug for everyone he meets.

A friend of mine sent this beautiful picture to me today and when I saw it with the caption "Travis Rudolph is eating lunch with your son" I replied "who is that?" He said "FSU football player", then I had tears streaming down my face. Travis Rudolph, a wide receiver at Florida State, and several other FSU players visited my sons school today. I'm not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I'm happy to say that it will not soon be forgotten. This is one day I didn't have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes. Travis Rudolph thank you so much, you made this momma exceedingly happy, and have made us fans for life! #travisrudolph #gonoles #autismmom #fansforlife

travis-rudolph-fb-ftr_yddi90pg6g51r3zku1bs7xgm.jpg
Click to expand...

Didn't see this until today. It happens to be Rudolph's 21st bday - happy birthday to an upstanding gentleman.
 
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Taylor Richardson, a 13-year-old from Florida who wants to become an astronaut herself, launched a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of sending 100 girls to see the movie Hidden Figures at Jacksonville, Fla., theater. As of this writing, her campaign has raised $12,107 even though the initial goal was only $2,600.

Click the link above to read about her inspiration for the campaign.
 
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This is in the same vein as some other travel stories I've poasted. It's the story of a 27-year old woman who made a solo trek across the Australian outback in 1977 with just her dog and four wild camels that she domesticated and trained. It took her nine months to travel from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean.

http://proof.nationalgeographic.com...cks-from-australian-outback-to-silver-screen/

She eventually published a book about her journey called Tracks, which was later adapted into a movie. It's available on Netflix right now. I watched it a couple weeks ago and it's really interesting if you like that kind of thing.
 
Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate for any cancer, which has remained unchanged for 40 years. It is symptomless in its early stages and strikes more than 8,000 people a year in the UK and 45,000 in the US. Four in five patients are inoperable by the time they are diagnosed and fewer than four in 100 live for five years.

A 15-year old boy was able to develop a test for pancreatic cancer similar to a diabetic strip that's "168 times faster than the existing, inaccurate method of measuring serum tumour markers, more sensitive and, at 5 cents each, cheap."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ised-by-15-year-old-jack-andraka-8604473.html
 
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's another travel adventure, this time about a Brit who took two years to ride around the world on a motorcycle. I only stumbled across this story because his trip began in Florida and included Sanibel Island.

I read through the first few entries, enough to learn about him falling over a ledge after his bike tipped over in a remote part of the Smoky Mountains. He had to be air-lifted to Knoxville. Fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken hand kept him from traveling for a couple months.

Anyway, this is a pretty cool site with his travels organized into countries/regions. Dude was basically all over Mongolia. Most the entries are relatively short and include lots of beautiful photographs from all around the world. Fascinating stuff.

https://cnbworldtour.wordpress.com/author/cnbworldtour/

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This is an incredible story. A man hiking alone on California's Mount Whitney fell from the trail and suffered a concussion and hypothermia. He was lying collapsed at the bottom of a snowy cliff and in serious need of medical attention. As luck would have it, he was spotted by another hiker who not only happened to be a physician, but who had also completed a wilderness and disaster medicine training course at UPenn.

The 14-day course, developed by Peter Sananman, MD, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, uses the principles of wilderness and disaster medicine to teach skills that are rarely covered in a traditional medical school curriculum but are incredibly valuable across many settings.

“I think what is really unique about our program at Penn is that it came about because the students requested it—they were the ones to recognize how important this type of training would be for their careers.”

Students spend the first week of the course developing survival skills and technical expertise including learning to treat conditions such as snake bites and hypothermia as well as how construct shelters, build fires, and create warmth using simple tools such as candles and plastic bags.

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2016/july/medicine-at-12000-feet-wildern
 
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India Man Plants Forest Bigger Than Central Park to Save His Island

Since 1979, Jadav Payeng has been planting hundreds of trees on an Indian island threatened by erosion. Today, Payeng’s forest measures 1,400 acres, a remarkable accomplishment that dwarfs Central Park’s 843 acres. Rhinoceroses, deer, tigers, and as many as 115 elephants have moved in to the dense forest. Vultures have also returned to the area for the first time in 40 years.

In this film, photographer Jitu Kalita traverses Payeng’s home—the largest river island in the world—and reveals the touching story of how this modern-day Johnny Appleseed turned an eroding desert into a wondrous oasis.

(Not sure if the video below shows up for you. If not, try this link.)

 
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Family Who Won $429 Million Lottery Aims To Use Money To Fight Poverty

The family of eight -- matriarch Pearlie Mae Smith and her seven adult children -- didn't throw away their winnings on expensive new houses or luxury sports cars or write checks willy-nilly to the dozens of long-lost friends and relatives who came out of the woodwork....

Arthur said the importance of giving back was a lesson they learned at a young age, from starting a garden in their backyard for the community's use to volunteering at the soup kitchen.

Harold Smith, Arthur's nephew and the foundation's program manager, said that rather than simply giving away money to anyone who asks, they see themselves as investing in organizations and programs that will bring about long-term change in categories like education, neighborhood development and youth and families.
 
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Raising Heel said:
Family Who Won $429 Million Lottery Aims To Use Money To Fight Poverty

The family of eight -- matriarch Pearlie Mae Smith and her seven adult children -- didn't throw away their winnings on expensive new houses or luxury sports cars or write checks willy-nilly to the dozens of long-lost friends and relatives who came out of the woodwork....

Arthur said the importance of giving back was a lesson they learned at a young age, from starting a garden in their backyard for the community's use to volunteering at the soup kitchen.

Harold Smith, Arthur's nephew and the foundation's program manager, said that rather than simply giving away money to anyone who asks, they see themselves as investing in organizations and programs that will bring about long-term change in categories like education, neighborhood development and youth and families.
Click to expand...
Should we tell them about the OOTBrothers Helping Brothers program?
 
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