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Free Hugs of Juan Mann (14130 views, 2.0675 rating, 1707 votes) Juan Mann started spreading smiles one person at a time, by offering hugs. A music video posted on You Tube shows Juan on the streets of Sydney wearing a sign that says "Free Hugs." Watch the smiles grow, followed by a ban, followed by a successful petition campaign to restore his simple gesture of caring. One short video later, Juan has shot to fame and is spreading smiles to thousands now. He was recently featured on Good Morning America TV show, all proof that One Man (in this case Juan Mann) can change the world!... |
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Oil Spill and Seventeen Years of Silence (1672 views, 2.0175 rating, 802 votes) After seeing the massive pollution of a 1971 oil spill in San Francisco Bay, John Francis started walking. He gave up all motorized transportation and for 22 years went everywhere on foot, including treks across the United States and parts of South America. He hoped to inspire others to drop out of the petroleum economy. Walking was followed by silence. Francis, the son of working-class African-American parents in Philadelphia, stopped speaking and communicated through improvised sign language, notes and his banjo. The environmental pilgrim says his silence was a gift to his community. "Because, man, I just argued all the time," he says. His silence helped him listen to others and the larger world around him, both of which transformed his approach to personal communication and activism.... |
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Peace Walker (2343 views, 1.9735 rating, 724 votes) After his brother Brian was killed in Iraq, Ray began a peace walk across the United Kingdom. He explains to Jean that his inspiration was a woman named Peace Pilgrim who spent 28 years walking for peace.... |
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Maisie's Six Million Cans (7565 views, 1.9852 rating, 1395 votes) Maisie DeVore, a senior citizen of Eskridge, Kansas, spent 30 years single-handedly raising enough money to build a community swimming pool. Each week, she would drive the back roads and gather aluminum cans and deliver them to a recycling facility. Can by can, year after year, she raised the necessary $100,000. Says Maisie, "If you get involved, you can do more than you thought you could."... |
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Sam Williams (1162 views, 2.0807 rating, 445 votes) Sam Williams of Raleigh, North Carolina, turned a shattered life of drug and alcohol abuse around and now provides counseling to others. "I try to be that person who is not going to run away" from someone with problems, he says.... |
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Linda Gregory (1045 views, 1.9512 rating, 456 votes) Linda Gregory's husband, a deputy sheriff in Orlando, Florida, was killed in a shootout by a person with mental illness. Determined not to let the death be in vain, Linda has worked to get more help for the mentally ill as well as better training for police in handling them. "There is good coming from it," she now says of her personal tragedy... |
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Tomas Gutierrez (1049 views, 2.0394 rating, 483 votes) Tom Gutierrez figures he walks more than seven miles a day through the halls and grounds of a high school in Corpus Christie, Texas where he volunteers as hall monitor, mentor and father figure to many of the school's young students.... |
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Patrick Dickerson (1159 views, 2.0617 rating, 454 votes) Patrick Dickerson volunteers in a local high school, helping involve students in a range of activities with the ultimate goal of trying to help as many as possible catch the "volunteer bug."... |
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Jessie Hips (1010 views, 2.0397 rating, 431 votes) Jessie Hips works with junior high and high school students in a program called Project Seed that allows kids to present research findings to members of the scientific community. Speaking of his efforts, Jessie says, "If you're not giving yourself away, you really haven't been born yet."... |
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Emily Douglas (1409 views, 2.0314 rating, 768 votes) Emily Douglas, as a high school senior, has delivered over 70,000 books and tons of clothing and toys to the children of Appalachia in Ohio. Emily's "Grandma's Gifts" program is proof, she says, that "anybody can make a difference who wants to."... |
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Father Gets A Surprise Car (1186 views, 1.9710 rating, 558 votes) A rebuilt classic American car becomes the vehicle for a son to thank his father for years of of devotion to his family. "He's completely selfless," explains the son, who surprises his dad at work with this special gesture of gratitude, which he tops with a big red bow.... |
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Slam Poetry on Teachers (8301 views, 1.9978 rating, 1499 votes) Taylor Mali uses his standup comic routine to praise the value of teachers. Referencing the American preoccupation with what a person "makes," Mali describes a litany of the things he -- as a teacher himself -- "makes." He concludes with the most important of all: "A difference." ... |
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What is Your Tree? (4689 views, 2.0115 rating, 793 votes) Julia Butterfly Hill, famous for living in an ancient Redwood tree for two years to prevent its being cut down, asks: "What is your tree?" What in your life calls for you to be bigger than you thought possible? ... |
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Johnny the Bagger (63547 views, 1.9786 rating, 1877 votes) Down Syndrome occurs in one out of every 750 births in the United States; while those with Down Syndrome may be physically challenged, they often serve deep lessons for society. Take the case of Johnny the Bagger--an unforgettable story about a young man who changes the culture of a grocery store by being creative and giving the customers more than they expect.... |
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Natalie Jeremijenko's Floating Clinic (2870 views, 1.8867 rating, 602 votes) Natalie Jeremijenko -- an artist working at the intersection of contemporary art, science and engineering, and named one of the Top 100 Innovators by the MIT Technology Review -- holds office hours on the East River of New York City. Yes, ON the river: her environmental health clinic, a floating desk and research station, is built out of recycled soda bottles -- and a conviction that environmental health ills are best investigated as close to their source as possible. Visitors come away "not with a prescription for pharmaceuticals but for actions," notes Jeremijenko.... |
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Cell Phone Salesman Sings His Heart Out (8267 views, 1.9628 rating, 927 votes) He was an unlikely opera singer: Paul Potts was a cell phone salesman in South Wales who confessed that summoning self-confidence was "always difficult." But his dream was to one day become an opera singer, and with this is persevered. "My dream is to spend my life doing what I was born to do," Paul said simply. Watch him defy expectations on a June 2007 episode of "Britain's Got Talent" --and in the course earn a standing ovation from an audience of over two thousand.... |
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Four Fingered Pianist (18316 views, 1.8826 rating, 1268 votes) Born with only four fingers and no legs below the knee, 20 year old Hee-ah Lee is an inspiration to all who know her. Although she began playing the piano at age 7 for therapeutical purposes, she has now become a concert pianist! Disfigured since birth, her mother cared for her as if she were perfect and today, she eats, walks and uses the adjusted piano pedals on her own. "You play with your heart and head--not your fingers," Hee-ah says.... |
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Kaziah The Goat Woman (5581 views, 2.0416 rating, 581 votes) On her countryside farm in Salt Lake City, Kazaih raises goats. And paints. "I paint people I can relate to and the wildlife and countryside I love," 58 year old says. In 2002, Kaziah sent a note to a Gloria Johnson to see if she could do a portrait of her son, an Army private who died in an ambush in Iraq. Gloria agreed, and Kaziah's portrait moved her to tears! Kaziah continued her humanitarian experiment -- without taking any political sides -- and today, more than 200 portraits later, she's still at it. Oh, and she doesn't sell her art; she gifts it!... |
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Story of Ryan's Well (4687 views, 2.0460 rating, 747 votes) Ryan was just six years old when he learnt that not everybody in the world has access to clean water. Desperate to help, he worked day and night to save enough money for a well to be dug in drought-stricken Uganda. His ambition soon grew and his altruistic nature dragged schoolmates and ultimately most of Canada with him. An uplifting and wonderfully touching story that reminds us all that we can change the world if we really believe.... |
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Post Secret (4384 views, 2.0471 rating, 489 votes) Three years ago, as a kind of experimental community art project, Frank Warren handed self-addressed 4 x 6" postcards to 3000 strangers and asked them to mail him back a secret -- anonymously. After receiving about 100 responses, he figured his project was complete. "But the idea spread in a viral way," Warren recounts. To date, the unassuming 42 year-old father has received over 100,000 artistic, enigmatic, and often very personal admissions -- as many as 200 a day. "We think we're keeping secrets," Warren suggests, "but the secrets are actually keeping us. With one courageous decision, you've freed a part of your life."... |
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Back in Life (4784 views, 2.1886 rating, 967 votes) Two years ago Zack Weinstein, a student at Skidmore College, broke his neck in a swimming accident. He is now a quadraplegic--an experience that's prompted a complete reinvestigation of once-everyday activities, from getting dressed in the morning, to participating in theatrical productions, to attending parties, to going on dates with his girlfriend. In service to other quadriplegics, Zack and Silas Hagerty, a close friend and filmmaker with Smoothfeather Productions, are pleased to present this intimate account. ... |
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A Dying Professor's Last Lecture (6987 views, 2.0717 rating, 733 votes) Top professors are often asked to give talks on the hypothetical theme: what wisdom would they impart to the world if it were their last chance to do so? Watching healthy teachers consider their demise and ruminate over subjects dear to them can make for an intriguing hour. But a recent speech by Dr. Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University was more than just an academic exercise. The 46-year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and is not expected to live longer than a few more months. His last lecture was a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.... |
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One Legged Salsa Dancer Wows Colombia (9551 views, 2.0176 rating, 561 votes) In Colombia, salsa dancers Reynaldo Ojeda and Claudia Lopez have become a YouTube phenomenon--and an inspiration. Why? Reynaldo uses one leg and a crutch. Wowing crowds on rooftops and dance clubs and at school assemblies, Reynaldo muses, "I'm no longer that disabled person, but a living example of self-improvement."... |
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One Light: Story by a 13-Year-Old (1678 views, 1.9500 rating, 442 votes) On returning from a three week course in international relations, 13-year-old Angad Singh set out to interview his neighbors in suburban Atlanta. Singh both wanted to learn more about them and share a bit of himself as a Sikh. He started by distributing 47 hand-made fliers to local community members. Then came ten interviews--and now, this inspired video 'One Light.'... |
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Choosing Life: The Story of Jim MacLaren (6346 views, 2.0190 rating, 759 votes) A 300-pound, 6-foot-5 All-American football player, Yale student and aspiring actor Jim MacLaren's life literally ended after he was hit by a 40,000-pound city bus in his early twenties. Pronounced dead at the accident scene, he awoke from a coma eight days later, his left leg missing below the knee. Fast-forward a few years. MacLaren, supported by a prosthetic leg, becomes the top amputee triathlete in the world, completing the grueling Ironman and setting a marathon record among amputees. In 1993, his athletic career comes to another cruelly abrupt halt when he is again struck, this time by a van during a triathlon. Doctors declare him a quadriplegic. But that didn't stop Jim either. "I am not my body," he says. "I am a man, and I am alive. As alive as anyone who is jamming a basketball, scoring a touchdown or hugging their child."... |
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The Invisible Revolution (3445 views, 1.9798 rating, 425 votes) "When we set out on our journey, the whole idea was to really chronicle what is emerging that is now invisible," explains Frances Moore Lappe of the travels she and and her daughter, Anna Lappe, made though five continents. Author of the landmark 1971 book "Diet for a Small Planet," Moore Lappe and daughter discovered that contrary to how we are often portrayed in the media, human beings are far more than "selfish accumulators." From Kenyan women planting trees to fight deforestation to landless families in Brazil building vibrant communities on otherwise idle land, "we met people," recalls Anna,"who showed us that what is is not what has to be." ... |
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Earthship Biotecture (1085 views, 1.9999 rating, 374 votes) Stand alone homes that make their own energy, harvest their own water and treat their own sewage are not only possible but happening thanks to Earthship Biotecture founder Michael Reynolds. Using only recycled materials, Reynolds' enterprise has built homes and even a handful of small communities. His goal: towns and eventually cities. ... |
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J-Mac: Shot of a Lifetime (13642 views, 1.8637 rating, 864 votes) Jason McElwain was an autistic, 5'6" 17 year-old senior and manager of his school's Greece Athena basketball team in Rochester, New York. On the final game of the season, his coach had him suit up--and what happened in the space of 240 seconds will make your heart soar. ... |
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Help With Singing The National Anthem (2181 views, 2.0546 rating, 388 votes) At an NBA game, young Natalie Gilbert was given the honor of singing the national anthem. But in forgetting the words, much to her embarrassment, she unintentionally elicited help from one of the coaches -- Mo Cheeks -- and eventually much of the crowd which joined in a rousing rendition of the anthem. ... |
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The Music of Possibility -- Patrick Hughes and His Father (4161 views, 2.0458 rating, 334 votes) Patrick Henry Hughes was born without eyes and with a tightening of the joints that would prevent his limbs from ever straightening. But at nine months he took to the piano, by age two he was playing requests, and now -- as a straight A undergrad majoring in Spanish at the University of Louisville -- he and his father function as a single member of the Cardinals marching band. "He's my hero," says his dad, who works the graveyard shift at UPS in order to spend as much time with his son as possible. "Imagine the possibilities I didn't know that I now know from hearing him play."... |
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