Caine's Cardboard Arcade

Inspirational Speech Given By Bike-Riding Kid

The ending is my favorite part:

PS - Sorry for letting this blog languish. I've been very busy lately.

Video of Baby Hearing for the First Time

This just makes me happy in so many ways - the baby's expression is just priceless.

From Guy Kawasaki's blog:

For the first eight months of his life, baby Jonathan had never heard the sound of his mom’s voice, but a cochlear implant changed all that. Jonathan’s dad captured the touching moment on video:

Boy With Cancer Granted Wish to Turn into Superhero for a Day

Stories like this make me so grateful for organizations such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Thursday was shaping up to be just another school day for 13-year-old Erik Martin, but then something extraordinary happened: Spider-Man called.

Spider-Man happens to be one of the few people who knows that Erik, too, has a secret identity — he's Electron Boy, a superhero who fights the powers of evil with light.

And Spider-Man needed Erik's help.

Erik, who is living with liver cancer, has always wanted to be a superhero. On Thursday, the regional chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted him that wish with an elaborate event that involved hundreds of volunteers in Bellevue and Seattle.

> Read the full story (The Seattle Times)

Watch a video:



Related Sublime Goodness Posts:

• Girl Gets Dying Wish Granted from Pixar to See "Up"
• Snowy Surprise for Toddler
• University Student Gets Anonymous $16,000 Check for Tuition

*Thanks to my friend Stacy for the tip on this story.

Dad Rescues 2 Year-Old Daughter After She Falls in River

As a father this story both scares the bejesus out of me and makes me happy at the same time.

A California dad dived into the frigid East River and rescued his 2-year-old daughter Saturday after she plunged 20 feet from a historic boat docked at the South Street Seaport.

Witnesses heard a splash, then a terrifying scream.

A moment later, the father, David Anderson, was racing down the deck of the four-masted Peking ship, emptying his pockets along the way.

"He jumped in like a scene out of a movie," said Eric Stringer, 34. "He was pulling things out of his pockets as he was running down the steps. He didn't hesitate."

Once he reached the pier, the frantic father flicked off his shoes and bolted over a fence. Witnesses said he then gazed into the water. His daughter, identified by sources as Bridgette Sheriden, was below the surface.

"He jumped in feet first like a pin," said Stringer, a freelance TV producer from Hicksville, L.I. "He went all the way under, and when he came up, he had her in his arms.

"She was motionless, at first. It was a couple of seconds, and then she started crying."

The crowd of onlookers gasped in relief. (NY Daily News)

> Read the Full Story & Watch a Video Recap

* Thanks to Greatdad.com for the tip on this story.

Related Sublime Goodness Posts:

• Top 10 "Happiest Endings" of the Last Decade
• 5-Year-Old Daughter Climbs Ravine to Save Mother
• 8 Year-Old Girl Saves Self, Grandmother by Taking Wheel
• Fireman Dresses as Spider-Man to Rescue Boy
• Toddler Caught by Two Men After 40-Foot Fall from Window

Help Ardita = the Power of One

I came across this story in Madison's free alt-weekly and it's pretty amazing. I hope you are touched by it too and are inspired to take action. It's truly a story about the "power of one - one community, one family and one little girl."

Ardita Bilalli has been called a miracle child. After her premature birth, in war-torn Kosovo, she came to the United States in 2001 seeking medical treatment for a spinal condition. She was two years old.

After receiving treatment in Chicago, Ardita came to Madison; she's attended Elvehjem Elementary since early childhood. Now age 10 and in the fifth grade, Ardita suffers from spina bifida, among other serious health problems. She uses a wheelchair and is often in pain.

"I've cried a lot, and it's been hard," says Ardita, who over the years has had nine major operations. "There have been many surgeries, but it's fun here, and I've been with some really nice people."

Now Ardita faces what could be her toughest challenge. At the end of the current school year, she must return to Kosovo, where her future is less secure. She and her mother, Shemsije, have twice extended their visas to allow for Ardita's continual medical care, but have been denied further refuge in the U.S. They worry that Ardita may not be able to get the medications and care she needs in Kosovo.

"I just wish she could get the documents to stay," says Shemsije. "I wish there was another way."

Ardita and her mother came to Chicago in 2001 with the help of a Madison-based uncle, Gani Ahmetaj. He arranged for her to receive treatment at Shriners Hospital. Ardita's father, Sami, has remained in Kosovo, having been denied permission to leave. Says Shemsije, "My husband has tried to come and hasn't been able to."

While Ardita looks forward to reuniting with her father, the village in Kosovo to which she's scheduled to return in June has spotty electricity and unsafe water, which may exacerbate her medical conditions.

But there may be a glimmer of hope. Ardita has won the hearts of her classmates in Madison, and a group of concerned moms at Elvehjem Elementary School are taking up her cause. They have contacted lawyers and international experts and are now raising funds to ensure that Ardita has a fighting chance when she heads home.

> Read more about Ardita and this story here (The Isthmus)

Want to do something? Visit helpardita.com to learn more and/or you can also send money to:

Help Ardita Fund
Associated Bank
608-259-4275
4407 Cottage Grove Rd.
Madison, WI 53716

7-Year-Old Organizes to Help Homeless for the Holidays

I wish I was this empathetic and resourceful when I was a kid:

Over the holidays, when 7-year-old Jonathan Slack saw a destitute woman in Chicago with a sign that said she had no place to live, he was moved to tears—and then to action. He wrote a letter to his community of Orland Park, Ill., asking residents to help the homeless, distributing photocopies around the neighborhood. Within 10 days, Jonathan’s neighbors responded with four trucks of food and toys, which he sent to Chicago’s Su Casa Catholic Worker homeless shelter. “I’d like to think it was divine intervention,” said his mother. (from The Week)

Four trucks. Did I mention he's 7? Also, I lived right next to Orland Park for many years when I was younger so that part made me happy too.

> Read more about Jonathan's story here

Related Sublime Goodness Posts:

• Homeless Teen Headed to Harvard
• 11 Year-Old Boy Works to Fight Homelessness
• Youth No Obstacle for this Volunteer
• Boy Asks Friends for Food, Not Toys on Birthday

Girl Gets Dying Wish Granted from Pixar to See "Up"

I was tipped off to this amazing story at work today and it got me pretty choked up, as well as a few people I subsequently sent it to. Such a heartbreaking event.

My heart goes out to Colby Curtin's family. Here is the short version of the story:

Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.

The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.

Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.

> Read the rest of the story at the OC Register

Thanks to Pixar for paying it forward in a big way and to Mike Lombardo who already wrote a song about the event.

Watch a short video recap:



Related Sublime Goodness Posts:

• Snowy Surprise for Toddler
• University Student Gets Anonymous $16,000 Check for Tuition
• Duo's Secret Acts of Kindness for a Month

Art Class Helps Emotionally Fragile Kids

Another great local story - kids with emotional and behavior problems find solace and inspiration in art. The picture above is my favorite. So sublime.

Kyle, at 16 a friendly kid with a beard who towers over his peers, shows a visitor around his art class in an office building on Madison's east side. "We make a lot of good stuff here," he says, pulling out a collection of miniatures he fashioned from clay. "This is a dead leg," he says. "Here's a squid, a tree, and an overflowing toilet. A dead beached whale. A dog cleaning itself."

He points to a splat of clay. "This is road kill." Kyle once stitched together a carcass of a run-over rabbit and propped it up in his bedroom until his mother made him throw it away. "And this is my favorite: Mr. Brontosaurus on the toilet," he says, handing over, sure enough, a tiny dinosaur reading a tiny newspaper on a tiny toilet.

When Kyle opens his backpack to reveal a stuffed girl vampire he has created from scraps of material and yarn, the other children in the class stare with admiration. "Can I hold it?" begs Ashton, 8. Kyle hesitates. He rarely lets anyone look at his creatures, much less touch them. "Okay, but be careful," he finally says. Ashton grins and gently cradles the figure before Kyle returns her to his backpack, smoothing her clothes in place. Later that night, he will rip her apart and sew her back together again. "She is very precious to me," he confides. "But I'm having trouble with her. She keeps coming undone. She is very fragile."

Kyle and Ashton are fragile, too. So are the other two dozen kids or so who have attended this unusual art program this year. They all suffer from serious emotional and behavioral problems. Some of those mental health problems are the result of abuse and neglect or chaotic home lives. Others are simply the result of being dealt a lousy genetic hand. Kyle, a high school freshman in Sun Prairie, has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. He has been hospitalized for depression and suicide attempts. Ashton recently was suspended for attacking a schoolmate at his Madison elementary school, where he is in second grade. His official diagnoses include Oppositional Defiant Disorder and bipolar depression.

Twenty years ago, many of these troubled youngsters might have been in institutions. Today the goal is to treat them in the community. Kyle and Ashton's art group, ArtSpeak, is part of an array of "wraparound" services offered by Madison's Children Come First program, which tailors services to individual children and their families and guardians. Administered by Community Partnerships Inc., a nonprofit organization funded by county mental health and Medicaid dollars, the program currently manages the cases of about 165 at-risk kids. ArtSpeak is a refuge, one of the few places where these children say they feel accepted and celebrated in spite of their challenges. An exhibit of the children's work now on display through the middle of this month at Hilldale Shopping Center reveals unique visions and voices desperate to be heard. "These kids are really talented," says their proud teacher, Kay DeWaide, a family advocate with CCF.

> Read the full story and see more pictures at the Wisconsin State Journal

6 Year-Old Takes Wheel, Save Dad's Life

Another day, another courageous kid highlighted in Sublime Goodness! What's also eerie to me is it was only a month ago that I posted about an 8 year-old girl who took the wheel and saved herself and her grandmother. Here is Tustin's story from last week:

Philip Mains of North Platte, Neb., is usually able to control his diabetes. But while driving recently with his two young sons in his Chevy Avalanche, Mains’ blood-sugar level suddenly dropped, plunging him into unconsciousness. His 6-year-old, Tustin, immediately took the wheel and safely steered the vehicle, which was traveling at about 15 mph, until a police officer chased it down and threw the car into park. “I saw my dad fall asleep,” said Tustin, “and I climbed over the seat and got on my dad’s lap.” His dad is doing fine. (from the Week)

> Read more about the events here in the North Platte Telegraph

It should also be noted that "Tustin managed to do a pretty good job of driving the Avalanche. Phillip said there wasn't any significant damage to the vehicle and it appeared the only damage was a scrape that occurred when Tustin brushed the side of the bridge after he turned the vehicle around."

Wow. Great job Tustin! Your father should be proud. What an amazing and inspiring child.

Share Our Strength's "Great American Bake Sale"

It wasn't too long ago that I spotlighted the innovative and great work that the organization Share Our Strength is doing - they've contacted me again recently to help spread the word about something called the "Great American Bake Sale." Here is the deal from Alice on behalf of Share our Strength:

Today, more than 12 million children in the United States do not know when their next meal will come. Unfortunately, this number continues to riseas these difficult economic times are leaving more and more people jobless, without homes, and unable to provide food for their families.

What can you do?

1. Sign-up to host a bake sale: http://www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org/vgabs
2. Buy the virtual Great American Bake Sale eBook: http://StolenMomentsCooking.com/virtual-gabs
3. Post a ChipIn widget or banner on your blog: http://www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org/bloggers

Make a difference in a child’s life by signing up and purchasing a virtual cookbook today! 100% of the proceeds from this eBook will benefit Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, which is a national effort thatencourages Americans to host bake sales in their communities to help end childhood hunger. Funds raised support summer and after-school feedingprograms in your community that thousands of kids depend on.

Once you have purchased your virtual Great American Bake Sale cookbook, double your impact and use the recipes to host your own Great AmericanBake Sale! Hosting a Bake Sale is a fun and easy way to make a big impact! To register your Bake Sale or for more information, please visit http://greatamericanbakesale/.

Bake Sale? Fresh brownies and cookies for good? Hard to argue with that.

World Malaria Day

Serendipity. I love when it happens. Just when I was leaving work today pondering what sublime goodness I should post about, I received an email from Monica Goldenberg on behalf of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Global Program on Malaria which this week is partnering with Global Health Counsel, Population Services International (PSI) and VOICES for a Malaria-Free Future to commemorate World Malaria Day, this Saturday, April 25th. She was letting me know the details...and could I spread the word? Heck, yes!

Here is the deal - please tell everyone:

Malaria is the leading cause of child mortality in Africa, claiming 1 million African children under the age of five every year. Malaria also poses a tremendous risk to the health and well-being of pregnant women – an estimated 50 million pregnant women are exposed to malaria each year.

For World Malaria Day 2009, the organizations mentioned above have teamed up to share the story of success in Rwanda, where the country is making remarkable progress against malaria, reducing malaria-related deaths by more than 60 percent.

The partnership Web site, http://www.malariafreefuture.org/rwanda, highlights the crucial role of political commitment and support of Rwandan leaders, community engagement, U.S. support and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in making this success possible.

Along with basic information and how to take action, you’ll also find included at the site:

• Background on the successful Rwandan program via insecticide-treated bed nets, treatment guidelines, training community health workers and improving health facility care
  
• Videos, Images and Podcasts

Thanks for passing on Monica and I'm glad that there are people like you to raise awareness of this important issue. I encourage all of you to check out the site and take action.

Watch the photo slideshow and audio interviews with key actors in Rwanda's fight against Malaria:

No Stopping Five-Year-Old Girl with New Legs

Wow. When you see this video and see this British girl walking fast, it will move you. It also fills me with such awe to see Oscar 'Blade Runner' Pistorius (a paralympian) sprinting around the track. Here is the background:

Five-year-old Ellie Challis is facing life with an extra spring in her step. She has become the youngest person in the world to be fitted with flex-run feet

Ellie, who lost her hands and lower legs to meningitis as a toddler, had spent the last two years walking on conventional prosthetic limbs. But she complained that she struggled to keep up with her twin sister Sophie.

Her parents Paul and Lisa contacted the world-renowned prosthetic limb centre Dorset Orthopaedic, and managing director Bob Watts agreed to make a junior version of the carbon-fibre blades.

Mr Watts said: 'We were worried that she wouldn't be able to balance properly on them, but she has made amazing progress.

Mr Challis, 45, said: 'Ellie can walk twice as fast on these new legs - it really is amazing to see. She is so full of determination.'

The legs cost £10,000 for a pair and will need to be replaced every two years. Mr Watts added: 'We didn't know if it would be possible to make some small enough.

'But now Ellie is the youngest in the world to have such legs - and there is no holding her back.'

> Read More about Ellie at the Daily Mail

My favorite reader comment: "God bless her. Something to think of the next time you are complaining of aches and pains or your lot in life."

Watch the CNN video & see Ellie for yourself:

Toddler Caught by Two Men After 40-Foot Fall from Window

Talk about being in the right place at the right time...and having the courage to do something wonderful:

Two men were being hailed as heroes by police on Monday for catching a toddler who fell 40 feet from a home's third-story window.

Robert Lemire told the North-Andover (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune newspaper that he was talking on his cell phone Sunday evening outside a pizza shop in Lawrence, about 25 miles north of Boston, when he saw the toddler dangling from a window across the street.

The 45-year-old father of two bolted across a busy street, where he met 23-year-old Alex Day, who had been inside the home at a Bible study meeting. Together, they caught the 18-month-old before she hit the ground.

> Read more at MSBNC

Watch the video recap:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Related Sublime Goodness Posts:

• Fireman Dresses as Spider-Man to Rescue Boy
• Dog Saves 9 People
• Hero Dog Tries To Help Wounded Dog
• Boy, 5, Saves Dad's Life
• Back-to-Back Heroic Acts by a Transit Officer

*Thanks to happytweets for the tip on this great story!

Kids Read Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

It was 200 years ago today that Abraham Lincoln was born (Charles Darwin too). Having grown up in Illinois and having lived in the southern part of the state for awhile, I've had a special closeness to whom many consider our greatest president.

Anyway, amidst all the celebration and news today, my favorite story was this one - kids in Lincoln's birthplace reciting the Gettysburg address (that boy in the tie is so adorably dedicated!).


...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Iraq Vet Surprises Son in Kindergarten

It was a story like this that led me to start this blog:

Gabriel Hurles' sixth birthday party wasn't a surprise, but his present sure was. The kindergartner was so engrossed in the cupcakes his mother brought to his class on Wednesday that he didn't notice the enormous wrapped box off to the side.

"That's one big, giant present," a 6-year-old classmate told him. "See what you got, Gabriel."

Gabriel peeled back the wrapping paper to find the surprise of his young life — his father, an Army mechanic back in Nevada on leave from his second tour in Iraq.

"It's my dad!" he announced to his classmates at Sutro Elementary School in Dayton, a few miles northeast of Carson City. "Hi, Daddy."

Army Spc. Casey Hurles, 23, hadn't seen his son since he left in June. When he learned his leave would coincide with his son's birthday, he hatched a plan to hide out in the 4-foot-tall box. (read more @ KansasCity.com)

I am a veteran myself, and even though I didn't have kids during my years of service, I used to be so touched - to tears even - when I witnessed families reuniting. I'll never, ever forget coming back from seven months in Bosnia-Herzogovina and standing in a gymnasium with my unit...minutes from being let free to our own devices. We all stood in rows while a Colonel welcomed us with congratulatory words, but I don't think anyone was listening. Across from us, all you could see were wives and children with smiles from ear to ear, bouncing in their seats, so eager to touch their loved one again. I was so happy for all of them. As a father now, I can't even imagine missing my daughters that long.

Watch Gabriel open his birthday present:

Teen Shields Boy from Bullet

What a week - I didn't intend to post two heroic stories in three days, but then Jullaion Jones goes and potentially saves a 6 year-old boy's life.

Here are the details that occurred during a high school basketball game in Kansas City:

...15 men stormed a gymnasium, gunfire erupted, and player Jullaion Jones quickly left the game and shielded DeSean Merritt, 6, who had lost his father Sean in the confusion.

Jullaion got hit, the bullet grazing his body, but he will survive. Jullaion Jones is a hero and this story will bring tears to your eyes about how one kid did what was right, so very right, and so very fast, to risk his life for another. (from HipHopMusic.com)

Jullian has a lot to be proud of right now and deserves every accolade. Thank you for your inspiration!

> Read More at the Kansas City Star

Watch the short CNN video wrap-up below. My favorite part of it is at the end, when Jullaion and DeSean are walking down the hall like brothers - so wonderful.

Boy, 5, Saves Dad's Life

Here is a remarkable story of a quick thinking kid who is now a little hero. Even more remarkable is the outpouring of support for the father after community residents heard the episode started because he couldn't afford his medical supplies.

Danny Stephen says he was trying to cut back on the use of test strips Saturday when he collapsed, unconscious, on a couch for 10 hours.

Stephen's son, Jude, was the only one home at the time. At dinnertime, he tried to wake his father.

"I literally just passed out," Stephen said. "I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. What came out was mumbo-jumbo."

Stephen said he mumbled the word "juice," and his son thought he was saying "Jude." Once the Bear Creek Elementary School student realized what was happening, he began to pour honey and juice into his father's mouth. Jude then hand-fed his father cupcakes.

"He knows my expressions when my sugar's low," said Stephen, who was diagnosed with diabetes 26 years ago. "He saved my life. All I remember is sort of coming out of it."

> Read More about the Story here.

Watch a short CNN video:


The father seems so proud. Heck, even I am!

Share Our Strength's "Operation No Kid Hungry"

Another bit of serendipity happened today - I had bookmarked a recent Operation NICE blog post about this innovative campaign to end childhood hunger with the intention of doing a reposting here on Sublime Goodness to help spread the word. And then today, I received an email from Kari at the organization behind the campaign, Share Our Strength, asking if I would...help spread the word. So consider it done!

Here is the info:

Share Our Strength has launched a brand new campaign to raise funds to help end childhood hunger. "Operation No Kid Hungry" responds to President Obama's call to action to end childhood hunger by 2015.

Share Our Strength has partnered with AT&T to offer an easy way that you can support and participate in "Operation No Kid Hungry": Just Text "SHARE" to 20222 on your mobile device to donate $5. AT&T will match all text donations up to $100,000. Find out more at
http://strength.org/get_involved/text_donation/

For more information about "Operation No Kid Hungry" and how you can help
end childhood hunger, visit Share Our Strength's website:
http://strength.org.

There are also more ways you can help get the word out, including banners
for your blog and social networking pages here:
http://strength.org/get_involved/spread_the_word/

Kids' Letters to President Obama

Amidst all of the inauguration coverage the last few days, this story was a hidden gem.

One of my favorite independent publisher's, McSweeney's, released a great book today Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids' Letters to President Obama. The title is self-explanatory - "A few days after the election of Barack Obama, kids around the country were asked to provide advice and guidance to their new president."

The letters are funny, sincere, surprising...and a joy to read. The New York Times recently reprinted some of the letters. Here is a sampling:

Dear Sir Obama,

These are the first 10 things you should do as president:

1. Make everyone read books.
2. Don’t let teachers give kids hard homework.
3. Make a law where kids only get one page of homework per week.
4. Kids can go visit you whenever they want.
5. Make volunteer tutors get paid.
6. Let the tutors do all the thinking.
7. Make universities free.
8. Make students get extra credit for everything.
9. Give teachers raises.
10. If No. 4 is approved, let kids visit the Oval Office, but don’t make it boring.

— Mireya Perez, age 8, San Francisco

Dear President/Mr. Obama,

The best thing about living in the White House would be running around like a maniac. The thing I would like least is the work.

— Holly Wong, age 9, San Francisco

Dear President Obama,

Here is a list of the first 10 things you should do as president:

1. Fly to the White House in a helicopter.
2. Walk in.
3. Wipe feet.
4. Walk to the Oval Office.
5. Sit down in a chair.
6. Put hand-sanitizer on hands.
7. Enjoy moment.
8. Get up.
9. Get in car.
10. Go to the dog pound.

— Chandler Browne, age 12, Chicago

Dear President Obama,

If I were president, I would tell people to not talk too much. It wastes time. I’d also say to war: no more, no more, no more!

— Catherine Galvan, age 6, Chicago

Dear Pres. Obama,

Good job on winning. I heard about Area 51. I wanted to ask you if there are any U.F.O.’s there. I think that you should tell people in public the truth about Area 51. You would just maybe say, “That we will take care of it.” And do it.

— Edwin Jara, age 9, New York

Dear President Obama,

Could you help my family to get housecleaning jobs? I hope you will be a great president. If I were president, I would help all nations, even Hawaii. President Obama, I think you could help the world.

— Chad Timsing, age 9, Los Angeles

> Read More - Including Photos of the Letters & Multimedia (Drawings)