Google Brings Polar Bears to Streetview--Google

Google’s “streetview” feature is incredibly popular and has really begun to capture most of the world so users can see almost anywhere they want in just an instant. This week, however, Google added some unique and exciting areas to streetview that are truly breathtaking.

Specifically, Google added a series of locations throughout the tundra so users can explore the cold north. Of course while doing this work Google also captured some polar bears in the natural habitat, which was the real goal here. Polar bears are quickly losing their habitat due to climate change and Google, along with an eco group, wanted to showcase this with some fantastic pictures of the animals.

There are hundreds of great pictures of the bears in the natural habitat, and Google officially launched them today as part of International Polar Bear day. This is just another case of Google working with a great non-profit organization to raise awareness and help spread the word about this issue. The pictures are fantastic and will do a lot to raise awareness, plus it is just really cool being able to see something like this. Google is planning to continue working with groups such as this for charity programs in the future, which is absolutely great news.

Girl Scout Cookie Season Begins

Every spring thousands of girls around the United States begin one of the most anticipated and appreciated fundraisers ever, the sale of Girl Scout Cookies. This fundraiser is not only a great way to keep this incredible organization alive and well, it is also a much anticipated time of year for the millions of Americans that simply cannot get enough of these delicious treats.

Girl Scout Cookies do not technically have an official start date, but according to Girl Scout’s HQ at this point in the year basically everywhere should be hitting full swing on the sales. All of the incredibly popular favorite cookies are still around but they also added a few new flavors that might just be a big hit too. In particular a lot of people are excited about the addition of a new gluten free flavor. As a whole this is absolutely a great time of year simply because millions of people buy millions and millions of cookies every single year, plus they’re contributing to a great cause while doing it. If you’re a Girl Scout cookie lover like most people then now is the time to start looking out for cookies, you should be able to get them very soon!

You just now it is going to be “one of those days” when you show up for work and everyone is hugging and laughing because the office won the lottery- the same lottery you opted not to participate in.

That is exactly what happened to Jennifer Maldonado when she showed up to work one Sunday. The staff at the real estate agency she works for in Florida had all pitched in $20 a piece to buy lottery tickets, an opportunity Jennifer passed on.

She had only been working for the company for two weeks and had not yet received her first paycheck. Trying to be cautious with her money, she saw the $20 as an expense she couldn’t afford just then. Imagine her shock when she walked in that morning to find her coworkers celebrating their lottery win.

At first, Jennifer thought they were teasing her because she was the only one who hadn’t gone into the lottery pool. It was her boss who sat her down and explained the win was for real.

The group did not win the big jackpot. Instead they matched 5 numbers and won a $1million prize. That comes to about $83,000 each before taxes.

The group at Keller Williams Partner Realty in Plantation decided to let Jennifer in on their good fortune however. The 12 coworkers agreed to pitch in and give Maldonado, who works as an administrative assistant, a share of the winnings.

Though the amount they are giving her is a secret, they felt it important to do the right thing. Laurie Finkelstein Reader who runs the office believes when you do the right thing in life, the right thing will also happen to you.

Surprisingly, the group almost didn’t win at all thanks to a language problem at the convenience store where Finkelstein reader bought the tickets. The Spanish speaking clerk thought she wanted 60 $2 tickets. While she struggled to make him understand, the line grew longer and impatient behind her. Some people switched lines to speed things up.

She finally got the second batch of tickets and the winning ticket was among those in the second batch.

The group will be able to collect their winnings on Wednesday. As for Maldonado, she says she didn’t realize how lucky her coworkers were and she won’t be passing up any more office pools.

Justin Barnes, a resident of Lake Norman, NC, saw a need for supplies for Charlotte’s homeless population and decided to take it upon himself to fill it. Once a month, Barnes travels to downtown Charlotte early on a Saturday morning and disburses supplies including hygiene products, food, drinks and clothing.

Barnes, 32, started volunteering in 2010 when he started serving at the Mooresville Christian Mission. Working as the Mission’s volunteer coordinator, Barnes did orientations for new volunteers, transported clients to appointments and picked up food donations from various individuals and businesses.

Being newly sober himself and unemployed at the time, Barnes said volunteering kept him busy and gave him something to do instead of looking for drugs.

After noticing a need for a homeless shelter in Mooresville while working at the Mission, Barnes decided to organize a sleep-out in November 2010 to raise awareness. Participants set up on the street outside the Mission and slept there all night, despite the bitterly cold temperatures. Fifty people ended up taking part as well as several local churches that provided food.

After the sleep-in, Barnes knew he wanted to do more. He started volunteering by making sandwiches at Urban Christian Ministries in Charlotte, a ministry that provides food, medicine, showers, mail and laundry services for the homeless.

While serving at Urban Christian Ministries, Barnes had the opportunity to speak to a homeless man who told him about “The Wall,” a street corner in downtown Charlotte where different churches would set up at 8 a.m. each Saturday to feed them breakfast. It was only food being given out though and Barnes realized someone needed to provide much needed hygiene supplies.

So he took the initiative to do just that. The first time he set up, with his girlfriend and a friend at his side, 80 to 120 people showed up. Now, each time Barnes sets up, scores of people stand in line to receive toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, razors, deodorant, socks, underwear, sleeping bags and more.

Depending on his own schedule and the availability of supplies, Barnes tries to set up at least twice a month. He said for him, the joy isn’t only about helping others himself, but also about getting other people to want to help their fellow human beings.
“If I can take the same desire that’s in me and put it in five to ten other people, then they can instill giving and serving in other people,” he said.

Barnes said he has had the desire to serve others since he was in the second grade.

“I just want to serve those who have fallen on hard times and give them the basic supplies that we take for granted,” he said. “You never know why they are homeless, and it could only take one bad event in your life and you could also be there.”

Elias Uribe was pulled from his burning 18-wheeler by a stranger

Elias Uribe, of Parker County, Texas, can’t thank the stranger who stopped to help him enough. He calls the woman a hero and says she was like an angel to him in his moment of need.

Uribe lost control of his 18-wheel rig on Interstate 30 which was slick with rain. The truck crashed near downtown Dallas and burst in flames. He tried to escape the cab but discovered the door was jammed. Fear set in when he noticed the flames were just inches from his elbow. Another few seconds and Elias would have been burnt himself.

As the flames crept closer, a stranger appeared from out of the blue. Elias could hear the voice of a woman asking if he could get out of the truck, if he was okay and warning him that the truck was ablaze.

Terry Sims was driving through the area on her way home from work when she came upon the flame-engulfed truck. The flames were shooting out from beneath the truck so she stopped to help.

Sims was frightened for her own safety but knew she was the only one who could do something. The door wouldn’t budge so she pulled him through the window as the fire steadily grew. She remembers being afraid the rig would just blow up.

Uribe could barely walk but Sims helped him to safety. He leaned on her and she pulled him the whole distance. A scant few minutes later, the cab of the truck where Elias had been stuck was in flames. He credits Sims with saving his life.

The father of three children, Eliazar, 8, Elizabeth, 10, and Elias Jr., 12 is grateful to be alive. Had he died in the crash, his children would have been left orphans as his wife Dolores died in an automobile crash near their home last May.

For Elias, that makes what Sims did even more significant. He says he doesn’t know the words to use to thank her properly for her efforts. The experience has made him realize how fragile life really is.

The holidays are a time when people reach deep into their hearts and pockets to give to others. That is just what happened recently when a group of over 300people decided to have a little fun and raise a little cash for charity.

The event was put together using social media, like Facebook. Participants had only to show up wearing a Santa costume and prepared to ride their bicycles through the streets of Rome together. More than 300 people answered the call and turned out for the fundraiser. Money raised from the holiday event was being donated to children’s charities.

The other goal the group had was to break the record for the number of cycling Santas in the Guinness World Book of Records. BY the end of the event, no one was sure if they had indeed set any new records but the pedaling participants had lots of fun. So did the holiday shoppers lining the streets of Rome as they stopped to watch the cycling Santas ride by in a blaze of red.

It just goes to show what a little creativity and motivation can accomplish when people work together. The Cycling Santas made a contribution to society, provided cheer to passersby and had fun all in the name of a good cause.

Just yesterday a major relief concert was held in New York City to raise funds for the millions of people that were severely affected by superstorm Sandy. The group behind the concert hoped to raise millions of dollars for the relief effort and the mission was an absolute success. Thanks to the help of dozens of high profile celebrities and singers there was plenty of money flowing into the charity.

The one night concert drew nearly 2 billion viewers which is an absolutely incredible statistic. Obviously not everyone donated to the cause but early reports say that at least $35 million were raised in ticket sales alone with around $50 million in other donations coming throughout the night. This type of relief effort is becoming relatively common when it comes to massive disasters such as this and everyone agrees that last night’s relief concert was an overwhelming success.

Raising millions of dollars is not enough to fix everything that was destroyed, but basically everyone is happy to report that this is a great start. Experts estimate that the total damage in the area is likely around to be around $50 billion. The very high damage count will take a long time to cleanup and fix but this is a great step in the right direction.

This week Lego made headlines after they went to some pretty extreme lengths to make a young boy incredibly happy. James Groccia of Massachusetts has Asperser’s Syndrome and has been saving money to purchase a very specific Lego set he saw two years ago, not long ago he finally had enough money to purchase the set when he unfortunately found out it was no longer being made. The boy’s parents quickly set out to take care of the issue by finding an old set somewhere online, but unfortunately they found that this set had become somewhat of a valuable collector’s item.

The truly touching part of this story began when the parents reached out to Lego. Lego replied to the family with disappointing news saying that they truly had stopped manufacturing it and there was not much they could do. Then, a few weeks later, a box showed up at the family’s home with James’s name on it, it was none other than the very collectible Lego set he wanted to badly, sent as a gift from Lego themselves.

James and his family had commented time and time again how Lego might just be the best company out there and this goes to show they’re probably right. It is nice to see that even in today’s world a huge company like Lego can reach out and make one kid happy with something as small as a toy.

Blake Visin and his son Tyler wanted to do a little fishing and help out the United Way while they were at it. Neither expected to reel in the 70 lb. blue catfish they caught that day.

Blake Visin work as the director of information technology at ReWa which is the renewable water resource based in Greenville. Each year, ReWa sponsors a fish fry with the proceeds going to help the United Way.

Visin, along with some family members and a few friends, took to the Wateree River in the Lugoff-Camden area to catch what they suspected would be the usual array of flathead and channel catfish. These are the fish most commonly found in the Midlands River. The great blue catfish they landed came as quite a surprise.

The catfish was an amazing sight, once they got him reeled in and he far outweighed anything else caught that day, tipping the scales at an amazing 70 lbs.!

All the fish caught will be used for the fish fry Thursday night but the net yield from Visin’s catch alone is expected to feed more than 100 employees.

The United Way of America is a non-profit organization that has local offices in more than 1300 locations throughout America. Each office determines which charities and community services will receive support from the organization. All money raised in a given location is funneled back into the community. The employees of ReWa are helping create a better community with their fundraising efforts and the 70 lb. catfish is doing his part, too.

Alice Pyne, 16 and with terminal cancer, completes her bucket list. Photo courtesy of ITV News

A diagnosis of terminal cancer hasn’t stopped Alice Pyne from achieving her dreams. The 16 year old Ulverston, England girl compiled a bucket list and completed all the items on it.

Pyne became an Internet celebrity when she chose to post her bucket list on her blog a little over a year ago. Since then, followers from around the globe have been sending help so she could complete her list.

Among some of her accomplishments were attending her school prom, swimming with sharks and meeting her favorite band, Take That. To celebrate checking off the last item on her list she is rewarding herself with a little whale watching in Canada.

Publishing the list was not on Pyne’s mind when she began composing it. She was overwhelmed by the response once she did, however. It was her mom’s idea and the list wound up with 17 items on it. The achievement she is most proud of is getting 40,000 people to sign up for the bone marrow donor list.

Her original list contained the wish that she might become a dolphin trainer but had to alter that to swimming with the sharks. She also participated in a dog show with her Labrador retriever, Mabel. The final item – the whale watching excursion – was something she didn’t think she’d be able to pull off. Her parents took care of the arrangements and surprised her with the trip to Vancouver.

Pyne is still engaged in charitable fundraising, along with her sister and the rest of her family. She and her sister have received the British Empire Medals for their efforts with charity work. Her parents are undertaking a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro in order to help families with seriously ill kids be able to take vacations.

Vicky Pyne, Alice’s mother, is grateful for the time they’ve had and the things they’ve been able to do. She knows many families have very little time when a terminal diagnosis comes along. Knowing Alice is going to die is an awful knowledge to carry but having these special memories, she believes, will help.