10 Steps to Peace
"Since we seem to be living in an increasingly violent world, I would like to suggest a summer peace plan. Every day -- or least every week -- we are confronted with a new wave of senseless and reckless violence. (...) I'm tired of it, and I know you are, too. Here is my plan. Feel free to add to it as you enact your own plan." So begins student Dwayne Lee's "10 Steps Towards A Peaceful Summer", p... posted on Jun 16 2007, 4,374 reads

FBI Agent A Reluctant Hero
He's an FBI special agent, a father, a crisis hotline volunteer, and -- on Thursday -- he'll donate a kidney to someone he just met. But Tom Simon doesn't want to be called a hero. Simon, 37, says he wanted to make a difference in someone's life and show others that donating an organ isn't difficult to do. He looked on a donor Web site, www.matchingdonors.com, and found Brenda Lagrimas' profile. S... posted on Jun 11 2007, 1,529 reads

Small Farmer, Big Benefactor
Mahadeb Mondal dropped out of school in second grade to become a cowherd because in a poor family it was time to start earning. A generation later, the farm laborer, now 70 years old, had to watch his four sons do the same after primary school for the same reason that had dragged him out of the classroom. He would be filled with pity whenever he watched the children of his village in India study i... posted on Jun 08 2007, 2,583 reads

Homeless Children: Their Stories Told
As the children projected onto the screen describe what it's like to be homeless, Bambi Jackson wipes tears from her eyes. She works with families in Boston every day who face housing crises. But there's something about these -- a boy's complaint that a shelter is "just not cozy" or a girl's description of how scary it is to start over at a new school -- that strikes deep. The short documentary, "... posted on Jun 05 2007, 2,837 reads

A Beautiful Mind
"Done." Andrew Engel has spent nearly 12 years in college, working gradually, steadily for the chance to utter that word. The moment came last week, when the University of Maryland, Baltimore County senior completed his final course requirements for a degree. As Engel walked across the campus of emerald grass and boxy buildings, he allowed the joy of accomplishment to consume him. That way, the mo... posted on Jun 01 2007, 2,170 reads

Young Golfer Playing Against The Odds
There is more than one reason that MacKinzie Kline has been generating headlines in the United States lately. The most obvious of them is that she suffers from an incurable heart defect that means she may not live to see her 30th birthday, and yet she has managed to work her way on to the women's professional golf circuit at the tender age of 15. That might be enough to grab anybody's attention. W... posted on May 21 2007, 2,312 reads

Recycling Wizard Helps Kids Learn
As a child, Carlos Macias made a hobby out of inventing his own toys. "I preferred [inventing] to playing or swimming," he says of a childhood full of the explosions, splatters, and sparks of invention. When other children asked to buy his inventions, the young creator offered instead to show them how to make it. While his ethic hasn't made him rich, it has made him a minor celebrity among kids wh... posted on May 17 2007, 1,842 reads

A Prisoner's Last Request
53-year-old Philip Workman's final request before his execution in Nashville, Tennessee touched thousands of people. He requested that his final meal be a vegetarian pizza donated to any homeless person located near Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. When Prison officials refused, saying that they do not donate to charities, a deeply moved public joined hands to fulfill the request. Homeless ... posted on May 11 2007, 2,452 reads

11-Year-Old Leukemia Patient's Compassion
Pat Pedraja is a sixth-grader on a mission, and nothing -- not leukemia, not chemotherapy and certainly not a lack of public awareness -- is going to keep him from his goal: adding 2007 new donors to the National Marrow Donor Program Registry and raising $100,000 to pay for their cheek swabs, all by the end of the year. If anybody can accomplish such a task, this 11-year-old with the bubbly person... posted on May 08 2007, 1,727 reads

A Basketall Superstar's Turning Point
NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson never forgot the inner-city Sacramento neighborhood where he grew up. In 1989, he returned to his hometown to launch a nonprofit afterschool program that is now his full-time passion. Why? His freshman year at University of California, Berkeley, when a professor asked how many people knew what "euphemism" meant, 31 out of 32 students raised their hands. Johnson wasn't on... posted on May 05 2007, 1,890 reads