Paralyzed Haitian Earthquake Victim To Race in Paralympics

Beating the Odds: Paralyzed Haitian Earthquake Victim To Race in Paralympics | Sports on GOOD

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti left Leon Gaisili paralyzed from the waist down, making an already difficult life even more difficult for Leon, his wife and his eight children (eight!).

The Walkabout Foundation heard about this and gave him a wheelchair so that he could get out of his hospital bed and start rebuilding his life. And this year Gaisili participated in the 2012 London Paralympics.

The Walkabout Foundation is continuing it mission of getting sturdy, low-cost wheelchairs to the people who need them most. Read more about it here.

8yr Old Boy Wins $1000, Then Donates It To Sick Little Girl

Wyatt Erber was recently awarded $1000 as a grand prize in a scavenger hunt put on by First Clover Leaf Bank in Edwardsville, Il. He is only eight years old. Most children would have taken the money and had a field day in a local toy store but Wyatt had only one thing in mind: how much chemotherapy would $1000 buy his two year old neighbor Cara? Cara was diagnosed in May with lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer with a 90% recovery rate provided she gets the medication and treatments needed. She has a tough two year fight ahead of her but doctors are hopeful and Wyatt's generosity has truly helped pave the way. When local group Edwardsville Neighbors in Need heard about Wyatt's gift to Cara, they matched his donation.

Cara's mother was blown away by the kindness of her neighbor. Wyatt had called her earlier in the week to talk about his gift. "He said: 'How much chemo will $1,000 buy Cara?' I'm completely floored by him. To step up and donate his winnings…is crazy," she said.

Man Wins $250 in Groceries and Decides to Pay It Forward

Money is tight for a lot of people lately and news channel ABC7 out of California was trying to help out by doing a weekly Facebook giveaway of $250 grocery gift cards. They never expected that kindness to be paid forward quite the way it was however. Scotty Randall, a local from Santa Ana, won the weekly drawing but instead of spending the money on himself, he went down to his local Von's grocery store to give it away. He broke the money down into smaller denominations of $25 each and began scouring the store for people who looked like they could use a little help.

When Vons heard about the good deed, they matched the earlier gift card with another $250 one so Scotty could do even more good deeds with it. One of the families who received a card was the Olsen family. Mr. Olsen was shopping with his three children when Scotty gave him the gift card. The timing could not have been better as it was Mrs. Olsen's birthday and her elated family could now afford to buy her cards and flowers to celebrate.

Scotty's good deeds didn't stop at the grocery store however as he also gave money to the Contreras family after their name was given to him by the Boys and Girls Club of Garden Grove. David Contreras is returning to the Army and will once again be away from his two kids and wife.

Scotty is now eligible for for a grand prize drawing of $5000 from Vons and says that if he wins, he will once again be looking to pay the money forward to other families in need.

1.7 Million Raised For Nikola Tesla Museum

Most people have never heard of Wardenclyffe or Shoreham, New York, but mention the name Nikola Tesla and intellectuals everywhere will chatter excitedly about this unsung hero of modern science. When the world was still living in a time of candlelight, Tesla was inventing the concept of alternating current, the very system we use today to power our homes. Want to know more about Tesla? Read here.

Wardenclyffe was the final laboratory that Tesla used before his passing and he had intended to build a tower there that would have provided free energy to the entire world. When the project lost funding in 1917, however, the land was sold off to film and paper manufacturers. The laboratory and tower foundation still remain to this day and the land recently went up for sale again. Two bidders were eyeing the property, one a non-profit intent on building a Nikola Tesla museum and the other a developer who intended to build a retail center. Faced with the prospect of losing this part of history to a new Walmart, popular comedy site The Oatmeal put out a plea to all of geekdom to ask for help in outbidding the retailer.

The goal had been set at $850,000 but within days that number had been smashed through by generous donations. The fundraising efforts are now at over $900k and growing with a full 39 days of fundraising left. The money already raised, when combined with a matching contribution from NY, will be more than enough to purchase the property and any additional funding will go toward the building of the museum.

Since the campaign started last week, it has raised an average of $145,000 per day, $6,000 per hour and $100 per minute, with contributions coming from 102 countries, according to an infographic by Indiegogo. So far, 20,000 people have donated.

Mystery Man Gives Strangers Wads of Cash

People Are Awesome: Mystery Man Gives Strangers Wads of Cash - Lifestyle - GOOD

This is a little bit of a trick post, because it's a double-plus good thing: a mysterious man with a camera gives out money to random people. A lot of money. But in order to receive the money, they have to agree to have their photo taken, and "pay it forward," by doing something good with the money. He asks that they document their good deed and share stories.

Here's a link to the Wearelucky website. You can read the stories and see photos of the people who've participated so far. So cool!