ThatGuy
12-16-2008, 08:46 AM
Reader's Digest is holding their annual "Hero of the Year" voting. I've included the stories below of the 13 people honored in 10 entires for 2008. You can go to READER'S DIGEST (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/vote-for-the-hero-of-the-year-2008/article107042.html) to cast your vote.
1.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0802/the-code-01-af.jpg
I'm dead, thought Hoip "Ali" Swaby. Moments before, a whoosh of air and a hail of rocks had brought a roar of water into the excavation tunnel where Swaby and two fellow sandhogs were working ten stories below the streets of Fall River, Massachusetts. As the water quickly rose, a crane operator on the surface heard cries for help and lowered a "man cage" to the workers trapped in the shaft. Swaby clambered inside, but when the basket reached the surface, he yelled for a flashlight and demanded to be lowered back down. With 10,000 gallons of frigid water filling the hole each minute, his coworkers were now clinging desperately to the rock walls. Once back below, Swaby used his flashlight as a beacon and scooped his friends inside the cage.
Full Story: Trapped with No Escape!: Dreaded Sound | Action Stories | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/53340)
2.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0803/cliff-hanger-02-af.jpg
Part-time ranger Marc Ellison was leading visitors on a tour of the Timpanogos Cave National Monument, south of Salt Lake City, when a fellow ranger shouted that a child had fallen down a cliff 1,000 feet above the American Fork River. Three-year-old Paulina Filippova was hiking with her Russian immigrant family when she strayed from the path and slipped over the side. Mickey Horak made his way 60 feet down to where Paulina clung to a tree root. Ranger Ellison climbed down a rocky slope until he reached the pair. Horak was able to ease the bleeding child into Ellison's arms, and together the three inched upward to the safety of a narrow ledge and waited for search-and-rescue teams to arrive
Full Story: Heroes: Child Rescue off Mountain : Watch Your Step | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/54129)
3.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0804/little-boy-drives-tractor-trailer-af.jpg
Chris Howard was driving home from work one evening when he found himself facing an 18-wheel lumber truck coming his way on the wrong side of a four-lane highway outside St. Helens, Oregon. Even more frightening was that nine-year-old Matty Lovo was at the wheel-he'd grabbed control after his father passed out. Howard caught up with the truck, leaped onto the running board, and managed to open the cab door and hit the brake pedal, halting the 50-ton rig and saving both father and son. "My heart was racing," Howard says. "But there was no time to be scared."
Full Story: Little Boy Drives Tractor-Trailer | Hero of the Year | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/little-boy-drives-tractor-trailer/article55505.html)
4.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0805/most-valuable-player-greg-gadson-01-af.jpg
Early in the 2007 NFL season the New York Giants team had already lost their first two games. That's when Giants wide receivers coach Mike Sullivan learned that former West Point classmate Lt. Col. Greg Gadson was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Gadson was recovering from a devastating injury he'd received from a roadside bomb in Baghdad. As the two men rekindled a 20-year friendship, Sullivan marveled at Gadson's optimism and lack of self-pity. If a double amputee could show such spirit, perhaps he could instill it in a losing Giants team. The night before the Redskins game, Gadson spoke to a hushed locker room and received a standing ovation. The Giants battled back to eventually beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Full Story: Heroes: Most Valuable Player Greg Gadson | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/58790)
5.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0806/heroes-day-care-drama-01-af.jpg
The man with the gun stood outside the Cape Coral, Florida, day-care center while terrified children huddled inside. Louise Zoller had arrived moments earlier with her 11-year-old daughter, Morgan, intending to pick up her two-year-old, Hannah. "Where is she?" the man muttered as he entered the building; he then fired one shot at Hannah's teacher. Zoller grabbed the man's arm, but he pushed her away and fired again. She somehow muscled him into a hallway and knocked the gun from his hand, then snatched it up and ran outside to arriving police officers. No children were harmed, but Hannah's teacher was dead, killed by her estranged husband. "I was just being a mom," Zoller says.
Full story: Heroes: Day-Care Drama | Survival Stories | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/heroes-day-care-drama/article74883.html)
6.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0807/heroes-close-call-af.jpg
The time was after 4 a.m. and spring break partyers Daniel Moreno and Brian Stanley were drifting off to sleep in the room they shared at the Best Western Playa Suites in Acapulco, Mexico. Suddenly they heard the crash of breaking glass and jumped up to see smoke pouring from the windows of the hotel's adjoining tower. Rushing into the hallway, they shouted, "Westfield! Fire!" and banged on every door. Stanley was joined by fellow Westfield State College (Massachusetts) classmate Drew Nalewanski in the lobby, and the two charged back into the building to alert sleeping students. No one was seriously hurt.
Full Story: College Students Come to Rescue in Fire | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/college-students-come-to-rescue-in-fire/article80342.html)
7.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0808/heroes-cody-phillips-01-af.jpg
Cody Phillips never paid attention to the dogs next door. But the Saturday afternoon something about the noise was different. When they went to investigate, they were horrified to see a pit bull and a Shar-Pei mauling a four-year-old neighborhood boy named Zackery Miller. Without thinking twice, Cody, a five-nine former football player, vaulted the chain-link fence and charged the snarling dogs. Momentarily startled, they let go but soon circled around for another attack. The high school junior threw himself on top of the bleeding boy and covered him with his body. By now, Cody's stepdad had heard the cries and howls and grabbed a board. He fended off the dogs until the boys could escape.
Full Story: Dog Attack Rescue | Animal Stories | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/dog-attack-rescue/article86272.html)
8.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0809/man-vs-river-steve-mcguire-af.jpg
Michelle Kehoe was lucky the night her car skidded off the road and into the Iowa River. For crossing Iowa City's Park Road bridge at that same moment was Steve McGuire, a man who knows something about river rescues. In 1993, McGuire saved a college student who fell into a river. Ten years later, McGuire saved an elderly fisherman. This time he dived in and hauled the mother of two through the water until they reached the embankment.
Full Story: Rescued in the Iowa River | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/96739)
9.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0810/heroes-into-the-inferno-af.jpg
"You have to go right now!" That's what Jim Grant recalls shouting through the heat and smoke. Only a few minutes before, he'd been driving to work in San Diego when he passed a burning three-story apartment building. He dialed 911, then pulled a U-turn and went back to see if he could help. With no police or firefighters on the scene yet, Grant ran into the building and checked apartments along an 80-foot corridor. When he kicked in the door of No. 87, the contractor discovered a startled woman in a motorized wheelchair holding an infant. With them was a ten-year-old boy. In all, Grant made three trips carrying them out of the building, the last with police officer Caleb Knobel, who helped drag the disabled and disoriented woman to safety.
Full Story: Heroes: Jim Grant Braves Inferno | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/98950)
10.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0811/heroes-subway-rescue-af.jpg
Lisa Donath was running late the morning she hurried toward her subway stop in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. Having donated blood the night before, she was feeling faint by the time she reached the underground platform. Forty feet away, Ismael "Mel" Feneque heard someone yell, "Oh, my God, she fell in!" Feneque, a garment worker, leaped down onto the tracks just as a train was coming into view. He lifted the unconscious woman so that other bystanders could drag her away from the edge. Feneque hoisted himself onto the platform just seconds before the train barreled into the station. Why did he help? "All I know is I was there, and I'd do it again."
Full Story: Heroes: Subway Rescue | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/heroes-subway-rescue/article103197.html)
If nothing else, I hope these stories inspire you. They inspired me.
It's nice to see that there are still good people in the world today.
1.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0802/the-code-01-af.jpg
I'm dead, thought Hoip "Ali" Swaby. Moments before, a whoosh of air and a hail of rocks had brought a roar of water into the excavation tunnel where Swaby and two fellow sandhogs were working ten stories below the streets of Fall River, Massachusetts. As the water quickly rose, a crane operator on the surface heard cries for help and lowered a "man cage" to the workers trapped in the shaft. Swaby clambered inside, but when the basket reached the surface, he yelled for a flashlight and demanded to be lowered back down. With 10,000 gallons of frigid water filling the hole each minute, his coworkers were now clinging desperately to the rock walls. Once back below, Swaby used his flashlight as a beacon and scooped his friends inside the cage.
Full Story: Trapped with No Escape!: Dreaded Sound | Action Stories | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/53340)
2.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0803/cliff-hanger-02-af.jpg
Part-time ranger Marc Ellison was leading visitors on a tour of the Timpanogos Cave National Monument, south of Salt Lake City, when a fellow ranger shouted that a child had fallen down a cliff 1,000 feet above the American Fork River. Three-year-old Paulina Filippova was hiking with her Russian immigrant family when she strayed from the path and slipped over the side. Mickey Horak made his way 60 feet down to where Paulina clung to a tree root. Ranger Ellison climbed down a rocky slope until he reached the pair. Horak was able to ease the bleeding child into Ellison's arms, and together the three inched upward to the safety of a narrow ledge and waited for search-and-rescue teams to arrive
Full Story: Heroes: Child Rescue off Mountain : Watch Your Step | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/54129)
3.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0804/little-boy-drives-tractor-trailer-af.jpg
Chris Howard was driving home from work one evening when he found himself facing an 18-wheel lumber truck coming his way on the wrong side of a four-lane highway outside St. Helens, Oregon. Even more frightening was that nine-year-old Matty Lovo was at the wheel-he'd grabbed control after his father passed out. Howard caught up with the truck, leaped onto the running board, and managed to open the cab door and hit the brake pedal, halting the 50-ton rig and saving both father and son. "My heart was racing," Howard says. "But there was no time to be scared."
Full Story: Little Boy Drives Tractor-Trailer | Hero of the Year | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/little-boy-drives-tractor-trailer/article55505.html)
4.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0805/most-valuable-player-greg-gadson-01-af.jpg
Early in the 2007 NFL season the New York Giants team had already lost their first two games. That's when Giants wide receivers coach Mike Sullivan learned that former West Point classmate Lt. Col. Greg Gadson was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Gadson was recovering from a devastating injury he'd received from a roadside bomb in Baghdad. As the two men rekindled a 20-year friendship, Sullivan marveled at Gadson's optimism and lack of self-pity. If a double amputee could show such spirit, perhaps he could instill it in a losing Giants team. The night before the Redskins game, Gadson spoke to a hushed locker room and received a standing ovation. The Giants battled back to eventually beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Full Story: Heroes: Most Valuable Player Greg Gadson | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/58790)
5.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0806/heroes-day-care-drama-01-af.jpg
The man with the gun stood outside the Cape Coral, Florida, day-care center while terrified children huddled inside. Louise Zoller had arrived moments earlier with her 11-year-old daughter, Morgan, intending to pick up her two-year-old, Hannah. "Where is she?" the man muttered as he entered the building; he then fired one shot at Hannah's teacher. Zoller grabbed the man's arm, but he pushed her away and fired again. She somehow muscled him into a hallway and knocked the gun from his hand, then snatched it up and ran outside to arriving police officers. No children were harmed, but Hannah's teacher was dead, killed by her estranged husband. "I was just being a mom," Zoller says.
Full story: Heroes: Day-Care Drama | Survival Stories | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/heroes-day-care-drama/article74883.html)
6.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0807/heroes-close-call-af.jpg
The time was after 4 a.m. and spring break partyers Daniel Moreno and Brian Stanley were drifting off to sleep in the room they shared at the Best Western Playa Suites in Acapulco, Mexico. Suddenly they heard the crash of breaking glass and jumped up to see smoke pouring from the windows of the hotel's adjoining tower. Rushing into the hallway, they shouted, "Westfield! Fire!" and banged on every door. Stanley was joined by fellow Westfield State College (Massachusetts) classmate Drew Nalewanski in the lobby, and the two charged back into the building to alert sleeping students. No one was seriously hurt.
Full Story: College Students Come to Rescue in Fire | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/college-students-come-to-rescue-in-fire/article80342.html)
7.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0808/heroes-cody-phillips-01-af.jpg
Cody Phillips never paid attention to the dogs next door. But the Saturday afternoon something about the noise was different. When they went to investigate, they were horrified to see a pit bull and a Shar-Pei mauling a four-year-old neighborhood boy named Zackery Miller. Without thinking twice, Cody, a five-nine former football player, vaulted the chain-link fence and charged the snarling dogs. Momentarily startled, they let go but soon circled around for another attack. The high school junior threw himself on top of the bleeding boy and covered him with his body. By now, Cody's stepdad had heard the cries and howls and grabbed a board. He fended off the dogs until the boys could escape.
Full Story: Dog Attack Rescue | Animal Stories | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/dog-attack-rescue/article86272.html)
8.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0809/man-vs-river-steve-mcguire-af.jpg
Michelle Kehoe was lucky the night her car skidded off the road and into the Iowa River. For crossing Iowa City's Park Road bridge at that same moment was Steve McGuire, a man who knows something about river rescues. In 1993, McGuire saved a college student who fell into a river. Ten years later, McGuire saved an elderly fisherman. This time he dived in and hauled the mother of two through the water until they reached the embankment.
Full Story: Rescued in the Iowa River | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/96739)
9.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0810/heroes-into-the-inferno-af.jpg
"You have to go right now!" That's what Jim Grant recalls shouting through the heat and smoke. Only a few minutes before, he'd been driving to work in San Diego when he passed a burning three-story apartment building. He dialed 911, then pulled a U-turn and went back to see if he could help. With no police or firefighters on the scene yet, Grant ran into the building and checked apartments along an 80-foot corridor. When he kicked in the door of No. 87, the contractor discovered a startled woman in a motorized wheelchair holding an infant. With them was a ten-year-old boy. In all, Grant made three trips carrying them out of the building, the last with police officer Caleb Knobel, who helped drag the disabled and disoriented woman to safety.
Full Story: Heroes: Jim Grant Braves Inferno | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/content/98950)
10.
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/mag0811/heroes-subway-rescue-af.jpg
Lisa Donath was running late the morning she hurried toward her subway stop in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. Having donated blood the night before, she was feeling faint by the time she reached the underground platform. Forty feet away, Ismael "Mel" Feneque heard someone yell, "Oh, my God, she fell in!" Feneque, a garment worker, leaped down onto the tracks just as a train was coming into view. He lifted the unconscious woman so that other bystanders could drag her away from the edge. Feneque hoisted himself onto the platform just seconds before the train barreled into the station. Why did he help? "All I know is I was there, and I'd do it again."
Full Story: Heroes: Subway Rescue | Heroes | Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/heroes-subway-rescue/article103197.html)
If nothing else, I hope these stories inspire you. They inspired me.
It's nice to see that there are still good people in the world today.