Stories
My hero is my husband, Josh Contreras. He has served with the Ingalls Fire Department in Oklahoma for nine years and is now a lieutenant. I serve on the...
My hero is my husband, Josh Contreras. He has served with the Ingalls Fire Department in Oklahoma for nine years and is now a lieutenant. I serve on the department with him, so I’ve seen how much he cares about showing up for our community and the people beside him.
Josh was injured after responding to a fire on August 6. He’s recovering at home in a restrictive neck collar, and being unable to respond to calls or stay busy has been especially hard for someone who is so used to helping others. Even now, he asks how everyone at the department is doing.
To me, Josh is a hero because he has spent nine years giving his time to our community as a volunteer firefighter. He’s also the person our family can count on. I would love for him to feel some of the encouragement he has given other people while he heals. He can’t wait to get back to the fire department and, when he’s able, back to camping with our family.
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Joshua Contreras
Twelve-year-old Preston Sharp was left angry after visiting his grandfather’s grave and seeing that not every veteran in the cemetery had a flag next to...
Twelve-year-old Preston Sharp was left angry after visiting his grandfather’s grave and seeing that not every veteran in the cemetery had a flag next to their grave. He decided to do something about it. He started doing odd jobs so he could save up to buy flags and flowers to place next to every veteran’s grave. Once the cemetery where his grandfather was buried was filled with flags he kept going. Rain or shine he made sure that he paid respect to every veteran.
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Preston Sharp, Planting patriotism
Reverend Richard Joyner realized he had to take action when he was leading far too many funerals in his small poverty-stricken town. Many people were...
Reverend Richard Joyner realized he had to take action when he was leading far too many funerals in his small poverty-stricken town. Many people were dying of heart disease due to poor nutrition. He called on the church youth group to help start a garden to provide the community with fresh fruits and vegetables. The kids delivered the fresh food to those that needed it. The results were dramatic. Research found that the town’s residents lost weight, lowered their blood pressure, and visited the emergency room less because of the fresh food they were eating. Photo by Rush Jagoe
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Richard Joyner, Sowing Hope
After driving past a local homeless shelter with his dad, four-year-old Austin Perine wanted to do something to put a smile on the faces of those he had...
After driving past a local homeless shelter with his dad, four-year-old Austin Perine wanted to do something to put a smile on the faces of those he had seen suffering. He used his allowance money to buy Burger King sandwiches to pass out to the homeless. He handed out each meal with a smile and said, “Don’t forget to show love!” After dipping into his allowance to feed the homeless for a few weeks, his story went viral. Burger King heard about it and decided to chip in to help Austin’s cause. His cause took off so much that his family established the Show Love Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to fighting homelessness.
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Austin Perine, The caped crusader
Malala is an advocate for girls’ education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. Despite facing threats, she courageously championed the right to...
Malala is an advocate for girls’ education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. Despite facing threats, she courageously championed the right to education for girls, inspiring countless others to fight for their rights.
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Malala Yousafzai
Grace Sun founded Melodies for Remedies, a nonprofit that uses the performing arts to bring healing and joy to senior citizens, including those...
Grace Sun founded Melodies for Remedies, a nonprofit that uses the performing arts to bring healing and joy to senior citizens, including those living with Alzheimer’s disease. In the past three years, she and her team of over 100 student volunteers have hosted 50 large-scale concerts and music therapy sessions. A trained classical pianist of 11 years, she was first inspired by a talent show her middle school organized for a local senior home. Moved by the seniors’ cheers and the conversations she had with them, she realized the power of music to spread joy and forge connections. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Grace felt lost without her usual piano performances and competitions. Knowing that seniors were especially isolated, she gathered a group of peers to perform free virtual concerts for senior homes, family care centers, and hospitals. Two years later, Grace stumbled across an article about music therapy as a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s. Intrigued, she and her team performed their usual classical program for an audience of Alzheimer’s patients — and were met with silence. They decided to overhaul their repertoire, replacing Beethoven sonatas with oldies from the 1950s. At their next concert, the Alzheimer’s seniors smiled, clapped, and sang along with the familiar tunes. An aspiring physician-researcher, Grace is fascinated by the cognitive benefits performing arts can provide and is interning with Alzheimer’s San Diego. Melodies for Remedies is working to increase awareness of the disease and has raised $4,000 to support research as well as music therapy materials. “Through benefit concerts and raising awareness of dementia, I hope to grow my musical cause for the community,” says Grace. “I hope the music we bring can touch more people’s hearts and bring joy to everyone involved in the program.”
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Grace Sun
Lawrence Rivera's search and rescue unit was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks at Ground Zero in Manhattan...
Lawrence Rivera's search and rescue unit was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks at Ground Zero in Manhattan. He was the only EMT and paramedic from his station in that district to survive.
On September 10, he transferred out to the New Orleans Search and Rescue unit in Louisiana — missing 9/11 by just one day.
Lawrence Rivera is the classic all-around first responder and a United States Army Ranger (field corpsman). He fought in Iraq and has saved thousands of lives — in New York City, in New Orleans, in Louisiana, and while serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq.
Staff Sergeant Rivera, forever!