Photo by Anderson Schmig on Unsplash
To download these free stories, please enter the newspaper publication you represent with your email address.
We will email you when we add new stories each month. Thanks!
Note: We are committed to keeping your e-mail address confidential. We do not sell, rent, or lease our contact data or lists to third parties.
Please see our privacy policy for details.
Please enter your organization and email above before downloading these articles.
Download PDF
Word .doc
Download Photo .jpg
Colleen isn’t well known to her neighbors. She’ll wave when they pass, but mostly she keeps to herself. In her mid-sixties, her husband is mostly homebound with health issues, so she takes care of him and reminisces about the business they built together but had to sell so she could be his caregiver. The kids visit, bringing the grandkids, but time is pressed for young families, and Colleen often spends afternoons alone, sitting on her porch. That’s where she got the news.
Colleen’s son called her, hardly able to speak. His wife had been in an accident that killed her and their young son. That left him alone to care for his disabled daughter, who needed a wheelchair to get around. He was distraught. Quickly, they planned that he and his daughter would move in with Colleen and her husband and try to make things work. It wouldn’t be easy, but they could manage.
The day Colleen’s son arrived with his daughter, he struggled to lift her wheelchair up the stairs. Across the street, Sheila was just leaving the house. She had a full schedule but noticed the scene. She paused and crossed to help. Emotions were still raw, and vulnerabilities were open and unmasked. Colleen burst into tears. As the story spilled out, a friendship began. Sheila cried with Colleen. She couldn’t imagine how Colleen and her son could manage to get the wheelchair in and out of the house twice a day. So she put the word out to neighbors. Carpenters needed to build a wheelchair ramp. No pay.
The next day, three carpenters showed up. They met Colleen. They met the bright girl in the wheelchair. They drew up plans and debated designs and materials. They made Colleen laugh, and then cry again because they were so kind. They recruited more help, and their daughters came over to welcome the special new girl to the neighborhood.
Ross, the lead carpenter on the project, hugged Colleen and told her how lucky she was. Ross had a disabled daughter who had died years before. He misses her every day.
“Doing something for this special girl feels like I’m doing it for my own daughter,” he said. “It does a heart good.”
Put Your Heart Into It... PassItOn.com®
Copyright ©2022 The Foundation for a Better Life. All rights reserved. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License (international): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
The Foundation for a Better Life, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, gives your newspaper permission to publish these stories in print and electronic media (excluding audio and video), provided the stories are published in their entirety, without modification and including the copyright notice. For any modification, permission must first be obtained from the Foundation by emailing media-relations@passiton.com. Thank you.
Your CommentsThe Art of Pitching.
A little confidence at the right time goes a long way.
Stay Curious.
The remarkable underwater life of Jacques Cousteau.
The Least Likely to Help.
How a bedridden attorney still fights for the rights of others.
Using the Write Words
How an African American Woman Wrote her Way to Freedom.
Reach for the Stars…
No Matter How Long it Takes.
Overcoming Our Own Worst Mistakes.
Kaelin Clay made an unpardonable error in football. And he owned it.
If You Love Dogs, You’ll Love this Story.
A German shepherd slept at his owner’s gravesite.
Going the Distance.
Why top collegiate and professional athlete Dillon Shije will never stop running for his people.
Turning Tough News Into Hope.
How 11-year-old Jordan Phillips raised $120,000 to help fund cancer treatment.
The Science of Happiness.
How a high school senior made sure an entire elementary school got Halloween.
Let the Kids Give it a Try
How 17-year-old Dasia Taylor developed sutures that detect infection.
Being a Mother…
The roundabout journey to a dream fulfilled.
Overcoming Fear Sometimes Requires a Patient Friend.
How a flight attendant took the time to comfort a passenger who was having panic attacks.
The Calm in the Storm.
Being that one voice of encouragement in a community makes all the difference.
Finding a New Family at the Mountain Man Rendezvous.
How a Vietnam vet pulled himself out of drug addiction by going back in the past.
For the Cost of a Box of Cereal.
How just noticing makes all the difference in the world.
If You Don’t Know Anything About Orangutans, You Don’t Know Jack.
Meet Jack Dalton, Barron Prize Winner and the nature conservationist who started by saving the orangutans at age 8.
Sometimes the Wrong Direction is the Right Way.
How a wrong number, a wrong text and a mix-up led to long-lasting friendships.
Everybody Gets on Base.
Measuring the victories of life, one single at a time.
Are You Smarter Than a Seventh-Grade Business Owner?
How Kidpreneur Alejandro Buxton is making money for college and helping others.
How to Land an Airplane Without Landing Gear.
17-year-old Maggie Taraska landed her airplane without landing gear on her way to flying solo cross-country.
Respecting Your Customers.
As the Great Depression impoverished the country, many families stretched their budgets by making clothes out of flour and seed sacks. What companies did next may surprise you.
Fix it Yourself.
How one couple moved hundreds of miles from home to run a center for pregnant teenage girls.
Never Give Up.
Lessons learned from Preston Tucker, creator of one of the most innovative cars in American history.
Living Alone doesn’t Mean you Have to be Lonely.
How a community in Maine supports those who want to be left alone.
It’s Not Your Lifespan, it’s Your Wingspan.
How one girl’s 16 years of life impacts thousands.
Teamwork that Saves Lives.
How a high school baseball team lifted a car off one of their classmates pinned underneath.
Including Everybody Means Everybody.
How Inclusion Films is making movies using crew with developmental disabilities.
The Brotherhood in Sports Goes Beyond the Field.
How a men’s rugby team supported one of their own.
Laughter is the Best Teacher.
How humor and history go together in this classroom.
Road Trip Across America.
A discovery of what unites us.
Never, Ever Give Up.
The incredible story of the 12-year-old cancer patient who brings joy to half a million children fighting cancer.
Education is for Everyone.
Reading and writing are the basics of an education. See why a 90-year-old Kenyan great-grandmother went back to primary school.
Our Local Heroes in Scrubs.
How health care workers saved the day.
The History of Us.
How a football coach develops young men by teaching them their own history.
Everybody Can Be a Hero.
How window cleaners brightened the day at a children’s hospital.
A Diamond in the Making.
How an everyday superhero saved the day by taking time to go through the garbage to find a stranger’s wedding ring.
Cross Safely.
How one man made sure his retirement years were spent helping kids move safely through life.
How to Honor Your Mother.
Warrick Dunn played in the NFL for 12 seasons. His most impressive stat: He’s built 200 homes for single mothers. And he’s not done.
The Legacy of Dorothy Vaughan.
The Hidden Figure who Helped Put a man on the Moon.
Recognizing the Need.
How a neighbor took a disaffected young man under his wing and taught him how to be a man
Taking Care of the Most Vulnerable.
Pam Tully dedicates 6 months a year to rescuing baby flying foxes alongside the volunteers who help her.
Courage in a New World.
The story of Stagecoach Mary, the first Black woman to deliver mail in the Wild West.
Playtime is for Everybody.
A dad sells off his business and builds a theme park for disabled kids.
No Matter Who You Are, You Can Always Help.
The day Muhammad Ali rushed to save a stranger who was about to take his own life.
Taking Care.
How one woman turned a life of neglect into a lifetime of taking care of people.
The Last Person you Think of Should Probably be the First.
How a group of high school boys practiced the art of inclusion.
Bigger than Life.
How Premier League superstar Sadio Mané is changing the world beyond soccer.
Laughter is the Best Medicine.
While filming ‘Schindler’s List,’ weekly calls from Robin Williams helped Steven Spielberg ease the weight of directing such a heavy film.
A Hero for Accessibility.
How an 8-year-old girl captured the attention of the nation and motivated Congress.
Love Rules.
How Rick Moranis shrunk his role as an actor to be with his kids.
The Birth of Superman.
How two awkward teenage boys dreamed up the world’s most popular superhero.
Listening to the Music Inside.
The long journey of Maria Tallchief from the Osage Nation in Oklahoma to prima ballerina in New York City.
The World Awaits You.
The story of the first woman to circumnavigate the world.
The Little Things that Make the Biggest Difference.
How one man created a forest the size of Central Park by planting one tree a day.
No Strings Attached.
How a 7-year-old girl brings joy to neighbors with her violin.
Bringing the Moon to your Living Room.
How 14-year-old Philo Farnsworth tinkered his way to the technology that broadcast the moon landing.
Beyond the Moon with an Eye on Mars.
The story of a young woman who dreamed of pushing the boundaries and now designs launch systems for NASA.
Going Deep to Deliver Kindness.
Free-dive record holder Enzo Maiorca rescues a trapped dolphin, then watches as it gives birth.
Billy Mills
The story behind America’s first and only 10,000-meter Olympic champion.
A Lesson We Should Never Forget.
The incredible story of American POWs smuggling rations to Russian prisoners at Stalag-B.
How Far Would you go for a Friend?
The story of Dindim, the penguin who travels 5,000 miles every year to visit with its rescuer.
Not Out of the Way, Along the Way.
Taking the long way to school makes for a long friendship.
More Than Just Dancing
How inclusion helps overcome mental illness.
Finding Our Way.
Using the natural elements around her, Kala Baybayan Tanaka navigates the ocean in a canoe for up to three weeks using nothing but observations of the natural elements around her.
Photographs that Changed the World.
How the searing photographs of Walker Evans’ America during the Depression created a national change in attitude toward the poor.
Let the Music Move You.
Bob Geldof has spent a lifetime seeking harmony in the world.
The Curse of Texting and Driving.
How one father turned personal tragedy into triumph for thousands of teenagers by creating the Honor Connor Scholarship Fund.
A Custom of Respect.
How the Japanese soccer team brings sportsmanship to the game.
For Soccer Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, Every Day is Mother’s Day.
Fortune and fame have allowed the soccer great to take care of his mother after all she has done for him.
A Most Unlikely Friendship.
How the war in Ukraine brought two families together from opposite sides.
Don’t Let a Bad Day Trick You Into Believing You Have a Bad Life.
Allie Newman not only survived cancer but also helps hospitals better meet the needs of teenage cancer patients.
The Future Belongs to Kids.
So far, things look pretty bright.
Taking Responsibility.
How one high school student supported her family during the pandemic.
An Impossible Journey.
How John Wesley Powell navigated the Colorado River and Grand Canyon in wooden boats.
Beatrice Shilling
The motorcycle daredevil who became a mechanical engineer and saved the lives of countless pilots in WWll.
Born to Make a Difference.
Kids who are changing their world.
You’re Never Too Old to Make a Difference.
British WWll veteran Captain Tom Moore raised over $45 million for charity at age 100.
When the World Says You Can’t, Listen to the Inner Voice that Says You Can.
The legacy of Susan La Flesche, the first Native American to earn a medical degree.
Something Healthy for All of Us
How 17-year-old Barron Prize Winners Annie and Shirley Zhu provide fresh food for 1,400 people a year.
To Stay or Run?
The courageous story of a collegiate wrestler who fought a grizzly bear to save a friend. With thanks to the Cowboy State Daily.
Give Peace a Chance.
How a Mexican-American Marine negotiated peace speaking Japanese during WWll.
Click the like button above to access our facebook page, then ‘like us’ to get a dose of positivity in your feed.
No thanks