Category Archives: Stories That Touched Me

A Middle School Love Letter Proves Some Loves Never Die

Posted on December 4, 2012 by russtowne

Twenty-two years ago a love-struck 6th-grader penned a plaintive letter to the girl of his dreams. Here are my favorite parts of the Yahoo News article (in quotes), along with some comments from me: “Written in all caps at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Choices, Friendship, Love, Stories That Touched Me, Youth | Tagged 22 years, Cathy and Trevor Webb, Florida, Love, love letter, marriage, middle school, Pensacola, proposal, roller derby, wedding | 2 Comments

Climbing The World’s Tallest Tree

Posted on December 4, 2012 by russtowne

As many of you know, I love redwood trees and live in redwood country. I love their beauty and magnificence. It is a spriritual thing to me to be among such ancient and towering living things which provide homes and … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Stories That Touched Me, Vids & Stories That Touched Me | Tagged (That's Half The Battle!), ancient, climbing the world's tallest tree, creatures, Dan Lewis, Hyperion, Now I Know, plant, Prometheus, redwood, world's tallest tree | 4 Comments

Dancing In The Rain

Posted on December 2, 2012 by russtowne

I just received an email from one of my favorite relatives that showed photos of a young boy maybe 6-8 years old riding a horse, playing baseball, ice hockey, and field hockey, running, water skiing, and more. In each photo … Continue reading →

Posted in Adversity, Attittude, Challenges, Courage, Inspiring, Stories That Touched Me, Youth | Tagged adversity, biological legs, boy without legs, dance, dancing, dancing in the rain, master. dance instructor, riding a horse, sports, storm, survive | 3 Comments

A Sparrow In A Coffee Shop

Posted on November 29, 2012 by russtowne

I have gained much wisdom and felt much love from followers of many religions, traditions, and faiths. While religions can unite, sadly they can also divide, as a great many bloody religious wars have proven. For that reason, I hesitate … Continue reading →

Posted in Pain & Grief, Stories That Touched Me | Tagged 16, beloved, creeds, daughter, died, faith, faiths, followers, future, humanity, illness, John thomas Oaks, key, Love, Manhatten, Mikey's Funnies, religion, religions, singing, sparrow, Starbucks, traditions, year | 18 Comments

Kindness In Uniform

Posted on November 29, 2012 by russtowne

(Source: Yahoo News) Here are snippets from the article: A photo of a New York City police officer kneeling down to give a barefoot homeless man in Times Square a pair of boots on a cold November night is melting … Continue reading →

Posted in Compassion, Kindness, Making the World a Better Place, Stories That Touched Me | Tagged barefoot, hearts, homelss man, kindness, Lawrence DePrimo, new boots, NYPD, police officer | 6 Comments

One Woman’s Amazing Legacy

Posted on November 28, 2012 by russtowne

I recently read a post that one of you wrote or perhaps re-blogged that talked about one of the bravest people I’ve ever read about. As young woman, she risked death and torture daily to save about 2500 children and … Continue reading →

Posted in Courage, Stories That Touched Me | Tagged babies, children, courage, death, honor, legacy, monuments, Nazi, Nazis, nurse, plumber, torture, Warsaw Ghetto, woman, young | 4 Comments

Wherever There Is Love

Posted on November 20, 2012 by russtowne

A dear aunt forwarded the story below to me. I love it and wanted to share it with you. Russ — We don’t know who replied to a letter sent by a little girl, but there is a beautiful soul … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Dealing with Pain & Grief, Dogs & Other Wonderful Creatures, Kindness, Love, Making the World a Better Place, Stories That Touched Me | Tagged Abbey, aunt, book, daughter, dead letter, died, Dog, God, Love, loved, Meredith, mom, Mother, Mr. Rogers', pet, pets, post office, share | 35 Comments

This Kid Is Going Places and Bringing the World with Him

Posted on November 19, 2012 by russtowne

Meet Kelvin Doe, a 15-year-old from Sierra Leone, who took scraps from garbage cans and created his own radio transmitter to create his community’s first radio station. He broadcasts daily, even the community only gets electricity about once per week. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Dreams, Following Your Passion, Ingenuity, Inspiring, Making the World a Better Place, Stories That Touched Me, Youth | Tagged "It's a movement", cans, garbage, inspiring, Kelvin Doe, MIT, radio station, radio transmitter, scraps, Sierra Leone, youtube | 6 Comments

I LOVE This–And The Potential is HUGE

Posted on November 2, 2012 by russtowne

Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction http://dvice.com/archives/2012/10/ethiopian-kids.php What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they’ll start teaching themselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Breakthroughs, Children, Creativity, Education, Ingenuity, Inspiring, Making the World a Better Place, Potential, Stories That Touched Me | Tagged children, computer, computers, create, creativity, education, Ethiopia, Ethiopian, experi ment, kids, learning, MIT, MIT Technology, MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference, Motorola, Nicholas Negroponte, OLCPs, tablet, tablets, Zoom | 3 Comments

Kindness Multiplied

Posted on October 25, 2012 by russtowne

Some neighborhood stores do amazing things for their community. In the clip linked below, a community returns the favor with a surprise cash mob. http://screen.yahoo.com/episode-5-cash-mob-surprise-30909947.html Russ