Here are 10 actually heartwarming things that happened in 2016

For many people, 2016 was a year to forget. From the continued war in Syria to terror attacks and mass shootings to celebrity deaths to a bitterly divisive presidential election, there seemed to be an endless news cycle filled with stories that ranged from terrible to heartbreaking.

But amid all that darkness, there were still some moments that inspired and made us smile — spurred by a few notable names but, mostly, unknown heroes.

Here are some of the most memorable.

Inmates collect nearly 30,000 water bottles for Flint

In the wake of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., help came from an unlikely source: prison.

Inmates and employees at a pair of correctional facilities took part in a friendly competition to collect water bottles for students of Genesee County’s Intermediate School District in Flint, amassing nearly 30,000.

Robert Gauthier, an office assistant at Pugsley Correctional Facility who came up with the idea for the water drive, told UpNorthLive.com that the inmates at both Pugsley and Oaks Correctional Facility reached out to members of the community for donations.

“We want society to know that, you know, we’re humans and we’re here paying our debts to society and correcting our errors and willing to make our contribution to the well-being of our society and our communities,” Eladio Nino, an inmate at Pugsley, told the website. “It’s enlightening and it’s empowering for me to know that I can actually make a contribution to the well-being of others.”

While Pugsley technically won the competition, it was the children who benefited the most.

“It wasn’t us that won. It wasn’t Oaks that won,” Gauthier said. “They won.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda delivers emotional Tony Awards speech honoring Orlando shooting victims

Miranda, creator and star of the Broadway smash hit “Hamilton,” used his acceptance speech at the Tony Awards to honor the victims of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando just hours before.

“I’m not freestyling, I’m too old,” Miranda told the audience after accepting the Tony for Best Original Score. “I wrote you a sonnet instead.”

“We chase the melodies that seem to find us until they’re finished songs and start to play,” Miranda said. “When senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised, not one day.”

“Hamilton,” Miranda said, is “proof that history remembers: We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger, we rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer.”

“Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love,” he continued. “Cannot be killed or swept aside.”

Miranda added: “Now fill the world with music, love and pride.”

Olympic runners collide, then help each other finish race

While the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio were not without their ugly moments (see: Lochtegate) a pair of runners showed the world that the Olympic spirit is alive and well.

During a first-round heat of the women’s 5,000-meter race, Abbey D’Agostino of the United States and Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand were involved in a collision. D’Agostino immediately helped Hamblin get back up, only to realize that she herself was injured. Hamblin then returned the favor and stayed behind to make sure D’Agostino could stay on her feet. D’Agostino limped around the track to finish the race and was greeted by a hug from Hamblin — and a wheelchair.

Both runners were granted spots in the 5,000-meter final, but D’Agostino’s injury prevented her from running. Hamblin did run, and finished 17th.

Hamblin and D’Agostino were later awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal, better known as the International Fair Play Trophy, which has been given out only 17 times in Olympic history.

“I am proud that what we did and truly believe that you can be both a competitor and kind and responsive at the same time,” Hamblin told the Telegraph. “Everyone comes here to compete, but there are a lot of people who don’t achieve that and the journey is really important too.”

Comfort dogs comfort other comfort dogs after shooting

Trained therapeutic dogs have become a familiar sight for communities and families ravaged by gun violence. In August, they became inadvertent victims.

Two golden retrievers from a Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dog unit and their human handlers were among those wounded in Joplin, Mo., when a van carrying the dogs was hit by gunfire from a suspect police were pursuing.

The church van’s driver, Kenneth Eby, received multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the chest; Heidi Gustin, who was riding in the back seat, was struck in the arm. The dogs — Jackson and Louie — were also struck by gunfire. Jackson was grazed in the flap of his ear, while Louie took a bullet in his neck. All four survived.

To help the injured handlers and comfort dogs cope, six dogs from three states were dispatched to Joplin.

“We’re used to deploying our dogs to respond to these senseless shootings,” Lutheran Church Charities president Tim Hetzner told Yahoo News. “This time it happened to be for our own.”

Bill Murray gives random Cubs fan a World Series ticket

While 2016 often seemed like a year to forget for many, it was certainly a memorable one for fans of the Chicago Cubs, who celebrated their first World Series championship since 1908. And for Karen Michel, a Cubs fan from Whiting, Ind., it was more memorable than most.

Michel traveled to Cleveland for Game 6 between the Cubs and the Indians hoping to snag an extra ticket outside.

“I was thinking, maybe somebody didn’t use their ticket and they’ll want to resell it,” Michel told MLB.com.

Then she saw Bill Murray on his way into Progressive Field and decided to follow him.

“He turns around and says, ‘Here, here’s a ticket,'” Michel said. “And he kind of shuttled me into the door.”

Michel thought “it was just a ticket to get in.” Instead, it was a ticket to sit next to him, a few rows behind home plate.

The pair talked about their childhoods growing up rooting for the Cubs and watched the team clobber the Indians 9-3 to force a decisive Game 7, which they would win in extra innings. Murray, of course, was there for that one too.

Boy pens letter to Obama offering to adopt Syrian child

Alex, a 6-year-old boy from Scarsdale, N.Y., wrote a letter to President Obama in September, asking whether he could adopt a 5-year-old Syrian boy as his brother. Omran Daqneesh made headlines over the summer when a video captured him stunned and bloodied after being pulled from the rubble in the war-torn country, prompting Alex’s letter:

Dear President Obama,

Remember the boy who was picked up by the ambulance in Syria? Can you please go get him and bring him to [my home]? Park in the driveway or on the street and we will be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers, and balloons. We will give him a family and he will be our brother. Catherine, my little sister, will be collecting butterflies and fireflies for him. In my school, I have a friend from Syria, Omar, and I will introduce him to Omar. We can all play together. We can invite him to birthday parties and he will teach us another language. We can teach him English too, just like my friend Aoto from Japan.

Please tell him that his brother will be Alex who is a very kind boy, just like him. Since he won’t bring toys and doesn’t have toys Catherine will share her big blue stripy white bunny. And I will share my bike and I will teach him how to ride it. I will teach him additions and subtractions in math. And he [can] smell Catherine’s lip gloss penguin which is green. She doesn’t let anyone touch it.

Thank you very much! I can’t wait for you to come!
Alex
6 years old

Syrian refugee helps fix woman’s wedding dress

When the zipper on Jo Du’s wedding dress broke just hours before her ceremony, she panicked — no one in the wedding party knew how to fix the dress or where to find a tailor in her small Ontario town of Guelph on a Sunday.

That’s when Ibrahim Halil Dudu came in. The Syrian refugee had worked as a master tailor in Aleppo for 28 years before he and his family moved to Canada only four days before. A bridesmaid ran next door, unaware of his skills, and with the help of Google Translate, told Ibrahim the situation and asked if he had a pair of pliers she could borrow. The bridal party was going to try to fix the dress themselves.

But he offered something even better. Within a few minutes, Ibrahim had his sewing kit in hand and was walking across the street to fix the zipper himself. The bridal party watched in awe. “I was so excited and so happy,” Ibrahim told CTV through a translator. “I like to help Canadian people from my heart.” The groom, Earl Lee, told the station, “We’re so lucky that happened to us, and so grateful.”

College football player joins boy with autism at lunch table

Florida State receiver Travis Rudolph made headlines in August after he visited a middle school and noticed a boy eating lunch alone in the cafeteria. So Rudolph sat with him. The boy’s mother, Leah Paske, wrote a lengthy and touching Facebook post about the incident, where she ruminated on the stress and pain she often feels thinking of her son, who has autism, eating lunch alone every day. While she admitted she’d never heard of the FSU wide receiver before her friend sent a photo of the two eating together, she promised he had another fan for life.

“I’m not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I’m happy to say that it will not soon be forgotten,” Leah Paske wrote. “This is one day I didn’t have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes. Travis Rudolph, thank you so much. You made this momma exceedingly happy, and have made us fans for life!”

JetBlue passengers and crew honor Orlando victims

After the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in the United States, numerous stories of kindness emerged as the city attempted to heal. One stood out, and it came in the form of a Facebook post written by a JetBlue in-flight crew member named Kelly Davis Karas.

Karas took to Facebook after she realized the grandmother of 20-year-old Pulse victim Omar Ocasio-Capo was a passenger on her plane, traveling to Orlando to join her grieving family.

Here’s some of what she wrote:

“Knowing she was making this hard journey alone, JetBlue employees made sure to be at her side every step of the way. … I had the idea to pass around a piece of paper to everyone onboard and invite them to sign it for this grieving grandmother. … When we gathered them together to present them to her, we didn’t have just a sheet of paper covered in names, which is what I had envisioned. Instead, we had page after page after page after page of long messages offering condolences, peace, love and support. There were even a couple of cash donations, and more than a few tears.

When we landed, I made an announcement that the company had emailed to us earlier in the morning to use as an optional addition to our normal landing announcement, which states ‘JetBlue stands with Orlando.’ Then with her permission and at the request of a couple of passengers, we offered a moment of silence in Omar’s memory.

As we deplaned, EVERY SINGLE PERSON STOPPED TO OFFER HER THEIR CONDOLENCES. Some just said they were sorry, some touched her hand, some hugged her, some cried with her. But every single person stopped to speak to her, and not a single person was impatient at the slower deplaning process.

I am moved to tears yet again as I struggle to put our experience into words. … I am hopeful that someday soon we can rally together to make the world a safer place for all.”

Photo of officer sitting with special-needs teen goes viral

In May, Officer Tim Purdy of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina gained widespread praise when a photo surfaced of him sitting on the ground in a parking lot with a special-needs teenager. Purdy had been dispatched to deal with a situation regarding the high school student, who has autism and a history of displaying violent behavior. “In order to build a connect with the young man, Officer Purdy sat next to him on the ground, talked things through and even got him laughing,” the police department wrote in a Facebook post, which quickly went viral.

“In order to build a connection with the young man, Officer Purdy established trust and a relationship that allowed officers to get this young man the help that he so desperately needed. There’s more to policing than making arrests and enforcing the law. Sometimes taking those extra little steps makes the biggest difference in someone’s life.”

A few weeks later, the pair reunited in the same parking lot and caught up on family and sports.

_____

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