There Are A Lot Of Good People Doing Good Things: 11 Good News Stories From Patch Editors

ACROSS AMERICA — With full lights and sirens, police took four Illinois high school students to their homecoming dance the other night.

They didn’t load the kids in a police van after busting them for bad acts, if that’s what you’re thinking. In fact, the opposite was true of the four Johnsburg High School students’ behavior.

Four Illinois teens were dressed to the nines and enjoying dinner out when their minds shifted away from typical teenage excitement about a homecoming dance to the multi-vehicle pileup near the restaurant. They abandoned their dinner to help out at the crash scene and, when police arrived, they were consoling and caring for several children they’d pulled from cars.

Their selfless act made them late for the dance, so police gave them an escort. By Amie Schaenzer for Crystal Lake-Cary, Illinois, Patch

Another Teen To The Rescue

It’s been a month since Hurricane Ida brought record-shattering rain to New Jersey, and the stories of heroism continue to emerge. Hanging out the sunroof of her car as rapids of floodwaters washed her downstream, Jessi Andruzzi thought that was it for her. She thought she was going to die. But then 19-year-old Devin Arriaga came to her rescue. By Alexis Tarrazi for Hillsborough, New Jersey, Patch

2 More Ida Lifesavers

Samuel Fontanez and Ivan Mancheno joined the unofficial “hall of Hurricane Ida heroes.” The two Belleville, New Jersey, neighbors rushed from their homes after seeing Rocco Cicchetti stumble and then disappear in the knee-high floodwaters, unable to get to his feet. Each passing car created a wave, and “that would knock me down,” Cicchetti said of the frightening situation. “I would get up, but then another wave would knock me down again. Finally, I just didn't have the strength to get up and I found myself with my head under the water." By Eric Kiefer for Belleville-Nutley, New Jersey, Patch

A Mystery Lifesaver

“I just want to say thank you,” says Joseph Rotondo, a Warren, New Jersey, man who found himself trapped in a Jeep as Hurricane Ida floodwaters rose, eventually to his chest. "So what do you do? I had to make a choice. Do I leave the vehicle? I decided I wouldn't as long as it didn't get past my neck, I was good. It got up to my chest," said Rotondo, adding he “literally saw death before my eyes.” And then a mystery man appeared, extending his arm like the lifeline it was. By Alexis Tarrazi for Warren, New Jersey, Patch

A Prescriptive Soak

Pam Kattouf and Patricia Miller met on the playground more than 20 years ago when their children were toddlers, a few years before both boys were diagnosed with autism. They shared grains of wisdom, including the advice of an occupational therapist who told Kattouf that lavender bath salts would help her son feel calmer, more centered and happier. The boys began experimenting with their own bath salts; and, in 2016, their mothers helped them turn it into the online business Beloved Bath, which addresses the difficulties people living on the spectrum have in finding jobs, and partners with vocational programs that help people like their sons. By Steve Pasternak for Maplewood, New Jersey, Patch

Baring His Soles For Little Souls

Chris Brannigan took off his shoes earlier this year and started a 1,200-mile walk along the East Coast to raise awareness of the rare and debilitating genetic disease Cornelia de Lange syndrome and to raise money for his 9-year-old daughter Hasti’s treatment. Brannigan thinks the lack of treatments available to children like Hasti is because they’re not profitable. “But so long as we take the view that treatments are only worthwhile while they're profitable, children like Hasti will never ever receive treatments, and parents like my wife and I will have to continue to undertake these insane tasks so that our kids can enjoy happy and healthy futures,” he told Patch. By Kate Fishman for Levittown, Pennsylvania, Patch

A Sense Of Place

Nothing says community spirit like a lemonade stand to raise money to save the 100-year-old water tower — a landmark that has given Frankfort, Illinois, “a sense of place,” Jessica Petrow said. It’s set for demolition, but not if Petrow and her children — Carsyn, 12; Harper, 9; and Cal, 5 — can help persuade city officials otherwise. “We really need to think twice before saying, 'Oh, we're just going to take that down,’ ” Petrow told Patch. By TJ Kremer III for Frankfort, Illinois, Patch

Cop’s Got Chops

Drumming chops, that is. Just because he’s now a police officer — a dream job he kept to himself as a student at New Jersey’s West Orange High School — doesn’t mean he has to silence one of his other loves: drumming. He showed off his skills at a recent home football game and sat in with the award-winning high school band, the Marching Mountaineers. Judge his skill for yourself by watching the video. By Eric Kiefer for West Orange, New Jersey, Patch

Bully For Barney

It’s subjective, of course, whether it’s good news that the renegade Long Island bull Barney has been captured after weeks on the run. Gallivanting around the countryside without a fence to hold him back may have been every young bull’s dream (although we have no particular proof that bovines dream). But the farm where the bull now lives will give him sanctuary for life — without possibility of the circumstances that led Barney to bolt in the first place: a trip to the slaughterhouse. By Peggy Spellman Hoey for Shirley-Mastic, New York, Patch

Lobster Liberated

Pumpkin Spice, a rare orange lobster, was almost someone’s dinner. But some employees of Charlie’s Fresh Catch in Vernon, Connecticut, noticed the crustacean was colored differently than the others — a 1 in 30 million occurrence — and turned Pumpkin Spice’s fate from a kettle of boiling water to a nature center. “This is a huge deal,” shop owner Charlie Ballard said, adding that his staff collectively decided Pumpkin Spice should not “be swimming in butter.” By Chris Dehnel for Vernon, Connecticut, Patch

Stranded Swan Swims Again

Somehow, a swan found itself on the median of a busy thoroughfare in Bridgewater, New Jersey, unable to reach the safety of a nearby pond. Fortunately, a FedEx driver saw and reported the bird’s predicament — and it turned out to be a sadder situation than anyone thought. It’s not just that swans aren’t land birds; the pen had lost her mate. The rescue was a delicate affair. Animal control officers had to be careful not to scare her onto the busy highway. Watch the video. By Alexis Tarrazi for Bridgewater, New Jersey, Patch

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