Random Act of Good

Big Hearts Help Ship Fire Trucks

- Adam Clare

This is a heartwarming story of a group of people in the USA who had old fire trucks and shipped it to a place that could make good use of it. This is a great way to reuse equipment and make the world better! Thanks to Evan for finding this!

“Well, the town of Plymouth was able to scrounge up a few spare fire trucks, used, but in good working order; so why not ship them to Guinea-Bissau, along with an ambulance, and give the former Portuguese colony some peace of mind?
And that’s what is going to happen.

The country’s fire chief, Malam Djaura, will receive the keys to the equipment and training in how to operate them from Plymouth firefighters before the trucks and ambulance are shipped from New Jersey to West Africa.

These things, as improbable as they may seem, don’t happen in a vacuum. A Plymouth resident, David Applefield, who is a reporter for a newspaper in Guinea-Bissau, told his father, Jerry, about the fire. Jerry, in turn, mentioned it to state Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth. DeMacedo’s brother, Olavo bought one truck, and Jerry Applefield bought the other truck and ambulance, and Plymouth and Hanson fire officials threw in a bunch of hoses, connectors and other equipment. Olavo deMacedo even had one truck lettered and decorated with the Guinea-Bissau flag.”

International Volleyball

- Adam Clare

from laweekly.com Along the increasingly militarized USA-Mexico border some people are having fun. They play an volleyball using the wall that defines the border as the net! It attracts spectators and a good time is had by all.

All this activity finally brings down the hammer of the border patrol, and a jeep shows up to separate us. The officer is friendly but firm. He’s just come on shift and has no idea we’ve been playing volleyball over the fence for the past hour.

“Really?”

He tells us that a daredevil launched himself across the border in a cannon a while back, but that ours was, in fact, the first-ever game of international border volleyball.

“And it worked over that tall fence?”

“Yup,” we say. “We’re up for one more round if you want to play.”

“No, man,” the officer says. “I’m on duty.”

Dating Volunteers

- Adam Clare

hand and heartEd Igoe writes in to tell us about a way to help people while helping yourself (if your single):

There are, scattered around The United States, a group of organizations who have found a win-win-win situation. They are the Single Volunteers.

These groups act as a loose liason between single (as in unmarried) adults and organizations in need of volunteers to run events like charity walks, public television fund drives, and community events. They have no operating budget, no elected officers, and no offices. Volunteers pay nothing to join or participate. Their administration exist strictly in cyberspace. Volunteers check a web page (edited by a volunteer) and send e-mail to a (volunteer) team leader to sign up for events.

Win #1: The single adults get to work alongside other single adults.

Win #2: Events get staffed with free helpers.

Win #3: Charities benefit from the free help and events.

This is definitely one area where the news is good. People working for others. The web page I list above is just one of the “SV” (Single Volunteers) groups, this on being based in the Baltimore/Annapolis area of Maryland.

Spare a few computing cycles?

- Fraser Birt

ThingsAreGood is proud to announce a new team on the World Community Grid!

The world community grid helps you make use of your computer’s unused processing time. Let your computer crunch numbers for social good when you’re not surfing the web, playing games, or hard at work.

From the www.worldcommunitygrid.com website:

World Community Grid’s mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals – like you – collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor.

To join the ThingsAreGood team, simply create an account at www.worldcommunitygrid.com.

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Google Earth Saves

- Adam Clare 3 Comments

Two men used Google Earth for disaster release according to Ahmedabad News. I think this is an absolutely wonderful use of technology, I wonder if anyone predicted that Google Earth could be used in this way. It shows how a complex technological tool can be used to solve some really basic problems.

“Using Google Earth maps of Surat city, the duo passed on exact locations of societies, houses and apartments in need of rescue and relief, to airport authorities.

The co-ordinates were then relayed to helicopter captains to be logged on to their GPS devices and locate the homes. By Friday evening, they had managed 47 targeted air drops.”

As a quick aside, if you google earth you get Google Earth (kinda spooky).

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