Bikers Fund Baby Shower for Homeless Pregnant Vet; Plus, the Top 10 Good News Stories of the Week!

Top 10 Good News Stories of the Week

Woman Who Escaped Marriage at 17 Returns as a Millionaire
In what is a ‘rags to riches’ story, Chanda Zaveri fled from the pressures of getting married at 17 and returned home 30 years later as a millionaire. Born in a conservative Marwari family, her mother wanted to force her into a marriage that she did not want and a life that she did not choose.
Good Idea Spreads: Window-Washers in Costume for Kids at Hospitals When Superman, Batman or Spiderman are spotted outside their hospital room window, a child’s mood can instantly turn happy. At children’s hospitals around the country, window washers are dressing up as super heroes, doing their part to help kids feel better and heal faster.
School Robotics Club Helps Paralyzed Cat Nine-month-old Flipper the kitten was born with a twisted spine that makes it impossible for him to stand up — or walk about without dragging himself laboriously. But little Flipper’s life was changed forever by cat-lovers from a high school robotics club in Colorado. (Video)
Homeless Pregnant Veteran Gets Help From Local Bikers
A call for help from a homeless veteran turned into an outpouring of support as dozens of leather-clad bikers stepped up with a truckload of baby supplies just two weeks before the expected birth.
Postman Delivers Lesson in Happiness
Typically, post office lines breed anger and frustration. But wait in the queue at the Penn State University campus and you’ll find nothing but joy. "My mission is to make them have a little bit of levity on the way out." To that end, this postal clerk lives by a simple motto: if you can’t say something nice about someone, you’re just not looking hard enough. (Steve Hartman Video)
Inconvenient Truth: More Polar Bears Alive Today Than 40 Years Ago
Author Zac Unger dragged his family to northern Canada in order to write a book about a vanishing species. He wanted to write the quintessential requiem about the magnificent polar bear dying off. What he learned when he got there — that there are more polar bears alive today than there were 40 years ago — led him to pen a completely different book.
California Developer Building a Better Haiti
On his first trip to Haiti, San Francisco developer Sherman Balch was struck by how much devastation came as a result of poor construction standards. Today, through his Christian humanitarian organization, Extollo International, Balch is not only supplying Haitians with permanent homes, but also hiring them and training them to do the building themselves.
Kids Rewarded for Good Manners by Restaurant Staff
Staffers of a restaurant were so impressed with their children’s table manners during a dinner there that they thanked the kids and gave the family free ice cream. (Yahoo News)
Eye-catching Rickshaws Promote Peace in Pakistan
Pakistani youth leader Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi has a plan to counter the relentless message of violence spewed forth by radical Islamic groups in his country. Zaidi is using a fleet of rickshaws emblazoned with peace slogans and decorated with colourful designs similar to those found on many trucks and buses in the country. (AP w/ photos)
Chinese Year of the Snake Gets Raucous, Colorful Welcome
Chinese welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Snake with raucous celebrations on Saturday. Practitioners of the ancient art of feng shui say the year ahead will see finances slither higher as optimism grows. (Reuters) See more about the 2013 Snake, here.

Video of the Week: Massive Flocks of Starlings Return to the Israeli Sky, Swirling Again

After a long absence of some 20 years, migrant starlings have returned to Israel in huge synchronized flocks, creating beautiful moving ‘clouds’ in the skies. Israeli ornithologists and amateur bird watchers flocked to an open field to once again see the show, a phenomenon called murmuration. (Beautiful Species Comeback)