Good Deeds

"¢ When the teenaged daughter of Victoria Jackson and her husband, Bill Guthy, contracted neuromyelitis optica, a disease that can leave patients paralyzed and blind, they took action. Fortunately, they are rich; she has a money-making cosmetics business, and he has a billion-dollar infomercial marketing firm. Together, they formed the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation, and as of November 2009 they had spent $15 million combating this disease. The two visited the Mayo Clinic to consult one of the few physicians working on this rare disease. Ms. Jackson said to the physician, "œYou're doing research. I've got a checkbook. You and I are going to get to know each other." One of the things the foundation did was to sponsor a conference about the disease. They paid for physicians and patients to come to Beverly Hills. For many of the patients, it was the first time that they had ever met someone else suffering from the disease. Ms. Jackson said, "œCan you imagine, in this day when everybody's got a support group, for these people to feel so alone? I wanted them to be able to sit down together, talk to one another."

"¢ Branch Rickey was a good man who was a driving force in integrating major-league baseball by hiring Jackie Robinson. In 1904, Mr. Rickey was coach of the baseball team at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he witnessed the evil of racial prejudice at first hand. African-American Charlie Thomas played first base, and he was refused lodging at a hotel in South Bend, Indiana, because of the color of his skin. Mr. Rickey saw Mr. Thomas cry and wipe his hands, saying, "Black skin! Black skin! If only I could make them white!" Mr. Rickey later said, "I vowed that I would always do whatever I could to see that other Americans did not have to face the bitter humiliation that was heaped upon Charlie Thomas." Mr. Robinson became a hero in Brooklyn, and he was a hero to African Americans everywhere, but still he received death threats. After someone threatened to shoot him, his teammates helped relax the tension by joking that all of them would wear Mr. Robinson's number - 42 - in their next game to confuse the gunman.

"¢ Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, saved documentary filmmaker and environmental activist Franny Armstrong from a street attack by what she calls "feral kids" on Nov. 2, 2009. She says, "He was my knight on a shining bicycle." She also pointed out how he had helped her: "I was texting on my phone so didn't notice the girls until they pushed me against the car, quite hard. At first it was quite funny, because they were only about 12. Then I saw that one of them had an iron bar in her hand. It was more than a meter long. It was as big as her. Then along came a cyclist. And I thought, 'Good, he's a big bloke,' and shouted, 'Can you help me, please?' He stopped and turned around and I thought, 'Oh, my God, it's Boris Johnson.'" Mr. Johnson asked the girls what was going on. They didn't answer, so Ms. Armstrong told them that he was the mayor of London. The girls ran away, perhaps because they were afraid that they would get in trouble. Mr. Johnson then walked Ms. Armstrong home to ensure that she would be safe.

"¢ Some actor/directors are very giving of their time. Actor Thomas Jane has worked in the films "The Punisher" and "Deep Blue Sea," and he starred in the HBO dramatic comedy series "Hung." When he decided to direct and star in the straight-to-DVD thriller, "Dark Country," he telephoned Mel Gibson, one of the most successful actors and actor/directors ever. Mr. Jane explained that his thriller would be straight to DVD, but Mr. Gibson still spoke to him for over an hour on the phone and gave him the benefit of his experience and advice for over an hour. Mr. Gibson also said that the first time he both directed and starred in a movie, he telephoned actor/director Clint Eastwood, who passed on some advice from the man whom he had telephoned the first time he both directed and starred in a movie: Don Siegel. Mr. Siegel told him, "Don't sell yourself short. Take time for yourself, as much time as you take for all the other actors and all the other aspects of production; spend as much time on yourself as you do on those people."

"¢ Back when John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, was the vicar of Holy Trinity Church, he recognized the importance of education (as he still does). He says that "it was clear to me that if we did not tackle education, we were going to be in real difficulty." And he - and the teachers, and the parents - did tackle education. In 2006, a young man whom he had known 18 or 19 years ago came up to him and asked, "Do you remember me, sir?" However, it had been so long ago and the young man had changed so much from when he was a boy that John Sentamu did not recognize the young man, who gave him a hint: "You came and pulled me out of bed when you were chair of governors, and told me I must go to school." John Sentamu said, "OK, I remember you now. What are you doing?" The young man replied, "I'm a lecturer in physics." John Sentamu says about this encounter, "I suddenly realized that we can make a difference."

"¢ In March of 2009, Paula J. Holmes-Greeley shopped at Benson Drugs on Spring Street just off Apple Avenue in Muskegon, Mich. She paid for her purchase with a $20 bill, but as she did so, a $10 bill slipped out of her hand. Fortunately, the next day she returned to Benson Drugs, and the employees there had the $10 bill in an envelope waiting for her. In a letter to the editor of the "Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle," Ms. Holmes-Greeley writes about Benson Drugs, "It is an old-fashioned store where they know your name and always treat you with dignity and respect. Kudos to owner Randy Dahlquist and the honest employee, Amanda Boot."