At Valley High School in South Sacramento, California, on a Tuesday afternoon, two of Valley High School’s baseball teams were gathered on the school field preparing for a game to be held the next day. They were at their final practice of the season when they heard cries for help from their school’s parking lot.

Co-head coach Brett Sawyer was getting something from the locker room when he heard tires screeching (发出刺耳声), and a loud “bang”. He came out to see the entire team quickly rush to the parking lot, jumping over fences (围栏).

It turned out a 16-year-old student visiting Valley High School was accidentally hit by a car in the lot, and she was stuck under the vehicle. The car was driven by her own mother, who dropped her off in the parking lot and then hit another car. In a panic, the mother backed her vehicle up without realizing that her daughter was right behind the car, and the girl became trapped underneath.

It did not take long before around a dozen of the baseball players ran out there as a team. There was no one really saying much. The guys just got around the car and helped lift the four-door car off the girl, whose upper body was trapped under the back part of the car. The teams’ assistant coach James Millholland was then able to pull her to safety. “With all the team work we had going on, it didn’t feel heavy,” said player Sukhminder Gill. “It felt like we could pick anything up at that moment.”

Sawyer and Millholland weren’t able to get through to 911 on their cell phones, so they ran to their classrooms to call for help. Finally, medical care personnel arrived and transported the girl to a local hospital. Sawyer heard she was expected to recover, which was a great relief.

Coach Sawyer pulled all the players aside.

This incident proved the win-loss record on Wednesday wasn’t all that important.

One day before Christmas, Mom and Dad called me into the family room. I knew what we were going to discuss. Every year we would choose a family who needed some help, and we would secretly take gifts to their house. Dad said, “It’s time we decided which family to help this year.”

Some years it had been really easy to decide, but this year I couldn’t think of anyone. When none of us said anything, Dad looked at Mom, “Maybe Mom has some advice.” Mom smiled, “Actually, I do know of someone who needs our help. This year I think we should help Mrs. Brown.”

“But, Mom,” I said, “she’s not poor or sick. She doesn’t even like kids. Besides, she seems to have plenty of money, we always see her dressed in nice clothes.”

“I know that Mrs. Brown has enough money to take care of herself,” Mom said. “And I know that she isn’t very pleasant to be around. But that’s exactly why I think she needs our help.”

I listened as Mom continued. “Mrs. Brown has three children who have children of their own but they never come to see her. She is very lonely and unhappy. I think she needs someone to let her know that she is loved.” “You mean she’s poor in love?” I asked. “Yes, and sometimes it’s much more painful to be poor in love than it is to be poor in money.”

We were all quiet for a few minutes. Then Dad said, “Let’s take a vote. How many of us would like Mrs. Brown to be our special family this year?” Mom’s hand went up. Dad raised his hand. Looking around, I slowly raised mine.

All the following week we cut out snow flakes, made popcorn strings and red and green chains from paper strips to decorate the Christmas tree, and prepared cookies and candies. We carefully put everything inside one big box on which was Mrs. Brown’s name.

Then came the big day. We decided to give Mrs. Brown a surprise. Since the box was very big, we decided Dad would carry it to the door. After he returned, it would be my job to ring the doorbell and run back before Mrs. Brown opened her door.

Dad carefully set the box beside the door before he left to hide himself away.

On Christmas Eve, my family decided to visit Mrs. Brown.

It was so heartbreaking for Devan Bonagura to see 81-year-old Nola Carpenter sitting in the break room of a supermarket where she works. In the short video he shared, the woman appears tired and stares at the floor as if thinking of something. The video finally went popular, earning over 30 million views and causing a movement that would change Carpenter’s life.

It is widely known that retail (零售) workers are heroes. They put up with long hours and angry customers, among a lot of other things. This work is challenging for young people and able-bodied people, so it can really be more difficult to the old. That’s why Bonagura posted the video.

He posted the short video of her with the message “Life shouldn’t be this hard. . . ”and the caption(字幕)“I feel bad”. At last, his followers asked him to find a way to support this woman, and it inspired him to open a GoFundMe campaign titled“Let’s help Carpenter retire (退休)”. The idea was to support Carpenter so that she could retire early.

Although the goal was just $10, 000, 24 hours later over $100, 000 had been collected. Two days later, Bonagura met up with Carpenter and told her how he had posted a video of her and how people had come together to help her. “They see that you’re a very hard worker,” the social media platform told the woman. “We are all super proud of you, and we want to offer you the $110, 000 that has been raised for you.” “T’d accept it, but I’d still have to work until I get the other $60, 000 to pay off the house,” she explained. “The house is what’s holding me at work. ”She then talked about her daily life and how she struggled to help those in need.

Knowing why Carpenter worked so hard at this age, every one was moved

Reaching her goal, Carpenter won’t retire until the New Year.