CNN Heroes

(CNN) -- War widows, "motel kids" and the working poor are among the many people who have been helped by this year's top 10 CNN Heroes.

The top 10 -- remarkable everyday people changing the world -- were revealed Thursday by CNN's Anderson Cooper. All were nominated by CNN viewers inspired by their hard work and commitment.

Each of the top 10 will receive a $50,000 grant and be honored at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," a globally broadcast event that airs December 11 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

One of the top 10 will be voted CNN Hero of the Year by the public and receive an additional $250,000.

The live tribute show, hosted by Cooper at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, will culminate in the announcement of the CNN Hero of the Year.


Through December 7, people can vote for their favorite Hero at CNNHeroes.com. They can also vote from mobile devices.

This is the fifth year CNN has conducted its annual search for CNN Heroes. In those five years, the campaign has profiled more than 160 people on CNN and CNN.com. And there have been roughly 40,000 nominations received from more than 100 countries.

Here are the top 10 Heroes of 2011, in alphabetical order:

Eddie Canales
Eddie Canales' son was paralyzed during a high school football game in 2001. Today, Canales' nonprofit, Gridiron Heroes, provides emotional and financial support to high school football players who've sustained life-changing spinal cord injuries.

Taryn Davis
Taryn Davis was just 21 when her husband, an Army corporal, was killed in Iraq. In 2007, she created the American Widow Project. To date, her nonprofit has provided a community of support to nearly 800 young military widows.

Sal Dimiceli
Sal Dimiceli has spent decades helping people get back on their feet. Through a local newspaper column and his nonprofit, The Time Is Now To Help, Dimiceli assists about 500 people a year with food, rent, utilities and other necessities.

Elena Durón Miranda
Elena Durón Miranda once witnessed children eating and collecting items from a trash dump in Bariloche, Argentina. Today, her nonprofit, PETISOS, helps keep about 200 children out of the dump and enrolled in school.

Derreck Kayongo
Derreck Kayongo's Global Soap Project collects partially used hotel soap and reprocesses it to save lives. Since 2009, the Atlanta-based nonprofit has provided more than 100,000 bars of soap for communities in nine countries.

Diane Latiker
Surrounded by gang violence in her Chicago neighborhood, Diane Latiker opened her home to area youth and started a community program called Kids Off the Block. Today, she has turned the building next door into a safe place for more than 300 young people.

Robin Lim
Robin Lim became a midwife after her sister died from complications during pregnancy. Since 2003, she and her team in Indonesia have helped thousands of low-income women have a healthy pregnancies and births.

Patrice Millet
After being stricken with cancer, Patrice Millet dedicated his life to helping children in his native Haiti. His nonprofit youth soccer program provides free equipment, coaching and food to hundreds of participants from the slums and teaches them to become responsible citizens.

Bruno Serato
Since 2005, chef Bruno Serato has been serving free pasta dinners to children, many of whom are poor and live in motels with their families. Today, Serato provides dinner seven days a week to nearly 200 children at the Boys & Girls Club in Anaheim, California.

Amy Stokes
Amy Stokes is redefining "family" for South African children affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty. Her organization, Infinite Family, has connected almost 300 teenage "Net Buddies" with nearly 200 volunteer mentors from all over the world via the Internet.

Read more on CNN online!

BYE BYE Don't Ask Don't Tell!

After years of debate and months of final preparations, the military can no longer prevent gays from serving openly in its ranks.

Repeal of a 1993 law that allowed gays to serve only so long as they kept their sexual orientation private took effect Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. EDT.
Some in Congress still oppose the change, but top Pentagon leaders have certified that it will not undermine the military's ability to recruit or to fight wars.

The Army was distributing a business-as-usual statement Tuesday saying simply, "The law is repealed," and reminding soldiers to treat each other fairly.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, scheduled a Pentagon news conference to field questions about the repeal. And a bipartisan group of congressional supporters of allowing openly gay service planned a news conference on Capitol Hill.

Gay advocacy groups planned a series of celebrations across the country.
At a San Diego bar, current and former troops danced and counted down to midnight. "You are all heroes," Sean Sala, a former Navy operations specialist, said. "The days of your faces being blacked out on the news - no more."
In Iraq, a spokesman for U.S forces put out a statement Tuesday morning noting that all troops there had been trained for the change.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said Monday that the military is adequately prepared for the end of the current policy, commonly known as "don't ask, don't tell," under which gays can serve as long as they don't openly acknowledge their sexual orientation and commanders are not allowed to ask.
"No one should be left with the impression that we are unprepared. We are prepared for repeal," Little said.

Last week, the Pentagon said 97 percent of the military has undergone training in the new law.

For weeks the military services have accepted applications from openly gay recruits, while waiting for repeal to take effect before processing the applications.

With the lifting of the ban, the Defense Department will publish revised regulations to reflect the new law allowing gays to serve openly. The revisions, such as eliminating references to banned homosexual service, are in line with policy guidance that was issued by top Pentagon officials in January, after Obama signed the legislation that did away with the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The lifting of the 18-year-old ban also brings a halt to all pending investigations, discharges and other administrative proceedings that were begun under the Clinton-era law.

Existing standards of personal conduct, such as those pertaining to public displays of affection, will continue regardless of sexual orientation.
There also will be no immediate changes to eligibility standards for military benefits. All service members already are entitled to certain benefits and entitlements, such as designating a partner as one's life insurance beneficiary or as designated caregiver in the Wounded Warrior program.

Gay marriage is one of the thornier issues. An initial move by the Navy earlier this year to train chaplains about same-sex civil unions in states where they are legal was halted after more than five dozen lawmakers objected. The Pentagon is reviewing the issue.

Service members who were discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" law will be allowed to re-enlist, but their applications will not be given priority over those of any others with prior military experience who are seeking to re-enlist.
Some in Congress remain opposed to repeal, arguing that it may undermine order and discipline.

A leading advocate, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, said Monday the repeal is overdue.

"Our nation will finally close the door on a fundamental unfairness for gays and lesbians, and indeed affirm equality for all Americans," the California Democrat said.

(coutesy of Huffington Post)

Dog Reunites With Owner (couldn't resist)!

Man & Son Save a Fawn in Middle of Bay

Dave Falkenburg didn’t catch any fish in Michigan’s Wild Foul Bay on a recent excursion, but he’s happy with what he says he did grab from the water: A 65-pound fawn.

Falkenburg and his 13-year-old son, Justin, say video taken with the boy’s cell phone shows them rescuing the juvenile deer well away from shore on Sunday. They say they found it while driving their motorboat in the water about 45 miles northeast of Saginaw.

“My son thought it was a seagull or something,” Falkenburg told CNN of the moment they saw something bobbing in the water. “And I said no, I think it’s a deer.”

Falkenburg told CNN affiliate WNEM that it appeared the fawn was struggling to survive. The video, which the pair posted to YouTube, shows the boat approaching the water-treading fawn, and then Falkenburg grabbing the animal by the neck with the intention of keeping its head above water.

“We both decided that we needed to act, and needed to act fast,” Falkenburg, of Caseville, told CNN.

After Justin drove for a while with his dad holding the deer’s head, Dave Falkenburg eventually put the deer into the boat.

Thirty-five minutes after they found the animal, they were close enough to shore to put it into shallow water. Video shows the fawn walking toward land.

Falkenburg said deer regularly swim from a peninsula out to an island.

Mary Detloff, spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources, said no DNR personnel were involved. She said she had no reason to doubt the story.

“I wouldn’t put it past the people of Michigan trying to save a deer,” she said.

Falkenburg said it didn’t matter to him that he didn’t catch any fish on the trip.

"We caught the best catch of the day," he said.

An Oldie But A Goodie!

I HAD to post this again because this story moves me to tears every single time I see it...

9/11 Peace Dogs!

A childhood friend of mine (Josh Johnson) gave away peace dogs on 9/11 to anybody who wanted one. "We gave out 72 dogs in the six hours we were open. We met people from all over the neighborhood. It was a great success."

I saw his post on Facebook and just had to pass this good deed along!
Way to go Josh!

Bystanders Pull Motorcycle Driver Trapped Under Burning Car!

(CNN) -- Police in Utah are searching for a group of construction workers, students and bystanders.

But for a good reason.

This group is credited with saving a man's life by working together to lift a burning car and pull a man to safety.

It was a "life-saving move that the Logan Police Department does not want to go unnoticed," said Jeff Curtis, assistant chief of the police department in Logan, Utah.

The incident occurred Monday morning on a street near Utah State University and was captured on video.

Crowd lifts burning car off man Police said the BMW pulled out of a parking lot and in front of Wright. Curtis said the motorcyclist tried to avoid the car, which resulted in him laying the motorcycle down.

After crashing, gas spilled out of the motorcycle and ignited, engulfing both the motorcycle and the front end of the car in flames, Curtis said. The motorcyclist became lodged underneath the burning vehicle.

A video the incident shows several startled bystanders looking under the BMW as flames leap into the air.

The crowd quickly grew to include a man in a suit, construction workers wearing hard hats, a woman in sandals and a young man carrying a backpack.

After one person in the group tried to pick up the blazing car, the crowd joined in and were somehow able to lift the 4,000-pound vehicle.

One of the bystanders drags the fallen motorcyclist's limp body from under the vehicle.

The motorcyclist was identified as 21-year-old Brandon Wright from Logan. He was rushed to a hospital and was in stable condition after surgery Monday evening, Curtis said. The driver of the car was not seriously injured.

Curtis said police are trying to find the people who helped so they can be recognized for their efforts at a city council meeting.