Four People to Be Thankful For

[Music] I'm vim Kraus fake I collect messages in bottles from the beach in 34 years I collected over 1200 messages and vocals I fall the time in the world and instead of talking with other old people I love to walk on the beach and see the surprises in 1983 I found three of them so I wrote them that was surprised to find these messages and the other surprise was that I got answers of all three of them and that's when I decided okay I'm a collector of messages in bottles I find my messages in bottles on the beach of some sort where I live and under Dutch islands messages in bottles a slow mail it takes you days weeks or months to find a bottle and I don't even on the beach open them I put them in my rock back and at home I open them to have a second surprise this is the German girl the first letter she wrote me on the 28th of August in 1983 they pleased me to receive your letter writing is something you can think about what you're writing when you're talking with somebody you're interrupted and getting an answer before you expect it when you write something you can write on your own nobody is interrupting you and when you get an answer I cannot interrupt them even when I have been writing only a few times with somebody I got to know him and when I'm going through this collection and I see the message then I remember how much fun we had for a while this is David Deutsch money this is David Deutsch man that's brother for the last 12 years David has held over 1,200 babies at Scottish Rite hospital hey David when can I raise my voice after the titles appear [Music] at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta you'll find David volunteering as a baby buddy a person that spends time holding babies who were delivered prematurely or requires special medical attention when I first came to work for the hospital and they gave me a little debut hold and the Child Life person walked by and said hey you hold debuts I've got a job for you and I just loved it I became nicknamed by a few nurses as the baby whisperer but I'd be given a baby who was screaming and crying you'd be amazed how quickly they can calm down because the babies stay in the hospital for a long period of time most parents can't stick around mainly because their maternity leave runs out or they have other kids at home that's where David comes in David has gone on to hold countless babies in the neonatal intensive care unit providing not only companionship but other medical benefits as well just ask nurse Angie we find that holding also can help mitigate some pain so when our babies have heal six done and they're being held they react so much better than when they're not held david has done this for so long now when he takes a baby into his arms you can see the baby relaxed because David's so relaxed so you feel the baby's in good hands if you're a retiree I would say you get off your button do something volunteer doing something and there are a lot of different ways of doing it doesn't have to be in a Children's Hospital I know it meant a lot to the moms and the dads too but what it meant for me I really feel that I'm the one who benefited [Music] exterminator birthdays is an organization that I created to instill self-worth and homeless children on their birthday when I started you know smooth so you know it's just a perfect you know I mean my god they need a house they need this and like yeah they need to be recognized - I'm Chanelle leak and I'm the founder of extraordinary birthdays we go and partner with shelters to provide personalized birthday parties for homeless children I want every tau to feel like their parents ordered this party up we're just the people that are helping them make it happen that says unicorn all day long right since 2010 we have celebrated over 800 kids I started with one shelter and in 2011 you know we got another shelter and we are now up to nine shelters and that's in DC Maryland and Virginia store Denari birthdays is not just me we have our party planners they are the heart and soul of ELB because they are planning parties for children they don't know that is hard to do goodie bags now that is over the top and they're putting all of this together from the plates to the napkins the tablecloths they are creating the centerpieces all of this will be part of that efforts we do into transforming the shelter [Music] one of my greatest joys is their first response when they come in to run their expectations are so low that when they come in they just they can't believe this party and we've hit it on the head every single time so we have this questionnaire that basically has the children's name their age who's coming we usually say to them give us three things on your wish list three things that they want I didn't bring our other gifts but I will have them tomorrow because they were super [Music] and then we always ask them what kind of cake and how awesome is it that we are able to fill that because that's specifically what that child wants the people that come to the parties are other children in the shelter when a child is homeless they're not inviting their friends from school their friends from school don't know they live in a shelter their friends are in the shelter so we really are - about building this community it's more about the birthday child but it's about the culture of those other homeless children - because they're going away with goodie bags just like everyone else and these are things that are speaking to them in quiet ways even though it's not their birthday we are still having some type of impact on that child for that moment this mother said something so profound to me she says when you are homeless the system reminds you of that every day she said my daughter did something normal today she went to a birthday party for that moment that mom was able to be a mom so the children get to see their parents as parents and not in a line getting food or you know being part of the handout and that's what I love because that what I wanted to do is to take the simple concept of a birthday party and disrupt everyone's thinking [Music] over 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day and it takes a lot of people to make just one cup one man went on a quest to figure out what it's like to thank each and every one of them AJ Jacobs is a writer who lives in New York City hi I'm AJ and he's the first to admit he can be a bit of a grouch my default state is grumpiness I am very good and noticing all the things that go wrong so to make a change he started giving thanks during dinner I would say thank you to everyone who helped make my meal until one night my ten year old son was like you know dad those people can't hear you if you really cared you would go and thank these people in person and that's when the light bulb went off he decided to hone in on something he knew he took for granted every day my morning cup of coffee over the next 12 months AJ set out to thank every single person who had even the smallest role in his morning cup of joe first it was his local barista the roaster and the coffee shop sorcerer whenever I thanked one person they would say well I couldn't do my job without this person so one person led to another led to another led to another you ventured outside the city and eventually the country I thank the folks who provide electricity to the coffee shop the engineers who provide the water the people who make the steel the farmer and the importer the truck driver the person who paved the road even the woman who painted the yellow lines in the road so that my coffee beans could safely arrive at my coffee shop I remember I called the woman who does pest control for the warehouse and I said I know this sounds strange but I want to thank you for keeping the insects out of my coffee and she said well that don't sound strange but thank you you know I don't get a lot of appreciation in my job all in AJ ended up banking over 1,000 different people and while most were pleasantly surprised by his gratitude its AJ who benefited the most the experience has made me grateful for the hundreds of things that go right every day as opposed to the three or four that go wrong I tell my friends that they should try these gratitude trails themselves it could just be small gestures looking someone in the eye the cashier at the drugstore it could be sending a quick note to the designer of a logo you love I will tell you that it will make your life better it's changed the way I live my life you [Music]

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 1,210,795

Rating: 4.9486876 out of 5

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, new releases, biography & profile, human condition, great big reels

Id: -U9pWc9iUFs

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2019