Goodable

In Colorado, a passerby saw a bird caught on a fishing hook and struggling to swim.

So she rushed to a nearby fire station, where firefighters arrived to free the bird, giving it a second chance at life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
❤️🐦

In Colorado, a passerby saw a bird caught on a fishing hook and struggling to swim. So she rushed to a nearby fire station, where firefighters arrived to free the bird, giving it a second chance at life. ❤️🐦

These Firefighters Just Rescued a Bird Caught in a Fishing Hook Line

5 for Good WCVB

In Abington, a simple purple sign above a street name is turning into a public record of service and sacrifice.

Nearly 70 signs have been installed around town to honor military members from Abington who received, or are entitled to receive, a Purple Heart, thanks to a volunteer effort led by Janice Walters, her husband Peter Walters, and Philip Delany.

The three volunteers are all veterans who live in Abington. Janice and Peter Walters served in the Army, and Delany served in the Air Force.

"I always have something to say,” Delany said to WCVB. “So, I joined the Veterans’ Advisory Council, and it just went off from there."

The group has been working to identify Purple Heart recipients tied to the town. Janice and Peter Walters did much of the research, going through volumes of discharge papers from World War I and World War II.

"We would have to look for the name, and then we would come down to battles and campaigns and decorations and citations,” Janice Walters told WCVB.

That work has not stopped. The effort is still going, with more recent enlistment records on file at town hall helping volunteers confirm additional names from later conflicts.

Once a Purple Heart is confirmed, the town installs a purple street sign topper above the street sign where the recipient lived or where the person was enlisted from.

Adam Gunn, Abington’s director of veterans’ services, said those signs are now hard to miss.

"Five years ago, when I started, we had six Purple Heart recipients that we knew of,” Gunn said. “We have 67 signs up throughout town, and we have five more that are sitting on my desk that are confirmed that we need to order signs for, and it just continues to grow thanks to our volunteers."

For some families, the signs have brought recognition that had not been public before.

Jane Matiyosus said people did not really know about her father’s Purple Heart until his sign was installed. Her father, John Matiyosus, was wounded while serving in World War II.

"It's just a wonderful feeling that somebody cared enough to find all the Purple Heart people,” Matiyosus said. “Just having that for all the families to look at … it's just incredible."

The work has also created a growing public record. Information gathered through the project has been posted to the town’s veterans’ services website.

For Janice Walters, the project has carried both meaning and responsibility.

"It's just very, very exciting, very humbling,” Janice Walters said. “If any of the families are listening, I just want them to know that we are so grateful to have been able to do this and continue to do so."

The volunteers are identifying military members from Abington who received a Purple Heart and those who should have received one. Peter Walters said he is hopeful the town will also be able to get several Purple Hearts awarded posthumously to people who earned them but never received them.

That includes five former Abington residents who served and were injured in World War I.

The project started from a small list and has grown steadily. According to Gunn, the town knew of six Purple Heart recipients five years ago. It now has 67 signs installed, with five more already confirmed and waiting to be ordered.

Each new sign marks a name, an address, and a military record that volunteers have worked to verify through enlistment records, discharge papers, and service details such as battles, campaigns, decorations, and citations.

The effort has depended on local records and the persistence of volunteers who wanted to identify and recognize people from their town who were wounded in military service.

In Abington, that recognition now sits above street signs across town, with five more signs already confirmed and waiting to be ordered.

 📸credit: WCVB

A Small Town Is Quietly Changing Its Street Signs… for a Powerful Reason

Photo by Thirdman on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-german-shepherd-lying-down-on-the-floor-7268587/)

For 50 years, NEADS Service Dogs has been breeding, raising, training and matching service dogs, and one of them has spent the past two years helping students and staff at a Cape Cod elementary school.

Star, a specially trained assistance canine, has been working in the halls of Centerville Elementary School in Barnstable, Massachusetts.

School counselor Holeigh Morin said the Barnstable School District brought Star in to support the whole school community.

"Star's impact has been tremendous on not just the students but the staff as well," she told WCVB.

Star was bred through NEADS Service Dogs in Sterling and went through the nonprofit's puppy-raising program, which was created five decades ago.

Director of Development Kathy Zemaitis said she believes NEADS is the longest continuously running service dog organization in the country.

"We're celebrating 50 years of breeding, raising, training and matching service dogs, and we're very excited about that,” Zemaitis said.

Zemaitis said the nonprofit depends on volunteers to do its work.

One of them is Keith McCormick of Boston, who has volunteered with NEADS since 2019. He helped train Star by exposing her to different environments and activities.

"You go to the beach, you go to the Red Sox game, you go to a concert or a theater; the dog is there and participates," McCormick said.

Morin said Star helps students feel confident reading and brings calm in a crisis. She also said attendance has improved since Star arrived.

Zemaitis said service dogs can help in a wide range of public settings.

"Police departments, fire departments, hospitals, schools are a natural fit,” Zemaitis said. “There are so many different ways that dogs can help in a public or a community setting."

McCormick is now helping raise his sixth dog for NEADS. He said saying goodbye at the end of training is difficult, but keeping the broader purpose in mind helps.

"You have to love the program more than you love the dog itself,” he said. “There's always the benefit that when you give up a dog, you only have to wait a short period before you get your next assignment."

Since the 1990s, NEADS has also run a prison pup program. Incarcerated individuals in five area facilities help raise puppies during the week, and volunteers like McCormick take them on weekends.

📸 credit: Neads

Photo by Thirdman on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-german-shepherd-lying-down-on-the-floor-7268587/)

Neads Service Dogs Marks 50 Years As Volunteers Help Train Canines That Support Schools And Communities

Photo by Karen Laårk Boshoff on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/wooden-honey-dripper-on-waffles-7786846/)

Euro News

It starts with a waffle, but the date comes from a church feast.

International Waffle Day was celebrated this week, and its roots trace back to Sweden and a religious occasion that Christians mark on the same day.

The Feast of Annunciation marks the moment the archangel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary and told her she was to be the mother of Jesus Christ. The day is also known as “Our Lady’s Day,” which in Swedish is “vårfrudagen.”

Spoken aloud, “vårfrudagen” sounds very similar to the Swedish word for waffle, “våffeldagen.”

That similarity helped turn the date into Waffle Day in Sweden. The celebration later spread internationally, driven by what the source describes as a widely recognised universal love for waffles. These days, most people mark 25 March by eating waffles rather than celebrating the religious occasion.

There is no shortage of ways to do that. The source says there are more than two dozen types of waffles around the globe.

A Swedish waffle is one option for anyone sticking close to the day’s origins. Swedish waffles are heart shaped and are typically served with fruit, whipped cream or ice cream. They differ from the better-known Belgian waffle because they do not contain yeast. That makes them thinner, with a texture more similar to pancakes.

The Dutch stroopwafel is another well-known version. Its name translates to “syrup waffle” in English. It is made with two thin, crispy waffle-like cookies, joined with caramel syrup in the middle.

Then there is the egg waffle, also called a bubble waffle, from Hong Kong. The source describes it as an iconic street food there. These waffles have a spherical shape, a crisp texture and a vanilla flavour. The bubbles can be broken off and eaten as a snack, or the waffle can be shaped into a cone to hold toppings.

The Belgian waffle may be the most popular version globally, but the source says that label covers two different types, the Brussels waffle and the Liège waffle.

The Brussels waffle originally came from Ghent, Belgium. It later became associated with the capital and is now an icon. It is rectangular, light and sweet.

The Liège waffle comes from the city of Liège in Belgium’s Wallonia region. It is round and made with a dense dough.

One of the main differences is the sugar. Liège waffles are made with Belgian pearl sugar, while Brussels waffles are not. That extra sugar is why Liège waffles are seen as sweeter than Brussels waffles, and why they are often eaten without toppings.

Sebastien Nyssen, manager of the waffle shop Capoue, said the sugar is what sets them apart most clearly.

“It’s already [has] enough sugar, and we don’t need to add anything to make it more tasty,” said Nyssen to Euro News.

The way they are eaten also differs. Because Liège waffles usually come without toppings, they are easy to eat while walking around. Brussels waffles are more often eaten sitting at a table with a knife and fork.

Toppings are also more common on Brussels waffles because they are lighter and less sugary than Liège waffles. The source says Brussels waffles are often served with powdered sugar, whipped cream, caramel or chocolate sauce, or ice cream.

Photo by Karen Laårk Boshoff on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/wooden-honey-dripper-on-waffles-7786846/)

International Waffle Day Celebrates How The Sweet Treat Began And Ways To Mark It

Fox5 NY

Love showed up late, and right on time, for Barbara Proctor and Ernie Glaser in Rossmoor, California.

Their romance began two years ago, and their combined ages are 191. Glaser turns 102 in March, and Proctor turned 90 in October. Proctor said the idea of dating someone who was 99 and a half caught her off guard from the start.

"I said how old is he? He’s 99 and half! At which point, the entire pool and all of Rossmoor heard me say, ‘Oh my god! Ninety-nine and half is he still breathing?’ My friend said ‘yes, he is,’" Proctor said to KTVU.

The two have been together since a first date over a bowl of matzoh-ball soup. Glaser said one of his friends quickly approved.

"I have a friend that I told that story to, and he said she's a keeper. She is a keeper for sure," Glaser said to KTVU.

Proctor said the relationship works because it is built on friendship.

"I think what keeps us going [is] we are friends. We like being with each other. There's not anything he says to me that I would take offense to," Proctor said.

She described a relationship that feels easy and close. The pair talk every morning and see each other at least three times a week. Glaser said two things matter most to him.

"I think respect is very important and compatibility. Those two things I think are very important," Glaser said.

Proctor brings a long history of family and service to the relationship. The former school teacher is the mother of three, grandmother to eight and great-grandmother to three more. She said she has been volunteering for more than 70 years, and that work keeps her active.

"The volunteer work just stimulates me, and the children call me GG which is gorgeous Granny, and as soon as I come into the classroom the whole class stops."

Glaser also points to a lifetime of movement and discipline. He lost his wife, Elly, in 2016 after nearly 60 years of marriage. He has two sons and four grandchildren. He said his health is tied to a hard upbringing in Nazi Germany and what his family lived through before settling in the United States.

Glaser said his entire family fled to China in 1939. They moved into Shanghai’s Jewish ghettos with only 12 U.S. dollars to their name. Eight years later, in 1947, the family came to the United States, where Glaser went on to work as an executive in the food industry.

He said the habits formed early never left him.

"It's been drilled into us. You can't sit still. You got to move. I think that has a lot to do with it. In Yiddish it's called ‘shpilkes.' It means you must move," he said.

That drive still shapes the way he and Proctor spend their time. The two are active, curious and focused on giving back to their community. Proctor said being together feels natural, and Glaser said the bond rests on mutual respect and compatibility.

For both of them, the relationship has become a steady part of daily life. They stay in touch each morning, make time to see each other several times a week and have built what Proctor described as a friendship first.

Their affection for each other is also plain. Proctor recalled a recent exchange between them with a smile.

"Did you tell me that you love me? Yes. Did I tell you that I love you. Yes, you did. He was first," Proctor said.

📸 credit: KTVU

How This Couple, 101 And 90, Found Love Later In Life

Fox News

Air taxis have spent years stuck in the almost-here category. Now the federal government is moving to get them into US airspace, with limited operations that could begin as early as summer 2026.

The new push centres on the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, a federal initiative designed to bring electric air taxis into everyday US airspace through limited operations in specific areas. According to the source text, it is the first program of its kind aimed at doing that.

An air taxi, also called an eVTOL, is a small electric aircraft that can take off and land vertically. The source text says these aircraft are designed to move people short distances across cities or regions, with the pitch built around faster trips than driving, lower costs than helicopters and cleaner operation than traditional aircraft.

The biggest obstacle has not been the aircraft themselves, but regulations. The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial aircraft to meet extremely high safety standards, with failure rates closer to commercial airlines than cars.

That has been a problem for eVTOL makers because their aircraft do not follow traditional designs. The source text says they take off vertically and then transition into forward flight, adding complexity and risk.

Companies, including Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, have spent years testing their aircraft. Some have logged thousands of flights, according to the source text, but full approval has remained out of reach.

The new federal program changes that process. Instead of waiting for full nationwide approval, companies can begin limited operations in selected areas. The source text says this moves away from an all-or-nothing approval model and allows companies to prove safety in real-world conditions before expanding.

Eight pilot programs have been approved across the country. The source text says those include flights from Manhattan heliports in New York and New Jersey, connections between cities including Dallas, Austin and San Antonio in Texas, and passenger, cargo and medical testing in Florida. North Carolina and Virginia are also exploring autonomous operations.

Together, the pilot programs span 26 states, according to the source text. They are expected to support passenger transport, cargo delivery, emergency medical response and regional transportation. Data from those programs will help the FAA create rules for wider use nationwide.

"This is the clearest sign yet from the White House, the FAA and the DOT that bringing air taxis to market in the United States is a real priority," said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer to FOX News. "We appreciate Secretary Duffy and Administrator Bedford's leadership and are excited to bring Midnight to the skies of some of America's largest cities."

The push is also tied to competition with China. The source text says China has already moved ahead in drones and air mobility, and that companies there have been running commercial passenger flights since 2023.

It also says drones have changed modern warfare and logistics because they are cheap, effective and scalable. In that context, the US push on air taxis is presented as part of a broader effort to speed up innovation across civilian and military systems.

Another part of that plan is autonomy. The source text says many of these aircraft are designed to become autonomous over time. Early flights will likely still include pilots, but the long-term goal is to remove them because pilots add weight, increase costs and limit scalability.

Companies are already testing highly automated systems that can handle complex flight decisions in real time, according to the source text. That means the air taxis introduced in the next few years may be an early version of what the industry is aiming for.

For the public, the first impact would likely be limited and local. The source text says air taxis will not replace cars overnight, but they could start changing how people think about travel. It points to shorter commutes in crowded cities, faster emergency response, new pricing models and more automation in transport. It also says a faster rollout will require regulators and companies to prove these systems are safe in real-world use.

The timeline is becoming clearer, even if access will stay tight at first. The source text says limited operations could begin as early as summer 2026, focused on specific routes, controlled environments and pilot programs with limited passengers.

"The first time I saw a Waymo on the road in San Francisco, it was a big deal. Now, self-driving cars are just part of everyday life there. I believe the eIPP will do the same thing for air taxis. Every safe flight builds towards public acceptance, and we need to build that acceptance in parallel with our certification efforts," said Adam Goldstein, CEO of Archer to Fox News.

 📸credit: Joby Aviation

Federal Pilot Program Could Launch Electric Air Taxis In U.S. Cities This Summer

CTV News

For a dog that once chewed the walls of a Gold Coast apartment, Bear has had quite a run.

The 11-year-old Australian Koolie is retiring after a decade of service, after becoming one of the first dogs in the country trained to detect the scent of koala fur and helping save more than 100 koalas during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare described the use of dogs to detect koalas as a “novel” approach.

“No one knew if it could be done,” IFAW head of programmes Josey Sharrad wrote in a statement about Bear on Monday.

Bear’s work became widely known during the Black Summer bushfires, which raged across Australia’s eastern seaboard from late 2019 to early 2020. During that period, his skills helped save more than 100 koalas.

The fires razed millions of hectares, destroyed thousands of homes and blanketed cities in noxious smoke.

Sharrad said Bear’s energy was hard to contain when he was young, but that same drive found a purpose in the bush.

“He literally went from chewing the walls of a Gold Coast apartment to roaming through the Aussie bush on a mission to save our most iconic species,” she said.

Bear retires with what IFAW described as an extensive list of accolades. They include an Animal of the Year award and Puppy Tales Photos Australian Dog of the Year award.

He has also appeared in a “dogumentary” called “Bear: Koala Hero”, and in a book, “Bear to the Rescue.”

IFAW said Bear has a “joyful and goofy” personality, alongside the tracking skills that made him a key part of koala rescue efforts.

In retirement, Bear will move to the Sunshine Coast for a slower-paced life with one of his former handlers. IFAW said that chapter will include belly rubs and his favourite game, fetch.

One of Bear’s former handlers, Romane Cristescu, said the dog had spent years helping raise attention for koalas.

“He melted hearts all around the world, and opened many doors so we could have critical and difficult conversations about climate change and its impacts on the threatened koalas, as well as so many other species.”

📸 credit: IFAW via Storyful

This Australian Dog That Helped Rescue 100 Koalas Is Retiring for Good

Sunny Skyz

In the middle of an apartment fire in Jurupa Valley, firefighters searching a damaged unit found four cats, and three of them were not moving.

The fire broke out at an apartment building on Emma Street, where crews with Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department were working to contain the flames when the search turned into an animal rescue.

“When I looked under the bed, I found the first one,” Engineer Ray Guillen recalled to CBS LA. “As soon as I went to grab it, it fell over. So, I knew something was wrong.”

The cats were taken outside right away. Firefighters and Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Maldonado then began trying to revive them with CPR, chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

“We started CPR, started giving them chest compressions,” Maldonado said. “I know from holding my cats that their hearts beat pretty fast. So, I knew it needed to be pretty deep and pretty fast.”

Oxygen tanks were brought in as crews kept working on the animals.

“We just treated it like we would treat a pediatric patient that was unresponsive and not breathing,” Firefighter Salvador de La Cruz said to CBS LA. “It's small, press hard and press fast and breathe into them.”

After several minutes, the cats began to respond. Their eyes opened, their bodies moved, and they came back to life.

With water and continued care, the cats were soon walking around.

For Maldonado and de La Cruz, the rescue hit close to home because both said they understand the bond people have with their pets.

“They treat them like their kids,” de La Cruz said. “We just couldn't leave them there.”

📸 CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department

Firefighters Revive 4 Cats Rescued From Jurupa Valley Apartment Fire

The Guardian

It took an airport, a stack of rolls and a lot of steak to pull it off.

Philadelphia International Airport has set a Guinness record for the longest line of cheesesteaks, with 366 metres of the city’s signature sandwich stretching across the B/C connectors at PHL.

The airport reached the mark on Tuesday with help from more than 100 employees and volunteers, who assembled foot-long rolls using 449 kilograms of Philly’s Best Steak and 102 kilograms of cheese sauce. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the full line took about an hour to complete.

Several airport restaurants helped build the line, including Chickie’s & Pete’s, Geno’s Steaks, Jim’s South St Famous Cheesesteaks, Passyunk Steaks and Tony Luke’s.

After the build, Guinness official Michael Empric authenticated the event and confirmed that every roll was touching, which was required for the attempt to count.

“What I love about this is that it’s so specific to the Philadelphia community,” he said.

He added: “To do this in the airport and to donate so many of the cheesesteaks to TSA is really incredible. It’s such a community spirit sort of thing,” CBS reported.

PHL marketing and guest experience manager Dana Krawchuk told CBS the airport has more restaurants serving cheesesteaks in one location than anywhere else in the city.

“The airport is really the entry point for everybody coming into the city … so we wanted to really start off really big,” Krawchuk said.

After the record was officially recognised, the cheesesteaks were handed out to airport staff, including TSA officials, many of whom have gone weeks without a paycheck because of the ongoing partial DHS shutdown that began last month.

Chickie’s & Pete’s chief executive Pete Ciarrocchio said the record mattered, but so did where the sandwiches went.

“Breaking the world record is always awesome … But one of my favorite things today was feeding the TSA with the cheesesteaks because this city is the City of Brotherly Love and these people are working without pay. Without them, nobody can be in this airport,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

 📸credit: PHL Newsroom

Philadelphia Airport Sets World Record With 1,200-Foot Cheesesteak Line

Good News Network

What stung Michael Coyne was not the $20. It was who took it.

Coyne, an autistic barista at Red White and Brew in Warwick, Rhode Island, was left "speechless" after customers and local leaders rallied around him when a day's worth of tips was stolen from his coffee shop.

Coyne knows most of the people who come in for coffee, so the theft felt personal. The shop is also operating at a loss while covering the costs of a recent move to a larger location, and the tip jar is his only source of free cash flow.

Coyne has autism, ADHD, and bi-polar disorder. Sheila Coyne fostered him when he was 10 and later adopted him. She opened Red White and Brew with her retirement savings as a way to guarantee her son fulfilling employment.

The shop hit a major challenge in its first year, when enforced business closures during COVID-19 began, but it still became a success. It employs workers with mental disabilities and sells products made by people with mental disabilities. Over time, it also became a regular part of the Warwick community.

"He was really interested in food service, and I thought, what better way to connect him to a community than a coffee shop?" Sheila told The Washington Post's Sydney Page. "To me, it just made sense."

When Coyne realized the tips he had collected through the day had been taken, he was deeply upset.

The next day, Warwick's police chief stopped by for coffee. After hearing what had happened, he brought materials for a new tip jar with a lid and told the Coynes he would investigate.

Sheila then posted a Facebook video about the theft and warned people to stay alert. The response was immediate. Commenters said they were angry that someone would steal from the shop, and Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi was among them.

"Red White and Brew is a very special place … run by wonderful people," Picozzi wrote in a post sharing Sheila's video. "I've come to know Michael very well and believe me, it's not the money that's bothering him, he's hurt."

The day after that, people began streaming into the coffee shop and leaving money in the tip jar. One woman left $100 after telling Michael that her own son is autistic, and that he inspires her to believe her son can have a decent life as a working adult.

The same thing happened again the next day. The mayor came by too. Before long, Michael had received $900 in tips.

For Sheila, the money mattered less than the way people showed up.

"That was the most special part," she said. "It was truly just one person after another, leading with such kindness and grace that it renewed my love for humans and humanity."

Michael said the response left him speechless.

Red White and Brew was opened by Sheila Coyne with her retirement savings and employs workers, while also selling products made by, people with mental disabilities.

📸 credit: www.redwhitebrewri.com

Neighbors Rally Around Local Barista Who Has Autism After Thief Steals Tip Jar

For Matthew Stone, winter in Bloomington meant trying to get through nights in a tent with his dog as temperatures dropped well below freezing.

"It was very horrible, a very horrible experience," Stone told NPR. "I was living in a tent with my dog. It was just, all in all, a horrible experience, very cold this winter."

A few months later, Stone is living at The Bridge, Bloomington's first shelter village. The tiny house community opened three days before temperatures fell below minus 18 degrees Celsius. In central Illinois, temperatures averaged about minus 7 degrees Celsius, with a low of about minus 22 degrees Celsius in January.

The Bridge gives people experiencing homelessness a private place to sleep and store their belongings in a city that has been dealing with a housing shortage and rising homelessness.

Bloomington's housing shortage became dire in 2021 after more people moved to the city looking for jobs at a new manufacturing company. There was not enough new housing to meet demand, and homelessness increased.

Matt Burgess, CEO of Home Sweet Home Ministries, said many residents did not see the scale of the problem until 2023, when people without permanent housing began living in a tent encampment in a downtown church parking lot.

"Literally hundreds of people would drive by it every single day," Burgess told NPR. "And that's when the community started to say, 'you know, it's not okay that we have people who are stuck outside.'"

In Illinois, people living outside can face snowstorms, cold snaps, tornadoes and flash flooding. Burgess said those conditions can make outdoor living difficult and even deadly.

"We started to say very loudly, 'it's not acceptable that our neighbors don't have any other legitimate options than to try and survive in a tent in a parking lot,'" Burgess said to NPR.

The city later shut down the encampment, but many of the people who had been staying there kept living outside in different parts of the community.

"We wanted to find a solution that has been proven to work in other communities across our country, that we could maybe try here," Burgess said.

Home Sweet Home Ministries was in a position to build that alternative, Burgess said, because the nonprofit has served people living on the margins of society in Bloomington for more than 100 years.

He said the idea for The Bridge came after he researched shelter villages in Burlington, Vermont; Denver, Colorado; Missoula, Montana; and Austin, Texas.

"I actually physically visited the Missoula, Montana shelter village," Burgess told NPR. "They call it a 'temporary, safe outdoor space.' And so, I got to see that in action, talk to the people that were running that program, personally, as part of our development of The Bridge."

Finding a location was one of the biggest hurdles.

Burgess said accessibility mattered because residents needed to be able to ride bikes to appointments or catch a bus. Zoning also had to be worked out.

"Truly the bigger of the challenges was dealing with hesitancy from the community about this being too closely located to where existing residential spaces were," Burgess said. "Of course, that's the classic concern that gets expressed by near neighbors: 'What's it going to do to my property values to have a place like that right next door?'"

Home Sweet Home Ministries decided to buy a plot of land directly across the street from its building. The owner, the local transit company, was hesitant at first to sell.

Burgess said the ministry held public forums to address concerns. He said zoning issues were eventually resolved, and the ministry reached an agreement with the transit company.

The Bridge opened six months after the lot was purchased.

The site is a fully enclosed campus with a bathhouse and community center. It has 48 tiny sleeping cabins and space for 56 adults. The shelter village cost $2.7 million. Two-thirds of that came from private donations, and the other third came from a county grant.

Unlike traditional shelters, The Bridge has few restrictions on who can stay there. People convicted of sex offenses are prohibited.

Housing advocates in Bloomington said last year that about 100 people were living outside. Burgess said the ministry's street outreach team is now finding fewer people in that situation.

In the first month, 55 people moved into the shelter.

Stone was one of them. He now stays in a sleeping cabin with his dog, Tank.

"We got our bed over on the far wall. We got our microwave and refrigerator behind the door. We got our armoire over here that we can put all of our clothes in, and then we got our desk and our chair."

Stone said alarm clocks in each cabin help residents keep up with appointments and stay on track. As he prepared to ride his bike to a doctor's appointment, he also praised the services offered at The Bridge.

Burgess said meeting basic needs gives people the bridge they need to leave homelessness behind.

One person who had been living in the village has already moved into permanent housing.

Burgess said, "We've seen people's attitudes shift from asking with dread, 'what am I going to do tomorrow?' To asking the same question with hope, 'what am I going to do tomorrow?' It's the same words, totally different type of question."

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