(Bill Roth/AP) Christa Brelsford holds a photograph of Wenson George. The 25-year-old returned to Haiti last week to help build a school and to assist the teenager who pulled her from the ruins.
Thanksgiving Stories of Kindness and Courage: Christa Brelsford
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NOVEMBER 25, 2010
Sevil Omer, MSNBC

"Make the world a better place"
Christa Brelsford, an Alaskan native who lost her leg in the Haiti earthquake on Jan. 12, returned to the island nation last week to help build a school and to assist the teenager who pulled her from the ruins.
Story: She lost leg in Haiti, but she’s glad to be alive
Brelsford, a 25-year-old doctoral student at Arizona State University's School of Sustainability, was volunteering in a literacy project in Darbonne, Haiti, when the 7.0-magnitude temblor hit. She and her brother, Julian, were in a second-story room at a friend’s house trying to connect to the Internet when the house began shaking.
Julian, 27, made it out, but his sister slipped on the stairs and was hit by a huge chunk of cement that crushed her right leg.
It took rescue workers hours to claw away at the rubble that had her pinned. As they worked desperately to free her, 19-year-old Haitian Wenson George joined the effort and helped pull her loose. He then threw her on the back of his motorcycle, and managed to maneuver his way through the debris-choked streets to a United Nations base, where she was able to get medical treatment that may have saved her life.
Though doctors were unable to save her lower leg, Brelsford has no time for self-pity. Instead, equipped with a prosthetic leg designed so she can pursue her passion for rock climbing, she remains committed to improving the lives of others.
"When I was in the hospital after the earthquake, the two most important things that came to mind were: Get the school rebuilt and help the kid who dug me out.
"I promised myself that I would return to help them."
So Brelsford started a foundation, Christa's Angels, to help quake survivors. And she started the necessary process and paperwork for Wenson to apply for student visa so that he can attend school in the United States.
Attempts by msnbc.com to contact Wenson through his Facebook page were unsuccessful.
Posting on her website, Brelsford said her trauma ironically ended up enriching her life: "This experience has reinforced my faith in the basic goodness of humanity. People step up and do the right thing when they’re given the chance. I’m just a ordinary kid who had one big bite of bad luck, and an even bigger bite of very, very good luck. The bad luck was completely impersonal. Getting caught in a house was just timing. However, the good luck that I had was the result of deliberate human choices to be kind and compassionate. People stepped in at the right time, chose to help me out, and made things happen in order to get me safe. I was lucky."
And Brelsford, through her perserverance, has in turn given a gift to those she now works alongside.
Kent Annan, co-director of Haiti Partners, the group that helped Brelsford rebuild the Cabois Community School, said he draws inspiration from Brelsford's.
"Her story is remarkable as is she," Annan said.
'There’s nothing special about me'
April Capone Almon, the mayor of East Haven, Conn., had 2,700 friends on Facebook when she spotted a sad status update from one of them, Carlos Sanchez. The 44-year-old father needed a kidney.
She didn't know him well, but she knew she had to answer the bell.
"I sent him a private message and just said, 'Hey, I'll try. I'll get tested,' " Capone Almon told msnbc.com. "I really felt from the very beginning that I was going to be a match and a donor. I don't know why, but I just knew it."
Story: Conn. mayor donates kidney to Facebook friend
Sanchez thought she was joking.
"I wasn't putting too much faith in it," said Sanchez, an office administrator. "I didn't want to get my hopes high. But at a point, she made me feel so comfortable that I started feeling maybe this was meant to be."
At the time, Capone Almon, a Democrat, was running for her second term as mayor, but she kept her generous offer a secret during her campaign.
Soon after her re-election, the 35-year-old politician quietly moved ahead with her plans to help Sanchez.
In April, doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital removed Capone Almon's left kidney and transplanted it into Sanchez. Both made quick recoveries and were released from the hospital less than a week after the operation.
Sanchez said he rejoices at his second lease on life. He is able to spend time with his 19-year-old son, James Taylor Sanchez-Palmer, attend his high school functions and watch him play sports.
"I could never do that before. I was always tired or too sick to go out," Sanchez said.
He also said he and Capone Almon have grown so close that people mistake them for siblings.
"I call her my little sister," he said. "It is amazing what she has done for me. She has opened my eyes to see that there are good people out there. She is an amazing woman."
Capone Almon refuses to take credit for her gift of life, saying she has gained more than she gave. She said she has become more mindful of her health and is taking better care of herself.
"There’s nothing special about me," Capone Almon said. "I always think to myself 'My God, am I lucky.' I have the fantastic life. I get to represent the very town I was born and raised in and I am always thankful. Because of this, I am anxiously awaiting the next adventure."
© 2010 msnbc.com
Reproduced with permission of MSNBC, from Giving thanks for everyday American heroes: Meet 5 who answered the call, and hear what they learned from their acts of kindness and courage by Sevil Omer, November 25, 2010; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
You can read this story in its original location and view more photos at: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40111347
Everyday American Heroes slideshow: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40341696/displaymode/1247?
As you prepare to sit down for your turkey dinner, give thanks for America’s unexpected heroes — everyday people who are thrust into the role with little if any preparation.
Read stories of such heroes: A New York bus driver who stopped to rescue two families from a burning house – and then went on to finish his route. A New Jersey tot who dialed 911 and saved his grandmother's life. A University of Arizona grad student who lost her leg in the Haiti earthquake, then returned to the country to build a school — and help a teenager who helped pull her from the rubble and then rushed her to get medical treatment. A Connecticut mayor who donated her kidney to a Facebook friend.
Read the stories of kindness and courage:
Victor Perez
Jaden Bolli
Richard Lucas