Everyday Heroes of 2018

  • A man nicknamed ‘French Spiderman’ did not hesitate when he saw a child dangling from a tall building. He scaled the four-story building and it was all caught on camera. His real name is Mamoudzou Gassma. The 22-year-old, who is a stranger to the boy, swung himself from balcony to balcony with nothing but his bare hands. He was on his way home from a soccer game when he spotted the toddler. Mamoudou noted, “I like children, I would have hated to see him getting hurt in front of me. I ran and I looked for solutions to save him and thank God I scaled the front of the building to the balcony. He was crying because he was hurt.”

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  • Emma González is an American activist and advocate for gun control. As a high school senior she survived the February 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, and in response co-founded the gun-control advocacy group Never Again MSD. She gave a heartfelt speech after the shooting that won hearts nationwide.

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  • Aaron Feis was a coach at Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the Parkland shooting that left 17 dead. But if it wasn’t for him, 3 others would have been dead. He shielded 3 kids and was shot to death. RIP.

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  • Two New York women named Judith Jones and Carolyn Kenyon wiped out $1.5M worth of strangers’ medical debt using $12K. They raised $12,5k over the summer and gave it to the RIP Medical Debt charity, which used it to forgive an amazing $1.5 million in medical debt.

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  • James Shaw Jr. gained national acclaim when he fought off a man who opened fire in a Waffle House restaurant late one night in April. Shaw wrestled the gun away from the assailant when the weapon jammed. Shaw was shot in the arm and burned his hand while grabbing the recently-fired rifle. Four were killed in the shooting, but many more may have died if Shaw had not intervened.

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Jordan Myers, Entertainment Editor

It can feel most of the time like only bad news dominates the headlines. But every so often stories of extreme heroism capture the media’s attention. The flood of bad news so far this year seems to be endless – from fires and floods to devastating hurricanes and shootings. But with each of those incidents, came stories of heroic actions that both changed and saved lives.