Yard Work

Yard sales and summer go together like ice cream & sprinkles, and what a great way for kids to earn money for their favorite child-serving organizations. That's what 11-year-old Allieanna Pierson did at her Alton, Ill., home. Piggybacking on her successful collection of coloring books and other art supplies (plus Beanie Babies -- always a hit) for young patients at St. Jude's Children's Resarch Hospital, Allieanna gathered belongings she was ready to part with and set up shop last month. Shoppers were encouraged, too, to drop off new coloring books, crayons and other supplies, along with cash donations for St. Jude's. A post-sale trip to deliver collected goods and donations with her aunt and grandmother was Allieanna's first trip to Memphis. "She did it all herself," mom Tanya McGee told the local paper. "She's always got something on her mind."

(Photo: The Telegraph)

The Case for Cartoons

"Absorbent and yellow and porous"...and educational? Arr, matey, that he is. When New Jersey 8-year-old Reese Ronceray saved a 5-year-old from drowning last month at a party for families of kids on their school bus route, he was replicating something he'd seen on "Spongebob Squarepants."

Andrew Gentile, 5, had wandered into a man-made lake and begun struggling when he discovered he couldn't touch its floor. His mom plunged in to help but panicked when she couldn't find the bottom, either. "I just knew how to react; I jumped in," Reese told the local paper. "The hardest part was when we both went under, getting us back up to the surface."

No medical attention was needed, luckily, and the school held a day in Reese's honor. "He was an angel to me," said Andrew's mom.