Blog Posts by Nadine Kalinauskas

Dion Phaneuf and the Toronto Maple Leafs made the playoffs extra-special for one young fan.Just in time for Saturday night's game: a heartwarming, good-news story about the Leafs.

Toronto's professional hockey team has made this playoff season extra-special for one young fan.

Little Jack Monto was born with severe “positional plagiocephaly,” a superficial condition that left his head misshapen: his jaw was pushed to one side, his eyes were crooked.

To correct his head's shape, Jack wore a $2,000 all-white helmet for four months.

"His head is still a little bit oddly-shaped but compared to what it was, it's a huge difference," Jack's father, Don Monto, told the Toronto Sun.

"On a whim," Jack's parents, Monto and Jessica Somerville, wrote to the Toronto Maple Leafs' captain Dion Phaneuf and asked if he would consider signing their son's medically-required helmet.

[ More Good News: Video: Ducklings conquer their fear of heights ]

"His vocabulary is filled with hockey terms," Monto said of the young hockey fan, adding that Jack treats everything as a hockey puck and gets frustrated

Better than a fire detector: Man's best friend.Early Wednesday morning in the village of Atlas, Pennsylvania, a Cocker Spaniel named Oz nudged his owner awake. The house next door was on fire.

Randy Merlo now credits his 12-year-old dog with saving his life.

Oz woke Merlo as flames spread though the vacant house next door.

"He was nudging me, and I smelled smoke and we left," Merlo told WNEP-TV. "Saved my life, yes, he probably did."

The fire eventually spread to Merlo's home, causing fire, smoke and water damage. Merlo is staying with a friend until he can return home.

"This is a nightmare. All my windows are knocked out, but I guess the firemen had to do that. I appreciate all their help and I'm glad my dog and myself got out safely," he told News Item.

Firefighters are investigating the cause of the "suspicious" fire.

[ More Good News: Video: Ducklings conquer their fear of heights ]

In case of fire, it's handy to have a dog.

Earlier this year in Oklahoma, a Pit Bull Terrier pounced on her sleeping owners to alert them to a fire. While

Ducklings are good at many things: delivering the mail, hanging out at the pub, and crossing busy highways.

They're not so skilled, however, at jumping down steep steps, as is evidenced in a cute video posted on YouTube.

"In front of the library at UMBC [University of Maryland Baltmore County], the mother forced those little guys to jump down 3 giant steps, it took like 5 minuets to go down each one," wrote YouTube user Faisal Mahmood.

Watch the adorable duckling overcome their fear of heights below.

"I see the potential for a Disney movie here...It will be called A Ducks Life," one YouTube viewer commented.

We've heard it before: the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

In "Omelette," CalArts student Madeline Sharafian's second-year film, a clever little dog looks after his depressed and exhausted owner by making sure he's well-fed.

"I wanted to make something that focuses on how meaningful it is to make food for someone you love. My family's lives practically revolve around cooking for each other, so it's a theme that I'm deeply attached to. I hope you enjoy it!" she writes.

Watch her heartwarming hand-drawn animated short below.

"Perfect video to start the day on," Sam Morrill writes on Vimeo.

"Vimeo has a like button, but it really needs a Love button. This was adorable! Wonderful storytelling at a great pace. Everything felt very carefully thought through, and lovingly crafted. Thank you for this!" adds viewer Steve Tsuida.

Redditor evilenglish was helping his family clear out his grandparents' old farmhouse in Tennessee last week when he discovered a block of concrete on the floor of a closet under a staircase.

"This was very out of place since all of the downstairs flooring is hardwood," he wrote. "I pushed the carpet back further and saw a round cap with a circle indentation on it. I pulled off the cap and...A Secret Safe!"

Evilenglish and his family were preparing the farmhouse for sale following the death of his father, who had inherited the home from his parents.

He noted that his grandparents were collectors: his grandfather collected firearms, his grandmother collected coins and other antiques.

Upon discovering the safe, evilenglish called a locksmith — and started updating his fellow redditors on the unfolding story, including why he had reason to believe things of value were stashed inside:

"I should also say that early last year my brother in law and I was moving some of the furniture. He went to

Move over, Jurassic Park. We're now obsessed with a family-friendly alternative: Elastic Park.

Led by the innovative Larry Moss, the balloon artist collective Airigami recently created a 20-foot balloon dinosaur at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH).

Check out the making of the best balloon animal ever:

"We’ve built dinosaurs before, but this is the first time we were able to build alongside a cast of an actual dinosaur skeleton. Having a life-size model next to us sure made the construction a lot easier. Our design, based on images we found online, was pretty accurate, but it was nice to be able to look up and take measurements off of the real thing," Moss wrote on Airigami's blog.

Volunteers and visiting schoolchildren gave the team a hand:

"Several classes of kindergarten and first grade students learned to twist balloons and helped make some of the ground cover in the display."

The huge acrocanthosaurus, a dinosaur from the early cretaceous period, will be on display until it

Ehab Sadeek, the owner of Bagel Land in Winchester, Massachusetts, is donating 100 per cent of the profits from his business to One Fund Boston until every bombing victim is out of the hospital.

Watch an interview with Sadeek at CBS Boston.

As of Monday, 29 victims were still hospitalized. Sadeek has donated more than $1,000 so far.

"I hope they come home soon, but we are committed to do it," Sadeek told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

For Sadeek, an Egyptian Muslim, the act of generosity is an important one.

"They don't represent my faith. They don't represent my religion. They will not hijack my religion," he said of the bombers. "Being a Muslim, I felt I cannot stay quiet about that."

He insists his financial sacrifice, one that has impressed his loyal customers, is nothing compared to what the victims are enduring:

"Some of them have given their own life. Nothing compares to that."

One Fund Boston helps families of those affected by the Boston Marathon tragedy.

"I am humbled by the outpouring of

"I want to celebrate my life by celebrating the woman who gave me life."

Canadian YouTube user iProjectAtlas celebrated his birthday with a beautifully selfless and generous gesture: he paid off his mother's mortgage.

"So for the last two and half years I've been saving my money, hoping to do right by a very special woman in my life. I know a lot of my friends wanted me to go out, to celebrate, but this for me is far greater then any gift/party I can hope for," he wrote on YouTube.

He captured her reaction on video:

"Wow."

On Reddit, he explained that he managed to save the lump sum on a salary of just $30,000 a year:

"I was only making 30k a year when I had reached the intended mark," he wrote. "I quit drinking 3 years ago, quit drugs, though I do go out every now and then I only spending maybe 10 dollars on those weekends…I mean all the numbers aside there is one thing i do believe, when there is a goal you truly want to reach all the other things in your life begin to work around it. Then