The parents of a self-taught, visually-impaired artist are pushing the charity efforts of their son forward in Nebraska.

Jeff Hanson raised millions of dollars for charity before he died two years ago, all through his colorful works of art.

In the 27 years of his life, Hanson raised over $7 million for charity.

Hanson's style was defined by bold use of colors in high-contrast, heavily-textured canvases that pop off the walls. But there was a reason for Hanson's style; He was born with neurofibromatosis, which causes Hanson to have brain tumors that damaged his vision.

"He started painting simple watercolor notecards, and eventually, those watercolor notecards became heavily textured Acrylic on canvas," said Julie Hanson, Jeff's mother.

It is this style that a group of Creighton medical and art students sought to emulate on Tuesday, with Hanson's parents, on their own canvasses.

"For me personally, I'm blessed to be able to contribute to his art. He's a big donor of the community, and a lot of people know him," said Monty Khela, a Creighton medical student.

"Jeff's life was about love, kindness and generosity. So this giving of paintings to live charity auctions is how he became defined. He didn't wish to be defined as the kid down the street with a brain tumor," said Julie Hanson.

Hanson credited his poor vision for helping him create his style of art, which now hang in the homes of Warren Buffett and Elton John.

"Focus on what you can do, not what you can't do," said Julie Hanson.

Hanson's family has the goal of reaching $10 million for charity in honor of their son.

Watch the video above for the full story.

It's National Leukemia Awareness Month, a disease that kills nearly 24,000 Americans every year. One Missouri man is beating the disease with a bit of help from his family.

"My daughter literally saved my life," survivor Jim Allin said.

It's a story that tells itself.

“To know my daughter is the one that did that, it's a pretty special thing," Allin said.

Allin was on vacation in Miami when he got sick, went to a hospital, and was told he had an advanced form of leukemia.

"We have no family history," Allin said.

With few options, his family flew back to Kansas City to keep his business going. Allin was forced to stay in Miami and desperately search for a bone marrow donor.

Jim spent 33 days in a Miami hospital, then returned to Kansas City with a list of six possible donors that got narrowed to just one, his daughter.

"It’s tough because you clearly don't want your daughter to bear any burden if something doesn't go well," Allin said.

A 96% match, his 11-year-old daughter Harper Allin was all in. She wanted to save her dad’s life. He’s grateful she dove in headfirst to help him.

"It was scary for her, and she admitted that. She said, ‘You know, dad, if I had to do it again for somebody else, I would,’" Allin said.

Jim has now been in remission for 18 months.

"She knows what she did, and she should be very proud of that for the rest of her life," Allin said.

Watch the video above for the full story.

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Sofia Rzymski and Ali Spears met when they were 10 years old. But just a short time later, Ali was diagnosed with leukemia.

“In 2019, she sadly passed away, but a few years ago, her parents started the Ali Spears Foundation. So through that foundation, we have been able to help other kids like Ali,” said Rzymski.

Through a golf tournament and other fundraisers, the foundation has raised tens of thousands of dollars. But Sofia wanted to do even more.

“Last year marked their 16th birthday, their sweet 16. So Sofia really wanted to do something meaningful to give back instead of having a big party for herself,” said Ali’s mother, Mara.

Instead of a party, Sofia created the Ride for Ali Bike-a-Thon. It's a 16-mile ride on the Pinellas Trail that raised more than $14,000 for pediatric cancer patients.

“It means a lot to me because it kind of brings honor to Ali and it allows the memory to keep living with her and to basically raise money for people liked Ali,” said Rzymski.

“It goes directly to research to eliminate the reoccurrence of exactly what Ali had AML after a bone marrow transplant, and so it’s very near and dear to our hearts, and there are six kids in a trial right now,” said Spears.

“We are hoping that every single year we do this that it keeps getting bigger and bigger,” said Rzymski.

The next “Ride for Ali” event is Feb. 25.

This article was written by Erik Waxler for WFTS.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — An act of generosity and sacrifice from a Peoria, Arizona, 8-year-old led some Glendale police officers to pay it forward to the boy with a belated birthday party.

Jaden Simmonds is like most kids his age. Spiderman is his favorite superhero, he loves to collect sloths and he's excited to play his Sonic the Hedgehog video game.

What sets Jaden apart from other kids his age is what he decided to do for his birthday.

Over the summer, Jaden told his mother instead of having a big birthday party, he'd rather his friends and family bring him gifts for kids who don't have as much.

So for over a year, Jaden collected enough toys to fill a big red bin. Last month, he wheeled that bin into a local mall, which caused the jaws of Glendale police officers Jeff Alloway and Commander Ryan Horrall to drop.

"We just try to teach our kids to be selfless and think of others," said Krysta Simmonds, Jaden's mother.

Alloway estimates Jaden's gift helped provide additional gifts to about 40 families this Christmas.

"Shocking, to see a child so young, to have such a heart, such a big heart to donate and give up," Alloway said.

Motivated by Jaden's generosity, a few Glendale police officers sought to pay it forward and throw a belated birthday party at Urban Air in Peoria on Friday.

"The gesture that he did, we didn't want it to go unnoticed," Alloway said.

Jaden spoke to local media Friday and told a room of cameras on tripods taller than him that he likes to help others, and it makes him feel good when he does. Like most kids his age, Jaden admitted he was anxious to stop answering media questions and jump on the trampoline.

With approval from his mother about which games were age-appropriate and some police sleuthing to locate the console, Glendale police also gifted Jaden a Nintendo Switch.

His face lit up when he unwrapped the hard-to-find gift.

"The fact that he thought of others than himself was a very proud moment," Jaden's mom said.

This story was originally published by Jordan Bontke on Scripps station KNXV in Phoenix.

Many people take time to clean out their closets during the holidays. But donating all that unwanted stuff isn't necessarily helpful.

A recent study shows Australian charities spent $13 million to get rid of unwanted clothing donations.

Meanwhile, in America, food banks report that 15% of their donations are unusable, leaving them to spend their own money to dump.

"Food banks are interested in providing nutritious foods, but sometimes people donate things that are not very healthy, and there's a debate within that community about how to deal with non-nutrition donations." said Kaitlin Daniels of the Olin Business School at Washington University.

Many of those items end up in landfills. The EPA reports that the U.S. generates 16 million tons of textile waste each year.

Before bagging up unwanted items, experts recommend checking out charity websites to see if the donation is needed.

"A lot of nonprofits are trying to advertise what they want, either through guidance like Goodwill, saying what kinds of items they accept and don't accept," Daniels said. "Some nonprofits even have wish lists on Amazon that you can check out, because the best solution is prevention."

Experts say cash donations are always appreciated — and those donations can turn into a tax break.

As interest in cryptocurrencies continues to grow, the number of people using them to donate to charity is increasing as well.

United Way Worldwide has seen a 350% increase in crypto donations in the last 12 months compared to the year before.

And it's not limited to United Way. A Giving Tuesday event focused on crypto giving for 1,000 nonprofits raised millions of dollars in a single day.

"We're seeing that we're we are actually tapping into a new demographic and a new generation, and it's just great to be early and be able to provide them with the opportunity to make an impact," said Edwin Goutier, the VP of Innovation at United Way Worldwide.

Goutier says 80% of visitors to the bitcoin section of United Way's website are men who tend to be younger. That's compared to the rest of their website, where visitors are 80% women who tend to be middle-aged.

Rick Cohen with the National Council of Nonprofits says cryptocurrencies only make up a small portion of donations to nonprofits — something that the United Way says applies to them as well.

"I don't know that cryptocurrency will get to the place where it's taken over from regular contributions of dollars, but it's something that over time, as nonprofits hear that it's something their donors want to be able to utilize, they'll go ahead and implement it when it makes sense for them," Cohen said.

Small nonprofits are still approaching crypto giving with caution.

"It can be a bit volatile in value, and so it's also something where it's new to a lot of folks. particularly when you're talking about smaller nonprofits that don't have a lot of infrastructure. that don't have financial experts on staff or even someone with a lot of financial expertise able to advise them," Cohen said. "It's something they're they're nervous about."

United Way protects itself from market volatility by automatically selling the cryptocurrency as soon as they receive it.

Nonprofits are also watching how Washington could regulate cryptocurrencies in the future.

"What I do think will happen in the future, as more and more cryptocurrency adoption takes hold, is we'll see vendors that typically already served nonprofits added as just a native payment type," Goutier said. "So right next to PayPal, right next to Apple Pay, you'll start to see more cryptocurrency options, but I think that's still a few years out."

Nonprofits need help this holiday season, no matter how donations are given. Cohen says smaller local nonprofits especially have seen giving go down, and relief funds that kept them going during the pandemic have run out.

LAS VEGAS — A newly-released 911 call recording from the night of a UNLV fraternity's amateur charity boxing event is shining more light on what happened in the moments after a participant collapsed.

He died days later.

Nathan Valencia, 20, died on Nov. 23 after taking part in a boxing match on Nov. 19.

His death was ruled a homicide by the coroner's office.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told 13 Action News in a statement, "Although Mr. Valencia's death is tragic, the circumstances surrounding his death are not criminal, and no charges will be filed."

The agency says the definition of homicide is "an act of a human killing another person" and that it did not have information that there is any criminality on the part of the venue.

Meanwhile, the Nevada State Athletic Commission investigates the "fight night" event.

Below is a transcript of the 911 call obtained by 13 Action News and provided by Clark County. The transcript has been shortened for clarity, and parts of the recording have been redacted, per HIPAA.

Caller: We are at the Sahara Event Center. There's a roller hockey rink. We need medics here like right now.

911 Operator: What's the number that you're calling from? What happened?

Caller: So we're hosting a fight night for a fraternity's charity, and something happened, and we're not sure what happened. There's a fight that broke out, and one of the fighters, like, actually got injured. The address is 800 Karen Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89109.

Operator: All right, so I just want to make sure, like, when you said you guys are holding a fight event, this wasn't like an assault, correct?

Caller: No. No, not an assault.

Operator: All right. Are you with the patient right now?

Caller: Yes.

Operator: I have help already started, OK? Just a couple of questions. Is there any serious bleeding?

[redacted]

Operator: Is he completely alert?

[redacted]

Operator: Alright, so I have paramedics already on the way, OK? Just stay on the line. I'll tell you exactly what to do next. Just make sure not to do not move him unless he is in danger.

[inaudible]

Caller: He's in the ring. We only have eight people here in the ring. Everyone else is out. We have nurses here, but we need, like, real medical.

Operator: I understand, and they're already on the way, OK? They are coming to you guys, lights and sirens. Just make sure nothing -

Caller: Do you know how long?

Operator: Well, they're coming lights and siren, and so it's just going to be a short time between when they get there, okay? They're not too far from you guys. Just nothing for him to eat or drink. That might make him sick or cause further problems.

Caller: They said to give him water. Like, lots of water.

Operator: No, no, no — do not.

Caller: No water!

Operator: And then do not move him unless it's absolutely necessary. OK?

Caller: OK.

Operator: Alright, I'm going to go ahead and stay on the line with you, okay? As long as I can. Just watch him closely and look for any changes.

Around the five-minute mark of the call, the operator says, "It looks like the ambulance is there. They're going to grab your equipment, and they'll be right in. I need you to tell me as soon as they're inside."

About one minute later, the caller is heard saying, "Oh my god, did he get hit with something or? Is the main event of the fight that happened the last event? If we're being honest, I was in the VIP section, and then a citizen fight kind of broke, but everyone's fine there. And then, all of a sudden, he's on the floor."

Around six minutes and thirty seconds, the caller asks, "Why did I have to be the one to call 9-1-1?"

The operator reassures her by saying, "Because you are the most calm one to do it for me."

At six minutes and 50 seconds, the caller confirms, "Okay, the paramedics are here."

The "fight night" was organized by the Kappa Sigma fraternity, which has had its activities suspended while the incident is investigated. Its international headquarters is also reviewing whether the local chapter followed internal policies and standards.

UNLV has since announced it will start looking into new safety protocols going forward. The university has more than 300 student groups, and it is currently reviewing the safety of all of them.

Scripps' Vegas station KTNV first reported this story.

As St. Vincent de Paul collects coats to hand out this winter, one donor stands above the rest.

For more than a decade, Poul Lemasters has been giving the gift of warmth during the holidays.

This year, he's taking some inspiration from his pandemic hobby to bring in more money and more coats.

From behind a bar, Lemasters is serving up cocktails for coats.

"I'm naïve in many ways and when we first did this and started you know they got more and more and I thought we're going to run out of people to give coats to and you don't because every year somebody needs a new coat," Lemasters said.

Twelve years ago he started a nonprofit collecting coats.

Though it's grown into quite the operation, donating 5,000 new coats to St. Vincent de Paul most recently, when it started it was just a family affair.

"This started off with teaching my kids the art of giving back. We did four coats one year. Four coats. We bought new coats. Took them to St. Vincent de Paul. I wanted my kids to see what that was like," Lemasters said.

And it stuck. He didn't expect the reaction one year later.

"The next year my kids kinda threw it back at me and said, 'Hey are we giving more coats this year?' So do you say no? Of course you say, 'Yeah, and we're going to give a little bit more.' So it's been a great feeling because not only have we grown it within our family, it's grown bigger than us," Lemasters said.

This year he's going old-fashioned with a 24-hour telethon.

You can watch on his Facebook or YouTube.

While he collects cash, he's serving up 50 cocktails from Saturday to Sunday night.

It's a fun twist on what he's found is a real necessity for so many.

"I know the demand. We get calls from schools and local organizations asking can you bring us 50 coats? 100 coats? And I'm humbled to be able to say yes we can," Lemasters said.

Click here to donate.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. —

Doggie date night served up delicious food for a good cause.

Pets and owners from Independence, Missouri, were treated to a night out and a gourmet dinner Wednesday. The purpose of the event was to raise money for Shep’s Place Senior Dog Sanctuary, a refuge for abandoned old dogs in the Kansas City area.

Both the humans and the pets were treated to tasty food. The human meals were provided by two local restaurants, Ophelia’s and Courthouse Exchange, located in the city's main square. The doggy dinners were provided by another local establishment called Brookside Bakery. The event also featured space for the owners and their pets to take a picture after the meal.

All reservations on Wednesday night were sold out.

President and General Manager of Shep’s Place Senior Dog Sanctuary, Russell Clothier, was pleased with the turnout for the event.

"We really appreciate our community coming out to support us and help our mission to find a home for all dogs," Clothier said.

More than $500 was raised through the event.

Firefighter Richard Jett happened to be working at a different fire station and ended up meeting two girls on a welfare check at a storage unit.Jett, a man of faith, knew God was trying to tell him something.At the time in October 2017, the girls were just 2 years and 4 days old.He ended up adopting them, joining his family of two other adopted children.His colleagues recently honored him in a surprise ceremony and given a surf trip by a charity in the area, S.W.E.L. (Surf Waves Enjoy Life), that takes veterans and first responders surfing.For more information on S.W.E.L, click here.

A Maryland baker is doing what she can to give back to the community one cookie at a time.

Julie Rewers' latest project involves making sure kids have water to drink in school.

"We have raspberry lemonade, which is a raspberry lemon sugar cookie; we have chocolate chip; Oriole dreamsicle, which is an orange cream sugar cookie; and then oatmeal raisin," Rewers said.

Those are just a few of the cookie flavors Rewers sells at farmers markets and food truck events. For the Baltimore baker and entrepreneur, each sale is important. She calls her business "Cookies for a Cause Maryland" because a portion of the proceeds go to help people in need.

"I usually donate 20% of my proceeds to the food bank, but I will also be donating to other specific local causes," Rewers said.

Her latest mission is to provide bottled water to students in Baltimore City and Baltimore County public schools. It's a project she started March 1 after seeing on social media that water fountains wouldn't be in operation because of the pandemic.

"So far, we've donated 4,600 water bottles and about 300 to 400 cases of water to about eight different schools," Rewers said.

She lives by the motto: "Cookies will save the world."

"So, cookies will save the world. It's definitely a motto that I go by. It's something that seems so small and, like, doesn't seem it will get you very far," Rewers said.

But it does go far to help others, one cookie at a time.

CNN —

A New York woman is giving back to the community after more than 150 Amazon boxes that did not belong to her showed up at her house.

Jillian Cannan told CNN started receiving packages at her home on June 5 thinking they were related to her business.

"I thought my business partner had ordered something for our studio that we were waiting for on backorder," she said. "So I opened them up to condense the boxes and I realized they were mask brackets."

Cannan sent an image to her business partner asking why she ordered so many, only to find out neither she nor her partner ordered them.

"So I go back out and I check the boxes and it's my address, but not my name," she said.

Cannan thought the packages were weird but just thought it was an honest mistake, until more started showing up.

Related video: Woman uses TikTok popularity to gift thousands of dollars to wait staff

She called Amazon and explained the situation, and was told to keep the packages and put in a ticket for the mistake.

The packages then started coming more frequently and from multiple carriers, including UPS and the postal service.

"So the one day I moved all the packages off of my porch and I left, and I got a phone call probably an hour later for my best friend's mom," she said. "And she's like, 'Just so, you know, there's a ton of packages on your porch. You can't even see your front door.'"

Cannan called Amazon again, but no one could figure out if the packages were part of a scam or just a common mistake. Cannan said Amazon worked really hard to try to get the packages to stop. She and her husband even tried to refuse them at one point without any luck.

"Then they started coming by freight trucks on pallets in our driveway," she said.

Amazon finally figured out who was supposed to be getting the mask brackets, so Cannan brainstormed with her business partner to figure out a way to use them. They own a DIY and creative studio, so they decided to use the children's brackets to create DIY mask kits for the patients at the local children's hospital.

To make it even better, the duo asked Amazon to donate the rest of the supplies for Cannan's inconvenience, and the company agreed. Cannan said a few other companies are pitching in as well.

She is finalizing the number of kits that the hospitals want and will hopefully be putting them together this week. She talking to some other hospitals in the area to donate the rest.

"It's kind of taken on this own little life of its own and it's really cool that people want to be able to give back and do something," Cannan said. "With everything going on right now, it's just crazy how it all kind of happened."