Rolly: Saving a life, returning a coin, and other good deeds

The Salt Lake Community College's women's softball team defeated rival College of Southern Idaho for the fifth straight time earlier this month, but the Bruins left Twin Falls not as a sports arch enemy, but as heroes.

That's because their catcher, Megan Bradshaw, saved a drowning man while the team was swimming at nearby Dierkes Lake the day before their May 11 game with the Golden Eagles.

According to a blog in the Twin Falls Times-News, the team went for a swim in the lake after arriving in town and heard the man's cries for help.

"I'm a lifeguard and my instincts kicked in, so I ran and jumped in and grabbed him," Bradshaw told the Times-News. "His legs cramped up and he couldn't swim. He was OK. He just looked tired and couldn't swim anymore. I'm glad we were there."

Here are some other feel-good stories:

• Earlier this month, Papa Murphy's Pizza, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, offered a free pizza to any teacher in Utah who showed their teacher ID. The company gave away 7,000 pizzas to say, "Thank You, Teachers."

• During our last snowy period, Joyce Cottrell was attempting to drive onto the street from her daughter's driveway and got stuck. Her older daughter, who had left home first, doubled back when she noticed her mother wasn't behind her. First she tried to push, then got a shovel to dig Joyce out. No luck. Suddenly, a stranger named Brandon appeared. He didn't live in the area, but was visiting a friend. He heard Joyce's tires spinning in the snow and came over with another shovel to help. The two shovelers kept working in freezing temperatures but still couldn't free her car. About 15 minutes later, another couple came by in a pickup and the man grabbed yet another shovel to help. Then the couple, Joyce's daughter and Brandon all joined together to finally push the car free.

• After I wrote in my Dec. 26 "good deeds" column about a couple who had desperately tried to find the names of two maintenance workers who came to their aid when the husband was badly injured, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker's constituent services director Pauline Peck was determined to solve the mystery. The husband, Jerry, who has Parkinson's disease, fell in front of his house near 1000 East and 2000 South and badly cut his hand to the point blood was gushing out. The workers stopped their truck, came to his aid and put a tourniquet on his arm. They got him in his wife Barbara's car and he was rushed to the hospital. They stopped the next day to check on Jerry, but Barbara didn't get their names. She just knew they were city workers in a maintenance truck. Peck, after reading my column, tracked down the Samaritans, then contacted Barbara so she could properly thank them. They are Waylon Blackburn and Donovan Chipman, who work in the city's Public Works Department.

• Salt Lake attorney and university professor Pat Shea recently took his stepfather, 94-year-old Rocky Rochford, to Rust Rare Coin to have Rocky's collection of six box-fulls of U.S. Treasury Mint proof coins appraised. Appraiser Rich Adams spent two hours reviewing the coins, then Shea and Rochford returned home. Two days later, Adams called Shea to let him know he had inadvertently left one of the hundreds of coins out and asked Shea to retrieve it. Neither Shea nor Rochford would ever have missed the coin, but Adams went to the trouble to track Shea down for the sake of honesty.

prolly@sltrib.com