June 23, 2026

Off Campus Star Kidney Chain Hero, $1.9M for a Veteran, and Pigeons’ Liver Compass

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: actor Belmont Cameli’s two abdominal scars are from donating a kidney in 2018, triggering a 14-person paired exchange that gave seven patients transplants and eventually helped his childhood friend Brendan after six years waiting; 88-year-old Michigan veteran Ed Bambas, who returned to work as a grocery cashier after his wife died and his pension was cut, received over $1.9 million via a GoFundMe started by creator Samuel, and they’ve launched the “For Your Service” campaign to help 50 veterans in 50 states, raising over $1 million since May 1; scientists found pigeons’ navigation depends on iron-rich immune cells in the liver near nerve fibers; Michigan’s Airport High School held its Tractor Day tradition with about 150 seniors arriving in farm vehicles; and Stoneham, Massachusetts police sought the owner of a 7.5-foot animatronic marionette identified online as Spirit Halloween’s “Bobby Strings.”

00:10 Actor from Off Campus Kidney Donation
01:30 Veteran Gets Help
02:39 Pigeons Magnetic Compass
03:33 Tractor Day Tradition
04:10 Creepy Puppet Mystery

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Callaroga Shock Media. Hey there, I'm Johnnie Mack The Five

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Good News Stories. Belmont Camelli is a twenty eight year

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old actor. You might know him from the Prime video

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series Off Campus. I know my daughter was watching that one.

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As the show got more popular, viewers noticed that Belmont

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has two small scars on his abdomen. Now come turns

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out those are from twenty eighteen when he donated a kidney.

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His childhood friend, Brendan went into kidney failure needed dialysis

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every single day. Camellie volunteered to be tested as a

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potential donor. The bad news he was not a match

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for his friend, but he found another option. He joined

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something called a paired kidney exchange program, where incompatible donor

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recipient pairs get matched with other people in similar situations.

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Kamelli donated his kidney to a stranger would set off

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a chain reaction, a fourteen person transplant change that delivered

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new kidneys to seven different patients. At the time on

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Instagram yesterday, I was blessed with the opportunity and privilege

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to save a life. The fact of the matter is

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that most of us have two good kidneys, but thousands

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of people struggled to live day to day with only

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one failing kidney. Every day twenty people die waiting for

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a kidney transplant. His friend finally received the kidney he

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needed after six years of waiting. Kim Ellie said him

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so grateful to be part of this swap program involving

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fourteen people and blessing seven patients with new organs and

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brighter futures. Soon, my pain will disappear, my scars will

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fade away, but the love in my heart from this

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experience will forever remain ed. Bambas is an eighty eight

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year old veteran. Until recently, he was working as a

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cashier at a grocery store in Michigan. He retired from

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GM back in ninety nine, but after his wife passed

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away and after his pension was cut, he went back

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to work. An Internet creator, Samuel found Ed's story. Samuel

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has more than fifteen million followers across to Instagram at TikTok,

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and he'spilled his audience by finding people in need and

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doing something about it. So he set up a GoFundMe

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for Ed shared the story with his followers. Over sixty

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six thousand people donated. More than one point nine million

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dollars ED could finally retire. Ed said, when Sam first

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came into my life, I thought it was just being

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kind of one old man working at a grocery store.

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I had no idea would turn into something that would

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touch so many people. The fundraiser changed my life, but

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would say with me. Even more was realizing how many

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strangers were willing to stop listening my story and help.

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The two have now teamed up for a campaign called

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four Year Service, a nationwide effort to help fifty veterans

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in fifty states. It launched on May first. They've already

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raised over a million dollars. Ed said, for me, it's personal.

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It's my way of saying to those veterans, I see you,

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I apprecure what you've done, and I want to pass

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along the kindness that was shown to me. I know

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what it feels like to work hard, to struggle quietly,

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and not want to ask anyone for help. A lot

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of veterans are like that. Scientists have been studying pigeons,

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and we have learned that pigeons navigate with their liver.

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For nearly one hundred years, researchers have been trying to

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figure out how pigeons find their way home. Humans have

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been taking advantage of that ability for thousands of years,

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using pigeons to carry news notes, military messages. And we've

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known for a long time that birds, fish, and turtle

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used the Earth's magnetic field as a built in compass,

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but nobody could decide how the pigeons were doing it.

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Martin works for the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

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in Germany, and he said, the magnetic sense. That's been

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this mystery for almost one hundred years. So what they

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did was they temporarily striped pigeons of iron rich immune

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cells and then let the birds fly. The pigeons couldn't

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find their way. Take away those liver cells, take away

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the sense of direction. The immune cells sit right next

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to nerve fibers in the liver. Now, this is interesting.

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The magnetic compass seems to get scrambled on overcast days

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because pigeons also use the sun as a backup navigation system.

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In Michigan, every year at Airport High School, graduating seniors

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show for their last day of school in style, and

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by style we mean tractors and ATVs and golf carts.

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It's called tractor Day. It's ped atradian since the nineteen eighties.

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This year, around one hundred and fifty seniors took part,

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rolling into the parking lot by seven thirty in the morning.

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Chase as a senior, He said, we're just a farm school.

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It's a tradition. Everybody's done up before us. We just

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carry it on. Chase showed up in a case three

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h five magnum and the same tractor as family uses

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to grow soybeans and corn. Austin showed up at a fully

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restored nineteen forty farm mall, a a tractor that originally

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belonged to his great great grandfather. And in Stone, Massachusetts,

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the police have a problem. Someone turned in a puppet

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to the police station. They need to find the owner. Now,

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when I say puppet, I don't mean a sock puppet

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or a hand puppet. This thing is seven and a

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half feet tall. It's an animatronic marionette with red hair,

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no eyes and a clown costume. No eyes, creepy and

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it's not like the eyes fell out. It's just a

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smooth face where the eyes should be. The stoneam pdee

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posted it on social media and said we're attempting to

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locate the owner of this puppet that was turned into

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the station. If this belongs to you, if you recognize

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it from your nightmares, please contact us to arrange pickup.

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People on social media figured it out. Apparently it's a

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spirit Halloween product called Bobby Strings. It retails for about

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three hundred and ten bucks. If you're in the Stonham

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area and you're missing your creepy puppet, contact the local PD.

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And those are your five good news stories for today.

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Have a good one.