Mike Levine: Sometimes a good heart
isn't easily bruised

When his father called out to him, 16-year-old Brian Fitzgerald
was watching "New York Undercover" on TV. The part Brian always
 liked was when they helped people out of a jam.
"Brian!" his father called out. The boy raced upstairs. His dad,
 a truck driver for Roadway, knew the sounds of the road.
He had just heard the crunch of cars a few blocks away. Brian jumped on his
 mountain bike he had bought from his work as a newspaper carrier. 
 A few weeks back, Brian was Red Cross-certified as a lifeguard.
 He had learned a lot about first aid. Maybe he could help people in an accident
 He bounded across Pine Hill Road in Blooming Grove toward Route 208.
 He saw shattered glass and three smashed cars. Between the glass and the backed-up
 traffic, he couldn't maneuver his bike. Brian dropped his bike on the side of the road
 and began running. He found people inside the cars. He ran to the black
 car where an older woman sat dazed. Are you all right, he asked?
Ma'am, please don't move. He held her neck still.
He learned that in the course. Hold the neck still so if anything is broken,
 it won't cause spinal damage. I feel woozy, said the woman.
 Just hold on, he said. Help is coming. Volunteer fire rescue and ambulance
 arrived. They gave the woman oxygen.
Thankfully,  the injuries were not life-threatening. Brian continued to hold her neck
 still until she was strapped on a backboard and taken away in the ambulance.
Having done his part, Brian walked up the road to get his bike.  It was gone.
He looked around. No bike. He walked home thinking maybe his mom had stopped
by and picked it up. Nope.  He was crushed. That bike represented years
 of getting up before dawn to deliver newspapers.
Somebody had stolen it when he was helping someone. Wasn't right, he thought.
Sometimes grown-ups forget how crushing it is for a child to have a bicycle stolen.
Sorry, kid, the cop might say absently, we'll keep our ears open.
Parents might focus on their kid losing a bike and forget the good deed.
Brian's parents listened. They told him how proud they were he had helped.
They called Blooming Grove police. Officer Brian Walsh rode around with Brian looking
 for the bike. Checking in back yards, asking people, giving it a good try.
He took the theft seriously. It made Brian feel better.
  He and his dad spent Monday and Tuesday looking all over for the missing bike.
No luck. He learned that The Record, for whom Brian has faithfully delivered newspapers,
 will donate $200 toward a new bike.  The next night Brian went
to the South Blooming Grove Fire Company to volunteer his time.
 He wants to learn more about saving people. Brian Fitzgerald could
 have walked away from this believing no good deed goes unpunished.
He could've concluded all you do is get burned. The world would have hatched
 another cynic. Instead, because enough good people did small good things,
 the boy continues to do his part. He says when he grows up to be a cop,
 he wants to be the kind that helps people believe in goodness.