AMAZING AMERICANS!
INTRODUCTION 10
THE UNITED STATES OF AMAZING has it all, from flying mailmen to champion ear pullers to a woman with hair twice as long as she is 12
INSPIRATIONS
KATHY & BILL MAGEE travel the world putting happier faces on disfigured children 18
TARAS GENET became the youngest climber, at 12, ever to conquer Alaska's Mount McKinley 24
MAXCY FILER survived California's toughest trial: He took the state bar exam 48 times 26
FERNANDO MATEO, a New York carpet king, shows young convicts how to nail down money—legally 28
KATIE KELLY gave up the glitzy life of a movie critic to teach abandoned Amerasians in Vietnam 34
CAMILLE & MICHAEL GERALDI adopted 15 severely disabled kids and have grocery bills to prove it! 38
HEROES
DENIS O'SULLIVAN, a retired New York City detective, wouldn't give up on a widow's murder 56
KEVIN JOHNSON, the NBA all-star, helps troubled kids from the neighborhood where he grew up 62
JENNY RICHARDSON, 14, lost her father but found strength by counseling her peers about grief 64
ORIGINALS
JOHN LORENZEN, an Iowa farmer, generates all the electricity he needs at the perfect price 68
BILL GATES created a computer-software program and is now a controversial billionaire 72
GEORGE WAY amassed a $1.5 million collection of antiques—on a deli worker's wages 76
GAIL MORSE turned her North Carolina junior high classroom into a high-tech wonderworld 78
LONGSHOTS
LEWIS PULLER JR., the son of a Marine hero, won his biggest battle after he came home from Vietnam 82
JILL SHIELDS had only seconds to live after her parachute failed to open. Then she got lucky 86
MICHAELA & AUGUSTO ODONE are not doctors. But they found a way to stop their son's fatal illness 88
MADELINE MANN, the tiniest newborn ever to survive, turned 2 last summer. Exclusive photo 94
BEN CARSON escaped a tough Detroit neighborhood to become a world-famous neurosurgeon 96
CRUSADERS
EULA HALL brought medicine to the poverty-stricken coal-mining areas of eastern Kentucky 100
DAYTON HYDE loves wild horses so much, he found a place for them to roam free 104
MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS sounded the alarm to help save Florida's fabled Everglades 108
THE DO-GOOD DOZEN are Hollywood's finest: stars who use their clout and hearts to help and heal 110
TOM BORCHARD grows The Big Ones! 116
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