ELIZABETH — A homeless man and his friend who discovered a backpack full of bombs in that led to the arrest of suspected terrorist Ahmad Khan Rahami are being called heroes as three groups try to help them get a fresh start on life and honor their efforts. 
 
 Donald Goncalves of the organization At Heart’s Length created a GoFundMe page to assist Lee Parker and Ivan White, the men who discovered the backpack filled with explosives outside an Elizabeth bar on Sunday night. One of those explosives detonated while bomb techs tried to disarm it with a robot, but no one was hurt. The others were taken by authorities for study. 
 
 “Had it not been for these heroes, Elizabeth would have experienced a devastating terrorist attack. We owe them a debt of gratitude,” Goncalves said. 
 
 Men ‘walking on the side of the angels’ carried Elizabeth bombs 1,000 feet 
 
 White told New Jersey 101.5 Parker, his friend of the past 7 years, had a job interview the next day and needed a backpack. On their way home from a store, “We walk past a garbage can. What do we see? A brand new looking backpack. Wow!” 
 
 He suggested at the time once he checked it over Parker’s backpack problem would be solved. 
 
 FIND THEM: 2 men left unexploded bomb on Chelsea street, FBI says 
 
 White said Parker waved him over as he came out of the store and wanted him to look at what was inside. White said he saw a pipe bomb and a box the size of a paperback book with a tag that read “C-5″ attached. 
 
 “We’re walking down the street with this thing and I said ‘We need to put this thing down and go to the police station. This is a bomb, man. This is a bomb!” White said. 
 
 White said they returned to his home, but police came back for them as the FBI and the Attorney General’s Office wanted to talk to them. 
 
 “And then the bomb detonated. Boom!” White said. 
 
 Subscribe to New Jersey 101.5 FM on 
 
 Dr. Norma Bowe, director of the Kean University group Be The Change, was watching coverage of the removal of the bombs from near the midtown Elizabeth train station late into the night on Sunday and was concerned because many Kean students use that station. 
 
 When she head about the two men who reported the bombs to police, “I was determined to find out their names. I don’t think it’s enough for the media to say ‘two homeless men’ and not put a face on them. What they did is nothing short of being a super hero.” 
 
 “He literally moved that bomb, was there all night with the police and then slept in an abandoned building. We can do better than that,” Bowe said. 
 
 Bowe’s group, which has been twice been recognized by the Clinton Foundation for its projects, made arrangements with the Elizabeth Coalition to House The Homeless to house Parker at The Efficiency Inn until Parker could be situated in a permanent home. Bowe took Parker to social services and food shopping on Wednesday 
 
 Goncalves is working with the group At Heart’s Length to help both Parker and White and the Elizabeth Coalition to House The Homeless to find Parker, who is homeless, a permanent place to live. White is on a fixed income and lives in senior housing. Bowe said that White is a U.S. Navy vet. 
 
 “Social services agencies in Elizabeth area going to have to pay special close attention to him. We have that obligation to him now because he helped so saved so many lives. We have to save his now. So we gotta get this guy back on his feet, get him functional, get a job, understand what the norms of society are,” Goncalves said. 
 
 “Most people have been showing so much gratitude,” Bowe said, “When we took Lee out to dinner at a Portuguese steakhouse restaurant they got a standing ovation.” 
 
 Goncalves said White and Parker live from day-to-day and hopefully this will change the direction of their lives, and they will “not have to go through garbage cans to live. That’s what a hero deserves.” 
 
 White doesn’t take the “hero” title too seriously. “I don’t call myself that. That’s what other people say. That’s nice, I guess,” White. 
 
 White, who served in the Navy, said Rahami “wasn’t a very good terrorist,” noting Rahami was caught in two days. 
 
 “He is going to prison for the rest of his life and every time another inmate finds out who is they will slap the snot out of him,” White said. “Law enforcement here is second to none in the world.” 
 
 Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com 
 
 Subscribe to New Jersey 101.5 FM on ||||| ------------- 
 
 
 
 We have closed this account so that we are able to give AT HEARTS LENGTH, a 501c3 the ability to issue checks to Lee Parker, Ivan White and to the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless. We would like to thank everyone once again for their support of our heroes and helping to address the homeless situation in Elizabeth, NJ. We will post pictures and notify media when their checks are presented. 
 
 
 
 Update: We were with both Lee and Ivan yesterday. Lee has a job now and a place to stay. The Coalition is completing a plan for him to get his own permanent place which should be happening soon. Ivan is doing well also. They asked us to thank everyone for the support. 
 
 
 
 ------------ 
 
 
 
 Two individuals found a backpack at the Elizabeth train station that had a number of pipe bombs located in the bag. 
 
 
 
 Had it not been for these heroes, Elizabeth NJ would have experienced a devastating terrorist attack. Thanks to Ivan White and Lee Parker, that explosion did not happen. We owe them a debt of gratitude. 
 
 
 
 Lee Parker is homeless and Ivan White lives on a fixed income. We are raising money for these two heroes who have done much for our community. A portion of the funds will also go toward the Elizabeth Coalition for the Homeless. Funds will be split 1/3 for Lee Parker, 1/3 for Ivan White and a 1/3 for the Elizabeth Coalition to House The Homeless. This group is providing services to the homeless and the needy. They have already been able to place Lee in a home and are working on permanent housing for him. 
 
 
 
 You can also mail a check to 'At Heart's Length' which is a 501c3 non profit account 
 
 Their address is 
 
 PO Box 3678 
 
 Elizabeth, NJ 07207 
 
 
 
 Thank you. 
 
 
 
 UPDATE 
 
 
 
 The outpouring has been amazing. We greatly appreciate your generosity. We continue to collect funds through gofundme.com and through the organization 'At Heart's Length' 
 
 
 
 Any items that you would like to send to Lee Parker or to Ivan White can be send to: 
 
 
 
 Elizabeth Coalition to House The Homeless 
 
 Attn: At Heart's Length Initiative 
 
 118 Division St., Elizabeth, NJ 07201-2736 
 
 Tel. 908.352.2989 
 
 Help spread the word! Share Tweet 3.1k shares on Facebook shares on Facebook ||||| ELIZABETH — Lee Parker thought he was just lucky Sunday when he stumbled upon a nice backpack left on top of a garbage can, steps from the Elizabeth train station. 
 
 "It was a nice one," he said. "Nice enough for me to have in my possession." 
 
 But once Parker, a 50-year-old lifetime resident of Elizabeth who spends his days not knowing where he'll sleep at night, pulled one of the items out of the 30-to 40-pound backpack, he said he knew something wasn't right. 
 
 "When I went to discard the items in the backpack, it seemed odd," Parker said. "I thought they were decorated candles, but no decorated candles have wires." 
 
 "It was a strange item," he said. "It was shiny." 
 
 Parker and Ivan White, also of Elizabeth, were out purchasing beer after watching the Sunday football games. Parker, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, wanted to celebrate his team's 2-0 start to the season. 
 
 While White was paying for the beer, Parker said he noticed the backpack. 
 
 "When we figured out what it was, Ivan made me aware of what's been going on in different places," Parker said. "So right there I knew that this is one of those incidents not to take lightly at all. So that's why we made the authorities aware." 
 
 The men came across a backpack near the train station at North Broad Street and Julian Place around 8 p.m. Sunday night, a day after bombs went off in Seaside Park and in New York City — the latter incident leaving 29 people hurt. 
 
 The garbage can was located about 500 feet from a local pub, Willy's Place, close enough to have had tragic consequences if the bombs had gone off, Mayor Christian Bollwage said. 
 
 "If that pub was crowded and there was a lot of people there, it could have severely injured, killed and maimed many, many people," Bollwage previously told reporters at the scene. 
 
 One of the devices was later unintentionally detonated by a bomb-squad robot. 
 
 Since his good deed with his friend White, Be the Change NJ, which is part of Kean University, has set Parker up an efficiency at a local hotel, clothes and food. He also got a "nice" new backpack as a donation from local resident Janette Padlo. 
 
 A local nonprofit that does community outreach and helps local homeless also started a GoFundMe account as a reward for the two. 
 
 "We wanted to ensure that these two good Samaritans — no, heroes — were rewarded for their action," Don Goncalves said. 
 
 As of Wednesday morning, the page has raised close to $13,000. It had less than $900 Tuesday night. 
 
 Hours later after the bomb exploded in Elizabeth, 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, was caught after in a shootout with police in Linden. Two officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the arrest and Rahami is charged with attempting to kill five police officers. 
 
 Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
– A backpack full of pipe bombs intended to cause terror and carnage ended up turning a homeless man's life around instead. Lee Parker and his friend Ivan White alerted police after they found the backpack in a garbage can in Elizabeth, NJ, Sunday night. Authorities say the bomb was close enough to a bar to have caused many deaths and injuries. The Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless says Parker, 50, now has a roof over his head and the group is working on finding a permanent home for him, USA Today reports. A GoFundMe page to raise funds for Parker, the homeless organization, and White, who's a Navy veteran on a fixed income, has now raised $20,000, double its $10,000 target. White tells New Jersey 101.5 that Parker, who carried his possessions in a plastic bag, had a job interview on Monday and thought the new-looking backpack he saw in the garbage was exactly what he needed—until he saw what was inside. Norma Bowe, director of the Be the Change NJ activist group, says the group found Parker and put him in touch with the homeless charity after hearing his story. "He literally moved that bomb, was there all night with the police, and then slept in an abandoned building," she says. "We can do better than that." NJ.com reports that well-wishers have given Parker clothes and food—and a new backpack.