“The Baghdad church run by the Anglican priest provides food, education, and medical services to nearly 5,000 Iraqis in need.”
(READ the story from CS Monitor)
8-Year-old’s ‘Buddy Bench’ for Lonely Kids in the Schoolyard is Catching On
“Sometimes it’s the really simple ideas that can make the biggest difference.”
A second grader in York, Pennsylvania came up with an idea last year after his father showed him a photo of a bench placed by a German school on their playground specifically so that lonely or shy children could be offered friendship.
Christian Buck wanted to put such a bench at his school, Roundtown Elementary, and the principal agreed. In the year since that one bench was put outside to foster relationship-building, others like it have popped up at schools across the country.
More than 200 schools around the world have since installed ‘Buddy Benches’ — both across the United States, and in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Italy and Canada, according to Christian’s family, which has kept track of the growth, says the York Daily Record, which first reported the story in December and followed up six months later.
This week, the latest pair of ‘Buddy Benches’ were dedicated outside two schools in Ashland, Wisconsin for children to sit on as a signal that they would like someone to play with or talk to.
The benches were funded by the Parent-Teacher Organization as a tool to teach kindness after counselors realized it would be great “for several kids who feel like they don’t have friends,” reported The Daily Press.
The students have “greeted the idea with enthusiasm” after being taught that the benches are a way for kids to reach out to their lonelier peers.
“It really builds their self-esteem to ask others to play with them,” said Intermediate School Counselor Kelly Sundeen.
Resources are now online to help schools personalize their own kindness corner.
The simple idea has certainly made a difference in the life of Christian Buck, who has traveled to California and Connecticut to speak in front of groups about his inspiring project —while still only eight years old.
(READ the recent story from The Daily Press)
Photo (top) by Travis Powell, submitted to AshlandWi.com – Lake Superior Intermediate School students Margurite Ranta, Isaac Pearce, Dewey Zinnecker and Meghan Moffitt
Chilean Students Design a ‘Bike That Can’t Be Stolen’
The “Yerka,” a prototype designed by three young Chilean engineering students, is a bike that can be locked using its own lower frame.
It opens up into two arms that are then connected to the seat post around a rack, tree or lamp post.
The genius comes when a thief discovers that the bike will have to be destroyed in order to to get it unlocked, thus “leaving it valueless”.
(WATCH the video below – READ the full AP story from the Detroit Free Press)
Story tip Mike McGinley
11 World Cup Stars, Like Ronaldo and Neymar, Make Ebola Safety Video
Doctors have inspired top international football players to join together to promote and raise awareness of simple preventative measures in the fight against Ebola.
The “11 against Ebola” campaign, featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr, Philipp Lahm and others, promotes 11 simple health messages touted by doctors who are tackling the outbreak in West Africa.
Under the slogan “Together, we can beat Ebola” (#wecanbeatebola), players share the 11 health tips in animated films, radio spots, and posters in a multimedia campaign launched today.
Each health message, such as “Report unusual illnesses” and “Cook meat properly”, has been chosen to improve public understanding about how the virus spreads, and to provide clear information that can be used to reduce the chances of the virus spreading in affected communities. Here are the rules for remaining Ebola-free;
The 11 Against Ebola Messages:
- Wash your hands often and disinfect anything touched by suspected Ebola sufferers
- Cook meat thoroughly before eating
- Avoid contact with wild animals and bats, which can carry the Ebola virus
- Always practice safe sex
- Know the symptoms: fever with a loss of appetite, headache, fatigue, pain, vomiting, bleeding or diarrhea
- Report unusual illnesses in your community
- Seek immediate medical help if you have a fever with additional symptoms
- Avoid skin or body contact with anyone suffering from Ebola
- Wear proper protection if you are caring for an Ebola sufferer
- Do not touch the dead or anyone who has died from a strange disease
- Seek help for safe burials from local authorities
See links to all eleven individual videos, featuring the three above, plus Gareth Bale, Jérôme Boateng, Didier Drogba, George Davies, John Obi Mikel, Gerard Piqué, Raphaël Varane, Xavi, and Pep Guardiola, at the World Bank.
(WATCH the FIFA promotional video below)
Photo courtesy of FIFA
Acting On a Hunch, Man Checks Out Car, Saves a Life
When Gonzalo Outeiro saw the car from the California freeway, he wondered if it had been abandoned, or perhaps in a mishap the night before.
“He got off the freeway, and instead of turning left towards his office, he turned right, acting on a hunch,” reports Oakland’s KTVU-2 News.
That hunch ended up saving the life of a 60-year-old Marin County man who was unconscious while the car was beginning to smoke.
“I was a heartbeat away from going to work,” he told the reporter. “At the last second, I don’t know why, I just said I’ve got to check it out.”
By the time he began pulling the man from the car a fire began growing fast.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from KTVU *NOTE: adjust your speakers for auto-play ads)
SHARE with Buttons Below and Remind Your Friends to Use Their Intuition…
New Version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” Raises Million for Ebola
30 years ago, Bob Geldof organized the first charity supergroup (Band Aid) to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” — a highly successful song that raised more than $24,000,000 to “feed the world” during the famine in Ethiopia.
A new version of the song recorded over the weekend with some of the biggest-selling British pop acts, including One Direction, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and Bono, is set to raise millions, this time for the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
The Song Has Already Gone Bonkers
Government officials confirmed they would waive all VAT taxes on the record, so that 100 percent of the money raised would go towards the cause.
Singers who gathered in the same studio as Band Aid’s first group included Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Queen’s Roger Taylor, Elbow, Sinead O’Connor and Seal.
They sang the same iconic song, except with the lyrics tweaked to reflect the current Ebola virus, which the Irish musician-producer Geldof described as a “particularly pernicious illness because it renders humans untouchable.”
Like the original, the music video (below) ends on a high note, but it opens with a 15 second quiet, yet gruesome, scene of a gaunt Ebola victim being moved from her death bed.
Donate online at www.bandaid30.com
UK residents can donate £5 by mobile phone: Text AID to 70060
Buy the Single now on iTunes
Pre-order the CD here, on Amazon US –or on Amazon UK
(WATCH the video below – READ more, w/ photos, at Daily Mail)
Band Aid 30 lyrics:
It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to be afraid
At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
At Christmas time
But say a prayer, pray for the other ones
At Christmas time, it’s hard but while you’re having fun
There’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear
Where a kiss of love can kill you, and there’s death in every tear
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you
Bring peace and joy this Christmas to West Africa
A song of hope where there’s no hope tonight
Where to comfort is to fear – Where to touch is to be scared
How can they know it’s Christmas time at all
Here’s to you
Raise a glass to everyone
And here’s to them
And all their years to come
How do they know it’s Christmas time at all
Feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again
Feel the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again
Heal the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again
An Algae Farm Designed To Suck Up Highway Pollution
A highway overpass might seem like an unlikely place to grow algae, but actually it’s ideal: Car exhaust turns out to be the perfect fertilizer for multiplying the green stuff.
“In a prototype built above a busy Geneva highway this year, architects tested a system for growing algae in tubes… (which) can be used (eventually) to make biofuel or green electricity.”
The functioning of this bioreactor symbolizes the green practices of the future: food production in an urban environment, the conservation of green space, cleaning up emissions, and new types of energy.
(READ the story from Fast Coexist)
Photos via the Cloud Collective
Google Asks Users To Help Fight Ebola — And They Answer With Cash
For the first time Google has asked its users to donate money to support a cause – the fight to contain Ebola.
The company pledged to give $2 for every dollar donated by its users to Doctors Without Borders and other non-profits working in West Africa.
And users responded. Google raised $7.5 million — with $2.5 million from donors, reports NPR News.
Google’s CEO Larry Page already donated $15 million through his family foundation and the company will add $10 million to its matching donations.
(READ the story from NPR News) Photo from Google ad
Teenager Saves 11-Month-Old After Baby Stopped Breathing
A St. Louis teen was in the dressing room of her local Walmart Wednesday when she heard a call for emergency services go out over an employee’s radio.
A baby had stopped breathing.
When Abby Snodgrass ran over to the group surrounding the 11-month old, she pushed through and asked if anyone knew CPR.
It turns out Abby had recently learned all about it in her school’s health class, thanks to a year-old initiative that brings EMTs to teach the skill to every high school student in the Hillsboro district.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from KSDK – *NOTE: Adjust your speakers for the auto-playing audio)
Story tip from Kelly Harrington
Bike Path Inspired by Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ Opens in Netherlands
Inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s work, “Starry Night,” a new twinkling bike path evokes the color and light within the world-famous painting, while also connecting cultural sites important to the artist born there.
The opening of the cycle path in the Dutch city of Eindhoven November 12 marked the start of an international year of festivities focused on the inspiring career of van Gogh, which ended with his 1890 death.
Artist Daan Roosegaarde‘s poetic vision was brought to life by the construction company, Heijmans, which used innovative technology and thousands of twinkling stones to illuminate the route.
“I wanted to create a place that people will experience in a special way, the technical combined with experience, that’s what techno-poetry means to me,” said Roosegaarde.
The new starry path links two watermills that were featured in his paintings, and will complete a cycling route that connects Vincent’s family home in Brabant, with Nuenen, the place where his first masterpiece, The Potato Eaters, was created.
RELATED: Two Van Gogh Paintings Found After Being Stolen 14 Years Ago
The entire route in North Brabant, where the artist was born and raised, is 335 kilometers (208 miles) long and split into five individual round trips, which can each be cycled in a day.
The community of Eindhoven and partners have jointly invested €700,000 in the Van Gogh-Roosegaarde cycle path, with half coming in a subsidy from the province of Noord-Brabant.
The overall cultural program on the theme of 125 years of inspiration was spearheaded by Van Gogh Europe, comprised of the Van Gogh Museum, Kröller-Müller Museum, Van Gogh Brabant, Mons 2015, and others. Activities will span the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
RELATED: World’s First Hand-Painted Movie Honors Vincent Van Gogh and You Can Watch it Now
Roosegaarde and Heijmans Infrastructure also teamed up to create the Smart Highways Project which is developing interactive roads using light, energy and road signs that interact with the traffic situation.
(WATCH the cyclists on the starry path, below)
SHARE the Starry News On Social Media…
Dog Hitches 20 Mile Ride on Side of Ambulance to Stay With Owner
In Texas last month, emergency responders witnessed the touching animal loyalty that perhaps only a dog can exemplify.
A Mason County ambulance was transporting an 85-year-old rancher to the hospital, when 20 miles into their journey EMS technician Tanner Brown said a driver flagged them down and told them there was a dog hanging onto the side of the vehicle.
The San Angelo Times reports that Buddy, a small Beagle mix, had “hitched a ride on the small side step of the ambulance to be with his owner, JR Nicholson.”
Loyal Dog Attends Mass Every Day at Church of Deceased Owner
“We didn’t have anything else to do but to load the dog up and put him in the ambulance and take him to the ER with us,” Brown said.
(READ the story from the San Angelo Times)
Photo of Loyal Dog Waiting in Deceased Dad’s Truck Touches Hearts
Photo by Tanner Brown – Story tip from Kelly Harrington
Rarest of Tiny Birds Adapt to Thrive in Surprising New Habitat
“With its natural habitat mostly gone, one of North America’s rarest songbirds has found a surprising workaround: It’s thriving in the industrial pine plantations of the southeastern United States,” reports National Geographic.
Farmed loblolly pines are becoming the main breeding habitat for the mysterious Swainson’s warbler, according to a recent study published in Bird Conservation International.
(READ the story from Natl Geographic)
Good People of UK Raise £160k for Child’s Treatment so Family Can Keep Home
Frankie-Rose Lea was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in August. Despite weeks of painful chemotherapy treatment, the tumor had tripled in size, with the cancer spreading to her spine.
Experts said her best chance of surviving the aggressive tumor is immediate proton beam therapy, but that would cost the family £160,000. Her parents Michelle and Sam Lea feared that without swift treatment she would not live until Christmas, so they put their house up for immediate sale, saying they would rather “live in a box” than fail to exhaust every possibility to save Frankie-Rose.
In just four days, following media reports in the UK’s Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and ITV News, more than 7300 contributors donated £167,000 to help the seven-year-old and her family.
“You are all amazing!” exclaimed Nicola Townsend who set up a GoFundMe page. “We now have the money to get Frankie Rose Lea the treatment she needs.”
“There are no words to describe your kindness. We are overwhelmed with the response,” Frankie-Rose’s mum tweeted. “The support gives us encouragement and something good to focus on.”
Jo in Wales summed it all up today on Twitter” “How can you not love the British public when we make this happen.”
(More photos at the Daily Mail)
Story tip summary submitted by Raffaela Goodby
Rome’s Homeless to Get Vatican Showers Thanks to Pope Francis
Pope Francis is working on plans to install showers in the public restrooms off Bernini’s Colonnade in St. Peter’s Square to help the homeless around Vatican City.
The idea came to the pope’s chief alms-giver, Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, after he met a homeless man who declined an invitation to Krajewski’s 50th birthday party at a restaurant because of his odor.
(READ the story from Associated Press)
Photo by Catholic Church (England and Wales) CC license
Coffee With Cats: America’s First Cat Cafe Opens In Oakland
Cat Town Café – the nation’s first permanent cat café – is now open in downtown Oakland to serve coffee and promote feline adoptions.
Cat Town began as a foster-based rescue organization in 2011. As shelter volunteers, they saw that some older or traumatized cats rarely made it into adoption and were even less likely to be taken by a rescue group, so they devised a plan.
The Cat Town Cafe said there were 14 adoptions in their first 12 days.
(READ the story in the San Francisco Chronicle)
Photo from the one-time Purina cat cafe in NYC – Story tip by Mike McGinley
SWEET PHOTO: Fire Fighter Rescues Boy’s Pet Rat After Home Burns Down
A family of five lost their home in a fire early Sunday morning, but a rescue made by Contra Costa Fire Protection District crews did provide a bit of solace.
After the roof caved in, the Antioch family thought their pet had perished in the blaze, but fire fighters were able to rescue the young boy’s small rat.
Photo courtesy of Contra Costa County Fire Protection District
(Story tip by Donez Miller – More details at CBS)
The 30-cent Kit that Could End Malaria
Bill Gates’s foundation has poured millions of dollars into eradicating malaria, which still claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year.
Now, a South African biotechnologist-turned-enterpreneur has developed a self-testing kit that can diagnose malaria in less than 30 minutes, and put sufferers on the path to recovery faster – and cheaper.
The best think about Uys’ test is the price: they cost roughly 30 cents each, a fact his company, Medical Diagnostic, takes immense pride in.
“I looked at developing a malaria test that can actually show you the strain of malaria you have — the type of malaria — so (doctors) know which treatment to give you, and then also to see if the treatment is working or not,” Ashley Uys told CNN. “So I developed a test that can do all of that.”
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from CNN)
Startup Raffles Once-in-a-Lifetime Celebrity Experiences for Charity
A startup company called Omaze raises money for charities by offering everyone the chance to win a personal rendezvous with a favorite celebrity for just $10, including airfare.
Last year the for-profit company raised three million dollars for a variety of charities. This year, thanks to celebrities like George Clooney and Seth Rogen who donated a few hours of their time, Omaze is on track to give away nearly $18 million.
- Hanging backstage with Bono and going home with an autographed guitar
- Joining quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the sideline
- Going to an NBA game with Magic Johnson
- Getting a piggyback ride from Jimmy Kimmel
One past winner even got to ride in a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger, crushing things before going to a gym to work out. Each event raises money for a different charity. In that case, entry fees went to help After-School All-Stars, a program that funds after-school fitness programs for kids.
To provide a-mazing experiences for their lucky winners, Omaze.com keeps 20 percent of the net proceeds to cover the costs for marketing, PR, and fulfillment costs.
(WATCH the video below from NBC)
‘Doctor Who’ Sends Heartwarming Message to Grieving Fan
“The past few weeks have been hard for 9-year-old Thomas Goodall, who lost his grandmother in October. It was the first major loss of a loved one for the boy with autism from North Baddesley, England, who relies on a consistent routine to avoid meltdowns.”
CNN reports that things finally began to take a turn for better on last week, when Thomas received a comforting video message from actor Peter Capaldi, who plays Thomas’ favorite TV character on “Doctor Who.”
(WATCH the video above, or READ the story from CNN)
Story tip – Brett Weiss
Stop Saying This and Your Life is Forever Changed
Certain phrases jump out at me and make me nuts!
When it comes to the importance of conscious communication (just ask my boyfriend), I am dedicated. I’m certainly not perfect in my communication, but I practice being my best communicator every day.
The phrase “HAVE TO” drives me cray-zay!
Did you ever think about what the words “have to” imply? Most peeps use these two words almost hourly in their lives and yet “have to” may be more harmful than we realize.
The term “have to” expresses that you are obligated to act, speak or be. It states that you aren’t empowered to choose, but rather you are a victim to an obligation.
We want people to “want to” do all of those things. We want others to choose us; to choose to do their best; and to choose to be at our weddings, baby showers, birthdays, funerals, charity events, and ceremonies.
Guess what? Everyone else wants the same thing.
Guess what else? Our language matters! It’s how we understand each other. What you say means something.
So, think about how often you say, “have to” throughout the day. When we use it, we are giving away our power completely.
You either use “have to” as an excuse to get out of something without repercussions or to be a victim to your circumstances. Either way, those simple words “have to” are creating a false sense of who you are and what you are capable of. Obligation and placing yourself as a victim to your circumstances is disempowering.
Choice is empowering
Many times we say that we “have to” do something because although it’s not something we want to do in the present moment, we realize that we want the result it will give us in the future. It’s instant gratification v.s. long-term results…and is a choice rather than a “have to”.
Examples of this:
- You choose to workout today even when it burns and you feel fatigued, because you want strength, six-pack abs, and a healthy heart.
- You choose to go on date-night with your partner instead of out with your friends because you want a passionate, intimate relationship.
- You choose to stay late at the office to finish your work instead of going bowling because you want the bonus.
You are committing time in the present moment to do something of value for the future. Reclaim your power and realize this is a choice.
You don’t HAVE TO do anything. You don’t have to get out of bed, go to work, kiss your partner, help your mom, be kind to a stranger, or go to your child’s soccer practice. You choose to because of your values and your vision for the future.
When you say that you “have to” do something, consider how you are devaluing it – perhaps if not to yourself, but to others.
Consider how different these phrases feel
“I have to go to a baby shower.” OR “I am glad I get to share in the celebration of her life-changing experience.”
“I have to let me mom stay with me.” OR “I want my mom to stay with me because I love her and want quality time with her during her healing process.”
“I have to get out of bed.” OR “I’m so blessed to wake up today! I get to experience another day!”
Reclaim your power by taking the “have to” out of your life. Choose to live a life that feeds your soul now and in the future.
Feel like someone else needs to be empowered by this message as well? Send it to them! We light each other up by sharing inspiration.
Thank you for reading and watching!
Much Love and BIG smiles, Michelle Ploog (www.michelleploog.com)