Quote of the Day: “Poise is the pearl of great price.” – Florence Scovel Shinn
Photo: by my hobby, CC license
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The combination of interruptions in international travel and periods of heavy rainfall has led to Kenyan wildlife officials reporting a recent elephant baby boom.
In Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, 140 elephants were born in a single calving season–a record in this park known for its breathtaking views of Kilimanjaro and the savanna.
“It has been a difficult year for all of us but there is still much to celebrate,” said Winnie Kiiru, speaking for the Elephant Protection Initiative in a statement. “Here in Amboseli, elephants are thriving. 140 beautiful calves have been born in 2020 and more are expected.”
In fact, it’s a culmination, of sorts, for the country’s pachyderms. The Kenya Wildlife Service reported on Wednesday that, from 1989 to today, the nation’s elephant population has more than doubled. This is in part because authorities in the past couple of years have “managed to tame poaching in this country,” reports Tourism & Wildlife Minister Najib Balala.
MORE GOOD NEWS: ‘World’s Loneliest Elephant’ Finally Headed For Sanctuary After Pakistan Ordered Him Released From Zoo
The announcements corresponded with World Elephant Day on August 12—and included the very special news that two of the newborns were twins, a rarity among the species.
Cynthia Moss, director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, told AA News this week, “It seems baby elephants are falling out of the sky. The ability of a female to conceive and carry a calf to term depends greatly on her own physical condition.”
RELATED: World’s Most Endangered Primate Population Triples After 17 Years of Careful Conservation
In drought years, female elephants often can’t find enough food to supply their calves with milk—even in a park that is the size of Yellowstone (3,100 square miles / 8,000 sq. km)—but the rains this year have brought so much vegetation there’s been no problem supporting the newborns—even twins—as they begin their journey through life.
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After a 150-year absence, 750 of the aptly-named large blue butterflies have successfully emerged from their cocoons to repopulate parts of their historic habitat in South West England.
Most conservation dollars don’t reach beyond elephants, pandas, and tigers, but English biologists—notoriously proud and connected to the natural life on their island—needed only five years to begin repopulating part of the country with the largest of England’s nine blue butterfly species: an unmistakable creature thanks to the row of black spots on its upper forewings.
Phengaris arion, which is called the ‘large blue’, was officially declared extinct in Britain in 1979, but efforts from private trusts and ecological associations created the world’s largest and most successful insect conservation program in the world, and from 1984 to 2008, it saw the large blue return to 30 previously occupied and new breeding sites.
The most recent project in Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons in Gloucestershire is where conservationists recorded the rousing success, with 750 butterflies emerging after 1,100 larvae had been released in the area. None of these creatures had been seen in the local area for 150 years.
Furthermore, they have confirmed these butterflies to be laying eggs in the wild.
RELATED: Historic Deal to Protect Millions of Monarch Butterfly Habitat Acres is Unprecedented
“Creating the right conditions for this globally endangered butterfly to not only survive but to hopefully thrive has been the culmination of many years work,” said Richard Evans, area ranger for the Commons.
The large blue’s recovery is a classic ‘web of life’ example of how animals and plants rely on one another to survive. It’s not enough to protect the butterflies, and scientists—like those working at the Butterfly Conservation Trust—have had to organize protection for wild thyme and red ants, two species that are integral parts of the large blue’s world.
Wild thyme and marjoram are the large blue caterpillar’s primary food source, and red ants work symbiotically to protect the caterpillars from danger.
David Simcox, research ecologist and co-author of the Commons management plan, noted this importance in a statement: “In the summer when the ants are out foraging, nature performs a very neat trick—the ants are deceived into thinking that the parasitic larva of the large blue is one of their own and carry it to their nest.”
“It’s at this point that the caterpillar turns from herbivore to carnivore, feeding on ant grubs throughout the autumn and spring until it is ready to pupate and emerge the following summer,” he added.
In 2014, the Butterfly Conservation Trust finished a massive restoration of large blue habitat in the Polden Hills in Somerset, including the planting of over 100,000 wild thyme plants on seven different sites, as well as enhancing 10 hectares (30 acres) of scrub habitat for the red ants.
MORE LIKE THIS: Wild Bison Are Returning to England’s Forests for the First Time in 6,000 Years
The project resulted in three re-colonizations, as well as one entirely new breeding site, and by 2019 there were 10 large blue breeding sites altogether, a jump up from six in 2017, according to an article in the magazine, Butterfly.
As a pollinator, the large blue’s recovery paints an encouraging sign for biodiversity strength in England and for the world. Cheers to that.
FLUTTER The Happy Blue News Over To Your Friends on Social Media…
Fancy coming aboard a boat for an aquatic movie adventure? It was a big success last month in Paris and now cinema fans in America and Canada can look forward to the floating theater.
This September, the Australian company Beyond Cinema says it will tour North America with their mini ‘movie’ boats, setting up in major cities along the way.
UPDATE: Hours after posting this, we noticed that the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper said the company was hard to track down, and had very little detail on their website, leading them to believe it might be a prank. We believe they are only collecting email addresses for pre-registering, and not payments yet, so proceed with caution—even though this DID happen in Paris last month…
At the events, there’ll be free popcorn for the ticket-holders who will be viewing classic films as well as new releases.
Beyond Cinema says it has created ramped-up safety measures for pandemic times, of course. According to the site, “Tickets will require you to purchase the whole boat to ensure that groups will be seated with friends and family only, and to allow for social-distancing on and between boats.”
If you’re in Los Angeles. Denver, San Diego, or San Francisco on September 2nd, you can pre-order tickets for showtimes there.
RELATED: Drive-in Movies Are Coming to Walmarts Across America – And Every Showing is Free
The following week, sanitized boats will pop up in St. Louis, Orlando, Chicago, Miami, and Houston.
The week after that, if you’re in NYC, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Calgary, or Vancouver, it’s your lucky day.
Then, lucky folks in Austin, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Columbus, and Cincinnati can head out on the water on September 23rd.
If this unique cinema event floats your boat, you can pre-register on the Beyond Cinema ticket website.
SHARE This Exciting Movie News With Someone You’d Like To Go Boating With…
When Australia’s bars and restaurants closed down in March because of COVID-19, huge stores of beer went stale. Those ales haven’t gone to waste though. They’re being turned into renewable energy–enough to power 1,200 homes in a month.
Outside Adelaide in South Australia, almost 40,000 gallons of expired beer has been donated every week to a local water treatment plant. That beer is converted into biogas, which then gets used as electricity to power the plant.
And, best of all, the beer donations have boosted energy production to giddy new levels, thanks to its high calorie content.
CNN reports that Glenelg Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is owned by the South Australian Government, normally gets about 80 percent of its energy needs from local biogas made from organic industrial waste and sewage sludge.
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Now, says Lisa Hannant, senior manager of production and treatment, says the stale beer is releasing impressive amounts of energy and the plant is setting records.
“By adding around 150,000 liters of expired beer per week, we generated a record 355,200 cubic meters of biogas in May and another 320,000 cubic metres in June, which is enough to power 1,200 houses,” Hannant said to CNN.
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“Honorably,” she noted, “our thirsty digesters have been doing their bit for the environment by drinking themselves silly—and with such a horrific diet it’s no wonder they produce so much gas!”
We’ll drink to that.
Share The Exciting News From Down Under With Your Friends On Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture grey, and your world will always be bleak.” – Allen Klein
Photo: by Ian Fuller, CC license
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
In a very modern-day fairytale, after his ballet video went viral, a Nigerian boy was offered a full scholarship to a prestigious dance school in Manhattan.
The 11-year-old has been learning to dance at the Leap of Dance Academy in his hometown of Badagry on the Nigerian coast—and it’s fair to say that Anthony Mmesoma Madu’s got talent.
When the Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis, who just turned 55 this week, saw Anthony’s moves online, she tweeted, “Reminds me of the beauty of my people. We create, soar, can imagine, have unleashed passion, and love….despite the brutal obstacles that have been put in front of us! Our people can fly!!!”
Cynthia Harvey, artistic director at the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Dance in New York City, also saw the video, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. When she watched it, she was also amazed by Anthony’s skills. She decided to offer him a scholarship.
The school—known for its “elite atmosphere dedicated to the success of each student”—has organized internet access at home for Anthony, so he can take virtual lessons from the academy this summer.
WATCH: Diver Perform Expressive 6-Minute Dance Underwater in World’s Deepest Pool
It’s not just Anthony for whom dreams are newly coming true. According to People, his dance teacher, Daniel Ajala Owoseni, has been included in the American school’s National Training Curriculum for instructors.
The teacher’s story is an amazing one. He taught himself to dance after falling in love with the movie Save the Last Dance at age 13. “I basically learned all the fundamental principles of ballet through YouTube tutorials,” the 29-year-old told Vogue. Ten years later, he became a freelance teacher in the Nigerian capital of Lagos. But he couldn’t get an international scholarship anywhere. Applying for schools across Europe, “I was basically told that, as an African, I was not eligible for an international scholarship. It just seemed like blatant discrimination.”
RELATED: Boy Named Blessing was Born With Deformed Legs, But Watch His Award-winning Breakdance Moves
He and Anthony don’t just have a love of dance in common. They’re both intent on breaking stereotypes and showing that ballet is for boys.
Anthony told the BBC, “Where I live there are no male ballet dancers like me. When people see ballet they think it is only for girls, they don’t know that it is not only for girls.
“When I am dancing… the feeling that comes over me is as if I am dreaming.”
Watching Anthony daring to dance through puddles is a reminder to everyone that there’s hope and beauty in dreaming.
“A child who shows this much dedication, you just have to help,” Cynthia said to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “If there is anything the world has taught us, it’s that we have to inspire all sorts of people and that we all have a lot to learn from one another. Providing opportunities for Daniel and Anthony is the right thing to do.”
(CLICK the arrow below to watch the uplifting video about Anthony…)
Pirouette For This Beautiful Ballet Story And Share With Your Friends on Social Media…
Two friends were out on a surfing trip when they saved a dog stuck in a sea cliff cave.
On August 1, Zach Regan and Matty Johnson were off on an overnight adventure on Vancouver Island’s remote west coast. With everything they needed to go surfing and fishing, it was set to be a great trip.
They were out in their small aluminum boat when, out of the corner of his eye, Matty saw the brown legs of an animal in a cave. It was too small to be a bear or a wolf.
It was a starving, cold, terrified dog.
“We were trying to beat an upcoming storm, but we made the decision to save the dog,” Matty Johnson tells GNN.
The pair’s rescue mission was on. It involved a “wetsuit, a surfboard, a lasso, almost being bitten in the face, a reef, big waves, and awesome teamwork.”
Once Stella was safely in their boat, they snuggled her in a bag to keep her warm. Then, once on dry land in Canada again, they began their search for the owner.
Matty says there were great vibes all around ”when the owners—long since consigned to the death of their dog—got word she was safe.”
The owners were amazed to see their pet again. They thought they’d lost their dog forever when they became separated on the wild Juan de Fuca Trail three months ago.
RELATED: Hero Park Ranger Carries Dehydrated Dog To Safety Down a Treacherous Mountain Trail
Johnson wanted to share his story with GNN for one reason: “Wanting to spread good news and inspire people to put themselves out there when the opportunity arises.”
That’s just the kind of good news we love to hear.
WATCH the video of their epic rescue from the Canadian news network CTV.
BARK Your Praise For These Surfing Heroes By Sharing With Friends on Social Media…
A type of fungus that uses nuclear radiation as energy could serve as a possible form of protection, shielding astronauts from potential harm.
Outside of the protective magnetosphere and atmosphere of Earth, astronauts are showered with a twenty-fold higher amount of ionizing radiation—levels that would prove unsustainable without protection. But a discovery at the nuclear accident site of Chernobyl in Ukraine, has offered a possible solution.
A team of scientists from Stanford and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, discovered a type of fungus growing inside the destroyed reactors of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and thought if there are forms of life that can survive advanced radiation exposure long-term, they might be able to help protect astronauts on extraterrestrial voyages.
RELATED: Student Who Grew Her Own Canoe Out of Mushroom Thinks Fungus is Our Best Ally in Climate Change
The fungus, called cladosporium sphaerospermum, uses melanin pigments to convert gamma radiation into chemical energy in a process called radiosynthesis. Observing this process led to the scientists arranging with NASA for the fungus to be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) for testing.
At the ISS, the experiment produced mixed results. The fungus was placed on around half of the surface of a petri dish. For the next 30 days, radiation levels were measured to compare how much passed through the fungus and glass compared to just the glass on the bare half of the dish.
Radiation levels were reduced by 2%, which wasn’t what the scientists were hoping for. However, the relatively low number doesn’t mean the experiments were a failure.
MORE LiKE THIS: Fungi Discovered In The Amazon Can Devour Plastic in Landfills
Writing in the abstract of the pre-peer review journal BioRxiv, the scientists detail how their results could be extrapolated to produce an almost entirely zero-cost barrier for future Mars or lunar mission astronauts, vehicles, and structures.
“Estimations based on linear attenuation coefficients indicated that a 21 cm (8 inch) thick layer of this fungus could largely negate the annual dose-equivalent of the radiation environment on the surface of Mars.”
Putting on our sci-fi thinking caps, we’d have to imagine a Mars station on which astronauts would have to grow an 8-inch thick screen of fungus across the roof and walls of their base, transforming it into a mass of greyish filaments studded with toadstools like Yoda’s hut in Star Wars, or Radagast the Brown’s house in The Hobbit.
It sounds like the stuff of fantasy, but it could save lives while costing space exploration investors almost nothing.
Plant Some Positivity By Sharing The Good News With Friends On Social Media…
There’s a little restaurant in a small Alabama town where there’s no cash register and no prices, just a whole lot of soul… and soul food.
At Drexell & Honeybee’s in downtown Brewton near the Florida border, the menu changes daily, but there’s always a hearty selection of Southern dishes to enjoy: fried chicken, cornbread, and collared greens often show up at lunchtime from Tuesday to Thursday.
What makes this place special? Unending Southern hospitality. No matter how down on their luck a person is, they never have to worry about having no money for their lunch.
Once you’ve finished your dessert—a blueberry cobbler, perhaps?—you just leave whatever you can in a private booth near the restaurant entrance, even if that’s just a handful of coins or a little thank-you note.
The owners, a husband and wife team—Freddie and Lisa Thomas-McMillan—make no profit from their restaurant. 100% of the donations go back into serving people food. So what do they get from all this? Joy.
They say there’s a real joy to knowing that their customers leave “with a full stomach, a full heart, and the understanding that you are loved and worthy of love.”
Lisa’s always had a big heart. Through the years, she’s run a food bank. She’s opened her home to the needy. She says it may have started in second grade when she learned a powerful lesson about sharing from a little girl who always had a better sandwich, but shared it happily with Lisa in a daily trade for some of her peanut butter and jelly.
“‘Feed the Need’ is our mission statement,” Lisa told GNN, “Whatever needs people have, if we can help them… we will.”
Of course, the pandemic has made running a restaurant a little more tricky in recent months. But this hasn’t stopped this generous Alabama family from doing what they love.
“The end of June we figured out a way to do to-go orders and keep everyone safe…It is working out very well and we feel so proud to be able to do what we do, with COVID-19 affecting so many people.”
“When my husband and I opened, we agreed to put a portion of our retirement back into the running of the restaurant… as you can imagine donations are down, but we will continue to try and be of service to all the people that come to our door.”
Watch the beautiful video below—and if you’d like to share a little love to Drexell & Honeybee’s, just head here.
DELIVER This Soul Food To Friends Who Hunger For Good News On Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” – William James
Photo: by Sidharth Bhatia
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
For electric car drivers, a big fear is being stuck far from a charging station on the side of the road.
While some have suggested that putting solar panel cells on car roofs would be a could way to increase battery life, Germany’s Sono Motors have gone one step further: presenting a car entirely covered in panels, which they say allows the vehicle to power itself past the average daily commute.
Known as the Sion, it will be “the first mass-produced vehicle featuring solar integration to [reach] the market,” costing around 25,500 euros, or around $29,000.
“The solar cells meld seamlessly into the vehicle’s surface and can generate up to 34 kilometers of additional range a day at peak performance,” the company said in a press release. “This is well above the average distance of 17 kilometers commuters in Germany travel to their workplace.”
Designed and produced in Munich, the 2017 prototype of the Sion has been elongated and enlarged, now boasting a deeper footwell and more interior space along with ride-sharing application compatibility–making it ideal for eco-conscious carpooling services.
RELATED: Dutch Company Unveils the World’s First Long-Range Solar Car – The 4-Passenger Lightyear One
An app allows people to share the vehicle, share rides, and energy, too–thanks to a bidirectional charging function, as seen below.
Sono Motors plans to develop more vehicles based on the Sion platform, for example in the areas of urban mobility, business transportation, and for ‘last-mile’ movements–such as postal delivery vehicles that only carry a product a short distance.
In a fun experiment in crowdsourced engineering, Sono Motors is involving those who have preordered a Sion in the selection of certain vehicle details by means of community votes. This kind of participation, says the company, is new in the “field of vehicle development.”
The carbon emissions that cannot be avoided or reduced during the vehicle’s production and manufacturing are entirely offset. And while the car–which is targeted to go out to its first customers in early 2022–might not be optimal for a cross-continental tour of Europe, short-distance commuters of the future will soon be able to drive a car that makes as little impact on the planet as possible.
Power Up With Positivity By Sharing The Good Car News With Your Friends On Social Media…
Today is World Elephant Day—and we’re sharing the long-awaited news that a 35-year-old pachyderm who spent nearly a decade without a playmate in an Islamabad zoo will finally be moved to a new home.
Earlier this year, Good News Network reported that Kavaan the elephant was ordered to be freed from Murghazar Zoo following a ruling by the Pakistani High Court.
Many groups and individuals that fought for his release hailed the court’s decision—including the singer Cher, who celebrated the news by tweeting “THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE.”
Since the ruling in May, Pakistan’s Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) has been working to find Kavaan a “suitable sanctuary.
MORE GOOD NEWS: African Elephant Poaching Has Fallen By More Than 50% Over the Course of the Last 6 Years
According to a report yesterday from Euronews, if Kavaan is deemed healthy for travel, he will be relocated to Cambodia in the next few weeks to live the rest of his days at Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for rescued animals run by elephant expert Lek Chailert.
Chailert was featured in a documentary, Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story, in which she was praised for her compassion.
“Chailert treats them like humans. She treats them with dignity and respect, and she gives them love,” said the filmmaker Ashley Bell. “I’m a pretty skeptical person, but I saw it with my own eyes. To see the change in Noi Na’s behavior as soon as the chains are taken off and she’s made to feel comfortable in Lek’s sanctuary. She immediately began eating, rubbing up against walls, covering herself with dirt and scratching her butt.” All good signs.
RELATED: Denmark Buys Country’s Last Remaining Circus Elephants for $1.6 Million So They Can Retire
The news of this relocation is a big development in the life of Kavaan, who’s one giant step closer to being, once again, among a social group of his peers.
HAIL This Great News On Social Media to Celebrate World Elephant Day…
Chronic liver disease represents a major global public health problem affecting an estimated 844 million people, according to the World Health Organization, and is among the top causes of mortality in the U.S., UK, and Australia. At the same time, it is both difficult to manage and diagnose. Now, the microbiome inside a person’s gut may be the unexpected answer.
A collaborative team of Salk Institute and UC San Diego scientists have created a novel microbiome-based diagnostic tool that can quickly and inexpensively identify liver fibrosis and cirrhosis correctly over 90 percent of the time.
The non-invasive method relies on an algorithm to analyze patient stool samples—which contains traces of what lives in the gut—and could lead to improved patient care and treatment outcomes for liver disease.
“The microbiome is a dynamic living sensor of small changes in health and disease in the body, and as such, it provides an accurate readout of body health,” says Salk Professor Ronald Evans, co-author of the study published in Cell Metabolism. “Because this diagnostic is fast and low-cost, it could be something that becomes widely used, especially in the many areas that lack specialty clinics and physicians. Simply said, it could be a real game changer, with world-wide implications.”
RELATED: Simple New Blood Test For Prostate Cancer Determines Presence and Stage of Cancer With 99% Accuracy
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease globally and can progress to liver fibrosis and cirrhosis and potentially cancer, as the liver starts to experience scarring and cell death. But diagnostic tools for liver fibrosis and cirrhosis are lacking. Biopsies are invasive and can miss injured regions of the liver, and MRIs are expensive and are often not available in rural areas. To address these challenges, the research team explored the microbiome as a way to meet the urgent need for a new test to identify patients at risk.
“We sought to develop a universal, non-invasive test for liver fibrosis and cirrhosis based on a ‘microbiome signature’ of the disease,” says Michael Downes, a Salk senior staff scientist and co-author of the study.
In collaboration with scientists from the UC San Diego Department of Medicine, the team optimized a computational method called machine learning to uncover a complex disease signature based on 19 bacterial species present in the stool samples of a patient group. The signature is made up of the different quantities of bacteria, creating a universal fingerprint for identifying liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. The study included 163 clinical samples from both healthy as well as sick family members to identify variables that were indicative of liver disease.
Using data from microbiome genetic profiling and from metabolites from the stool samples, the researchers discovered a microbiome signature that was associated with a cirrhosis diagnosis with 94 percent accuracy. The microbiome signature could also determine the stage of liver fibrosis, which could allow doctors to grade patients based on their stage of the disease and improve treatment strategies.
“These findings demonstrate that it is possible to use machine learning to identify a universal signature that can be used for accurate diagnosis of a disease, such as liver cirrhosis,” says Tae Gyu Oh, first author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the Evans lab. “The patterns we found reflect the complexity of the microbiome and how gut health likely affects disease.”
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The researchers then applied their microbiome signature to two independent populations of patients from China and Italy. The team’s signature could accurately identify cirrhosis in over 90 percent of patients, which validates the power and accuracy of the algorithm across different genetics and diets.
“It is remarkable that a gut microbiome signature derived from patients residing in Southern California for cirrhosis was able to predict cirrhosis in two independent cohorts residing in China and Italy. It speaks to the new discoveries that are yet to be realized in the role of the gut microbiome to diagnose and risk-stratify liver disease,” says Rohit Loomba, co-corresponding author and director of the NAFLD Research Center at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. “I think the power of using the microbiome as a diagnostic tool is only starting to be realized.”
In the future, the scientists will examine the causal link between the microbiome and liver disease by testing whether restoring parts of the microbiome leads to regression of the disease or removing certain bacteria makes it worse. The team also hopes this approach can be used to characterize additional diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases shown to be likely affected by a dysregulated microbiome.
MORE: ‘Overwhelming Efficacy’ Found in New Lung Cancer Drug – Yale PhD Calls it ‘Transformative’
LISTEN To Your Gut And Send This Story to Your Friends on Social Media… (File photo by Science in HD)
Do you remember when the aisles of grocery stores were emptied of toilet paper and other staples at the beginning of the pandemic?
Nurse Stacy Mason recalls seeing her fellow healthcare workers finishing up long shifts caring for the sick in ICU, only to find the sundries they needed for their families–like diapers and sanitary wipes–couldn’t be found anywhere.
The Virginia mother-of-two had an idea: She could start a pantry in her Intensive Care Unit. Then staff could share any extras they had with their colleagues.
The pantry took off immediately. Inspired by its success, Stacy then thought to herself: if sharing is working at this small scale, couldn’t it work for the whole of Mary Washington Healthcare?
For her brilliant launching of such a vital resource in her community, she’s been recognized as a Hometown Hero of Fauquier County.
RELATED: This Nurse Didn’t Just Create a Replacement N95 Mask – Hers Filters More
These days, it’s not just Stacy working on the volunteering effort. An entire ‘Mary Washington Hospital Team Pantry’ has come together. Their mantra for the donations initiative? “Give what you can: take what you need.’”
Toothpaste and other basic toiletries that hospital workers just don’t have time to shop for often show up as donations. Baby products are also typically available, as are nonperishable food items—no questions asked.
Mason tells The Free Lance-Star, “Now that summer has come, we’re seeing some fresh produce come in, items grown in people’s gardens, and that’s really neat.”
“There are plenty of people who come through and take advantage of the pantry who are now in single-income families because of the virus,” she said. “There are also others who have lost a loved one and are facing different financial realities, and staffers who aren’t working the number of hours they once did.”
The pantry has made a big difference in people’s lives. “We know that many of our associates’ families are feeling the economic impacts of coronavirus,” Mary Washington Healthcare posted on Facebook, “and it’s nurses like Stacy Mason who demonstrate why 2020 is the Year of the Nurse.”
If you’d like to donate items to the pantry, call Meri Jones at the hospital at 541-1471. To make a monetary donation, call Xavier Richardson at 741-1606.
SHARE this Inspiring Donation Opportunity With Friends on Social Media…
Need more positive stories and updates coming out of the COVID-19 challenge? For more uplifting coverage, click here.
Many of us remember a time, before the internet, when the primary source of historical tidbits we garnered as kids came from stories told by our parents or school teachers. Now an iPhone app co-founded by Hollywood star Kevin Costner seeks to tailor that experience to road-tripping families.
Understanding that the family road trip is one of the quintessentially American vacations, HearHere delivers short, interesting audio tidbits as you and your family drive across America’s vast expanses.
The narration team includes Costner, Hall of Fame Basketball Coach Phil Jackson, and others, who tell stories about points of interest, a region, native tribes, the local history of war, art, culinary tradition, and more. (See two examples in the video below.)
“I am in love with history. I am in love with Country. I am in love with all the edges, all the disappointments, all the progress—all worth knowing,” writes Costner, who explains that HearHere is the perfect compromise between himself, a lover of history, and his kids, who regularly moan in protest because Costner inevitably stops at every roadside brown historical marker during their annual road trips.
“We’re launching HearHere with stories for California, Oregon, and Washington. Soon, we’ll canvas the US with more than 10,000 stories for you to enjoy.”
They are working on an app for Android phones, too.
For hundreds of thousands of years, the only method which humans had for passing down information through the generations was by oral storytelling, a cultural and evolutionary trait that gave rise to societies where everything was codified in myth and legend.
RELATED: Google Maps Now Features COVID-19 Travel Alerts With Social Distancing Mandates And Crowd Levels
In today’s world, more and more parents, like HearHere co-founder Woody Sears, will be strapping-in their kids for a road trip with iPads in their hands. As technology makes it easier and easier for kids to keep their short attention spans focused, they perhaps lose the opportunity to have those seminole, enlightening, formational moments that we as adults look back on and recognize as important.
“Kevin loves to stop at all the historical markers and share that history with his kids but the kids aren’t nearly as excited about this,” explains Sears on the HearHere website. “With HearHere, they can get that history while they are in their car, told at the perfect time in their drive without even requiring a stop.”
Available with a free-trial, the app has a yearly subscription of $49.99 and is running at half off until the end of August. Though the stories only feature events, people, and places from Washington, Oregon, and California, the company is quickly expanding to cover the rest of the country.
“Legacy is important to me—and the idea that HearHere could preserve our collective experiences in an unflinching way was – for me – the greatest opportunity of all,” writes Costner. Check out his stories on the app’s promotional video below…
STEER This Cool Story to Your Traveling Mates on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.” – Aberjhani
Photo: by Jesse Gardner
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
In Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd, the teachers of Lake Country School grappled with how to make sense of the event with their students.
It was COVID time, so when normally they would be together, hug, and look into each others’ eyes, they had to think of a different way.
The school principal, Ben Moudry, took into consideration the natural inclination of children to want to help in a time of trouble and right wrongs.
He encouraged students to join their feelings with the thousands in the streets of the city by making signs and sharing pictures of their signs with the school community.
Mathias Brinda, a third grader, made a huge sign using a quote from Bishop Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
The Brinda family hung it on the fence of the school, and they sent a photo around showing Mathias standing by his sign, smiling and with his poodle. This was May 28th.
At a school meeting later in the week, someone mentioned that the sign was no longer on the fence. They assumed it had been taken by vandals.
But, then the sign turned up when the New York Times ran this photo of the ongoing Minneapolis protest. In front of a huge spray-painted image of George Floyd’s face, a man in a black mask kneeled, head bowed, behind Mathias’s sign.
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Then it showed up in The Atlantic. Three children, fists raised, were holding Mathias’s sign, with the youngest so small he could barely get his face over the edge—but even still, you can see his pride.
And then, miraculously, it came back. On June 10th, Lucinda Anderson, who works at the school, went to pay respects at the massive memorial site on 38th Street, where George Floyd died. Outpourings of emotion, flowers and paintings, covered the intersection. It started to rain, and people scrambled to collect the bouquets and works of art. As Anderson helped gather things, she found the sign in her hands.
She brought it back to the school and attached it to the fence. That’s where it is now, along with the signs of Mathias’s classmates. Even with the schoolyard still empty, this school community has shown up in its signs of good.
(Co-written by Janaki Ranpura, and Malinda Holte of Lake Country School)
Two captive belugas were given the chance of a better life when they were relocated from China to a new sanctuary in Iceland.
The 11-year-olds, known as Little Grey and Little White, had spent seven years performing for audiences at Changfeng Ocean World in Shanghai.
But in 2019, thanks to the British charity Sea Life Trust, they were freed and transported 6,000 miles around the world—30 hours by air, land, and sea—to reach the world’s first retirement home for oceanic animal performers.
Over the past year, the female pair has been cared for inside specialized pools on Heimaey Island.
Now they’ve made another big transition: On August 8, Little Grey and Little White were moved to the open-water section of the beluga sanctuary in Klettsvik Bay.
It’s the first time in 11 years that the belugas have swum in the ocean.
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Cathy Williamson, who runs the End Captivity program at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, told China Daily, “The world’s first whale sanctuary represents a pathway to the end of the keeping of whales and dolphins confined for entertainment. We are proud to be a partner of this important project that will improve welfare for these belugas, and show the world that there is an alternative to whale and dolphin captivity.”
The bay itself is large, secluded, and beautiful. At 30 feet (nine meters) deep and 344,445ft² wide, there’s lots of space for Little White and Little Grey to swim and explore, to play and make big dives in the water.
Now that they’re in their new home, these two belugas have been showing off their personalities.
According to the Sea Life Trust team, “Little Grey is a very playful whale. She is always curious and willing to learn new things. She also has a mischievous side to her personality and likes to spit water at the Animal Care Team.”
As for Little White? She’s a little shy, but she “still likes to play and forms close bonds with her handlers.”
Andy Bool, who’s the head of the Sea Life Trust, says of their big move:
“We’re absolutely delighted to be able to share the news that Little Grey and Little White are now in their bayside care pool and will need a short period of time to acclimatize to their new natural environment and all the outdoor elements before their final release into the wider sanctuary in Klettsvik Bay.”
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“Following extensive planning and rehearsals, the first stage of their release back to the ocean was as smooth as we had hoped and planned for. We are carefully monitoring Little Grey and Little White with our expert care team and veterinarians.”
If they adapt to their new home, they could enjoy several more decades of life in a natural habitat—and the sanctuary hopes to welcome other retiring aquatic performers in the future.
WATCH the beautiful video showing their homecoming…
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When a Colorado mom heard her 4-year-old daughter yell ‘Black Lives Matter’ to a woman in Home Depot this summer, she wasn’t expecting such a beautiful friendship to blossom for the pair.
Sherri Gonzales was out shopping in Commerce City when she heard a little girl say the words that have been chanted on thousands of streets around the world this summer.
“She said it with strength, like she was making a point,” Sherri told KCNC in Denver.
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That little girl was Camryn Radcliff. Her mom, Cassi, wasn’t sure how a person would react to having ‘Black Lives Matter’ yelled at them.
Sherri Gonzales looked at Cam and said, “Thank you so much for saying that and for recognizing that my life matters.”
The pair became fast friends, and took a photo together. Cam then sweetly invited Sherri over for a sleepover, so the group exchanged numbers.
Since then, Cam and her mom have deepened their relationship with their new friend–recently holding a garage sale in which they donated all the proceeds to Gonzales’ organization Sherri’s Girls Empowerment International.
Over two days, the sale made $2,070—money that will now go towards sending girls to school in Kenya.
“All of this happens,” Sherri told KCNC, “because a sweet little 4-year-old recognized that my life matters.”
The pals have recently found another thing they share in common: a love for the Denver Broncos. Cam wants to be a cheerleader for them when she grows up. Sherri’s son, D.J. Williams, is a former linebacker for the NFL team.
The impressive duo’s new bond just goes to show: It’s never too early to start putting some good vibes out there into the world. And it’s never too late to make a new friend.
(WATCH the video below from KCNC-TV) — Photos: Sherri Gonzales
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