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Maryland Teens Go On Grocery Store Runs for Seniors and Vulnerable Neighbors Amid COVID-19 Fears

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scasertano
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This blog was submitted to GNN by one of our readers for publishing. If you have a similar story of COVID-inspired kindness, be sure and send it to us for review.

These two teens’ big hearts and their break from high school in Maryland was the highlight of 73-year-old Jimmy Kraft’s week.

The two sophomores from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland have devised a way for Marylanders to get together and protect their grandparents and loved ones who have health conditions, by delivering the groceries and necessary supplies they need.

Kraft, a retired grandfather, has been sheltering at home during the coronavirus outbreak, unable to shop for himself. He is also raising his grandchild who is severely handicapped.

Concerned about contracting COVID-19 and bringing it home to his grandson, Kraft was yearning for some fresh food to be delivered, and he found Teens Helping Seniors.

Soon, Matthew Casertano and Dhruv Pai showed up at his door with a bag full of groceries.

RELATED: Across Canada, Scaremongering Becomes ‘Caremongering’ as Citizens Help Each Other In Challenging Times

In the service project, teen volunteers maintain the proper social distance from the people they serve, and show meticulous care while shopping and delivering. They wear gloves while shopping, wipe down bags they are delivering, and offer curbside pickup when possible.

Bags of goods are left at doors, and cash is exchanged the same way. “It’s gone from extremely casual to extremely operational very quickly,” Matthew said. “This is one of those times I will remember that people are willing to look out for one another and have each other’s back.”

The idea came about when the two teens shopped for their elderly grandparents and then for their neighbors. Word spread quickly in the neighborhoods and they distributed flyers throughout the surrounding area.

MORE: 15-Year-Old Girl is Giving Away Hundreds of Free ‘Sanitation Kits’ to Homeless People

In 3 days, the teens have recruited several volunteers from other private and public high schools in Maryland as well as Washington, DC. They are now also recruiting college students to deliver groceries to older Marylanders and other vulnerable people.

“This was tremendously helpful,” said Mr. Kraft. “It truly is so amazing that teenagers would spend their time helping one of the most vulnerable populations. I am very grateful for their help and hope that more kids will join them in their efforts.”

Be Sure And Share This Sweet Story Of Young Kindness With Your Friends On Social Media…

Middle Schoolers Bust a Move From Home By Joining Together for Music Video Against COVID-19 Fears

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Good News Network
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This blog was submitted to GNN by one of our readers for publishing. If you have a similar story of COVID-inspired kindness, be sure and send it to us for review.

At Gotha Middle School, we create weekly music videos for fun. Obviously we can’t do them together anymore — and many of the 8th graders have been heartbroken.

So we created a VIRTUAL music video with 8th graders who sent in videos of themselves dancing and singing (and sanitizing) at home.

And the song choice was perfect: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Enjoy The Fun? Be Sure And Share It With Your Own Friends On Social Media…

What Can One Person Do in 10 Years? This Man Got 152 Million Mangrove Trees Planted

By
Andy Corbley
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2008 photo of Haidar by Serigne Diagne, CC license

“Here we have a burgeoning (mangrove) leaf. You take it and you plant the lower third in the mud, and then you take 2 steps—one, two, and then you plant another one,” said the retired politician, with a smile ear to ear, as he wades in the murky coastal waters of Senegal’s Casamance Delta.

Planting since 2009, Haidar el Ali’s efforts have produced one of the most stunning successes in the history of modern large-scale reforestation—the restoration of an entire Senegalese mangrove swamp.

Forests are one of the most resilient habitats on our planet while also being one of the most exploited. Ever since the scientific community began to encourage the planting of trees to ‘re-wild’ previously lost forest ecosystems to respond to climate change, some very determined members of the human race have rolled up their sleeves and produced remarkable results.

RELATED: Scientists Use Recycled Sewage Water to Grow 500-Acre Forest in the Middle of Egyptian Desert

As Senegal’s former Minister of Ecology (and later Fisheries), the 67-year-old was able to rally citizens from the local coastal population to help him plant 152 million mangrove buds by hand, and it created a truly beautiful coastal mangrove forest stretching hundreds of square miles—one of the largest of its kind in the world.

A Paradise for Crabs—and Environmental Ministers

Recently, Jean Francois Bastin et al. estimated that 2.4 billion acres of additional forest cover on the earth (1B hectares) would suck 25% of all the carbon currently being pumped into the atmosphere. Science like this was in large part responsible for the World Economic Forum’s launch of the Trillion Trees vision.

Because they store immense amounts of carbon in their submerged root systems, mangroves and other bodies of coastal vegetation are some of our planet’s most important ecosystems. They help filter river mud runoff from entering the sea, while absorbing the brunt of tidal waves and tsunamis. And they also provide some of the most valuable habitat for near-shore wildlife including birds, insects, invertebrates, crustaceans, reptiles, fish, and even monkeys.

MORE: First Drone Project of Its Kind in Canada is Aiming to Plant 1 Billion Trees by 2028

In a video interview with BBC, Haidar described how the original mangrove forest in Southern Senegal was disrupted in the 80s and 90s as the nation began to build roads which diverted or ended the flow of rivers. “At the time there were no environmental impact studies, of course.”

2008 photo of Haidar by Serigne Diagne, CC license

Next came the lumbermen who clear-cut the coastal mangroves. It wasn’t, as Haidar explains, until the salt from the sea water entering the delta poisoned the nearby rice fields that people began to think about replacing what had been lost.

WATCH: Man Succeeds Where Government Fails—He Planted a Forest in the Middle of a Cold Desert

Though nearing his seventh decade of life, Haidar swims butterfly stroke through the water-borne forest of his and his colleagues’ making, pointing out the presence of returning wildlife as a boon to the local economy.

“The mangrove is a fantastic ecosystem that attracts rain—and it is well known scientifically that this mud captures methane, and that these leaves capture CO2,” he explains.

“I take a lot of satisfaction from this. I’m ready to do it every day, all evening, all my life.”

(WATCH the heartwarming BBC video below… [NOTE: BBC only has video, no full article)

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“A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.” – Lao Tzu

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.” – Lao Tzu

Photo: by Sanjay Hona – public domain

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?

Scientists Discover a Complete Protein Found Nowhere on Earth That Fell From Space, May Hint at Planet’s Origin

By
Andy Corbley
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A complete protein—a critical ingredient for life, and one that could finally solve the mystery of how life on earth began—was discovered for the first time “on an extraterrestrial source.”

Using the latest in mass spectrometry, scientists from Harvard identified isolated amino-acids lodged in a meteorite, and later confirmed them to be part of a unique complete protein structure seen nowhere on Earth.

If cells are the architects, custodians, and innovators of organic life, proteins in many ways are the building blocks used to create it, and while this discovery doesn’t outright confirm that life came from the stars, it supports several hypotheses, such as that life could have begun here on earth with help from interstellar space rocks.

Scientists working with a superconductor X-ray source supplier, PLEX, found the traces on a meteorite known as Acfer 086 which landed in Algeria in 1990. Given the name hemolithin, the unearthly protein contains iron and lithium.

While single and even chains of amino-acids have been found in space before, this is the first time that they have been organized into what could be considered a complete protein. More exciting is that the chemical structure of this extraterrestrial protein is not found in proteins on earth.

LOOK: ‘Unprecedented’ New Photos of the Sun’s Surface Are Being Hailed as Landmark Achievement for Science

To ensure the protein discovered on the meteorite didn’t come from earthly contaminants, the researchers measured the ratio between deuterium/hydrogen, which is similar to carbon dating and helps contextualize the origins of materials.

The results revealed “very high extraterrestrial D/H ratios,” according to the study, and according to a report from Vice, this suggests the protein could have come from a period before the solar system coalesced—in the proto-solar disc or even earlier—in clouds of molecular dust that existed before our sun was born.

Meteor shower – NASA

RELATED: Teen Discovered New Planet 6.9 Times Bigger Than Earth Just Days into NASA Internship

“At this point, we need other scientists to employ our careful methods to repeat our results,” said study co-author Julie McGeoch, a molecular biologist at Harvard University, who said her team is waiting for their published paper to be replicated and sent through peer-review.

Perhaps the most fascinating and, unfortunately, most complicated aspect of the discovery is the strange reaction hemolithin has in water. Studying these water-protein reactions led McGeoch to try to determine whether reactions between the two in interstellar dust clouds could have played a role in the formation of our solar system (see her corresponding paper).

Down here on earth, the same splitting of molecules from water into hydrogen and oxygen would have played a major role in the creation for habitable conditions for life to arise, suggesting that extraterrestrial proteins like hemolithin might have triggered these reactions on earth.

CHECK OUT: Scientists Detect Tone Pattern in the Ringing of a Newborn Black Hole for the First Time, Proving Einstein Right Again

McGeoch noted that: “If true, this could be a chemical energy source, which is the most important ingredient for a biochemical process leading on to life.”

McGeoch is planning to plow forward studying these reactions, acknowledging that the protein, or any protein’s, potential role in the formation of the solar system or otherwise is merely speculation at this point; but for the first time, short of a cell arriving on a meteorite, we have confirmed the off-world presence of at least one major building block to organic life, as well as the possibility of beginning to understand mechanisms that might lead to a planet becoming suitable for it.

Be Sure And Share The Exciting News With Your Friends On Social Media… (Photo by Tom Hall, CC license)

Sikhs Around the World Are Sending Thousands of Donated Meals to Elderly and People in Self-Isolation

By
Andy Corbley
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Always in the running for world’s nicest people, the Sikh community of Sydney, Australia has spent over $4,000 Australian dollars on a food donation program for elderly folks stuck in self-isolation.

The group known as “Turbans of Australia,” has so far donated more than 1.5 tons of food that will be delivered to Sydney residents who are unable to regularly shop for basic non-perishable foods.

Speaking with The Daily Mail Australia, Amar Singh, a volunteer truck-driver said that while preference was being given to the elderly, disabled, and people at greater risk of serious complications from coronavirus, his organization would help anyone who calls.

“The health directive of the mandatory 14-day self-isolation has left many people unable to provide for themselves,” Mr. Singh said. “We don’t want anyone to miss out on essentials.”

RELATED: World’s Largest Free Kitchen Feeds 100,000 a Day Inside a Sikh Golden Temple

Mr. Singh also revealed that he and all the members of the volunteer force work full-time jobs, so they are finding time to help people while in their spare time—though some members go so far as donating 25 hours of their time.

Another organization of Sikhs—Sikh Volunteers of Australia, based in Melbourne, were delivering 1,000 home-cooked meals to elderly and others unable to go grocery shopping during the pandemic, predominantly in the city’s south-eastern neighborhoods.

MORE: Restaurant Flooded With Business After Launching an ‘Adopt a Doc or Nurse’ Catering Service

Marpreet Singh, the group’s vice-president, told The Mail that once it became clear that people were in dire need of food, his organization, which runs a free food for the homeless program twice a week, would work around the clock for the next two weeks while the 14-day isolation period wore down.

“(It’s mostly) vulnerable people who are worried about the virus or people having trouble getting food at the supermarket, and disabled, homeless and single parents who are looking after their kids and can’t go out,” Mr. Singh said.

Sikh Generosity in the Big Apple

Regardless of which side of the globe they’re on, Sikhs feel like helping out. In New York, the Sikh Center of New York prepared and packaged more than 30,000 meals—this time for Americans stuck in self-isolation.

MORE: Hotels Are Opening Up Free Rooms to Healthcare Workers Battling the COVID-19 Outbreaks

Because 30 times more food was being handled in New York than Melbourne, strict hygiene procedures were observed that involved wearing gloves and masks, social distancing, and sterilization of equipment and surfaces.

Like in Australia, the food packages would go mostly to people who are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus, the elderly, and disabled, and would be delivered by volunteer drivers thoroughly examined by physicians to ensure they are free of the virus.

Sikhism isn’t strictly vegetarian, but there is a sector of their faith in which plant-based diets are a must, and so the meals consist of dried fruit, rice, and lentils.

CHECK OUT: JOANN Stores are Handing Out Free Fabric Supplies at Curbside to Anyone Sewing Face Masks at Home

According to ANI news, several Sikh organizations on the east and west coast, as well as in between, are prepared to work with government agencies looking to help distribute food or medicine to community members who need it.

“We have requested gurudwaras across the country and the world to especially reach out to the stranded Indian students and provide them meals and shelter, which will give relief to many worried parents back in India,” Jathedar Harpreet Singh, Sri Akal Takht Sahib and the spiritual leader of the Sikh community told ANI.

This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.

Multiply The Good By Sharing This Story Of Kindness With Your Friends On Social Media…

School Parents Have Pooled Thousands of Dollars as Thank You Gifts to Janitorial Staff Sanitizing Schools

By
McKinley Corbley
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Photo by Lyall Smith, head of facilities and management at Williston schools

As a means of thanking school custodians for going the extra mile, making sure school facilities are kept clean and sanitary during the COVID-19 outbreaks, appreciative parents from all over the country have raised thousands of dollars for their district janitors.

Prior to state legislators closing down schools to curb the spread of the coronavirus, two public schools in Williston, Vermont were temporarily closed earlier this month after a staff member fell ill.

Since the employee had just been traveling out of state and had stayed at a hotel with confirmed cases of infection, the school was closed down for a thorough emergency deep cleaning.

WATCH: Neighborhood Comes Together for Hilarious Dino-Themed Social Distancing Parade

Brooke Thomas, a mother of four, had been discussing the incident with a number of her fellow school parents in a Facebook group when she got the idea to raise money for the janitors conducting the deep cleaning.

“I said we need to recognize that these staff members who are going into potential contamination and a disaster zone, really, and putting themselves at risk,” Thomas told CNN. “It’s already an under-appreciated job as it is, and not one that gets a lot of respect. It was a feel-good way to get people to recognize that.”

Photo by Lyall Smith, head of facilities and management at Williston schools

In just one short week, Thomas’s Facebook fundraiser for the custodial staff at Allen Brook School and Williston Central School surged past its original goal of $200 and raised more than $7,400 in donations.

Similar initiatives have popped up across the United States, like Shawna Lidsky’s GoFundMe campaign for the custodial staff at her children’s school in Shelburne, Vermont, which has already raised more than $4,000.

RELATED: Restaurant Flooded With Business After Launching an ‘Adopt a Doc or Nurse’ Catering Service

“Inspired by our neighbors in Williston, who raised over $7000 for their custodial staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s come together and pass on this act of kindness in our town!” wrote Lidsky.

According to ABC News, another crowdfunding campaign from Medfield, Massachusetts has also raised more than $9,000 for their custodial staffers.

This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.

(WATCH the video below)

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After the UK Told James Dyson It Needed 10,000 Ventilators, He Invented One in Just 10 Days—And is Donating 5,000

By
Andy Corbley
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Photo by Dyson

James Dyson, the manufacturing mastermind behind cyclone vacuum technology and other inventions, received a personal call from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to build ventilators—a medical device sorely needed in the treating of COVID-19 patients.

“A ventilator supports a patient who is no longer able to maintain their own airways, but sadly there is currently a significant shortage, both in the UK and other countries around the world,” Dyson wrote in a letter to his employees.

Ever eager to play Nikola Tesla, Dyson and his company got to work and—in just ten days—invented and built a brand new easily duplicated ventilator.

“This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume,” said the English innovator.

RELATED: Researchers Have Found a Way to Sterilize and Reuse Face Masks During Pandemic

The British government put in a purchase order for the first 10,000 units. Already a billionaire, Dyson is donated 5,000 more to international hospitals that are short on emergency equipment.

UK Business Minister Alok Sharma said he wanted to see “prototypes coming forward in a matter of weeks before we move into large scale production,” in a BBC Radio 4 interview, adding later that any model had to meet National Health Service requirements and are safe to use.

Photo by Dyson

“The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time,” Dyson said, according to CNN. “The race is now on to get it into production.”

Production for the ventilators is slated to be finished in early April, which could be vital to curbing some of the more fatal cases of the virus.

This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.

Build Up Some Positivity Amongst Your Friends By Sharing The Good News To Social Media…

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

Photo: by Martin Adams – public domain

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?

Love in the Time of Corona: NYC Man is Now Dating His Neighbor After He Creatively Woos Her in Quarantine

By
Asher Israel
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Pandemic or no pandemic, love will find a way—just ask Jeremy Cohen, a quarantined New Yorker who is now dating his neighbor after using a drone to give his phone number to the young woman he spotted dancing on a nearby rooftop.

Cohen, a Brooklyn-based music photographer and filmmaker who has worked with the likes of Miley Cyrus and Lizzo, was just one of millions of Americans twiddling their thumbs in self-isolation last week when he saw an animated figure dancing with gusto on a neighboring rooftop.

RELATED: Watch Neighborhood Come Together for Hilarious Dino-Themed Social Distancing Parade

“I thought she was really cute from far away,” Cohen told The New York Post. “During this quarantine, I think everyone is fiending for social interaction. I was like, ‘Oh my god, a girl. I haven’t seen one for so long.’”

Cohen then pulled out his phone to document the meet-cute that followed. In a now-famous series of videos, the two neighbors can be seen waving to one another—although the distance between their building made conversation difficult.

Necessity, however, is the mother of invention, and in a flash of inspiration, the video shows Cohen writing his phone number on a piece of paper, taping it to his drone, and using a remote control to navigate the machine through the air towards his brunette belle.

 

Tori Cignarella, the dancer in question, has also racked up thousands of views since posting her own Instagram post of the quarantine disco.

“I was actually hanging out with my roommate … and I was actually doing the dance from ‘High School Musical,’” Cignarella said, referring to the topically uplifting tune of “We’re All in this Together”.

“I was not expecting to get a phone number out of it,” she added. “We could see his balcony pretty clearly from where we were on the roof and he basically just kind of shouted over to me.”

CHECK OUT: Watch These Self-Isolating Seniors Stave Off Boredom by Playing Life-Sized ‘Hungry, Hungry Hippos’

As he narrated the TikTok video, Cohen admitted that flirting is “normally daunting” for him, but he is also apparently a hopeless romantic—a fact that is clearly evident in the footage that followed.

The second installment of Cohen’s video series shows the couple sharing a dinner date from across the street as they each sit down to an intimate meal, complete with wine and nice tablecloths, on their respective balconies—something Cohen had stealthily coordinated with Cignarella’s roommate.

LOOK: Jimmy Fallon Asks Twitter to Describe Their Quarantine in Six Words—and the Results Are Hilarious

“This date is going really well,” Cohen later confided to his social media followers. “Depending on how long this quarantine lasts, I might just end up in a long-distance relationship with someone who lives across the street.”

The couple can be seen laughing and clinking their glasses over FaceTime—and by the end of the update, Cohen says he has made up his mind. “It’s time to take this relationship to the next level,” he says to the camera, with a twinkle in his eye.

 

Cohen’s third video installment turned out to be the most impressive of all… (click below to continue the story)

Continue Reading on Page 2…

FDA Okays Historic Blood Treatment for COVID; Clinical Trials to Use Antibodies From Recovered Patients

By
Andy Corbley
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As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) works to facilitate expedited access to several investigative drug interventions to treat COVID-19 patients, one particularly promising treatment is now set to enter clinical trials in New York.

The convalescent plasma treatment involves drawing blood plasma out of an individual who has recovered from and built up an immunity to COVID-19, testing the blood for the related antibody, and then injecting it into a sick patient so that the antibody can theoretically attack the virus for its new host.

“Use of convalescent plasma has been studied in outbreaks of other respiratory infections, including the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, 2003 SARS-CoV-1 epidemic, and the 2012 MERS-CoV epidemic,” writes the FDA.

“Although promising, convalescent plasma has not been shown to be effective in every disease studied,” they continued. “It is therefore important to determine through clinical trials, before routinely administering convalescent plasma to patients with COVID-19, that it is safe and effective to do so.”

RELATED: Researchers Have Found a Way to Sterilize and Reuse Face Masks During Pandemic

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that it was a treatment he was very interested in pursuing as he tries to face down one of the largest outbreaks in the US.

The treatment will now be made available to those suffering severe or life-threatening symptoms of COVID-19 under the FDA’s new emergency drug application procedure.

New York health officials are hoping to recruit COVID patients from New Rochelle—ground zero for the state’s infection and the area with the largest cohort of people who have recovered—to see if any of them would be willing and viable donors.

MORE: Another Roundup of Positive Updates on the COVID Outbreaks From Around the World

Dr. Arturo Casadevall is the chief of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and he’s advocated for the plasma treatment on the grounds of its past successes with diseases like Ebola and influenza.

“It has a high likelihood of working, but we won’t know whether it works until its done,” he told CNN. “We do know based on history it has a good chance.”

He also says he has been “overwhelmed” by the number of people who want to donate their plasma, and at the number of doctors who want to understand and deploy the treatment in countries around the world.

This is just one of many heartening stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.

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Watch Spanish Man Share a Drink With Isolated Neighbors By Filling Their Glasses From Two Floors Above

By
Good News Network
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As Spanish residents remain in quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreaks, many neighbors have found creative ways of connecting with each other while still respecting isolation rules.

This particular apartment-dweller in Oviedo, Asturias was filmed sharing a drink with his neighbor two floors.

Journalist Pelayo Barro managed to capture a video of the man slowly pouring his bottle of cider over the side of the balcony so that the liquid fell directly into the glasses of his downstairs neighbors.

Upon successfully filling their cups, the man could be seen toasting the city block as his neighbors cheered for his unique little victory.

(WATCH the endearing video below)

Raise A Glass To Good News By Sharing This Sweet Story With Your Friends On Social Media…

Researchers Have Found a Way to Sterilize and Reuse Face Masks During Pandemic

By
Good News Network
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Facing a critical shortage of N95 face masks that block the coronavirus, researchers from Duke Health research and clinical teams in North Carolina have confirmed a way to use existing decontamination methods to clean and reuse the masks.

The process uses specialized equipment to aerosolize hydrogen peroxide, which permeates the layers of the mask to kills germs, including viruses, without degrading the mask material.

“This is a decontamination technology and method we’ve used for years in our biocontainment laboratory,” said Scott Alderman, associate director of the Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory.

“We had never considered needing it for something like face masks. But we’ve now proven that it works and will begin using the technology immediately in all three Duke Health hospitals,” said Dr. Matthew Stiegel, director of the Occupational and Environmental safety Office.

RELATED: JOANN Stores are Handing Out Free Fabric Supplies at Curbside to Anyone Sewing Face Masks at Home

The decontamination process should keep a significant number of N95 masks in use at Duke University Hospital as well as Duke Regional and Duke Raleigh hospitals, easing some of the shortage and curbing the need for other alternatives using unproven decontamination techniques.

The use of hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate N95 masks was tested and published by others in 2016, but did not result in widespread adaptation. The earlier studies did not include fit testing after cleaning—basically sizing the masks for individual wearers—to prove efficacy in the real world, which Duke has now done.

Photo by Duke Health

The decontamination process requires specialized equipment that aerosolizes the hydrogen peroxide, and a closed facility where the masks can be exposed to the vapor. No toxic byproducts result, because hydrogen peroxide breaks down to water.

“The ability to reuse the crucial N95 masks will boost the hospitals’ ability to protect frontline health care workers during this time of critical shortages of N95 masks,” said Cameron Wolfe, associate professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist.

CHECK OUT: Another Roundup of Positive Updates on the COVID Outbreaks From Around the World

Monte Brown, vice president at Duke University Health System, said the Duke team is working to spread the word about the technique, making the protocols widely available. He said several health systems and many pharmaceutical companies already have the needed equipment, which is currently used in different ways, and could ramp up operations to come to the aid of their local hospitals.

“We could stand up in front of our staff and state with confidence that we are using a proven decontamination method,” Brown said. “It has been a proven method for years. While this alone will not solve the problem, if we and others can reuse masks even once or twice, that would be a huge benefit given the current shortages.”

Reprinted from Duke University

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Restaurant Flooded With Business After Launching an ‘Adopt a Doc or Nurse’ Catering Service

By
McKinley Corbley
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A California restaurant has found a compassionate way of keeping their business open while simultaneously caring for hospital staffers fighting the novel coronavirus outbreaks.

In addition to continuing their takeout and delivery services, the Tootsie’s restaurant at the Stanford Mall in Palo Alto has been using their catering services to feed doctors and nurses at their local hospitals.

Since Tootsie’s owner Rocco Scordella launched his ingenious “Adopt a Doctor or Nurse” program earlier this month, community members have commissioned his restaurant to prepare and serve more than 2,000 meals to various hospital departments in the Bay Area.

“Even the first day was 750 requests. I was like oh my,” Scordella told KRON News. “I’m gonna be busier than when I’m actually open so its good. It’s really good to see the community coming in.”

RELATED: JOANN Stores are Handing Out Free Fabric Supplies at Curbside to Anyone Sewing Face Masks at Home

Not only has his catering program been helping to feed hospital personnel during the COVID-19 outbreaks, the influx in business has also helped Scordella to rehire a number of staffers who he had been forced to lay off at the start of the shutdowns.

He now hopes that other businesses around the world will implement the Adopt a Nurse or Doc program in their own restaurants as a means of support hospital workers during the pandemic.

This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.

(WATCH the news coverage below)

Multiply The Good By Sharing The Inspiring Story With Your Friends On Social Media…

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey Mackay

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Time is free—but it’s priceless. You can’t own it—but you can use it. You can’t keep it—but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey Mackay

Photo: by Daiga Ellaby – public domain

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?

Watch the Heartwarming Moment Residents of Senior Home Sing ‘Que Sera Sera’ to Relatives From the Window

By
Good News Network
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This is the heartwarming moment that a group of English care home residents broke into song to entertain their visiting relatives who were listening from the other side of the facility’s glass windows.

The footage from the Elizabeth House in Benfleet, Essex shows a dozen seniors with dementia singing “Que Sera Sera” as they wave bouquets of daffodils to their family members—all while maintaining a safe social distance from opposite sides of the care home’s window.

“It’s just a lovely thing to see,” said 52-year-old staff member Gill Petters. “We usually have singers in, but that is all on hold now what with the coronavirus.

RELATED: Pop Star Grieving His Own Loss Helps 83-Year-Old Widower Check Off Bucket List After Wife’s Death

“We had to think of different ways to engage and entertain the residents so we set up a choir last week. Families have been in touch and say they absolutely love it.

“We make sure to upload a video every day online too, as it’s the next best thing when you’re unable to visit your elderly relative,” added Petters. “It’s even touching for the staff, because with dementia, some of the residents struggle with the basics of conversation.

“They can’t remember anything about themselves. But when they sing a song, it all comes flying back.”

(WATCH the heartwarming video below)

Whatever Will Be, Will Be—But Be Sure And Share This Sweet Story With Your Friends On Social Media…

Beloved TV Reporter Broadcasts From Home to Help Children With Mr. Rogers-Like Lessons on Kindness

By
McKinley Corbley
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CBS reporter Steve Hartman is usually spending his work week traveling the country so he can shine a spotlight on some of America’s most compassionate citizens and everyday heroes.

Since the novel coronavirus outbreaks has confined Hartman to working from home, however, the newsman and father-of-four is continuing his quest for kindness by livestreaming a week-long course on kindness.

For each day of the work week, Hartman has been broadcasting a different 30-minute lesson on kindness through the CBS News Facebook Live stream.

RELATED: Across Canada, Scaremongering Becomes ‘Caremongering’ as Citizens Help Each Other In Challenging Times

On Monday, he talked to his viewers about his experience in character; on Tuesday, he discussed the magic of empathy—but for every one of his Kindness 101 classes, Hartman uses some of the most heartwarming segments of his work to illustrate the ongoing importance of kindness.

So despite how Hartman launched the free online course as a means of offering some educational content to America’s children during their time home from school, his lessons in compassion are valuable to everybody—regardless of their age.

Hartman’s next Kindness 101 class will be livestreamed on the CBS Facebook page on Thursday, March 26th at 2PM EST.

(WATCH the news coverage below OR our international viewers can check out the footage on the CBS website)

Want more Steve Hartman? Here are just a few of our favorite On the Road segments from the archives…

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Exonerated Man and the Crooked Cop Who Framed Him Are Showing Us How to Love

Be Sure And Share These Sweet Lessons in Kindness With Your Friends On Social Media…

Hotels Are Opening Up Free Rooms to Healthcare Workers Battling the COVID-19 Outbreaks

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Good News Network
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New York City Four Seasons lobby - File photo by Alan Light, CC

As a means of caring for the hospital staffers in New York City and the UK currently battling the novel coronavirus outbreaks, these hotels are offering up free accommodation during the coming weeks.

Ty Warner, the chairman of the company which owns the Four Seasons in mid-town NYC, announced this week that he would be opening up the 5-star hotel to the state for complimentary use.

Warner says he was inspired to volunteer the free rooms after hearing one of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s calls to action this week.

RELATED: Another Roundup of Positive Updates on the COVID Outbreaks From Around the World

“Many of those working in New York City have to travel long distances to and from their homes after putting in 18-hour days,” Warner said in a statement. “They need a place close to work where they can rest and regenerate. I heard Governor Cuomo’s call to action during one of his press conferences, and there was no other option for us but do whatever we could to help.”

According to NBC New York, there are a number of prominent hospitals within a 30-block radius of the luxury hotel, including the Bellevue, Weill Cornell Medical Center, NYU Langone, and Mt. Sinai. The news outlet goes on to say that Gov. Cuomo is also working with other city hospitals to provide free rooms for medical personnel fighting the outbreaks.

New York City Four Seasons lobby – File photo by Alan Light, CC

Meanwhile in Manchester, England, retired soccer stars Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs—both of whom formerly played for Manchester United—are offering up their own hotels as free accommodation for NHS workers.

Giggs and Neville are co-owners of the Hotel Football and The Stock Exchange through their GG Hospitality group. Although the two Manchester-based hotels will be closed to the general public, Neville published a Twitter announcement this week saying that every single one of their rooms would be offered up to nurses, doctors, and medical personnel battling the COVID-19 outbreaks.

“Our 176 beds will be occupied by National Health Service workers and medical professionals,” said Neville in the Twitter video. “It’s at this time that I think the whole of our industry needs to show solidarity, not just for our staff in these uncertain times but obviously for those who need the accommodation most in the coming months.

CHECK OUT: Chinese Company Ships Crates of Masks to Italy Covered in Italian Poetry—We Are ‘Leaves of the Same Tree’

“It’s something we’re delighted to have come into agreement with. It will operate free of charge and our staff will operate the hotels as normal,” he continued. “The health workers will be able to stay there without any cost whatsoever in these next few months when they need isolation away from family members who may be affected by what’s going on.”

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of the Chelsea soccer team, has also offered to pay for NHS staffers to stay at the club’s Millennium Hotel in London for the next two months.

This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.

Score Big With Your Friends By Sharing The Good News To Social Media…

As Earth’s Ozone Layer Continues to Repair Itself, Scientists Happily Report Good News on Global Wind Trends

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Good News Network
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Photo by CIRES

It has been more than 30 years since the world banned the chemicals that were depleting Earth’s protective ozone layer and simultaneously triggering some troubling changes in atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere.

Now, new research published this week in Nature finds that those changes have paused and might even be reversing because of the Montreal Protocol—an international treaty that successfully phased out use of ozone-depleting chemicals.

“This study adds to growing evidence showing the profound effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol. Not only has the treaty spurred healing of the ozone layer, it’s also driving recent changes in Southern Hemisphere air circulation patterns,” said lead author Antara Banerjee, a CIRES Visiting Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder who works in the Chemical Sciences Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The ozone hole, discovered in 1985, has been forming every spring in the atmosphere high over Antarctica. Ozone depletion cools the air, strengthening the winds of the polar vortex and affecting winds all the way down to the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Ultimately, ozone depletion has shifted the midlatitude jet stream and the dry regions at the edge of the tropics toward the South Pole.

LOOK: ‘Unprecedented’ New Photos of the Sun’s Surface Are Being Hailed as Landmark Achievement for Science

Previous studies have linked these circulation trends to weather changes in the Southern Hemisphere, especially rainfall over South America, East Africa, and Australia, and to changes in ocean currents and salinity.

The Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased out production of ozone-destroying substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Beginning around 2000, concentrations of those chemicals in the stratosphere started to decline and the ozone hole began to recover. In this study, Banerjee and her co-authors have shown that around the year 2000, the circulation of the Southern Hemisphere also stopped expanding polewards—a pause or slight reversal of the earlier trends.

Photo by CIRES

“The challenge in this study was proving our hypothesis that ozone recovery is in fact driving these atmospheric circulation changes and it isn’t just a coincidence,” Banerjee said.

To do that, the researchers used a two-step statistical technique called detection and attribution: detecting whether certain patterns of observed wind changes are unlikely to be due to natural variability alone and, if so, whether the changes can be attributed to human-caused factors, such as emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals and CO2.

RELATED: Scientists Detect Tone Pattern in the Ringing of a Newborn Black Hole for the First Time, Proving Einstein Right Again

Using computer simulations, the researchers first determined that the observed pause in circulation trends couldn’t be explained by natural shifts in winds alone. Next, they isolated the effects of ozone and greenhouse gases separately.

They showed that while rising CO2 emissions have continued expanding the near-surface circulation (including the jet stream) polewards, only the ozone changes could explain the pause in circulation trends. Prior to 2000, both ozone depletion and rising CO2 levels pushed the near-surface circulation poleward. Since 2000, CO2 has continued to push this circulation poleward, balancing the opposing effect of the ozone recovery.

“Identifying the ozone-driven pause in circulation trends in real-world observations confirms, for the first time, what the scientific ozone community has long predicted from theory,” said John Fyfe, a scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada and one of the paper’s co-authors.

MORE: NASA Happily Reports the Earth is Greener, With More Trees Than 20 Years Ago–and It’s Thanks to China, India

With ozone recovering and CO2 levels continuing to climb, the future is less certain, including for those Southern Hemisphere regions whose weather is affected by the jet stream and those at the edge of the dry regions.

“We term this a ‘pause’ because the poleward circulation trends might resume, stay flat, or reverse,” Banerjee said. “It’s the tug of war between the opposing effects of ozone recovery and rising greenhouse gases that will determine future trends.”

However, a 2018 report from the United Nations says that the infamous hole in the ozone layer could be totally healed by the 2060s—and in some areas of the world, it could be as soon as 2030.

Reprinted from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Power Up With Positivity By Sharing The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media…

20 Dutch Musicians Weave Together Beethoven’s Best Melody From Their Own Homes—And the Results Are Glorious

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Good News Network
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Twenty Dutch musicians from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra were forced to stay sequestered in their homes this week amidst COVID-19 shutdowns—but they still came together in harmony to produce a powerful music video for the world.

With a full string section, woodwinds, and brass horns, the video opens with the familiar notes of the triumphant Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven, first played almost 200 years ago.

“We’re adjusting to a new reality and we’ll have to find solutions in order to support each other,” wrote the team on YouTube. “Creative forces help us.”

“Let’s think outside of the box and use innovation to keep our connection and make it work, together. Because if we do it together, we’ll succeed.”

WATCH: Siblings Filmed Playing Sweet Spontaneous Porch Concert for Elderly Neighbor in Self-Isolation

Known also as “the choral symphony”, it was the first ever symphony composed using voices, which come in near the end of the composition.

The four-minute YouTube clip reaches that crescendo with an unseen choir recorded singing the glorious words of the German poem, An die Freude (Ode To Joy), by Friedrich Schiller—the poem chosen by Beethoven to accompany his final masterpiece.

Glad, as his suns fly
Through the Heavens’ glorious plan,
Run, brothers, your race, Joyful,
as a hero to victory.
Be embraced, you millions!
This kiss for the whole world!

(WATCH the wonderful video below)

 

BONUS Video: Crosby Stills & Nash’s Helplessly Hoping sung by Italian choir in quarantine…

Collaboration Is Key: Be Sure And Share The Fantastic Music With Your Friends on Social Media…

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