Quote of the Day: “Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.” – Marianne Williamson
Photo: by solarisgirl, CC license on Flickr
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
I have been wanting to do a video about my book for MONTHS, and finally sat myself down in front of a camera this week. One of the reasons I procrastinated is because I never liked much how I look on camera. (I know, so much vanity, right?)
But, I was spurred to action by the need to talk about our Summer Book Sale, which offers 20% savings now for a limited time, if you’re shipping to the USA.
You can save $2.00 compared to Amazon prices—plus get FREE shipping! Claim your Summer Savings here: GNN.to/book
I really hate to exclude people outside the US, but GNN can only ship domestically. HOWEVER, I promise to run an Amazon sale all my friends outside the US later this year. Amazon sells our book, ‘…And Now, The Good News: 20 Years of Inspiring News Stories’ in Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany, Spain, and Italy—and all the links are HERE.
Love to all, Geri
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This story was submitted as a nomination to the Reader’s Digest “Top 50 Nicest Places in America” contest: a crowd-sourced effort to uncover nooks where people are still kind and respectful in an era of cultural and political divides. Be sure and vote for which story you think should be nominated as the top Nicest Place by visiting the Reader’s Digest website.
It isn’t every city where someone can be elected mayor by running on the slogan “Make Kindness Contagious”—but that is exactly how this California town made a reputation for itself as “The City of Kindness”.
After Edward Jaievsky’s daughter passed away in a car accident, he was later surprised to discover that she made a series of drawings and writings about her wish for a world filled with kindness.
At a loss as to what to do amid this tragedy, he decided to honor her memory by hanging up signs reading “Make Kindness Contagious” all over Anaheim.
That tiny act, sparked by the wishes of an innocent girl, ended up having an enormous impact on the town.
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Tom Tait, a former city councilman who nominated Anaheim as one of the Nicest Places in America, tells Reader’s Digest that he saw the signs and wanted to figure out where they came from. He eventually tracked down Jaievsky and learned about his daughter’s wish.
Jaievsky’s story then inspired Tait to run for mayor with “Make Kindness Contagious” as his campaign slogan.
It might sound overly simple, but Tait hoped that if the city adopted “kindness” as one of its essential pillars, life in Anaheim would get better for everyone.
And here’s the crazy thing: it worked.
Tait served as mayor from 2010 to 2018, and nearly ten years later, the “City of Kindness” has become famous for its ethos of smiles and caring—so famous that the Dalai Lama chose to spend his 80th birthday in the town.
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Just one of the city’s reoccurring examples of kindness is how all Anaheim schools now host a Serve-a-Thon every Martin Luther King Day. Instead of taking the school holiday off, teachers, administrators, and hundreds of students come together in order to do compassionate activities such as planting trees and singing songs at a senior citizens center.
“It’s really fun,” says fifth-grader Kenley Herrera, who participated in a neighborhood cleanup. “It’s just the thought of making people happier.”
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She and her friends made posters with uplifting messages like “May You Have Love in Your Heart” to carry as they picked up trash for nearly two miles, all the way from her elementary school to Anaheim High.
“Kindness has just become integrated into who we are,” says Ephrain Paniagua, principal of Lincoln Elementary.
Reprinted with permission from Reader’s Digest. To learn more about GNN’s part in searching for the Top 10 Nicest Places, click here.
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Researchers have discovered an interesting new method for exhausted students to relax and relieve themselves of stress-related headaches.
Teenagers report higher levels of stress than adults, and cite school as the highest contributing factor, according to the American Psychological Association‘s annual report. A summary from 2013 concluded that while stress among Americans was not new, “what’s troubling is the stress outlook for teens in the United States.”
In response, some schools have recently turned to mindfulness-based programs as a way to alleviate stress among their students. These programs could benefit from more research into what activities students find most useful.
In a pilot study led by the University of Washington, researchers explored art-based mindfulness activities that schools could use to reduce headaches, a common side effect of stress in adolescent girls.
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After three weeks of twice-weekly mindfulness and art therapy sessions, the girls reported experiencing significantly fewer headaches. At the beginning of the study, the girls reported 7.38 headaches, on average, within the previous two-week period. At the end of the study, that number had dropped to 4.63 — almost a 40% decrease. This drop remained even seven weeks after the study had ended. The researchers published their findings in the journal Art Therapy.
“This study highlights one of my main research missions: We should be making interventions in cooperation with teenagers if we want these strategies to work,” said corresponding author Elin Björling, a senior research scientist in the UW’s human centered design and engineering department.
“There’s something powerful about saying ‘I’m inviting you to start thinking about how you could get better. Come have a conversation with me about how we could do this.’ I think that’s why we saw such a strong response even in this tiny study.”
The team recruited eight girls between the ages of 14 to 17 from a high school in Seattle. All of the participants reported experiencing three or more headaches not related to an injury within a two-week period, and five of the eight mentioned tension or stress as the main reason for headaches.
During the program, the students met twice a week for a 50-minute session with the research team. Each session began with an activity in which students would map where they were feeling stressed on a drawing of a body. Then the teens would participate in mindfulness and art activities before closing the session with another body map.
“After the study, we looked at all the before and after body maps side by side. It was so clear that something significant was going on,” Björling said. “In the beginning everything was in pieces, and in the end everything was flowing through the whole body.”
The teens tried different mindfulness techniques in each session so they could find which ones worked the best for them.
What teens liked: square breathing, a technique that encourages people to take slow breaths by concentrating and counting.
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“I thought: ‘No teen ever wants to do counted breathing, and they’re never going to do it,’” Björling said. “But a few of them said ‘That’s my favorite. I do it all the time now.’”
What teens didn’t like: mindful eating, a technique that asks people to focus on what and how they’re eating.
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“They hated it,” Björling said. “This was a technique straight out of a lot of mindfulness programs for teens, but it didn’t connect with them. It just annoyed them. It goes to show I need them to be experts in their own lives.”
The researchers also asked the students to participate in different mindful art activities. During each session, the students tried a new art medium — they particularly liked using oil pastels — and different types of art therapy projects, including one where they worked together to create mandalas before and after a meditation exercise.
While the teens experienced fewer headaches after the study ended, their overall stress levels didn’t change much—but the students reported feeling better in the moment, saying that they felt like they could handle whatever happened for the rest of the day.
The team was surprised to see any differences, given the small size of the group.
“It’s not just about this study,” Björling said. “This problem of teen mental health and headaches is so big that I’m worried about what happens if we don’t take it on. Some teens will want nothing to do with art mindfulness. So we need to come at this in lots of different ways. We’re going to need an army of people and a cornucopia of options.”
Reprinted from the University of Washington
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A 13-year-old boy from East China was found guilty of hijacking two seaplanes for a joyride last week—but instead of being punished for his little heist, he may have paved his way towards a career as a pilot.
The teenager reportedly learned how to start the planes after he biked to the Taihu Lake hanger in the Zhejiang province last weekend and watched the pilots doing maintenance repairs on the planes.
He then biked back to the airport in the dead of night and dragged one of the seaplanes onto the tarmac so he could take it for a drive. After he accidentally ran the plane into a guardrail, he hopped into a second aircraft for a few laps around the tarmac before he abandoned his new hot rod and escaped on his bike.
Once police officials consulted the hanger’s security footage and identified the boy, they negotiated the price of a small fine from his family in order to fix the damaged seaplane.
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Hanger employees say that it would have been impossible for the youngster to take the plane into the air without the proper training, but they were still impressed with the boy’s skill.
“We pilots all admired him,” the airport director told the South China Morning Post.
He also told the news outlet that he and the other hanger employees are now trying to take the boy under their wing so they can give him flying lessons and help him become a certified pilot.
(WATCH the video below) – Photo by Asiawire
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Two California college professors have just finished installing a powerful new architectural addition to the US-Mexico borderwall.
Professors Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello traveled to Sunland Park, New Mexico this week in order to build a “Teeter-Totter Wall” into the slatted border fence separating the city from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
The set of seesaws allow children and adults from both sides of the fence to play together—all while still being on their own respective sides of the border.
Rael and Fratello first got the idea for their international play structure back in 2009. After they succeeded in conceptualizing the idea into a book, the Teeter-Totter Wall finally came to fruition this week—and “with no advance planning for participants on the Mexico side of the fence, this unifying act took place,” wrote the University of California, where Rael teaches, in a statement.
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“One of the most incredible experiences of my and Virginia San Fratello’s career [is] bringing to life the conceptual drawings of the Teeter-Totter Wall from 2009 in an event filled with joy, excitement, and togetherness at the borderwall,” said Rael in an Instagram post.
“The wall became a literal fulcrum for US-Mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side,” he added.
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So yesterday this sign was out on a lawn on the way to set. Keanu jumped out of the car and did this. pic.twitter.com/OI1bQJ1nfy
— Ed Solomon (@ed_solomon) July 18, 2019
This new set of Twitter photos just proves yet again that Keanu Reeves is one of the most excellent human beings in Hollywood.
The film star’s acts of kindness and philanthropy have made national headlines at least a dozen times over the last few years.
Back in April, Reeves was praised for helping two dozen airline passengers to their destinations after their plane was force to make an emergency landing; and in January 2018, reporters discovered that Reeves has been anonymously pouring money into a charity for years.
Now, as his most recent act of compassion, he was photographed hopping out of his car so he could autograph a handmade sign that read “You’re breathtaking!”
The photos were captured by Ed Solomon, the screenwriter for the third Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure movie starring Reeves.
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Solomon said that he had been on his way to the film set with Reeves when the actor spotted the sign had been planted on a grassy area. He then jumped out of the car so he could leave a little note on the sign saying: “Stacey, you’re breathtaking! –Keanu Reeves.”
Though it is unclear why Reeves dedicated the autograph to Stacey, the compliment is likely a reference to his recent guest appearance at the XBox press conference during which an excited fan yelled “You’re breathtaking!” right after Reeves finished describing a video game as “breathtaking”.
Surprised and delighted, Reeves yelled back: “You’re breathtaking! You’re all breathtaking!”
(WATCH the video below)
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Quote of the Day: “Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.” – Lady Bird Johnson, former first lady of the United States
Photo: licensed for use
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Hear a serendipitous tale of blossoming community spirit in this week’s edition of MOTH Monday, a partnership with Good News Network that features inspiring videos from The MOTH, a nonprofit group showcasing the art of storytelling.
Aaron Naparstek found a nice old brownstone in Brooklyn with three big windows overlooking the street. There was only one problem—the constant honking—but, his creative, community-minded spirit came up with a perfect solution for himself and his neighbors.
When he got so frustrated at Christmas with a man laying on his horn while sitting in front of a red light, he knows he has to channel his anger, instead of pelting the car with eggs—which he tries, but realized there was a major flaw in that plan. (The driver knows were he lives!)
In a display of mindfulness, he just “observed the honking” while in a peaceful state, and then composed a 3-line Haiku poem.
He printed up some copies and displayed them around the neighborhood, unexpectedly starting a community movement through his street-traffic poetry.
He called it Honku—and Aaron became known as The Bard of Clinton Street after a neighbor saw him on the sidewalk one morning taping his latest poem.
“We just LOVE what you’re doing,” she said excitedly. “My daughters are now writing Honku, too!”
Other Honku poetry began blossoming around the lampposts, and Aaron decided to cultivate the bond he shared with his neighbors by calling for a face-to-face meeting—which led to an amazing civics lesson on how to get things done to improve the quality of life.
(LISTEN to our delightful MOTH Monday storyteller to hear what happened next…)
MORE MOTH MONDAY: How to Protect a Dozen Kids From a Grizzly Bear? Sing a Hilarious Moose Song, of Course!
The Moth gives people an opportunity to tell a true story in front of a live audience, and sometimes their stories are chosen to air on the radio show, now celebrating its tenth year, and broadcasting on 485+ public radio stations—and on The Moth podcast, which is downloaded over 52 million times a year. The Moth’s third book, Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible is now available for purchase through your favorite booksellers.
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These fascinating images are the result of a photographer using LED lights to track his climbing routes up sheer rock faces and mountain hikes.
27-year-old Luke Rasmussen takes to sky-high ridges across the USA under the cover of darkness so he can use the lights to turn his journeys into colorful patterns.
He records the routes through a series of long-exposure images taken from the foot of each rock face.
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“I wanted to capture the passage of time as I moved up a rock face, flowing from one hold to the next,” says Rasmussen. “I wanted a way to visualize the line that exists in a climber’s mind as he pieces together the natural features of the wall.
“I wanted to be able to illuminate the motion that I experience while climbing. And I think I’ve begun to do just that.
Rasmussen, who is from Las Vegas, started rock climbing at the age of 11 before he even got his hands on his very first camera.
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When two sisters were left scrambling to find a way to attend their aunt’s 100th birthday, an aptly-named Uber driver turned out to be the answer to their prayers.
Kerry Maggard and Deb Eggers had been preparing to fly from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls last weekend when their flight was canceled due to bad weather.
Unfortunately for the siblings, all other flights to South Dakota were fully booked and they were unable to get a rental car to drive the 200 miles to their destination.
With no other options available to them, Maggard called an Uber—and their travel request was granted by a man named Jesus Florentino.
“I was shocked that anyone picked it up. It was kind of a last resort to see if anyone would consider it,” Maggard told CNN. “It was picked up immediately and of course I got the message on the phone which said ‘Jesus is 7 minutes away’, which was quite a shock.”
Maggard called Florentino to confirm the travel destination and make sure that he was up for the drive.
Regardless of the distance, Florentino was happy to accept their request and he reassured his passengers that they would be able to celebrate their aunt’s centennial.
After the sisters arrived at their aunt’s house in Sioux Falls at 6PM, Florentino turned his car around and made the 4-hour trip back home.
Maggard also told CNN that she tipped Florentino $50 for the $216 voyage—a fair price to pay for the quality time that she got to spend with her aunt.
Florentino later told the news outlet: “I felt that they needed to attended the birthday and I enjoy driving, so yeah, it worked out well. It’s an important occasion, and if I was in their place I would appreciate very much someone bringing me there when there was no other way.”
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BREAKING NEWS!!
— Dr.-Ing. Getahun Mekuria (@DrGetahun) July 29, 2019
ETHIOPIA PLANTED
353,633,660 TREE SEEDLINGS IN 12Hours#GreenLegacyEthiopia#PMOEthiopia pic.twitter.com/TewfqNzXMN
Ethiopia may have just shattered the world record for planting the most amount of tree saplings in one day.
The country of India originally set the record for planting 66 millions trees during a 12-hour period back in July 2017—but now, Ethiopian officials say that they have successfully planted over 350 million trees in a single day.
The tree-planting event was orchestrated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as a part of his “Green Legacy” initiative to restore natural greenery to the nation.
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According to BBC, UN officials reported that Ethiopia’s forest coverage has decreased from 35% in the early 20th century to just over 4% in the early 2000s.
The prime minister hopes to fight the nation’s deforestation issues by planting at least 4 billion indigenous trees before October.
PM Abiy calls upon everyone in #Ethiopia to go out and #PlantYourPrint. #PMOEthiopia pic.twitter.com/leQdUBv849
— Office of the Prime Minister - Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) July 29, 2019
Thus far, officials say that they have planted a total of 2.6 billion saplings across the nation.
Though the new world record has not yet been officially confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records, the prime minister’s office told the Associated Press that the organization has been helping to tally up the final tree count.
Congratulations #Ethiopia for not only meeting our collective #GreenLegacy goal but also exceeding it. #PMOEthiopia
— Office of the Prime Minister - Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) July 29, 2019
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Pay your parking tickets in cat food!
— Muncie Police (@MunciePolice) July 15, 2019
Until Friday the 19th at 4 PM we are allowing folks to pay their parking tickets in cat food, kitten food, or kitty litter! Bring a donation in the amount of your ticket. The @MuncieACS is overrun with cats and kittens. We want to help! pic.twitter.com/mtwYzLdlCs
An Indiana police department has come up with a brilliant way to use their community services as a way to benefit their local animal shelter.
Earlier this month, the Muncie Police Department made several social media posts announcing that people with unpaid parking tickets could pay off their fines by donating pet supplies to Muncie Animal Care and Facilities.
“Until Friday [July 19th] at 4 PM, we are allowing folks to pay their parking tickets in cat food, kitten food, or kitty litter! Bring a donation in the amount of your ticket,” wrote the police department.
“The [shelter] is overrun with cats and kittens. We want to help!” they added.
Since shelter workers say that they have been caring for more than 350 cats and kittens over the course of the summer, they were in desperate need of supplies.
Thankfully, the two-day donation drive was an enormous success.
According to the Muncie police force, dozens of people donated cat food and litter—and many of them did not even have parking tickets.
This is not the first time that police departments have used unpaid tickets to benefit an organization in need. The city of Las Vegas only recently launched a program that allows people to pay off their speeding tickets with school supplies.
Around Christmastime, Vancouver and this other little Canadian city ask their residents to pay off their parking tickets in toy donations. The city of Lexington, Kentucky also takes advantage of the holidays by asking people to donate canned food during Thanksgiving.
The Muncie police officers now hope that their donation drive will inspire other law enforcement teams to launch similar initiatives in their own cities.
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Quote of the Day: “Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.” – J.R.R. Tolkien (first printed in The Fellowship of the Ring 65 years ago today)
Photo: by Stephen Gough, CC license on Flickr
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Summer is in full swing in the northern hemisphere, and with it comes longer days, more outdoor adventures, and evenings spent outdoors. For many of us, the arrival of summer is also synonymous with the arrival of fireflies. All across the central and eastern U.S. and Canada—and in small pockets of the West as well—fireflies can be seen performing their annual light show.
Fireflies have captured the human imagination for centuries. Their spectacular courtship displays elicit awe and delight in children and adults of all ages—yet their numbers appear to be dwindling.
One likely driver for this decline is ‘light pollution’. Put simply, fireflies need dark nights.
The bioluminescent beetles, which use various patterns of flashes and glows to communicate, can be outshone by bright lights from our cities, vehicles, roadways, and backyards. In fact, light pollution is impacting many species that are active at night or at dusk—including migrating birds.
Light pollution comes in several forms: skyglow (the haze over highly populated areas), light trespass (illumination that reaches beyond its intended or needed area), and glare (light that excessively illuminates areas or objects). These artificial light sources are increasing to the point that only a handful of areas in the U.S. and Canada are now truly dark at night.
The problem is, it can cause changes in animal behavior and affect species’ distribution, activity periods, and, ultimately, reproductive success. Fireflies are particularly at risk—with too much light obscuring their natural bioluminescence and interrupting signals used for mating and warding off predators.
In celebration of World Firefly Day this month, and in support of fireflies everywhere, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation encourages you to consider the impact your lighting activities may have on our nighttime fauna. Being thoughtful about outdoor lighting can benefit not only fireflies but also other nocturnal animals such as moths, bats, and sea turtles.
The most important step is to reduce or eliminate unnecessary outdoor lighting. For fireflies, this is especially important in the summer when adults are active. Below are several other ways you can keep areas as dark as possible at night, while still keeping them safe for humans.
In areas where lights cannot be turned off at night, consider the following options:
• Join or start a local chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association to advocate for local policies to control light pollution. In addition to helping fireflies and allowing people to appreciate the night sky, these initiatives often result in cost savings for municipalities and businesses—a win-win for all.
• Determine if your community is eligible for designation under the International Dark Sky Places Program, founded in 2001; if so, work with leaders to apply.
• Participate in community science dedicated to understanding the distribution and population trends of our many firefly species—Firefly Watch, a nationwide citizen science program run by Mass Audubon, and the Western Firefly Project, a western-focused project run by the Utah Natural History Museum.
Reprinted with permission from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
– Featured photo by Mike Lewinski / Flickr Creative Commons 2.0
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Most hospital patients are excited to ring a “cancer-free bell” once they’ve finished with their medical treatment—but a new video is winning hearts across the internet because of the woman whose Texas-sized excitement was on display.
Since Darla Jaye was diagnosed with breast cancer back in February, she has undergone 30 rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.
So when she finally finished with her last round of treatment at Harris Health System in Houston earlier this month, she was extremely delighted to get her hands on the hospital’s cancer-free bell.
As the nurses recorded Jaye excitedly announcing the end of her treatment, they caught the moment when she rang the bell so hard, the rope detached from the bell and went soaring through the air.
“I broke the bell,” she laughed. “That’s fantastic!”
The hospital staffers felt so proud of Jaye’s enthusiasm that they shared the sweet video on social media, expressed their admiration.
Jaye was also emotional over the symbolic ceremony. “I’ve looked forward to this day since February,” she told the hospital. “I was scared to death, but you guys saved my life!”
(WATCH the heartwarming video below)
Congratulations to @DarlaJaye1 She completed her last round of radiation treatment for breast cancer. She was so excited, she broke the bell!
— Harris Health System (@harrishealth) July 15, 2019
“I’ve looked forward to this day since February. I was scared to death, but you guys saved my life!” pic.twitter.com/4DnQmNGW9P
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You never really know what’s going to trigger a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) episode.
It could be the sound of a jet engine, or a car backfiring. It could be the sight of birds in flight, or the smell of smoke curling up the chimney. Any sensory association could bring back strong memories of a traumatic incident—especially for war veterans—and these flashbacks can often be so vivid, so frightening, and so real, it’s hard to know how to provide comfort in such situations.
For Bernadette Leggett, however, there was no doubt in her mind about what she had to do when one of her nursing home resident veterans began having a PTSD episode.
Leggett, who is a unit clerk at Stoddard Baptist Global Care in Washington DC, explained: “You just have to find a way to let them hear calm in your voice. Show them they are in a safe place, and let them go through their motions.”
Surprisingly, Leggett isn’t even trained as a nurse—her role at Stoddard is to greet residents and their families upon arrival at the facility, explain how the organization works, and “make her company shine.”
That being said, she has spent 20 years working in DC hospitals and caring for her aging parents, and she’s always had a keen interest in psychology and geriatrics. She has also learned a lot from her sister Renee, an Army nurse who has seen her share of trauma. Most importantly, Leggett is a natural caregiver—compassionate, empathetic, and responsive. So, when she saw the familiar signs of PTSD in an aggressive resident, she stepped in quickly—knowing she could handle a 58-year-old who had served on the front lines.
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“I remember,” Leggett recounted. “It was the sounds that made him jump, and he was thinking he was in a war zone. I kept saying, ‘Do you recognize me? It’s Bernie, Bernadette. Just hold my hand if you have any anxiety right now. Just squeeze my hand, and we’re gonna get through this. I’ve got you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Just hold my hand, we can go through this together.’”
“‘It’s coming, it’s coming!’ he yelled. And I told him, ‘If it’s coming, its coming for me too, and I’m right here with you. We’re in this together, just squeeze my hand as hard as you need to.’
“And he was holding my hand so hard…it was fear coming out of him. The harder he held my hand, I knew he was trusting me. ‘I’m going through this with you, we are both safe, nobody’s going to bother you, or me. Nothing bad is going to happen to us on this day, I guarantee.’ And then I just started singing hymns and he started rocking with me, and before you know it, he got calm.”
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“Then he sat down beside me in my cubicle and helped me put some papers in sequential order. He arranged the papers 1, 2, 3, and passed them to me and I stapled. Then he smiled at me and said, ‘I got you Bernadette.’ We were on our mission again. It was over.”
Leggett didn’t know it at the time, but Chantel Berrquet, a nursing aide who nominated Leggett for a CecaAward, had been standing by quietly observing the scene as it unfolded.
“The day I watched her re-orient a resident, I was so amazed by her skill that I had to stop and think about what I witnessed,” Berrquet recalled of the incident. “That day, I thought God had sent an angel to help this man through his difficult moment. Anyone could see the amazing transformation in the resident’s eyes and face after hearing Bernadette’s voice.”
This year, the Ceca Foundation honored Leggett for this compassionate act with its monthly CecaAward to recognize and reward caregivers who do exceptional work within their healthcare communities. Ceca recognizes that not all health caregivers have medical training, and some of the best are actually clerks, cooks, housekeepers and technicians whose teamwork is so important to the wellbeing of nearly 1.5 million seniors in assisted-living facilities.
When asked how it felt to win the award, Leggett recalled orientation, when she first learned about the Ceca Award. “It was like…‘wow, they’re talking about me.’”
Leggett doesn’t think her acts are extraordinary. As for compassion, she gives all the credit to her 85-year-old parents. They raised her and her nine siblings in DC, instilling in them strong character, good-manners, and a sense of responsibility and purpose.
“They brought us up learning to be compassionate and to never forget where we come from, because you never know who you’re going to meet, or who you can help.”
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A postwoman’s special delivery is being hailed as “the most amazing thing ever” after she managed to hurl a non-fragile parcel through an upstairs window when the homeowners were out. Not only that, the package landed right on the bed.
27-year-old Laura Chaisty was notified of delivery for the parcel containing her partner’s gym supplements when she got home from work earlier this month—and was awestruck when she realized what the postie had done.
Chaisty found a card from the post office attached to her door featuring a handwritten note from the postwoman saying: “Your top window was wide open, I threw it in there.”
She was then stunned to find that the Royal Mail package had flown perfectly through her window and landed safely on her bed at the home she shares in Faringdon, Oxfordshire with her fiancee.
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After finding the parcel, Chaisty posted a message on a local Facebook page to identify the mystery thrower who had “made her day.”
“It was just hilarious,” said Chaisty. “I was shocked because of where it had landed. And from the angle she threw from, it must have been an impressive throw. She would have had to get the parcel underneath the window…”
“I can’t believe it,” she added. “In 27 years, it is one of the funniest things that has happened to me.”
Though the anonymous postwoman is afraid she will receive disciplinary action for her unorthodox delivery, she did come forward to tell Chaisty that she had hit the target on the first attempt.
The postal worker also told Chaisty that she could tell the parcel’s contents was not fragile because of its shape and light weight.
“Posties get a lot of bad press these days, especially those who work on a pay per delivery basis,” added Chaisty, “so it is nice this happened.”
LOOK: Delivery Man Goes Above and Beyond With a Simple Box to Make Boy’s Dream Come True
Meanwhile, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are happy to hear that this customer received her parcel safely in this instance.
“However, we do ask our postmen and women to adhere to our established procedures for delivering items of mail in order to keep the items we deliver safe and secure.”
But why not praise employees who think outside the box—and, in this case, are able to deliver the ‘box’ Mary-Poppins-style.
(WATCH the video below)
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Quote of the Day: “Do not be always turning up your soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring.” – Henri Frederic Amiel
Photo: by Alejandro Groenewold, CC license
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In a famous Middle Eastern folk tale, a boy’s wish is granted after he finds a magical lamp.
This year, echoes of that story reverberated all the way back to the Middle East from Peru when a boy was spied doing his homework under a street lamp—wishing he had electricity in his family home.
Thanks to city security officers making it public, a video clip of Víctor Martín Angulo Córdoba doing homework under a Peruvian street lamp was shared thousands of times on news websites and social media.
When it went viral, the pictures caught the attention of several key people who were in a position to help.
The first person to respond to the dedicated young man was the city’s mayor, Arturo Fernández Bazán. He learned that Víctor was using a street light due to a lack of electricity in his family’s home. Víctor’s mother didn’t just lack the money to pay, there was a substantial obstacle—she didn’t have the documents to prove she owned the home which were needed to legally install electrical service.
The mayor of Moche assisted Rosa throughout the process so she could obtain the deed—he also delivered school supplies to support Víctor’s desire to stay in school and become a police officer.
But, the real genie with the ability to provide a storybook ending was 31-year-old Yaqoob Yusuf Ahmed Mubarak, a millionaire importer and chocolatier from Bahrain. Moved by Víctor’s determination, and reminded of his own childhood, the businessman flew nearly halfway around the world to meet him and his family.
RELATED: Study of Surveillance Cameras Proves That Strangers Will Almost Always Intervene to Help
When Yaqoob arrived in May and saw the condition of Victor’s home and school, he decided to rebuild the house, adding a second story for bedrooms, and promised to update the school’s infrastructure, adding furniture and equipping a new computer center in Víctor’s honor. He also seized the opportunity to support Rosa in starting a small business.
Giving local photographers a moment to remember, Yaqoob dropped to his belly on the sidewalk with Víctor to recreate the “famous” night scene under the street lamp, and they read books together.
He also gifted him with clothing, handed him a billfold “full of cash,” and sealed their friendship by presenting Victor’s friend with a new wheelchair.
In most fairy tales, the granter of the wishes goes “poof” and disappears…but Yaqoob has promised to return for the inauguration of the new school and new home. Until then, there will be electricity to study by and enough money to pay for it, thanks to the generosity of a benefactor and new friend from across the globe.
(WATCH the BBC video below…)
MORE: Israeli and Palestinian Farmers Find Peace Through Olive Oil
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