A young Carolina Panthers fan with cerebral palsy found the opportunity to fulfill his dream of playing the sport he loves so much, thanks to a special NFL program for kids with disabilities.
The boy’s entire demeanor went from ‘Woe is me for having cerebral palsy’ to ‘I can lead, I can be in charge.’
(WATCH the video below or READ more from TODAY)
Prince Harry organized the Invictus Games in London to lift the spirits of more than 300 wounded and injured military service members.
During the closing ceremony he also lifted up — literally — a 5-year-old who was crying because she couldn’t see the stage. Little Isabelle Nixon couldn’t see the stage where the Foo Fighters were playing, so the 30-year-old prince scooped her up and put her on his shoulders.
Taryn Nixon posted this photo on Twitter after the charming prince rescued her friend’s daughter.
Not everyday that Prince Harry dances behind you with your friends kid on his shoulders! @adanix83 pic.twitter.com/7LIg7mld3p
— Ela Le Galloudec (@ela_legalloudec) September 15, 2014
Doctors diagnosed Nicole Munda with a rare liver disease and the guidelines for a donor were strict. If the 29-year-old didn’t get the perfect liver soon, she would die in six months.
She met a stranger at a NASCAR race who started dating her and they fell in love.
It was a one in a million chance that he would be a perfect medical match, too, but he was and became her donor.
Now they’re married.
(WATCH the video below or READ more from TODAY)
More endangered sockeye salmon have made the 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to central Idaho’s high-elevation Redfish Lake this year than in the previous six decades.
Some 1,400 fish have returned so far from a population that in the 1990s bumped along with one and sometimes no fish returning, ultimately becoming the focus of an intense state and federal effort, which included dam removal, to prevent the unique population from extinction.
(READ the AP story from the Post-Bulletin)
Historian Scott Lund has released evidence to support his theory that Da Vinci’s last three paintings have been found to form a complete solar grouping that represented constellations during the solstices and equinoxes at the time of the Catholic church’s Grand Jubilee celebration of 1500 AD.
He has identified remarkably accurate alignments of the paintings with the constellations Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Perseus, indicating that their composition was entirely derived from the shapes of the stars in the sky.
Now we know why it took Da Vinci so long to paint the Mona Lisa and the other two paintings. He may have only work on them when there were ‘favorable aspects’ with the planets.
According to Wikipedia, Da Vinci was a “painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer.” Lund says: “What they didn’t say was that Da Vinci was an astronomer, and unquestionably the greatest one of his age.” He adds that Da Vinci viewed the three paintings from his deathbed as he contemplated the immortality of his soul.
For more information visit www.MonaLisaCode.com
Australia cheered another win for animal welfare as Subway, a chain of 1400 stores, announced that it will source cage-free eggs for all its restaurants within the next 12 to 18 months.
This comes after McDonald’s Australia announced on Sunday night it would also begin phasing out cage eggs next year.
(READ the story from the Weekly Times)
“When Texas teens Anahi Alvarez and Naomi Martinez were nominated for homecoming queen at Grand Prairie High School, they made a secret, selfless pact,” reports TODAY.
In a touching show of friendship, the two seniors decided that if either one of them won, she would give up the crown to a classmate who had been the victim of a cruel prank.
“In all my time at this school, this is my greatest moment,” said the principal, Lorimer Arendse.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from Today)
Medical bills were piling up for Chrisi Kemp after her daughter got sick and an appliance had just broken at home, reports ABC.
The North Carolina waitress told ABC11 that she had a breakdown right before coming into work at the One Whirled Cafe in Raleigh last Thursday.
Her evening got brighter very quickly when a male customer, who wants to remain anonymous, settled his $14.01 tab by adding a $1,000 tip.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from The Indy Channel)
Story tip from Tonya Brown Wright
A middle school in Lawrence, Kansas gave their students an impromptu class on kindness, helping them to shower gratitude on a group of construction workers building an addition onto the school.
The principal at Corpus Christ Catholic School had the idea of serving lunch to the guys in hard hats, but the teachers took the idea a step further.
“The picketing idea was cooked up at a faculty meeting,” said Jill Hilton LaPoint, who posted this photo on Facebook. “Our art teacher made the signs for kids to carry back and forth as they went to lunch or PE. It was a happy afternoon here!”
The kids served them lunch from Bigg’s BBQ.
“It was much appreciated,” added LaPoint. “I heard that some of the guys even got a little teary.”
(CORRECTION: The original story had the incorrect school name and location.)
The New England chapter of Autism Speaks is teaming up with Disney Theatrical Productions and Broadway in Boston to provide an “autism-friendly” performance of The Lion King on Oct. 11 at 2 p.m.
During the matinee performance, house lights will be at half capacity, sounds will be at a lower intensity, there will be no strobe lights, and the only people in attendance will be those in need of a “sensory-free show” along with their family and friends.
(READ the story from CBS Boston)
Photo from Lion King Broadway via Facebook – Story tip from Eileen Croghan O’Brien
“A group of 30 volunteers have harvested acres of broccoli just north of Brisbane to help a struggling vegetable producer,” reports an Australia’s ABC News.
Food Connect, a community food co-operation that connects city residents with farms around Brisbane and the Scenic Rim region, organised the free labour after a personal family tragedy prevented the Birkdale farmer from being able to harvest.
(READ the story from Australia’s ABC)
Photo supplied by FOOD-CONNECT – Story tip from Noelene Francis
When Tricia Somers was given the devastating diagnosis that she had terminal liver cancer last spring, her main concern was figuring out who would care for her 8-year-old son, Wesley.
Somers, a single mother, didn’t have any family she believed could take on caring for a child and her parents had died years earlier. But Somers was determined and has found a unique solution for her situation after asking her favorite nurse, Tricia Seaman, to care for her son.
(READ the story from KERO Bakersfield)
A Minnesota nursing home offering free hospice care to cancer patients has expanded its mission.
Not only is the care exceptional, said Harold Yannerelly, who’s in the last stages of prostate cancer. It doesn’t cost a dime.
(READ the story from the Star-Tribune)
Photo by KidDharma (CC) – Story tip from Edgar John Flippin
As a businessman, Chuck Feeney was remorseless in his pursuit of profit, squirreling away his fortune in tax havens and always driving a hard bargain. Having achieved a cash pile of some £4 billion, the 83-year-old is now giving it all away.
After three decades of giving, his Atlantic Philanthropies paid out one of its final donations, pledging nearly £25 million to Northern Ireland, partly to educate Protestant and Catholic children together.
(WATCH the video below and READ the story from The UK Independent)
– Story tip from @Thayer
“Even while imprisoned for a rape he didn’t commit, Tim Cole never stopped acting like a big brother,” reports CNN
Cole was a student at Texas Tech when he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In 2009, DNA would exonerate Cole, but not until a decade after he died in prison, at age 39, from heart complications related to his asthma.
Lubbock City Council wants to make sure Cole and his case are not forgotten. The city, along with Texas Governor Rick Perry, unveiled a 13 foot-tall bronze statue of the man near the Texas Tech campus and dedicated the park as Tim Cole Memorial Park.
Beneath the statue is the phrase, “And Justice For All.”
(WATCH the video below from KDVR or READ the story from CNN)
– Story tip from Brett Weiss
The Monday evening rush was hectic at the south side Chick-Fil-A, but then something happened – a man donated $1,000 and told employees he wanted to pay for everyone in the drive-thru line behind him.
Employees at the chicken sandwich store in Abilene, Texas were giddy as they served up free meals for 88 cars.
They saw a lot of customers smile. One woman cried saying she had such a terrible day until that moment.
(WATCH the video or READ the story from KTXS)
Photo credit: Jimmy Snell (CC) – Story tip from Mike McGinley
Stories have the power to move your friends to tears of empathy or joyous laughter, they also have the power to shift nations.
Every great leader has known that to create a better world you first need to create a better story. John F Kennedy put it like this, “The problems of this world cannot be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by obvious realities. We need those that can dream of things that never were”. True to this Martin Luther King inspired with his, “I have a dream” speech, and John Lennon urged us to, “Imagine all the people”.
Why, when society seems to have progressed so far, and with Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States do we still have scenes like this?
Love has taken us thus far, but we still fear. As anyone who has stood on the middle of a bridge hesitating on their first bungie jump will know, resistance stems from fear. If we haven’t progressed to a completely peaceful nation it is because we still fear. We still fear our fellow man based on the color of his skin. And crucially we also fear Martin Luther King’s dream of an equal society free from oppression and based on brotherhood.
We fear both what we see in front of us now and we fear the dream. This fear is partially based on experience, but the real cause of fear is on our minds. It comes from what we think we see in the ‘other’ and the story we tell ourselves about the ‘other’.
“He wants to kill me” or “He wants to take away my freedom”, “He is not my equal, my brother, he is my enemy”.
If we want to change reality first we have to change the story we have in each of our minds. We must develop fearless minds. To begin with this may mean making a conscious effort to overcome any prejudices or stereotypes about the ‘other’. This is not about creating a fluffy, sentimental feeling, but about examining our thoughts, beliefs and intentions. It is about creating within ourselves the intention to reach out and make the effort to understand and show compassion for our perceived enemies.
Martin Luther King also understood that a lofty dream was nothing without commitment and determination. And the commitment we must have now is to examine our thoughts and intentions to create change in the world around us.
The events in Missouri are a wake up call. The nation is not yet at peace. There is fear and conflict in our minds whose path always leads to destruction. When we transform this to peace and compassion the path leads to creativity and connection.
If Michael’s death is not to be in vain we must see it as a call to examine our thoughts and intentions and a call to reach out across divisions of fear and separation. I encourage you to give new meaning to the events in Missouri, and to create a new story and a truly United States.
Jeremy Wickremer is founder of the Transformational Media Summit and believes that when we share and collaborate we can bring our greatest stories for a better world into reality.
Google has fully funded the classroom requests of every Los Angeles Unified School District teacher on the education crowd-funding site DonorsChoose.org. As a result of Google’s nearly $1 million donation, 769 Los Angeles teachers will receive materials for their 75,108 students — ranging from paper, pencils and books to laptops, musical instruments and microscopes.
“We are so humbled and grateful to Google for their devotion to our teachers and students,” said Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, who also saw similar funding sprees by Google over the past few months for San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin, and Kansas City.
In addition to their project funding initiatives, Google has also supported several DonorsChoose.org programs over the years, including a $5 million AP STEM Access program, which launched over 500 new AP STEM courses at high poverty schools nationwide.
(WATCH the inspiring surprise in the video below)
Teams chasing each other on a soccer field produces a lot of energy — enough to power the flood lights illuminating the field.
Football legend Pele attended Wednesday’s inauguration of Brazil’s first player-powered football pitch, which harnesses the kinetic energy of players’ movements in a Rio de Janeiro slum.
London clean tech company Pavegen partnered with Shell to create their largest installation to date, using 200 tiles in the favela of Morro da Mineira.
“Following the unity and spirit of the World Cup, this project is an incentive to allow the community to hone their football skills and become part of the energy generating process,” according to a Pavegen case study.
(WATCH the video below and READ the AP story in The Daily Star)
Photos from Pavegen.com- Story tip from Mike McGinley
Born premature, Erin Baur (pictured, left) has learning, hearing and speech disabilities. She also has a passion for dogs.
The Ohio middle schooler learned that Chief Powalie of the Painesville Police Department would like a new K9 because his current dog, “Cash”, will be retiring soon. She thought it would be a good idea as a community service to raise funds for a new dog and started back in July by setting a goal of $11,000 — enough for the K-9, vet care, and a $1,000 bullet proof vest.
The 14-year-old has worked hard to set up a partnership with a tax deductible police fund and collecting donations at community events, like an upcoming dog walk festival on September 28th in Painesville’s Kiwanis Park.
In return for her community service, Erin will be allowed to name the new K-9 Officer. She has decided on the name “Gold.” Visit her “Go for the Gold” page here.
“She is a little one trying to make a difference and this is what we want from our next generation,” said the girl’s aunt, Marge Henning. “So let’s encourage her by donating to her campaign.”
(READ more from the News-Herald)