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Nevada Man Plans Peace Bike Ride Across Iran

cycler Gunn Wheels of Peace

cycler Gunn Wheels of PeaceSix years ago Rick Gunn, 49, left his job as a photo journalist to cycle across the world. He eventually met up with Iranian-born cyclist Mohammad Tajeran, who was also cycling the world, and together they crossed Malaysia as a team.

Ultimately Gunn and Tajeran were both transformed by scenes of war, poverty, and disease along the way. They each began dedicating their journey to the greater good.

“I expanded my definition of what it means to care, to give, and to love,” wrote Gunn, explaining that he volunteered in an AIDS Hospice in Thailand, helped with mine victim rehabilitation in Laos, and simply planted trees in Borneo.

Now, the two are planning to reunite next month to ride their bikes across Iran in a symbolic gesture of peace.

Their project, Wheels of Peace, will begin with each of them visiting schools in his respective country and sharing his experiences of finding friendship with someone who might otherwise be considered an enemy.

The children will be asked to write letters to students in the other country.

(WATCH the video below featuring Gunn’s photos, or READ the story in the Nevada Appeal)

Photo from www.soulcycler.com

Wow. American Bipartisan Cooperation (for a Change)

Senators Baucus Tester Sec Salazar-NationalParksConservationAssociation-photo

Senators Baucus Tester Sec Salazar-NationalParksConservationAssociation-photo In marked contrast to the spectacular display of dysfunction that led to the recent government shutdown in D.C., groups on all sides of a controversial issue in Montana have learned that “all or nothing” tactics usually lead to “nothing”.

For decades, Montana’s wood products industry, environmentalists, hunters and anglers, off-road-vehicle enthusiasts and others fought bitterly over the future of our national forests.

That’s why Senator Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act (FJRA), a bill now making its way through the U.S. Senate, has garnered such favorable praise.

Australian Principal Faces Down Gangs to Turn Around a School

principal Jihad Dib

principal Jihad DibWhen Jihad Dib was appointed principal of Punchbowl Boys High School in New South Wales at age 33, it was a hotbed of violence and trouble. His modern and successful approach to reforming the school has transformed the student body and staff into a family, and recently earned him a Pride of Australia medal.

The charismatic and inspirational headmaster has torn down the barbed wire that encircled the school and now finds teachers lining up to transfer there. Reading scores have risen, absenteeism has fallen, and the improvement in scores between year 7 and year 9 is among the highest in the country.

“Kids from families that have never had anyone finish high school, let alone get a degree, are graduating year 12 and bound for university,” reports the SM Herald.

– WATCH a video below, from Eyewitness News 10

READ the story via a January Sydney Morning Herald)

[Editor’s note: If you are in the British Commonwealth, you may be able to view this Australian video from last week about Mr. Dib receiving the Pride of Australia Award. Also, thanks to Kimee Anderson for suggesting the story via our Facebook Page!

‘Invisible Bike Helmet’ Is Airbag for Your Head

helmet invisible

helmet invisibleIf you are like me, you won’t wear a bike helmets because you need the wind through your hair, like when you were a kid. (At least, I’m like that when riding in the countryside or through a park).

Now, two graduate students are getting global attention after creating an “invisible bike helmet” – actually a mini airbag designed to protect bicyclists’ heads from injuries.

Oregon City Pays it Forward by Giving Ambulance to African Clinic

redcrosstruck

redcrosstruckTwo years ago, the city of Oakridge was in financial crisis when it received a gift from a Texas doctor on the ABC television show “Secret Millionaire.” On the show, the doctor and his wife gave a number of donations to the city, including a new ambulance.

Now the town has reached out to another cash-strapped community — in central Africa — to help another doctor to realize his long envisioned dream of establishing a medical clinic in an old ambulance. This all happened after the doctor had a dream of buying an ambulance at a used-car lot.

(READ the wonderful story in the Spokesman)

90-Year-old Feels As Good As She’s Ever Felt

Phyllis Sues-90yo and feeling great

Phyllis Sues-90yo and feeling greatPhyllis Sues says she is not aware of being 90 years old. “I’m physically as good as I have ever felt and mentally even better.” People ask her all the time what’s her secret. She tells them to move — every day.

“There is no cheating!” says the dancer. “It’s daily! Minute-by-minute.”

She wrote in the Huffington Post, “Numbers and dwelling on age is a trap. There is no age, it’s living each moment to it’s fullest.”

READ her article in the Huff Post

WATCH the video below

Visit her website, PhyllisSues.com

Stop Being Negative, Live at Least a Decade Longer

nuns smiling-Flickr-DeusXFlorida-CC

nuns smiling-Flickr-DeusXFlorida-CCA 1986 study from which researchers analyzed the autobiographical essays of 678 nuns, written in their early 20s when they had entered an American convent in the 1930s, found that those in the top 25 percent on the optimism scale lived on average up to 10 years longer.

The implications of this astonishing finding in our increasingly health-conscious age should be enormous.

As the writer and broadcaster Dr Michael Mosley told a BBC radio program this week: “There is almost nothing you can do which will do that [increase your life by 10 years]. If you took up fiendish levels of exercise, you could probably raise your life expectancy by four years, so 10 years is huge.” So why isn’t health policy being redirected towards eradicating pessimism by placing the emphasis on positive minds not fitter bodies?

Mosley, a self-described “proud pessimist”, set about to change his outlook.

(READ the article in the National)

Photo credit: DeusXFlorida, via Flickr-CC

New Billboard Proclaims ‘You Are So Freaking Awesome’

Awesome billboard - The Joy Team

Awesome billboard - The Joy TeamAnother randomly positive billboard has popped up in Portland this week. The yellow sign towering above Sandy Blvd., at 35th street, declares, “You are so freaking awesome”.

It is the second of eight positive advertisements, paid for by a grant from Awesome Portland, erected and designed by The Joy Team of Vancouver, Washington whose mission is to encourage positive thinking.

The first billboard in the eight month campaign was up in October, with a message for drivers on Interstate Ave: “Be Happy”.

Upcoming messages are:

  • “You are enough” in December, to combat holiday depression
  • “Be-YOU-tiful” in January, for Self-love month
  • “Hug someone today” in February, for Random Acts of Kindness Week
  • “Something wonderful is about to happen” in March, for National Optimism month
  • “We believe in you” in April
  • “Smile”  in May, for National Smile month

“The November billboard is one of my favorites,” said Michele McKeag Larsen, founder of the local positive thought organization, The Joy Team. “It’s a little irreverent, so people look twice.

“This is exactly the kind of quirky and random (yet warm and fuzzy) idea that makes Portland an awesome place to live and this project is a great example of how our 1000 bucks can be spent to do something truly inspirational,” said Leslie Rogers of Awesome Portland.  “We like that this project has the capacity to reach so many people and will make them smile.”

enjoy the moment billboard-TheJoyTeamBillboard locations and photos can be found as available at TheJoyTeam.org.

Founded in February 2010, The Joy Team is a non-profit 501c3 corporation based in Vancouver, Washington, with the mission of building community by spreading joy, optimism and inspiration. Projects of the positive thought organization include billboard campaigns, delivering Happy Packets to the staff of organizations serving the community, Chalk the Walks, the PB & JOY Project and The Junior Joy Team.

Moscow Gives Free Subway Ride to Anyone Who Can Do 30 Squats (WATCH!)

squats for subway ticket

squats for subway ticketTo promote the February Sochi Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee has added a machine in the Moscow subway that gives a free ticket if you can complete at least 30 squats within two minutes.

The machine, in the Vystavochaya Station, has a special squat sensor and counts down the number left to go.

Occupy Wall Street Activists Pay Off $15 Million of Americans’ Personal Debt

debt eraser-Alan Cleaver-flickr-CC

debt eraser-Alan Cleaver-flickr-CCIn one year, a group of Occupy Wall Street activists has managed to buy almost $15 million of Americans’ personal debt to help them pay off their outstanding credit.

Under the name, Rolling Jubilee, and launched one year ago today, the Occupy activists purchase anonymous debt cheaply from banks and then “abolish” it, freeing individuals from their bills.

By purchasing the debt on the “secondary debt market” at bargain basement prices, the group has managed to erase more than $14.7 million of personal debt — mainly medical bills — by spending only $400,000 raised through donations.

Basically, the secondary debt market is a way for banks and lenders to cut their losses after customers have proven themselves unable to pay by getting five cents on a dollar.

(READ the full story from The Guardian)

Photo credit: Alan Cleaver via Flickr-CC

Man Shares Exact Replica of Batmobile and Bat-cave With Sick Children

joker and tiny Batman-Make Wish Come True-todayvid

joker and tiny Batman-Make Wish Come True-todayvidCharles Keller of Phoenix, Ariz., is such a massive fan of the 1960s Batman TV show, that he has an exact working replica of the Batmobile and the Bat-cave — complete with the red telephone Commissioner Gordon uses to call the superhero.

Best of all, he turned his hobby into an opportunity to help kids with cancer, including 4-year-old Ezra Spector who got his wish to be Batman for a day.

Not only does Charles play make believe with 4-year-old Ezra, who really feels like a superhero. An entire community plays along.

(WATCH the video from TODAY)

WWII Letters Reveal Parents’ Untold Love Story

letter of love-WWII-KVOAvid

letter of love-WWII-KVOAvidAs Darrow Beaton was dying from lung cancer in 2008, the World War II veteran mailed his eldest daughter four boxes of family photos.

Hidden away under those photos were hundreds of love letters, some nine pages long, single spaced on a typewriter. They were on onionskin and fancy hotel stationery. There were postcards and telegrams — all written between December 1941 and November 1945.

Beaton, a private man, had never revealed any details about his past.

The tender letters tell the story of a young Beaton and the love of his life, Elinor Landgrebe Beaton.

(READ the story, w/ photos, from the Arizona Star or WATCH the video at the Daily Mail — It starts by itself at the bottom of page)

Prince Harry and Wounded Warriors to Trek to South Pole

Prince Harry in arctic jacket

Prince Harry in arctic jacketTo benefit Walking for the Wounded, a charity to help men and women injured in military service, Prince Harry will join a group of wounded soldiers on an expedition to the South Pole.

The prince will join one of three teams leaving this weekend for a 200-mile race across the Antarctic Plateau.

Wounded warriors from as far away as North Carolina met the queen, shared laughs about the weather at the Pole and are currently participating in a LIVE ceremonial send-off in Trafalgar Square.

Hundreds of Strangers Flock to Funeral for WWII Soldier Who Died Alone

funeral raining-newsvid

funeral raining-newsvidHis death at 99, one of the last survivors of successful British battles of World War II, might have been a lonely service in an almost empty chapel. His friends were all gone and he had no children.

It seemed there would be no one to mourn Harold Jellicoe Percival except a handful of nursing home staff and a distant relative or two.

But on Monday, after a newspaper appeal led to an internet campaign highlighting the forgotten war veteran, hundreds of people who never knew him came to pay their respects at his funeral – poignantly held at 11am on Armistice Day, 11/11 (now Veterans Day in the US).

“We just wanted a handful of service members to be present,” said the funeral director who placed the ad. “It’s turned into something far more than we ever imagined.”

The small chapel was bursting at the seams with veterans wearing their medals, with hundreds having to wait in the rain. All brought special meaning to the Armistice Day moment of silence, a pledge to never forget.

(WATCH the video below or READ the story from the Daily Mail)

Soldier Who Suffered Severe Injuries in Iraq Inspires Town with Positive Attitude

Jerral Hancock photo by Kickstarter project for NOVEMBER WAR

Jerral Hancock photo by Kickstarter project for NOVEMBER WARWhen Jerral Hancock came home from the Iraq war missing one arm and a paralyzed body that was burned all over, he was a hero to this Mojave Desert town.

But he was eventually forgotten.

Then the students in Jamie Goodreau’s U.S. history classes learned that Hancock had once got stuck in his modest mobile home for half a year when his handicapped-accessible van broke down, and that the hallways of his tiny house were so narrow he couldn’t get his wheelchair through most of them.

“They would fix that, Goodreau’s students decided, by building Hancock a new home from the ground up —one that is handicapped accessible,” reports the Associated Press. “It would be their end-of-the-year project.”

It’s six months later and the students have closed escrow on a $264,000 property.

(READ the AP story at the LA Times)

Thanks to Craig Withers for submitting the link!
Photo credit: Documentary makers of NOVEMBER WAR (One Day of Fighting, Ten Different Perspectives), via Kickstarter page

Animal Aid Arrives in Philippines

cow in poverty Philippines-HumanSocietyIntl

cow in poverty Philippines-HumanSocietyIntlThe International Fund for Animal Welfare arrived yesterday in Tacloban, the community in the Philippines hardest hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan to deliver animal relief packets for farm animals and pets.

The trained responders are working with local partner agency, the Philippines Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) to mobilize in the field and conduct an immediate animal needs assessment.

“The Philippines is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Many of the grief-stricken communities live with farm and companion animals and have no way to provide for them now,” said Shannon Walajtys, IFAW Manager for Disasters. “IFAW is here working with our trusted partner PAWS to offer relief to humans and their animals in this their greatest time of need.”

10 Awesome Entrepreneurs Serving Veterans

soldier with light flag background

soldier with light flag backgroundIn honor of Veteran’s Day Monday, Brad Aronson sent this great list of unique organizations that serve returning warriors.

From pets, to homes, to jobs to brides, Carolyn Blashek, founder of Operation Gratitude, may have summed up the interest in serving vets best:

“Serving those who serve us is both an expression of thanks from a grateful nation and a fitting tribute to our military heroes who inspire us to a cause greater than ourselves.”

(READ about the organizations at BradAronson.com)

Chance Airline Encounter Frees TODAY Show Co-Host to Talk About Her Cancer

Hoda Kotb inspiredby-TODAY

Hoda Kotb inspiredby-TODAYAs part of a special week of stories about who most inspired them, TODAY show co-host Hoda Kotb credits a stranger on an airplane for encouraging her to stop hiding her breast cancer journey.

“I decided to pick people who any one of us could have met, but if you turned right instead of turning left, you would have missed them,’’ Hoda said. “After a chance meeting, I truly hit the brakes and said, ‘Today is a game-changer in my life.’”

She met Ken Duane on a flight in 2007 while she was in the midst of a fight with breast cancer.

Toronto Hospital Celebrates 30th Anniversary of the First Successful Lung Transplant

Paris-Tourist-world-s-first-lung-transplant-recipient-Tom-Hall

Paris-Tourist-world-s-first-lung-transplant-recipient-Tom-HallIn 1983, Tom Hall was the 45th patient in the world to receive a lung transplant, but the first ever to survive more than a few days or weeks afterward. The 58-year-old lived more than six years after receiving the organ.

Grateful family members were reunited with the surgeon last week to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the historic operation in Toronto.

“Most people don’t recognize that Canada is No. 1 in some things and this [lung transplants] is one of them,” Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, director of the lung transplant program, said in an interview.

(WATCH the video below or READ the story from the CBC)

Thanks to Richard Gray for submitting the link on our Facebook Page!

What Happened After a Man Found $98,000 Inside a CraigsList Desk

money found in desk

money found in deskA Connecticut man bought a large desk from Craigslist and luckily it was too big to fit through the door.

“The desk did not fit into this office by fraction of an inch,” said Rabbi Noah Muroff.

He and his wife took the desk apart only to find a huge pile of cash hidden in a plastic bag behind the deep file drawers.

The original owner had hidden her father’s inheritance in the desk and it had fallen behind the drawers, which could not be taken out, according to the report from Vozisneias.com. She figured the bag must have been moved to another hiding place.

When the money was returned she offered a reward. “I do not think there are too many people in this world who would have done what you did,” she wrote in a thank you note.

The rabbi, who has four children, consulted with his spiritual advisor on what to do with a reward. Though uncomfortable with the idea of accepting anything in return for doing a good deed, the desk’s owner insisted — and she threw in a refund for the $200 he paid for the desk.

The rabbi decided to go public with the story so he could serve as an example of honesty.

(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from Times of Israel)