Since 1989, the number of Americans who volunteer has grown by more than 25 million and service is up across all age groups. –White House, 2013
Obama Honors First President Bush as “Points of Light” Shine On
President Obama welcomed the man who launched the modern service movement, President George H. W. Bush, now in a wheelchair and 89 years old, back to the White House Monday for a ceremony honoring the 5,000th recipients of his Point of Light award. The two presidents lauded Kathy Hamilton and Floyd Hammer of Union, Iowa for stepping up to fight hunger and improve the lives of children worldwide.
Nearly 10 years ago, Hamilton and Hammer participated in a volunteer mission to Tanzania to help renovate an HIV/AIDS hospital there. Startled by the starvation they saw, the couple started Outreach, Inc., which has engaged thousands of volunteers in packaging and distributing 230 million free meals to children in more than 15 countries, including the United States.
The elder President Bush helped launch a nonprofit – Points of Light – that has become the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service and he instituted a daily presidential recognition with his Points of Light Award.
“While he didn’t originate the notion of helping our fellow man,” according to the White House Blog, “he reasserted it as a national priority and insisted that ‘there can be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others.'”
Nominate someone you know for a Daily Point of Light Award at pointsoflight.org.
(WATCH the video below, or LEARN more (and watch full ceremony) at the White House Blog)
SHARE the Memory in a Tribute to a Former President…
Building is Powered by Algae Panels in the Sun
As an energy source, algae may be growing up.
A new apartment complex in Hamburg, Germany, intends to generate heat — and shade — as well as revenue, from growing the micro-organism.
The five-story building, expected to become fully operational this week, has a high-tech facade that is actually a vertical algae farm.
Vietnam Fan Chasing Bus of Favorite English Team Gets Surprise When They Stop
A young fan of a London football team that was in Vietnam for an international match showed such spunk by running after the tour bus that the team wanted to meet him.
Vu Xuan Tien, 20, wore an Arsenal team jersey and smiled and waved as he dodged traffic and obstacles along a 5-mile stretch in Hanoi. The club is one of the most successful in English football history.
Arsenal teammates chanted, “Sign him up,” as they watched him trying to keep up with the moving coach.
55 Customers ‘Pay It Forward’ for Next Car in Donut Line
A gesture by a customer at Heav’nly Donuts in Amesbury, Massachusetts triggered a chain reaction on Saturday that led to a lot of smiles.
The staff began counting at around the seventh car as the driver paid for the order of the customer behind them, after getting theirs free.
“It was the best twelve dollars I ever spent,” said the unemployed woman who took the free drinks but then started the chain as the second in line.
It only ended when there were no more people in line whose orders could be paid for.
The phenomenon of paying for the person behind you in line at a drive-thru window goes back at least five years. In 2008, KUSA in Colorado reported on it in this video for CNN.
And, it isn’t happening only in the U.S. One pay-It-forward chain lasted for three hours at a Canadian coffee shop in Winnipeg over the winter holiday last year.
(READ the story at WBZ-Boston)
Thanks to Craig Withers for submitting the link!
Over-90s ‘Defying Mental Decline’
Today’s 90-year-olds are surviving into very old age with better mental performance than ever before, Danish research suggests.
People born in 1915 scored higher in cognitive tests in their 90s compared with those born a decade earlier, according to a study in The Lancet.
Better living standards and intellectual stimulation may be key factors, experts say.
(READ the story from the BBC)
Thanks to Andrew N. for submitting the link!
Photo credit: KatinkaBille – Flickr – CC
Community Bike Shop Where City Kids Gather to Earn a Bicycle
After the attacks of Sept. 11, Kerri Martin decided to change her life, leaving the corporate world to open a bike shop.
Now, through her store Second Life Bikes, she’s giving neighborhood kids the opportunity to learn the value of hard work by helping them to fix and earn their own bikes.
Most kids stay on at the shop even after getting their own. They like the team spirit and sense of accomplishment.
(WATCH the video from TODAY)
File photo: Little girl on a bike NYC
Social Media Delivers on Cancer Patient’s Plea for Pizza Party
When your two year-old is in the hospital battling childhood cancer, you do whatever crazy thing will help keep their spirits up.
Lauren, the particularly creative mother of little Hazel Hammersley, used medical tape on the window to form giant letters: SEND PIZZA RM 4112.
After a couple days passed, the fourth floor pediatric cancer ward was suddenly abuzz with the smell of pizzas. Several deliveries arrived after someone had captured a photo of their message from the sidewalk and posted it to Reddit.com. Hazel and other tiny cancer patients had a grand time chowing down together on the hospital bed. Nurses turned on some music and joined in for a grand pizza party.
“As of yesterday evening, there was more than 20 boxes delivered and more was coming!” wrote Lauren on her family’s blog, Our Little Hazelnut, where she posted more photos. “We had such a great time!”
Dozens more pies were delivered to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles before the facility had to tell the media to say, ‘Please no more,’ to the 
kind strangers.
“We have been absolutely humbled and surprised by the outpouring of love and support from the online community and can only hope and pray that this brings awareness to neuroblastoma and the childhood cancer community,” wrote Lauren, who started a Facebook page called, Hope for Hazel, which picked up thousands of fans since the pizza party.
(READ more of the story from the CBC)
Thanks to Shannon West for also submitting the link!
Fans Late for a Concert Help a Stranded Cyclist Dave Matthews, Star of the Show
A pair of fans on their way to see the Dave Matthews Band in concert in Hershey, Pennsylvania Saturday night were late — but right on time.
Instead of rushing past a stranded cyclist whose tire had blown, they stopped to help. Guess who the rider turned out to be? Dave Matthews himself, taking a pre-concert ride in the country without a cell phone, needed a ride back to the show.
John Mayer Secretly Buys Guitar For NYC Shopper Who Told Him She Couldn’t Afford it
A young teenage girl was admiring the acoustic guitars in a New York City music store when John Mayer wandered into the shop with Katy Perry.
A salesman at Rudy’s Music Shop mentioned to Mayer that there were a few big fans in the next room, so he decided to go talk to them.
Julie Fermin and her two friends took photos with the rock/pop stars and chatted about playing guitars.
After hearing Julie admiring the Epiphone six-string while remarking that she couldn’t afford it, the singer-songwriter secretly paid for it before he left and said to reveal the fact only after he’d gone.
(SEE more photos and details in the UK Sun)
(Link Fixed) Teen Temar Boggs Hailed a Hero for Finding Missing 5-year-old
A Lancaster, Pennsylvania teen got a bunch of his friends together to join the search for a missing five-year-old girl.
Temar Boggs didn’t know the girl or her family but suddenly had a gut feeling that he would find the child.
He saw a van driving around the neighborhood and got a glimpse inside of a girl in the back seat.
Boy With Mental Retardation Improves Life for Homeless Pets
A young man in Tennessee doesn’t let autism or mental challenges stop him from living a full life — and helping others less fortunate to do the same.
After visiting the animal control office to look for a new pet, 15 year-old Bubba asked his mother why the dogs and cats didn’t have any toys, beds or blankets. They looked cold and lonely in their cages. He asked if the family could buy the beds and toys. His mom had to explain that they couldn’t afford the cost.
“All that day I could see that he had a lot on his mind,” said his mother. “Later that evening he came to me and told me he would raise money to help the animals.”
Algae Powered Street Lamps Suck Up C02
What if underground parking garages were lit by lamps running off the CO2 exhaust from the passing cars?
French Bio-chemist Pierre Calleja invented an algae lamp that needs no electricity for illumination and also gobbles up carbon emissions that cause global warming.
The French start-up he works for, FermentAlg, installed one of the algae-filled tanks in a parking garage in Bordeau. It feeds on the CO2 in the air at the rate of 1 ton per year, the amount that a tree absorbs over its entire lifetime, according to the French project Shamengo.
Lithuanian Capital To Install a Public ‘Happiness Barometer’
The mayor of Vilnius plans to install a huge screen on the town hall to broadcast a real-time “happiness barometer” that will monitor the mood of the Lithuanian capital.
The giant display will monitor the level of happiness based on tabulated votes sent in by city residents from their mobile phones and computers.
(READ the story from Reuters)
Spain’s Endangered Iberian lynx Brought Back from Brink of Extinction
Ten years ago the Iberian lynx was nearing extinction but today, thanks to an imaginative conservation programme that has brought hunters, farmers and the tourist industry under its wing, its numbers have tripled from 94 to 312.
“Now there is hope,” said Miguel Ángel Simón, director of the lynx recovery program in Andalusia, southern Spain.
(READ the story in the Guardian)
Photo by lynxexsitu.es – CC
ESPN Producer Quits Job to Help Disabled Wrestlers Attend College
One of the most memorable videos ever appearing on the Good News Network was a 2009 ESPN feature on a pair of athletes wrestling at a Cleveland inner city school. Leroy Sutton had years earlier lost both his legs in a train accident. His teammate, Dartanyon Crockett, carried Leroy on his back during every wrestling match and every practice.
The outstanding young men found a place in the heart of Lisa Fenn, the ESPN features producer who, after the story aired, received hundreds of emails from viewers who wanted to help send the wrestlers to college. Both said they’d like to go but that there was no money. Fenn set up a trust fund and a website, “Carry On”, to accept the donations.
ESPN decided to produce a video update, telling the story of how Lisa quit her job to take on the arduous task of applying to colleges and essentially being a mother to the boys who had lost their moms early on.
Today, Leroy is on track to earn his bachelor’s degree from an Arizona college having studied video game design. Dartanyon visited the U.S. paralympic training center and decided to switch to judo and pursue a medal in London.
“She is the largest support that I’ve ever had,” said Dartanyon in tears.
(WATCH the video or READ the story at ESPN) – Photo credit: ESPN
Students Invent Soap That Saves Lives
An award-winning innovation by two African students could help reduce the devastating impact of the life-threatening disease malaria — which is spread relentlessly by infected mosquitoes.
The young men, from Burkina Faso and Burundi, have used indigenous herbs to create a soap that repels mosquitoes, thus reducing the disease.
Their “Faso Soap” has earned the pair a $25,000 Grand Prize in the Global Social Venture Competition.
Another Banner Year for California Rooftop Solar
In January 2007, California began an unprecedented $3.3 billion ratepayer funded effort to add 3,000 MW of new solar installations over the next decade. The California Solar Initiative continues to be the country’s largest solar program.
The state’s public utilities commission last week issued its annual progress report showing that the program has installed 66 percent of its total goal on 167,878 different customer sites, enough to fully power approximately 150,000 homes and avoid building three power plants.
J.K. Rowling Outed as Writer of Acclaimed Crime Novel
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling secretly posed as a retired military policeman to write a crime novel that has been hailed as one of the best debut detective stories in years.
Rowling wrote “The Cuckoo’s Calling
Top Ten Benefits of Being Optimistic
If you are reading the Good News Network, you are probably an optimist. You make lemonade out of lemons. You see the glass half-full. You’re hopeful about the future.
Jenny McCarthy thinks it sounds like a very fulfilling way to live. She made a list for the Chicago Sun-Times naming her top ten benefits for being optimistic.