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English Teenager is Hero on Stricken Costa Concordia Cruise Ship

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Cruise ship hero w Costa Concordia ship

Cruise ship hero w Costa Concordia shipA teenager from the West Midlands today told how he led a dramatic rescue of terrified passengers as chaos gripped the stricken Costa Concordia cruise liner.

Dancer James Thomas acted as a human climbing frame to help 16 passengers into lifeboats after the luxury liner ran aground off the Italian coast, before toppling on to its side in shallow waters.

The 19-year-old hero also led dozens to the lifeboat decks, only abandoning ship when a passenger forced him to leave with them.

(READ the story in the Express and Star)

A Homeless Teen Named National Science Prize Finalist is Given Housing and Help

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Homeless student Samantha Garvey science prize finalist

Homeless student Samantha Garvey science finalist -Newsday video clipA dedicated marine biology student at a Long Island High School learned she was named one of 61 finalists for the $100,000 Intel Science prize just days after her family was forced to move into a homeless shelter.

Now, thanks to news reports on TV and print, the 17-year-old student and her family have been flooded with offers of help, including a 3 bedroom home available soon from Suffolk County Social Services and money from a kind stranger to retrieve the beloved family pets from an animal shelter.

Samantha Garvey’s intensive 6-years of research on mussel ecosystems led to her invitation to the prestigious national science competition and the worldwide attention on the fact that she and her family of five moved into a homeless shelter after their eviction on New Year’s Eve.

She said she never thought her biggest worries would be eliminated in a day. The family pets, including a dog, cat and turtles were also invited to move into the Long Island rental home, once repairs are completed in ten days..

Her mother told her: “Sammy, this is all because of you.”

(READ the story in Seattletimes, and WATCH the video about the science prize)

A Homeless Teen Named National Science Prize Finalist is Given Housing and Help

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Good News Network
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Homeless student Samantha Garvey science prize finalist

Homeless student Samantha Garvey science finalist -Newsday video clipA dedicated marine biology student at a Long Island High School learned she was named one of 61 finalists for the $100,000 Intel Science prize just days after her family was forced to move into a homeless shelter.

Now, thanks to news reports on TV and print, the 17-year-old student and her family have been flooded with offers of help, including a 3 bedroom home available soon from Suffolk County Social Services and money from a kind stranger to retrieve the beloved family pets from an animal shelter.

Samantha Garvey’s intensive 6-years of research on mussel ecosystems led to her invitation to the prestigious national science competition and the worldwide attention on the fact that she and her family of five moved into a homeless shelter after their eviction on New Year’s Eve.

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No Rhinos Poached in Nepal, First Time in 29 Years

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Rhino in Nepal - WWF photo

Rhino in Nepal - WWF photoThanks to strong conservation and law enforcement efforts, not a single rhino was killed by poachers in Nepal, the first such year in 29 years.

Conservationists in the Himalayan nation celebrated at Chitwan National Park, where the vast majority of the country’s 534 rhinos reside.

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No Rhinos Poached in Nepal, First Time in 29 Years

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Rhino in Nepal - WWF photo

Rhino in Nepal - WWF photoThanks to strong conservation and law enforcement efforts, not a single rhino was killed by poachers in Nepal, the first such year in 29 years.

Conservationists in the Himalayan nation celebrated at Chitwan National Park, where the vast majority of the country’s 534 rhinos reside.

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At Last, Fuel Delivery Reaches Iced-in Alaska Town

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Iced-in Nome Alaska tanker arrives-CoastGuard

Iced-in Nome Alaska tanker arrives-CoastGuardA Russian fuel tanker has finally reached Nome harbor after a Coast Guard icebreaker cleared a path for it through hundreds of miles of ice in a last-ditch effort to provide heating fuel and gasoline to the Alaska town.

A storm prevented Nome’s 3,500 residents from getting a fuel delivery by barge in November. Without the tanker delivery, supplies of diesel fuel, gasoline and home heating fuel were expected to run out in March…

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Tuskegee Airmen Join Obamas for White House‎ Screening of New Lucas Film About the Black Aviators

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Tuskegee Airman byRaymond M-optikalblitz-Flickr-CC

Tuskegee Airman byRaymond M-optikalblitz-Flickr-CCPresident Barack Obama and the First Lady invited Star Wars Director George Lucas and a few of the cast members from his new film, Red Tails, to the White House Friday for a movie night. But the guests of honor were a few of the original Tuskegee Airmen, the black WW II aviators whose story — brought to the big screen thanks to Lucas’s own money — is opening in theaters on January 20.

Trent Dudley, the president of the Washington, D.C., Tuskegee Airmen chapter and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, called the White House screening “a tremendous recognition of all the contributions the airmen made not only in World War II but the fight against racism.”

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Tuskegee Airmen Join Obamas for White House‎ Screening of New Lucas Film About the Black Aviators

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Tuskegee Airman byRaymond M-optikalblitz-Flickr-CC

Tuskegee Airman byRaymond M-optikalblitz-Flickr-CCPresident Barack Obama and the First Lady invited Star Wars Director George Lucas and a few of the cast members from his new film, Red Tails, to the White House Friday for a movie night. But the guests of honor were a few of the original Tuskegee Airmen, the black WW II aviators whose story — brought to the big screen thanks to Lucas’s own money — is opening in theaters on January 20.

Trent Dudley, the president of the Washington, D.C., Tuskegee Airmen chapter and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, called the White House screening “a tremendous recognition of all the contributions the airmen made not only in World War II but the fight against racism.”

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Iron Chef in Prison Cooks up a New Future for Filipino Convicts

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cooking contest in Filipino prison -Reuters vid clip

cooking contest in Filipino prison -Reuters vid clipConvicted murderers and rapists in the Philippines faced off against each other in a prison battle using knives, but also aprons, pots and pans.

Teams of inmates in Manilla, many of whom have worked previously in the food profession, cooked against the clock to concoct a menu of delicious dishes in what was dubbed, “Iron Bar Chef.”

The cuisine contest is the latest recreational effort at the largest prison in the Philippines — part of a broader program of arts, crafts and sports that officials say has vastly helped the mood of the jail’s inmates.

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Police Inspector Slashes Crime by Two-thirds After Telling Officers ‘Stop Hanging Around the Station’

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cop hat

cop hatA police inspector who banned his officers from hanging around their station during shifts was hailed as a ‘bit of a hero’ who proved it was possible ‘to do more with less’ in the face of budget cuts.

Inspector Frank Donnelly operates an ‘exclusion zone’ at the police stations he runs in Bedfordshire, meaning officers are forced to go out on the beat during the dark winter evenings.

The tough approach has led to a 67 percent percent reduction in crime between June and December 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.

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Oprah Celebrates First Graduating Class of South African Girls Academy

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Oprah academy graduates

Oprah academy graduatesThe Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened in January 2007 in South Africa to provide educational and leadership opportunities for gifted girls from impoverished backgrounds, celebrated its first graduating class Saturday.

72 girls of graduating age filed onto the stage in Johannesburg, all wearing white dresses, to cheers and tears from Oprah herself, who’d invested $40 million to give them a safe haven and opportunities undreamed of before.

All 72 girls of the graduating class are headed to college, some bound for U.S. universities.

I’m one proud momma today,” said Winfrey, who wore a flowing gown in green, a school color.

Winfrey noted the gradates were born in 1994, the year apartheid ended, “into a nation that said: You are free. You are free to rise. You are free to soar.”

(WATCH the video below, or read the story, from The Guardian)

25 Interesting Things About the Good News Network

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25.jpg
  1. 25.jpgThe website GoodNewsNetwork.org went LIVE on Labor Day, 1997.
  2. The biggest spike in traffic occurred on September 11, after terrorists attacked NYC and Washington, DC in 2001.
  3. The second biggest spike in traffic occurred in September 2008 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the tanking of Wall Street.
  4. I was described in a Washington Times report as a cross between Deepak Chopra and Ann Landers.
  5. Colin Powell sent me a note in 1998 telling me to keep up the good work.
  6. In the last decade, three of the top good news stories about the environment were thanks to the Bush Administration: They created the two largest marine preserves in the world and set tougher standards for diesel engines.
  7. In 2006, I launched a weekly email newsletter to share the Top 10 Good News of the Week.
  8. I was a panelist on a BBC World Service discussion about government’s potential for using good news as a way to white wash the truth.
  9. From 1997-2003 I published an 8-page printed newsletter for around 100 paid subscribers — mostly family and friends — which was distributed free to prisons, a juvenile detention center and homeless shelter. Download the September 11, 2001 Commemorative edition in PDF.
  10. I first had the idea for a ‘Good News Network’ TV show in 1982, my first summer working in TV news in Washington, DC.
  11. You can find all the good news stories that took place on your birthday by checking out the ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY column on our homepage.
  12. GNN makes a small profit and has never stopped trying to prove that “Good news DOES sell”. [We also e sell “GOOD HAPPENS ” designs on bumper stickers, tees, hoodies, bibs and tote bags at CafePress.com/goodnewsnetwork].
  13. A survey of 687 users of the Good News Network in April, 2008 revealed that 67 percent would pay for the content.
  14. After more than ten years as a free service, the Good News Network transitioned to a membership site on May 11, 2008. It became a free service again January 1, 2014.
  15. 26 percent of subscription purchasers chose to voluntarily pay more than the minimum amount under our “Pay what you can afford” policy (choose either $47.00 or $97.00, instead of the lower option of $2 per month – for the same benefits).
  16. womens_world_photo.jpgI was a stay-at-home mom when I created the website with kids ages 7, 5 and 3. Today the kids are 21, 18 and 16.
  17. The Good News Network has been featured on the CBS Evening News by Katie Couric, NPR’s All Things Considered, in Women’s World, The Washington Post, Newsday, Whole Life Times, American Journalism Review, along with many major newspapers, and was named to Rolling Stone’s Hot List in 2009. (Photo, right, appeared in Woman’s World, 1997)
  18. The most helpful motivation for me in starting the Network came from a series of ten lessons based on Mary Manin Morrissey’s book Building Your Field of Dreams.
  19. GNN retains the #1 position on Google (for searches of “good news” and “inspiring news”) thanks to thousands of incoming links posted on pages around the internet for decades.
  20. The first story ever submitted by a reader was written by my mother-in-law, about a dog saving a puppy in a drain pipe, entitled Annie to the Rescue.
  21. CNN founder Ted Turner told me in 2006 that he thought a good news program could be successful. (Why he didn’t succeed with such a segment, when they produced it early-on for CNN, remains a mystery.)
  22. The site was ‘Made on a Mac’ since 1997.
  23. We have a YouTube channel: GoodNewsNetworkTV
  24. We Skype with the username, GeriWC.
  25. I finally secured the US trademark for “Good News Network” in 2010, thanks to a Florida Attorney who volunteered pro bono to help resubmit the claim originally denied in 2002.

(Updated in 2018 – originally published 2/22/2009)

Inner City Black Kids Dominate Rich Man’s Sport, Win Polo Championship

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Polo team first black champions-snapshot

Polo team first black champions-snapshotPolo is expensive, exclusive and played mostly by wealthy white men. But that didn’t matter to Lezlie Hiner. In 1996, she started the first-ever African-American polo team in the country, to keep inner-city kids off the streets and in school.

Her non-profit organization, Work to Ride, teaches 20 boys and girls from the worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia to ride horses for free. In exchange, the students help with barn chores at her Chamounix Stables, a safe haven deep within Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.

After a decade, the team was so good they were running rings around white players from polo families who had been riding their whole lives. When no high school team could beat the young teens, they were invited to play against colleges like Harvard.

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Inner City Black Kids Dominate Rich Man’s Sport, Win Polo Championship

By
Good News Network
-
Polo team first black champions-snapshot

Polo team first black champions-snapshotPolo is expensive, exclusive and played mostly by wealthy white men. But that didn’t matter to Lezlie Hiner. In 1996, she started the first-ever African-American polo team in the country, to keep inner-city kids off the streets and in school.

Her non-profit organization, Work to Ride, teaches 20 boys and girls from the worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia to ride horses for free. In exchange, the students help with barn chores at her Chamounix Stables, a safe haven deep within Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.

After a decade, the team was so good they were running rings around white players from polo families who had been riding their whole lives. When no high school team could beat the young teens, they were invited to play against colleges like Harvard.

Continue

Battered Women’s Shelter Welcomes Pets After Hero Dog Saves Woman

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Great Dane

Great Dane A dog that saved one battered woman’s life may go on to save many more — by changing the role beloved family pets play in the lives of domestic abuse victims.

The heroic Great Dane had thrown himself over the body of a woman who had been nearly beaten to death by her boyfriend who was repeatedly striking her with a hammer.

Realizing how much a difference it makes in the lives of abuse-escapees, the Rose Brooks Center in Kansas City, M.O. is now in the process of adding seven kennels.

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Galápagos Tortoise Thought to be Extinct Still Lives

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galapogos tortoise descended from parents thought to be extinct

galapogos tortoise descended from parents thought to be extinctResearchers from Yale University say dozens of giant tortoises of a species believed extinct for 150 years may still be living at a remote location in the Galápagos Islands.

After conducting a genetic analysis of 1600 tortoises on Isabela Island, the scientists concluded that at least 38 purebred individuals of Chelonoidis elephantopus are still living 200 miles from their ancestral home of Floreana Island, where the species had disappeared after being hunted by whalers and workers at a heating oil factory that had been established on the island.

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7-year-old Competitive Swimmer With One Arm and No Legs Inpsires America

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Gabe Marsh Examiner -contest photo

Gabe Marsh Examiner -contest photoGabe Marsh was raised to believe he is no different than anybody else. Now the athlete is inspiring more people as a finalist in “America Inspired,” a national contest sponsored by Examiner.com. His story was featured in the Huntsville Times, here.

Earlier this week, Examiner.com announced the 25 finalists in five categories – leadership, overcoming adversity, sacrifice, passion, and outstanding youth, for which Gabe was nominated.

The grand prize is $50,000.

(READ the article at AL.com, and see all the nominees at the Examiner)

Thanks to Chris Cloud for sending the link!

 

Tasmanian Forests Saved in ‘Landmark’ Agreement with Australia

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Forest stream deep green Tasmania DSEWPaC-attribution

Forest stream in Tasmania - Photo by DSEWPaCFriday the 13th was a lucky day for Tasmanian forests with a major conservation agreement signed that will protect high value forests from logging while balancing the needs of industry, the Minister for Energy and Resources, Bryan Green said today.

Mr Green said the agreement between the Tasmanian and Australian Governments and Forestry Tasmania will give legislative protection to more than 99.5 percent of the forest — more than one million acres (430,000 hectares) identified for protection.
 
“This agreement will deliver interim protection for disputed areas including the Florentine, Wedge, Douglas Apsley, Wielangta, Mt Arthur, Bay of Fires, and Bruny Island under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act,” Mr Green said.

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Eddie Van Halen Donates 75 Guitars to Schools

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Guitars donated by Eddie Van Halen -CBS video

Guitars donated by Eddie Van Halen -CBS videoRocker Eddie Van Halen has donated 75 electric guitars from his personal collection to Los Angeles-area high schools as a way to inspire music in kids.

Tricia Steel of the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation says the Van Halen lead-guitarist brought the brand-new guitars this week, saying he wanted them used in schools and not sold.

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Eddie Van Halen Donates 75 Guitars to Schools

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Good News Network
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Guitars donated by Eddie Van Halen -CBS video

Guitars donated by Eddie Van Halen -CBS videoRocker Eddie Van Halen has donated 75 electric guitars from his personal collection to Los Angeles-area high schools as a way to inspire music in kids.

Tricia Steel of the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation says the Van Halen lead-guitarist brought the brand-new guitars this week, saying he wanted them used in schools and not sold.

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