Quote of the Day: “An unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep though the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!” – Henry Ward Beecher
Photo: by Illiya Vjestica, public domain
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In an effort to help out a looted community, a Minneapolis middle school decided to hold a food drive. They expected a modest turnout, but what happened next was more than they could have imagined.
The thousands of donations were far beyond the 100 grocery bags the school had hoped to collect when they first published their appeal on social media—it was shared so widely that some of the donors even came from out of state.
“Donations covered every inch of ground of our parking lot, the grass, everywhere,” Sanford Middle School Principal Amy Nelson told CNN. “We had to also use a neighboring park because we didn’t have enough space here at the school to stack it up.”
The school community initially wanted to help its own families because they lived in neighborhoods where grocery stores have been closed due to damage from the protests.
“The line of cars bringing donations went for blocks and blocks in every direction from the school. And they just kept coming,” Nelson told CNN. “We still don’t know how much we received.”
When word spread of the amazing haul of food the school had taken in, hundreds of families visited the school seeking support.
MPR photojournalist Evan Frost posted an incredible video on Twitter showing the scene:
This started at 10am. It’s hard to capture how much food has shown up to Sanford Middle School in one image. It’s astounding and I know this is happening at other places in the city too. pic.twitter.com/DZLmEIJzYR
— Evan Frost (@efrostee) May 31, 2020
Thanks to the generosity of so many, volunteers from the school are working with the food support nonprofit The Sheridan Story to get the donations out to those in need within the greater Minneapolis community.
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Parents, students, and staff who hadn’t seen each other in months were among the many volunteers, and when asked what it all meant to her, Principal Nelson could barely contain her pride.
“First with the pandemic, just to see some of my students and parents, and then to see them come together to do such good, it was just so heartwarming in such a way.”
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In response to recent public demand for greater accountability of police officers, a former-Libertarian presidential candidate, Michigan Congressman Justin Amash (L-MI), along with Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) introduced a bill in the House to end the doctrine of ‘qualified immunity’ which makes it so difficult for private citizens to pursue legal recourse against police officers that have violated their rights or those of a loved one.
“As part of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, Congress allowed individuals to sue state and local officials, including police officers, who violate their rights,” a joint letter released by Amash and Pressley late Wednesday noted. “Starting in 1967, the Supreme Court began gutting that law by inventing the doctrine of qualified immunity.”
In the letter that was sent to their colleagues to try and conjure up bipartisan support, the pair of lawmakers explained how qualified immunity provides a screen for lawbreaking police officers.
“Under qualified immunity, police are immune from liability unless the person whose rights they violated can show that there is a previous case in the same jurisdiction, involving the exact same facts, in which a court deemed the actions to be a constitutional violation,” Amash and Pressley wrote.
In other words, officers would need to commit the same crime twice in order to be prosecuted.
“This rule has sharply narrowed the situations in which police can be held liable–even for truly heinous rights violations–and it creates a disincentive to bringing cases in the first place.”
“If a plaintiff knows there is no prior case that is identical to theirs, they may decline to even file a lawsuit because they are very unlikely to win,” they continued. “Even if a plaintiff does file a case, a judge may dismiss it on qualified immunity grounds and decline to decide whether the plaintiff’s rights were violated, meaning the constitutional precedent still isn’t established and so the next plaintiff still can’t recover.”
Currently controlled by the Democrats, there is a good chance in the House that with just a little bipartisan support the bill, H.R. 7085, would pass.
The Republican-controlled Senate, however, may offer significant opposition, as its party platform is normally very pro-police. But, if the public response to George Floyd’s killing continues with the current level of intensity, Amash and Pressly’s legislation may present a smart way to defuse tensions—and stem the number of such incidences by reversing the policy that says police are legally insulated from consequences after violating the rights of the people whom they have sworn to serve.
WATCH: In Dozens of American Cities Officers and Protestors Embrace During Rallies Against Bad Policing
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Ghana, a country the size of Utah but with 31 million inhabitants, is benefitting from good old-fashion ingenuity in its fight against COVID-19.
In Kumasi, the cultural capital of the country located in the Ashanti region, a 2-week lockdown to control the spread inspired a man to a wonderful invention.
In less than 48 hours, 32-year old shoemaker Richard Kwarteng and his brother Jude Osei managed to gather all the necessary supplies to turn an old recycled metal barrel into a solar-powered hand-washing basin to encourage sanitation habits among the neighborhood.
Set to run on a 25-second timer, in correspondence with the CDC guidelines for handwashing duration, it would need not only elements of plumbing, but also electrical engineering like sensors, alarms, and a motherboard, yet be able to work like a normal hands-free sink.
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Fortunately the street markets of Ghanaian cities carry every component under the sun, and with the help of a friend who worked as an electrician and was able to handle the computer element, Kwarteng finished his invention in just five days.
Osei recorded a video of Kwarteng demonstrating how to use the device and posted it on social media. It immediately went viral. “It was amazing to see the shares and likes,” Kwarteng told CNN. “We started getting calls left and right. We were so proud of ourselves,” he added.
Just two days after the video went viral, Ghanaian government workers contacted the brothers to see if more machines could be constructed for placement around cities throughout the country.
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“I pray this pandemic will go away and there are better days ahead,” he said. “We hope this will help people to practice normal hand-washing etiquette and we are very grateful for everyone’s support.”
WATCH the video below…
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Quote of the Day: “Raise your words not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” – Rumi
Photo: by Rajiv Bajaj, public domain
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It may have been “just another day at the office” for a New York City firefighter who rescued a 4-year-old girl from a burning apartment building, but 37 years later, he’s learning just how big a difference he made.
After the fire in 1983, Deirdre Taylor’s family moved away from New York. As the decades passed, any hope she had for meeting and thanking her rescuer grew more remote—even as her longing to meet him endured.
She had tried to find him online over the years, but without success.
“I didn’t know if he was still alive, particularly after Sept. 11,” Deirdre told the New York Daily News. “Part of me thought I waited too long to track him down.”
Dierdre is a nurse today, living with her husband and children in Virginia. Recently, she decided to ‘pay it forward’ in New York City, returning to save lives on the frontlines of the pandemic.
Because she did that, Dierdre finally found the man who saved her life—Eugene Pugliese, Jr.
She brought along a newspaper clipping about the fire in 1983, with a picture of Eugene, from Ladder Company 20, holding a little girl in his arms. The headline reads: ‘Fireman braves flames, rescues SoHo 4-yr.-old’.
Two weeks ago, Deirdre was working the evening shift at the hospital when a group of firefighters paid a visit to thank all the healthcare workers. She decided to ask them if they knew the man in the photo.
One of them answered, “Oh, Gene. I know Gene. I’ve got his number in my phone.” An hour later, she received a call from Eugene, and learned that he had never forgotten her.
WATCH: Heartwarming Reunion When “Hero” Nurse Sees Daughters For the First Time in 9 Weeks
“You’ve been on my wall for 25 years,” he told her.
Now 75, Gene remembers the day vividly. “I didn’t even have gear on. I had a helmet and an axe,” he told the Daily News. First, he found Deidre’s mother. She pleaded with him to save her baby too. His crew brought the mother to safety, and sure enough, he found Deirdre a few minutes later.
Because Deirdre saves lives from a contagious virus, she can’t see Eugene in person. But they have promised to meet as soon it is safe. In the meantime, Deirdre is counting her blessings.
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“I always knew I came close to losing my life that day,” Deirdre told CNN. “Without him, I wouldn’t be here. I had a second chance at life, thanks to him.”
Need more positive stories and updates coming out of the COVID-19 challenge? For more uplifting coverage, click here.
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An American football player is being praised for helping to heal a wounded community, after his tweet brought a group of volunteers to downtown Phoenix to clean up the city.
After being dismayed to see how peaceful protests turned destructive in his city last weekend, Marquette King put out a call to action on the social media platform.
“I’m gonna be in Downtown Phoenix at 10ish with gloves and trash bags cleaning up the city. All races are welcome to come clean the city with me. Officers should come too. Let’s get to know each other.”
It’s a better way to do this so check this out! Since I’m a resident of AZ I’m gonna be in Downtown Phoenix around 10ish with gloves and trash bags cleaning up the city. All races are welcome to come clean the city with me. Officers should come too. Let’s get to know each other ☮️
— Marquette King (@MarquetteKing) May 31, 2020
Marquette played for six years in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos, and last played for the St. Louis Battlehawks in the XFL. Some of the volunteers who joined him knew him from his football career, including former Arizona State University quarterback Robert Nelson. But others were simply inspired by his positive message.
“I just went on Twitter and searched ‘Phoenix cleanup’ and I saw Marquette’s post. I didn’t know who he was,” one volunteer told Cameron Cox, a sports broadcaster for KPNX-12 News.
“I’m all about peace and love. That’s what I want my message to be,” Marquette told 12 News. He hopes that his little group will inspire those who want to make a positive difference in their communities. On Twitter later that day, he thanked all those who came out to help out, saying “It’s ok to be different! I choose to make an impact in showing love n peace. Make a difference but be smart and calculated.”
WATCH the video from KPNX sports…
Need something uplifting today? @MarquetteKing posted on social media asking for help cleaning downtown PHX. He was joined by former @ASUFootball player @NELSON_ISLE and 15-20 others. They walked the streets for hours picking up and washing off whatever they could. #12Sports pic.twitter.com/rEhcbqCAFM
— Cameron Cox (@CamCox12) June 1, 2020
Phoenix isn’t the only city where volunteers have come out to clean up. In Seattle, a group of dedicated citizens of all ages got together to do the same.
Mayor Jenny Durkan praised those who showed up to help, telling King 5, “What I love to see here is so many people coming downtown to help. To help clean up, to remove graffiti, to reclaim the city that they love. That’s the spirit we have to be about going forward, is people coming together and find a way to really acknowledge the challenges that we have, make them better, but still love our city.”
This is lifting my spirits. Seeing families bring their kids out to help clean up. pic.twitter.com/qscTL5JLbc
— Mimi Jung (@MimiJungKING5) May 31, 2020
Police Chief Carmen Best echoed the mayor’s praise: “I’m totally inspired. It’s totally gratifying and so wonderful and heartening to see all of these people out here. Volunteers helping to clean up the destruction, and the graffiti, and all of the damage from last night. I’m really hopeful that calmer heads will prevail today and they won’t come into our beautiful city and make it look like this.”
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The Nature Conservancy, one of the oldest nonprofit organizations dedicated to the preservation of lands, animals, and rivers, has just purchased a large tract adjacent to the majestic Zion National Park for $4.3 million to preserve the ecosystem enshrined within the famous canyon.
The picturesque 419-acre Utah property called Sheep Bridge includes a 2-mile stretch of the Virgin River, which is relied upon as a water source for Washington County residents.
The river itself eroded one of Zion’s many canyons, and it was snapped up by the Virginia-based Nature Conservancy as part of a greater effort by advocacy groups to protect the area around Zion from development.
“It is actually one of the most pristine desert streams remaining in the Southwest,” Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Aquatic Manager Rick Fridell told the Spectrum. “Water in the desert is a pretty critical resource for wildlife as well as people.”
The challenge that often faces those involved in conservation is getting governments to preserve complete ecosystems as protected areas. In the United States this difficulty was encountered throughout the history of the National Parks Service, as areas of particular natural beauty were singled out for protection while the adjacent ecosystems—the high country behind Yosemite, the pine forest around Sequoia, or the sage-brush plains before the Grand Tetons for examples, which are necessary to support all the plants and animals that make these places beautiful—are often neglected.
Apart from its harmonious role in the existence and creation of Zion, the Virgin River is home to 40 species which Utah recognizes as “sensitive”—12 of which are federally-listed as endangered.
The third property acquired by the Nature Conservancy along this river, it represents a major philanthropic endeavor involving contributions from many private organizations, trusts, and charities, and with financial support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through its endangered species program.
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The river is important to the southwestern willow flycatcher, as well as migratory birds, and acts as a home to fish species first native to the river itself like the virgin spinedace, flannelmouth sucker, desert sucker, and speckled dace.
“[The river]… maintains connectivity of important and rare riparian habitat which is so vital in the arid lands of Utah’s red rock country,” said Laura Romin, acting Utah Field Supervisor with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Quote of the Day: “I think about the internal compasses that birds have to help them get where they need to be, and I think there’s a compass inside that’s been guiding me in the same way.” – J. Drew Lanham
Photo: by Wynand Uys, public domain
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Across the United States, communities have rallied against the shameful police brutality on display in Minnesota, after George Floyd was killed. But also on display are dozens of cities were beautiful scenes of brotherhood and unity between law enforcement and protesters who all agreed on one thing—every cop should be held accountable.
Check out the videos and images below showing the heartwarming stories from Las Vegas to New York, and in between.
Protestors swarmed around police in Fort Worth, Texas after officers dropped to their knees and held back tears as they were embraced in front of grateful citizens (as seen in the video below).
Elsewhere in the state, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has drawn national praise for his willingness to march with activists and his call to hold officers responsible whenever they kill without justification.
After three nights of marches in Kentucky, protesters walked, chanted, and kneeled to pray, with Lexington police. One protester walked down the line of police officers, shaking their hands one by one.
Protesters asked police to kneel with them in front of the police dept. on Main Street. After a number of officers kneeled, protesters moved forward to embrace them. @heraldleader @pbaniak @HLpublicsafety pic.twitter.com/mZ8NiiEZPq
— Alex Slitz (@AlexSlitzPhoto) June 1, 2020
In New York City, protesters in Queens were kneeling in protest, and suddenly you can hear the crowd shrieking with surprise and support when some of the officers from the 103rd precinct take a knee, as well.
In Flint Michigan, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson walked with protesters after they chanted ‘Walk with us!’ His response to a cheering crowd was, “Let’s go, Where do you want to walk? We’ll walk all night.”
Black protesters in Louisville, Kentucky locked arms to protect a lone police officer who had been separated from his squad, reported AP:
“This simple act of kindness made me cry. We’re supposed to be taking care of each other,” said Ruth Sokey on Twitter. Alex Garner replied, “Lord, thank you for this glimpse of hope in the dark.”
Rondell Trevino tweeted photos of the scene, saying “This is Pro Life.”
This police officer got separated from his squad, and several protesters protected him. This is pro-life. Let this sink in. #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/kCeUPUxNkC
— Rondell Treviño (@Rondell_Trevino) May 30, 2020
In Merced, California, a woman asked Army National Guard Captain Nicholas Koeni, “Can you do me a favor and take a kneel?” He replied, “Absolutely,” as many of the protesters cheered, clapped, and thanked the soldiers.
The Nashville, Tennessee Police Department tweeted out a touching photo from Saturday’s protest showing Officer Garren Hoskins and a protester sharing an embrace and a moment of prayer in the middle of the protest.
In the midst of Sat's confrontation between protestors & officers at the Central Precinct, Officer Garren Hoskins and the protestor in front of him began talking about their shared Christian faith. Hoskins asked the man to join him in prayer. He put his sign down. They prayed. pic.twitter.com/c1KasU9dNQ
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) June 1, 2020
Protestors in Sarasota, Florida, heard a conciliatory message from the North Port Police Department: “Anybody who feels disenfranchised… we want to work with them. We’ll kneel with you.” Local law enforcement agencies all had one common message—they denounced the actions of that former Minneapolis police officer, and promised to continue being transparent and compassionate in every neighborhood.
Also in Florida, CNN reported that officers from various agencies knelt with protesters in prayer in front of Coral Gables City Hall.
The fourth night of protests in downtown Indianapolis ended with police officers and protesters coming together for a beautiful, peaceful moment: “I feel like our message was heard… and I never in a million years thought I would embrace a cop like that,” said organizer Malik Muhammad.
Officers and protesters hugged, shook hands, thanked each other and walked with arms around each other. “We need y’all,” one black woman said as she hugged a white officer, in the emotional video below.
Columbus, Ohio demonstrators walked side-by-side with the mayor and police Tuesday on the second consecutive day that law enforcement marched with people gathered downtown to protest.
In Oklahoma, photos captured the powerful moment when sheriff’s deputies at the Oklahoma County Jail took a knee in solidarity—while in Des Moines, Iowa, Polk County Authorities also knelt with protesters for two minutes.
On the seventh day of protests in Atlanta, Georgia, two of the city’s top officials made an appearance among the demonstrators. The mayor and police Chief Erika Shields walked with protesters to show solidarity against racism and injustice. Other officials have joined #BlackLivesMatter marches across the U.S., including Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and mayors in Little Rock, Ann Arbor, and Sacramento—as well as the police chief in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who had been a cop in L.A. for 22 years.
And finally, taking things to the next level, in Kansas City, Missouri the police department and protestors organized a march together—and they called it The Unity March.
WATCH a collection of scenes from CBS…
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Since the world’s cemeteries are quickly running out of grave space, Canada has just opened up the world’s first “Bios Park”: a patch of land devoted exclusively to fostering forests of trees grown from the remains of loved ones.
For the last 23 years, green funerary company Bios has been coming up with new ways to help people mourn their loved ones without using traditional burial methods that are notoriously expensive and harmful for the environment.
More specifically, the organization is responsible for creating the “Bios Urn”, a biodegradable urn containing a tree-planting mixture that can be combined with the cremated remains of a beloved family member or pet. Once planted in the ground, the urn blossoms into a tree that can support the planet while also serving as a living memorial for the deceased.
“The tree grows from the ashes, the urn biodegrades leaving absolutely no trace, and death becomes a transformation and return to life through nature,” reads the Bios website. “On an individual level, it’s very therapeutic in a time of immense grief. On a global level, we are taking collective responsibility for much-needed planetary restoration. We are talking thousands, if not millions, of trees planted every year.”
Since developing the Bios Urn two decades ago, the company has shipped their urns and planters to more than 50 countries around the world for about $140 a pop.
Last month, Bios announced the launch of their first “Bios Park” green space for grieving individuals and families to plant the urns.
The newly-opened “Boisé de Vie” Bios Park—which translates to “Wood of Life” in English—is being opened as an extension of the Granby Catholic Cemetery in Granby, Québec, although the cemetery is open to people of all religions.
The Bios Urns are currently available with eight different native tree species, including oak, gingko, lilac, hydrangea, sugar maple, crabapple, serviceberry, and amur maple. The Bios Park can also accommodate family plots for up to 9 people.
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“We decided what choice of trees to offer families after checking with the city about the regulations on accepted native tree species and with the help of a gardener from our local garden center,” reads the Bios website. “We have chosen hardy species which do not require much care and maintenance and which also grow well in our area.”
Bios says they now hope that the trailblazing burial space will be just the first of many new Bios Parks to launch during the coming months.
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Hotel staffers have been hailed as unsung heroes after they refused to close during the novel coronavirus lockdowns so they could offer up their rooms to homeless people for free.
In a heartwarming show of gratitude, the guests have since begun doing odd-jobs around the hotel, including gardening, cleaning the rooms, and building new brick walls and patios.
More than 45 rough sleepers have been staying at upmarket Fownes Hotel in Worcester, England since the COVID-19 restrictions were put in place in March.
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The 60-room hotel, which normally charges guests up to £155 per night, opted to stay open to provide shelter to people living on the streets.
Homeless guest Eddie Boult, a former bricklayer who built a wall and patio at the hotel, said: “I did it because I was bored but also as a thank you to the staff. They’ve really looked after me.”
Fellow guest 48-year-old Peter Swinbourne, who has been homeless for 25 years, said that the staff’s kindness “saved” him.
“I have never slept in a double bed before,” he said. “I’m happy here—this is a five-star hotel putting up homeless people.”
55-year-old Terence Marriott has been staying at the hotel for six weeks. He said: “I have been well looked after. It has been excellent.
“The food is also excellent,” he added. “I feel a lot healthier than when I came in.”
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The hotel has also joined forces with a homeless charity which has been hosting workshops on how to manage the guests’ addictions, seek benefits, and secure future accommodation.
The three hotel bars have all been cleared of alcohol as a precaution and no alcohol is permitted on the hotel grounds.
“Our new guests have been lovely and grateful for the support they had been given and treat their rooms with respect,” said assistant manager Julie Merrick. “We stayed open simply because we wanted to help.”
Management of the hotel has been maintained by a skeleton crew of 11 people while
15 staff have been furloughed.
Ms. Merrick, a mother-of-two, estimates she has worked double her usual hours during the course of the pandemic.
“We’re the only hotel in Worcester doing this. Everybody else closed their doors,” she said. “My staff are very brave. They have gone above their job role, absolutely. It has brought us all closer together as a team.
It is not the first time the hotel has helped people—it also homed 30 people who were forced to leave their homes during the regional flooding back in February.
Staff has been offered PPE including gloves, face masks and aprons, but management says that no cases of COVID-19 have been reported thus far.
However, restaurant employees have been working seven days a week in order to provide three course meals to their guests, delivered directly to their hotel rooms in disposable containers to reduce the risk of virus transmission.
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Need more positive stories and updates coming out of the COVID-19 challenge? For more uplifting coverage, click here.
A 65-year-old salesman had no work during lockdown and wanted to find a new way to relax and reduce stress while sitting in his garden.
Paul Vaughan then proceeded to build his very own budget hot tub using an old, pre-formed pond base that he dug out from his garden.
The water is cleaned using the old fish pond filtration system, which he runs through 20m of hose pipe sitting on his concrete path, to heat the water.
And just for a laugh, Paul added an outboard motor—to create swirling jacuzzi bubbles—and he’s been relaxing in the homemade tub in Bridgend, Wales, every day since.
(He took a picture of the outboard motor just once for a joke, but, of course “for safety reasons” he never sits in the tub at the same time as the prop is spinning.)
“I originally used the material as a fish pond years ago, and kept it with the intention of once again having a fish pond. But with the fabulous weather, and not much to do at the moment as a result of COVID, I decided to make a hot tub.”
“It took me a couple of days to get it sorted, but that was because originally the water was too cold to get into!”
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Paul’s creation took just half-a-day to build and he said he is pretty pleased with his efforts, especially because the empty pond was being used as a log stand before he got to work on the hot tub.
Paul heats the water by running it through about 21 yards of hose pipe (20 m) sitting on top of a concrete path, while the sunshine heats the water.
“It is not very efficient, but slowly, very slowly, it does the job.”
And, all at a cost that can’t be beat!
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Back in April, Sesame Street partnered with CNN to explain the ABC’s of coronavirus in a televised ‘town hall’ for parents and kids. Now, it’s time to help young families educate their children about racism.
This Saturday, June 6, at 10 a.m. ET, CNN and Sesame Street are hosting a 60-minute special Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism. A CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall for Kids and Families.
The PBS Workshop muppets will be embracing diversity and explaining how to be empathetic and understanding. The show intends to talk to kids about the recent nationwide protests, but CNN did not elaborate further.
Big Bird will co-host with CNN commentator Van Jones and reporter Erica Hill to moderate the event. They will be joined by Sesame Street characters—including Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Rosita—answering questions submitted by families.
Sesame Street has never been afraid to address society’s dark or scary side with kids. A new Muppet was introduced in 2011 who struggled with hunger. Another muppet moved onto the street who had autism, and they even debuted a cute character who was HIV-Positive in 2009. Last year, a new character named Karli explained how he lived in a foster home.
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How to watch: The town hall will air on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español. It will stream live on CNN.com’s homepage and across mobile devices via CNN’s apps, without requiring a cable log-in. The time is 10 a.m. Eastern, on Saturday June 6.
You can send in your own question, or share your story with the town hall, here on CNN.
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Quote of the Day: “If you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.” – Martin Keogh (It’s World Environment Day)
Photo: by Dmitry Dreyer, public domain
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
When New Zealanders were given the all-clear and Kiwis began returning to work after the Covid-19 lockdown, some employees were nervous about the state of businesses.
Jenny Beck, an attorney who runs a law office in Dunedin, had heard many small businesses were in dire straits because they depended on tourism—and she got an idea.
At the first staff meeting with everyone back from lockdown, “the mood was anxious,” according to the Otago Daily Times, New Zealand’s oldest daily newspaper.
But, instead of pink slips or salary cuts, the law firm owner gave each of her 14 employees $1000 in cash.
“I told them, and just about everyone cried—and I felt like crying myself,” she told reporter John Lewis.
The shocked workers were also given a caveat regarding what they could do with the money—paying it forward.
Jenny gave them “stern words” to spend the cash on small businesses, suggesting they take a long weekend, paying for accommodation, food at local restaurants, and tourist attractions, to help get the local economies rolling again.
‘‘I also thought it would be fun, in that my staff would be able to report back on their breaks, and give everyone a boost.’’
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The office really got into the spirit, and began planning trips to a National Park, their favorite restaurants, and kayak rental places.
‘‘I’m really pleased that they’ve picked it up and run with it,” said Jenny. “It’s given a real boost to team morale.’’
WATCH the interviews below… (Video screen grab courtesy of Otago Daily Times)
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Aside from 2020 being the first time the commencement address at Princeton was delivered exclusively over the internet, Nicholas Johnson’s speech Sunday made it extra newsworthy because he’s the first black valedictorian in Princeton’s history.
Along with his concentration in operations research and financial engineering, the Canadian student has studied statistics and machine learning, along with computational mathematics, and computing.
The engineer said that knowing what to build in order to improve the world is the crucial first step. “It requires an intimate familiarity and engagement with the present state of the world, coupled with the capacity to unabashedly dream of a distinctly different future.”
Speaking from his home in Montreal, he also quoted Michelle Obama from the graduating class of ’85.
“It was possible, I knew, to live on two planes at once—to have one’s feet planted in reality but pointed in the direction of progress. You may live in the world as it is, but you can still work to create the world as it should be.”
The valedictorian told the New York Times that he hoped his achievement “serves as inspiration to black students coming up behind me.”
Johnson was the editor of Tortoise: A Journal of Writing Pedagogy, and also served as co-president of the Princeton chapter of Engineers Without Borders.
Although Princeton held a virtual commencement online, a live in-person ceremony is also being planned for the famed grounds next May.
Johnson will spend this summer interning as a hybrid quantitative researcher and software developer, according to a Princeton news release, before beginning Ph.D. studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall.
While at MIT, he might meet another Ivy League newsmaker—Danielle Geathers.
Ms. Geathers was elected president of the Undergraduate Association last month—the first time in the school’s 159 year history that a black woman rose to govern the student body.
Majoring in mechanical engineering, Geathers is a rising Junior, and served as the school’s diversity officer last year.
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She has plans to use her platform to make the school as inclusive as possible, reported CNN.
“Although some people think it is just a figurehead role, figureheads can matter in terms of people seeing themselves in terms of representation,” she said. “Seeing yourself at a college is kind of an important part of the admissions process.”
About six percent of undergraduates at MIT are black and 47 percent are women, according to the school.
WATCH Johnson’s commencement address below…
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We might soon be saying, it’s PAC-MAN to the rescue in the coronavirus pandemic.
Scientists from Stanford University have found the perfect partners to work on a gene-targeting, antiviral agent against COVID-19, after teaming up with researchers at the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience user facility located at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Last year, Stanley Qi, an assistant professor in the departments of bioengineering, and chemical and systems biology, at Stanford University and his team had begun working on a technique called PAC-MAN—or Prophylactic Antiviral CRISPR in human cells—that uses the gene-editing tool CRISPR to fight influenza.
But that all changed in January, when news of the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Qi and his team were suddenly confronted with a mysterious new virus for which no one had a clear solution. “So we thought, ‘Why don’t we try using our PAC-MAN technology to fight it?’” said Qi.
Since late March, Qi and his team have been collaborating with a group led by Michael Connolly, a principal scientific engineering associate in the Biological Nanostructures Facility at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, to develop a system that delivers PAC-MAN into the cells of a patient.
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Like all CRISPR systems, PAC-MAN is composed of an enzyme—in this case, the virus-killing enzyme Cas13—and a strand of guide RNA, which commands Cas13 to destroy specific nucleotide sequences in the coronavirus’s genome. By scrambling the virus’s genetic code, PAC-MAN could neutralize the coronavirus and stop it from replicating inside cells.
Qi said that the key challenge to translating PAC-MAN from a molecular tool into an anti-COVID-19 therapy is finding an effective way to deliver it into lung cells. When SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, invades the lungs, the air sacs in an infected person can become inflamed and fill with fluid, hijacking a patient’s ability to breathe.
“But my lab doesn’t work on delivery methods,” he said. So on March 14, they published a preprint of their paper, and even tweeted, in the hopes of catching the eye of a potential collaborator with expertise in cellular delivery techniques.
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Soon after, they learned of Connolly’s work on synthetic molecules called lipitoids at the Molecular Foundry.
Lipitoids are a type of synthetic peptide mimic known as a ‘peptoid’ first discovered 20 years ago by Connolly’s mentor Ron Zuckermann. In the decades since, Connolly and Zuckermann have worked to develop peptoid delivery molecules such as lipitoids. And in collaboration with Molecular Foundry users, they have demonstrated lipitoids’ effectiveness in the delivery of DNA and RNA to a wide variety of cell lines.
Today, researchers studying lipitoids for potential therapeutic applications have shown that these materials are nontoxic to the body and can deliver nucleotides by encapsulating them in tiny nanoparticles just one billionth of a meter wide—the size of a virus.
Now Qi hopes to add his CRISPR-based COVID-19 therapy to the Molecular Foundry’s growing body of lipitoid delivery systems.
In late April, the Stanford researchers tested a type of lipitoid—Lipitoid 1—that self-assembles with DNA and RNA into PAC-MAN carriers in a sample of human epithelial lung cells.
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According to Qi, the lipitoids performed very well. When packaged with coronavirus-targeting PAC-MAN, the system reduced the amount of synthetic SARS-CoV-2 in solution by more than 90%. “Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry has provided us with a molecular treasure that transformed our research,” he said.
The team next plans to test the PAC-MAN/lipitoid system in an animal model against a live SARS-CoV-2 virus. They will be joined by collaborators at New York University and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
If successful, they hope to continue working with Connolly and his team to further develop PAC-MAN/lipitoid therapies for SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, and to explore scaling up their experiments for preclinical tests.
“An effective lipitoid delivery, coupled with CRISPR targeting, could enable a very powerful strategy for fighting viral disease not only against COVID-19 but possibly against newly viral strains with pandemic potential,” said Connolly.
“Everyone has been working around the clock trying to come up with new solutions,” added Qi, whose preprint paper was recently peer-reviewed and published in the journal Cell. “It’s very rewarding to combine expertise and test new ideas across institutions in these difficult times.”
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A heartwarming moment was captured when a “hero” nurse working on the frontline was reunited with her two daughters, after being apart for nine weeks.
Single mother Suzanne Vaughan, 43, has been working double shifts for England’s NHS at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Norfolk—it was her own decision, but a tough one that forced her to be apart from her children for nine weeks.
But after more than two months working round the clock in the ICU, she finally had the chance to hug her daughters and “put my girls first.”
In the emotionally-charged scene Sunday, she quietly creeped up behind the sofa, surprising Bella and Hettie, 9 and 7, who had been staying with their Aunt Charlotte in Peterborough.
“I brought them to my sister’s home because I wanted to keep them safe, because I work at the hospital and was exposing myself to the virus each day,” said Suzanne. “But I also wanted to work more, and I couldn’t do more hours and keep the girls.
“It was a really difficult decision but it was a sacrifice that needed to be made.
She didn’t know how long it would be until she saw them again, and never expected it to be nine weeks.
“But so many others have made the same sacrifices because we want to help people and fight this virus. It was something I needed to do – I started doing this job over 20 years ago because I wanted to help people.”
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“I put work first for nine weeks, but I think now it was time I put my girls first.”
Suzie, who normally works 28 hours a week, offered to work over 50 hours a week in order to help with the national effort against the virus. The single mum says she Facetimed her daughters each day and they never let her wake up for a shift without a good morning text.
“There were many times I thought to myself I can’t do this anymore,” she added. “It was dead-quiet, no one running about or screaming or laughing, it was horrible.
For her part, Bella has nothing but respect for her mother. “I think the NHS are really great people trying to save the world. She had to be away to save people—she’s my hero.”
Suzanne says she didn’t want to disappoint them if anything changed, so kept it a secret—but it was all worthwhile when she saw their reactions.
“I just didn’t want to let them go, and when they cried I just felt it in my heart. It was amazing.”
And they haven’t stopped cuddling for a minute since she’s been back.
“We’ve always been close, but this has made us so much closer.”
WATCH the video…
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Need more positive stories and updates coming out of the COVID-19 challenge? For more uplifting coverage, click here.
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Quote of the Day: “We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.” – Winston Churchill (Gave his ‘Fight on the Beaches’ speech 80 years ago today)
Photo: by Nathan Dumlao, public domain
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