After getting married on his 20th birthday, an Arkansas man is still making his bride swoon 70 years later.
90-Year-old Paul Miller sang a romantic rendition of Bing Crosby‘s “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” at a ceremony where he and his wife renewed their vows and celebrated the anniversary with 60 family members.
“It was so sweet,” one granddaughter recalled. “Their love is definitely a true love.”
The couple shares love not only with their own family but with kids who need help. Over the years, they have invited into their home a number of parentless youth who have aged out of the U.S. foster care system.
Shekeb Neda threw his mother on his back and rushed down the steps in Grenfell Tower as fast as he could during the recent fire disaster to save her life.
The 24-year-old recent college graduate of Kingston University sprinted through choking black smoke down 24 flights from their home on the top floor to reach a safe place, where she then collapsed.
The housewife who has a muscle disease is currently recovering in the hospital, according to the Mirror.
“He is a hero,” a family friend, Fahim Muzhary, told the UK’s Sun newspaper. “In the chaos, all the screaming and shouting, he picked up his mother and carried her down from the very top floor.”
Shekeb, who earned a degree in mechanical engineering after moving with his parents to the UK from Afghanistan, likely lost his father in the blaze. (See family photo above)
Over the weekend, three generic father figures volunteered to drink beer and grill for a gang of guys in their twenties, providing the perfect Father’s Day barbecue experience.
The ringleader of the shenanigans, Dane Anderson, had posted a hilarious, yet earnest, ad on Craigslist looking for a surrogate grill-master for a party he was planning for dozens of his buddies.
Reportedly, more than 100 applicants were reviewed and the group chose three ideal candidates. All met the requirements of having a name no longer than five letters. In this case, Scott, Pete and Jim.
The ad, first posted in early June for the party on the 17th, also specified that the “father” should be ready to refer to all attendees as “Big Guy’, “Chief”, “Sport”, “Champ”—and talk about dad things, like lawnmowers, building your own deck, and Jimmy Buffet.
“The Boys,” as the Spokane, Washington youths call themselves, provided the meat and the beer, but also a touching way for one of the dads to mourn a loss.
Scott, one of the chosen ones, said his own father had just passed away on June 2, so to be a part of this event with The Boys made it extra meaningful for him.
Brian Pierce felt an instant connection with a particular baby in China when he saw her adoption photo.
“We opened her profile and saw that beautiful face looking back at us. We wanted to scoop her up right then and hold her, but she was on the other side of the world,” says Brian.
Even just looking at a photo, there was never a doubt that this little girl was the perfect match. She was born with a cleft lip and palate, just like Brian.
He vowed to make her life better, like his parents did for him. So once the baby, whom they named Hattie, became a little older he brought her in to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta—the same hospital where he had his surgeries when he was a boy.
“I knew what was in store for Hattie. I knew that I could help,” he wrote in a blog post for the hospital. “I couldn’t keep her from having to go through any of it, but I could be there for her.”
Brian knew that he could also help her through any sadness she might feel because she looked different than other children.
Even though he was born with disfigured legs, a boy named Blessing Fire always felt the fire in his soul to dance.
Told by his doctors he would never be able to walk like a “normal child”, he found his passion in breakdancing and now teaches his award-winning moves to students who flip and twirl their way to trophies.
“I was put in a wheel chair at a very young age,” Blessing told video journalist Tendai Msiyazviriyo
His parents were concerned that even walking would further damage his legs, because his right knee had a metal pin inserted to hold the leg together. Blessing figured that his limbs were already broken, and he didn’t want the deformity to lead to a broken spirit, so he snuck away from his parents’ home to hone his skills.
Overwhelmingly, for the 450 men who play NBA Basketball in the U.S., their success can be attributed to the family members who sacrificed to get them where they are today. But one of the league’s star players had a tough childhood, yet overcame the odds to become the family man he never had for a role model.
Two-time NBA All-Star Caron Butler grew up on the mean streets of Racine, Wisconsin. He didn’t have a father in his life, and was exposed to every illegal vice there was, and drawn in by the allure of it all.
It was a judge who cynically believed the youth to be nothing more than a menace to society who lit a fire inside him.
“That’s a straight-up insult… I wanted to prove the doubters wrong,” said the man who left prison behind for a 15-year career as an NBA player. “People make mistakes. I try to take the positive route as much as possible.”
He told his story in a moving video to the National Basketball Players Association for their #EverydayDad campaign. The campaign celebrates fatherhood and to seeks to provide inspiration for fans to celebrate their own relationships with their dads and their kids.
Butler said he grew up with a void in his life that made him vow to be the best father he could be: “Being a dad means everything, because this is what it’s all about: planting the right seeds in your kids and watching them grow.”
As much as he tried to steer his son J.C. away from professional basketball, he adapted to it no matter what. Now, his dad focuses on positive feedback for his athletic son, and is a loyal presence both on the court for J.C. and in the lives of his other children.
(WATCH the inspiring video below) – Photo released by NBPA
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Though it may have seemed like a strange request at the time, this teen was allowed to participate in his high school graduation ceremony thanks to the kindness of a stranger.
Leroy Solis Jr. was set to graduate from MacArthur High School in San Antonio, Texas on Wednesday when he was stopped by a school representative saying that he wouldn’t be allowed to cross the stage if he was wearing jeans.
Leroy had neglected to adopt the proper uniform because his father was on a fixed income and he couldn’t afford new pants. The teen was in luck, however, when he dashed outside and decided to test his faith in humanity, instead.
“The school principal told him he wasn’t crossing the stage and sent him home,” Leroy’s brother Rosemary wrote on Facebook. “He had 3 minutes to line up. My brother walked back to his car and came across a young man his height and size. My brother proceeded to explain that he needed slacks to walk the stage and without any hesitation this kind young man said YES.”
The strangers told Leroy that he could change pants in their truck. Before he started dashing back to the ceremony, the man and his son enthusiastically told him: “Go cross that stage!”
Rosemary and Leroy have since started searching for the strangers who obliged him and his strange request, so they can properly thank them for their helpfulness and understanding.
Click To Share The Good Grad Story With Your Friends (Photo by Rosemary De Los Santos)
This video of a teenager receiving a birthday gift from his late father is enough to turn any metalhead into mush.
16-year-old Johnny Crow has been grieving over his 49-year-old dad’s death since the heart attack struck in April. Johnny did not know until last week, however, that his father left behind something special that will help him remember the relationship through the music.
Johnny’s 20-year-old sister Chandler picked her brother up from school last Wednesday and took him to Port Huron Music Center in Michigan, the music store where he takes guitar lessons.
Chandler then handed Johnny a birthday card from their father wishing the teen a happy birthday, and expressing the hope that he would enjoy the gift.
The music store workers then revealed a guitar case containing a Dean Razorback guitar: the exact model that Johnny had always wanted.
Johnny’s dad had actually ordered the guitar for his son back in January – Chandler and the Port Huron Music Center staff had simply been keeping the guitar under wraps for a month before the big reveal.
“About a month ago I dropped Johnny off at his guitar lesson, and one of the amazing instructors told me there was something I should see. When she showed me I just dropped to my knees, I just couldn’t believe it,” wrote Chandler. “But I had to keep it a secret until his birthday. So this morning I woke up and picked up my brother from school and blindfolded him. Drove him to the music center and this is the outcome.”
While Johnny’s reaction to the gift is a tearjerker on its own, the kindness doesn’t stop there.
The Reddit community heard the story of Johnny’s late father and started asking how they could make donations towards the teen’s guitar lessons. Johnny’s music teacher came forward and explained that the music store had a Paypal account – anyone wanting to financially contribute to his lessons could submit a donation with the caption reading “Happy Birthday, Johnny”.
Over $16,000 has since been donated. The Crow family will be consulting a lawyer on how best to use the money for the teen’s livelihood.
The young musician was also gifted two tickets for his birthday to see Alice Cooper, and Metal star Nita Strauss contacted Johnny’s guitar teacher, Pete Kruse, and insisted on providing backstage passes for the family in their father’s honor.
“Hey guys, Nita from Alice Cooper here,” wrote Nita. “Just messaged [Pete Kruse] to let him know that I’ll take care of passes for John to come backstage and say hi to Alice and the band at our show. I watched this video a bunch of times earlier today before I even knew he was coming to a show, and sent it to a bunch of guitar player friends… such an amazing moment!! Can’t wait to meet John and the family!!”
When a man pulled his truck into a Buffalo, New York auto repair shop, the workers were stunned into silence.
Spray painted across the silver Chevy truck in large orange letters were racist slurs and hateful epithets. The owner of the vehicle, identified only as Mr. King, had brought his truck to the Collision Masters repair shop in Buffalo for a price estimate on how much it would cost to erase the graffiti.
But the founder of the shop was not about to let the man out the door with just an estimate for repairing the vandalism.
“Customer pulls into the shop today and I literally hear crickets when all the air tools and employees stopped and shook their head in disgust on what they saw,” says Collision Masters founder Frank Todaro. “I looked at the driver and told him that ‘you are not leaving until I fix this!’”
In what would have taken hours of work and attention, the team leapt into action, cleansing the car of spray paint in just 30 minutes. Additionally, Todaro refused to accept money from Mr. King.
“Literally my guys dropped everything and attacked this truck like a pit crew and got the job done,” says Todaro. “I told the owner of the vehicle [that] this one’s on me and I wanted him to know that Buffalonians will never stand for this!”
After seeing a segment on a local news station featuring their kindness, state Sen. Tim Kennedy bought lunch for the entire repair crew on Wednesday.
“As the day goes on, it’s been an amazing feeling,” Todaro told Buffalo News. “So many people have been calling, feeling bad for [Mr. King] and thanking us for what we did.”
Drive This Inspiration To Your Friends: Click To Share (Photo by Collision Masters, LLC)
If you ever feel like complaining about the multitude of difficulties when dealing with your family, just think about the Geraldi clan and the calamities through which they’ve bravely persevered.
Over the course of the last four decades, Michael and Camille Geraldi have become the legal guardians of 88 special needs children and adults.
Ever since the couple first met in 1973 at the Miami Children’s Hospital, they knew that they were destined to care for kids. As Camille worked as a nurse, and Michael toiled as a pediatrician, they dedicated their careers to healing and watching over the young patients – some of whom had special needs and had been abandoned by their parents. Michael was renown for offering his services to low-income families free of charge, while Camille often spent late nights at the hospital reading to disabled children.
After they got married two years later, the lovebirds started adopting the disabled orphans from the hospital. The children were diagnosed with everything from autism to cerebral palsy, facial deformities to Down syndrome – whatever the difficulty, the Geraldis loved them all.
“I love these kids,” Camille told Good News Network. “Though it can be challenging, draining, exhausting work, when you have your faith you just keep going.”
By the time they had adopted 18 children – and gave birth to three of their own – they started the Possible Dream Foundation: a nonprofit to help finance their children’s futures, rehabilitation, education, work training, and treatment.
While Michael’s salaried income paid for most of their expenses, the family still needed assistance as their brood expanded in the 90s to include 31 youngsters. Their circumstances seemed even more dire after their Miami, Florida home was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.
The Geraldis then moved to a farm in North Carolina where many of the children grew up to graduate from high school and became certified dog trainers.
The family suffered another disaster in 2011, however, when their farm was struck my lightning, causing a house fire that burned everything to the ground. But good fortune stepped in and they were offered a home in Georgia, which they made handicapped-accessible using the insurance money from their previous home.
Camille is now 68 years old – and even though she lost Michael to an aggressive cancer last year, she still has a mighty spirit for taking care of the children alongside a large team of volunteers.
How does she stay so motivated? Camille gives credit to divine inspiration.
“I think sometimes you’re just cut out to do it or you’re not” she says. “I do know that I’m doing God’s work—he plans the day and I just carry it out. He motivates me along the way.”
“I usually wear a mustard seed pinned to my shirt, and when I’m feeling drained and need a push, I touch it and he gives me the the energy and determination I need to make it through the hard times and the adversity.”
Even more striking than the years of intensive parenting and hospice care, is the fact that Camille had never taken time for a vacation until very recently.
She and Mike had planned to go on a cruise for their 40th wedding anniversary, taking their “first vacation ever,” but because of his diagnosis they had to cancel. This year she finally was able to relax on a seven-day trip.
Despite all the hardships, Camille continues to care for the Geraldi family with compassion, love, and unwavering selflessness.
(WATCH the 60 Minutes interview with the Geraldis below)
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These innovative caps for prescription pill bottles could help curb opioid addiction and abuse amongst seniors and adolescents alike.
The TimerCap is a medication lid featuring a built-in timer that reads when the bottle was last opened. Every time the bottle is closed, the timer resets to when it is supposed to be opened next.
In the midst of an opioid epidemic, these lids could deter young adults from stealing their parents’ prescription drugs for abusive purposes; or, it could help seniors to remember when they last took their medication.
The lids can also be paired with Bluetooth technology to send email and text notifications to the owner telling them when it is time to take the medication, or if the bottle has been opened before the appropriate time.
According to the TimerCap website, their encouraging research shows the lids have increased proper medication habits by 33%.
Drugs store chains CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens have all partnered with TimerCap in order to improve distribution with the hopes that the product will deter drug abuse.
“My mom was addicted to opioids for as long as I remember,” Larry Twersky, the CEO of TimerCap, told FOX 11 News. “This is one of the biggest crises and I hope we have the ability to make simple decisions and simple choices that can affect the population dramatically.”
(WATCH the video below)
Give Your Friends A Daily Dose Of Good News: Click To Share (Photo by TimerCap, LL)
These 92 pups were found living in filth, but they’ve been given forever homes as a result of their previous owners’ arrest.
The hoard of Yorkshire terriers were found living in unsanitary conditions at a home near San Diego, California. After Humane Society officials seized the dogs back in January, the couple responsible for the dogs were founding hoarding 78 more dogs at two different locations.
Thanks to their rescue, however, almost all the pets have been adopted by families into loving, healthy environments.
According to Inside Edition, the new Yorkie owners have started a Facebook group to coordinate and share in the collective healing of their new furry companions.
The guilty animals hoarders have since been charged with felonies, resulting in the inability to own pets for the next decade.
(WATCH the video below)
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These police officers went above and beyond the call of duty for a 91-year-old woman whose pocket was picked while grocery shopping in a supermarket.
Security footage of the grocery store shows the senior being subjected to a distraction theft: a robbery in which one shopper distracted the woman from her shopping cart while their accomplice slipped her wallet out of her bag.
When Officer Janelle Jumelles arrived at the Boynton Beach, Florida store, she immediately paid for the senior’s groceries.
Overcome with gratitude, the woman started crying and embraced the officer, thanking her for the kindness.
Jumelles then helped the woman cancel her credit cards and suggested the senior go home and get some rest.
Later that same day, the cop returned to the woman’s home with a $60 gift card to the supermarket to replace the food stamps that were stolen from her purse.
(WATCH the video below)
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Money may not be able to you happiness, but the public is rejoicing over the latest report stating that Americans gave $390 billion to charity in 2016 – a 4% increase from the $379.89 billion donated in 2015.
Detailed in the publication Giving USA 2017: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2016, this is only the sixth time in the last four decades that has reflected improvement across all nine sectors of philanthropy: religion; education; human services; giving to foundations; health; public-society benefit; arts, culture and humanities; international affairs; and environment and animals.
Amongst individuals, corporations, estate donations, and foundations, individual Americans were shown to improve the most by donating 4% more than the previous year. Corporations and foundations also showed improvement, while estate donations fell slightly.
“This report tells us that Americans remained generous in 2016, despite it being a year punctuated by economic and political uncertainty,” said Aggie Sweeney, chair of the Giving USA Foundation. “We saw growth in every major sector, indicating the resilience of philanthropy and diverse motivations of donors.”
“Individual giving continued its remarkable role in American philanthropy in a year that included a turbulent election season that reflected a globally resurgent populism,” said Amir Pasic, Ph.D., the Eugene R. Tempel Dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “In this context, the absence of a dramatic change in giving is perhaps remarkable, but it also demonstrates the need for us to better understand the multitude of individual and collective decisions that comprise our record of national giving.”
Pay It Forward: Click TO Share With Your Friends(Photo by Tracy O, CC)
Researchers have developed a solar paint that can absorb water vapor and split it to generate hydrogen – the cleanest source of energy.
The paint contains a newly developed compound that acts like silica gel, which is used in sachets to absorb moisture and keep food, medicines and electronics fresh and dry.
But unlike silica gel, the new material, synthetic molybdenum-sulphide, also acts as a semi-conductor and catalyses the splitting of water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen.
Lead researcher Dr. Torben Daeneke, from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said: “We found that mixing the compound with titanium oxide particles leads to a sunlight-absorbing paint that produces hydrogen fuel from solar energy and moist air.
“Titanium oxide is the white pigment that is already commonly used in wall paint, meaning that the simple addition of the new material can convert a brick wall into energy harvesting and fuel production real estate.
“Our new development has a big range of advantages,” he said. “There’s no need for clean or filtered water to feed the system. Any place that has water vapor in the air, even remote areas far from water, can produce fuel.”
His colleague, Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, said hydrogen was the cleanest source of energy and could be used in fuel cells as well as conventional combustion engines as an alternative to fossil fuels.
“This system can also be used in very dry but hot climates near oceans. The sea water is evaporated by the hot sunlight and the vapour can then be absorbed to produce fuel.
“This is an extraordinary concept – making fuel from the sun and water vapor in the air.”
(Source: RMIT University)
(WATCH the video below)
Pass On The Positivity: Click To Share – Photo by Anthony Quintano, CC
From growing discontent over the Vietnam war, which necessitated the drafting of 40,000 young men into military service each month, to the blossoming music scene with its psychedelic colors and consciousness-altering drugs, 1967 was fast becoming a fulcrum for change in American cultural history.
50 years ago today, The Monterey Pop Festival opened the floodgates for all that would define the legendary ‘Summer of Love’. The festival marked the first major US appearance for Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, and Ravi Shankar. It secured California as the focal point for the counterculture movement and became an inspiration for future music festivals, like Woodstock two years later. (Learn more and watch the documentary trailer)
San Francisco’s de Young Museum is celebrating the half-century anniversary with an exhibition that features more than 300 significant cultural artifacts that recall the art, fashion, and political discourse of the era — and, of course, the music, which provided the drum beat for a youth-driven revolution.
Despite being a millennial, my parents were successful in raising me to love the same kind of music they grew up with (e.g. The Beatles, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan). My peers and I were also eager to adopt the hippie fashions that eventually came back around in style—as you can see from my recent visit to the de Young…
Yet, after going to see the exhibit, “The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll,” I was forcefully reminded that I had no idea what it was like back then. The closest thing that 20-somethings like me can use for comparison to the Summer of Love is Burning Man – but, that involves all generations, not only mine, and in terms of cultural impact, the two don’t even come close.
Besides an amazing array of hand-crafted fashion from the day, including the story of how a local seamstress got Levi Strauss to create the fist bell bottom jean, the exhibit featured informational flyers to give direction to the thousands of young people who left home to make a new life in San Francisco.
Posters included the one made by Joan Baez (above, bottom right) to encourage girls to only “say yes to boys who say no” to the draft, and helpful hints for newcomers about how to avoid bad drug trips and where to get free food (top, center). There were even tips about how to deal with the police officers who were rounding up youth and trying to reunite them with their worried parents.
The original Captain Trips hat worn by Jerry Garcia
Rock-poster artists such as Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, and Wes Wilson, all generated an exciting array of distinctive works that summer emblazoned with distorted hand-lettering and vibrating colors (below). In various rooms of the exhibit, wild light shows were dazzling the visitors, such as the creations of Bill Ham and Ben Van Meter that served as expressions of the new psychedelic experience.
After leaving the museum, I headed over to Haight-Ashbury, the magnetic San Franciscan neighborhood that became a magnet for as many as 100,000 young people from all over disillusioned America – and while it’s been 50 years since the original Summer of Love, many of the original inhabitants of the neighborhood are still there to this day, as living relics of decades past.
One such resident was Franklin: an original “tertiary acquaintance” of none other than “Uncle Ken” – the pseudonym of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest author and psychedelic revolutionary Ken Kesey.
When asked about his recollections from those old friendships, he remembered fondly some advice he took to heart. “As Uncle Ken always used to say… ‘Stay in your own movie, man,” he said chuckling, before wandering outside to smoke a bowl of “medical marijuana” and inspect the buttons for sale on the sidewalk.
If you’re interested in catching a glimpse of one of America’s most pivotal eras–and definitely the most colorful one, the de Young exhibit runs through August 20, 2017 – and the hippies who lived through it are ‘feelin’ groovy’ not far away.
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Thousands of Michigan families will now have the opportunity to send their children to university free of charge.
The University of Michigan has just announced the implementation of their new Go Blue Guarantee: a program that allows all Michigan families earning less than $65,000 per year to qualify for four years of free undergraduate tuition.
The program will apply to students currently enrolled at the Ann Arbor campus – as well as any student who is accepted to the school – starting January 2018.
According to a U.S. census, the annual median Michigan household income was $51,000 in 2015.
“There are many students growing up in families that look at the University of Michigan and think that we’re too expensive,” President Mark Schlissel told WXYZ. “Even if their kids are talented are hard-working, they’re just afraid. They’re afraid to let them apply because if they get in, imagine telling your kid ‘congratulations, but we just can’t afford it’.”
Now however, the Go Blue Guarantee opens the university’s doors to thousands of low-income students seeking a quality education.
“I think about the seventh grader in Ypsilanti or Detroit or Grand Rapids whose mom or dad can say to them, ‘Work hard. Do well in school. You can go to the University of Michigan,’” Schlissel said, according to MLive. “There are a lot of folks now that can’t really say that because they don’t know if they can afford it. Now there’s a whole rising generation in our state that can aspire to our great university. I’m extremely, extremely proud of that.”
(WATCH the video below)
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In honor of the late Batman actor Adam West, Los Angeles city officials joined with Batman fans and West’s television co-stars to shine the official Bat-signal on City Hall last night.
With Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Department Chief Charlie Beck present, the event was reminiscent of a New Year’s Eve countdown. By the time they were ready to turn on the signal, Batman fans decked out in their utility belts and Bright Knight capes were cheering in anticipation.
“So I’m a real life chief of police and I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted to turn on the Bat-signal,” said Chief Beck.
West passed away last Friday at the age of 88 after a battle with leukemia. According to a DC Comics press release, West’s family encourages any Batman fans not in attendance to donate to the Adam West Memorial Fund for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Idaho-based charity for children diagnosed with cancer and their families, Camp Rainbow Gold.
As of this morning, the Memorial Fund has raised $6,800.
This good Samaritan is a prime example of Biblical kindness.
David Lee Witherspoon Jr. was leaving his volunteer shift at a food pantry in Phoenix, Arizona when he was shocked to see a man crawling across the road on all fours.
The volunteer immediately stopped his car and walked over to the man to ask what was wrong.
The man explained that he had become homeless because of an argument that he had had at his last place of residence. Without having time to grab a pair of shoes, he had run out the door in only his socks.
With temperatures in Arizona climbing well into the hundreds, the city tarmac had become scorchingly hot, which led the man to crawling with his shorts barely covering his knees, and his socks covering his hands.
Without hesitating, Witherspoon grabbed a spare pair of shoes and a water bottle from out of his car. He then carefully washed and dried the man’s feet before slipping on the footwear.
The volunteer says that he keeps multiple pairs of shoes in his car so he can switch them out between his work at the office of Phoenix Veteran Affairs and the St. Vincent de Paul’s food pantries at St. Mary’s Basilica.
Though Witherspoon is being hailed for his compassionate act, he stands by the fact that he was simply doing what any person should do.
“A lot of people give up on people now and that’s the biggest problem,” Witherspoon explained in the video below. “I mean, you don’t have to… empty your wallet or anything like that; just a simple, kind act.”
(WATCH the video below)
Bless Your Friends: Click To Share (Photo by St. Vincent de Paul)
The world’s first Museum of Happiness is set to open its doors in September.
Though the Museum of Happiness has been a nonprofit organization for the last two years, they haven’t actually had a permanent location. The volunteer team has simply organized pop-up events, classes, and workshops for drop-in participation.
After successfully raising over $36,000 in one month, however, the organization is set to open up their physical museum at Arlington House – the UK’s biggest homeless hostel in Camden, London.
“Three years ago, the Museum of Happiness was an idea discussed on summer strolls around Hyde Park. We wanted to offer a sanctuary where people of all ages and backgrounds could come together to feel safe, peaceful and happy and learn about their own wellbeing,” says the museum team.
One year later, the happiness crew started hosting workshops for all kinds of things: mindfulness origami, laughing yoga (yes, it’s a thing), ukulele lessons, art, and dancing.
“People from all over the world were coming to our events and asking, ‘where is the museum of happiness actually based? I want to bring my friends next week!’ We would sadly tell them it was folded up in a shed – which wasn’t exactly great for our image!”
Assuming the museum can make enough money from memberships and general programs, the facility will be free to visit. Additionally, the museum team hopes to orchestrate several outreach programs that can work in accordance with homeless shelters, nursing homes, hospitals, schools, and youth centers.
Considering that the World Health Organization says that depression is “the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease”, it’s honestly surprising that a facility like this hasn’t come sooner.
“At the Museum of Happiness we offer tangible, science-based tools you can implement into your everyday lives. Our society needs such physical spaces like a Museum of Happiness to explore this vital skill, emotion and state of being in a secular way,” says the team. “Most importantly, we can run initiatives to bring people together to create friendships, have fun and find balance in a city of chaos, regardless of your background or belief system.”
If you want to volunteer or learn more about the museum, check out to their website.
