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These Engineers Customize Christmas Toys For Disabled Children

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McKinley Corbley
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Though there are now dolls modeled after children with disabilities, there aren’t any toys on store shelves that can be used specifically by children with severe disabilities.

That’s why two University of North Florida professors started the Adaptive Toy Project three years ago.

The program puts physical therapy students and engineers into a laboratory so they can recreate and adapt regularly manufactured toys to suit the needs of special needs children. While simultaneously providing youth with the tools needed to play, it gives the students valuable experience and inspiration.

MORE: Autism-Friendly Clothing Dumps Zips, Buttons and Tags, Offers GPS

Since someone with cerebral palsy might not be able to open their hands and grab a toy car’s steering wheel, an ATP worker rewired the circuity so it could be steered by a push button. They also replaced the seat with a safer foam-padded strap-in chair.

Though these customizable toys could easily cost thousands of dollars, 18 families have already received them for free thanks to a five year grant from the National Institutes of Health.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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Daughter Fulfills Dad’s Last Wish With Side-Splitting Obituary

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Even if we did not know the legend personally, Caitlin Connor’s obituary for her father Chris paints the picture of a pretty interesting guy.

Chris, who lived in York, Maine with his wife Emily, recently passed away from pancreatic cancer and Motor Neurone Disease. His last wish? He refused to be given a “run of the mill obituary”.

That’s why Chris’s family reportedly got together over some bottles of champagne and had an obituary-writing party. The heartwarming – and cheeky – results are as follows:

Chris Connors died, at age 67, after trying to box his bikini-clad hospice nurse just moments earlier.

Ladies man, game slayer, and outlaw Connors told his last inappropriate joke on Friday, December 9, 2016, which cannot be printed here.

MORE: Dying Man’s Last Wish Fulfilled 45 Minutes Before He Passes Away

Anyone else fighting ALS and stage-4 pancreatic cancer would have gone quietly into the night, but Connors was stark naked drinking Veuve in a house full of friends and family as Al Green played from the speakers.

The way he died is just like he lived: he wrote his own rules, he fought authority and he paved his own way.

And if you said he couldn’t do it, he would make sure he could.

He lived 1,000 years in the 67 calendar years we had with him because he attacked life; he grabbed it by the lapels, kissed it, and swung it back onto the dance floor.

At the age of 26 he planned to circumnavigate the world — instead, he ended up spending 40 hours on a life raft off the coast of Panama.

RELATED: Policeman Drives 100 Miles So Youth Can Be Home After His Sister Dies

In 1974, he founded the Quincy Rugby Club. In his thirties, he sustained a knife wound after saving a woman from being mugged in New York City. He didn’t slow down: at age 64, he climbed to the base camp of Mount Everest.

Throughout his life, he was an accomplished hunter and birth control device tester (with some failures, notably Caitlin Connors, 33; Chris Connors, 11; and Liam Connors, 8).

Of all the people he touched, both willing and unwilling, his most proud achievement in life was marrying his wife Emily Ayer Connors who supported him in all his glory during his heyday, and lovingly supported him physically during their last days together.

Click To Share This Sweet Story With Your Friends (Photo by The Chris Connors Fund)

Theatre Company Creates Sensory-Friendly Christmas Carol Play to Include All Audiences

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McKinley Corbley
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Going to see Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol can be a classic holiday tradition for American families – but for the people who get overwhelmed easily by sights and sounds, the play can be pretty intense.

That’s why the Berkshire Theatre Group at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts is creating a sensory-friendly version to include audiences of all backgrounds and conditions.

Many educational initiatives in the county are reportedly very inclusive of kids with autism who may struggle with overstimulation. Autistic children often experience an increased sensitivity to light, sound, visuals, or music.

RELATED: Toys R Us Open Stores For ‘Quiet Hour’ to Accommodate Kids With Autism

With the sensory-friendly production, however, there will be several revisions that will create a safer environment for sensitive individuals.

For starters, the troupe is creating special cues that will warn viewers of an upcoming emotional scene, like the appearance of the Ghost of Christmas Future. Audience members will have access to a theater exit at all times should a scene be too overwhelming to handle. There is also a designated safe space next to the restrooms for anyone who would like to take a break from the play.

MORE: Autism-Friendly Clothing Dumps Zips, Buttons and Tags, Offers GPS

Instead of dimming the lights to pitch darkness, the crew will only lower them to half-brightness. The troupe will eliminate the use of stage fog and flashing lights as well as rambunctious motions like the party scene’s typical laughing and clapping display.

“For audience members familiar with the production, they’ll still see the same story, just a modified version,” Allison Rachele Bayles, administrative director of education for the theater group, told the Berkshire Eagle. “It’s important for people, to be able as a whole family, to see a production and also be themselves. So if the mood strikes and someone wants to sing along with a carol, that’s great. We want to support their experience.”

Click To Share This Festive Story With Your Friends – OR, (Photo by John G. Meadows, CC)

Sweet Shop Owner Showers Sick Children and Their Families With Gifts, Meals

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Tis’ the season of giving – but for Al DiGuido, every season is full of giving.

Al DiGuido is the owner of Saugatuck Sweets; an ice cream and sweets shop with branches in Westport and Fairfield, Connecticut. When he opened the stores, he knew nothing about the candy business – he only knew that he wanted to do something to support his local community.

In 2004, Al also started Al’s Angels: a charity best known for helping the families of children facing severe financial hardship because of their fight against cancer or rare blood diseases.

MORE: Woman Donates Entire Toy Store to Kids in Homeless Shelters

Al has raised millions of dollars and distributed every penny. This year alone, he will be providing 3,200 families with meals and 10,000 kids with holiday gifts.

His advice to us all: “We need more angels… We need more angels to get involved so we can help more people” said Al.

To find more information about Al’s Angels, you can visit the charity’s website by clicking here.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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Watch Guys Give Out $100 Tips to Fast Food Workers

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McKinley Corbley
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Nothing says the holidays like random acts of kindness – that’s why these two YouTubers decided to surprise random drive-thru workers with a hefty tip.

Kyle Oreffice and Jesse Hill of Give Back Films gave five different fast food restaurant workers $100 bills on Saturday as a way of spreading Christmas cheer.

RELATED: Firefighters Pay it Forward Big Time After Waitress With Heart of Gold Picks Up Tab

The stunt is not out of the ordinary for the duo’s channel – Kyle and Jesse’s other films feature such gestures as making 100 sandwiches for the homeless, surprising street performers with massive amounts of money, and paying for other people’s drive-thru meals.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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Touching Video Tribute Gives Thanks to Firefighters Who Saved Their Town

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McKinley Corbley
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These North Carolina communities would have been toast if it weren’t for firefighting teams from 24 different states surging in to extinguish a rampant wildfire blaze.

The Party Rock Wildfire consumed almost 8,000 forest acres and threatened 1,200 homes during its 25-day streak last month. More than 700 firefighters were working around-the-clock to make sure no one was injured and no buildings were harmed.

When the blaze was finally extinguished on November 29th, North Carolina communities came together to make a heartwarming thank you video for the brave volunteers that kept their neighborhoods safe.

MORE: Firefighters Pay it Forward Big Time After Waitress With Heart of Gold Picks Up Tab

“Our entire town was turned upside down, but SAVED by firefighters from all over the country, more than 700 of them,” Valerie Hoffman told Good News Network. “We had no individual way to thank all of those firefighters who came to help us, so we created this video.”

“I think we live in a time when that level of deep thanks is simply missing for those who risk it all to save the rest of us,” added Hoffman.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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New USDA Guidelines Will Prevent Thousands of Pounds of Food Waste

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McKinley Corbley
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Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced plans to clarify expiration date printing so that less good food will be thrown out by American families.

According to the National Resource Defense Council, nine out of 10 shoppers are confused over the difference between “sell by”, “best by”, and “use by” dates. This leads consumers to reportedly throw away over $1,500 worth of perfectly edible food.

MORE: Tesco to Give All Unsold Food to Charity in its 800 UK Supermarkets

That’s why the USDA is telling manufacturers to only start using “best if used by” stamps.

The “best if used by” doesn’t count as an expiration date either – it usually amounts to the food seller’s best guess at the product’s freshest quality peak. Milk, however, can usually last up to a week after a typically given expiration time stamp, while eggs can stay fresh for weeks after the “use by” guidelines.

“This new guidance can help consumers save money and curb the amount of wholesome food going in the trash,” said Al Almanza, USDA deputy under secretary for food safety.

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Poland Completes the Destruction of One Million of its Landmines

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McKinley Corbley
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Polish representatives officially announced this week that their stockpile of over one million anti-personnel mines has finally been destroyed.

Though the nation’s elimination goal was set for 2017, the country disposed of its last mine in April 2016, eight months ahead of schedule. All the mines were dismantled in an environmentally friendly way, “through recycling of its components, wood and metal, and using extracted TNT material for military training and other specific purposes, such as breaking ice jams on rivers.”

Poland is now one of 157 states that have destroyed their land mind stockpiles since the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention was signed into effect back in 1999.

RELATED: Mozambique Declared Landmine Free, First Nation to Be Completely Cleared

Over 48 million stockpiled mines have allegedly been destroyed since the convention’s creation.

“Even before joining the Convention, Poland never wavered in its commitment to the Convention’s humanitarian goals. That is why, Poland began destroying its stockpile even before reaffirming our attachment to the objectives of the Convention,” said Ambassador Piatkowska.

MORE: Jew Saved From Nazis Now Helps Christians Flee ISIS to Repay ‘Debt’

“The Convention is not only a humanitarian treaty but a disarmament instrument that works. Poland is demonstrating real commitment to the aims of eliminating landmines and has done so prior to its deadline.”

Click To Share The News With Your Friends – OR,   (Photo by Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention)

Sawdust Reinvented into Super Sponge for Oil Spills

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Lowly sawdust, the waste that’s sometimes tossed onto home garage floors to soak up oil spilled by amateur mechanics, could receive some new-found respect.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have chemically modified sawdust to make it exceptionally oil-attracting and buoyant—characteristics that are ideally suited for cleaning oil spills in the icy, turbulent waters of the Arctic. The nontoxic material absorbs up to five times its weight in oil and stays afloat for at least four months.

Containing oil spills in cold waters is especially tricky, as bobbing ice chunks push oil below the water’s surface, making it difficult to collect. The same goes for rough waters, whose tall, clashing waves disperse oil.

The team looked to develop an environmentally-friendly and inexpensive material that floats despite rough or freezing waters and can support in-situ burning. Not wanting to create more pollution if emergency responders can’t retrieve oil cleanup material, Bonheyo’s team considered other natural ingredients like rice hulls and silica. But they ultimately found their winner in a fine dust called wood flour–A woodworking byproduct often used to make wood composites.

MORE: Costa Rica Has Been Powered Only By Renewable Energy For 122 Days

“Most of today’s oil remediation materials are designed for warm water use,” said PNNL microbiologist George Bonheyo, who leads the modified sawdust’s development from PNNL’s Marine Sciences Laboratory. “But as ice retreats in the Arctic Sea, fossil fuel developers are looking north, and we need new oil spill response methods that perform well in extreme conditions.”

RELATED: Teenage Girl Turns Plastic Trash Into Million-Dollar Biofuel

To make the dust into a thirsty oil mop, researchers chemically attach components of vegetable oil onto the material’s surface. These attachments make the modified material oil-grabbing and water-shunning. The final product is a light, fluffy, bleached powder. The team is also trying out adding tiny, oil-eating microbes – fungi and bacteria – to the powder’s surface so any left-behind material could naturally break down oil over time.

Applying the modified sawdust is simple: sprinkle a thin layer over oil on the water’s surface. The material immediately starts soaking up oil, creating a concentrated and solid slick that stays afloat thanks to the material’s buoyant nature. The oil-soaked material can either be burned or retrieved.

CHECK OUT: FDA Finally Bans Antibacterial Soaps Containing Triclosan and 18 Other Chemicals

The team is using PNNL’s unique Arctic simulation lab in Sequim, Washington to evaluate the material in icy waters. The facility is a customized shipping container that cools down to as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit, which prompts researchers to don snowmobile suits and ski masks while they work. Ice slush forms on the surface of water that circulates inside a 290-gallon raceway pond placed inside the bitterly cold lab space. Oil is spilled on the slushy surface, followed by a sprinkle of modified sawdust. Tests have shown the material’s water-repellent nature prevents ice from forming on it, allowing it to soak up oil and remain at the surface.

In the coming months, PNNL will further evaluate the modified sawdust. The material will need additional testing and approval by multiple agencies before it can be used at actual oil spills.

(WATCH the video below)

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Greece Ends Year With Surplus; Passes Landmark Budget That Projects Economic Growth

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The Greek parliament has approved a 2017 budget that calls for keeping spending restraints in place, while projecting economic growth to continue at 2.7%.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that 2017 will mark Greece’s “final exit” from its nearly decade-long financial crisis. The budget adds more than 1 billion euro in new taxes, mostly indirect taxes on items from phone calls to alcohol. It also cuts spending by over 1 billion euro.

“Greece is meeting and exceeding goals for the third year in a row,’” said Mr. Tsipras, who noted that Greece notched a 1.75% budget surplus in 2016, and predicted the 2017 surplus would reach 2%.

RELATED: In Historic Turn, Global Economy Grows While CO2 Emissions Stay Same

Mr. Tsipras said revenue targets had been exceeded for the second year in a row in 2016, almost double the initial goal. He said growth in Greece’s economy signals a return to economic stability. “Indeed, in the third quarter, recorded growth in gross domestic product of 1.8% of GDP, the largest since the beginning of the chrisis,” Mr. Tsipras said.

According to government figures, investment into the country increased in 2016 by 3.3%, while the second and third quarter of 2016 saw investment grow by 10%. In 2017, the government projects new investment will increase by 9.1%. Mr. Tsipras noted Greece was ranked first in reforms and changes this year by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

MORE: Costa Rica Has Been Powered Only By Renewable Energy For 122 Days

In an address to Parliament, Finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos stressed the improvement in unemployment, which has been reduced from 27% to 23% and is expected to fall further in 2017.

George Chouliarakis, the Alternate Minister of Finance, said “the vast majority of issues’” with the country’s creditors have been agreed upon, including market and financial sector reforms, as well as in the areas of health, education and tax collections.

Click To Share The News With Your Friends – OR, (Photo by Christine Zenino, CC)

After 89-Year-old is Evicted, A Neighbor Buys Back Her Home (WATCH)

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McKinley Corbley
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Angie Tyma may have celebrated 89 different birthdays, but this one tops them all.

The senior has lived in the same house in Hudson, Florida for the last 35 years—a home purchased by a family friend in Europe after her Angie’s husband had died.

Last month, she was informed that the home she was renting had fallen into foreclosure, due to lack of payments on the mortgage.

Angie – and all of her possessions – were thrown into the streets.

POPULAR: Muslim-Owned Restaurant Offers Free Christmas Meal For Homeless and Elderly

After the senior took up residence in a Day’s Inn hotel room, the neighbors, seeing her furniture in the streets, became determined to bring her home.

Danielle Calder, who lives a few houses away, bought the property for $167,500 so she could become Angie’s landlord.

MORE: CEOs Give 50,000 Free Flights to Cancer Patients Traveling to Treatment

The Floridian was speechless, after being invited back to her old home, by the surprise waiting for her. Neighbors had collected and stored her possessions from the street and repainted the building before returning them home.

(WATCH the video below) – Photo from WFLA-TV Video

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Bill Gates Announces $1Bil Fund for New Technology Geared Toward Climate Change

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Joao Freitas
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Billionaire philanthropist and technologist Bill Gates is set to announce this Monday the formation of a new fund with more than $1 billion to invest in technologies aimed at counteracting climate change.

The goal of the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund is to finance emerging energy breakthroughs that can deliver affordable and reliable zero carbon emissions. Gates announced intentions to form such a fund back in 2015, and already had secured pledges from a variety of global investors including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Alibaba billionaire Jack Ma, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.

POPULAR: Chinese Billionaire Buys 28K Acres of American Forest to Preserve It

”We need to be exploring many different paths — and that means we also need to invent new approaches,” Gates said. “Private companies will ultimately develop these energy breakthroughs, but their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund. Both have a role to play.”

WATCH: Bill Gates Touts Power Of Optimism in Touching Commencement Speech

The fund is connected to the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, the fund focuses on climate-change mitigation efforts on electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and buildings.

Share This Hopeful News With Friends – OR,   (Photo by European Parliament, CC)

Company Makes 500 Copies Of Discontinued Cup For Man’s Autistic Son

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McKinley Corbley
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A distressed father took to Twitter earlier this month to find a replacement for his autistic son’s beloved sippy cup – the story eventually gained so much traction, it caught the attention of the manufacturer.

14-year-old Ben refused to drink anything unless it was served in his teal-colored cup. After 12 years of continuous use, however, the sacred no-spill mug finally broke.

MORE: Autism-Friendly Clothing Dumps Zips, Buttons and Tags, Offers GPS

Ben’s father, Marc, posted a photo of the cup to social media, asking if anyone could send him a replacement. Users started tracking results and responses with the #CupForBen movement hashtag, until Tommee Tippee, the baby product manufacturing company responsible for the model stepped in to help.

The company located the blueprint for the 10-year discontinued cup in a Chinese factory and restarted production to make 500 units so Ben will never again find himself without his favorite cup.

(WATCH Marc’s thank-you video below)

 

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A Greeter at Home Depot Sings To Brighten His Customers’ Spirits (WATCH)

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Ken Williams is not your average Home Depot greeter – in fact, he prefers to do his job with an extra pep in his step.

Ever since Williams started working at this Floridian hardware store five years ago, he has made it his job to bring a smile to every customer entering the store.

MORE: Terminal Cancer Survivor Spends Days Smiling and Waving at Drivers

The greeter sings, dances, compliments, hugs – anything he can do to lift the spirits of strangers.

Williams was reportedly a boxer in his 20s, but the career took him down a dark life path. That’s why he decided to turn his luck around and bring happiness to others instead.

“I think we all should be uplifting.”

(WATCH the video below)

 

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5 Meaningful Acts of Kindness for the Holiday Season

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Brad Aronson
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Holiday season tends to be a busy and stressful time. It’s also a time when we’re inspired to give back. With that in mind here’s how you can make a real difference with simple good deeds for the holiday season…

1. Think of the amazing people in your life. Take an hour to write those people a letter telling them why they’re awesome. Wouldn’t you love to get a letter like that?

2. If you’re buying gifts on Amazon, use the Amazon Smile URL and a percentage of your purchase price will go to the charity of your choice at no extra cost to you.

3. When you buy gifts from one of 1,700 participating online retailers, you can use iGive to have that retailer donate money to your favorite charity (again, at no cost to you). This includes major retailers like Target, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and others.

WATCH: These Adorable Corgis Spread Holiday Cheer With Their Ugly Xmas Sweater Party

4. Get ready for the new, by getting rid of the old. Use those boxes piling up from your online gift buying to pack up clothes, household items, games or other items you no longer need, and Give Back Box will provide a prepaid shipping label so you can have the items shipped to Goodwill at no charge. This can be done from any state in the US. (Goodwill is a nonprofit that provides job training and jobs.)

5. Help a teacher get the supplies needed for class. Donors Choose let’s you support schools and teachers in your community so students can get the tools, supplies and experiences they need for a great education. Here’s an opportunity where a small donation will make a big difference. Join these 58 celebrities who gave $14 million to teachers in their hometowns.

For 15 more holiday kindness ideas that will make a difference in this season of giving, see the rest of the article here.

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Tough Veteran Sheds Tears When Surprised With Puppy for PTSD (WATCH)

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Peter Coukoulis may have been trained by the military to be tough as nails – but that didn’t stop him from crying when he unwrapped a furry little Christmas present.

The 26-year-old marine has suffered from PTSD every since returning to Tallahassee, Florida from his deployment three years ago.

His mother, Dena, wanted to help her son heal – so she got the idea to get him a little beagle pup for Christmas.

His reaction is enough to pluck at the heartstrings of any Scrooge.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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Muslim Businessman Erects Tallest Christmas Tree in Solidarity With Iraqi Christians

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A Muslim businessman has erected the tallest Christmas tree in Baghdad as a way of honoring Iraqi Christians during the holiday season.

Yassir Saad reportedly said that he wanted to help his fellow countrymen forget their pain over the crisis in Mosul by spreading yuletide cheer throughout the city.

MORE: Christians Protect Mosques on Fri., Muslims Guard Churches on Sunday

The $24,000 Christmas tree, measuring in at 85-feet-tall and 35 feet in diameter, was placed at the center of the capital’s amusement park.

“This tree represents love and peace,” teacher Saba Ismael told the Associated Press, as her students took photos with the tree. “I wish all Iraqi Christians could return to Iraq and live normal and peaceful lives.”

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Football Captain Donates $625K Worth of Toys to Families in Need

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McKinley Corbley
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Rio Ferdinand, former captain of the English national football team, announced yesterday that he and his restaurant are donating $626,000 worth of toys and gifts to to Cash for Kids, the official charity of Manchester radio station Key 103.

“Christmas is a time when families want to get each other presents and there are obviously people that are less fortunate than we are so we want to try and help them and donate £500,000 worth of toys,” Ferdinand told the station.

MORE: UK Football Stars Buy Hotel, Invite Homeless to Stay For Winter

“We are totally overwhelmed by Rio’s amazing contribution,” said charity manager Russell Feingold. “This is going to help so many young children. We now need everyone to keep supporting the campaign – the more children we can help, the more lives we can brighten up this Christmas.”

The charity hopes to provide at least 60,000 needy children in the greater Manchester area with a gift on Christmas Day – and thanks to Rio’s donation, they’re going to score big time on that goal.

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Homicides Plummet Thanks to Ex-cons Patrolling Baltimore Streets

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McKinley Corbley
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The men locked up for drug dealing and crime don’t seem like the ideal candidates to prevent further violence in the community – but this outreach program says otherwise.

Safe Streets is an organization in Baltimore that uses ex-cons to deescalate street conflict in five different neighborhoods. Since no one knows the heartbreak of gang violence better than the ones who were locked up for it in the first place, the program has had groundbreaking success in the community.

There is a strict confidentiality policy concerning the details of the outreach work – this creates a vital trust that cannot be infringed upon by police involvement or the legal system.

MORE: Stranger Pays Unpaid Court Fines to Break Cycle of Jail for Ex-Con

In 2014 alone, outreach workers mediated 880 high-risk encounters that likely would have ended in shootings. Park Heights, one of the neighborhoods monitored by Safe Streets, has experienced a significant decline in fatal encounters.

“I’m a true believer in this program,” Cheo Hurley, executive director of Park Heights Renaissance, told Freep.  “Safe Streets is an outside-the-box violence prevention effort. You’ve got to try different ways to make change. This program changes lives. It changes the guys’ lives — they have a job. And they’re saving lives. That’s a double benefit of this program.”

RELATED: Give a Prisoner an Abused Dog and WATCH What Happens, Karmic Connection

The program serves other community purposes as well – whenever there is a shooting in the district, the organization orchestrates public events to raise awareness of gun violence. Safe Streets has hosted barbecues, candlelit vigils, picnics, and peaceful rallies for non-violent conflict resolution.

After suffering governmental budget cuts, Safe Streets is currently looking for a financial sponsor that can help pay their staff and provide office space for their workers in the future, since – as one of their employees so aptly put – “you can’t put a price on saving lives.”

Click To Share The News With Your Friends – Photo by Safe Streets

Elon Musk Joins Donald Trump’s Team of Advisories

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McKinley Corbley
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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has joined the business advisory team for President-elect Donald Trump, along with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

After being named to Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, they joined him for a meeting Wednesday in New York that included more than a dozen tech CEO giants of Silicon Valley offering input on a variety of topics.

The conference attendees discussed, among other things, the repatriation of American profits kept overseas by prohibitive tax rates; improving America’s cybersecurity and infrastructure; the need for greater vocational education opportunities; and – most importantly – creating more jobs for American workers.

MORE: A Trump Supporter and Man He Punched Hug in Court, Vow to Heal America Together

“America has the most innovative and vibrant companies in the world, and the pioneering CEOs joining this forum today are at the top of their fields,” Trump said in a statement. “My administration is going to work together with the private sector to improve the business climate and make it attractive for firms to create new jobs across the United States from Silicon Valley to the heartland.”

Other technology titans in attendance were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Google co-founder Larry Page.

Elon Musk had publicly expressed doubts about Trump being the best candidate for president, but likely hopes his participation can make a positive difference for the United States moving forward.

(WATCH the video below)

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