The same Syrian refugees who have been welcomed into Canada after fleeing their destroyed homeland are now giving back to Canadians whose own homes were recently destroyed.
All 88,000 citizens of Fort McMurray, Alberta have been evacuated under a state of emergency due to a raging wildfire consuming the landscape. The escaping families have fled north, essentially refugees now, seeking safety in cities like Calgary.
That’s where the Syrian Refugee Support Group is lending a helping hand.
The founders of the Facebook organization traveled around town asking every Syrian family to donate at least $5 to aid the city that opened its arms to them. The donations are being put towards toiletries and hygienic products for the Fort McMurray families.
The 1,400 Syrian refugees who’ve been settled in Calgary and around Alberta since November are contributing more than just money. Hampers of toys, clothes, food, provisions, and furniture that they received only months ago when arriving in North America are being donated back to the Canadians now in need.
This first-grader just won a prestigious award for handwriting even though she can’t use her hand, and writes with her arms instead.
Anaya Ellick was born without any fingers and thumbs but that didn’t keep her from scoring the Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellence in Manuscript Penmanship.
By standing up at her desk and holding the pencil between her two arms, Anaya can create neat and perfect lines that are impressive for any seven-year-old.
“Anaya is a remarkable young lady. She does not let anything get in the way of doing what she has set out to do,” Anaya’s principal at Greenbrier Christian Academy in Chesapeake, Virginia, told WKTR.
The diligent child was given a $1,000 cash reward and a trophy at a victory celebration Wednesday morning.
Henry Spencer wasn’t expecting to receive a cake on his birthday let alone a brand new Jaguar.
For his grandfather’s special day, Tom Cassell surprised him by jumping out of the trunk of the automobile and dropping the keys right into Henry’s hand.
Tom promised his grandpa years ago that he would one day, when he could afford it, buy him the luxury sports car of his dreams– and that day finally came.
(WATCH the video above)
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Today is George Clooney’s 55th birthday, a perfect moment to take a look at what the prankster has been up to.
One of our favorite bits on modern late night talk shows is Carpool Karaoke on “The Late Late Show”.
James Corden invites guests, like Adele, to sing along with music on his car stereo as he drives around. On Wednesday, his passenger was the singer Gwen Stefani, which was fun enough already, but when James is ready to go into the carpooling HOV-4 lane, he needs a couple people for the backseat.
A 20-year-old with Down syndrome becomes the youngest business owner in town this weekend during the grand opening of a venture that combines his two favorite passions – people and snow cones.
Blake Pyron had a hard time finding a job in this small Texas town after the restaurant closed where he was employed, so his family suggested he start his own business.
His mother, Mary Ann, said Blake missed his customers terribly so they pondered businesses that would let him interact with people. When they considered his passion for snow cones, “Blake’s Snow Shack” became the obvious answer.
His brother joined him in dreaming up the flavor choices, including coconut and cotton candy–and inventing new ones with names like Hulk and Shark Attack.
When the people of Sanger heard about the idea, the community rallied behind the young man.
Blake says he will be able to run his own business because his parents never listened to others who wanted to label or limit him. And Mary Ann says the opening is timed for Mother’s Day weekend, partly, to send a message to parents of special needs children about what their kids can accomplish.
“We were told Blake wouldn’t be able to do things, and we looked past that,” Mary Ann told ABC News. “You don’t know us. You don’t know our child, so don’t label him. We haven’t, and he turned out great.”
A rescue team couldn’t save a man’s life, but they returned to his home to finish the job he’d started so his family would have one less thing to worry about.
Firefighters and paramedics raced to a house in Merrimack, New Hampshire on Wednesday where a man had fallen from his roof while repairing it. The firefighters found him unconscious and treated him for his injuries before rushing him to the hospital.
The six firefighters became concerned the unfinished roof might allow rain into the structure, so they returned to cover the opening with a tarp.
Once back at the house, after taking a better look, they realized the man had almost completed the repairs — and they decided to finish the job.
Best of all, when neighbors saw what the firefighters were doing, they pitched in with tools and labor. They all worked together into the night to complete the job.
“Every time we go on a call to a citizen in our community, that’s their worst day,” Merrimack Fire Chief Michael Currier told WMUR News. “When we go out there, we need to make that day better for them.”
(WATCH the video below from WMUR News) — Photo: TheHillaryClark, CC
He was reported missing on Sunday from the docks at Hernando Beach, Florida. Two couples who were celebrating their birthdays reportedly saw the pooch bobbing on the sea like a buoy and scooped him up with a rescue.
“You just saw his little nose sticking up out of the water,” Shawn Sahr told WTVT-TV.
If they hadn’t noticed his orange vest, he might have been lost for good.
(WATCH the video above from WTVT News)Float This Story On Over To Your Friends… Click To Share
The swag and style emanating from these fashionable seniors is enough to make anyone want to run out shopping.
Barbara Chapman, Solana Beach, California – All photos by Ari Seth Cohen, Advanced Style: Older and Wiser, published by powerHouse Books
In a new photo book titled Advanced Style: Older and Wiser by Ari Seth Cohen, colorful elders from around the world are photographed for a jaw-droppingly cool collection.
Sarah Jane Adams, Sydney, Australia
Whether it’s a more toned down chic or a bubblegum popping pastel, the different styles expressed by these older folks is inspiration for any fashion enthusiast.
Ignacio Quiles, Providence, Rhode Island
The book serves as a sequel to Cohen’s original collection of street fashion, Advanced Style.
Maureen Gumbe, Union Square, New York City
Since its release on April 26th, the book has maintained an almost-perfect five star streak from hundreds of Amazon customers.
Roberta Haze, Venice Beach, California
“Advanced Style” also became a documentary that examines the lives of seven unique New Yorkers, ages 62-95, whose eclectic personal style and vital spirit have challenged conventional ideas about beauty and aging.
Upper West Side
WATCH the preview of Ari’s documentary, Advanced Style below…
This high school senior is going to prom with the one woman who has always been there for him–his mother.
Trey Potter popped the big question to his mother Melissa Roshan at their home in Gahanna, Ohio, as a sign of respect and appreciation for everything the young woman has done for him.
Before she was pregnant and homeless at 16-years-old, MelRo spent her youth in 23 different foster homes and was never given any encouragement about her value as a human being, or about her future. After turning her life around, she was discovered as a magazine model and took care of her son all on her own.
“When I was pregnant with him, I heard, ‘Mel because you lived in the foster care system, you’re probably not going to raise a thriving individual. It just doesn’t happen,” Potter told WATE. “You can’t give him what you don’t have.’”
“So seeing who he has become–and knowing the sacrifices that have been made and how much I love him and seeing that come to fruition–I’ve proved them wrong.”
A research center dedicated to studying Arctic marine ecology has taken a giant leap toward protecting the environment — switching from fossil fuels to seawater for 98% of its heating needs.
The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward will slash its carbon dioxide (CO2) output, while using the very same gas to heat and cool its building.
The specialized heat pump system saves as much as $15,000 each month in heating bills during the coldest part of the Alaskan winter. At the same time, it reduces the center’s carbon footprint by 1.24 million pounds of CO2 every year.
“As a mission driven non-profit organization, this project is doubly important,” Tara Riemer, ASLC’s President and CEO said in a statement. “We are benefiting the environment and saving money at a time when both are very critical.”
The system mixes seawater with glycol and then injects liquid CO2, which causes the mixture to boil. This releases CO2 vapor, which the system compresses in order to super-heat it — hot enough for the heated water to be pumped throughout the building. The cycling water flowing through those pipes then heats the building.
The million dollar heat pump also cools the mechanical and electrical rooms at the research center — absorbing the waste heat generated in those rooms and pumping it to other parts of the building.
While too big and expensive to be practical for anything but large organizations and buildings, the system’s builder, Andy Baker of YourCleanEnergy, believes the technology will one day be an affordable alternative for heating homes.
(WATCH the video below from YourCleanEnergy and READ more at CS Monitor
This billboard may remind us of a giant fly swatter, and it actually kills mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus —by smelling like humans.
The signs are going up around Brazil in an effort to wipe out the bugs and their virus, which is linked to birth defects in newborns and nervous system disorders in adults.
The billboards emit a lactic acid and carbon dioxide (CO2) solution that smells to mosquitoes like human sweat or an exhaled breath. Lights added at night keep attracting the biting bugs with the promise of warmth.
Mosquitoes that are within a one-and-a-half mile radius can be lured into traps at the base, then live out their natural lives inside the sign, unable to bite anyone.
The billboards were designed under a Creative Commons license, meaning they can’t be patented and their plans are available for other cities and countries to duplicate and build free of charge.
This isn’t the first time a billboard has wowed us with brilliant innovation to help solve human problems. The University of Engineering and Technology of Peru has wowed us again. Their first billboard to get worldwide attention provides drinking water to a parched and arid region of Peru. Another creation, built on a construction site with massive amounts of swirling dirt, is actually cleaning the air for workers and neighbors alike .
(WATCH the video below from NBS or READ more at PRI News) — Photo: NBS video
These twins are overachieving for the sweetest and most loving reason possible.
Deprice and Shaprice Hunt filled out so many college applications –enough to get accepted into 56 different schools – they racked up over $1.6 million in potential scholarship money.
The Chicago brother and sister say their extensive hunt for the perfect school was all done to make sure that their mother never had to sacrifice to provide them an education.
(WATCH the video below)
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Prospectors and explorers have wandered the California desert looking for gold for centuries, but this man has found his treasure in the trash others leave behind.
Marty Pigue makes a living picking up cans and bottles along the highway near the California-Arizona border. He lives with his dog in a tent, working from sunrise to sunset picking up recyclables—and well into the night compacting and bagging them.
“I keep the highway clean out here,” he says in the short documentary below. “When I started, I just kept going.”
In the early days, after he left the military service and set up camp in the desert, people would notice how much money Marty could make bringing in recyclables, then follow the veteran back to the desert thinking he’d found a motherlode. After they discovered how hard he worked and saw the long days he put in to make that money, people quit following him.
Marty’s a fixture along Highway 62 — people bring him ice and food, and families drop off their recyclables on the way home from a weekend at the lake. He trades American flags for donations and separates the steel beer cans from the 1950s and 60s to sell as collectibles.
Yes. He is picking up trash that’s been littering the side of the road since before the 55-year-old was even born.
He loves the job he created for himself, and walks anywhere from four to eight miles every day in his hunt for litter. He also uses a four-wheeler to expand his range.
After Friends learned that his trailer had broken down, they organized a crowdfunding page called “A New Trailer for Marty,” to replace the cart that he pulls behind his ATV.
They need 2,500 more dollars to reach their goal so he can pick up more trash and keep his patch of the desert clean.
A once-in-a-lifetime line-up of six of Rock and Roll’s most influential artists and bands will rock the California desert in October — with tickets going on sale Monday.
The Desert Trip concert will feature The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, and The Who
The three-day concert takes place in Indio, California, October 7-9, at the Empire Polo Club — home to the Coachella music festival, whose organizers are behind the even — with two acts playing each of the three nights.
Tickets will be available starting on Monday, May 9 at 1:00 pm ET or 10:00 am PT at DesertTrip.com. Prices start at $200 for a single day’s general admission to top of the line packages including meals by world class chefs or private safari tent camping.
This military mom had a lot on her plate, so a positive pranksters TV show decided to take away some of the burden.
Janis Miller works a full time job while taking care of her new-born baby and donating any free time to assisting other military families. Because her husband Nate is serving overseas in Afghanistan, the overwhelmed 40-year-old has found it difficult to find time to move all their possessions into their newly-purchased dream home.
That’s when the kindness-based Random Acts television show produced by Brigham Young University stepped in.
While Janis was at work, a BYU-TV crew and a team of volunteers –co-workers of hers from the National Abilities Center and friends of her husband– moved everything the couple owned from the old house to the new one. The ordeal took about 6 hours of hard work, but when Janis returned from work, she was shocked to walk into a completely empty home.
In the center of the living room was a table carrying a laptop and webcam featuring her husband Nate explaining what happened.
“My first thought: shock and bewildered,” Janis told Good News Network. “Second thought – there’s noooo way my mom could’ve done all that packing while I was at work. Where’s the furniture? And wait! Why is Nate’s face on a laptop?”
With tears of happiness in her eyes, she was ushered by the host of Random Acts to her newly furnished home.
“I was overwhelmed with relief. I had this undercurrent of stress of whether or not I was actually going to be able to do it all—the working full time, fixing up the new house, moving out of the old house, cleaning it, cleaning the new house, moving in and setting it all up,” she recalled. “I kept telling myself there are so many other spouses with so much more on their plates and they do it–I can do this too! But I truly didn’t realize how stressed out I was about getting it all done until I walked thru that door and saw it all done.”
(WATCH the reveal from the Random Acts episode above)SHARE the Random Acts TV SHow…
This eight-year-old boy with autism may be the next Mozart in training.
Jacob Velazquez has been playing piano for the last four years and has already started playing concerts.
“Shortly after his fourth birthday I heard the song playing from our family piano that my husband was playing the night before…but my husband was at work. I went to look to see who it was and to my surprise it was Jacob–I couldn’t believe my eyes! ” wrote Jacob’s mother, Tina, on the Autism Speaks website.
“It took us a while but we finally found a piano teacher that would take a 4-year-old. His teacher soon became aware of his gift as he was flying through books learning 2-3 songs per week,” she added.
The young musician has already released an album and become a member of the the National Musician’s Guild.
“My son who could never sit still could focus so intently on learning his songs on the piano,” says Tina. “It seemed to be an outlet for him, helping him to express his feelings and emotions.”
(WATCH the video below and Click To Share) –Photo: Jacob Velazquez on Youtube
Eight months after their journey began, 33 lions have arrived at their new home in Africa in the largest airlift of big cats ever.
Animal Defenders International (ADI) freed the big cats from circuses in Columbia and Peru – last year with the help of those countries’ governments. Many needed medical and dental attention for missing claws and broken teeth.
“The lions are returning to where they belong,” the sanctuary’s founder, Savannah Heuser said in a statement. “This is their birthright. African sun, African night skies, African bush and sounds, clouds, summer thunderstorms, large enclosures in a natural setting where they can remember who they are.”
(WATCH the video below from Animal Defenders International and READ more at TODAY) — Photos: ADI
A ragtag team of football players that have tugged on the heartstrings of a city in the East Midlands for 132 years have just been crowned champions of England.
The Leicester City Football Club (pronounced Lester) has completed what many people believe to be, certainly the greatest story in English football, but perhaps the greatest story in the history of the game. In a season where huge cash transactions made the nation’s favorite sport seem more like a cold and gluttonous game run by billionaires, the scrappy roster of Leicester City has proven that a love of the game, old fashioned grit, and an indomitable togetherness, are worth more than gold. So, how did they pull it off–winning the ultimate prize as 2015/2016 Barclay’s Premier League Champions?
They climbed up, only last season, from the second level of English Football –the equivalent of AAA baseball in America– where they had played for the majority of their 132 year history. But it all began to change in 2011, after a fairly disastrous season that pushed them to the third division. They appointed a new manager, Nigel Pearson, who in four years with the club, lifted them all the way to the big show.
Once they did reach England’s Premier division in 2014, Leicester City had a torrid time and found themselves spending Christmas day in last place. For all their hard work, it looked as if they would be sent back down to triple A status at the end of the season–a harsh reality of Soccer in Europe.
But a remarkable and record breaking “Great Escape” at the end of the season saw Leicester clinch seven wins from their last nine matches and secured their spot in the Premier League for their historic run.
The final piece in this Cinderella comeback story arrived when the club sacked their coach and hired the kind, lovable Italian manager, Claudio Ranieri, who had led some of the best teams in the world to second place, but had been fired for failing to reach the top in the various leagues. If he couldn’t lead those multi-million dollar rosters to victory, it seemed unlikely that Ranieri would be able to accomplish anything with The Foxes, whose odds of winning the title were a staggering 5000-1 at the start of the season.
The team was–like their manager–a collection of “Almost” stories. Many of the players had at one time or another in their careers, been brought to a big club as an exciting prospect. This was a squad of players who had seen the harsher side of professional sports. Many of them, such as Robert Huth, the 32 year-old German center back, or Danny Drinkwater, the 26 year-old English midfielder, had been sold from one club to another on a trail of unfulfilled potential before finally ending up with Leicester in the second division.
Now the starting eleven of The Foxes is exploding with potential, a mix of young starlets, experienced veterans, and hungry castaways. Players, like the one just named PFA Player of the Year, Riyad Mahrez, an Algerian international found playing in the third tier of French football, signed for a fee of 500,000 pounds, a truly poultry sum by the standards of the times. The right-winger this season has contributed 17 goals and 11 assists at the time of writing, and at 25 years of age is looking like one of the best in his position in world football.
Another new star is Jamie Vardy, a 29 year old English striker who, until he began banging them in for The Foxes, was playing with tiny teams such as Halifax Town, and Stockbridge Park Steels, deep in the bowels of the English Football System. He’s bagged 22 goals in 36 games with his stunning speed and savagery, and scored in a record eleven consecutive Premier League matches.
With exquisite counter-attacking football Ranieri has engineered one of the great classic underdog stories in the history of sports. The charismatic coach has fostered a wonderful relationship with his players, letting them relax during the week–with two days off instead of one–and even drink before games. He insists that playing must be fun, rather than a job.
He has been a darling in the papers since day one. He’s done it with charm, saying things like “Why can’t we continue to run, run, run? We are like Forrest Gump; Leicester is Forrest Gump”. He’s done it with passion, inspiring lesser teams around him with quotes like “I told my players: It’s this year or never. In an era when money counts for everything, we give hope to everybody”. And finally, he’s done it with humor, like this gem, responding to a reporter who asked which actor he would like to portray him in a movie: “Robert De Niro would be good. I’ve heard that’s who they want to play me”.
The Foxes have become just the sixth team to win the Premier League since its inception in 1992, and the commanding 38 game performance has become an example to small town football clubs the world over, that maybe, just maybe, they can be like Leicester.
Just because you’re an Ivy League professor with a PhD from Harvard doesn’t mean you haven’t seen your share of failures. That’s why this academic success decided to list all the times he came up short, just to show people that no matter how smart you are, you don’t always get everything you want.
Princeton’s Johannes Haushofer points out that failure is often invisible and people only notice the successes in a person’s career. His Curriculum Vitae — or resume — of Failures is an impressive list of his deficiencies.
He figures if people only look at others’ successes, they may take their own failures too hard.
“As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves,” he wrote in his CV of Failures, “rather than the fact that the world is [randomly determined], applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days.”
He lists six degree programs he didn’t get into, three academic posts for which he was interviewed but not hired, and nine scholarships, eight grant applications, and five academic papers for which he was rejected.
Haushofer caps it all off with his “Meta-Failures” which he sums up as: “This darn CV of Failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work.”
Posting it to Twitter set of a chain reaction of other successful people talking about their shortcomings — and the lessons they learned.
One tweet even claimed credit for creating the hashtag #CurriculumMortae — substituting the Latin word for “death” in the place of the usual “vitae,” meaning “life.”
Haushofer points out that most of what he tries, fails, and that his “CV of Failure” is a work in progress. He plans to keep adding to it and reminding people failure is all a part of eventual success.
The hungry, homeless, and poor always have a hot meal waiting for them at this Indian restaurant.
Parkash Chhibber, owner of Indian Fusion in Edmonton, Canada, has posted a sign on the establishment’s back door promising free meals for anyone who needs one. The sign reads:
“Dear Friends, If you are hungry and have no money to pay, just ring the bell below or come in for a free meal box/coffee any time.”
Immediately after paying off his business loan two years ago, Chhibber began helping others. He started offering the free meals in October, 2015, and says he next plans to create an additional seating area if those coming for free meals want to stay.
(READ more at CBC News) — Photo: Indian Fusion, Facebook
