This announcement features 4 weeks of stories (weeks 58-61). This is the 61st consecutive week, the Center for Peace & Conflict Studies has compiled a list of acts of kindness and peace. The initiative began as a response to COVID-19 and the racism pandemic but has broadened to include any act of compassion or service to others. Please share these stories. If you have stories of positive acts people/organizations are taking and you would like to share them, please email them to BrandonMiller at peacecenter@bsu.edu. All the stories starting from week 1 are available online. Additionally, you can follow the Peace Center on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) at bsu4peace.
Week 58
Teen Raises $38,000 for St. Jude Hospital by Shaving his 19-Inch Afro
For six years, Kieran Moïse chose not to cut his hair. The afro he grew during that time became a defining feature of his look. And what a feature it was. At its peak, his afro was 19 inches. Moïse, 17, had decided to join the Air Force Academy, though, and he knew that most of his hair would have to go prior to joining. Someone less creative might have visited a barber to have it shorn unceremoniously. Not Moïse. He decided to make an event of the occasion and to harness the spectacle for a good cause. “My son has always had a huge heart,” said Kelly Moïse, Kieran’s mother. “He was determined that if he was going to have to get a haircut anyway, then he should pay it forward in a way that would help as many people as possible.” Having lost a close friend to cancer when he was in eighth grade, Moïse wanted to turn his haircut into a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. So the enterprising teen printed flyers for his Kieran’s Curls for Cancer fundraiser and created a website urging people to donate. His initial goal was to raise $1,000 for each inch of hair shaved, a goal he easily surpassed. Donations flooded in and the final total exceeded $38,000. In addition to the money, Moïse donated the hair to a charity that makes wigs for children with cancer. His story demonstrates the power of a desire to do good when it is coupled with a bit of ingenuity (and a prodigious afro).
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/06/military-haircut-afro-kieran-fundraiser/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F341847b%2F60e5a5659d2fda8060fad784%2F5e4d74439bbc0f462514be64%2F8%2F46%2F60e5a5659d2fda8060fad784
Former Mechanic Repairs and Donates Old Cars to People Without Transportation
Imagine hearing the words “it’s a new car!” as a set of keys is pressed into your palm. The thought might conjure images of a gameshow host and an elaborate TV set. When the scenario unfolded in Melanie Lee’s life last Christmas, though, the circumstances were different. It was happening on her front porch and the man presenting her with the car was not a gameshow host. It was Eliot Middleton, restaurant owner and complete stranger to Lee. Yet there he was, handing her the keys to a refurbished 1993 Oldsmobile – gratis. Lee, 51, had been experiencing a tough time. Her 33-year-old son had passed away a few weeks earlier and the 2007 Chevy Tahoe Lee had been using to visit him in the hospital and to care for her grandchildren broke down. Despite her various obligations requiring transportation, Lee had no means of paying for repairs. Enter Middleton, former auto-mechanic and self-less do-gooder who has restored and gifted 33 vehicles to people in need since late 2020. Middleton came up with the idea to restore vehicles while providing another service to his community: during a food drive he was hosting, several families without transportation arrived, having walked four miles for a hot meal. After a period of funding the vehicle repairs out of his own pocket, Middleton started a nonprofit called Middleton’s Village to Village to which people can donate old cars or money for car repairs. Although Middleton’s creativity, skill, and hard work is at the core of this story, his initiative has tapped into a larger desire to help others that is present in the world around him. “It’s been a real team effort,” Middleton said. People have donated cars, parts, money, and dropped off food or volunteered their time to assist with repairs. “I can’t express how much the support means to me,” he said.
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/07/car-repair-restaurant-eliot-middleton/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F341cb73%2F60eaeb9f9d2fda806001b1d9%2F5e4d74439bbc0f462514be64%2F8%2F47%2F60eaeb9f9d2fda806001b1d9
Doctor Re-uses Wedding Bouquets by Giving Them as Gifts to her Lonely Patients
Our final story this week showcases another ingenious way in which someone is bringing joy to others. Dr. Eleanor Love, a physician in Virginia, works with many lonely patients who rarely get visitors. To help lift their spirits, Love, 27, has been obtaining and gifting them with stunning bouquets of flowers. Her source for the flowers is unconventional: wedding coordinators. Fresh flowers are commonplace at weddings, but after the ceremony ends and the flowers have fulfilled their purpose, they typically go unused until they wilt. Inspired by others who have done the same, Love began contacting wedding venues to obtain a list of upcoming events, which she would use to contact newlyweds-to-be and wedding coordinators. Usually, there were no plans for the wedding flowers after the wedding itself, so most of the people she talked to were happy to let her team repurpose flowers after the event. Along with several volunteers, Love collects flowers and creates new bouquets with them, which she then delivers to her patients. So far, she has delivered nearly 800 and has more than 200 volunteers on her email list. One patient recalled being overwhelmed with gratitude when she received a bouquet from Love: “I just broke down and I cried…When you’re there six to eight weeks, it’s a big deal.”
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/09/wedding-flower-bouquet-doctor-hospital/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F341cb75%2F60eaeb9f9d2fda806001b1d9%2F5e4d74439bbc0f462514be64%2F13%2F47%2F60eaeb9f9d2fda806001b1d9
Week 59
Two Boy Scouts Save a Woman From Drowning in Floodwater Current
As boy scouts, Dominic Viet, 15, and Joseph Diener, 16, had some training in rescue and swimming. In fact, the two had earned merit badges in these activities. Yet of all the scouts who earn these badges, far fewer have the opportunity to put their skills into action. Viet and Diener are in the more rarified group. In late June, the area of Missouri where the boys live was hit by a heavy rainstorm. Despite the danger, Viet and Diener saw that some people were swimming in floodwater where it had engulfed a basketball court. The waters were deep and the basketball hoops were only barely above water. While passing the recreation area, they realized that one young woman was struggling to stay afloat in the water. “…her head was barely above the water and we could see her sinking more down every second,” said Viet. “We didn’t think about the risks, we had to get her out.” So the pair sprang into action, applying their knowledge of what maneuvers to use when conducting a water rescue. “We went in and there was a light current…we had her grab onto our shoulders and we swam back to shore,” Diener said. Shortly after the boys pulled her to safety, emergency responders arrived in response to a call another bystander had placed. Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Jenkins said “[t]hey are very brave men to do what they did and thankfully it ended well.” To recognize the pair’s bravery, the Columbia Fire Department plans to present the scouts with its “Citizen Life Safety Award.”
Source: CNN - https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/03/us/missouri-boy-scouts-rescue-drowning-woman-flood-trnd/index.html
Buddhist Monk Rescues and Re-Homes Stray Dogs in Shanghai
Zhi Xiang is a Buddhist monk who has spent the last 17 years rescuing homeless animals from the mega-city of Shanghai. Initially, he was treating cats that were injured by vehicles. Then he began taking in strays. Since he started this work in 1994, Xiang has rescued over 8,000 animals and has helped in caring for them all. Along with volunteers and members of his temple, Xiang is currently taking care of hundreds of cats and dogs. The endeavor costs over $2 million per year, so Xiang also tries to place the animals with good homes. 300 of the pets in Xiang’s care have been adopted by families in Canada, the United States, and Germany. Other animals are moved to adoption shelters. “I have a dream that one day, when I have some free time, I want to go abroad and visit them, take photos with every dog that I rescued,” Xiang said. “So when I get old and can’t walk, I have these photos to look at.”
Source: ABC Australia - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-26/dog-rescuer-monk-zhi-xiang-china/100237294
Random Acts of Kindness Add Up to $52,000 and a New Bike for One Hard-Working Teen
Disliking and complaining about your commute is so widespread in the US that it could almost be classified as a social script. Of course, some people have it worse than others. And Donte Franklin, 20, has it really bad. His commute is 17 miles round trip and he walks the whole thing. It takes him 3 hours each way. Franklin – who credits his work ethic to his late mother – takes a positive attitude toward his daily thru-hike (“I really don’t care if it gets tiring. I just have to keep pushing… I walk to make my family proud,” he said), but his commitment left Michael Lynn awestruck after the two crossed paths. Lynn was out running errands in Franklin’s neighborhood and saw the young man during both legs of his commute. So Lynn kindly offered him a ride. As they rode together, Lynn learned of Franklin’s daily trek and decided to share the story on social media. The story quickly got reshared over 1,000 times. Among the people it reached was Keri Collins, the brains behind a local biker charity group. “It just touched me that this man is only 20 years old and is walking to two different jobs with nothing in the heat. It opened my heart because kids his age don’t do that,” Collins said. When her group then gifted Franklin with a new-bike, it was but the first trickle of a cascade of good fortune: someone set up a GoFundMe to help him buy a car and, so far, the fund has raised over $52,000. Franklin is still working on obtaining his driver’s license as he is also studying to become a welder, but he plans to use the funds to help his family in the meantime and intends to buy a car when he earns his license.
Source: Good News Network - https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/donte-franklin-crowdfunding-bike-and-car/
Week 60
After His Dog is Stolen, Man Finds Thief and Helps Her Get Into Rehab
Braydon Morton is dog dad to Darla, a 3-year-old Chinese Shar-Pei. One day, while Morton was working in his home office, he heard a scuffle outside his house. Unfortunately, he emerged just in time to see a blue pickup truck speed off with Darla in the back. “They were gone. I couldn’t believe what had just happened,” Morton said. “It honestly felt like my world had just come crashing down.” Morton called the police and took to social media in an effort to source tips from the community – desperately hoping to recover his fur baby. He offered a $6,000 reward for the return of his dog. After sorting through some dead-end leads, he got an interesting call. The woman on the other end of the line was distraught. It was the woman who stole Darla. “She was just crying on the other end. She couldn’t even talk,” Morton said. Rather than feeling angry, though, he felt relief. He responded to the woman: “Listen, I’ve messed up a lot in my life, and I’ve been forgiven for a lot of things I did. I’m not mad at you.” When the two met, Morton realized that he shared some common ground with the woman. They were both Fentanyl addicts. Morton, who has been sober since May 19, 2015, struggled with substance misuse for years. “I was in and out of treatment 16 times.” A couple years after getting sober, Morton became a clinical drug and alcohol interventionist and founded a free service to help people find a suitable rehab facility. After speaking at length with the woman, Morton held up the brown envelope containing the reward money. “I know if I give you this money, I’m going to hear about you dead in the next day or two,” he said. Instead, he offered to put all of the money toward rehabilitation services for the woman. When she consented to attend treatment, not only did Morton fulfill his promise, he made some calls on her behalf and worked with a nonprofit to help find a 90-day rehab program for women and girls. “One day, I hope she looks back on this story and it motivates her to help somebody else,” he said. “We need to advocate for each other.”
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/12/dog-stolen-thief-rehab/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F342373b%2F60eee0219d2fda945a038a07%2F5e4d74439bbc0f462514be64%2F8%2F47%2F60eee0219d2fda945a038a07
Thousands of Redditors Flock to Support a Website that Grants Wishes to Current and Former Foster Kids
Danielle Gletow helps run a nonprofit group, One Simple Wish, that hosts requests from current and former kids in foster care. These requests for clothes, athletic equipment, school supplies, etc. can be granted by anyone who logs onto the organization’s website. One morning, Gletow got a shock when she opened her email. It was flooded and the organization website had crashed. “I was baffled – I couldn’t figure out what was going on,” Gletow said of the deluge. After some sleuthing, Gletow and her team discovered that all the new traffic could be traced back to one comment buried in a Reddit post asking about good deeds people have done. The comment mentioned Gletow’s website: “I went to the web site: onesimplewish.org which specializes in providing foster kids with things they wouldn’t ordinarily get.” In his comment, the Redditor said he bought a new bike for an 11-year-old whose foster family could not afford to buy him one for his birthday. Thousands of people pounced on the website to snatch up what they could from the list of wishes, which included swim lessons, fuzzy blankets, even computers. Since the Redditor posted his comment three weeks ago, 1,500 wishes have been granted through the website. They have also accrued over $200,000 in donations that will help offset the cost of future gifts. Other wishes that have been fulfilled include sending a recently out teen to the Chicago Pride Parade, sending one budding fashionista on a shopping spree, buying educational supplies for the collegebound, and the purchase of a computer for one teen who had been down on his luck.
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/13/foster-children-donate-wish-reddit/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F342373d%2F60eee0219d2fda945a038a07%2F5e4d74439bbc0f462514be64%2F12%2F47%2F60eee0219d2fda945a038a07
Students Build a Hybrid Wheelchair and Stroller so New Dad can Care for His Newborn Son
Since undergoing surgery in 2017 to have a brain tumor excised, Jeremy King has experienced impairment. He now uses a wheelchair. The birth of his new son, though, has posed an additional challenge along with its joys. Childcare without limited mobility is difficult enough. That’s where some ingenious students come in. Jeremy’s wife, Chelsea, a teacher at Bullis School in Maryland, enlisted the help of a colleague, Matt Zigler, who oversees a maker space in their school. Zigler had the idea to pitch the situation to his class, which he calls “making for social good.” With his supervision, his students rose to the challenge to create a device to make Jeremy’s childcare activities easier. Thus, the WheeStroll was born – a combination wheelchair and child seat. When he received the clever work of engineering, Jeremy said “I was emotional and elated because something like this really increases independence with my child… It allows us as a family to have more freedom.” The entire contraption was fabricated in the school’s maker space. A wheelchair from the nurse’s office served as a prototype, but the class used 3-D printers to create the necessary parts. “I want to personally thank the students for taking my situation into account and developing this amazing device,” Jeremy said.
Source: Good News Network - https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/these-students-built-an-epic-baby-stroller-for-a-new-dad-in-a-wheelchair/
Week 61
Waitress Receives a Heartfelt Thank You Note from a Widow
Last week, waitress Megan King took the order of an elderly woman dining alone. King recalls that the interaction was pleasant. She and the woman made small talk for a few minutes when the crowd started to thin. She learned that the woman was 70-years-old and that the establishment was a long-time favorite of hers. All in a day’s work for King. The experience was far deeper for the woman, though, who left a note with her 30% gratuity: “Thank you very much for your kind service. This was my first time eating out alone since my husband passed. I was hoping I could get through it.” After finding the message, King had to step into the women’s restroom to regain her composure. The impact of their small talk – and, then, of the woman’s note – left King shellshocked and wishing she had done more for the woman. “I wish I would’ve taken her quiet as an invitation,” she said of the patron who, in retrospect, had seemed reserved. All they did was engage in some small talk, right? Yet, to the woman in that moment, those few words meant the world.
Source: Good News Network - https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/waitress-in-tears-after-receiving-thank-you-note-from-widow-eating-alone/
Olympic Runner Gives $10,000 to Help Fellow Olympians Afford Childcare
Elite athletics is a tough world for parents, not only for all the physically strenuous reasons you would expect, but also because the system isn’t designed with a lot of flexibility in mind. Olympic runner Allyson Felix is one of the best runners in the world. She won gold at the 2019 World Athletics Championships – her 13th gold medal. And her accomplishments are even more stunning against the tremendous odds she was facing. Athletics, she said, “isn’t designed for mom athletes to succeed.” At a previous competition, several months after giving birth, she requested a single room to enable her to care for her infant with adequate privacy while not infringing on a roommate’s competition preparation. She was assigned a roommate anyway. “On top of juggling the mental and physical exhaustion of competition and motherhood, I had to navigate finding my own accommodations with my infant,” Felix said. “That was a situation I shouldn’t have been in.” So Felix set to work with the goal in mind of supporting parent-athletes. On July 6th, Felix announced that she had partnered with Athleta and the Women’s Sports Foundation to organize a $200,000 child-care grant for athletes who are parents. Those eligible are women athletes who are qualified to compete for a U.S. national team. When approved, each recipient gets $10,000 to spend on childcare.
Source: The Lily - https://www.thelily.com/track-star-allyson-felix-is-giving-fellow-olympians-10000-for-child-care-its-a-huge-sigh-of-relief-they-say/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist
A Few Acts of Kindness Propel an Artist from Homelessness to Fame and Fortune
“Go give love” – those were the divine words that came in prayer to Charlie Jabalay, founder of the Dream Machine Foundation. At 29, he was diagnosed with brain cancer and decided to quit his job in favor of chasing his dream to become a professional athlete. After he lost 130 pounds, biked across the country, and learned that his tumor had disappeared, Charlie felt indebted to his higher power, which beseeched him to spread the love. So when Charlie met Richard Hutchins, a talented LA-based artist whose career had spiraled after his home and work were consumed in a fire, Charlie decided to make good. Richard had been homeless since the fire and met Charlie on the street one day. The two discussed his past success as an artist, and Charlie made some calls. He and his foundation bought $2,000 worth of art supplies for Richard. Then, in a further turn of serendipity, a gallerist from the largest art gallery in Beverly Hills reached out to Charlie and offered to feature Richard’s work alongside a couple celebrity artists. From there, things took off for Richard: “’Charlie kept coming by saying ‘we have a surprise for you’ and every surprise got bigger and bigger and bigger, until I ended up on the red carpet in Beverly Hills.” Charlie and the foundation set up an online portal for Richard to sell his art. In a short time, he had sold $100,000 of original work. Eventually, his story reached celebrities like Steve Harvey, Oprah, 2 Chaainz, and Whiz Khalifa, who all bought paintings. Soon his work will be featured in a gallery alongside work from Andy Warhol, Richard’s hero. In sum, Charlie’s acts of kindness propelled Richard from the street to riches, and Richard is paying it forward by creating a foundation to distribute scholarships to people who cannot afford school.
Source: Good News Network - https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/painter-richard-hutchins-was-homeless-now-hes-the-top-artist-in-la/