Here’s a collection of some positive stories from the last week.
1. A guy in Nebraska named Duane Hansen broke a world record on Saturday by hollowing out a giant pumpkin he grew . . . using it as a boat . . . and paddling 41 miles down the Missouri River. The previous record was just over 25 miles. His adult daughter got pretty emotional in an interview. She said he’s always told her you can do anything if you put your mind to it, and she’s really proud of him.
2. A bunch of students in L.A. surprised their math teacher on Thursday by giving him a NEW CAR, so he wouldn’t have to ride a scooter six miles to work anymore. They spent all summer fundraising and staged a fake assembly for the big reveal. They got him a Mazda sedan and they were also able to cover a year of insurance AND gas. All total, their gift was worth about $30,000.
3. A young lady in Australia is going viral after she asked her grandfather to help walk her down the aisle with her dad. She wrote it in a card, and he got emotional reading it. She says he’s been a huge part of her life, and she’s been waiting to ask ever since she was little. (Here’s the video.)
4. A guy and his elderly father fell off their fishing boat when it hit some rocks near Boston Harbor last week. But they were able to stay afloat by using their beer cooler as a floatation device. Boston Harbour Police office spotted them and pulled them out.
5. Lucas, an African penguin at the San Diego Zoo, got a new chance at life after getting a pair of prosthetic boots. Lucas was diagnosed with a degenerative foot condition called bumblefoot, which can cause a lot of pain, sepsis infection and even death if left untreated. The boots for Lucas were created by the zoo in partnership with animal prosthesis organization Thera-Paw. Ilaria Borghese, founder and president of Thera-Paw, said, “One thing that never gets old is seeing an animal’s life dramatically improve after using one of our aids. It inspires and drives us every day.”
6. An officer in Ottawa, Canada, came to the rescue after a skunk was spotted with its head stuck in a butter jar running into traffic. Ottawa Bylaw and Regulatory Services, the municipal government branch responsible for enforcing local bylaws including animal control services, tweeted that an officer spotted the skunk wandering in a road with its head stuck in a jar. Authorities came to the rescue and were able to remove the jar carefully without getting sprayed by the skunk. The animal then ran away unharmed.
7. Two half-sisters from Michigan just met for the first time this summer. They’re both in their late-50s. One was adopted, and they found out about each other four years ago. But one of them lives in England now, so they hadn’t been able to meet up in person in yet.
8. A long-lost mural that could date as far back as the 1930s was discovered in a Georgia building that a revitalization group was working on. DREAM Streets Sparta revealed in a Facebook post that work was being done on a narrow building on Broad Street in Sparta that was built in 1909 when the mural was found. The building has been a barber shop owned by three generations of the same Black family until it closed in the late 1970s or early 1980s. DREAM Streets Sparta said they have three possible artists who may have been behind the mural and two are still alive.
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