As the Labor Day Weekend approaches let’s enjoy some Feel Good Friday stories.
1. A 4.8-pound wheel of Spanish cheese broke a world record when it was auctioned for more than $32,000. The Cabrales blue cheese, manufactured by Guillermo Pendás at his family’s Los Puertos factory and aged in the mountain caves of Asturias, sold for $32,408.10 after taking top honors at the 51st annual Cabrales Cheese Competition in Las Arenas. The buyer was restaurant owner Iván Suárez. Suárez previously set the Guinness World Record for most expensive cheese sold at auction when he bought a wheel of Cabrales for $22,129 in 2019.
2. A morning radio show in Montana brought in over $77,000 for a fundraiser to support literacy. It’s called Books for Kids, and it’s the third year they’ve done it. More than 4,300 kids at 14 different schools will get one free book a month for the entire school year.
3. A guy in New Zealand proposed to his girlfriend over the loud speaker at the Auckland Airport, and there’s a great video of it. Airport officials were in on the whole thing. She flew in from Australia to see him, and he hopped on the mic as she was walking through the terminal. (Here’s the video. It starts at :46.)
4. The CEO of a brain cancer charity in Australia is gearing up for a big trip. He’s raising money for research by hiking 70 miles across the South Pole in Antarctica. The altitude there is 9,300 feet, and it can get down to 20 below zero. He’s planning to start his hike on December 15th, and finish up on January 4th. So he’ll be at the South Pole for Christmas.
5. This is like the opposite of a cat in a tree: Firefighters in Wisconsin recently rescued a pigeon from a sewer. It’s not clear how it got in there. They lifted a grate, and it flew off.
6. A news station in San Antonio did a big profile on a 93-year-old woman who makes dog beds out of leftover fabric, and hands them out to animal shelters. Her name is Joan Potters. She says it makes her happy to know a random dog somewhere will be a little more comfortable.
7. “The Detroit Free Press” just did a story on a dog in northern Michigan that kept escaping from a shelter . . . and breaking into a retirement home. So the retirement home adopted him. His name is Scout and it happened in 2017, but he’s still there. Residents love him, because having a dog around makes it feel like they’re back home again. Earlier this year, staff held a fundraiser for the shelter to thank them for accidentally giving their residents a comfort dog. (Here’s a photo.)
8. A guy in Wisconsin just got his wedding ring back 14 years after he lost it in a lake. Someone found it last month, and posted a photo on Facebook. They gave it back after he told them the engraving was the name of his wedding song, “It’s Your Love”.
9. An 82-year-old in New York set his telescope up in the middle of a street in Brooklyn last week, just so random hipsters could take a look at Saturn. There’s a video with around 30 people lined up. So yeah, space is still cool.
10. A 42-year-old guy in Virginia named Jimmy Thyden was adopted as a kid, and found out a few months ago that he was part of an illegal adoption scheme. He was born in Chile . . . taken from a hospital . . . and eventually adopted out to a couple in the U.S. who had no idea. Thankfully, he’s had a good life. He’s a former Marine who’s now a lawyer with two kids of his own. But as soon as he found out what happened, he wanted to track down his birth mom in Chile. And he succeeded. He just went there this month to meet her. Until recently, she didn’t even know he was alive. The hospital told her he died right after he was born. The video of their first hug is pretty moving. He showed up in a full suit with a bouquet of flowers. He told a reporter the adoption scheme robbed them of 42 years’ worth of hugs. But he wanted to make sure it wasn’t 43.
11. Talk about bringin’ home the bacon: An 18-pound ham sold for a record $10 million at the Kentucky State Fair last week. It was part of an annual fundraiser auction, and all the money goes to charity. The banking company Central Bank pledged $5 million. The other $5 million came from coal tycoon Joe Craft and his wife Kelly. A big chunk of the money will go to build 57 new homes for flood victims. (Here’s a photo of the ham.)
12. A five-year-old kid in Seattle opened a lemonade stand to raise money for fire victims in Maui . . . and ended up raising over $17,000. His name is Edison Juel. He and his parents went on a vacation to Hawaii this year. So when he heard about the fire, he wanted to help. All the money is going to the Maui Strong Fund.
13. A nine-year-old girl from Texas accidentally left her favorite doll on a plane in Tokyo. But an American Airlines pilot named James Danen went out of his way to bring it back. He lives a few miles from her, and flies to Tokyo a lot. So he picked her doll up this month, and flew it 5,880 miles back home.
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