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Good News, Everyone!

Hi, and welcome to Yes to Good News where we share some good news, everyone! This episode was filmed on April 3rd, 2020.

First Story

Our first good news story today was from inspiremore.com and is about a dog named Hazel in Abilene, Texas. While out on a bathroom break, this dog made an incredible new friend. Hazel had discovered a small stray kitten in the driveway of her home. The dog just happened to be leading this kitten to safety from the pouring rain happening outside. 

“There must be something called pure love. I saw Hazel’s maternal instincts come to light.”

Monica Burks, Hazel’s owner

Hazel continued to lead the stray all the way to his home, stopping when the kitten stopped, making sure she was still there. Even when the kitten couldn’t get over the threshold into Monica’s home, Hazel was right there to help the cat! The dog gently picked her up and helped her into the home!

While Monica doesn’t know where the cat came from, she made sure she ended up in a good home. After naming the kitten Sheba, she gave the kitten to her brother to be certain she would be all right.

Second Story

Our next good news story was featured on globalnews.ca. This story is about Amberly Batten, and her huge act of generosity. Amberly and her husband had seen CHP’s latest facebook ad asking for help to fill a Medford hotel, which had offered a discounted rate for the charity. 

“I had seen some posts about some people who were homeless that were contemplating suicide because they were cold and didn’t have anywhere to go and that hit something in my core, I had to do something.”

Amberly Batten

Amberly did just that! She decided to rent out 45 hotel rooms for the homeless! This benefited so many people and kept them warm during the winter days in Oregon, including 8 year old Osiris Luis who explained why waking up the next morning would be extra special.

“The reason why is because it’s my birthday tomorrow and I’d like to not spend my birthday in a vehicle. I’d like to be in a room.”

8 year old Osiris Luis

Third Good News, Everyone Story

Our 3rd Yes to Good News story today is from goodnewsnetwork.org.

The Sikh community in Australia has really been helping out people getting groceries during this difficult time. They have spent over 4000$ on a food donation program for the elderly. Another group called the Turbans of Australia have donated 1.5 tons of groceries to people in need. 

While other organizations target the elderly, and disabled, Amar Singh said he would help anyone who calls. He even works a full time job, so he has to use up his spare time to help people.

The Sikh volunteers of Australia also delivered 1000 home cooked meals to the elderly and people unable to access food. Normally, this group delivers food for the homeless twice a week but with this pandemic, they are working around the clock delivering food. 

The Sikhs are even helping in New York where they serve more than 30,000 meals for people stuck in self-isolation.

As Sikhs are helping around the globe, there are also hundreds of other groups sharing the same generosity as well, which brings us to our next good news story.

Fourth Story

This story found on goodnewsnetwork.org is about two kindhearted sophomores from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. They’ve decided to go out and buy groceries for the people in need around their community.  The idea came when they went out and shopped for their grandparents and neighbors. They then decided to do more and printed out flyers to place around the area.

They helped many people including Jimmy Kraft who is a retired grandfather caring for his handicapped grandchild. He has been unable to shop in fear of bringing the virus home to his grandchild. So when he saw the flyers, his heart was filled with joy. 

The teens then started recruiting more people from other high schools and even some college students.

“This was tremendously helpful! It truly is so amazing that teenagers would spend their time helping one of the most vulnerable populations. I am very grateful for their help and hope that more kids will join them in their efforts.”

Jimmy Kraft

Thank You!

Thank you so much for watching today’s episode of Yes to Good News! We love sharing good news with everyone! We ask that you please hit the ‘like’ button under this video and also subscribe to our channel. When subscribing, be sure to hit the bell notification so that you will be notified of new episodes. The world truly is a great one filled with many good news stories!

If you have a good news story you would like to share with us, please email us at hello@yestogoodnews.com.

Be sure to also watch our inspirational clip of the day below. 

Today’s clip is a Ted talk given by Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya. After living in a small village in Kenya and going through a hard life, she decided that other girls should not have to go through the same thing. Kakenya decided to make a major change in her community and start a school for girls!

See you again soon! Be sure to also check out other episodes we have created like this one.

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Yes to Good News March 14, 2020

Hi! Welcome to today’s episode of Yes to Good News! Today we are featuring good news from March 14, 2020.

First Good News Story from March 14

The first story we are sharing with you today was featured on goodnewsnetwork.org where we came to learn about a coffee shop named La La Land Kind Cafe in Dallas, Texas. 

Francois Reihani, the 24-year old entrepreneur owner of La La Land Kind Cafe, has made it a priority to hire young workers who have aged out of the foster care system. To date, he has hired 9 former foster kids who had been facing difficult times since turning 18 years old and aging out of the system. In doing so, he has created a safe haven and community support system for his workers. 

Reihani told CBS News,

“We’re not in the business of coffee, we just serve coffee — We’re definitely in the business of kindness.”

Francois Reihani

Reihani hopes that other business owners will come to follow this same initiative.

One of his employees, 20 year old Ciara Martin, has overcome homelessness and depression since working at La La Land Kind Cafe. She told CBSDFW,

“I have people to believe in me and support me. I’ve never had that kind of support in my life. So I’ve been able to believe in myself, and realize what I want in life and chase after it.”

Ciara Martin

Second Good News Story

Our next story was featured in sunnyskyz.com where we found out about a young lady, Rebecca Mehra, who helped an elderly couple get their groceries. Mehra heard an elderly lady yelling from her car. Mehra walked over to find an elderly woman with her husband, both too afraid to go into the store for fear of contracting the coronavirus. 

The elderly woman handed Mehra a $100 bill through her window along with her grocery list and asked if Mehra would be willing to buy her groceries.

Mehra did just that! Once done, she placed the groceries in the trunk of the elderly couple’s car and handed them their change. It was then that Mehra came to understand the couple had been waiting 45 minutes for the right person to come along to ask for help.

Mehra insists that most people she knows would have done the same thing she did. She encourages others to reach out to those in our communities who may need help or feel forgotten.

Third Good News Story

Our next good news story comes to us from bbc.com. Some farmers and local businesses in Scotland are reaching out to help elderly and people with underlying health issues who are not able to leave their homes at this time amidst the coronavirus outbreak. 

Langside Cafe in Glasgow’s Southside is delivering free soup. Day Today Express in Stenhousemuir is delivering care packages to pensioners. Mossgiel Family Farm in East Ayrshire, is offering a home delivery service of fresh goods. 

Farmer Bryce Cunningham indicates,

“Over the past few years we’ve been very community-focused, and the local community has supported us very well and helped us get our business off the ground.  

“I’ve got an elderly gran and grandpa and I wondered how we could give back to the community a wee bit.

“I’ve got an elderly gran and grandpa and I wondered how we could give back to the community a wee bit.

“As a business that relies on local trade, we really should be helping our local communities out.”

Bryce Cunningham

Fourth Good News Story

Our final good news story of the day was featured on msn.com. Single mother and pharmacist from Friendswood, Texas, Tameka Maiden, has come up with a communication solution for non-verbal children. Maiden has created a teddy bear named U’Neek — the Gifted Bear. U’Neek’s paws and ears are pre-programmed with common phrases children would tell their caregivers. 

By communicating through the bear, children are able to let their caregivers know things like when they are hungry, sleepy, need to use the bathroom, or want to play.

With Autism Awareness Month coming up in April, Maiden is looking to get U’Neek into the hands of as many nonverbal children as she can. She has partnered with former NFL player, James Ihedigbo and, together, they will be launching a “Get a Bear, Give a Bear” campaign via Ihedigbo’s wife’s Kiddie Academy locations. The goal of this campaign is to provide children with autism and other special needs a bear for free.

“The bear is the outpouring of love and appreciation for nonverbal children. I want to do more and more.”

Tameka Maiden

Thank you!

Thank you so much for watching today’s episode of Yes to Good News filmed March 14, 2020! We ask that you please hit the ‘like’ button under this video and also subscribe to our channel. When subscribing, be sure to hit the bell notification so that you will be notified of new episodes. The world truly is a great one filled with many good news stories!

Inspirational Clip of the Day

Be sure to also watch our inspirational clip of the day featured here. Today’s clip is about a two-legged dog, Lieutenant Dan, from New Richmond Ohio. His owner, Laura Weber, told CNN that Lieutenant Dan doesn’t know he has a handicap. He just knows he has a wonderful life to live and enjoys every day of it.”

In the mood for more good news? Check out our report from yesterday!

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Yes to Good News March 13, 2020

Welcome to today’s episode of Yes to Good News! Today we are featuring good news from March 13, 2020.

First Good News Story from March 13

The first story we are featuring today was featured in Optimist Daily. It’s about a village in Hogeweyk, Netherlands where the world’s first dementia village opened in 2009. This village has been designed to look and function like an old-fashioned, cozy neighborhood. The village consists of 27 houses, each with 7 residents who are free to come and go. 

Oftentimes, with dementia, the last part of the memory to go is the part remembering their distant past. Adding to this is that studies now show that reminiscing about past memories can improve cognition, enhance self-esteem and alleviate depression. Hogeweyk was designed with this in mind.

Within the village are gardens, a grocery store, post office, and pub. Each of these are staffed with plain-clothes workers, who happen to be some of the 250 staff members in total that work there. The only restriction for the residents is that they are not able to exit the village. However, they don’t need to. They have all of the freedoms of living in a small village right where they are.

Second Good News Story

Our next story was featured on sunnyskyz.com where we learned that a man named Oscar Dillon had sent hateful tweets to Muslim political candidate, Qasim Rashid. However, Dillon did not get the response he was expecting. Instead of firing back, the Virginia political candidate who is running for Congress did a little research and came to find that Dillon had started a GoFundMe page after depleting his retirement savings on the cost of his wife’s care. Rashid donated to the man’s GoFundMe page and encouraged others through Twitter to do the same. 

Apparently responding with kindness was the best approach as Dillon then reached out to Rashid and apologized and asked to meet him. The two have now met and Dillon’s GoFundMe page has received more donations as a result of Rashid’s tweet.

Third Good News Story

This next story was featured on Narcity.com. Canada’s first Coronavirus vaccine which was made in Saskatchewan, is now in testing stages. Yes, I know there are other news stories about coronavirus vaccines. However, I chose this one because of my goofy sense of humor and knowledge that good things are made in Saskatchewan. After all, I happen to come from there myself and I’m fairly certain I was made there because my parents weren’t really ones to travel or take holidays. Alright, enough about that one!

Fourth Good News Story

Today’s final story comes to us from Optimist Daily where we came to learn about 6 foot 5 inches tall former banker, Tony Colley, who had just $278 left to his name after a failed business venture. He went on welfare and became severely depressed. Eventually Colley got a job as a part-time event manager for a catering company in Toronto. While there, he took notice of the amount of excess food that was dumped after each event. The manager allowed staff to take food home after events, but a lot still was wasted.

Colley came across an article that indicated Canada had a $31 billion food waste problem. He started to bike some of the excess food over to a local food shelter. Colley became motivated to create a platform where other food retailers could save their excess food and have it delivered to shelters. Colley launched Be One to Give in May of 2019. Within the program, excess food goes directly from food retailers such as restaurants, food courts, and hotels to shelters within an hour. Retailers pay a monthly fee for the service to have their excess food delivered to a nearby shelter. 

Colley’s efforts prove to us that a lot can happen from the efforts of one person!

Thank You!

Thank you so much for watching today’s good news episode of Yes to Good News reported on March 13. We ask that you please hit the ‘like’ button under this video and also subscribe to our channel. When subscribing, be sure to hit the bell notification so that you will be notified of new episodes. The world truly is a great one with many good news stories.

Inspirational Clip of the Day

Be sure to also watch our inspirational clip of the day featured below this video. Today’s clip is from Great Big Story and is about American athlete, Blake Leeper. See you again soon! Thank you for watching Yes to Good News from March 13, 2020!