A 12 year old boy in Auburn, Maine opened a farmstand in hopes of taking over the family farm one day. Brayden Nadeau said he’s been farming his whole life and now he essentially runs the family farm himself and has opened a farm stand to help feed his community. Nadeau started his first farmstand two years ago and earned enough money to buy a new one.
He sells homemade zucchini bread and zucchini relish made by his family and other community members with vegetables straight from his garden. He also raises livestock and turkeys for meat, chickens for meat and eggs, and pigs for meat and breeding. Nadeau works 12 hours a day, seven days a week in the summer. During the school year, he picks vegetables in the morning and sets up the farm stand before heading to school.
Nadeau says he always wanted to be behind the wheel of a tractor. “I’ve been farming my whole life. As long as I could remember, I’ve been on his lap, steering the tractor, running the bucket,” Nadeau said, pointing to his grandfather, Dan Herrick. Herrick always had a farm at his home but until now, it didn’t serve as more than just a way to feed his family.
Herrick said “There ought to be more 12-year-olds like him. The farmstand teaches him business, it teaches him how to work, it teaches him to stay out of trouble, it teaches him where food comes from, and it teaches him that without farmers, there’s no food.” Nadeau said he’s learning a lot more out in the fields than he would have sitting in front of a TV playing video games.
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A Kentucky woman decided to pay it forward after a lottery win by handing out gift cards to strangers. Earlier this month, Crystal Dunn of Louisville won $146,000 playing the Bank Buster Jackpot Instant Play game online after wagering just $20. A few seconds later, she got a message on her computer screen saying that she had won the progressive jackpot which starts at $100,000 and increases with each ticket purchase.
Dunn said she didn’t believe she had actually won until she received an email from the lottery officials confirming the win. “I saw that and didn’t believe it at first. It’s a pretty exciting feeling. I never thought I would win something like this, but this goes to show it can happen.” Dunn decided to pay it forward after receiving her winnings, which amounted to $103,909.73 after taxes.
After depositing the check in the bank, lottery officials said she immediately made a stop at a local Meijer grocery store where she purchased $2,000 in gift cards. She then walked around the store giving the gift cards to random strangers. Dunn said “A few were taken back, thinking I was wanting something in return. I got an unexpected gift and I believe in paying it forward and wanted to pass it along.”
Dunn told lottery officials she wanted to pay it forward and she also plans to use the remainder of winnings on things she was already working toward, such as buying a car and paying off bills. “I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve had. This is a pretty amazing gift,” she said.
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A Mississippi teen is being hailed a hero after saving three girls and a police officer from a river. Moss Point city officials presented Corion Evans with a certificate of commendation for his heroism and bravery in rescuing four people. One of the teens rescued said the GPS thought they were on the interstate and because the area was pitch black, they had no idea they were even near water until their car plunged in. She said she’s very grateful Corion was in the right place at the right time.
Evans was at a boat ramp in Moss Point, MS at 2:30am when the three girls, who were following their GPS, drove into the Pascagoula River. The girls managed to get on the roof of the car as it started to sink and dial 911. Evans heard them crying for help and immediately jumped into the water. The car had sunk quickly and only the roof of the vehicle with the girls on top was visible. Moss Point Police Officer Gary Mercer arrived on the scene, and he too swam out to aid in the rescue. During the rescue, Officer Mercer was pushed under water by a struggling victim and swallowed water. Mercer called out for help and Evans immediately went back to save him.
Evans said “‘They need to get out the water’. So, I just started getting them, I wasn’t even thinking about nothing else. I turned around. I see the police officer, he’s drowning. He’s going underwater, drowning, saying, ‘Help!” So, I went over there. I went and I grabbed the police officer and I’m like swimming him back until I feel I can walk. I was just like, ‘I can’t let none of these folks die.”
Evans has been a strong swimmer since the age of 3 and didn’t hesitate to jump in the river. The car had floated 25 yards from shore when Evans dove in the water but his thoughts were only on rescuing everyone. “Twenty-five yards out, it was a lot of swimming. My legs were so tired after. Anything could’ve been in that water, though. But I wasn’t thinking about it” Evans said.
Evans’ mother, Marquita, expressed relief and spoke proudly of her son in the wake of the rescue. “I’m glad nothing happened to him while he was trying to save other people’s lives. I was really proud of Corion because he wasn’t just thinking about himself. He was trying to really get all those people out of the water.”
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Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, auctioned his Nobel Peace Prize to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees. The prize sold for $103.5 million, shattering the old record for a Nobel. Muratov also donated his $500,000 cash award. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Muratov said the idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Muratov said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine. “We want to return their future,” he said. The auction was held by Heritage Auction, who is not taking any share of the proceeds.
Muratov started out as a journalist for Soviet newspapers. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, he and other journalists co-founded the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which soon became a leading advocate for democracy and freedom of expression in Russia. Muratov was co-awarded the peace prize in 2021 for defending freedom of expression in Russia. He was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Under Mr Muratov’s leadership, Novaya Gazeta has criticised the Russian authorities for corruption, electoral fraud and human rights violations. Six of the newspaper’s journalists have been murdered because they wrote critical articles on Russian military operations in Chechnya and the Caucasus. The best known of them is Anna Politkovskaya.
The sale of the gold medal in New York will benefit Unicef’s humanitarian response for Ukraine’s displaced children, Heritage Auctions said in a statement. “The most important message today is for people to understand that there’s a war going on and we need to help people who are suffering the most,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions.
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A 12 year old British boy’s woodworking project went viral so he seized the opportunity to raise money for the children of Ukraine through Save the Children. Richard Clarkie knows of his son Gabriel’s love for woodwork and decided to post a tweet to encourage others to order his son’s creations. The proud father posted a link to his son’s hobby of carving wooden bowls and posting them for sale on Instagram.
Richard’s tweet read “Lovely twitter people – I don’t know how many of you are also #instagram users but I’m looking for a wee favor. I’ve a 12yr old who loves woodwork. He spends hours on his lathe making bowls and creating chopping boards which he sells to save up for a mountain bike. So I was wondering if any of you fancied giving him a boost and following him on instagram at clarkie_woodwork it would make his day. Thanks in advance and feel free to retweet!”
Neither of them expected much from the tweet, and they certainly didn’t expect Clarkie’s Instagram account to grow from a modest 6 followers to 227,000 in just 48 hours. Gabriel, who lives in Cumbria in northern England, quickly received 20,000 orders. But rather than fulfilling so many orders, he decided to make just a single bowl. To symbolize the Ukrainian Flag, the wooden bowl was etched with blue and yellow rings.
Clarkie Woodwork——announced Gabrial would make one single bowl, Gabriel’s Bowl For Ukraine, to be given out in a lottery to anyone who makes a donation to Save The Children Ukraine. His instagram page went viral again and with a little help from celebrity retweets by the likes of J.K Rowling, Nick Offerman and Stephen Fry. The $6,260 donation quickly grew to $325,000 with nearly 15,000 people donating.
The lucky winner was Renuka Chapman who said “When Gabriel rang me to let me know I’d won the bowl, I was completely overwhelmed— I’ve never won a single thing before! This bowl will be one of my most treasured possessions. It represents hope, compassion, and kindness… It will have pride of place in my home.” Richard Clarkie said “I never imagined that my tweet would turn into this amazing thing… Somehow, it’s resulted in people donating over $325,000 to help children in Ukraine, it’s just incredible!”
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An Atlanta teen is raising money for a friend’s recovery from a traumatic brain injury during a football game. Marcos San Miguel and Jordan Sloan have been best friends since 6th grade. The two bonded over their love of sports, San Miguel is a star on the basketball court and Sloan on the football field. Sloan was 15 when he took a hit in the 3rd quarter of the homecoming football game at Pace Academy in September 2020.
Sloan walked off the field but was rushed to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta where he underwent brain surgery. Jordan had suffered a very rare brain stem injury that made it difficult for doctors to give a prognosis for his recovery. He would remain hospitalized there for the next several months before being moved to the Shepherd Center for rehabilitation.
His recovery has been a long road from being on a ventilator and unable to blink to doing rigorous physical therapy and taking virtual classes back at school. Sloan goes to rehabilitation sessions 6 days a week to regain his mobility and strength-with the goal of being able to one day play sports again.
San Miguel has been by his best friend’s side cheering him on and found a way to support him through basketball. San Miguel began taking pledges for every charge he took in a basketball game, in order to give Sloan’s family the money necessary to buy items not covered by insurance, like a manual wheelchair and reformer machine. He said “I really just wanted to do whatever I could to help. He would have done something similar for me.”
So far, he has raised over $14,000 through his fundraiser “Take a Charge for Jordan Sloan”. The remainder of all funds raised will go to Shepherd Center for their Adaptive Sports program.
San Miguel hopes that once Jordan has a manual wheelchair and reaches a few new therapy goals, he can arrange for a wheelchair basketball game for Jordan and some of our former teammates. Sloan’s mother, Jasmine Jamieson said she is grateful for the way San Miguel has stepped up to help and while she doesn’t know if she will ever be able to really thank him- she will try for the rest of her life.
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The Chancellor of Vanderbilt University is recognizing all the school’s employees for their diligent work over the past two years with a surprise bonus in their paychecks. As part of the Chancellor’s Recognition Award, all eligible staff, faculty and postdocs will get a one-time payment of $1,500 added to their paychecks at the end of March, according to the university.
Around 9,000 workers, including part-time employees, are getting the generous bonus. While announcing the award on March 17, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier expressed appreciation for staff members’ “extraordinary efforts” during the tumultuous time, saying they are “at the heart of Vanderbilt’s educational mission.”
Diermeier said “It has not been easy, especially during the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. However, your dedication to our vision and goals enables our university to operate at its highest level. I am indeed grateful as we approach Vanderbilt’s 150th anniversary in a position of strength and with optimism about our path forward.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across America suffered from a national teacher shortage. Every year teachers leave the profession and fewer people are entering the field each year. According to the National Education Association, the pandemic has exacerbated a challenge that has seen massive staff shortages in public schools in every state. The shortage has left teachers increasingly burnt out, with an alarming 55 percent now saying they’re ready to leave the profession they love earlier than planned.
There are over 50 million US public school students and about 3.5 million teachers. The shortage is particularly acute in areas like maths, science, languages and special education. Throughout the pandemic, administrators have been struggling to fill vacancies for teachers, substitutes and other vital school staff positions in order to keep operations going.
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Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott revealed in a blog post that she has donated nearly $4 billion to 465 nonprofits including a $436 million donation to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its affiliates to create affordable housing. That donation is the largest publicly disclosed gift from Scott so far. Her policy is to let the organizations she donates to make the announcements in the hopes of minimizing attention. Her recent post confirmed announcements by several organizations.
The announcement brings Scott’s publicly disclosed donations to more than $12 billion since 2019. In total, Scott says she’s donated to 1,257 organizations. Scott, who is worth about $48 billion according to Forbes, signed the Giving Pledge through which many billionaires have promised to donate more than half of their wealth. Scott declines interviews and only discusses her philanthropic choices through her blog posts. Her recent post touched off a wave of nonprofits announcing their plans for the donations.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America and 21 of its affiliates received its largest gift ever from Scott— $275 million. Boys & Girls Clubs of America announced a $281 million donation similarly dispersed among local chapters of the organization. HIAS, the international Jewish humanitarian organization, said Scott donated $10 million to its campaign to raise $40 million for its emergency response in Ukraine. Community Catalyst, a healthcare reform nonprofit in Boston, announced it received $25 million and would use the funds to help “create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice.”
In her blog post, Scott said 60% of the groups she and husband Dan Jewett donated to are led by women and 75% are led by people with lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address. “Our team’s focus over these last nine months has included some new areas, but as always our aim has been to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds. Scott believes in “supporting people directly experiencing inequities is essential, both because it is informed by insights no one else can contribute, and because it seeds power and opportunity within the community itself.”
In the newest blog post, Scott said her team is working on building a website that will include a searchable database of her grants. The expansive list of organizations that received her latest round of donations have a broad range of missions and mandates—from improving women’s health to solving the climate crisis to helping military families, incarcerated people, and teachers.
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Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey joined forces to donate a combined $15 million to 18 different climate justice groups in the U.S. and Caribbean. The recipients of the grants are 18 grassroots organizations within the US and Caribbean that are centered and led by minoritized communities.
Some of the organizations include the Solutions Project, which supports grassroots-level solutions, the Indigenous Environmental Network, which supports Indigenous tribes and communities in protecting sacred sites and natural resources, and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, which focuses on tracking and improving environmental threats at the neighborhood level.
Rihanna founded CLF to “support and fund groundbreaking education and climate resilience initiatives” in 2012. One of its first initiatives, which launched a year after the foundation began, raised $60 million for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS through sales from the singer’s lipstick line with MAC Cosmetics. In 2020, it raised $36 million for organizations on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic and another $11 million for programs trying to reform the police and criminal justice systems.
Dorsey started #StartSmall LLC in April 2020 to “fund global Covid-19 relief” and “girl’s health and education, and universal basic income.” He funded the initiative with $1 billion in shares from his fintech company Block, formerly known as Square, which he founded in 2009. At the time, that amount accounted for 28% of the tech giant’s net worth. His initiative has donated over $448 million to more than 250 organizations, including NYU’s Cash Transfer Lab, Water.org and the Malala Fund.
This isn’t the unlikely pair’s first collaboration. Since the beginning of the pandemic, #StartSmall and CLF have donated roughly $57 million to similar causes, as well as natural disaster preparedness resources, rental assistance for low-income families and services for domestic violence victims and survivors. The two entrepreneurs have found common ground in philanthropy, using their wealth to support people left vulnerable by climate change. Their most recent charitable act is in part a response to the devastating hurricanes that have ravaged the home region of the Caribbean in recent years.
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A Georgia family is feeling the effects of kindness from strangers around the world. Michael Walker and his wife, Willa Strong, are living in and out of hotels. Each day since the pandemic hit, their focus has been on surviving and providing for their three daughters. Walker is on Dialysis battling kidney disease while raising their three girls who are all non-verbal with Autism.
The pandemic forced Walker to leave his retail job because he is at high risk for catching COVID. Strong had to stop working to homeschool the girls. Between Dialysis treatments, school supplies and the cost of living in the metro Atlanta area, the couple said their credit score took a big hit. After months of trying to get back on their feet, they had trouble finding an apartment or home that would accept them.
After more than a year feeling frustrated and trapped inside a one-bedroom hotel room, Walker took to social media for help. He broke down in an emotional testimony on TikTok sharing his family’s situation. Walker, who had been positive and hopeful through it all shared that he’d been losing hope and felt like a failure to his family. The video went viral receiving more than 300,000 views. Commenters encouraged him to start a GoFundMe and people from Georgia to as far away as Ireland have donated.
People are supporting the family all over the world from Georgia to Ireland. Some even encouraged Walker to launch a GoFundMe page. So far over $176,000 of the $250,000 goal has been raised with donations ranging from $1000 to as little as $5. The family plans to use the money raised to finance a loan for a rental home. Walker said he hopes they find a place that is safe and sufficient for his three daughters’ needs.
Walker said “For a long time, we felt alone. We felt like nobody cared. And the world proved us wrong.” Not only did they get some relief financially, Strong said the family also found community. She said this helped connect her with other families who have multiple children with special needs. Strong said, all this support is restoring the faith she once lost. “This was the push we needed in spirit to build my confidence,” she said. “All of this outpouring of love is so healing.”
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