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In a tremendous win for Chinese conservation efforts, giant pandas are no longer an endangered species. The number of giant pandas living in the wild has reached more than 1,800, which means the species has been reclassified as “vulnerable.” The new classification comes after Beijing “carried out some major activities and measures to protect biodiversity and achieved remarkable results,” according to Cui Shuhong, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Shuhong also cited tightened law enforcement and a major crackdown on illegal activities on nature reserves as other reasons for the rising panda population.  Becky Shu Chen, technical advisor at the Zoological Society of London, said in a phone interview that most of the nature reserves are so big that there are still many populated villages in them. The Chinese government taught villagers agricultural activities that did not destroy the panda’s natural habitat. Experts agree that teaching pandas and humans to coexist is a crucial way to preserve the animals. As a result of the conservation efforts, many other species have flourished: Siberian tigers, Asian elephants, and crested ibises have all seen gradual increases in population numbers. “China’s successful conservation of giant pandas shows what can be achieved when political will and science join forces,” said Colby Loucks, World Wildlife Fund’s Vice President for Wildlife Conservation. “Continuing these conversations is critical, but we need to stay vigilant on the current and future impacts climate change may have on giant pandas and their mountainous forest habitat.” For China, the giant panda has been considered a national treasure for decades, and has been a protected species since the enactment of the wildlife conservation law in 1958. Beijing also engages in “panda diplomacy,” lending the furry friends to zoos around the world as a gesture of friendship.

The Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy (BELA) Charter School, an all-girls high school in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, is celebrating its first graduating class in the school’s history. Every single graduate has been accepted into college. The school was launched in 2017 aimed at helping overcome educational inequalities for Black and Brown students by empowering “each woman to be the best version of herself.”  BELA’s class of 2021 consists of 90% Black and more than 75% first-generation college students. The students applied to over 150 different colleges and received approximately $1 million in merit-based scholarships. For one senior, higher education means re-imagining public transportation and housing infrastructure in her mother’s home country of Nigeria. She also plans to address similar issues in New York City. “I would just go straight back to Nigeria and work at a non-profit and then like basically work on their transportation systems and making sure it was good. I want to make an infrastructure to help those who are in need like the disabled,” said graduating senior Mariam Sikiru to The Patch. The school recently held a “college shower” to honor the graduates and prepare them for the next step in their education journey. All 50 students were “showered” with college gear, duffle bags, dorm supplies and a pair of wireless headphones.  “Today, you are rewriting history and contributing to the legacy of District 16 and Bedford-Stuyvesant,” said BELA co-founder and head of school Nicia Fullwood to The Patch. “We’ve always said that you all were destined for greatness, that you’d change the world in ways we could never imagine. Despite your non-traditional senior year, today, we celebrate all of you.” Image source: BELA

The 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion, 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde, was born in Harvey, Louisiana. Her father gave her the last name Avant-garde after his favorite album by musician John Coltrane. She is homeschooled by her parents, along with her three brothers.  Avant-garde out-spelled 11 finalists on July 8, 2021 to clinch the prestigious title. Spelling is not her only talent, though. Avant-garde is also a talented basketball player, and holds three Guinness World Records for “Most Bounces in one minute with three basketballs,” “Most Bounce Juggles in one minute with four basketballs,” and the third record is for the “Most Basketballs dribbled by one person simultaneously.” Avant-garde can also ride a unicycle among her many talents.  Avant-garde has had quite the whirlwind since winning the Spelling Bee. She attended the ESPYs in New York City on July 10, and she is planning to visit the White House. Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen since her historic win is the several full-ride college scholarships she has been offered. Louisiana State University and Southern University and A&M College are among the universities to reach out to Avant-garde. “I’m hoping that in a few years I’ll see a whole lot more African American females, and males too, are doing well in the Scripps Spelling Bee,” she said in a statement. “It’s a really good thing. It’s a good gate opener to being interested in education.” Image source: National Review

In May 2021, Eden Jackson’s 6-year-old sister, Violet, was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Violet is undergoing treatment at Omaha’s Children’s Hospital, where she has received pints of blood and platelets through two life-saving transfusions. “I was thankful the blood was available for Violet when she needed it,” Wendy Jackson, their mother, told CBS. “And I wanted to pay that gift forward, so I scheduled my blood donation.” This inspired big sister, Eden, too. She organized a community blood drive with the American Red Cross. Blood donation is especially important right now as the country faces a shortage due to the pandemic.  With 16-year-old Eden’s efforts, the blood drive hit capacity quickly. “It was great to see it all fill up so fast and know that we brought awareness to the need for blood and that it can help people,” said Eden.

A 70-year-old woman from Connecticut fulfilled her dream by serving as honorary batgirl at Yankee Stadium, 60 years after she was denied from the dugout because of her gender. At 10 years old, Gwen Goldman wrote a letter to the Yankees asking to serve as their bat girl. The letter from 1961 that the team’s general manager, Roy Hamey, wrote back said that girls did not belong in the dugout. “While we agree with you that girls are certainly as capable as boys, and no doubt would be an attractive addition on the playing field, I am sure you can understand that it is a game dominated by men a young lady such as yourself would feel out of place in a dugout," Hamey wrote in the letter that Goldman has kept all these years. Six decades later, her dream finally came true after her daughter wrote to the team and included the 1961 rejection letter. Goldman wore the classic pinstripes as she walked onto the field at Yankee Stadium for the first time, wiping a tear from her eye. She was even able to throw out the first pitch. “It’s been an amazing opportunity,” Goldman said in a video call with reporters during the game. “A day of a lifetime I can’t put into words. I don’t know where to start on which was the best, which or what did I enjoy the most. Just the whole piece from walking in the front door of the stadium to coming up to a locker with my name on it, Gwen Goldman, and suiting up, and walking out onto the field. It took my breath away.” Goldman, a retired social worker from Newtown, Connecticut, represents another victory for females in an overwhelmingly male industry. The event was part of the Yankees’ annual HOPE week, which stands for “Helping Others Perservere and Excel.”

On Aug. 14, 1945, Japan surrendered to end World War II. As the news reached Louisville, Kentucky, the university cancelled classes, factories blew their whistles and the sale of booze was permitted across the state. The revelers got quite rowdy, some even firing guns into the air. Sailors kissed “every girl they could get their hands on,” according to the following day’s newspaper, and two police officers were suspended for abandoning their duties to get drunk. Amongst the chaos, Tess and Paul Silverman found each other and never separated for the next seven decades. Tess had been waiting for a streetcar that never came, and Paul said he could give her a ride. “In those days,” Tess said, “you wouldn’t think twice about taking a ride from a handsome stranger.” Tess went away for college, but Paul visited often. They were married on Tess’ parents’ anniversary for good luck. The couple had three children together and made New Jersey their home before retiring to Sun City Center, a senior living facility in Florida. They have traveled all over the world with each other. Israel, Peru, South Africa and Japan are just some of the countries visited. They celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in June 2021. According to the Silvermans, the key to a good marriage is communication about what you really want. They had a clear plan for their lives and always made decisions as a couple. The Silvermans are very grateful to have shared their lives together. “When you get to this stage, we think about that a lot — a lot,” Tess said. “How lucky we are to have each other.”

In mid-June, a mailman in Leicestershire, England asked Facebook to help him find the mother of a child who had written a Father’s Day letter addressed to her dad in heaven. The post garnered the attention of thousands, and the mailman was in contact with the child’s mother, Sarah Tully, very quickly. The mailman shared a photo of the letter with a Facebook group called Spotten Braunstone. The post said, "Earlier today I emptied the red pillar box on Bewicke Road (junc. of Folville Avenue) and there was a letter in a child's handwriting addressed to their dad in heaven, cloud 9. I'm trying to find the parents of the child as I would like to reach out to them and with their permission sort out a little something for the child.” He continued, "I myself lost my dad last year and as an adult found it hard so I can only imagine what this child is going through. Please, if anyone has any details then it would be hugely appreciated." In an interview, Tully shared that her daughter, Sianna, lost her father when she was just four months old. As she has gotten older, Sianna has started writing letters to her dad each Christmas, birthday and Father’s Day. "Sianna just came into the room that evening and asked, 'Where does Daddy live?'" Tully told LeicestershireLive. "I told her it was too late to post it at first, but she started crying, so I said, 'Come on then,' and we walked to the post box down the street." Tully does not read the letters that Sianna writes. She said, “I always say that’s between her and her dad.” Over 100 people commented messages of love and support for Tully and her daughter. Tully said that when Sianna is ready, she will show her the letter and tell her the story. For now, Sianna still believes her dad has the letter in heaven.

For busy parents, it can be challenging to find time to connect with your children. Chris Yandle lost his high-profile public relations job in college athletics after moving his family from city to city for his career opportunities, and he felt guilty for not being more present for his then 9-year-old daughter, Addison. “I felt like I had let my family down, specifically my kids,” Yandle told Today. One morning, Yandle quickly wrote a note to Addison on a Ziploc bag while packing her lunch for school. “And the rest is history,” he said. He began writing Addison lunch notes every day to support her through the tween years as she was starting her fourth school in just five years. Yandle recalls moving around often for his father’s job when he was a child, too. “I never really had a place that I could call home,” he said. “I didn’t want to do that to my kids, but I ended up doing that to them anyway.” Yandle and his wife, Ashleigh, realized Addison was facing some bullying at school, picking up on signs through her body language and slipping grades. He switched the tone of the notes to help Addison get through it. Yandle does not believe in the stereotype that fathers do not know how to interact emotionally with their kids. So, he decided to publish a book of his lunch notes to Addison in 2018, "Lucky Enough: A Year of Dad's Daily Notes of Encouragement and Life Lessons to His Daughter." Now up to 600 notes, he is still writing notes to Addison daily, even as she completes seventh grade from home due to the pandemic.

One of the world’s largest diamonds has been discovered in Botswana. It weighs in at 1,098 carats and is believed to be the world’s third-largest “gem-quality” diamond ever found. The diamond was discovered at the Jwaneng mine by Botswanan diamond firm, Debswana, about 75 miles from the country’s capital, Gaborone. Debswana is a joint venture between Anglo American’s De Beers and the Botswanan government, which receives up to 80% of the income from diamond sales. The next-biggest diamonds are the 3,106-carat Cullinan found in South Africa in 1905 and the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona discovered in Botswana in 2015. Botswana is Africa’s largest producer of the prized gem. The previous record for a gem-quality diamond found at this particular mine was 446 carats in 1993, according to CBS News. Botswana’s official government Twitter account wrote that “proceeds from the diamond will be used to advance national development in the country.” The minerals minister in Botswana, Lefoko Moagi, said the discovery of the stone could not have come at a better time, following a challenging year when diamond sales were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  “Debswana will work with the Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers to value and sell the diamond to ensure it returns maximum benefit for the people of Botswana,” the company said in a statement. “And (we) will communicate further plans to bring this unique treasure to market in due course.”

For the past six years, Shirley Raines and her organization, Beauty 2 the Streetz, have been a constant on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Originally, the group distributed items such as food, clothing, hair and makeup, but now the group provides health and hygiene items to the thousands of people located within the approximately 50-block area. "I would estimate we've got about 8,000 people who are sleeping out on the streets or in some of the shelters," said Raines. "There are more women on the street than before," Raines said, explaining that a women's shelter had closed down during the pandemic. "The resources had dried up." The most recent official count in early 2020 claims there are around 4,500 individuals on Skid Row. Raines estimates there has been an increase of over 40 percent since the pandemic began. Raines visits the area each week, setting up “shop” at the corner of 5th and Townes to help those she refers to as “Kings'' and “Queens.” Her intention is to make the homeless feel more human through haircuts, facials, meals or simply a hug. Before the pandemic, Raines was making 400 meals per week in her own kitchen. Then, as COVID-19 swept through the area, Raines found it challenging to find enough food and water to purchase. She asked her social media followers for help. "We just had to use our best judgment and figure out some ways to still keep them fed, while keeping them safe, and while keeping us safe," Raines said. Raines went through a series of tragic events when she lost her son, grandmother, and her son’s biological father in the 1990s. Helping others is what gives her hope. Now, as vaccination rates continue to rise, Raines is providing food and supplies twice a week and connecting with local groups to help the individuals of Skid Row know that there is hope for them, too.