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It was high tide at Santa Cruz’s Sunny Cove with waves reaching heights of six to eight feet. Zade Stone-Hinds, 17, was just getting ready to leave the beach when he spotted a man struggling to stay afloat. He did not hesitate, and immediately jumped in to save the stranger. “I’m not going to hesitate on something like that, that I feel so comfortable doing,” he said. He jumped in to rescue the man who later told Stone-Hinds that it was his first time ever being in the ocean. “I got him up on my board and let him breathe, just kind of relax and then some sets started coming,” Stone-Hinds said. Stone-Hinds initially secured the man onto his surfboard, but because of the treacherous waters, he lost his board and had to support the man on his own body. “There was a lot of water moving and it was high tide. A lot of backwash,” Stone-Hinds said. Stone-Hinds successfully rescued the man who, thankfully, only sustained a few minor injuries. Sean Rothwell, assistant harbor manager, said, “We’ve had plenty of calls over the years where our local surfing community will render aid, and we count on them quite a bit actually.” Witnesses to the rescue have shared kind words regarding Stone-Hinds. “He was amazing, he really was amazing,” said Kammy Ryckman. People are now pitching in to buy Stone-Hinds a new surfboard. “It’s a little overwhelming, but I’m glad people can see what you should do, just like I hope people know that when something is going on in public, they can act on it and not leave people hanging,” he said.

The journey from prison to the Chase Center began with a microphone behind bars for Aaron “Showtime” Taylor, who spent 26 years behind bars at San Quentin for armed robbery. "I feel like a kid. It's a dream come true," Taylor said as he sat at the Warriors Public Address Announcer's Table. "A lot of hard work behind it, but it's a dream come true." Taylor’s inspirational words moved the entire crowd. "I worked hard in 26 years to rehabilitate myself," Taylor said. "In the process of doing that, I just embraced the attitude that I could be more than what I was. Once I embraced the attitude that I could be more than what I was, then it was time for me to tell other people, you can be more than what you think you are.” Taylor first started this hobby by calling the prison yard basketball games. He was eventually given audio equipment to improve his calls. His talent caught the eye of the Warriors’ organization, and he was invited to be the guest announcer of a game just six months after being released on parole. "It's incredible," Warriors forward Draymond Green said. "To see him get his second chance... that was a dope moment for sure." Stephen Curry invited Taylor to join him for the postgame interview, and even gifted him the game ball. "The night before I was getting on the plane, I actually cried three times in the middle of the night," Taylor said. "It’s fun to be here, but I was understanding the weight of the pressure. Look I'm formerly incarcerated and I've been given this opportunity in 6 months. And that was weighing on me." He continued, "In the end right now, I'm still an ex-con on parole living in a transitional home. I just happened to have the best 3 days of my life right now, but when I catch a plane to go back home, I am going back to the transitional home because I still have a responsibility to the state. It's not a putdown to me. It's how I stay grounded."

Since then, she became the first person with down syndrome to earn a college athletic scholarship, and now has made history yet again, becoming the first golfer to play in a national college championship. Amy Bockerstette received a full ride to Phoenix’s Paradise Valley Community College in 2018, and now, as a 22-year-old, has just competed with her teammates at the NJCAA championships in Ormond Beach, Florida. "I like meeting new friends at the tournaments, I have fun," she said about why she loves the game. While this is her first time playing in the championship, Amy is used to performing under pressure on a big stage. https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1139925280108060672 In 2019, Bockerstette joined PGA pro Gary Woodland on the 16^th hole at TPC Scottsdale, a par three that is often called the “loudest hole in golf” because of its rowdy, stadium-like atmosphere. Despite the pressure and the noise, Bockerstette hit a beautiful up and down for a par, leaving Woodland speechless. The tear-jerking moment was shared to Twitter by the PGA Tour, and the video has now reached over 6 million views. I’ve been blessed to do lot of cool things on the golf course but that is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Woodland told reporters that day. “She was phenomenal…. I never rooted so hard for somebody on a golf course and it was an emotional, emotional really cool experience.” While golf is her passion, Bockersette loves to bowl, swim, and play sports like basketball, baseball, and soccer. During her barrier breaking golf career, she was given the chance to give a 20-minute keynote address at the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2019. “My superpower is confidence and believing in myself,” she said. “With your superpower, you can create your own purpose.”    

Unilever has partnered with Lanatech and India Glycols to produce a surfactant made from industrial carbon emissions. A surfactant is the ingredient necessary to create the cleaning action in laundry detergents. The three partners have produced a revolutionary supply chain that involves three stages. In the first stage, LanzaTech uses biotechnology to capture waste industrial emissions at its Beijing Shougang LanzaTech plant and converts these emissions to ethanol. In the second stage, India Glycols converts the ethanol into ethylene oxide, which is needed to make the surfactant. In the final stage, Unilever puts the surfactant in their new OMO laundry capsules, manufactured at its Hefei factory in China.  By not only recycling carbon, but renewing it as well, the use of fossil fuels can be mitigated greatly. To phase out the use of fossil carbon in consumer products by 2050, renewable carbon production needs to increase by a factor of 15x. This is the first step on that journey.  The three partners understand how important it is to protect the natural environment. In September 2020, Unilever launched a Clean Future pledge and is committed to eliminating fossil-fuel based chemicals from its cleaning and laundry product formulations by 2030. Further, the Unilever Home Care division hopes to achieve Net Zero emissions from all products by 2039. The President of this division, Peter ter Kulve stated, “Instead of valuable carbon being released directly into the atmosphere, we can capture it and recycle it in our products instead of using fossil fuels. New innovations like this help move our iconic cleaning brands away from fossil fuels without compromising on performance or affordability.” True to his word, the price of the cleaning product will not increase at all, despite this new supply chain. The CEO of LanzaTech, Jennifer Holmgren, added, “Our planet is running out of time and how we treat carbon requires urgent revision. By working with Unilever and IGL we can turn waste carbon into an opportunity, keeping fossil fuels in the ground and enabling new circular processes to make the products we use everyday.”  By switching to this new detergent, consumers can help clean the planet as they clean their clothes. Major corporations committing to helping the planet will help address the climate crisis and ensure a healthy environment for future generations 

The Halifax Humane Society, located in Daytona Beach, Florida got a special surprise on Saturday. The donor, known as “Doge Community,” had received a large payout from her cryptocurrency Dogecoin investment and decided to do something good with it. She paid for $1000 worth of adoption fees for dogs residing at the Halifax Humane Society. The shelter tweeted, “A generous donor, Doge Community has paid the adoption fees of all dogs in the adoption kennel at the time that were still available...Special thanks to Doge Community for their kindness and generosity.” All applicants still had to engage in the interview process in order to make sure that the animals were in good hands. As for the beneficiary herself, she did not adopt a dog. Rather, she is just a dog lover who wanted to use her financial luck to do something positive for the community. Her kindness had a snowballing effect, in the best way possible. Halifax had just rescued 42 dogs from a dog-fighting ring and were almost at total capacity. Paying for the fees allowed for dogs to be adopted quickly, creating more room for these new rescues. Further, According to the shelter’s Community Outreach Director Barry Kukes, “Many adopters that day were unaware that the adoption had already been paid but decided to pay it forward and gave the adoption fee as a donation as well...There are good people in Daytona Beach, FL and we are very grateful for the donation from Doge Community.” 

Elli Van Bree is a fifth grader at Elm Grove Elementary School in Texas. Her little brother, Willem, who is in first grade, will be joining her at the public school next year. Willem has autism and in honor of Autism Acceptance Month, Elli decided to film a video for Willem’s future classmates. She was worried about him starting at a new school and so she made a video telling Elm Grove Elementary how great Willem is and how to interact with him. She began by explaining that Willem is a little different, but his differences make him special. She described how Willem uses a tablet to communicate because he cannot speak and how sometimes he gets very excited so he will clap or flap his arms. She also explained that sometimes he gets overwhelmed by new people and loud noises because his ears and eyes are extra sensitive. She also talked about how he is similar to everyone else: he loves to read, cuddle, and hike. In addition, she supplied a list of things to do to make someone with autism feel loved and accepted.  1. Smile and say “hi” 2. Don't be offended if he/she doesn't want to do the same things as you 3. Be patient 4. Be kind The video will be aired during Elm Grove’s school announcements and it has also gone viral on facebook after Elli’s mom posted it. Elli ends her video by emphasizing, “Overall, he’s a kid like you and me...and I hope you love him as much as I do.” After watching this video, I think it's safe to say that Willem’s fellow students will love him very much.       

On February 21, 2018, Christine Mazzuchelli got the call that her son had been in a training accident, and that if she wanted to see him alive one last time, she would have to get on the first flight from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Diego. While James was still breathing with the help of a machine when she arrived with his stepfather, it was clear that his condition was critical, and that they had a difficult choice to make. They decided to begin the organ donation process, which, unbeknownst to them at the time, would allow a man to return to work, a veteran to regain his health, and a cyclist named Mike Cohen to get back behind the wheel.  In 2004, when Cohen was just 18, he was diagnosed with Leukemia, and the treatment process caused lasting damage to his heart. He beat cancer two years after his diagnosis but his heart was quietly beginning to give up on him. In 2017, he was finally rushed to the hospital with chest pains, where they found golf-ball sized clot in his left ventricle. He would need a heart transplant. Around the same time, Christine Mazzuchelli wrote a letter to each of the four recipients of her son’s organs, detailing the selflessness of James and his “go big or go home” mentality. Mike quickly realized how special his new heart was, and as soon as he got out of rehab, he began planning a bike trip across the country to Jacksonville, where James is buried. As opposed to the last one, this 1,426-mile cross-country bike ride was closely monitored by Mike’s doctor who made sure that his heart-rate remained below 150 beats per minute. On November 20, 2019, Mike pedaled the last 12 miles of his ride, slowly approaching the cemetery to meet Christine and James’ step-dad. He rode up to the couple, unclipped from his bike, and found that only a quiet “Hi” could escape from his lips. He fell into a deep embrace with Christine as the tears began to flow, and Mike silently expressed his gratefulness to James. Someone brought out a stethoscope, and Christine was given another chance to listen to her son’s heart. The heart of a hero.

A Pakistani organization is truly helping youth get over the nation’s daunting literacy “hump”. Lahore’s Alif Laila Book Bus Society has donated books to be used for camel-led mobile libraries, which delivers them to students who can borrow and return them for free. One of the camels—named Roshan—delivers books weekly to four villages in Balochistan, Pakistan’s most impoverished province. Balochistan has the highest percentage of students out of school in the country. In addition, the province has a troubling 24% female literacy rate and 56% male literacy rate. With no library in the area and schools having shut their doors due to COVID-19, Roshan’s trips to Balochistan villages are instrumental in keeping students intellectually engaged. When the book-bearing camel strolls into town, children aged 4-16 can borrow books, exchange books with other students, or return books they have previously borrowed. Once the pandemic began causing school closures, Rahima Jalal, a local high school teacher, and her sister Zubaida decided that using a camel would be an effective way to keep students engaged in reading. Rahima tells The Guardian that “the idea of using camels comes from Mongolia and Ethiopia. It suits our desolate, distant and rough terrains.” As a result, camels were a logical choice for navigating the Pakistani landscape while simultaneously making educational enrichment more accessible to students currently out of school. The Jalal sisters have received positive support from students for the mobile library project. So, they recently coordinated another camel-led mobile library in the city district Gwadar. A camel named Chirag and his handler, teacher Ismail Yaqoob, visit five towns in the district every week. The Alif Laila Book Bus Society has established over 7,000 libraries since its inception in 1978. In that time, the organization has donated over 1.5 million books to students across Pakistan.

Julia McClain met Luna at the beginning of their first-grade school year, and they instantly hit it off, despite being unable to see each other in person. "I kind of liked her, the way she is," Julia told People Magazine. When Julia’s birthday was fast approaching this spring, she understood that a typical birthday party for a 7-year-old may not have been feasible during the pandemic, but her mother knew just how to surprise her: a playdate with Luna at the park.

@lovethejamjamThe moment I met my best friend for the 1st time???? #feelgoodstory #heartfeltmoments #mybestfriendforlife #feelgoodvibesonly #newsstoryoftheday #ontv♬ Send Me on My Way - Vibe Street

"Luna knew, but Julia did not know," McClain told KVVU. "We were walking down the pathway here and she saw Luna and was so excited." What Julia thought was a normal walk to the park quickly turned into a huge surprise, and the heartwarming moment was captured on video and shared on TikTok by Julia’s mother. “I thought it was really exciting and like, oh my gosh! I get to see Luna for the first time!" Julia said. The two girls played for hours, catching up on lost time, and Julia described it as “one of the best days of her life.” "I was yelling, like, 'I'm so emotional!' It was really, really touching," Mrs. McClain said. "At school they don't let them hug, they don't even let them close to each other, so when they finally saw each other, she was a little apprehensive, and then she looked at me and she's like, 'I don't care, I'm hugging her!'" Moments like these serve as a reminder that little by little, normalcy is slowly returning, and hopefully the two girls will be able to see each other more in the future.