"(Turkey): It started almost 3 decades ago—truck driver Sehmus Erginoglu began clearing a waste site in Mardin city. Now he's 71, and he's created a forest. The proceeds began by clearing out trash from the site, installing water pipes and eventually started to plant saplings. 'I don't make any money from this, but it gives me happiness. When the trees bear fruit, the people come here. They eat fruit and sit under the trees and become happy. When people die, they cannot take their money into the afterlife, but the good they do comes with them.'"

"Fisherman Jean and his brother spent Christmas Eve in Itabuna Bahía, using the only thing he had left–his raft— to save 121 families. The hero who lost his own home to the flooding, worked nonstop for 37 hours moving around in 10 feet deep water to help as many people as possible. Funds have been raised to buy Jean a new home. Jean is the good news."

"(Muskogee, Oklahama): 6th grader Davyon Johnson used an abdominal thrust on a classmate who was choking on a bottle cap last Thursday. Later that day, he rescued a woman who has a disability, from a burning house. His mother says she's not surprised and that her son wants to be an EMT just like his brother when he is older. Representatives of Muskogee Police Department, Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office and Muskogee Public Schools honored Johnson Tuesday as an honorary member of the police and sheriff’s departments.
 
'I felt good, excited,' Davyon said about the honor.
 
Principal Latricia Dawkins called Davyon a 'dual hero.'"

"In 2012 Margaret approached the Embankment Tube Station staff distraught at the fact that they'd changed the announcement voice. When the staff learned the story of her visiting just to listen to her late husband Oswald Laurence's voice— they made the decision to keep it."

"Over 6,000 books are available to the public in a library in Ankara from discarded books that otherwise wiuld have gone to landfill. In 2018, It was initially intended to be a library for sanitation workers and their families but became open to the public after seeing how much interest there was in it. The novel idea inspired the community to donate books to the ever-growing collection. In Bogotá, Colombia a sanitation worker had the same idea and has built a home library open to the public and created a foundation to encourage literacy in impoverished areas."

"In July, Florida detective Mike Blair, of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, responded to a horrific crime scene in March 2018 – a man had killed his girlfriend and special needs daughter and critically injured his son. The 8-year-old son wasn't expected to make it but pulled through. The detective would frequently check up on the boy. The detective said his heart strings were pulled when the boy asked him, "will you watch a movie with me?"... Now that detective is his adoptive father to the now 12-year-old boy and the boy says he feels so loved by his adoptive parents and 6 siblings."

"(Austin, Texas): 11-year-old Audrey Soape lost her father and grandfather last year & was feeling sad about an upcoming father-daughter dance. That's when her mom Holly reached out to @philadelphiaeagles football player Anthony Harris ( @antharris ) to ask whether he would take Audrey to the dance, not expecting a reply. But to her surprise, the NFL player said YES.
 
“[I was] just trying to be a human,” Harris told NBC 10 in Philadelphia. “Trying to take off the helmet, trying to take off the cape of what I do professionally and just show some sympathy for that family and try to show some support there.” The family had been fans of Harris since his days with the Vikings and say it was such a blessing that someone so busy would take time of their schedule to show up for someone they don't even know."

"(Boise, Idaho) 2nd grade Dillon Helbig waited for the right moment to slide his 81-page "Crismis" book onto the shelf at the Ada County Library near Boise, Idaho over the holidays. When he told his mom, she was worried the Library might throw it out. They hadn't. Instead it's turned into one of the top requested books with dozens waiting to read it. ☺️ The name of the book is The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis by 'Dillon His Self.'"

In the documentary, White explained 'all through the South there was this whole ruckus, they were going to take the show off the air if we didn’t get rid of Arthur because he was Black.' White never budged however: 'Evidently through the South at that point it was a very heavy [thing], and I said, ‘I’m sorry, but he stays […] Live with it!’' White said. They would go on to be life-long friends.

"(North Carolina): At 26, Jason Brown signed a $37.5 million contract--one of the largest at the time for any NFL lineman but he says he wasn't fulfilled. In 2014, he said he felt a God-sent calling to help those struggling with food insecurity: 'God told me he was going to supply my every need.' Jason bought a farm, called it 'First Fruits Farm' and he and his family dedicated themselves to learn how to grow crops, donating produce to pantries for the last 8 years. He said he was inspired his brother who served in the military and died in Iraq. Thank you Jason for the difference you've made and continue to make."

"Bethel Park High School (PA) coach sent a message to his team: 'Due to the expected severe weather, Monday's weightlifting workout has been cancelled. Find an elderly or disabled neighbor and shovel their driveway. Don't accept any money - that's our Monday workout.'
 
Delallo said the shoveling workout started with the previous coach, more than a decade earlier, but he thinks he may have been the first to tweet it. Thanks to social media, athletes from competing teams saw the tweet and also went out to shovel."

"Pets in Spain will no longer be considered as 'objects' but rather as 'sentient beings' in this new legislation that focuses on the animal’s welfare, the emotional bond and the shared responsibility, vet bills, etc of taking care of an animal in divorce or seperation cases. Evidence of mistreatment will also be taken into consideration. This new law also means pets can no longer be seized, mortgaged, abandoned, mistreated or removed from one of their owners in the case of a separation or divorce. Portugal introduced this legislation in 2017, France in 2015 and Germany in 1990."

"Amazon Watch climate and energy director Kevin Koenig called the Constitutional Court of Ecuador's decision 'a major victory for Indigenous peoples and an important step in protecting some of the most environmentally fragile and culturally sensitive places in the Amazon.'
 
'It is also a reminder for oil companies and investors that expanding oil extraction in Ecuador's Amazon is a risk and full of potential legal liabilities,' Koenig added.
 
The court rejected plans to drill for oil in a protected area of the Yasuní National Park in the Amazon and now the more than 23 million acres will be protected, both good news for the Indigenous community and environment."

Diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in December 2018, Max Parrot underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy before announcing in July 2019 that he had beat cancer.
He brought home Canada's FIRST GOLD medal at the Beijing Olympics, after coming in first in the men’s snowboard slopestyle. 

"(Russia): On Jan 13, 10-year-old Vika had got lost about half a mile from her home as she returned from school in Uglegorsk as snow was accumulating.
 
Thankfully she was located 18 hours later, sitting on a mattress below a balcony outside of a shelter, clinging to a stray dog. She told authorities she was 'hugging a fluffy dog for warmth.'
 
Temperatures plunged to -11C during the snow storm.
'The fact that the girl remained alive in such weather really is a miracle,' volunteer searcher Anatoly Ivanov, told The Siberian Times."

"According to the hospital, baby Judah is an answered prayer as her mother Aberli underwent treatments for Hodgkin's Lymphoma that made pregnancy unlikely. Welcome to the World, Judah"

"4 members of Wyoming's Kindness Ranch intercepted 30 beagle pups last Wednesday part of a 150-beagle puppy rescue operation from a breeding facility in Virginia. These dogs were bred for use of medical research—a practice that usually ends with euthanization.
'To be able to intercept dogs before they were sold to research is unheard of and an opportunity that we could not pass up,' said John Ramer, director of the Kindness Ranch. TRUE HEROES."

 
Kentucky native Jim Finch loaded up his truck and drove to the disaster zone to cook for anyone in need in the aftermath of the tornadoes. To more beautiful people like Jim!

"This father has painted over a dozen bus stations to look like living rooms in honor of his son Joao Batista who wrote in his diary that he wanted to paint a mural at the back of his house. Since the son passed away in 2006, the father carried out his son's wish along run down bus stops in Santa Caterina, Brazil... making them beautiful. He says he loves seeing people take pictures and enjoy their time at the stop. A father's love..."