Teen Cuts Afro to Raise Money for Children with Cancer

 

A 17-year-old in Huntsville, Alabama spent six years growing his hair out with the goal of donating it to charity. Now, Kieran Moïse has raised more than $45,000 for children with cancer.

After Kieran got accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy, he knew it was time for him to cut his hair. He decided he wanted to donate the funds towards St. Jude’s Hospital – the hospital that helped one of his friends in middle school battle through cancer. In six years, it grew into a 19-inch afro, and for each inch, he wanted to raise $1,000.

“My hair is 19 inches long and that $19,000 will do so much good to help families dealing with cancer. One of my good friends in middle school died from cancer and I know St. Jude’s really helped his family. This is just one way that I feel like I can give back. It will also help make some really good wigs for kids!” He wrote on St. Jude’s Fundraising website.

“[Kieran] was born with a beautiful headful of hair, and for his entire life, that’s the first thing everyone noticed about him,” his mom told the Washington Post.

Kieran has now raised over $45,000 with highest single donations being $5,000, $2,000 and $1,000.

 

 

Four-Day Work Week Trial is a Huge Success in Iceland

 

You know that feeling of excitement you get after knowing a long weekend is coming up, and your two-day weekend is now a three-day weekend? Well, imagine that happening every Friday.

Over the past year, governments of Spain, New Zealand, and Singapore have openly been considering introducing a four-day workweek concept, which would have a wide range of benefits for the employee’s productivity, mental health as well as the environment.

Now, reports have shown that the largest ever trial of a four-day workweek in Iceland has been an “overwhelming success” and that it should be tested elsewhere too.

According to the report, conducted by the Autonomy and the Association for Sustainability and Democracy, results show that negative markers such as burnouts, stress, necessary over time, and disconnection with friends and family all went down, and in fact, found that those working shorter hours had improvement in productivity.

The Independent reported that more than one percent of Iceland’s working population participated in this trial, with no reduction in overall pays. The trial ran from 2015 to 2019 and involved over 2,500 people. Following the conclusion of the trial, 86 percent of the workforce moved to shorter hours for the same pay, or will soon gain the right to do so.

“This study shows that the world’s largest-ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector was by all measures an overwhelming success,” said Will Stronge, director of Autonomy.

Overall, the research reported employees are feeling less stressed and at risk of burnout, saying their health and work-life balance has improved.

“The Icelandic shorter working week journey tells us that not only is it possible to work less in modern times but that progressive change is possible too,” said Gudmundur D. Haraldsson, one of the researchers at Alda who carried out this analysis.

Colombian Man Uses Special Hand Gestures to Help Blind, Deaf Friend Experience Team Win

 

During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Cesar Daza created special hand gestures to help his friend experience Colombia’s win over Poland.

Daza’s friend Jose Richard Gallego lost his hearing and vision when he was nine years old to a disease. Despite not being able to see, or hear any of the soccer matches, that didn’t stop him from continuing to support his country, especially during the World Cup.

In fact, thanks to his friend Daza, Gallego was able to follow every moment during the 2018 match between Colombia and Poland, where they beat the other team 3-0.

The hand gestures Daza came up with mimicked the players’ positions, by moving Gallego’s hands on a tiny football pitch in front of them. There were different gestures for red cards, throw-ins, corners, and penalties too.

Watch the heartwarming video below of the two men celebrating Colombia’s win.

 

 

Two Boy Scouts Rescue Woman Drowning in Floodwaters

 

Two young boy scouts have saved the life of a woman from Missouri who was drowning in the floodwaters.

Joseph Diener, 16, and Dominic Viet, 15, were riding their bikes in Columbia, inspecting the damage that was caused by a massive rainfall that flooded parts of the city.

That’s when they heard the young woman screaming for help. She was swimming with a friend at Jay Dix Station, where the entire basketball court got flooded.

“We didn’t have time to think, her head was barely above the water and we could see her sinking more down every second. We didn’t think about risks, we had to get her out,” Dominic told CNN.

As they got the woman to grab onto their shoulders, because her legs were cramping and she was no longer able to swim, they felt the currents trying to pull them down too.

Luckily, they were able to doggy-paddle back to the shore, where the woman was then transported to a local hospital for evaluation. Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Jenkins says that the woman is expected to be okay.

“She laid there for about five minutes, coughing up a lot of water and just not moving or talking,” said Joseph.

The Columbia Fire Department now plans to honor the two boys for their bravery with a “Citizen Life Safety Award.”

 

 

Toddler With One Leg Climbs Stairs for the First Time

 

A 19-month-old toddler has amazed his parents by climbing stairs for the first time with just his right leg.

Lucas Bobakov, the brave little boy, climbed up nine flights all on his own, with his parents cheering him on. His proud father Dennis Bobakov can be seen in the video below, standing right behind him and his mom Leeza Bobakov, is behind the camera, capturing this precious moment.

When Lucas was still in Lisa’s womb, he suffered through some complications, causing a twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome – which left Lucas’s leg amputated at just three weeks old.

While he was in the womb with his twin brother Peter, Leeza’s placenta had ruptured which led to a lot of blood being transferred to Lucas and caused a clot in his leg.

Meanwhile, Lucas’ brother Peter, suffered a lack of blood supply and was born deaf.

However, seeing their baby going up the stairs, made them so happy, and proud.

“I was so unbelievably happy and bursting with pride that Lucas just got straight to it and climbed the stairs entirely by himself,” Leeza told StoryTrender.

Watch the inspiring video of Lucas climbing up the stairs with just one leg.

 

Khaby Lame is Tiktok’s Fastest-Growing Content Creator

 

Seen a creative technique for tying your shoes on TikTok? Why not just do it the simple way? That’s what Khaby Lame’s videos are all about.

This Senegalese-Italian man has risen to fame in such a short period of time, making him TikTok’s fastest-growing content creator. The 21-year-old started his TikTok journey when he lost his job at a factory in Italy, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020. He makes videos using an outdated smartphone in his shared room, reacting to videos of creative and complicated life hacks by duetting viral videos that show up on his ‘For You Page,’ demonstrating a simpler method and hand gesturing it while shaking his head in disbelief.

 

@khaby.lame

Look Sista????????‍♂️ Don’t be nervous, it’s simple????????‍♂️Guarda Sorella,non essere nervosa,è così semplice. #learnfromkhaby #learnwithtiktok

♬ suono originale – Khabane lame

 

Khaby Lame, whose full name is Khabane Lame, has now grown to more than 85.6 million followers on the app, outranking Addison Rae who’s got more than 81.8 million followers, and soon enough, might reach Charli D’Amelio’s follower counts, a TikToker who creates dance videos, and is the most followed on the app with over 119.5 million supporters.

 

 

“It’s my face and my expressions which make people laugh,” said Lame, in an interview with New York Times.

Lame has collaborated with many influential TikTokers, YouTubers, celebrities, and athletes like Alessandro Del Piero, who plays for Lame’s favorite soccer team – Juventus.

Watch below a compilation of Khaby Lame reaction videos.

 

Why Everyone is Drinking Oat Milk

A glass of raw oat milk.

 

Nutrition is never as straightforward as it should be. Part of that has to do with food science being a living, breathing thing; like when a new method for measuring calories uncovered that almonds are less calorie-dense than we initially thought. But it also has to do with nutrition fads and with marketing. We’re consistently told that some new product is better than what we were using before, and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at oat milk. It’s a product that is definitely having its moment in the spotlight: not only did oat milk company Oatly buy a Super Bowl spot this year, but now Starbucks locations can’t keep it stocked because of its popularity.

 

 

It hasn’t yet passed almond milk for most popular dairy alternative, but it’s fair to wonder if that moment will come soon: it’s currently more popular than soy milk, and oat milk sales grew by about 300% in 2020 alone.

Why? For one thing, people like the way it mixes into coffee. If you’ve experimented with dairy alternatives before, you know that many of them do not mix well with coffee. They curdle, or separate, or leave the coffee tasting just a little bit off. Oat milk doesn’t seem to have these issues. And its natural creaminess makes it a perfect substitute for traditional dairy.

Taste is part of the equation. But so, too, is the sustainability of oat milk. Much has been written in recent years about the resources required to farm almonds, with some suggesting that a single almond requires about a gallon of water to reach maturity. And while almond farming is still less resource-intensive than dairy farming, most almonds are grown in drought-prone California, where that gallon of water is more precious than it might be elsewhere. Oats require significantly less water than almonds, and just slightly more land.

 

 

There are, of course, other considerations. For example, oat milk is allergy-friendly. So if you’re allergic to tree nuts (almond milk) or soy, oat milk might be your next-best option. And there are also nutritional differences to consider. Oat milk does have more calories in a serving than almond milk, but it also has more protein.

Everything points to oat milk being a mainstay in the dairy alternative market. So whether you’re cutting out dairy for the first time, or simply wondering if there’s a tastier alternative to what you’re using, a carton of oat milk might be a good investment.

 

7-Year-Old Uses Lemonade Stand to Help Fund Inclusive Playground

 

Gwen Ciccozzi, a 7-year-old who lives with cerebral palsy and had a perinatal stroke, is raising money to help build Brunswick’s first inclusive playground.

When Gwen was still in her mother Rebecca Ciccozzi’s womb, she suffered a stroke. Her mother wasn’t sure if after surviving the stroke, Gwen would be able to “walk, or talk, or even be able to understand what other people were saying.”

It hasn’t been an easy childhood for Gwen. Her health condition requires her to use a wheelchair, and this makes it difficult for her to freely enjoy her favorite place: the playground.

“Playgrounds were very — and sometimes still are very — difficult. Traditional playgrounds with wood chips and climbers are just something that Gwen really struggled with,” Ciccozzi told ABC News 5 Cleveland.

For Gwen to enjoy spending time at the playground, her family would have to drive 20 minutes from her home to the closest inclusive playground. According to Leann Alerio, Gwen’s former teacher and a Special Education Coordinator for Brunswick City Schools, having to drive those distances to go to a park can make a child feel like they don’t fit in. That feeling of exclusion can affect a child’s social, emotional, and mental development.

 

 

That’s why Alerio went to the city and proposed that Brunswick build its first inclusive playground. The proposal had unanimous approval, but the cost of the playground is holding things up. According to the city, the price tag is at least $350,000, in part due to the size of the layout.

In an effort to fast-track the playground, Gwen has been raising money with a lemonade stand. It’s called “Gwennie Penny’s Lemonade,” and it’s already proving popular among Brunswick residents. As of last week, she’s raised more than $1,000, selling each “freshly squeezed and homemade lemonade” for only $0.50 a cup.

Every dollar raised is going towards the inclusive playground.

 

12-Year-Old becomes Youngest Ever Chess Grandmaster

 

Abhimanyu Mishra, an Indian American boy from New Jersey, has become the youngest ever chess grandmaster.

On Wednesday, Abhimanyu competed in Budapest, Hungary, and scored his third GM norm (an award that recognizes grandmaster-level performance at a chess tournament). At the age of 10, he held the title of International Master, and when he was just seven years old, Abhimanyu became the youngest Expert of the United States Chess Federation.

 

 

In order to secure the title of grandmaster, a player must achieve three grandmaster norms, as well as a 2500 Elo rating (the system that determines international chess rankings).

Before Abhimanyu, the title for youngest grandmaster belonged to Sergey Karjakin. It was a title he held for 19 years, after being named grandmaster at just 12 years and seven months.

 

 

Now, at the age of 12 years and four months (and 25 days), Abhimanyu has stolen that title. The 12-year-old spent several months in Budapest, playing back-to-back tournaments to chase the title and record.

 

81-Year-Old Completes her Second Tough Mudder Obstacle Course

 

Mildred Wilson, an 81-year-old woman, has completed her second Tough Mudder in Missouri.

Wilson was originally inspired by her son Danny Wilson, who completed the competition before. “I had watched him do the World’s Toughest Mudder in Vegas,” Wilson told KFVS 12 News after her first Tough Mudder. “He asked me last fall if I would like to do one. I said yes, but, if I do it, I want to be able to really do it. Not just be out there.”

According to the Tough Mudder website, the obstacle course has a series of mud runs designed for “pushing your physical and mental limits without the pressure of competition.” It requires participants to army crawl through pits of muddy water, before tackling a mile run filled with obstacles.

Wilson first attempted the course in 2019. After getting her doctor’s approval, and training for months at the YMCA, Wilson finished Tough Mudder with her son at her side.

That first year, she had family and friends present to watch, including her biggest cheerleader: her husband, Farrell. But after Farrell passed away in 2020, Mildred decided she’d complete the course again, this time to honor her late husband.

In light of Wilson’s second accomplishment, Tough Mudder posted an update to Instagram of the 81-year-old “crushing her second Tough Mudder.”

 

 

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