Tag: Positivity
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Treating people, even prisoners, with respect is what food service giant Bill Mouskondis is all about.
Bill Mouskondis is always smiling. He is the son of a Greek immigrant who started a food service company with an old truck and cases of dented cans scavenged from railroad cars. Bill remembers long days riding his bicycle as a kid, delivering restaurant supplies to local cafes. Before semi-retiring, he worked six days a…
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New York’s finest maintain a tradition of service and sacrifice
The Vigiano family has served New York City for four generations: grandfather, father, two sons, daughter-in-law and grandson. Two of them were lost on 9/11. This is their story, from the StoryCorps collection commemorating heroes from that day. New York’s finest maintain a tradition of service and sacrifice, often bridging generations of police officers and…
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How a group of ambitious high school kids are digging wells in Kenya
Cruise down Highway 1 through the little beach town of Laguna Beach in California and you’ll be charmed by the quaint shops, the sea breezes, the soothing sound of waves. This is where people come to relax, watch sunsets, read lazy books and let the stress of the modern world be carried away on riptides.…
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14-year-old awarded scientist award for developing soap that activates skin cells to fight cancer
Heman Bekele was born in Ethiopia. He’s always had a scientist’s curiosity, that insatiable desire to know how the physical world works and how to improve the lives of its inhabitants. Before he moved to the United States at age 4, he remembers watching people working in the hot sun all day. In middle school,…
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The story of Wojtek the bear, who joined the Polish Army in WWll
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Young soldiers, far away from home and missing their families, discover a bear cub. That’s how the story of Wojtek begins, back in 1942. He was alone in the mountains of Iran; nobody knows how…
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In a suburban neighborhood, the angst of the world still reaches a group of elementary kids
Max and his friends worry about the future of the world. They are 9 years old and not immune to the constant barrage of television news about war, the lingering pandemic, the anger in the airwaves. Bob is the old man on the street, a retired physicist who studies gamma rays in faraway deserts and…
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The amazing story of the missing marathon runner who turned up 54 years later
We all have started on some task or set a goal for ourselves that we didn’t complete. Sometimes we lose interest or don’t have the willpower to keep going. And sometimes, we just forget about the task and move on, not seeing the purpose of it all — that is, until something stirs us inside,…
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How EMTs saved a life and then enjoyed living it together
Ask any first responder, and they’ll tell you the hardest calls you will ever get are those that involve a child. Many EMTs put their hearts on the line when kids are hurting. That was the case when a call came into an Indiana station about an injured person. At first, it seemed routine. But…
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How 18-year-old Barron Prize winner Austin Picinich is saving the salmon of Seattle by painting community murals
When you have big dreams, you need a big canvas. Austin Picinich’s dreams center on his home state of Washington and its dwindling salmon population. While streams flow downhill into the ocean, salmon make their way upstream to spawn. But recent droughts, commercial development and pollution have made it difficult for salmon to make the…
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Taming of the West: It’s time to give cowgirls their due.
Imagine growing up in New York City, dreaming of open ranges and taming wild horses. That’s exactly what Kitty Canutt did. At 17 years old, young Kitty competed in the Wild West Celebration Rodeo in Miles City, Mont. The year was 1916. The Western states were still populated with mavericks, roustabouts, gamblers and cowboys ……