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Five good things · Three minutes
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KINDNESS • Good News Network
Strangers rushed to replace the boy's stolen Pokemon cardHe lost the card in minutes. Strangers spent hours trying to replace it.
A boy who spent years trading his way up to a rare Pokemon card lost it in a fraudulent trade at Pokemon XP in San Francisco on August 29. His father, venture capitalist Eric Bahn, posted the story on X. The card was a PSA 9 Rayquaza VMAX #218 from Evolving Skies, which starts around $1,000 and climbs from there. "Very tough lesson for him," Bahn wrote. "Sucks to see an adult take advantage of a child." Collectors replied within hours. A YouTuber known as Deep Pocket Monster, whom the boy had met shortly before being scammed, offered to help. A Pokemon event manager who goes by Sonoroman said he would dig through his collection for the card, and a US Army veteran made the same offer. Bahn thanked everyone, saying his son learned a second lesson, that there are far more good people in the world than bad. The boy said meeting Deep Pocket Monster made his day. The scam came right after.
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KINDNESS • Sunny Skyz
He taught himself car repair. Now he charges what you can afford.No income checks. No paperwork. Just bring your parts.
Michael Kuba runs a nonprofit garage in Glendale, Arizona, where the price of a repair is whatever you can afford. There are no income checks and no paperwork. People book an appointment, bring their own parts and refrigerant, and donate what they can for the labor. The whole thing started about 11 years ago, when a mechanic quoted Kuba almost $4,000 to fix the broken air conditioner that had his three young children crying in the back of his van. He couldn't wait for the money, so he bought tools, watched YouTube tutorials and taught himself. That became The Junkie Garage. An AC repair that runs $2,000 to $4,000 elsewhere costs his average customer under $300. His son Matthew has worked beside him since he was 8. He is 16 now and still turning wrenches. One foster parent couldn't afford the parts for her Dodge Caravan, so Kuba bought them himself. She came back to a running car and, finally, cold air for the kids in the backseat.
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MOTIVATIONAL • Smithsonian Magazine
He fell 71 times and finished all 2,190 miles at 91He fell 71 times. The last one came 600 feet from the top.
Dale Sanders, 91, became the oldest person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail on Monday, summiting Katahdin in Maine shortly before noon after 359 days on the roughly 2,190-mile footpath. He fell 71 times over the year, including once just 600 feet from the finish, and spent a brief stint in the hospital with a pinched nerve. Sanders broke a record he first set in 2017 at age 82. The title later passed to M.J. Eberhart, an 87-year-old friend Sanders once hiked alongside so he wouldn't quit. Eberhart returned the favor this time, helping drive a camper van nicknamed the Base Camp on Wheels for the first 800 miles. Sanders averaged 12 miles a day, fueled partly by strangers he calls trail angels. "When people are taking care of you and bringing you caramel frappes on the trail, the rocks don't matter," he told the Associated Press. His advice for seniors: it's OK to eat doughnuts if you also exercise. Read the full story → | |||
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MEDICINE • Upworthy
Dolly's book gave 250 million kids, and one girl, musicThe house had no music. A book about a song changed that.
A copy of Dolly Parton's children's book, Coat of Many Colors, did something years of quiet coaxing could not. It brought music into a home that had none. Sue Spencer's daughter is autistic and, for years, could not tolerate sound. No radio for the dishes. No playlist for cleaning. The family received the book through Parton's Imagination Library, and when Spencer read it aloud, she mentioned it was based on a song. Her daughter, then curious, asked to sing it. Then she asked to hear the recording. "A while later, I had a 7-year-old belting out 'Jolene,'" Spencer wrote on Threads. That girl is now 12 and builds her own playlists, each with a little Dolly in it. Parton launched the free book program in 1995 in Tennessee, inspired by her father, who could not read or write. It has since gifted more than 250 million books. She once called it her proudest achievement. Read the full story → | |||
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DELIGHT • Smithsonian Magazine
Two beagles could finally let allergic families own a dogHe loved dogs his whole life. He could never be near one.
Two beagles born in September 2024 carry an edit that could reshape who gets to own a dog. Alfie and Bailey are the first dogs engineered to lack Can f 1, a common allergen, according to researchers at Kindred Companion Sciences who published their methods in the CRISPR Journal on August 5. The company was co-founded by Matt Walker, a geneticist and CEO who could never be around the animals he loved. "I've lived with allergies my whole life. They prevented me and my family from ever having a dog," Walker told New Scientist. "And my wife, Maggie, has always wanted a dog." About a year and a half ago, he brought Bailey home. No reactions. The team found no trace of the allergen in the dogs' saliva or dander, while samples from a poodle and a goldendoodle both triggered a response. The dogs won't be for sale for a while. The FDA hasn't weighed in yet. Read the full story → | |||
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THE HONEYMAP
Sweet news is everywhere, if you know where to look.
• Every good thing we have reported, pinned where it happened •
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With love, The Editor
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