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Five good things · Three minutes
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KINDNESS • Woman's World
A teen fostered 300 kittens and raised $25,000 for sheltersShe came home lonely. A foster kitten had other ideas.
Sawyer Tinsley has fostered nearly 300 kittens and raised more than $25,000 for local no-kill shelters, all of which started with one loud purr. She was 10 when her parents agreed to let her foster kittens in Jupiter, Florida, on the condition she keep them in her room. The family already had three dogs, one of whom did not care for cats. Then middle school arrived during COVID-19, her old friends scattered to another district, and Sawyer came home lonely most days. The kittens helped. She figured they might help her isolated friends too, so she started inviting people over to hold them. Now 16, she and a few volunteers spend August evenings quietly planting 15 pink plastic flamingos in neighbors' yards, with a sign asking for shelter donations. Neighbors nominate each other for the pink surprise. "Petting a sweet kitten is so calming," Sawyer says. "If everyone could do it, I think the world would be a thousand times happier."
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MOTIVATIONAL • Sunny Skyz
A 47-year-old dad played college football, 30 years laterHis son said try out. He thought that was crazy.
Justin Buzzard, a 47-year-old pastor and father of three, played his first college football snaps on August 29, thirty years after injuries ended the dream at Whitworth College in Washington. The idea came from his eldest son, Cru. "Maybe you should play college football," Cru told him. Buzzard's first reaction was that this sounded crazy. His pros-and-cons list settled it. "The pro list was super long," he told ABC News. "The con list was, 'What if I got hurt?'" San Jose City College gave him a tryout, and he trained on the same terms as teammates half his age, adding 10 pounds of muscle. He also led prayers on the roster. Against College of the Redwoods, he lined up at right defensive end and hurried the quarterback on his opening play. His team lost 41-21. Opposing players called him the man of the hour in the handshake line. He turned 48 on September 14, matching his jersey number.
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DELIGHT • Nice News
A retired teacher turned her backyard squirrels into a careerThe pizza shop took 500 tries. The squirrel did not care.
Nancy Rose, a 72-year-old retired high school guidance counselor in Nova Scotia, spends up to 12 hours building miniature sets for the American red squirrels in her backyard, then waits at her window for the actors to arrive. She started more than 15 years ago, after the squirrels began eating nuts from her hand. The unedited photos now appear in her children's book series, The Secret Life of Squirrels, along with calendars and puzzles, and bring in about $50,000 a year. Rose builds every prop from reused or donated materials, including a Styrofoam version of the Canadian Rockies and a working pizza shop. That one took 500 photos before a squirrel finally held the paddle. Her secret is peanut butter, smeared on anything she wants a squirrel to pick up. "Waiting to get the shot I'm after is like meditation," she said. She keeps most of the props because she is not good at getting rid of things. Read the full story → | |||
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PROGRESS • Good News Network
The 165-mile trail is finally complete after thirty yearsThirty years of stitching. Now you can ride the whole thing.
The Mesabi Trail, a paved cycling route running 165 miles across northern Minnesota, is finally complete after more than 30 years of planning and fundraising. It now ranks among the longest paved bike trails in the country, connecting 28 communities from Grand Rapids to Ely. The route follows the Iron Range, threading through woods and hills that were themselves built from mining. Heaps of earth dug decades ago became man-made mountains, and forests grew back to line the trail's edges. The Department of Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation helped fund it using profit from the mines. "No single organization, funding source, or individual could have built what we see here today," said commissioner Ida Rukavina at last Tuesday's ribbon cutting. "This trail is the product of three decades of partnership and persistence." Tens of thousands of people already ride it each year. They have been riding stretches of it for years, waiting for the rest to catch up.
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DELIGHT • Upworthy
Five-year-old spotted a mismatch that flew Southwest's CEO to himHe was handed a pilot's manual. Then he read it.
William Hines is five, lives in Arvada, Colorado, and is fairly certain he is going to be a pilot. The evidence is mounting. After a commercial pilot named Josh visited his home in full uniform and spent two hours walking through aeronautical charts, he left the boy a Southwest training manual, the dense guide pilots use to learn aircraft systems. William started flipping through it and, within minutes, found something. "I discovered that two terrain monitors did not match. They did not match at all," he said. Southwest later confirmed the manual was fine. The two displays showed different zoom levels, which is exactly what a newly minted five-year-old spotted while most adults would have flipped right past. The story reached CEO Bob Jordan, and the airline invited the family to its Dallas headquarters for a tour of the pilot training facility. William got to sit inside a full-motion flight simulator. His reason for wanting the job is sound: "I don't have to walk 7,000 miles."
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THE HONEYMAP
Sweet news is everywhere, if you know where to look.
honeyletter+ is open — the whole map, the button whenever you need it, no sponsors ever. Founding rate through September 27. Become a founding member →
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With love, The Editor
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