He hopes to plant one trillion trees to offset climate change

When Germany's Felix Finkbeiner was nine years old, his class assignment was a report on climate change. His research for the report uncovered the Nobel-prize winning work of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman who had spearheaded programs to plant 30 million trees in Africa. Felix was inspired by her work and decided to plant a few trees himself. One million trees, to be exact.

He started talking about it, and with help started an organization called Plant the Planet. In its first year, children planted 100,000 trees in Germany. Word spread, and Felix's dream reached the United Nations. At the ripe old age of 14, he spoke to the UN's General Assembly, saying in part, “We children know adults know the challenges and they know the solutions. We don’t know why there is so little action.” 

Now 20, Felix continues to work with Plant the Planet, and in cooperation with the UN's Billion Tree Campaign, has helped plant 15 billion trees in 130 countries. The groups' efforts are on track to plant one trillion trees, or 150 trees for every person on earth. 

 A fascinating aspect of the Plant the Planet campaign is the 55,000 'climate-change ambassadors' they have trained for activism in their home communities. Their average age is nine to twelve years old. 

Wangari Maathai didn't live to see the seed she planted had taken root in Felix's heart. Now that seed has spread to another generation. Our world is more beautiful and sustainable because of their work.  

Elderly Portland man gives brooches to people who 'need a little sparkle'

Portland, Oregon's Myron Boyer is a familiar face at the local farmers market. For the last six years, he has ambled through the market with rhinestone and enamel brooches pinned to his T-shirt. When he sees someone who looks sad, distracted, or just plain busy, he stops to speak with them. While chatting, he offers them a brooch. According to the owner of a local coffee shop, folks "...kind of blush a little, look a little frazzled, but they're very accepting, because he's a very approachable man." 

Now fondly nicknamed 'The Bling Fairy,' Boyer started the giveaway after his friend Bob Lamberson died. Lamberson was a 'bigger than life' character and heavily involved in theater. While he was hospitalized, Boyer brought him brooches to cheer him in that sterile environment. After he died, Boyer gave the brooches to the nurses. A tradition was born. 

Boyer doesn't ask names, but folks who accept his gift tend to tell their stories: a woman struggling with depression, someone who just received a cancer diagnosis, a homeless couple who appreciated being noticed. Boyer listens, then watches the transformation as the brooch is fastened to a shirt or lapel. "Putting one smile a day on someone's face is making the world better," he told a local newspaper. "And that's basically where it's at."

Kids ask us all to #DoItForPeace

Today, September 21, has been set aside as the International Day of Peace. Two organizations, Peace One Day and Kids for Peace are teaming up with the Good News Network to launch a worldwide quest: to perform one billion acts of peace in ten days. 

One billion. 

Under the hashtag #DoItForPeace, 1000 'ignitors' hope to shift global consciousness toward kindness, generosity, and peace. They shared their act of peace, then invited five friends to do the same. If those five friends invite five more, well, you get the idea. In ten days, over one billion people, 10% of the world's population, will have deliberately taken action to recognize and promote peace in their own lives. What an amazing transformation that would be! 

Some planned activities include:
Kids forming peace signs in the USA, UK, Kenya, Pakistan, India, and Australia;
Skydivers performing the first-ever skydiving peace sign formation;
Professional surfers creating a peace sign on the waves.

We don't need to form peace signs to promote peace. We can start with a simple kindness to a neighbor or a stranger. 

All participants are encouraged to post photos and videos of their acts of peace under the hashtag #DoItForPeace. Whatever you do, do it for peace. Let's make this grand experiment a success! 

Tennessee man drives a school bus full of shelter animals out of Florence's path

To say Tony Alsup has a heart for animals is an understatement. The 51-year-old truck driver from Tennessee started rescuing shelter animals in the wake of Hurricane Harvey last year, and then did the same with Hurricane Irma. 

When he learned that Hurricane Florence was expected to bring flooding to the Carolinas, he contacted coastal shelters to offer help evacuating dogs and cats. Of course, the shelters accepted the offer. 

All across the region, animal lovers lined up to offer shelter to pets. Still, some animals were left behind.  

So Alsup took the seats out of a school bus and drove to the Carolina coast. He created his own version of Noah's Ark, rescuing what one shelter called "leftovers’ — the dogs with blocky heads, the ones with heartworm... the ones no one else will ever take. And he got them to safety. Not the most conventional evacuation, but surely the one with the most heart.” 

In all, Alsup rescued 53 dogs and 11 cats and drove them to safety in Alabama. There, his friend Angela Eib-Maddux, opened her privately run dog shelter for the animals and gave them baths and TLC. Between their established networks of animal lovers and other shelters, all the displaced refugees found safety within days. 

93-year-old is a real-life 'Candy Man'

Bob Williams of Long Grove, Iowa has developed quite a reputation. Fifteen years ago, he went to the local Dollar General for their weekly sale - $5 off any $25 purchase. He used that $5 to buy three large Hershey bars. He gave them away, two to store employees and one to the person behind him in line. When he saw the pleasure that small gift brought, he made the purchase and giveaway of Hershey bars a habit. 

He started buying Hershey bars by the box and would hand them out to folks in Long Grove who looked like they needed a pick-me-up. If they tried to refuse it, Bob would insist they take it and pass it on to someone who needed a smile. Over the years, Bob 'the Candy Man' has given away about 6000 Hershey bars. "You'd think I'd given them the keys to a new car," he later told reporters. 

Hershey's got wind of Bob's generosity. They boosted Bob's supply of Hershey bars and are using his story as part of their Heartwarming the World campaign. 

Better than that, Bob's sweet gift inspires other residents of Long Grove. “I don’t think he realizes the effect he has on people,” one local said. "He's teaching all of us how to pay it forward.” 

Man who started walking 20 miles to work given a car by his boss

College student Walter Carr was stuck. His car broke down the day before he was to start a new job with a moving company called Bellhops. The home scheduled to be moved was 20 miles from where Carr lived in Birmingham, Alabama. 

In search of a ride in the morning, he reached out to friends. No one could help. Carr did the only thing he could think of - he started walking at midnight, determined to be on time for his first day on the job. 

A few hours into his trek, he sat down in a parking lot to rest. A police officer drove up and asked what he was doing sitting in an empty lot in the middle of the night. When Carr explained his plan, the officer, Mark Knighten, offered breakfast and a ride toward his destination. Carr accepted both. 

After breakfast, Knighten drove Carr closer to his work site, but had to drop him off because of a shift change. He promised to tell the next shift officer of Carr's situation in the hopes that he'd be able to offer transport too. Carr waited for a time, but concerned that he'd be late, started walking again. 

Officer Scott Duffey caught up with Carr a while later and drove him the last four miles to the job site. When they arrived, Officer Duffey approached Jenny Lamey, the homeowner who was readying for the move. He told her he had a 'great kid in the car' who had been walking all night to get to her house. Lamey started to cry. She offered Carr some food and a place to take a nap, but Carr declined. His Bellhops co-workers had arrived and he said, "I'd rather get started." After the job was completed, one of the co-workers gave Carr a ride home.

The next day, Lamey called Carr's supervisor to praise the committed young man. She also started a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $2000 for Carr's auto repairs. As of this writing, over $91K has been pledged. 

Even more amazing, word of Carr's dedication reached Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin in Tennessee. Marklin called Carr and offered to drive down to Birmingham to meet him for coffee. That's when Marklin presented Carr with his own 2014 Ford Escape. Bellhops “...set a really high bar for heart and grit and … you just blew it away,” Marklin told him.

Teen's simple act of kindness changed a young mother's outlook

Nineteen-year-old Kent State University student Mackenzie Mauller ordered her coffee at the local Starbucks drive-thru. As she sometimes does, she paid for coffee for the person behind her in line, then went on about her day. 

The recipient of this small kindness was 32-year-old Nicole Clawson, a mother of two. Clawson was going through some tough times, and was at Starbucks to give herself a rare treat. The generosity of this stranger buying her coffee made her cry. 

As Clawson pulled into her neighborhood, she spotted Mauller's car parked just a few doors down from her own home. The two were neighbors! Clawson wrote a lengthy thank you note and tucked it in Mauller's mailbox.

“I felt it necessary for you to know that what you did for me was more than just a coffee,” Clawson wrote. "It was something that has turned my whole day around, put tears in my eyes and a smile on my face and I feel so grateful.”

The note went viral. 

The two met in person, and Mauller has offered to babysit for Clawson's young children sometime. Mauller says, "It has made me realize truly how much you can impact someone’s day just by being kind.”

Kindness of 'Charlie's Cooler' spreads to 15 states and overseas

I'm so thankful to be healing well. Now, back to reading and writing and actually participating in life!

Over five years ago, New Jersey resident Charlie Poveromo watched sanitation workers pick up  neighborhood trash during a brutal heat wave. The men were sweaty and pale, so Charlie ran out with a jug of cold water and some cups for the workers. That same day, he started a summer tradition: stock a cooler full of iced drinks and leave it open on his lawn for overheated landscapers, sanitation workers, mail personnel, etc. Dozens of people helped themselves to Charlie's kindness every week for years.

Charlie died unexpectedly in March. This summer, his widow, Velvet, set out the cooler with a note stating that she would do her best to carry on her husband's tradition. Social media spread the word. Now Charlie's Coolers have popped up throughout New Jersey, plus 15 other states, the Virgin Islands, Italy, and Japan.

Velvet is delighted with the response. Seeing the way Charlie touches people even after his death "helps heal me," she said. "And it all started with this: a cooler on a lawn."