These 9 Stories — Many You'll Find Only On Patch — Will Give You A Boost

ACROSS AMERICA — This week in Good News Across America, a collection of Patch stories focusing on all the various things the tag implies, we start out with the story of a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor who threw out the first pitch at a recent Tampa Bay Rays-New York Yankees MLB game.

The Rays Baseball Foundation also gave a $10,000 donation to the Florida Holocaust Museum, where Hellen Kahan volunteers. She survived Auschwitz and two other concentration camps, grew up in communist Romania and has endured other hardships.

In a conversation with Patch’s Tiffany Razzano, the centenarian discussed her joy at celebrating her birthday, “let alone my 100th,” on the mound. She said she’s “grateful that I am here to tell my story and help the world remember why kindness and empathy are so important for us all.”

The memories still haunt. How could they not?

“It’s not the 100 you feel,” she said. “You feel what you went through. Because if you go through Hitler’s camps, everything was painful.” » A Patch Exclusive by Tiffany Razzano for St. Pete Patch

Speaking Of Kindness And Empathy …

Some high school students who too are often left out of all the fuss around prom season got the red carpet treatment recently at “Be Our Guest,” a prom for special needs students at a Presbyterian church in Vienna, Virginia. The guests walked under a military honor guard’s arch of swords, danced (and danced and danced). “We had several wheelchairs and crutches, but they were dancing,” Sue Hamblen, the church’s director of missions, told Patch’s Emily Leayman. “It was such a great event. There were a lot of tears from parents.” Both guests and their parents “felt truly loved and cared for throughout the evening,” she said. “We are so grateful.” » A Patch Exclusive by Emily Leayman for Vienna Patch

‘Never A Boring Day’

On any given day, you may hear laughter or excited voices coming from Richard Cicala's fifth grade class at Hooper Avenue Elementary School in Tom’s River, New Jersey. If you’re not careful, you could stumble upon a jousting match in the hallway. There’s method to it. “I just wanted to do something fun and original with them each and every day,” Cicala told Patch’s Karen Wall. As long as the fifth graders behave, the fun continues. This has been a stellar year for fun. It’s been so fun that one of the students nominated him for a teacher recognition award from area Applebee’s restaurants, saying “there is never a boring day in his classroom” and that he “makes coming to school for me every day so exciting.” » A Patch Exclusive by Karen Wall for Toms River Patch

‘I Can. I Will. I’m Strong.’

Students and former students shouted out some of their favorite teachers in this compilation based on a Patch reader survey for National Teacher Appreciation Week. Readers from across the country shared stories of teachers who taught them to think critically during times of great social change, or who ignited their passion for science, or writing, or music, or acting or — you get the idea. One reader recalled her third grade teacher asking the students to walk around the classroom in a circle chanting affirmations like “I can,” “I will,” “I’m strong” and “I’m disciplined.” It stuck. “I believed it,” the reader said, “and still do.” » A Patch Exclusive by Beth Dalbey for Across America Patch

A ‘Ribbeting’ Tale

Sorry/not sorry. We couldn’t help ourselves after reading this chirpy story from Patch’s Veronica Flesher about the Pine Barrens tree frog, newly crowned the official amphibian for Stafford Township, New Jersey. The idea is to build more awareness of the environmentally important endangered species so more people will protect them. It worked last year when the diamondback terrapin Stafford's official reptile. “I’ve noticed a lot more people protecting their nests, a lot more people — people in this room, actually — putting up signs,” Mayor Greg Myhre said. “And I think I’ve seen fewer road fatalities.” » A Patch Exclusive by Veronica Flesher for Barnegat-Manahawkin Patch

Cop ‘Ducks’ In To Save The Day

Here’s a thing that turned out a lot better than it could have after Oswego, Illinois, police Officer Chad Dickey, ahem, ducked in to save the day. Here’s what went down: A mother duck and her ducklings got separated. She blocked traffic for a while, but before Dickey could help her safely to the other side of the road, a hawk flew by and scared her away. Dickey turned his attention to the ducklings, which were in a storm drain, and carried them to safety in his hat. People joked on social media that made Dickey a duck dad, but mama duck showed back up and reclaimed her young ones. » A Patch Exclusive by Emily Rosca for Oswego Patch

Dispensary Owner Crashes 2 Glass Ceilings

Suzan Nickelson broke a couple of glass ceilings recently. Now that recreational marijuana is legal in New Jersey, she is the first Black woman and, indeed, the first woman in the state to open a dispensary. She brings a couple of decades of senior level leadership in state government to her venture, which focuses on teachings about cannabis cultivation and consumption passed down by women in her family, devout herbalists from West Africa and Jamaica. » By Josh Bakan Haddonfield-Haddon Township Patch

NFL Detour On Diploma

Rickey Jackson left the University of Pittsburgh in 1980 to embark on a remarkable NFL career with the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers that catapulted him to the Hall of Fame. Forty-three years later, he returned to Pitt and recently was among 2,500 students graduating in the Class of 2023. Jackson, 65, received a degree in social sciences from the College of General Studies. Despite a stellar career, it gnawed on him that he’d never gotten his degree. He only needed a couple of classes, which he was able to take online. How does it feel? “I’d put it up with the Super Bowl and all,” Jackson told the University of Pittsburgh’s Pittwire. “This is something I achieved personally on my own, so I’d put it right up with that.” » By Eric Heyl for Pittsburgh Patch

Violins Of Hope

As we close Good News Across America this week, think of Hellen Kahan, the 100-year-old Holocaust survivor from our top story, when you read about a Violins of Hope concert coming to Wilmette, Illinois, next ninth. The musicians will be playing some of the same violins played by Jews during the Holocaust. They are among violins, violas and cellos acquired since the end of World War II by father and son violin makers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, who work in Tel Aviv and Istanbul. The Nazis used music — and especially violins — to humiliate and degrade Jews in the ghettos and camps, and confiscated the instruments throughout Europe. The concerns, according to the Weinteins, “are the ultimate answer to their plan to annihilate a people and their culture to destroy human lives and freedom.” » By Jonah Meadow for Wilmette Patch

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