9 Good News Stories: Toast To Black Culture; Lawyer ‘Cat-titude’

ACROSS AMERICA — With every pull on the tap in his Montclair Brewery taproom during February — Black History Month — Leo Sawadogo toasts his ancestors with special releases that feature ingredients with cultural significance.

“Brewing runs deep in my West African culture, and it means so much to me that I'm able to share the history and connection that Black people have with beer, since this is not usually represented in America,” the New Jersey man told Patch.

For the last three years during Black History Month, Sawadogo, the lead brewer and co-owner of the business with his wife, Denise Ford Sawadogo, creates signature beers that incorporate ingredients from their African and Caribbean cultures.

The special brews allow them to “use our brewery as a platform to educate others about Black history,” he said. By Eric Kiefer for Montclair Patch

Below are eight more uplifting stories from Patch editors across America, starting with a love story with a surprise start:

Learning Their Own Backstory

Alex Olsman and Zachery Frankel didn’t know they had a backstory until they got engaged. The Philadelphia couple, who married in December, just assumed they first met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. They figured out they knew some of the same people as kids. But until Olsman’s mother came across an old photo, they didn’t realize they had met years ago at a Montessori preschool. By Tim Moran for Philadelphia Patch

Saving Lives, A Drop At A Time

It's hard to say how many lives Dennis Hall has saved or affected, but a rough estimate is 2,000. Hall isn’t a first responder or a medical worker. Instead, the 68-year-old San Bernardino, California, resident's heroism is this: He recently donated his 100th gallon of blood. "I feel good knowing I'm helping someone else who needs it,” the longtime airport shuttle driver who has been a blood donor for more than 50 years told Patch. By Toni McAllister for Banning-Beaumont Patch

Foodies Embrace Struggling Business

Sita Adhikari is used to slow days at her Dairy Queen in Vienna, Virginia. But after a summer when sales fell far short because of the coronavirus pandemic, she needed a brisk winter season to pay the rent and cover the bills. A customer took notice and posted it on the Vienna Foodies Facebook page, and the group opened a tab at the Dairy Queen and invited members to head over for an afternoon cone. That raised $700 in just a few hours. But the group’s members weren’t done helping Adhikari — or other people. By Emily Leayman for Vienna Patch

Helping Kids Grasp The Pandemic

Jillian Handman had one simple goal in writing "#Hope21." She wanted to help children understand the COVID-19 pandemic was an unusual occurrence and, despite 2020 being such a difficult year, there were reasons to hope 2021 was going to be better. "Like everybody, I was thinking about how crazy 2020 was for everyone and some of the unique things that we've all experienced and endured in 2020," Handman said. By Michael O’Connell for Reston Patch

Only A Few Coaches Achieve This

It wasn’t his goal or the point of all the years he’s put into it, but John Maguire, the hockey coach at Waltham High School in Massachusetts, admits it’s “a pretty cool thing” to have achieved his 400th career win. Few coaches attain that milestone, said school Athletic Director Steve LaForest, who credited Maguire’s achievement to “a combination of success, and being able to coach for a long time in one place.” Maguire, only the third hockey coach in the school’s history, has coached the varsity team for 36 years. By Jenna Fisher for Waltham Patch

Was Voting Rights Fight Fought There?

David Whitcomb never expected to uncover a treasure trove of history from the early 1900s in a hidden attic in space he was considering as a home for his Geneva, New York, law practice. He was inspecting it with a friend when they noticed something odd about the ceiling. They investigated and found portraits of Susan B. Anthony among the artifacts from the women’s suffrage movement. But why were they hidden away? That’s part of the mystery Witcomb is unraveling. By Andy Nguyen for Across New York Patch

Kodak Black’s Grand Gesture

Rapper Kodak Black knows what it’s like to grow up in a single-parent household, and he also knows what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the law. His charitable work to support education, families of fallen police officers and the poor while serving his sentence on a federal weapons charge earned him a pardon, and now he’s committed to paying for the college educations of the young children who survive two FBI agents who were shot and killed in Sunrise, Florida, while serving a federal search warrant. By Tiffany Razzano for Across Florida Patch

It's A Kitten; No, It’s A Lawyer

If you missed it, you have no idea what you’ve been missing: the chance to laugh until your sides hurt over a video of a Texas lawyer who couldn’t figure out how to turn off the cat filter and appeared as a fluffy white kitten with enormous green eyes during a Zoom judicial hearing. “I’m here live,” the hapless lawyer told the judge. “I’m not a cat.” Watch it again for the first time or all over again — and be sure to read the comments; this one is especially good: “Cattorney-at-Law. Feliney cases a specialty.” By Beth Dalbey for Across America Patch