Weekly Uplifting Stories - Week of March 27th, 2023

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Weekly Uplifting Stories! 

This week, an adorable baby elephant steals the show from a reporter and two Ohio teens break a record for the single biggest toy donation a local pediatric hospital has ever seen.

We found an Australian clean-up-the-beach initiative, where you can trade a bucket o' garbage for a coffee. A committed cookie company CEO strikes out to empower others with labeled disabilities to find career success and a teen baker finds joy in baking after struggling with crippling depression and anxiety. 

Are you ready to be inspired? Let's get into it!

Cookie Company CEO with Down Syndrome Empowers Others to Find Career Success & Independence

 After years of being rejected for multiple jobs because she wasn't, 'a good fit', Colette Divitto decided to start her own company, Collettey's Cookies.

Claiming that baking makes her happy, she has since sold over 550,000 cookies. She also started a non-profit, Collettey's Leadership Program, which offers vocational training, information on how to live independently and find success in school, among others. 

"I really want to help people," says Collette Divitto, CEO of Collettey's Cookies

After finding success with her cookie business, Divitto, who has Downs Syndrome, decided she wanted to empower, educate and train people with a labeled disability to also become independent and to find career success, friends and community.

Siblings Have Donated Almost 50,000 Toys to Ohio Pediatric Hospital 

It all started with a simple gesture - in 2015, Ohio siblings Tyler and Monica Slaven decided they wanted to help out kids who were stuck in the hospital over Christmas. 

The annual holiday toy drive now sees hordes of volunteers, and dozens of businesses wanting to contribute.

Their online public school, Ohio Virtual Academy has over 21,000 enrolled students statewide and the Slavens smartly tapped into this large network of students and staff to build support. Volunteers would start filling toy donation boxes in cities across the state. 

Their program grew slowly every year until 2019, when they broke Nationwide Children's Hospital's record for largest single donation with over 20,000 toys.

"Once you get on the [hospital] property, it is just phenomenal. They're so friendly and welcoming … and spirited. It's a true joy to be around." - Tyler Slaven, from original article

With kids like this looking out for each other and bringing communities together, our future certainly looks bright!

This British Teen Inspires Others to 'Find Joy' in Baking After Overcoming Her Crippling Depression

 At the Orange Bakery in Watlington, UK, you can sample a delicious...Corgi Butter Butt? Yes, it is what it sounds like - a brioche bun playfully shaped like a Corgi's bum. 

Owner Kitty Tait simply states, "If something is fun to eat, it makes it even tastier!" 

Teen baker Kitty runs the lovely bakery with her father, Alex. With treats inspired by her dog, such as the above mentioned Corgi Butter Butt and the Mushroom Corgi Paws, the highly popular bakery specializes in sourdough bread and freshly made pastries. 

Rewind to five years ago, and it was the simple action of watching her dad baking a loaf of bread that helped pull Kitty out of a dark place, mental health-wise. 

"Something that was so unpromising – a bit like how my brain felt at the time – had turned into something so magical," she recalls. 

At age 14, Kitty was struggling with depression and anxiety. She found herself trying to do the things expected of her, to laugh and just go through the motions of the day, but she just didn't feel - anything. This went on for months before she just broke down. 

Watching her dad bake stirred something in her, and she began to take it on herself. Slowly, she started making loaves for her neighbors, then started a subscription service. She then tried a highly successful pop-up out of someone's garage, then next thing you know, she's running a small retail space with her dad.

Kitty has since written a book, Breadsong, with her dad about their experience, which 'is a memoir as much as it is a recipe collection.' 

You can follow Kitty and Orange Bakery on their Instagram here.

Adorable Baby Elephant Interrupts Reporter on Camera

A reporter in Nairobi, Kenya is adorably interrupted by a curious baby elephant who wanted his 15 minutes of fame. 

While the reporter delivers his story about a charitable foundation for orphaned baby elephants, you can see the little rascal in the background trying to figure out what's going on. The journalist maintains his professional demeanor and keeps trying to deliver the news, even as the baby works him over with his trunk. 

If you need a quick pick-me-up, you need to watch this video - animals have such a wonderful way of making us smile, don't you think?! 

You can watch the delightful moment here.

Australian Cafés Offered Free Coffee for Patrons Who Helped Clean Up the Beach

Filling a sand pail with washed up beach trash scored you a free coffee in beach cities throughout Australia and even New Zealand.

Jennie Truman, owner of The Blue Room café and Oceanic Gelati Bar in North Stradbroke Island offered free coffee or a small scoop of gelato from her respective businesses.

She claimed customers were all over the idea, and due to issues with more garbage coming in from a nearby shipping channel, everything from flip flops, to toothbrushes to plastic drink lids were coming in from the water.

"The first day we had heaps in. We had one couple with enough for three cups of coffee," Ms Truman said.

Earlier in Sydney, the Rubbish 4 Coffee campaign saw 15 businesses participate in the collection, to wild acclaim.

It seems that many people simply don't see how much garbage washes up on the beaches. Programs like this also bring awareness to folks that this is a rising issue, and that they can choose to be part of the solution.

It's unclear whether this is still happening today (The Rubbish 4 Coffee Initiative in Sydney happened in 2019), but we're hoping this clever idea has been picked up elsewhere in the world - what a smart way to deal with incoming garbage, keep beaches clean, spread awareness, support local businesses and the community? 

We Hope You're Off to an Uplifting Week! 

It's easy to read stories and see posts about what other people are doing and think, "Wow, good for them, I'm glad there are people like that in the world!" 

But do we ever think, "Hey, I could do that too?"

What's stopping you from picking up trash as you walk along the beach? Or when you're out for a walk with the dog? Some people think, "It's not my job," or, "Someone else will do it." But why? 

Picking up trash, holding open a door for someone, or even carrying someone's groceries may not change the world. But in your own little way, you are.

You're not only showing another person that there is kindness and compassion still alive and well in the world. (And they will likely then do the same for another, and so on and so on...). You are deciding you want to actively contribute to making your world a nicer place.

We appreciate every single one of you! 

Photo by Rebecca Zaal