Weekly Uplifting Stories - Week of May 29th, 2023

Hello everyone! It's time for your positive energy infusion - the Weekly Uplifting Stories. 

I don't know about you, but I've been seeing all kinds of positive news websites and accounts popping up lately. It is true that what you are interested in online will keep appearing to you - but it can often be in a more annoying way.

For me, it just means I get to see cute baby animals doing adorable things, nice people helping others and general stories of kindness in my day to day as well. 

Good things can be infectious too. 

This week, we've got stories about: 

• The Amazon rainforest shrunk a little less
• A Massachusetts camp that helps grieving kids and parents 
• A UK shop that lets you pay for items with your time 
• A family gives up the fishing industry for wildlife conservation in Mexico

Enjoy!

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Shows Hopeful Change

Good news! Amazon deforestation in the rainforest has dropped by 68% in April, and an overall 36% drop between January and April 2023. 

One of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's election pledges was to end deforestation by 2030, a steep promise for a country that sees many issues with illegal deforestation and which has had issues with cut funding and dropped environmental protection efforts.

Official data from space research agency Inpe showed that 328.71 square km (126.92 square miles) were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon last month, below the historical average of 455.75 square km for the month. - Reuters

While experts are still concerned at the current levels of deforestation, especially going into the summer, where the Amazon sees the hottest and driest temperatures of the year, the numbers look hopeful.

The Amazon Fund, an initiative to fight deforestation also received a large donation from Britain earlier in May (About $101 million). The Amazon Fund is also backed by Norway, the United States and Germany.

Comfort Zone Camp Helps Grieving Kids

For kids who have experienced the loss of a parent who died from substance abuse, it can be really tough to understand what happened, why it happened and what to do with their feelings. 

Comfort Zone Camp offers many types of camps and grief groups to help kids and families heal from loss, whether due to substance abuse, losing a child, or losing a parent. 

Each child, or little buddy, is placed with a big buddy to help them navigate their emotions, learn coping skills in a group dynamic, and ask tough questions about what happened to them. 

Krista Collopy, a former camper, is now the Regional Director of the program - a testament to how much it can help. 

“One of the first things we do on Fridays is eat dinner, then we play some ice-breaker games, then we sit down, and we hear a volunteer share their story. When I was 16, I heard a girl say that when she was nine years old, her dad died of a brain tumor — just like my dad. At that moment I was totally blown away because in the seven years since my dad died, I had never met someone else who had lost a parent. It really rocked my world, and I was able to go into that healing circle and open up, share, and connect with the other teenagers in my group.”  - Krista Collopy

Founder Lynn Hughes, who lost both of her parents at 13, knew that she had something to learn from her experience, and there was a purpose to what happened to her. She found community in summer camps she attended, later meeting her husband there, and the two decided to start helping grieving kids in a similar way.

Comfort Zone Camp now runs 30 camps a year, and the organization has helped over 23,000 kids since their start in 1999 - all free of charge.

This wonderful website also shares a Virtual Memorial page, where people can share memories, poems, videos, stories and pictures about the loved ones they've lost, or experiences they've had. 

The Local Shop Where You Pay With Kindness & Community 

At The Kinder Shop in the small town of Carlisle, Cumbria you can peruse gorgeous local products - rugs, candles, chairs - the kind of delightful houseware store you'd head to on any old weekend. The only difference here is - you don't need your wallet when you want to bring something home. 

As part of the Cumberland Building Society’s Kinder Cumbria campaign, in The Kinder Shop, everything is donated by local businesses. And the prices? Instead of dollars and cents, they're valued by volunteer hours. The little town has many charities that rely on volunteers to operate - so the program is a real win-win for everyone. 

Supporting local charities such as a hospice, a homeless services program and The Cumbria Deaf Association, this idea has propelled many people into volunteering for the first time. 

“It seems people have really responded to this idea because it broke down some of the barriers to volunteering. People do want to make a difference and help charities in their community, but it is not always clear how to do that or who to speak to – the Kinder Shop really connected people with those opportunities,” says Phil Ward, Communications Manager at the Cumberland Building Society

This simple, but very effective idea has been spreading in other towns across the UK, encouraging people to pick up garbage in exchange for a free haircut, and other pop ups, well, popping up in other towns. It gives a whole different meaning to your time being valuable!  

The Family Who Gave Up Fishing to Save Turtles

Former fisherman Cosme Becerra went from sacrificing turtles to saving them - and convinced his family to help. 

Back in the 1990s, Becerra was annually tasked to sacrifice a large turtle to be eaten at a festival. Keeping it in his bathroom until the big day, he found himself unable to sleep from the sad sounds the turtle was making - and from his wife, Moni, begging him to let the poor thing go. He did. 

“We released her, and since then, we have not gone back to consuming turtles or killing them,” said Becerra, who says the sounds of the turtle are burned in his brain

He later decided to give back to the turtles who had sometimes helped his family with extra income when they needed money for hospital bills or other expenses. He decided to dedicate his time to the conservation of turtles in Kino Bay, Mexico.

Cosme left the fishing industry and since 2007, has worked as a boat captain for marine mammal-monitoring efforts run by Prescott College Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies. He's since convinced about 15 Becerra family members that wildlife conservation is the future.

The family formed the Kino Bay Turtle Group and with the boat they call “La Tortuguera” (Turtle in Spanish) for their work, they also monitor turtles and rescue them from abandoned fishing gear. In 12 years of work, they have managed to capture, document and release 814 green sea turtles.

Have a Great Week Everyone!

And there you have it! Another week of positive news to put in your pocket. 

As always, if you have a story of your own to share, or want to point us toward someone amazing we should feature, please reach out in the comments below, or DM us on our Instagram page. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Photo by Leo Rivas on Unsplash