Words by Smiley Team
It’s that time of the week again – your weekly drop of positive news to start your weekend on a good note.
From people doing brilliant things for charity, to even more environmental news that makes us, ‘whoop’, here’s your round-up.
A woman has reached an impressive milestone: she’s collected more than 2.5 million pairs of shoes for her charity Sal’s Shoes so far. The charity finds new feet for old shoes, distributing them worldwide to children without access to safe footwear.
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CJ Bowry, 41, from Surrey, has sent them to children in 50 countries around the world, including the UK, where she has seen a huge demand for requests since March 2020 and lockdown one. She started the charity because her son, Sal, was outgrowing his shoes when they were barely worn. Shoes are notoriously hard to recycle due to their many component parts. To find out more, and donate shoes, visit Sal's Shoes.
Thailand has announced that, across its marine national parks, it’s banning sunscreens that contain chemicals known to damage coral. The Thai Department of Conservation said there are four ingredients found in sunscreens that can destroy chemical larvae. This is bad because they can obstruct coral reproduction and contribute to bleaching of reef systems.
The more small steps countries take to protect nature and the environment, the better.
Okay, so it's not an actual sponge. A conservation scheme, which is designed to restore "peat bogs" in the north of England, has turned Holcombe Moor into a, well, “giant sponge”.
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It's been a long time in the making. A series of organisations spent nearly six months creating 3,500 scallops-shaped banks of peat, which they say will trap water in pools, instead of it running off the moor. The project will improve the condition of the peat and enable it to store more carbon, according to The National Trust. It should also boost bird numbers and reduce flooding downstream, which is a bonus.
Orion Jean, from Texas, is only 10, but after winning a kindness contest in 2020 last year, he’s decided to carry on giving back. This time, he wants to focus on children who don’t have any books at home.
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"I want to be able to share my love of literacy with as many people as possible," he told CBS News. He has managed to collect 120,000 books so far with the help of his mum, and now he’s asking others in his community to do the same. When asked what his target was, he said he wanted to donate half a million books to kids. What an inspiration.
A series of 55 coffee chains in train stations across the UK and Ireland, known as ATM Coffee, will be replaced by a new social enterprise, called Change Please.
Change Please will use profits from its coffee to help homeless people. It will train them as baristas, ofer them a job that pays Living Wage, and help them access housing and further support.
Image credit: Madelein Woldaardt / Shutterstock
