Tag: good news
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From great to even greater
By The Foundation for a Better Life The sport of downhill racing is about speed. The fastest time wins. But to get across the finish line, skiers have to hold form in turns that almost defy physics and stretch the boundaries of human strength and balance. Racing requires incredible leg muscle to absorb the centrifugal…
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The postman who became one of the greatest football coaches
By The Foundation for a Better Life Knute Rockne was the son of immigrant parents from Norway. After graduating from high school, he worked as a postman for four years until he had enough money to go to college. He would bring his work ethic and ingenuity to Notre Dame, where he pioneered a new…
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Celebrating 25 years of young heroes
By The Foundation for a Better Life Since 2001, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes has honored 625 young people who are making a difference in the world – from providing meals to the elderly to cleaning up local rivers to mentoring young students in after-school programs. But the work is far from over.…
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The undeniable spirit of America’s oldest astronaut
Ed Dwight was born in Kansas City, 1933. It wasn’t wealth or privilege that earned him a shot at his dreams, but rather an anything-is-possible, never-give-up attitude called an undeniable spirit, and a mother who taught him that barriers were more like goals to push beyond. Black Americans like Dwight were not given the same…
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The longest race: How Major Taylor pushed against prejudice to become a cycling champion
Marshall “Major” Taylor was the son of a Black Civil War veteran who fought for the emancipation of enslaved people. As a young boy, he was befriended by the son of his father’s employer and the two spent time reading and studying together and riding bicycles. To Taylor, as an 8-year-old boy, the freedom, speed…
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The courage to forgive and rebuild
To have been around Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime was sometimes described as being in awe of the man. His towering height, topped with a stovepipe hat, made him a formidable presence. His angular, lanky body was a stark contrast to many of the rounder and shorter politicians of the day. But the weight of…
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Building human connection in a virtual world
Technology has been the great divider in many communities. Innovations happened so fast that the old way of doing things 20 years ago felt like a centuries-wide gap. Senior citizens were becoming sequestered because of the language and technology disparity. Daily banking, neighborhood communication, even shopping became more difficult for those who grew up relying…
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Putting things together in a jumbled world
Many who are aware that Ingvar Kamprad has dyslexia like to joke that he had a brilliant “idea” for a furniture company and misspelled it “ikea.” The delightful and humble Ingvar would be amused. After all, he accepted the condition as the impetus of his genius — and while the learning challenge wasn’t the reason…
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How a clockmaker changed the world of navigation
“Dead reckoning” is one of the most common terms uttered by swashbuckling captains in pirate movies. In the early 1700s, it meant using primitive tools like the astrolabe and compass to chart a course across the sea. The term is probably shorthand for “deduced” reckoning — but in practice, it sometimes took on a more…
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Temple Grandin’s autism became her strength
Seeing the world from a different perspective adds insight into how we interpret our lives. For Temple Grandin, it meant first understanding why she saw the world in such a unique way. Born in 1947 in Boston, Grandin arrived at a time when little was known about autism. She was diagnosed at the age of…