1. Wheels for Winners Gives Hundreds of Free Bikes to Wisconsin Youth in Exchange for Community Service
In one of America’s most cycling-friendly cities, a volunteer group is rewarding anyone who puts in time serving the community with a brand old-new bicycle.
Wheels for Winners only asks that applicants provide evidence that they completed 10 hours of community service for any organization in Maddison, Wisconsin. After that, it’s a simple matter of showing up, selecting a bike, and riding off into the sunset.
Relying on donated bikes for parts, Chairman of the Wheels for Winners Board Neil McCallum, says that bikes are completely restored, dismantled for parts, or donated to other partners. Not a single one goes to waste.
2. Global Life Expectancy Rises by 6.2 Years
Reductions in deaths from leading killers in the developing world such as as diarrhea, lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and stroke, have raised the global life expectancy by more than six years since 1990, a new study has revealed.
Improved healthcare and better disease prevention also helped people live longer, until government-mandated lockdowns and business closures disrupted the global supply chains and reversed this trend during the pandemic years.
Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) studied causes of death around the world over the last three decades and analyzed how global life expectancy changed during that period.
They found that overall, life expectancy is up by 6.2 years since 1990, with the most pronounced reduction in deaths recorded between 1990 and 2019 in Oceania, East Asia, and Eastern sub-Saharan Africa.
3. Small Town Grocer’s Easter Egg Mistake is Turned into Inspiring National Charity Drive Raising Thousands
On an island off the coast of an island, a local grocer’s big error turned into a successful national charity event.
Dan Dafydd wanted 80 chocolate Easter eggs for the shelves at Sinclair General Stores on Sanday, one of the Orkney Islands, but accidentally ordered 80 cases of Easter eggs, totaling 720 confectionaries for a total island population of 500.
Wondering what he was going to do with the excess, his heart overtook his mind, and decided to raffle off groups of 100, with proceeds going to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, (RNLI) the largest of the lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the British Isles which rescue dozens of people and vessels every year.
It proved to be a huge hit on Sanday, with £3,000 being raised to win batches of 100 eggs. It was so popular that in the ultimate irony, Dafydd had to order more chocolate eggs.
“We actually took a delivery of eggs yesterday because we ran out. We needed to buy more in the end. People have wanted them signed and all sorts,” said Mr. Dafydd to the Guardian
“Once word spread a bit and I was invited to talk on local radio, I thought ‘it’s not bad enough to be a laughing stock on this island, but to be one all over Orkney.”
