1. Eagle Scout Leads Volunteers to Build Accessible Path Up to Beautiful Popular Overlook
From the deck of Sun Top Lookout in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washinton, a hiker can see miles of surrounding forest country with Mount Rainier sparkling in the distance.
Thanks to a prospective Eagle Scout with a big heart, that view is now available to everyone after he led a team of volunteers to build a wheelchair ramp up to the observatory.
Darren Baptiste from Auburn can remember when he decided he wanted to become an Eagle Scout, as well as when he decided to turn his enterprising gaze to helping disabled or wheelchair-bound people enjoy the same things he takes for granted.
2. 40 ‘Heroes’ Lift a Berlin City Bus Off Trapped Young Man
After an 18-year-old got caught under the tire of the rear axle of a Berlin commuter bus, a swarm of bystanders jumped into action.
It started with the bus driver who quickly noticed the young man and stopped, after that it was down to around 40 passengers and passersby who all lined up alongside the vehicle and began to push.
“There was chaos,” Frank Kurze, one of the volunteer rescuers told German news channel n-tv. “I saw the men trying to lift the bus, and it was clear to me that I also had to help lift the bus and try pull the young man from underneath.”
3. Volunteers ‘De-seaweeding’ Results in Dramatic 600% Improvement of Coral Regrowth
Any good gardener knows what a good de-weeding can do for a vegetable garden. As it turns out, it’s much the same for coral reefs.
Following a volunteer “sea-weeding” program launched in Australia, scientists are witnessing compounding coral recovery both in quantity and diversity, and suggest that this simple method has the power to transform degraded reefs overrun by macroalgae.
In a balanced ecosystem, macroalgae is kept in check by the size and health of corals, but as extreme weather events or coral bleaching causes some sections of reef to die, macroalgae has no other neighbor keeping a check on its spread.
