The longest hockey game, and more

The longest hockey game

A hockey club in Chestermere, Alberta, this week was set to complete the longest game of hockey ever played—an astonishing 246 hours on the ice. The 40 volunteer players organized themselves into two teams, Team Hope and Team Cure, and played for 10 days and nights straight to raise $1.5 million for a children’s hospital. Some had to take IV drips between plays, and others had to switch to skates two sizes too big to accommodate their swelling, blistered feet. With just hours to go before beating the standing record, Team Cure was leading Team Hope by a score of 3,526 to 3,255.

Columbia University janitor earns a B.A.

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Exchanging his mop and bucket for a cap and gown, a janitor at Columbia University has graduated with a bachelor’s degree in classics. Gac Filipaj, a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, took classes for 12 years between $22-an-hour shifts as a cleaner at the Ivy League school. After learning English, he progressed to ancient Latin and Greek, hitting the books in late-night study sessions after finishing work at 11 p.m. The 52-year-old says he may pursue a master’s degree, but has no plans to parlay his studies into a better job. “The richness is in me, in my heart and in my head,” he said, “not in my pockets.”

Haitian boat refugee pays back the Coast Guard

When Orlando Morel was 6 years old, he and his mother left Haiti on a tiny wooden boat bound for the U.S. The crowded vessel lost its way and food ran out, but the U.S. Coast Guard finally showed up to rescue the desperate refugees. Now, 18 years later, Morel is a newly graduated member of the service that saved his life. Adopted by a Haitian woman in the U.S. after his rescue, Morel attended the U.S. Coast Guard Academy after high school. “I don’t think that anything I can do will be enough as payback,” he said.