The week's good news: February 24, 2022

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1. Parents welcome 1st child at 2:22 a.m. on 2/22/22
2. New York teens become EMTs to solve shortage in their town
3. Miami woman headed to work helps deliver a baby on the side of the road
4. New Jersey girl sews colorful hospital gowns for kids fighting cancer
5. Teen challenged by his mom to stay off social media for 6 years collects $1,800 prize

published 24 February 2022

1. Parents welcome 1st child at 2:22 a.m. on 2/22/22

Judah Grace Spear knows how to make an entrance. Born on Feb. 22, 2022, at 2:22 a.m. in Room 2 at Cone Health Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, North Carolina, Judah is the first child of Aberli and Hank Spear, who were amazed by their daughter's timing. "It's kind of funny because I love numbers, love math and all that stuff, so this is kind of icing on the cake for me," Aberli told Good Morning America. Aberli is a cancer survivor, and had been told it would be "nearly impossible" to get pregnant. "This is something that we didn't think that we could achieve," Aberli said. "She's definitely a miracle baby." The Spears chose the name Judah because it means "praise" in Hebrew, and Aberli told GMA she wants her daughter to grow up knowing "there's always light at the end of the tunnel, there's always hope."

When a small town in New York needed volunteers for its ambulance service, a group of teenagers was the first to respond. They live in Sackets Harbor, which, like many rural areas, relies entirely on volunteers for emergency medical response. The pandemic caused a shortage of EMTs, as many of the older volunteers were no longer able to work, but in New York, 17-year-olds can become EMTs, and people even younger than that can serve as assistants. That's all the Sackets Harbor teens needed to hear — they quickly signed up for training, knowing they would be giving up time for friends and extracurricular activities. Once their training was complete, the teens immediately got to work, helping their neighbors with everything from chest pains to falls. "We went from not even having our licenses to saving people's lives," EMT Dalton Hardison told CBS News.

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On the morning of Feb. 7, Stela Borbas' yoga instructor told her "to do good for someone that day." It turned out to be sound advice. While on her way to work from class, the Miami resident saw a woman on the side of the road whose legs were covered in blood. After jumping out of her car, Borbas quickly found out why: She was giving birth. When Borbas called 911, the dispatcher told her an ambulance was still about 10 minutes away and that she needed to deliver the baby. Stunned, Borbas did just that, shouting encouragement until "all of a sudden, the baby landed perfectly in my hands," she told The Washington Post. Moments later, paramedics arrived at the scene, cut the umbilical cord, and took mom and baby to the hospital. Borbas visited them and said she was "happy to see they were both doing well. The baby is beautiful — her name is Darlie and she weighs 5.2 pounds."

Giuliana Demma has found a way to make life a little easier for children battling cancer. The 11-year-old from Freehold, New Jersey, sews colorful hospital gowns for kids to replace the dull ones they would otherwise have to wear. "It makes me happy to help a child through their dark times," Giuliana told NJ.com. "I want them to know that they're brave, loved, and that they're an inspiration." Giuliana calls her project G's Giving Gowns, and started a website to take requests from cancer patients and hospitals. Giuliana decided she wanted to use her sewing skills to bring joy to kids after her cousin, Giada, received a special hospital gown with Disney characters on it while fighting medulloblastoma five years ago. Since she started making the gowns last year, Giuliana has donated more than 150 of them to hospitals and individual patients, some as far away as California.

Sivert Klefsaas is $1,800 richer, and all it took was for him to stay off of social media during most of his teenage years. When the Minnesota resident was 12, his mom, Lorna Goldstrand Klefsaas, told him if he avoided social media for the next six years, she would give him $1,800 on his 18th birthday. At the time, Sivert had only downloaded Snapchat, so he happily took her up on the offer. "I thought it was awesome," he told CNN. Sivert held up his end of the deal, and on his 18th birthday on Saturday, his mom presented him with $1,800. Without the distraction of social media, Sivert told CNN, her son was able to focus more on sports and getting good grades. Lorna said she's glad her son appears to have a "different perspective" on social media than he might have had otherwise.

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.