The week's good news: August 11, 2022

1. Teen lifeguard helps deliver baby poolside

Natalie Lucas' lifeguarding skills were put to the test in a whole new way last month. Lucas, 18, has been a lifeguard at the YMCA in Longmont, Colorado, for three years. On July 24, Tessa Rider and her husband Matthew Jones visited the club's pool, since being in the water was one of the only ways Rider, who was pregnant and past her due date, felt comfortable. Just minutes after they arrived, Rider got out of the pool and said her water had broken. The "adrenaline kicks in right then and there," Lucas told Good Morning America. While Jones called 911, Lucas started grabbing medical supplies and towels. "I knew I needed to stay calm and level-headed," Lucas said. About five minutes later, Rider gave birth to a baby boy, Tobin Thomas Rider. A 911 operator walked Lucas through how to check the baby and make sure his airway wasn't obstructed. Jones told GMA he was grateful to Lucas for her help, and likened her "presence to like a doula or a midwife." Both Rider and Tobin are doing well, and Lucas said she plans on sending the baby a card every year on his birthday.

Good Morning America

2. This retired barber cuts hair for donations — and has made $10,000 to feed the hungry

Tom Gorzycki is using his clippers for a good cause. The 87-year-old retired 23 years ago, closing his barbershop after decades in business, but in the last five years, he started cutting hair again in the basement of his senior living community in Minnetonka, Minnesota. He doesn't charge anything for his cuts, but does ask clients to donate whatever they can to his ongoing fundraiser for Arm in Arm Africa. "As long as I still have a steady hand, I'll keep going," Gorzycki told The Washington Post. Arm in Arm Africa supports South African communities in need, providing food, education, and health care. Gorzycki has raised more than $10,000 for the nonprofit, and is "gratified by what I do to feed my friends in South Africa," he said. Gorzycki and his wife began volunteering with the organization a decade ago, and in 2012 and 2015, went to South Africa to distribute food. Now, he focuses on how he can help from the U.S. — and that includes giving haircuts every Tuesday morning. "You get a great world-class haircut from a world-class barber, and you get to help feed people in Africa," client John Richards told the Post. "It's a win-win for everyone."

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The Washington Post

3. To raise money for wildlife, man runs the width of Ireland in 23 hours

Robert Pope started and finished his 134-mile journey across Ireland with a pint of Guinness and hope for wildlife. The 44-year-old is an ultramarathon runner who decided two months ago he wanted to raise money for the World Wildlife Foundation by running from Galway to Dublin. He set off on Saturday, with a support staff consisting of four friends. Pope was encouraged along the way by people who followed him on social media and came out to show their support by cheering him on and handing him food. Pope — who in 2018 ran more than 15,000 miles crisscrossing the United States — made it to Dublin in 23 hours and 39 minutes. It's believed that Pope is the first person to run the width of Ireland in less than a day, but he joked to BBC News that he accepts the possibility "some gnarled old club runner from Cork could have done it once in January."

BBC News

4. Couple marries at the hospital where their daughter was in the NICU

When Grier Stanley Barnwell and Jason Barnwell got married on August 3, it was also a celebration of their infant daughter, Drue, and the medical team that spent months taking care of her in a Connecticut neonatal intensive care unit. Drue was born prematurely on April 21, nearly three months ahead of her due date. Her parents postponed their wedding twice during Drue's stay in the NICU, and when Jason shared this with a nurse, she suggested they get married right there in the hospital. "We laughed it off like, 'Are you serious?' But she took it to another level," he told Today Parents. By getting married in the NICU, Drue was able to be part of the big day — Grier held her in a carrier. The family was surrounded by the different medical workers who spent months caring for Drue, which was "a great reward" for the team, Dr. James Pellegrini, director of the NICU at Yale New Haven Health Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, said. At the end of the ceremony, Drue smiled, Grier told Today Parents, adding that she was "probably smiling because it was her plan." Two days later, Drue was discharged and able to go home.

Today Parents

5. Sea turtle nest found for the 1st time in Mississippi in 4 years

Conservationists recently made a promising discovery on a Mississippi beach near Biloxi: the first sea turtle nest spotted on the state's mainland in four years. A beach crew and members of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies protected the nest site, which has eggs that either belong to the loggerhead sea turtle or the rare Kemp's ridley sea turtle, the most critically endangered sea turtle species. Moby Solangi, president of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, said the eggs will hatch in 50 to 60 days. The Mississippi Sound and Gulf of Mexico are both sea turtle habitats, but the turtle population was negatively impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and 2019 opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, Solangi said. That's why, "after all of the environmental disasters we've had," spotting the sea turtle nest is "a good sign," Solangi told The Associated Press. "When [turtle populations] have gone down, it means the ecosystem that supports them is having difficulty. When animals start breeding, it means things have started to get better."

The Associated Press