The week's good news: Feb. 2, 2023

1. Customers help make it possible for ice cream shop owner to give away free scoops

If you don't have the money to pay for a scoop of ice cream at Everyday Sundae in Washington, D.C., don't worry — owner Charles Foreman and his generous customers have you covered. Foreman opened the ice cream shop in D.C.'s Petworth neighborhood in 2021, and ensures that everyone walks away with a cone regardless of their ability to pay. After one of his regular customers, Nicole, saw Foreman give a free scoop to a child who didn't have any money, she came back with an envelope containing $100 — enough to pay for 28 scoops. "Mr. Charles is so great, and the ice cream is excellent, too," Nicole told The Washington Post. Foreman was stunned by her gift, but this was just the start — other customers heard about what happened, and made their own donations to the ice cream fund. Foreman can tell when someone is going through a hard time and needs a boost, and doesn't hesitate to offer them a free scoop. "That's just being part of the community," he said. "We're supposed to do all we can to help each other."

The Washington Post

2. Tennessee high school students create a prosthetic hand for their new classmate

Three of his new classmates helped Sergio Peralta do something he'd never been able to before: catch a baseball with his right hand. Peralta, 15, was born with a hand that wasn't fully formed, and he told CBS News when he started at Hendersonville High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee, last year, he was nervous about people discovering this. "I honestly felt like hiding my hand," he said. When the engineering teacher found out, he told Peralta that some of his students might be able to help him, and three of them jumped at the chance to build Peralta a prosthetic hand. "I never expected it," he said. "Like, never in a million years." The students used online models and then a 3D printer to come up with a prosthetic they hoped would work, and it did — when Peralta caught a baseball "for the first time, everyone started freaking out," he told CBS News, adding, "They changed my life."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

CBS News

3. Canadian community helps students from Nepal furnish their apartment

Four college students in Ontario, Canada, now have a fully furnished apartment, thanks to the kindness of strangers in their new community. In January, Chris Delargy of Mount Brydges sold his 2011 Mazda 3 to four students from Nepal who came to Canada to study at Lambton College in Sarnia. Delargy told CBC News that when he went into their apartment to write a receipt for their deposit, he saw that it was "clean as a whistle," but "they had mattresses on the floor in their bedrooms and they had an extra mattress in the living room, and that was it." The students spoke with Delargy about the struggles of going to school and keeping up on their homework while working, all in a new country. Once he was home, Delargy wrote a post on a local Facebook page about the men, saying they "seem to be amazing young fellas," and said if anyone had furniture to donate to them, he'd be happy to pick it up. "The response was just unbelievable," he said, and soon, he was delivering a kitchen table, couch, bed frames, television stand, and money to the apartment. One of the students, Sandip Adhikari, told CBC News they are "so grateful" for the support, and called Delargy "a wonderful guy."

CBC News

4. Curious bear uses wildlife camera to take 400 selfies

A black bear in Boulder, Colorado, made sure a wildlife camera caught his good side — about 400 times. Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks operates nine motion-activated wildlife cameras across its 46,000 acres of land, and said staffers use the images to learn more about animal behavior and how to best protect habitats. In late January, OSMP tweeted that an inquisitive bear triggered one of the cameras, and "of the 580 photos captured, about 400 were bear selfies." The cameras can record 10 to 30 seconds worth of video, and at night, infrared light is used to minimize disturbances to nocturnal wildlife. "We are fortunate to live in an area with a rich diversity of wildlife species, and these cameras help us to learn what animals are really out there, and what they are up to over the course of a day, a week, or even years," OSMP wildlife ecologist Christian Nunes said in a press release.

CNN Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks

5. This toddler and her new pet frog are inseparable

When Juliana Allon saw a white tree frog in a Panama City, Florida, store, it was love at first sight. After getting the chance to hold him, the 2-year-old asked her mom, Brandie, if they could take the frog home. "I couldn't say no," Brandie told SWNS. They adopted the frog in August, and he's been BFFs with Juliana ever since. She named him George, and Brandie said he is always on or next to Juliana — he sits on her shoulder while she watches television and eats meals, and she pushes him around the house in her stroller. "He just crawls to the top of her shoulder, and they walk around together," Brandie said. "He manages to hang on somehow." George sleeps in a cage in Juliana's room, and Brandie said he's the first thing she asks about when she wakes up, and when they leave the house, she says, "Bye, bye baby frog. I'll be back." Brandie said Juliana loves to hug him, and has already learned the importance of then washing her hands. "I never thought we would get a frog, but if you find an old soul like George, I'd definitely recommend getting a pet frog," Brandie told SWNS. "He's just a happy little fellow."

Good News Network