The week's good news: Jan. 4, 2023

Run club promotes making connections over competition

With this running club, athleticism comes second. The Left Handed Giant Run Club was founded in Bristol, England, in 2019 by Jay Medway. She started it because other running clubs were "intimidating," Medway told BBC News, and she wanted to create an inclusive space where everyone felt encouraged and supported. Members talk while they run, and give each other advice or just offer their ears. "Nobody's left behind, and we're all in it together and it's more about talking to the person rather than the pace," Medway said. There are about 160 runners who meet twice a week, including Cat Hicks, who joined after feeling like she wasn't "fast enough or quick enough" for the competitive clubs. The Left Handed Giant Run club gives her a boost, she said, and it's "really important to make sure that I'm exercising my brain as well as my body."

Arizona elementary school students surprise strangers with their generosity

To teach his students about kindness and giving back, Phoenix elementary school teacher Derek Brown showed the kids a CBS News "On the Road" segment about an anonymous businessman who gives strangers $100 bills during the holidays. The students were impressed, and quickly realized they could do something similar. They started a Secret Santa Club, and raised $8,000 in donations from family, friends and local businesses. Before Christmas, they went out into the community and gave money to people like Deidre Taylor, who was recently diagnosed with cancer and only had $20 in her bank account. "You guys are amazing," Taylor said. The kids became emotional when they saw how they were changing lives, with student Evangeline D'Agostino telling CBS News, "Their joy — that's the gift to you." Brown said it is his hope that "this memory [is] so strong that it now drives them every day, in everything they do."

Neighbors form a bond through their monthly 'dinner and a show'

After hearing their neighbor play the piano, Lydia Pender and her husband Andy knew they needed to meet the talented musician next door. The couple, who had just moved to Honolulu, introduced themselves to 97-year-old Derek Peart, and learned he could play the piano by heart. They hit it off immediately, and began inviting Peart over for dinner. One night they watched a Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett television special, and came up with an idea: the Penders would provide dinner and Peart would handle entertainment. Once a month, the Penders come over with Peart's favorite pizza, and he plays songs on the piano, even taking requests. "When they sit down, and when I see them appreciate what I'm playing, I feel good," Peart told Good Morning America. Lydia has shared some of Peart's performances on TikTok, and one video received more than 1 million views. "He's just the greatest person, and it's been such a joy getting close with him and getting to know him, and also getting to know him through music," she said.

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Beavers 'back home again' after being released into California waters

The beavers are back. In late 2023, seven beavers were released into the water that runs through the Tásmam Koyóm tribal community in Plumas County, California. Beavers are a "keystone species," California Department of Fish and Wildlife Environmental Program Manager Valerie Cook told the Sacramento Bee, and the goal is for the animals to re-establish a breeding population. This was the first time in nearly eight decades that beavers were released into California waters, and they "really play a critical ecosystem management role," Cook said, with their ability to do things like increase groundwater recharge. Beavers used to be plentiful in the area, and it is "good to have them back home again," Ben Cunningham, chairman of the Maidu Summit Consortium and a Northeastern Maidu, said. "The beavers are back where they belong."

Elusive spider rediscovered in Portugal after nearly a century

A small spider that was feared to have become extinct more than 90 years ago has been rediscovered by conservationists in northern Portugal. Dubbed the world's shyest spider, Fagilde's trapdoor spiders live underground in burrows, and use web silk, leaf litter and soil to build hinged round doors for their homes. The conservationists discovered a female of the species by painstakingly examining anything circular in the ground that could be a spider's door. "The finding was pretty much like winning the lottery while getting hit by lightning," researcher Sergio Henriques told New Scientist.