【推荐1】As a younger child, Adom didn’t have a choice in how much he volunteered since he was regularly along with his parents while they volunteered. They organized book drives for kids, joined backpack giveaways, served food to the hungry and delivered Christmas presents to children with imprisoned parents.

Now Adom, who lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is a teenager. He has a lot more to say in what he does with his time. He’s recently taken his volunteerism to a new level.

Over the past three years, he has raised over $70,000 for nonprofit groups in his area. He had done in part by organizing annual charity basketball games involving local community leaders, as well as college and professional athletes. Adom named his project Ball4Good.

Adom was recently awarded a 2019 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, which honors outstanding young leaders. As one of 15 top winners, he was awarded $10,000. He’s putting half towards the charity he founded and the rest towards his college fund.

Since 2017, Adom and Ball4Good have supported 18 community organizations, including the local Boys & Girls Clubs of the Upstate; Miracle Hill Ministries, which serves homeless children and adults in South Carolina; the Project Hope Foundation, which provides services for individuals of all ages with autism (自闭症); and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union, which helps children who have been abused.

Adom does more than just deliver the cash; he gets involved, just as he did as a younger kid. He is the youngest board member for the Boys Girls Clubs of the Upstate and continues to volunteer at other organizations, such as Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas, which supports families of youths fighting cancer.

“Books, fundraisers, summer camp services, national spelling bees — Adom is doing a lot,” said Greg Tolbert, president of the Boys Girls Clubs of the Upstate.

【推荐2】When The Alchemist was first published twenty-five years ago in my native Brazil, no one noticed. A bookseller in the northeast corner of the country told me that only one person purchased a copy the first week of its publication. It took another six months for the bookseller to unload a second copy. And who knows how long it took to sell the third. At the end of the year, my original publisher decided to cancel our contract. I was forty-one and upset.

But I never lost faith in the book. Why? Because it was me in there, all of me, heart and soul. I was living my own fantasy. A man sets out on a journey, dreaming of a beautiful or magical place, in search of some unknown treasure. At the end of his journey, the man realizes the treasure was with him the entire time. I was following my personal legend (传奇) and my treasure was my talent to write. And I wanted to share this treasure with the world.

I started knocking on the doors of other publishers. One opened, and the publisher on the other side agreed to give The Alchemist a second chance. Slowly, through word of mouth, it finally started to sell — three thousand, then six thousand, ten thousand — book by book, gradually throughout the year.

Eight months later, an American visiting Brazil wanted to translate the book and help me find a publisher in the United States. But it still took some time to sell, slowly finding its audience in the United States by word of mouth, just as it did in Brazil. And then one day, Bill Clinton was photographed leaving the White House with a copy. Then people from different walks of life were suddenly talking about it.

The Alchemist became a phenomenon. The book hit the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for more than three hundred weeks. It has since been translated into more than eighty different languages, and is widely considered one of the ten best books of the twentieth century.

【推荐3】The more, the merrier!

As Hurricane Delta approached Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula(半岛) in early October, Pimentel, who founded Tierra de Animales in 2011, opened up his home, which doubles as an animal rescue. “It doesn’t matter if the house is dirty. It can be cleaned. The things animals broke can be fixed or bought again, but what’s beautiful is to see them happy, healthy, safe and with the possibility of being adopted,” he said.

As Pimentel prepared for the hurricane to strike, he began asking for donations. “As you know, we have hundreds of animals here and are rushing into the city now, getting prepared as much as possible. Most importantly, we have to buy as much dog food as we can, ” the animal shelter wrote just hours ahead of the storm’s arrival.

Of course, preparing for the hurricane also meant that he had to move the dogs inside. After successfully settling all the canines, Pimentel shared the photographs online, showing his home packed with wall-to-wall canines. The posts ended up going viral (广为传播的), which Pimentel had stressed was never his intention, resulting in thousands of likes and donations.

“Your support at this time has been invaluable and we deeply appreciate all your messages, calls and shows of affection,” read a recent post. Pimentel hopes his viral posts will bring about an increase in adoptions.

【推荐1】When my wife and I didn’t work long, our budget was tight. We tried to save as much money as possible so we could afford overspend occasionally. At the same time, we benefited a lot from the kindness of local store owners.

When my wife was expecting our child, she developed a craving for a local Chinese restaurant’s version of tai dop voy, a mixture of meat, shrimp and vegetables. Even though they rarely saw us, the owners remembered us. One evening, I ordered tai dop voy. They enthusiastically treated me and said, “There is some fried rice for your wife. Have a healthy baby.” The bag was obviously heavier than normal. When I got home, there was not only fried rice but also two orders of tai dop voy.

That was many years ago. But those small kindnesses from locals made a difference. Customers were seen as more than a source of profit. We were members of the community that local businesses served.

The generosity I experienced years ago hasn’t disappeared. I witnessed it recently at my local farmers’ market. A family was debating whether to add another vegetable to the order. The farmer served them and said, “Sorry, I forgot. I have so many vegetables this year. Buy two, and you’ll get another for free. Pick out any one you like.” I thought the farmer was being morally flexible: no prices on the produce, but everything is fairly priced. Fairness is in the sense that care and kindness are parts of the merchant-client relationship.

The kindness of merchants is a sign of something deeper: We are all making our shared way together. For my part, I will continue to support farmers’ markets and family-run restaurants. I am happy to make a fair offer.

【推荐2】One of my earliest memories started with me sobbing. Mum took out an old sheet of wrapping paper and began to fold it. Soon, a paper tiger stood on the table. “Tiger!” said mom. I was fascinated by Tiger and stopped crying.

Mum started to make paper toys and would leave them on the breakfast table for me.

One day, when I was playing with Tiger, my neighbor, a boy around my age asked, “What’s this?” “It’s a paper tiger. My mum made it!” I replied proudly. “Your mum makes you toys from rubbish?” he cried in disbelief. I had never thought of Tiger as that. Looking at it now, I found Tiger’s body patched (修补) all over with tape. I hid Tiger in my pocket sheepishly.

The next day at school, the other children whispered as they stared at me. “Do you really play with rubbish? Don’t you have any normal toys?” Someone shouted. The children roared with laughter. I tried to slip away but fell to the ground.

When I got home, I put Tiger and all the paper animals into a big box and hid it in the attic (阁楼). When I saw Mum’s new creation, a paper giraffe, I knocked it into the bin. I shouted at her, “I’m not a baby anymore!” From that day on, Mum’s creations stopped appearing on the breakfast table.

Years later, while preparing for our class graduation photoshoot, someone suggested posing with a treasured childhood item. I then searched the attic for one and saw the box of old paper toys. I opened it with care. As I held Tiger, I recalled our adventures and how I had put it aside so carelessly. A pang of guilt crowded in on me.

When I received my graduation photo, I placed it on Mum’s dressing table with a note, “I’m sorry I threw the paper giraffe away and thanks for everything!” Later that day, I saw the photo in our family’s display cabinet. Next to the photo was a new addition —   a paper giraffe.

【推荐3】Our lives changed tracks the day our daughter was born. My wife and I felt settled in the United Kingdom — we’d even bought a house 6 months earlier — but the arrival of our daughter forced a moment of reflection. We wondered whether we should move back to our native Brazil. I remember looking down at our newborn baby and thinking about how different her life would be there. In our native country, we’d be closer to our family and culture. But in the United Kingdom, I had the funding and lab resources I needed for my costly and highly specialized research program. Would such a move sink my career?

Several events over the next few months nudged us further in the same direction. We heard that new professor positions had opened up at a university in our hometown, in departments that matched both of our research programs. Then, a few weeks later, I received a call from my brother, who told me that our father had passed away. A deep sadness made me feel that I was losing precious time with my loved ones.

There was no doubt it was the right time to return to Brazil. We applied for the professorships and both received offers. It felt like our personal and professional lives were falling into place. It wasn’t easy getting started with my research in Brazil. However, I didn’t receive any startup funding for my lab and I had to share equipment with other professors. Nine years later, I still haven’t been able to perform the kind of experiments that U. K. funding would have allowed.

But looking back, I have no complaint. We’ve been able to have big meals with our extended family on weekends. We had a second child, and our kids are growing up close to their cousins who are around the same age. We are living the lives we wanted to live — working on rewarding research while staying true to what we feel is best for ourselves and for our family.