【推荐3】On 17 September 2023, Senior 1 student Charlie Robson was enjoying his dinner at the stand when there came a sudden scream from the boy next to his table, who accidentally swallowed the plastic wrapper stuck to the bottom of his food.

Seeing him unable to cough it up, the boy’s mother was immediately filled with fear as she stood there, patting his son’s back anxiously. “Somebody help! My son is going to choke with the wrapper in his throat.”

Charlie noticed that the boy’s face had turned complete purple. He knew he must take action immediately. Otherwise, the boy’s life was in great danger. Charlie quickly ran behind the boy and started doing the Heimlich maneuver (海姆立克急救法) whose theory is to push air through the airway to force whatever is in there out. Minutes later, the plastic wrapper was eventually forced out and the boy began to breathe again.

Seeing the boy was safe, Charlie rushed to the school without knowing his act of kindness went viral after someone in the scene posted the video on Tik Tok. Charlie’s father said, “I’m so proud of my son. He is a brave boy with great responsibility. He didn’t tell me what had happened until I saw the video on Tik Tok.”

Plus, the boy’s mother wrote to the headmaster, saying “The student who saved my son’s life the other day is really a hero. We’re so grateful that he stepped in to help when my son was faced with such a dangerous situation. Thanks so much for educating such well-rounded students with good moral virtues.” In response to the letter, Jimmy Mehwish, the headmaster of the school, said, “At the very beginning of the semester, Charlie has set a great example for all the students. His kindness really sets a tone for everyone else.”

【推荐2】Ten-year-old Orion Jean has always known that kindness is important. He often practiced it by volunteering with his family. But last year, after entering the National Kindness Speech Contest, he became crazy about it. Now he works to spread kindness everywhere through projects that help others.

After a teacher told him about the speech competition, Orion had only 24 hours to write, memorize, and record his speech. In it, he talked about the importance of kindness—especially right now, when many are facing difficulties from the COVID-19 and dealing with unfair treatment.

“Kindness is like spreading hugs around the world to those who need it and those who may not know they need it,” Orion said. He encouraged listeners to join him in “the race of kindness” by doing small, kind acts for others.

Orion’s speech won the competition. He used his $500 prize to fund his first Race to Kindness project, a toy drive for a local children’s hospital. He collected 619 toys. After that, Orion wanted to make an even bigger impact.

Working with a nonprofit, he packed meal bags for people in need. He included a kind message for each receiver Orion also organized several events in his community. In all, he collected more than 100,000 meals!

Orion believes that everyone wins this race. He says, “A kind act can be something small, but it can make a big difference. You can write a thank-you note to a worker or leave flowers on a neighbor’s doorstep.” “If you’re kind to someone else, it can make their day brighter and inspire that person to be kind to somebody else. And then it just grows and grows, and it can make the world a better place.” He adds.

【推荐3】We were on our way! In Wyoming we would have a new home. It was 1980 and my husband Gary and I were driving to Wyoming with our kids. After driving all day, we were hungry. So we stopped at a restaurant to have dinner.

After the dinner, we were on our way again. Suddenly our vehicle hit ice on a bridge. As soon as the car started to slide, Gary touched the brakes (刹车) but failed to control the car. We were thrown from side to side against the guardrails (护栏).It took some time before we slid to a stop, but unfortunately our car was totally destroyed.

Only minutes later, a car stopped by and the driver asked how he might help. With his help, my husband was able to have our car taken to Rapid City. Then he drove us to a hotel in the city. He made sure we were safe before he said goodnight and left. The next morning, the driver returned and drove us to find our car so that we could take back our valuables. He lost at least half a day of work, all for a family he had never met and would never see again.

With no car, our family finally arrived in Gillette, where we had no friends. Though we were a little lonely, we all felt lucky and thankful to the amazing stranger whose service made such a difference to our family.

【推荐1】In 2019, a white-haired senior was awarded the Friendship Medal, the highest order of honor of China for foreigners. It was Isabel Crook. In her more than a century of life, she spent more than 90 years in China and cultivated (培养) a large number of foreign language talents for China.

In 1915, Isabel was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1938, Isabel couldn’t wait to return to China. With hard work, she and her colleague completed the survey of over 1,500 families in some villages in Bishan County. She recorded the daily life of the villagers in Xinglongchang with detailed field notes, which give the young people today some idea of the state of affairs in villages at that time.             

In 1947, Isabel and her husband David Crook came to China to observe and study the ongoing land reform. A year later, they completed the study and accepted the invitation to stay in China for language teaching.

One could hardly imagine the teaching conditions in the midst of a war. They asked their students to take small stools (凳子) with them so that they could give class everywhere. They tailored (定制) teaching approaches to suit students’ different language proficiency levels. Without handy teaching materials, they collected articles from English newspapers and magazines. In oral English teaching, Isabel asked students to watch their teachers in a given conversation first. Since there were no tape recorders at school, she had to perform the conversation again and again.

Isabel retired in 1981, but she returned to Southwest China many times to set up scholarship for children from poor families. She also went to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other places to help with foreign language teaching. Isabel died in 2023 in Beijing.

【推荐3】Love pushes us to overcome various struggles in life! The reason why Keith Limbert learned to drive at his old age was a touching love story, as he was forced to face the lessons for driving a car for his wife. 79-year-old Keith from West Yorkshire put all his efforts into passing the driving test, so that he could take his wife for treatments every day.

Even though he had attempted (尝试) driving when he was 25, he couldn’t get through the first two tests. Since then, his loving wife Anne had always driven him around. However, when 58-year-old Anne’s health took a turn for the worse, he had to go back to the driving school again.

After Anne had a stroke (中风) in 2015, leaving her in a wheelchair, the couple had to rely on others for their travels. Annoyed with many difficulties, Keith realized that it was time for him to take up learning to drive again. Eventually, it became a necessity when Anne was diagnosed (诊断) with breast cancer in late 2016.

Unfortunately, his wife’s condition required regular trips to and from hospital and he was Anne’s full-time caregiver. He loved his wife so much that he did his best to pass his driving test on the third attempt. This time, his hard work paid off. Keith passed his driving test at the age of 79, so he could take his poor wife to hospital by himself.

Now this loving couple is leading a comfortable life and on most days, he takes himself to the gym and takes his wife for a coffee.

“I don’t feel like I am 79 at all,” Keith is happy to keep his youthful spirit with a pleasant smile on his face.