【推荐2】Sunscreen protects our skin from sunburn. But did you know that it is harmful to coral (珊瑚) living in the ocean？

Some chemicals in sunscreen, such as benzophenone (二苯甲酮), can kill coral. Every year, about 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen will flow into coral areas, according to the US National Park Service.

About one and half years ago, Zhang Baoxin, 17, who studies at Guangdong Experimental High School, read about this in an article. Then she had an idea – to make an environmentally friendly sunscreen to protect the marine environment.

To make this happen, Zhang read lots of literature and then put forward a new formula (配方). She mixed natural plant oils with safe and commonly-used sunscreen ingredients, such as titanium dioxide (二氧化钛) and zinc oxide (氧化锌) powder .

She tested about 10 kinds of plant oils, including jojoba oil (荷荷巴油) and coconut oil, to figure out whether they can take in sunlight. She then used a microscope to find out if the oil could be mixed with the powder. After trying about 20 formulas, Zhang found a jojoba oil formula that is effective, cheap and easy to make.

Zhang wrote a paper to explain her findings with her experimental process and data. The project made Zhang a nominee (候选人) of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, an award to celebrate teenagers who help solve major water challenges. She was the only nominee from the Chinese mainland in 2020.

After this successful experiment, Zhang made some samples (样品) and printed out flyers (传单) for her new formula. She gave them out to people at swimming pools and water parks. “With my formula, anyone can make sunscreen at home. You just need a blender to mix the oil and the powder,” she said.

Zhang wants to study environmental science in college. “I want to use my knowledge to make a better world,” she said.

【推荐3】The Kyiv City Ballet danced to a full theater in Paris for the company’s last show of its French tour. The tour has left the dancers without a place to go after the war started in Ukraine. In other times, performing at the Théatre du Chatelet would be a dream come true for the dancers. But with the ongoing war in their country, the dancers feel only a deep sadness.

“We are both physically and emotionally exhausted.” Ekaterina Kozlova said. She is the company’s assistant director. “Everyone in the ballet is worried about their families, loved ones, friends, colleagues at home. It’s been very difficult.”

The Théatre du Chatelet, in the center of Paris, offered them the stage on Tuesday for the group’s final show of a French tour. The dance director of the Paris Opera and some members of her company joined the Ukrainians for a class before performing several ballet classics together. They danced parts of Russian composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Nutcrackery.

For many of the dancers, the chance to train and dance was a way to think about “something other than the conflict in Ukraine,” Kozlova said. One of the dancers will be going to the Ukrainian border in the coming days to pick up her young daughter who was taken out of the country. Only some members of the company were traveling around France. Many of the ballet’s best dancers stayed behind, waiting to join their friends after they reached Paris.

“Most of our artists are detained in Paris.” Director Ivan Kozlova told the Paris crowd. The city of Paris and the ballet community have helped find temporary housing for the Ukrainian dancers who say they hope to continue dancing in France and elsewhere. The Chatelet theater offered the whole group a residency. But for now, Tuesday’s last-minute performance was their last. All sales from their performances will go to nongovernmental organizations collecting and sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine and neighboring countries.

【推荐1】Ferrell got the standard well wishes on the website on her 53rd birthday, but she got some unusual messages too. One message was from a family in California who had just lost their four-year-old son to cancer. His older brother was heartbroken. Could Ferrell help?

That message was exactly what Ferrell was looking for. To celebrate her 53rd, the longtime social service worker had put out a call on her website. She wanted to perform 53 acts of kindness by the end of her birth month! and she needed information on people who could use one. When she got the note about the California family, she sent a wind chime (风铃) with the message “Listen to the wind and know that I am near” carved on it. It now hangs in the four-year-old’s bedroom, where his brother can listen to it whenever he wants.

This is not the first time that Ferrell has decided to give gifts for her birthday. For her 47th, she founded Love with Skin On, an organization devoted to doing good deeds. Over the years, Ferrell has reached out and touched over 100 strangers, some found online, others with help from her grandkids. In another act of giving, she shared her favorite creative gift ideas online for others to use.

Ferrell pays for everything herself: gift cards and care packages. Her family often gives her some extra birthday cash with a warning not to spend it on anyone else, which she naturally ignores. “I got a couple of gift cards for my birthday this year and was like “YESSS!” It’s Ferrell’s party, and she’ll give if she wants to.

【推荐2】One evening, Rachel Lapierre bought a $4 scratch ticket while picking up groceries. After an exhausting day, she needed something to lift her spirits. The 46-year-old mother of four was wearing herself thin as a nearly full-time emergency room nurse and part-time volunteer aid worker.

She longed to be able to one day quit nursing job and focus on the volunteer work she found most fulfilling. She vowed to herself that if she ever won the lottery, that’s what she would do.

Lapierre went home and scratched her ticket, revealing three sunny faces. The next day, the Loto-Quebec office informed her that she had won a lump sum of $675,000 or $1,000 a week for life. She chose the latter. “I know myself,” she said. “The lump sum would have melted like snow in the sun.”

Staying true to her word, Lapierre quit her nursing job and dedicated her life to helping others through her passion project, Le Book Humanitaire, which has since become a registered charity

Le Book, as Lapierre, now 62, affectionately calls it, began as a simple list of good deeds. To her, the deeds were just small acts of kindness—buying clothes for a family of newly arrived immigrants, delivering a meal to an isolated senior or giving medical attention to someone living on the streets.

“Le Book has had an immense impact on me and on many vulnerable people,” says Martyne, 52. The former special-education technician suffers from long Covid and has been unable to work since getting sick in March 2020. Martyne is now on Le Book’s food delivery route. “With courtesy and no judgment, Le Book helps us get what we need,” she says.

“When you do a good deed, it has a butterfly effect,” says Lapierre. “One good deed can affect 10 people. So if we all do a good deed? That can save the world.”

【推荐3】Frightened. That was how I felt that Monday morning when my marine (海洋的) science students came into class and began encouraging one of their classmates to “tell him what happened at the beach yesterday”.

Although each of my students had received a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Open Water Diver Certification as part of our marine science program, I was frozen in fear and wondering what had happened at the beach. Once certified, my students began to use their new diving skills to carry out underwater research projects on the coral reefs (珊瑚礁) near our island. Being islanders surrounded by water, my students are taught that the ocean is not a dangerous place, but can be very unforgiving to those who make mistakes. In this case, my first thoughts were for their safety and well-being. I did a quick head count. They were all in class with all their parts in place. I became less afraid and more curious about what had happened. But I was wholly unprepared for the story they told.

A three-year-old boy playing in the water near the shore was about to sink. His family members and beachgoers rushed to help, carrying the boy to the beach, but no one was sure what to do next. One of my students was at the beach that day and rushed over to help. She had taken a first-aid course that I’d taught as an after-school program. She began CPR (心肺复苏) and asked others to call 911. By the time doctors arrived, the child was able to breathe in his mother’s arms.

As teachers, we know children learn through our energy and effort. They become interested. Some find their passions and go after their dreams. In this way we know we have the power to change lives. I’d add that once in a while we have the power to save a life.