Happy Things

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.fodors.com/world/north-amer ... kie-island

One Woman on This Tiny Island Is Keeping Centuries-Old Culture Alive

Daufuskie Island gives you a glimpse into the past.

Stepping onto Daufuskie Island is like being transported back in time. Spanish moss drips from live oak branches that sway in the breeze, waves lap against the shore, and a golf cart hums along a sand and shell path.

It’s only a 30-minute ferry ride from Hilton Head, South Carolina, but it might as well be a lifetime away. There are no cars on the island, but your bike, horse, or golf cart will provide a slow, leisurely view of the Gullah cottages still standing here in their distinctive blue colors to ward off spirits. The tiny homes sit back from unpaved roads, shaded by giant oaks, their porches calling out for a rocking chair and a glass of lemonade.

The Gullahs and Geechees who lived in these homes and others like them throughout coastal North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, were the enslaved people of plantation owners. The islanders were a tight-knit community on Daufuskie, which is only five miles long and two and a half miles wide. After the Civil War ended, Union troops drove the plantation owners off the Island, and the enslaved people became known as Gullahs. Speaking their own unique language and working together, they farmed and fished and made money shucking the oysters abundant in the shallow waters bordering the island.

When a paper mill opened in nearby Savannah in 1959, the polluted water killed the oyster population, leaving the Gullahs without work. Most were forced to leave the island and abandon their homes, some of which still stand untouched today.

Enter Sallie Ann Robinson, a sixth-generation Gullah who grew up on Daufuskie and was educated in part by author Pat Conroy. Conroy spent only one year as a teacher, but he encouraged the students to explore the world off-island. Robinson explored, working as a nurse and making homes in other towns.

Robinson created the Daufuskie Island Gullah Heritage Society, a non-profit organization that is working to help restore old Gullah homes and clean up and maintain Gullah cemeteries. She now leads popular tours that explore the homes, The West African Baptist Church, and the old schoolhouse where Conroy taught her class. The tour takes visitors back to the late 1800s when the Gullahs thrived on the island. A portion of the tour ticket proceeds goes towards the restoration of properties. The cottages are significant because, as Robinson says, “If the houses go, the stories are gone.” She has made it her mission to keep that from happening.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7 ... ommunities

How promise programs offer a path to college affordability and aim to reshape communities

College promise programs offer scholarships to high school graduates that cover tuition and fees to higher education institutions in the graduate’s home state. There are more than 400 programs in thirty-three states and Washington, D.C.

Kalamazoo, Michigan, implemented the first promise program in 2005. The Kalamazoo Promise was funded by a group of anonymous donors and launched by Kalamazoo’s former school superintendent. The scholarship was open to all graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools residing and enrolled in their school district for a minimum of four years.

In Kalamazoo, 61% of students who used the scholarship were of free or reduced lunch status from 2006 to 2021. During that same time period, 82% of eligible Asian students, 66% of Latino students, and 63% of Black students used their promise scholarships within six months of graduating.

Researchers, politicians, and even President Barack Obama considered the program a success. The first kindergarten class to benefit from the Kalamazoo Promise graduated from high school in 2019. By that time, nearly 7,000 Kalamazoo students had benefited from a promise scholarship. Since 2006, about 90% of graduating high school students have qualified for a promise scholarship which could help finance attendance to 58 Michigan colleges and universities, and 80% actually used the scholarship.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.ncai.org/news/articles/2022 ... old-medals

NCAI Applauds Reinstatement of Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Gold Medals

The IOC stripped Thorpe of his gold medals for the events in 1913 for playing minor league baseball for meager earnings while he was in college. The IOC did return replica medals to the Thorpe family in 1982, but fell short of making true amends by designating him as a co-champion of the events he clearly won.

“The National Congress of American Indians applauds this new action and congratulates the family of this great hero, as well as Bright Path Strong, a Native American organization largely responsible for this achievement,” said President Sharp.

Jim Thorpe, Sac and Fox Nation and Potawatomi, was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympic Games. Born on May 28, 1888, in Prague, Oklahoma, to Hiram Thorpe and Charlotte Vieux, Thorpe is considered one of the most talented and versatile athletes in modern sports. He was a football star at Carlisle Indian College and, following his feats in the Olympics, became a professional athlete.

“Football, baseball, basketball, track and even hockey - he played them all at the highest level with an ability that was truly beyond belief,” said President Sharp. “Native Americans all across this country know his name and speak it with great honor.”

[Uninformed]

[jez]

I thought this was really cool. It's a post of a screenshot....

But there is an article that goes with it with the story. It is from January 2021.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

So coooolll!!

[AndyinPA]

[RVInit]

[AndyinPA]

[RTH10260]

Missing the chocolate smeared cheeks

[MsDaisy]

That was super cute!

[RVInit]

If this doesn't make you smile...

[RTH10260]

from the twit thread

"Her name is Anastasia Tyurina, born in October 2010,"

bio at https://www.geniuslyrics.cc/blog/biogra ... areer.html

[RVInit]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Let's see if that works on the Fogbow.

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

[RVInit]

Let's see if that works on the Fogbow.

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

[MsDaisy]

SOOOOOO cute!

[RTH10260]

Lost and found --- will this end happy with the owner located?

A 1950s teen girl's purse was found during Clear Creek ISD renovations. Historians hope to find her.

Shaniece Holmes-Brown Staff writer
Oct. 7, 2022

A missing purse found under the stage of an old school building chronicles what life was like for a teenage girl in the 1950s. But the whereabouts of the girl it belonged to remain a mystery.

While ripping up the floorboards of the League City School building to create a new community center, contractors uncovered a purse filled with memories and mementos dating back to 1959.

“There was a mini calendar and the dates and entries stopped in April 1959 so we assume it was lost in April 1959,” said Erika Fernandez, communications specialist with CCISD.

LAWSUIT: Clear Creek ISD parents say school turned 'blind eye' to punching, choking of Black students

Going through the purse with Clear Creek ISD staff revealed the possible identity of the owner of the purse was finally revealed.

“We presume from some of the photos that the owner of the wallet is Beverly Williams and she was born in 1946; so that would put her at 76 years old,” Fernandez said.



https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/h ... 493964.php

[Mrich]

Lost and found --- will this end happy with the owner located?

Owner's family found!
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/h ... 495741.php

[AndyinPA]

Nice.

[RTH10260]

[RVInit]

What a great story

[MN-Skeptic]

Thread -

A colleague took me to lunch today, and we walked from our office down to a deli a few blocks away. We passed a house that had a utility shutoff notice on the door, and my colleague stopped and took it off the door. While sitting at the deli... 1/3

...he called and paid the outstanding bill, over a thousand dollars, then tore up the notice and threw it in the garbage. With no comment. He didn't know who the family was, he just helped a stranger. He's also Sikh, wears a Dastar, and gets constant grief from ignorant people.

I'm only sharing this because I think it might make a few people smile today. There are good people in the world. And I now I'm thinking I can do better myself. (end)

Added later -

The photo I posted is from a Google Image search. I didn't take a picture of the actual shutoff notice. It's none of anyone's business who or where it was.
It's hard to believe I had to add this.

[RVInit]

[AndyinPA]