Good News Mondays: Week 11
Good News Monday is an online bulletin of Rotaract Club Madrid Capital whose purpose is sharing good news from Madrid and elsewhere in these challenging times. We have teamed up to share positivity all over our MDIO and beyond. Here are the highlights of the week between June 8 and 12.
Top three of the week
- A beautiful lesson of love
In 1969, when black citizens in the United States were not permitted to swim in community pools alongside white people, Fred Rogers brought a black police officer to his television show and invited him to cool his feet with him in a small, plastic wading pool. Mr. Rogers then helped Officer Clemmons to dry his feet.
Mr. Rogers never openly preached on his show, despite being an ordained Presbyterian minister. Yet he preached volumes in this simple act of love. In a world seemingly filled with hatred, where you can be anything, be a Mr. Rogers.
Source: https://www.biography.com/news/mister-rogers-officer-clemmons-pool
- Harley, the therapist dog that relieves stress from doctors in Mexico
Wearing boots, glasses, and a protective suit, Harley, a pug dog trained as a therapist, begins a new journey to relieve the stress of medical personnel who fight against the new coronavirus outbreak in a hospital in Mexico City. Without offering resistance, the beige animal is ready to play for hours with the doctors and nurses attending to the pandemic, who smiles at them in the middle of their grueling days.
- Markets of Madrid in solidarity with hospitals in times of coronavirus
in their fight against COVID-19. It is an initiative that has started entirely from the markets themselves, which ensure supplies in homes, and which remain open so that the necessary purchases can be made.
Humans of New York
“My mother passed away suddenly while I was studying in America. It was such a dark moment for me. She had been the most important person in my life, and I wasn’t even with her when she died. I needed to get home to Zimbabwe for the funeral, but it was right before Christmas so every flight was booked. The only ticket I could afford was a middle seat. It was so cramped. I couldn’t even move my legs.
But I happened to notice an empty seat in the exit row behind me. The flight attendant allowed me to change places, and I sat down next to a white girl. I remember thinking: ‘She’s going to hate me for taking up her space.’ But instead, she smiled and made a joke. She said: ‘Welcome to exit row paradise.’ There was an immediate connection. Right away we began talking about deep things. I told her about my mother. And she told me that her father had also died suddenly while she was working overseas. We started sharing stories of our parents. And before we landed, she ordered two whiskey drinks in celebration of my mom. I spent two weeks in Zimbabwe. I told all my friends that my mother had put an angel on my flight. My trip home wasn’t much easier. This time I had a long layover in London, so I sat down in the airport bar and ordered a beer. And in she walked. God had put us on the same flight once again. When we pulled out our tickets and looked at our seat numbers, we couldn’t believe it. She was seat 61. I was 60. I hadn’t even been looking to meet someone. I was determined to stay single and focus on my schoolwork. But it was like she had been brought to me. Everyone who meets Hannah tells me how lucky I am. She is so kind, and smart, and accomplished. We dated for almost two years before we got married. When I gave a speech at our reception, I didn’t need notes. Because I knew our story. I told everyone about that girl I met on a plane. And I was looking at her as I spoke, and she was now my wife, and it made me so emotional. It was so hard to know how to feel. I wanted my mom to meet her so bad. But if my mom was still here, I’d never have met her. Somehow I’d found the most important person in my life because I lost the most important person in my life.”
Hero of the week
Name: Vanessa Patricia Velasco Medina
Club: Club Rotaract Aguascalientes Universitario
Which project have you been involved in at this time?
The first project is the so-called CORONA-KIT project that consists of equipping the most vulnerable sector of hospitals that are medical or nursing students or interns with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits (crown-kits) that make their work experience in hospitals having direct contact with patients infected with COVID-19 risking their lives to comply with their university or high school demands. Our club delivered 100 CORONA-KITs at the Tercer Milenio General Hospital, east of our city that is Aguascalientes, Ags México (area where the largest Covid outbreak has been registered).
What makes you happy?
Health and having a life makes me happy. It gives me personal satisfaction and helps me be a better person … It makes me be a happy Rotaractor!
Your number one hobby?
Reading is my number one hobby. Then comes pairing, followed by salsa and bachata; as well as other genres, films and studying. I love studying! Lastly, I like to travel, I would love to see the world through cultural lenses to be able to appreciate art diversity. I would like to know how people view the world.
A curious fact about you?
Despite being Mexican, I don’t like chili or spicy food in general, I strongly dislike it.
If you could send a message to everyone in the world, what would it be?
Love yourself because it is the only way to understand others; developing empathy that would lead to world peace.