Awesome Stories 196

/ November 8, 2014

This week Awesome Stories brings you recycled laptops, compassion, printing buildings, empowering women and transforming lives.

Compassion in Actionfeeding the hungry, Awesome Stories

I love this man’s creative and compassionate way to raise awareness and money for the hungry. Anton Cobb spends his lunch hour every Wednesday sitting in Directors Park, Portland collecting funds for the Oregon Food Bank. He sets up a cute dining scene as prop to bring awareness to the challenge of feeding the hungry. Typically he will raise enough to feed 30 hungry people. I love how he compassionately choses not to eat lunch on those days too. And he reports that Wednesday lunch has become his favorite time of the week.

Transforming Lives with LED Lighting

LED lights are transforming lives in developing countries. Over 1.3 billion people in the world don’t have access to reliable electricity, requiring them to use wood and kerosene. Due to recent improvements in LED performance, solar powered LED lights can now supply reliable lighting at affordable prices. Entry level models start at $10, with high performers for $35-$40. Those products can charge cellphones, offer three levels of light and run 35 hours on a single charge. Considering that many people spend $80/ year just on kerosene, this is a great solution that not only saves money, but reduces the health and environmental hazards from burning kerosene for fuel.

Repurposing Laptopsrecycling laptops, Awesome Stories

I love this idea of giving new life to laptops by repurposing them, since currently only about 25% of electronics get recycled. It’s a wonderful way to reuse the laptops, while gifting them to people who don’t currently have access to a computer. The donors can even pick the recipient based on their story and need. Mariama Bangoura is a principal who received a laptop to use for both teaching and record keeping at her school in Kindia, Guinea. GlobeTops delivers the laptops, along with training for the recipients. Kudos to Becky Morrison for caring and creating a creative way to reuse our electronics. And she’s aiming to add more products like cellphones to the process.

3D Printing for Buildings

The various applications for 3D printing are amazing. NASA and Contour Crafting have been working on 3D printed homes that can be built on the moon! Meanwhile back at home on earth, the process can allow for simple, efficient and affordable homes that could be printed in 24 hours! The initial applications would be for disaster relief, shelter for the homeless and other critical needs. Eventually, the process could revolutionize how homes are built and designed.

Empowering Women

Veronika Scott found her passion women while still in design school. She was designing coats to give to local Detroit homeless people when a woman yelled at her about them needing jobs, not coats. Thus was born the inspiration to create an organization to empower women. The Empowerment Plan hires homeless women, pays them and empowers them to create independent lives. The coats are given to homeless people around Detroit, which has a huge homeless and unemployment problem. These coats transform to sleeping bags to keep the homeless people warm at night. Clever and compassionate!

My aim is to inspire you to live more fully, to give and be more in your life. Did any of these stories inspire you to make a change in your life, get involved with a cause or help others? If so, I’d love to hear what you’re inspired to do.

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20 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 196”

  8. Brad, thank you for this edition, especially for Compassion in Action and Empowering Women. The former teaches how we can make a difference–little ripples of compassion morphing into larger waves of understanding, action, and Advocacy. And the latter illustrates the classic conundrum: giving what we Think is needed versus informing ourselves of what’s Truly needed.

    There are always ways to help make life better, safer, and more whole for others.
    As with anything.
    It is a choice.

    With thanksgiving,
    Dani

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    • You are most welcome Dani! Thank you for your kind and thoughtful responses. I like your description of ripples of compassion morphing into waves of change! And exploring what is really needed. Good stuff! And I totally agree about the power of choice.
      blessings to you and yours, Brad

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  9. SO appreciative of this eye-opening collection, Brad. I absolutely love the “Empowerment Plan.” Most women (and men for that matter) want more than a handout…they want a means of contributing to society and thereby being capable of standing on their own two feet — which, in my humble opinion, leads to sense of accomplishment/pride. We need many more programs like this one. Veronika Scott for president??! Okay, I’ll settle for an advisory position because her current work is too important to give up! 🙂 Thank you!

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    • My pleasure Shauna! 🙂

      I’m so appreciative of your enthusiastic support for me and Veronika! I agree that we need a LOT more programs that empower people to take care of themselves and contribute to society. How about Veronika Scott and Kid President as the next Presidential team for reform based on compassion, enthusiasm and kindness? XD

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  10. Great stories Brad! I like the 3D printing story. It is probably not coincidental that NASA is involved. I hear that they are now talking about shipping raw materials to the ISS and then have parts printed in space instead of worrying about shipping cargo on missions which can be much more expensive. It goes to show how a melding of technology and the imaginative mind can create some pretty unique solutions 😉

    I also especially like the empowering women initiative. It reminds me to go with the flow. Sometimes, the thing that you set out to do to make a difference in the world is only a breadcrumb that leads you towards your true calling. Every endeavor has a reason and a purpose, even if it doesn’t pan out as you may have expected!

    Thanks, as always, for sharing these awesome stories 🙂

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  11. Great imagination Dave. 🙂 I can see you dreaming up ideas for NASA, 3D printing and wonderful adventures of mind, spirit and space! The women’s empowerment initiative seems to have hit a chord, both for empowerment, and being alert to what is really needed and being called. Or as you poetically stated, breadcrumbs leading us down the path! Thanks for contributing. 🙂

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