Category Archives: Feel Good Friday

Disney Wants to Create More Shuri’s

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Happy Friday, Blinkers.

We’ve got a lot to feel good about. For one, Black Panther continues to snatch our edges and our wallets with it’s message of melanin magnificence.

So much so that the mouse company has donated $1 million to the Boys and Girls Club of America to expand their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) youth programs.

The Walt Disney Company’s CEO Robert Iger couldn’t help but gush about the movie’s influence on, well, everyone, releasing this statement:

Marvel Studio’s Black Panther is a masterpiece of movie making and has become an instant cultural phenomenon, sparking discussion, inspiring people young and old, and breaking down age old myths.

Prompting him to create more real life Shuri’s.

It is thrilling to see how inspired young audiences were by the spectacular technology in the film, so it’s fitting that we show our appreciation by helping advance STEM programs for youth, especially in underserved areas of the country, to give them the knowledge and tools to build the future they want.

The grant will also be used to build STEM centers in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Harlem, Memphis, New Orleans, LA and Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

The youngsters have a lot to look forward to because they’ll be doing work similar to what Princess Shuri slayed at in the movie. Sans the car chase.

They’ll be tinkering with “3-D printers, robotics, high-definition video production and conferencing equipment” through group exercises and individually, using real apps.

Jim Clark, CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of America says this is just the beginning.

From hands-on interactive programs to critical thinking, Boys & Girls Clubs of America is committed to providing thousands of young people with the tools they need to prepare for a great future.

Wakanda won’t be the only one churning out tech princesses.

 

This Puerto Rican School is Lit

Let there be liiiigggghhhttt (in my Oprah voice).

Lord knows we need some cheerful stories out of P.R. and we’re finally being blessed with one this week. Oh dia feliz!

Electricity was finally, finally restored at Academia Bautista de Puerto Nuevo, a private Christian school, in San Juan last week.

Students, teachers and faculty couldn’t contain their excitement after the fluorescent lights started beaming down. The viral video shows students breaking out in song, racing out of classrooms to chanting cheers. One teach even rang a bell to show her excitement.

Who wouldn’t dance a jig of joy when you’re in the dark for five months. Yup, five months. Academia Bautista hasn’t had power since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September.

Yet, the school–which covers preK to high school–reopened three weeks after the hurricane and has been making do without air conditioning, lights, classroom projectors and smart boards for 900 students that returned.

Let’s hope this small ray of light will touch other areas of the island that still don’t have power.

 

 

 

TGIF! Colin Kaepernick Continues Giving Tour |Obama Donates $2M to Chi-Town Jobs Program

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Happy Cinco De Mayo, Blinkers!

It couldn’t come at a better time…because it’s feel good Friday, y’all.

So grab that Corona with lime–dont forget the tacos–settle in and let’s recap some of the good things that went down this week.

Starting with our favorite quarterback Colin Kaepernick, sans a team. (Insert rant: will somebody pick this dude up already?)

Colin’s giving tour landed in front of the New York State Parole Board on Sunday, where the former 49er handed out custom suits to recently released prisoners looking for jobs.

Colin’s doing the damn thing when it comes to helping out in the community. Keep up the goodworks, CK.

Now for some Obama news that doesn’t involve “health” or “care” ’cause ain’t nothing feel good about that ish.

Anyway, Barack and Michelle Obama announced making a $2 million donation to create 800 summer jobs in Chicago on Wednesday.

“One of the things that we’ll be starting this year is Michelle and I are personally going to donate $2 million to our summer jobs programs here in the community,” he said at the South Shore Cultural Center. “[It’s] so that right away young people can get to work and we can start providing opportunities to all of them.”

So take that, all you salty Democrats (**cough Bernie Sanders cough**) who chastised Obama for filling his pockets with Wall Street dollars. A cash grab former presidents have done for decades, mind you. At least Obama is doing it to help out his adopted city. To prevent more violence from coming out of Chiraq.

One Summer Chicago will be hosting summer jobs for the teens.

Cheers to more people like Obama.

Best Week Ever! Beyonce Is Giving Us ‘Lemonade’ Scholarships | Barack Obama Comes Home

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Barack.Obama.Is.Back. Now if that wasn’t enough to make your week a little better. Hell, it’s Barry, a lot better than nothing else will.

Nope I’m lying. Cause hold up! King Bey is giving us some more ‘Lemonade’ news.

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Beyonce announced Formation college scholarships–in honor of the one-year anniversary of ‘Lemonade’ album release–to young women “who are unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, creative, conscious and confident.”

The Formation scholars are incoming, current or graduate students in the 2017/2018 academic year. They will major in creative arts, music, literature or African-American studies.

These future Nikki Giovanni’s and Lauryn Hills will be roaming the halls of either Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design or Spelman College–schools that are participants in the Formation scholarship. Check out the schools’ websites for deadline.

Awww, Beyonce. No one loves us like you do.

Now, back to Barack. This is not a drill folks. No drive-by coffee run in Midtown Manhattan. Or a lunch date with Bono. This is Barack’s official comeback to his hometown of Chi-Town.

The official jump off was on Monday when he held a town hall meeting with youth leaders at the University of Chicago  Where he reflected on his presidency.

He had me at:

Check out the full Q&A below.

Barack followed that up with a more formal speech at a Chicago club on Wednesday.

Barack is officially back, guys. And it’ll cost ya $400 G’ s to get him.

44 ain’t cheap, y’all.

FGF | Zendaya Hires Cyberbully Victim | Real-Life ‘Hidden Figure’ NASA Genius

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Happiest of Friday’s to ya.

Trump getting sonned by Arnold Schwarzenegger (if only he could terminate him.) isn’t the only thing that makes it a feel good end of the week.

Zendaya’s clapback game is also fierce, as we all know, and she exhibited it yet again recently.

When twitter user @_illestCee was being bullied by a troll for her weight, Daya swooped in for the rescue.

The K.C. Undercover star took her appreciation to another level by offering the buxom beauty a modeling gig with her brand.

Welp, that was easy.

Speaking of dreams coming true, 22-year-old Tierra Guinn is a aerospace engineer for Boening. Did we mention she’s only 22? Oh, and is still enrolled at M.I.T holding down a 5.0 GPA.

The rocket Guinn is building will be used at NASA.

And who says girls suck at math and science? Not with all these ‘hidden figures’ roaming around.

Finally, to end on a good note, is the cutest Daddy duty video ever. Soul Man star Wesley Jonathan posted an Instagram video of his wife teaching him how to do his daughter’s hair.

Take notes, Daddies.

 

FGF | 8-Year-Old Surprised With College Admission

 

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How fly is 8-year-old Jordin Phipps?

The Texas native isn’t even in middle school yet, and already, like, today, she got accepted into the University of North Texas.

Not an easy thing to pull off.

Jordin managed to by reciting the university’s daily mantra, while wearing one of their T-shirts, and having mom record the spiel.

Which is actually quite empowering. It put a pep in my step, anyway.

“I am smart. I am a leader. Failure is not an option for me,” Jordin declares in the video. “Success is only moments away.”

Jordin’s mom, Nichole Smith, a University of Texas alumna, posted the video on Facebook earlier this month.

ABC News reports, University of North Texas school officials got wind of Jordin’s enthusiastic school pledge and wanted to help her.

They contacted me on Wednesday and said they wanted to present her with a scholarship,” Smith, a special education teacher, told ABC News.

Did they ever. Joined by some UNT cheerleaders, an early, early, early admission letter to join the class of 2030, aaanndd a $10,000 scholarship check–usually reserved for high school kids–school’s director of admissions surprised Jordin  during her elementary school assembly.

This makes the pre-teen the youngest student ever admitted in the university’s history.

And she already knows her major–school teacher, like her mom.

You better come through young scholar.

Feel Good Friday Roundup

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Beyonce’s Lemonade album drop wasn’t the only good news this week. Sorry Beyhive. There was a lot of reasons to slap on that Kool-Aide smile, starting with FLOTUS Michelle Obama’s fencing lesson from Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad in Times Square Wednesday. To kick-off coverage of the Olympics this summer and promote her Let’s Move Campaign!

Gotta love a woman that kills two birds with one stone.

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Knicks baller Carmelo Anthony and wife LaLa paid a visit to their No. 1 fan, Anthony Skipper at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Florida earlier this week. Melo and La have been visiting Anthony, who suffers from a brain disorder, frequently since learning he’s a big Knicks fan. So they couldn’t miss being by his side during one of his major surgeries.

Awww who says you shouldn’t meet your heroes.

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Black-ish star Marcus Scribner was picked to be the first ever Youth Advocate Ambassador for The Sandals Foundation. Marcus visited Jamaica recently where he lent a hand for Earth Day.

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Finally, my favorite feel good story of the week is about perseverance and a piano. Ohio teen Darrius Simmons was born with just four fingers, but it didn’t stop him from teaching himself how to play the piano. At 10.

Recently he began posting videos of him tickling the ivories and got noticed by pianist Yiruma, who was scheduled to play Carnegie Hall on April 22nd. He invited Darrius to join him, reports NBC New York. Not only did 15-year-old Darrius accompany Yiruma he brought Carnegie Hall to their feet.

Check the video below for a small sampling of Darrius’ piano skills.

Hope all this goodness is contagious.

 

 

Feel Good Friday Roundup

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I know the real Feel Good Friday news you want on this April Fools Day. Sadly, Donald Trump’s presidential bid is 100 percent a joke, but he’s the fool for thinking otherwise. With that being said there are no announcements of him throwing in the towel, only this.

While we continue to shake our heads on that one, here are a few news items that will make you nod ’em.

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First, Diddy, P.Diddy, Puffy whatever the hell he goes by–GOT IT–Sean. Let’s just stick to his government name. So, Mr. Sean Combs is opening a charter school in his birthplace of Harlem. The Capital Preparatory Harlem Charter School, an independently funded school, will open in the Fall and is accepting sixth and seventh grade applications. Sean said this of his latest venture:

“I want to impact the lives of young people in my community and build future leaders. The first step is offering quality education.”

It’s quite a detour from the media mogul making us dance (Not that he stopped. Who else is trying to cop the Badboy reunion tickets?) but I can so dig it.

And we can all take a collective sigh of relief knowing Sean Combs will not be running the school. Educator extraordinare Dr. Steve Perry will be the headmaster.

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Two Michigan prisons–Pugsley Correctional Facility and Oaks Correctional Facility–got into the philanthropic spirit this week when they ran a contest to see who could collect the most water for Flint residents.

The winner is…Pugsley Correctional with 30,000 collected water bottles during a one month period.

Newsone reports, Pugsley administrator and creator of the contest said the real winners are the recipients.

“It wasn’t us that won. It wasn’t Oaks that won. This is going to those kids at ISD in Genesee County. They won.”

The inmates generosity knows no bounds, they even pooled together $600 to give to the cause. Inmates’ average hourly wage is $.26. About $1.17 a day.

Finally, when you get an opportunity, go for it like this little boy did to get a hug from fave basketball player–Carmelo Anthony.

Yes, some things you have to make happen yourself. Kudos to the real people uniting us.

Feel Good Friday | Howard Students Spend Spring Break in Flint

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Not every college student is spending spring break in a lounge chair sipping a Mai Tai.

Howard University students (43 to be exact) from D.C. ditched the beach for the Motor City earlier this month.

Not just to visit Motown’s Hitsville studio (how can you pass that up?) but to deliver bottled water to Flint, Michigan residents.

As part of an “alternative spring break,” an HBCU tradition where spring breakers lend a helping hand in and beyond borders; there are 500 HU spring breakers sprinkling goodness in Chicago, St. Louis and Haiti this year, according to ibtimes.

In Flint, the good karma crew visited a Boys and Girls Club to start a garden (Michelle Obama would be so proud.) As well as organize the incoming bottled water donations.

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Earlier this week, the spring breakers helped cook and sort food at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

Followed that up by visiting International Academy Charter School for family science night.

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Most of the HU students spending spring break in Flint are from the Muslim Students Association. The group donated water to Flint, Michigan’s Muslim House and had an interfaith chat to go along with it late last week.

As to why they’re there.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or not tuning into C-SPAN (you should’ve it was popcorn eating, soft-drinking slurping type of viewing this week.) Flint, Michigan’s water has been contaminated due to lead piping and a heavily polluted source stream. Nearly 100,000 black and poor residents have been affected.

Keep track of the do-gooders progress in Flint by following them on Instagram–huasb_flint.

 

Feel Good Friday Roundup

It’s finally Friday and these feel-good-stories are the cherries on top of the end of the week.

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Let’s start with our favorite centenarian–106-year-old Virginia McLaurin–who captured our hearts with her jig of joy upon meeting Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House last month.

Now her newfound fans are making the spry senior smile again by starting a YouCaring fundraising page to change her living situation.

Virginia’s asking for $50K (so far $21,580 has been raised) to move into a ground floor apartment–she currently lives in a walkup–closer to her church, reports Huffington Post.

“She’s determined that she wants to live independently and close to her church,” Virginia’s friend Deborah Menkart told Huffington Post.”So we need to make sure that there are the funds to secure that.”

Pretty safe in assuming Virginia can and will.

A Kansas City Community Kitchen turned their soup kitchen into a restaurant-style serving the homeless.

From 11am to 2pm on weekdays the homeless are greeted by a host and given their food orders by a wait staff.

The menu was even created by an executive chef of a local restaurant that once lived in poverty.

The “dine with dignity” style soup kitchen is meant to change the script on how the homeless is treated.

“We are trying to flip the photo of what a soup kitchen looks like,” Mandy Caruso-Yahne, who runs the kitchen at Episcopal Community Service.

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Finally, rapper Fetty Wap inspired a young fan, Jayden Burgos to embrace his short-sightedness (get it?)

By ditching his prosethetic eye in the style of the Trap Queen rapper.

As a reward Jayden met his idol.