Fix it Yourself.
How one couple moved hundreds of miles from home to run a center for pregnant teenage girls.
Drew and Cindy are unassuming and polite, and they go about their business without judgment. Drew was a contractor in the Midwest and made a good living. He’s barrel-chested and has the thick forearms and fingers of a man who has worked with his hands for decades. Read Story
Courage in a New World.
The story of Stagecoach Mary, the first Black woman to deliver mail in the Wild West.
We like our heroes larger than life, and we like them to be uncompromising in their determination. Mary Fields was tall, and as a recently freed slave in the 1860s, she was also fearless. Read Story
Never, Ever Give Up.
The incredible story of the 12-year-old cancer patient who brings joy to half a million children fighting cancer.
Life can feel terribly unfair. And yet for some people, when life hands them the worst possible circumstance, they are at their absolute best. Jessie Joy Rees is just such a person. Read Story
Sometimes the Wrong Direction is the Right Way.
How a wrong number, a wrong text and a mix-up led to long-lasting friendships.
Life can be unpredictable, and some of those turns enrich us in ways that wouldn’t have happened if we were all as perfect as an Instagram post. Read Story
The Little Things that Make the Biggest Difference.
How one man created a forest the size of Central Park by planting one tree a day.
It’s hard to imagine the impact of the little things we do in our daily lives. A few degrees in course correction today could put us in a completely different universe in a few years. And that’s a good thing. Read Story
The Brotherhood in Sports Goes Beyond the Field.
How a men’s rugby team supported one of their own.
Rugby, they say, is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans. The game itself is based on warfare, with one side controlling territory and fighting for more. Read Story
Something Healthy for All of Us
How 17-year-old Gloria Barron Prize Winners Annie and Shirley Zhu provide fresh food for 1,400 people a year.
Most of us have memories from childhood that go something like this: You’re not leaving the table until you eat all your vegetables.How lucky we were to have nutritious food, even if we had to learn to like it. According to the Houston Health Department, for nearly one-quarter of children living in Houston, Texas, the choice to eat healthy doesn’t exist. Read Story
More Than Just Dancing
How inclusion helps overcome mental illness.
JuJu loved to dance. She had a smile that filled the room and moved as if she was actually creating the music. But when she was away from her high school dance class, she was more reserved, a little bit guarded — something the group of girls in her class noticed. Read Story
Let the Kids Give it a Try
How 17-year-old Dasia Taylor developed sutures that detect infection.
Dasia Taylor is your typical high school student, with one exception. She cares about the rest of the world — and she’s doing something about it. Read Story
Billy Mills
The story behind America’s first and only 10,000-meter Olympic champion.
Billy Mills was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the Oglala Lakota people. His mother died when he was 9 years old. Hurting from the loss, young Billy took up sports, believing an article given to him by a Jesuit priest that stated that Olympians are chosen by the gods. Read Story
Beatrice Shilling
The motorcycle daredevil who became a mechanical engineer and saved the lives of countless pilots in WWll.
Beatrice “Tilly” Shilling had a penchant for speed. In 1913, at age 14, she bought her first motorcycle. She tinkered with it and roared around the English countryside, eventually racing for the British Motorcycle Racing Club. Read Story
The Art of Pitching.
A little confidence at the right time goes a long way.
Summertime brings out miniature baseball players, sliding in the dust, chasing errant balls and constantly adjusting caps. It is the season for kids to be out in the sun, working on eye-hand coordination and, most importantly, dugout chants. A game with so much time spent standing around requires clever chants to keep young minds occupied. Read Story
For the Cost of a Box of Cereal.
How just noticing makes all the difference in the world.
Julian was having a difficult day at work. Projects were due, and his boss had just made major changes to a spreadsheet that would mean a long night. Julian isn’t the type to get angry, but he does get withdrawn. Taking a deep breath, he gathered himself and went out to grab a late lunch that would also serve as dinner. Read Story
The Future Belongs to Kids.
So far, things look pretty bright.
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes features some pretty remarkable kids. Teens are cleaning up our oceans, feeding their underserved peers, creating tutoring networks and collecting donations for the homeless. Many have used their screen time to mobilize volunteer efforts in ways that the previous generation just couldn’t do. Read Story
An Impossible Journey.
How John Wesley Powell navigated the Colorado River and Grand Canyon in wooden boats.
In May 1869, John Wesley Powell, a former Union Army major who had lost most of his right arm in the Battle of Shiloh, led 10 explorers in launching four heavy wooden boats loaded to the gunwales with 10 months of supplies. Read Story
