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"A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn." --Unknown
Hello everyone! It’s hard to remember sometimes that the problems we face are opportunities, no matter how difficult or frustrating they appear to be at first. Our stories this week shine a light on individuals and organizations that transformed their challenges into new possibilities. In Japan, toddlers are brought to nursing homes to spread cheer among the elderly. In Switzerland, a spinal implant helps a man with Parkinson’s regain the ability to walk again. And after her grandson died, a grandmother in St. Louis now hosts breakfast for 30 extra ‘grandbabies’ who visit her weekly. Challenges come in all shapes and sizes. May we remember that, through our difficulties, new and incredible opportunities can emerge, especially if our traditional paradigms are questioned and stretched. Wishing you resilience, confidence, and creativity this week!
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Rod Long | Unsplash
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In Kitakyushu, Japan, nursing home director, Kimie Gordo, came up with the idea of bringing infants into her nursing home after her own newborn granddaughter was visiting and she saw how happy it made the residents. "When I saw the elderly people smile, I realized the power possessed by infants," she said. The nursing home now has a team of about 70 "baby workers," who can inspire even the toughest residents. "Just seeing a baby walking around, they smile and they start to speak," said Gordo. The pint-sized team works flexible hours, strolling around the nursing home with their parents, mostly mothers. They are paid in diapers and ice cream. The kids benefit in many ways, including socializing with other children and getting attention from grandparent-like figures.
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Anne Nygard | Unsplash
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A common side effect of the mining industry, iron oxide runoff, has been impacting the US state of Ohio's waterways for generations. Now, a group of artists and scientists in the state are removing this contaminant from a section of Sunday creek and using it as an ingredient in paint pigment. "In Southeast Ohio, acid mine drainage is a common pollutant in our streams. You can still run into children who, you tell them to draw a stream, and they reach for an orange crayon," said Guy Riefler, professor of Civil Engineering at Ohio University. Working in tandem with Riefler, artist and environmentalist John Sabraw and a group of volunteers have developed a process that converts iron oxide waste into pigment for oil paints. "With little funding and lots of skeptics, we've been refining a process that can continuously treat acid mine drainage, restore a stream for aquatic life, and collect sustainably sourced iron pigment that can be sold offsetting operational costs. Based on our estimates, we should be able to create jobs and produce a small profit, while eliminating a perpetual pollution source," Sabraw said.
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Klaus Nielsen | Pexels
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A man with Parkinson's disease has regained the ability to walk after physicians implanted a small device into his spinal cord that sends signals to his legs. Marc, 62, is the first and only person to have received the new spinal neuroprosthesis. He received an implant 20 years ago that delivered deep brain stimulation, but gradually, neurological problems left him unable to get around. Then, in 2021, he enrolled in a clinical trial at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne University Hospital. When he wants to take a walk, Marc pushes a button on a remote control that sends wireless signals to the neurostimulator. It then sends bursts of electrical signals that stimulate the lumbosacral spinal cord, a region of the lower spine that activates leg muscles.
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Eflon from Ithaca, NY | Wikimedia Commons
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In September, volunteers installed a solar array on top of a two-story community center in the Dique da Vila Alzira favela, hoping it will prove that solar energy can be expanded to neighboring homes in this informal urban enclave, one of nearly 1,000 in Greater Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In favelas, informal connections often siphon energy from the region's large energy companies because utility costs are high and incomes are low. While 97% of households are connected to the formal electricity grid, some households are paying for some of their energy while siphoning energy for certain appliances. While solar units in favelas typically plug into the existing energy grid, overall costs are lower because buildings are powered by a mix of free solar energy and power from the utility. Any excess energy goes back into the wider system. It's a step toward sustainability for neighborhoods left out of city and state policy that have been left on their own to handle garbage, plumbing and energy needs.
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Peggy Winckowski
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The Wednesday Breakfast Club tradition at Peggy Winckowski's home in St. Louis began in October 2021 after her grandson, Sam Crowe, then a high school freshman, told his friends that his grandma made a better breakfast than the diner where they went when they had a late start. Then in July 2022, after Sam was killed in a car crash, the teens came to grieve with her every day for the whole week to make sure she was okay. As that summer ended, Winckowski told the teens they were still welcome for breakfast. Now there are about 30 regular attendees. Winckowski and her husband — who has dementia and Parkinson's disease, and needs constant care — are on a fixed income but local businesses and students' families have been helping with groceries."I've lost my 15-year-old grandson, but in his place, Sam gave me 30 extra grandbabies," she says. "I think Sam is directing this from above."
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