Upbeat News Saturday
- Editor OGN Daily
- Sep 20
- 3 min read
Celebrating the start of the weekend with a selection of upbeat news stories.
Imagination Library
Ohio is allowing families to sign up for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program from the hospital at birth - as part of their birth certificate paperwork. The program sends children one free book each month until they’re 5 years old to help them fall in love with reading early. “This is going to really help us sign up the kids and families that we have not been able to reach,” said Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine. “We’re going into new neighborhoods just by letting them sign right up at the hospital.” The first lady said the program is already helping more than 400,000 children across the state.
New York's 'Black Gold'
In many U.S. cities, food waste items and yard trimmings are bound for the landfill - in New York, they become “black gold,” a rich compost used throughout the city to improve soil health. The Staten Island Compost Facility takes in residential organic waste - an average 100 to 150 tons of organic material every single day. The end product is sold to some landscapers, but the rest is distributed free of charge to residents, schools, and community gardens. The city said it’s given out nearly 6 million pounds to residents so far this year. This is good news on many levels, particularly because if such waste goes to landfill, they generate methane, a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide. When these waste items are composted, not only are those emissions prevented - they help improve soil health, manage stormwater, and keep city green spaces thriving.
Global School Meals
National school meal programmes now serve 466 million children worldwide, up 80 million since 2020 (yes, that’s 80 million more children in just four years). Low-income countries expanded access by 60 percent, while global funding for school meals has more than doubled, rising from US$43 billion in 2020 to US$84 billion in 2024. The most encouraging statistic of all? 99 percent of funding is now coming from national budgets.
Affordable Housing
Canada has announced a new federal agency dedicated to building affordable housing. In an effort to help solve the country’s housing crisis, the agency will be supported by an an initial $9.39 billion investment and help reduce upfront costs and leverage public lands for housing. "We're in a housing crisis," Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters. "And it's going to take all hands on deck to get us out of it."
No Wanton Singing
A council in north west England is to formally repeal by-laws from 1935 that criminalise “wanton singing”, “sounding a noisy trumpet”, carpet-beating or “inciting any dog to bark” along the 3.7-mile coast path. The restrictions were discovered when Wirral council wanted to install signs for cyclists along the path, only to find “the activity was technically unlawful”, said The Times. The council has concluded that the by-laws are “outdated and no longer suitable”.
What's in Your Trolley?
Pennsylvania man Wesley Silva told NBC News he had “never had a problem” shopping at his local Walmart with five-foot alligator companion Jinseioshi until a recent visit in which he “pushed the alligator around in a shopping cart as she was wearing a dress”. After the incident made the local news, Silva was told his toothy pal was not welcome in the store. The 60-year-old’s reptile menagerie includes a second alligator, a Komodo dragon and six snakes. “I find them very soothing,” he said.
“Dare to be true.” George Herbert
On This Day
20 September 1973: In a much-publicized 'Battle of the Sexes' tennis match, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs. The match was something of a spectacle as the in-her-prime King defeated the 55-year-old Riggs in three straight sets, but the event nevertheless was a significant moment in the second wave of the women’s movement that took place during the 1970s. The event also laid claim as the most-watched tennis match of all time, with a worldwide television audience estimated at over 90 million.
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