Kerri Strug’s Second Vault

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics the U.S. women’s gymnastics team was on the edge of its first-ever team gold, but the Russians were closing fast. Kerri Strug fell on her first vault and heard a loud pop in her left ankle. She could barely feel her leg, but her coaches shouted that they needed one more. “I could feel the gold slipping away,” she said. “I felt like I had to do it. I felt I owed it to everyone.” She sprinted down the runway, landed her second vault, held her feet just long enough for the judges, then lifted her injured foot and collapsed to her knees. She scored a 9.712, and the U.S. won the gold.

The Lahaina Banyan Tree Puts Out New Leaves

In August 2023 a wind-driven wildfire tore through the historic town of Lahaina on Maui, and the famous banyan tree on Front Street, planted in 1873 to mark 50 years since the first Protestant mission there, was left scorched and standing in the ashes. A group of arborists, landscapers, and volunteers refused to give up on it, hauling in tanker trucks to soak it with water every few hours and feeding the tree with a specially mixed “compost tea.” About a month later, Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources shared video of bright green leaves sprouting among the dead branches, and root samples showed new roots shooting off underground. One of the volunteers called the tree a symbol of hope and a new beginning for everybody.

Gander Opens Its Doors

When American airspace closed on September 11, 2001, 38 airliners were sent to the little town of Gander, Newfoundland. Almost overnight a town of about 10,000 people, with only around 500 hotel rooms, was hosting roughly 6,700 stranded travelers. The mayor said they were going to take people in when they had nowhere to go, because that’s just the way they are. Churches, schools, and halls opened up, folks brought blankets and food, and volunteers worked around the clock for five days. Lifelong friendships came out of it.

The Amish Families Who Forgave

In October 2006 a milk truck driver named Charles Roberts walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, shot ten young girls, killing five, and then took his own life. What happened next stunned the country. Some of the grieving Amish families offered forgiveness almost right away, and several of them stood at the killer’s burial and hugged his widow and family. Later the Amish community even gave money to help the widow and her three children. NPR noted that forgiving didn’t mean the pain was gone; they were still grieving a year later, but they refused to let bitterness have the last word.

Thanking Everybody Behind One Cup of Coffee

Writer A.J. Jacobs decided to thank every person who had a hand in his morning cup of coffee. He started with the barista and kept going: the people who roasted it, the truckers who hauled it, the farmers who grew it, even the folks who made the cup and the lid. The list kept growing until he had thanked about a thousand people, which became his book ‘Thanks a Thousand.’ He found out that one simple cup of coffee depends on a huge web of people we never see.