The week's good news: April 6, 2017

It wasn't all bad!

Ifeoma White-Thorpe.
(Image credit: National Liberty Museum/Facebook)

1. New Jersey high schooler accepted into every Ivy League school

Will she choose Columbia? Or maybe Yale? What about Harvard? Ifeoma White-Thorpe is still trying to decide which university she wants to spend the next four years of her life at, but it won't be easy — the New Jersey teenager was accepted to all eight Ivy League schools, plus Stanford. "I want to go into global health and study biology, and so many of them have great research facilities, so I was like, 'I might as well just shoot my shot and apply,'" she told ABC 7. Ifeoma, who is student body president and won the national Selma Speech and Essay Contest in 2015, graduates this June, and her parents say it is entirely up to her which school to attend; Ifeoma thinks it will most likely come down to the best financial aid package.

ABC Los Angeles

2. South Carolina teacher raises enough money to buy every student at her school a bike

In North Charleston, South Carolina, there are 650 proud new bike owners. Last year, Katie Blomquist, a first grade teacher at Pepperhill Elementary School, was talking with a student who said he would love a bike of his own. She wanted to help him with his dream, and knew that because her school serves many low-income families, he wasn't the only student who couldn't afford a bike. Blomquist set up a GoFundMe to raise enough money to purchase a bike for every Pepperhill student, and received $80,000 in three months. "It's the basic childhood right," she told ABC News 4. "It's joy. Every single child deserves that, and a bike is one of the top things that represents that." A store in town, Afford-A-Bike, designed and put together the bicycles, which were delivered last week along with helmets and locks to the surprised — and ecstatic — students.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

ABC News 4

3. This blind and deaf puppy is learning how to bring comfort to others as a therapy dog

Erin Baxter and her family didn't expect to adopt Ruby, a blind and deaf puppy, so soon after the loss of their elderly dog Scarlet, but when she climbed into the lap of Baxter's daughter Avery last year, they felt it was meant to be. 

Ruby, who was likely born blind and deaf due to careless breeding, loves sitting with people at her home in Florida and licking their faces, and is now learning how to be a special kind of therapy dog. The Baxter family thinks she will be able to connect with a lot of different groups, including veterans with PTSD and children who have recently lost their sight. "She is special and perfect and amazing," Erin Baxter told Today. "She is not disabled in my eyes. She's just her."

Today

4. 7-year-old gives his Nintendo to grieving cops

When 7-year-old Brady Duke heard that a local police officer had been shot dead in the line of duty, he knew he had to help. The Wisconsin boy packed up his prized Nintendo Wii and his favorite video games, and donated them to the Wausau Police Department with a note thanking the officers for keeping his family safe. Touched by his generosity, the department invited Brady to play Wii with the officers. When Brady showed up, the boys in blue gave him a new Xbox 360 console. Brady "just has a really big heart," said his mom, Jessica.

KTLA

5. This 5-year-old loves Costco so much, she made it her birthday party theme

No one can resist the siren call of Costco, with its free samples, piping hot pizza, and Kirkland Signature everything, least of all 5-year-old Kimber Walker. Kimber loves shopping at the members-only warehouse club, and for the past two years, has requested a Costco-themed birthday party. "She's pretty quirky, so it goes right along with her personality," her mother told Inside Edition. When it came time for her to celebrate turning five, her parents were happy to fete their daughter with the bulk-sized party of her dreams, with the Walkers transforming their North Carolina home into a small-scale Costco. Guests were served sample-sized portions of party food and decorated their own membership cards. Kimber wore a Costco employee badge made at her local store, and ended the party by digging in to a chocolate cake featuring Costco's logo and the words "Employee of the Month, 5 Years of Service."

Inside Edition

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.