The news cycle is often dominated by coverage of war, death and other devastating topics.
While it is necessary and important to report on these events, it is also important to look at the best aspects of humanity — moments where people overcame adversity or performed a selfless act.
Here are five uplifting stories from the Deseret News and other outlets that we loved reading last week.
1. A car is burning. A man is trapped inside. His only hope rests with strangers | Deseret News
In April 2024, a group of strangers risked their lives to rescue a man trapped in a burning car along Interstate 94 near St. Paul, Minnesota. Young and old, male and female, Black and white, immigrants and locals, they came together to save the life of a man they didn’t know.
The 59-second clip of the event went viral. Months later, Deseret Magazine reporter Ethan Bauer visited Minneapolis to learn what made this diverse group of people come together to save the life of a stranger.
Excerpt: “The rescue continues with an explosion. A torrent of fire smacks everyone backward, like the crack of an enormous whip. The fire is beyond their efforts now. It’s two stories tall. It consumes the driver’s side of the car. The man inside must be dead. If not now, then certainly soon. And yet, they keep coming back.
If they don’t, the man is going to die. The flames are only getting bigger. Hotter. Nastier. The entire car could explode any second. Little pieces of it are already detonating one by one. There are so many reasons not to run back. Another belch of flames only confirms it. They don’t know this man. They don’t have to help this man. Yet they do. Again and again and again.”
2. ‘It’s the least we can do’: Utah Hockey Club visits children’s hospital | Deseret News
Utah Hockey Club players visited Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi, Utah, last week.
Although the athletes have busy schedules, they came with armfuls of Christmas presents and played games, made crafts and chatted with the kids and their families.
A Deseret News photo gallery shows the players interacting with the kids, and it’s clear the patients weren’t the only ones affected by the trip. Everyone in the photos has infectious smiles, whether they’re making slime, playing foosball or simply observing the festivities.
Excerpt: “I noticed team captain Clayton Keller going around to each of his teammates with a light blue Utah HC hat, getting everyone to sign it. I assumed it was the type of thing that just made it around the room for everyone to sign — like a birthday card being passed around the office. I assumed it would eventually be gifted to one of the hospital staff members for being great hosts, or something along those lines.
I was wrong.
After collecting the signatures of every player in the room, Keller returned to where he’d been sitting and presented the hat to the mother of a little girl with physical limitations. He had recognized an area where he could make a difference in someone’s life and he didn’t hesitate to do something.”
3. How going to the Olympics — and in one’s case, winning a medal — changed 2 BYU runners’ lives | Deseret News
Kenneth Rooks and James Corrigan had incredible journeys to the Paris Olympics this summer. In 2023, Rooks fell during the steeplechase at the U.S. Track and Field Championships — and then got back up and won. Corrigan earned his 11th-hour bid to the Olympics after shaving more than seven seconds off his personal best and beating the Olympic standard.
These runners teach a valuable lesson: If you fall, get back up. You just might win.
Excerpt: “If you press Rooks on what’s changed since the Olympics, he won’t mention new sponsorship opportunities or a higher earning potential.
Instead, he’ll say what’s changed is that you wanted to ask.
‘I get to talk to a lot more people now. More people like to hear my story because they’ve been inspired,’ he told the Deseret News, while supporting BYU at the NCAA cross-country championships in Wisconsin on Nov. 23.”
4. ‘I Feel So Light Today’: A Uyghur mother is reunited with her family in America | National Review
Nury Turkel is a Uyghur-American lawyer and human rights activist who has been outspoken about the Chinese government’s mass persecution of the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority.
Turkel has spent the past 20 years fighting to be reunited with his mother, who had been barred from leaving China. Turkel believes his parents’ travel ban was imposed due to his human rights activism.
This Thanksgiving, Turkel had something incredible to be thankful for — his mother was finally released from China in a swap between Beijing and Washington.
National Review reporter Jay Nordlinger interviewed him for his podcast, where Turkel described how his children reacted to meeting their grandmother for the first time and how he feels now that his mother is free.
Excerpt: “For the last 20 years, it has felt as though I had a needle in my brain. I would go to bed worrying about my mom. Would I get a phone call in the middle of the night saying that she had disappeared? In the morning, I would think, Is she going to be okay today, while I’m at work? I always had this needle in my head. If I pulled it out, my head would bleed. If I moved the needle, my head would hurt. It was there for 20 years, and on Thursday morning, Thanksgiving, as we were getting ready for the day, it was gone. That acute sense of pain, which is really indescribable, was gone. I feel so light today.”
5. The U.S. is facing a youth mental health crisis. These skaters want to help | NPR
Frank “The Tank” Watkins is an experienced skater and psychology graduate student at The New School in New York City, and he’s combined his passions to support his community. Watkins helped start The Skate Mind Project, a program that leads psychological first aid (PFA) trainings for skaters.
NPR’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento explains that skaters often exist on the margins of society. Whether they don’t fit in or face other issues, skate parks offer a safe and inclusive community and a fun way to relieve stress. PFA trainings equip the community with better tools to support themselves and their loved ones. At these trainings, skaters learn how to identify when someone is in distress, listen to their concerns and offer support or direction to professional care.
Excerpt: “As the park begins filling up, Watkins seems to know everyone arriving. While he chats with veteran skater Jon ‘Porkchop’ Nicholson, a crew of young girls put on their gear and start whipping around the bowl. One of them is 12-year-old Sora Kaneko-Wolfe, who says one of her favorite things about the skatepark is the friends she’s made there.
‘Everyone supports each other,’ she says. ‘If you had a bad week, you can come here and talk to everyone and relieve your stress.’”