Life can change in the blink of an eye. For Bridgette Ponson, one of those moments took place in the parking lot at her workplace, Layton Christian Academy. While she was in the parking lot, her 2-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl in tow, a car hit them. This left the mother and her kids trapped beneath the car. Thankfully, the woman driver wasn’t driving very fast. At that moment, she was blinded by the sun. However, she got out of the car to help as soon as possible. Plus, she wasn’t the only one who stopped what they were doing to save Bridgette and her kids.

Soon, Chris Crowder, CEO of the school, became aware of the accident. Without delay, he united a group of students to help. “It was split second,” Chris recalled. “I immediately just ran into the building because I knew I had to get a lot of people to lift this car. The students just heard me shout. All students from different countries just ran out and lifted it up.”

Still, this wasn’t an easy task. The car was heavy. But the whole group of students worked together to lift the car enough for Bridgette and her kids to get free. Finally, one kid was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital while Bridgette and the other kid were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Although Bridgette took the brunt of the injuries, all three of them were expected to make complete recoveries within a few days. The heroic students who helped out certainly got their well-deserved praise.

“I’m very proud of our kids. They ran out without hesitation, and they just knew what to do without even being told what to do. I’m even surprised by the driver who was behind the wheel. She immediately ran to help,” said Chris.

Around 28 years ago, when photographer (摄影师) Liu Shibin first came to the Shitan Village in She County of Anhui Province, he was deeply attracted to the sights there. The 800-year-old village has peaceful lanes, fine Hui-style architecture, water scenes, beautiful mountain s and a deep cultural base. After that, Liu came to the village almost every year and started to think about how to use his power to help the village get out of poorness.

Spring is the high season for photography tourism in the village. As to how to attract visitors during other seasons, Liu got an idea. As the sunflower scene in Qinghai Province was quite famous, Liu advised the local villagers to copy that and plant sunflowers. In April of 2009, the photographer bought some seeds and paid to villagers to try them out. After the successful attempt, Liu spread his sunflower photographs online and the local government then encouraged villagers to plant more fields of sunflowers. Thus, more and more photographers and tourists came to the poor village, which brought development to the local tourism.

When Liu first came to Shitan village, there was only one hotel for photographers, which could only admit 12 people. However, now the village can accommodate nearly 10,000 people per day at the tourist season of spring.

Over the past years, photographer Liu Shibin has also shot many photos for local villagers and sent them a copy for free. Liu has “shot” the small unknown village into a nationwide famous photography attraction, helping local people get on a road to wealth with his lens (镜头).

Clementine seemed to be missing apiece from her life’s puzzle for most of her life. Dropped off as a 3-year-old homeless dog near New Orleans, the dog stayed in the shelter for four months before being moved to Texas.

While living at an adoption center in Texas, the dog was adopted out twice to different families. Sadly, neither of those adoptions were successful. It turned out Clementine didn’t get along with smaller pets, and she had too much energy for the second family.

Meanwhile, Captain Robert Moree wanted to add a fire dog to the station. He’d just read a study about how dogs help firefighter scope with the pressure of their jobs, and he was eager to give the study a real life trial run! With the permission of the chief and other firefighters, he and a few colleagues visited the shelter. As soon as they met Clementine, they were smitten!

“They introduced us to Clementine,” Captain Moree recalled. “She started to like us, and we liked her instantly. Later that day, my driver, Bryan Wallen, and I decided to get her.”

Captain Moree officially adopted Clementine, but she definitely belonged to every person in the firehouse. She loved to hug the firefighters in between calls, and she was always nearby whenever anyone was preparing food. “She rides on the truck when we go out on calls” said Captain Moree. “She not only makes the station feel more like home during our 24-hour shifts but also keeps us excited to come to the station.”

Clementine has made such an amazing journey from a homeless dog to a hero dog. She was named Dog of the Year at the 2022 ASPCA Humane Awards!