The next time you are tired of running a mile or two at school, be sure to think of 91-year-old Harriet Thompson, who not only finished the San Diego Rock N’ Roll marathon on May 31st, this year, 2014, but also broke SDRNR marathon’s records. She was the oldest runner in this marathon as well as the fastest in the 90-to-94 year-old group.

She finished the 26.2-mile-race in 7 hours, 7 minutes, 42 seconds, breaking the earlier record of 8 hrs, 53 mins, 8 secs set by Mavis Lindgren in 1997. While these are her first records, Harriet, who ran at the speed of 16 mins and 20 seconds a mile, is no stranger to this competition. She has taken part in 15 of the last 16 San Diego Rock N’ Roll marathons and only missed last year, because she had a cancer, which she successfully beat.

What’s even more amazing is that the grandmother who ran the marathon alongside her 55-year-old son Brenny, took up the sport in 1999, at the age of 76! Harriet says that she normally trains with a group. However, this year she decided to run alone because she had a hard time keeping up and most of them are about 60-70 years younger.

Harriet says she runs to keep healthy and raise money for a hospital, which is close to her heart, thanks to her family’s cancer history. Over the years, she has raised over $90,000 for the hospital. And she is not done yet! Harriet says she plans to train harder and come back even stronger, next year!

Zach Bonner is from Florida, the USA. He started walking from his hometown at Christmas, 2009. He reached Los Angeles nine months later in September, 2010. He covered a total of 2478 miles and raised $ 120,000 for kids in need.

Although he is young, Zach has a long history of helping others. When a terrible storm hit his town in 2004, Zach helped collect food for people in need. Zach was only six years old then.

He has raised $ 400,000 for his Little Red Wagon Foundation since then. It gives money to projects which help homeless children. In 2007, Zach began walking to support a children’s charity (慈善组织) in Tampa, Florida. He finished his journey 23 days later, 280 miles away in Tallahassee. Then in the summer of 2009, he walked about 670 miles from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. in just two months.

Jim Davidson said reading played a “very, very important role” in his children’s lives as they were growing up. During his twenty years as a writer, the father of four became worried about illiteracy (文盲) in America and decided to do something about it.

Davidson started “Bookcase for Every Child” project (项目) in his hometown of Conway, Arkansas, USA in 2005. The project provides low-income (低收入的) children with bookcases, and a starter set of books to encourage reading.

Davidson’s project is different from other projects. Instead of raising money from the public, he gets many people personally to take part in the project.

“We decided to build 50 bookcases each year and give them to low-income children,” said Davidson. “I can promise you this is the nicest piece of furniture (家具) in most of these low-income children’s homes.”

Today, the project has spread to eight communities (社区) in five states. He said the project’s early success belonged to the community members. “I knew a lot of people all over the community and was able to choose a group of people to do the job,” said Davidson. The group included members such as librarians and a workman.

Davidson’s love for the project grew deeper after his wife died in May, 2013. For him, spreading the bookcase project all over the country is the best way to remember her. And he hopes to have at least one project in every state in his country.