Author: fizur-philip@cooperhealth.edu

8-year-old Dylan Pfeifer has been staging food drives from his home in metro Phoenix in response to the pandemic.

Dylan’s initial dream was to provide Internet access to students around the U.S. who were having a hard time taking advantage of the same virtual learning opportunities he had because they didn’t have internet. “My mom said it was going to be hard to provide internet, so we decided to do food drives,” he said.

Each drive is the culmination of hours of work that involves drawing posters, going door-to-door to hand out flyers and working with his mother to post information on Facebook.

Dylan has hosted three drives from his home in Chandler, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Phoenix. He said he is planning his next one in June, when summer vacation begins.

“I would plan one every day if I could,” he said.

Dylan says he has collected more than 1,000 cans and boxes of nonperishable food and more than $900 in donations. On its website, St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix says it can convert $1 into seven meals, meaning Dylan has been able to provide more than 6,500 meals on just monetary donations.

Learn more about Dylan, his food drives, and what you can do to help feed the hungry locally and around the country at APNews.com.

The lockdown caused by COVID globally has led to several positive, though perhaps short term, environmental positives. These include reduction of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of water pollution, reduction of noise pollution, and ecological restoration and assimilation of tourist spots to name a few.

With Earth Day 2021 fast approaching, the writers at the Good News Network have compiled a list of some less thought-of ideas to make near and long-term environmental change. These include

• Buy biodegradable plant-made smartphone cases: At least one such manufacturer of cases for all Samsung and Apple phones has also partnered with Eden Reforestation to plant five trees for every case sold, contributing to reforestation in places like Madagascar, Haiti, Nepal, and others.
  
• Plan the Greenest-Possible Funeral: While celebrating Earth Day is not when most people imagine planning their funeral, Better Place Forests allows people to leave behind a legacy of conservation through a reservation of a memorial tree in their unique “memorial forest preserves.” At a fraction of the cost of a normal funeral service, one can reserve a tree in some of the most beautiful forests in the country, around which ashes can be scattered. The costs of the service go to preserving the forest in the highest possible standard forever.
  
• Ocean plastic bracelets: The famous maker of bracelets that pulls plastic out of the ocean is offering a special Earth Day bracelet. Pairing with a non-profit that plants coastal trees, the normal deal of one pound of marine trash per one bracelet sold is also including a $1 donation to tree planting. Their limited edition bracelet comes with two charms, one for 4Ocean and the other for SeaTrees, the non-profit, and features green beads in addition to blue ones. GNN featured 4Ocean’s efforts last year, when they reached 8 million pounds of diverted ocean garbage, to try and show this brand is actually making a huge difference.
  
• Recycle (or Reduce) Your K-Cups: Coffee roasters such as Don Francisco have announced they will give those who buy their product a pre-paid shipping label to mail them back all coffee-pod waste, and earn points towards donations to charities of your choice. Want a good, single cup of coffee without a K-cup? Consider a French Press!

Devoid of human habitation since a 1974 war that spawned the country’s ethnic cleave, Varisia, an abandoned village inside a U.N. buffer zone that cuts across ethnically divided Cyprus. Is a buffer zone that has become an unofficial wildlife reserve in the last several decades. This 120 mile no-man’s land divides the island’s breakaway north from its internationally recognized south, and is home to many endangered and rare animal and plant species that have flourished in recent decades.

This unlikely refuge has been embraced by two environmental scientists, one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot, as an open-air laboratory where complex politics and physical divisions can be put aside to focus on the overriding concern of protecting the parched country’s fragile ecosystem. Before, throughout, and beyond the pandemic Greek Cypriot Iris Charalambidou and Turkish Cypriot Salih Gucel, both biologists, have led a pioneering survey in 2007 that explored the thriving flora and fauna inside the buffer zone.

This partnership and the resulting survey garnered international accolades and provided impetus to a budding ecological consciousness-raising on the island. It also underscored the need for cooperation for the sake of what all Cypriots share — their environment and serves as a model for our global community.

Read more about Drs. Charalambidou and Gucel and their efforts at APNews.com

A recent poll from GoodNewsNetwork.org indicated that roughly 60% of Americans feel optimistic that the pandemic will end before 2022 and are preparing themselves for a better future. Many are also saying that being at home during the lockdowns has motivated them to focus on self-improvement and, as such, have dedicated their time in quarantine to chipping away at lingering health and wellness goals.

When asked for people to reflect back through the pandemic, 52% of respondents indicated that they have volunteered for the first time during the pandemic; 6 in 10 have a new appreciation of nature; two-thirds believe they’ve become a better person; and 64% have experienced a transformative ‘eco wake-up call’, becoming more environmentally-conscious during the COVID crisis.

Another silver lining, With time to pursue new hobbies, 6 in 10 people have ‘leveled up’ and 40% saying they’ll make money from it, and nearly 70% of Americans are more appreciative of loved ones than ever before.

Read more about these polls, a new found optimism, and the good that has come in the wake of COVID-19 at GoodNewsNetwork.org.

The pandemic has impacted us from a psychological perspective in many ways. While there is growing recognition that COVID itself may have near and long-term impacts on cognition so, too, do depression and anxiety in general and each of those specific to the distress caused my living through the pandemic. Psychologist and author Dr. Melissa Burkley recently published an article entitled “Are These Bad Habits Ruining Your Brain? 3 simple ways to build a better brain at any age.” In it she discusses some simple approaches anyone can take to improve cognitive health. Some areas discussed include avoiding sensory overload, finding any opportunities to unplug from our ever growing digital lives and, interestingly enough, attending to our auditory health. Read the full article at PsychologyToday.com.

It began last March when the coronavirus locked them down in a one-bedroom apartment near Miami and is still going strong.

Name a show tune, jazz standard or movie score, and chances are 91-year-old Peter can not only hum it, but play it from memory on his keyboard. Once a week Peter and Veronica Fuchs takes requests on their daily Facebook Live show “Stump the Maestro.” While every now and then the former composer, conductor and Holocaust survivor is confounded by a request overall it is rare that someone truly stumps him.

In his quest to play what people want to hear you will occasionally find him stumbling through a stack of books beside the keyboard, furiously searching for the music while his wife continues talking to the audience they’ve grown over months of isolation. But almost without fail he will get there, in time, and give people the sonic break they need from the weight of the pandemic.

Learn more about Peter, Veronica, and their musical adventures at APNews.com.