All-Women Team Makes History with Heart Transplant

A team of women make history, a teacher raises $30K for his students, a high school football star helps foster children, and more.

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Hapiday Team
February 20, 2023

Good morning and Happy Presidents’ Day!

Did you know that Presidents’ Day was originally established in 1885 to celebrate the birthday of George Washington, the first President of the United States?

But then it became “Presidents’ Day” as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers.

So, enjoy the day off (if you have it)!

And if you don’t, hopefully this happy newsletter will cheer you up!

Quote of the Day 🗣

"Life is like a camera, focus on the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don't work out, take another shot."

— Unknown

All-Women Team Makes History with Heart Transplant 👩‍⚕️

via UCSF

An all-women team at the University of California, San Francisco hospital has made medical history by performing a heart transplant on a female patient. Led by Dr. Amy Fiedler, the team consisted of six other healthcare professionals who were all women. The five-hour procedure is notable because women comprise only 6.2% of adult cardiac surgeons nationwide.

The team did not initially realize the significance of their composition. Only when closing up the incision and decompressing did Dr. Fiedler look up to Dr. Blake and exclaim, “Wow, we're all women here.” Dr. Charlene Blake, who has been at UCSF for nearly eight years and has a doctorate in genetics and genomics, expressed her surprise and stated that it was remarkable for everyone to come together.

Utah Teacher's Viral Video Raises Over $30K to Pay Off Student Lunch Debt 💰

via Garrett Jones

Garrett Jones, a middle-school teacher at Rocky Mountain Middle School in Utah, made a now-viral TikTok requesting $1 donations to help pay off student lunch debt. Within two weeks, the video helped raise over $30,000, which will go towards canceling the outstanding lunch fees of the Wasatch County School District.

Jones says that students in his school district are among the 50 million students who received free lunches for two years through the federal program that covered the costs during the pandemic. However, the program ended last year, meaning some students are again forced to face outstanding lunch fees in the cafeteria line. That is where these donations will come into play.

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High School Football Star Uses Sponsorship Money to Help Foster Children 🤲

via InsideNebraska

Malachi Coleman, a high school football player who was abandoned by his mother and suffered abuse in the foster care system, is now a star wide receiver at Lincoln East High School and will be playing for the University of Nebraska next season. When he found out that high school athletes could profit off their name and likeness, he decided to use his newfound platform to give back to the community. He went to a local restaurant and offered to promote a burrito in exchange for a portion of the proceeds to be donated to the foster care system.

Malachi’s mom described him as originally being a “broken child.” However, his transformation into a kind person began when she challenged him to hold the door for someone. He did and this small act of kindness snowballed into a passion for helping others and giving back to the community. Now, he wants to use his platform as a successful football player to help children in the foster care system find permanent homes.

Links That Will Make You Smile 😊