Eddy's Good News: Green Capital of the year and a most memorable graduation ceremony

Virgin Radio

18 Oct 2023, 10:34

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!

Be sure to listen each day between 10am and 1pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Wednesday 18th October 2023

Europe has a new Green Capital City of the year, as Vilnius is crowned for its efforts to reduce emissions, improve biodiversity and for its enviably clean air and water. The Lithuanian capital city also developed a game changing app which gives residents a say in city planning, the jury were apparently very impressed with this too.

You might recall my saying Tallinn in Estonia was Europe’s greenest city for 2024 recently, but this prize likes to get ahead of itself, Vilnius is the greenest city for 2025!

The award was launched by the European Commission in 2010 to encourage cities to become cleaner and greener and the press they get when they win must surely help their tourism industry. I added Tallinn to the list of places I must visit in the near future because I was so impressed by what I read about it and that’s where they’re holding a ceremony to say congrats to Vilnius whom I’m sure we’ll hear more from.

Via: positive.news

I’d like to take you to a recent graduation ceremony in Georgia where a proud mum saw her son graduate with a hard earned University degree. Nothing unusual about that, you might think, until I tell you that the graduate, Sam Kaplan, is 72 years old, and his mum, cheering him on, is 99!

Sam left school in 1969 and went straight into work, never thinking about further education. He’s held down many jobs, running a cleaning service, then a telemarketing company. He worked in customer service for a wholesale electronics distributor and even drove a taxi part-time.

While driving he heard on the radio that the local college offered a degree that involved script writing and he found himself pulling over and enrolling. It wasn’t easy, but Sam got his head down, made new friends, charmed pupils (who helped him no end, he says) and staff alike, and is now the only one of his seven siblings who’s graduated with a BA. Congratulations Sam!

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org