Charlotte has got a lot–of good.
Watching the news can be so depressing.
It’s important to stay informed. If you don’t know what’s going on out there, how can you help? But on the other hand, if you’re depressed and discouraged all the time, it’s hard to help with much of anything. So, what is the solution? More news!
Hard as it is to believe, there is good news out there, too. And we’ve collected a few examples, just to help you keep smiling. With us in the Charlotte area, these feel-good stories relate to Charlotte-based sports teams. I know news about both the Carolina Panthers and the Charlotte Hornets has been a mixed bag lately, but they’ve had plenty of successes, both in the game and otherwise, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.
The good news is out there, you just have to find it.
About Cam Newton
Turn on a Carolina Panthers game and it’s almost a guarantee that at some point the Panthers will score an offensive touchdown, and Cam Newton will give the ball to a kid in the stands. This year, he’s been giving out bracelets, too, bracelets that symbolize for him both hope and humility.
In October, one of the kids who got a ball and a bracelet was a boy whose family had come to Atlanta because Hurricane Florence was making a direct hit on their community back home. They were evacuees. They didn’t know if their house was still standing. And it was the boy’s birthday. The family had decided to go to the game because they needed some joy in the midst of their worry. And they got it!
But that’s not all they got.
The whole family decided to take the message of Cam’s bracelet to heart—humility because they soon learned that their house had survived but many of their neighbors’ houses had not. And hope because they were able to help, bringing back a whole trailer of supplies to help their community recover.
What a great birthday. What a great moment—and what a great kid!
About Curtis Samuel
Really, it’s just another turkey drive. You hear about them all the time. A group collects donations so it can give families in need the ingredients for a real Thanksgiving feast. Sometimes a celebrity hands out the turkeys and signs a few autographs, so that’s fun for the recipients. But this time the celebrity with the food and the autographs was Curtis Samuel.
I’ve followed Curtis Samuel since he was recruited at Ohio State. He came on the scene in a big way his junior year and became one of the Buckeyes’ best players. In fact, he had the biggest play of that year in a game against Michigan in overtime. When he moved up to the NFL, it was our home team in Charlotte that drafted him, so now we get to see our friends and neighbors getting excited about Curtis Samuel. And not only is he a great player, he’s also a good person. It’s not because of any one incident I can point to, but he’s always seemed like a good guy.
This is Curtis’ second year giving out turkeys to the local Girls and Boys Club. Maybe it’s a little thing, but it’s good, and it’s the kind of thing he does. This is a young man who gets it. Keep watching Curtis Samuel, and you will be impressed, both by his speed and skill on the field and by his humbleness and thoughtfulness off of it.
The Charlotte Hornets and Lowe’s
We recently did a podcast interview with the owners of The Sports Flooring Group, so it’s no wonder this story about floors stood out to us.
Drive around Charlotte and you are likely to see many basketball courts—some not in the best of shape. That’s why our local company, Lowes, is teaming up with the Charlotte Hornets to donate new courts to areas in need. What a great way to give back! What a team! Lowes provides the wood, the install, and some of the funds, while the Hornets provide more funds, the basketball, and the branding. It’s becoming a better place for the community to come together and play. And what’s not to like about a high-end basketball court to motivate people to get outside and have fun?
HERE’S TO MORE FEEL-GOOD CONTENT….
We will continue to look for the feel-good stories around sports news in the news, on Twitter, and in other social media networks. And if you see a story worth sharing, let us know! Maybe you hear a story about a high school game, or maybe it’s another Carolina Panther story. Whatever it is, we want to hear about it so we can pass it along!
We may not be able to take the negative content out of the news and the social media feeds, but we can do our part and curate the positive!
Check out our podcast, Entrepreneur Perspectives.