Author: CNN Newsource

By Kim Hudson

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    PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A group of neighbors stayed in a constant fight to keep their friends safe from the cold and from hunger, while they waged their battle in the Point Breeze section of Philadelphia.

Volunteers braved the December cold with help from a propane heater as the group Homies Helping Homies prepped boxes full of help for others trying to beat cold weather and food insecurity.

Co-founder Anthony Adams said this work was not just about serving those in need. It was about public safety.

“It’s really difficult, because a lot of people do some of the most desperate things in their life just trying to put food on their table,” Adams said.

All the boxes of food were coming from other volunteers like Alexis Buss, of West Philadelphia, who made sure food from grocery stores got into homes before it perished and headed to the landfill.

“This food is actively perishing,” she said. “And we’re actively saving it from being wasted. So, it feels like very meaningful work.”

Also there, were piles of donated cold-weather gear.

“So, we’re very excited,” Adams said. “To be able to offer new and gently-used coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and anything that helps keep people warm.”

After everything was packed up, it was later unpacked to give to families waiting in line at Wharton Square Park. Sylvia Davis went there not just for fresh food for herself, but for her six-year-old granddaughter, too.

“I got green peppers, red peppers,” she said. “I got pear-apples, apples,” Davis said.

She was grateful not just for the food and clothes, but also for the respect from the volunteers.

“Oh, it’s a blessing. It’s a blessing, because she needs these things,” Davis said.

Adams was happy to hear this, but said more needs to be done.

“It means that we’re doing something right. But at the same time, it only means that we have to fight that much harder to make sure that we’re able to impact other people’s lives that way.”

The group will have distributions the first three weekends of every month. If you need help, or if you want to donate or volunteer, email homieshelpinhomies@gmail.com.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jesse Zanger

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    NEW YORK CITY, New York (WCBS) — New York City’s Mulchfest kicks off Friday.

It’s a way to recycle your Christmas Tree.

Trees will be turned into wood chips that are used to nourish other trees and plants across New York City.

Click here to find a Mulchfest location near you.

The Department of Sanitation reminds New York City residents can also be collected curbside.

Residents are asked to make sure that they’ve removed all decorations, ornaments and stands, and place trees on the curb during their weekly composting and recycling day. Wreaths can also be composted, again with all decorations removed. Wreaths and trees should simply be left out on the appropriate collection day, and should not be placed in plastic bags.

It’s a result of the city’s expanded curbside composting program.

For those looking to recycle an artificial tree, residents are asked to put the metal base and trunk with their other metals for recycling.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Alexa Liacko

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    ATLANTA, Georgia (WUPA) — Long before Barb Russell and Dave Walter found each other, they shared something neither of them ever wanted — the loss of a spouse. Now, the Cobb County couple is using music to bring comfort to families facing the same grief they once carried alone.

Russell and Walter volunteer at four Wellstar clinics, including hospice units, where they play guitar and sing for patients and loved ones navigating some of life’s most difficult moments.

Walter likes to joke that “the pay is enormous,” but Russell always reminds him with a laugh that “we’re volunteers.” He follows it up by admitting, “We don’t get paid, but we really enjoy doing it.”

Both know what it’s like to sit beside someone you love in a hospital room, and what it feels like when the holidays and heartbreak collide. Russell’s husband, a Vietnam veteran, died of lung cancer in 2004, just a week before Christmas. She remembers that time as “scary and lonely,” and says the isolation during hospice inspired her to help others later on.

“I didn’t want other people to go through that same kind of feeling,” she said.

Walter’s wife died in 2009 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“She passed away two months to the day after she was diagnosed,” he said.

For years, both grieved separately. Then, in 2014, they met online and quickly discovered a shared love of music. As their relationship grew, so did their sense of purpose.

“When we found the pathway to hospice, that just gave so much meaning to our relationship,” Russell said. “I treasure that.”

Families often pause on their way out of the hospital to share what the couple’s music means to them.

Walter said people tell them, “I came in stressed out, but after hearing you play, I can feel my blood pressure go way down,” which means more to them than any compliment about musicianship.

Even as they’ve moved forward together, they continue to honor the partners they lost.

“We both had really beautiful marriages,” Russell said. “I think it’s their gift to us to continue on in a loving and beautiful rest of your life.”

Their second chance at love has become a source of comfort for others navigating grief — especially during the holidays, when memories feel heavier, and silence feels louder. Russell believes that “anything that can lift somebody up and bring a smile, even if it’s just for a short little bit, matters — and I feel like we matter too.”

Their message is simple: grief never disappears, but neither does love — and life can still find harmony. Russell encourages others to “hold on to the memories, look for new ways to make new memories, and cherish what you have right in front of you.”

And for patients who can no longer speak or open their eyes, research shows music can still reach them — a reminder that even when connection feels impossible, there is always a way to be heard.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Brianna Clark

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    MISHAWAKA, Indiana (WBND, WBND-LD) — A Michiana family is trying to repaint the past while searching for a new normal after a fire last winter destroyed their home and the memories inside. Baby books, family documents, and photo albums were reduced to ash. But while digging through the debris, they discovered something still hanging on: a pile of old home videotapes. With the help of a local business, those videos were brought back to life.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video?

“Well, for some people, it’s a lot,” said John Rutowicz, a digital transfer administrator at Gene’s Camera in South Bend. “To be able to hear people. To be able to hear and see, remember people’s mannerisms, their tone, their inflection, and just what they look like. It’s really an important part of aiding memory, especially as we get older.”

You could say Rutowicz is an expert at preserving memories, helping give new life to old home videos.

“Most people don’t have functioning tape players anymore, and a lot of their tapes have been sitting in closets, unable to be watched,” said Rutowicz. “Then, all of a sudden, a decade or more goes by, and they can digitize them and watch them again.”

“We’re singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a very ’90s bathtub,” laughed Mare Nickelson as she watched an old home video that her mother, Kim Krueger, had recorded in the mid-90s.

Nickelson and Krueger never thought they’d be able to watch their old memories again after a fire last winter destroyed their Mishawaka home.

“It was January 20,” said Nickelson. “It was like the Polar Vortex Day we had.”

“It was one of the coldest days of the year,” said Krueger. “By the time we understood the scope of what was happening, we kind of just fled.”

“It was so sudden, I didn’t even think of putting on shoes,” said Nickelson. “That was the worst hour of my life.”

The house was gone, and so was everything inside.

“It was catastrophic,” said Krueger. “It’s not just that we lost our home or our things; to some degree, you feel like you never existed.”

“When you lose everything from the first 30 years of your life, if there’s even a chance, if there’s even a hope, if there’s even a sliver that there could be something here to remind me that I had a childhood, you want to pursue that,” said Nickelson.

“I mean we were literally shoveling ash hoping to find a remnant of anything,” said Krueger.

As they continued to dig, the family discovered a stack of old home video tapes under a pile of ash.

“Obviously they’re in terrible condition, but we had them,” said Nickelson.

Six plastic cases. Each one partially melted, each one with spools of stories inside.

“Really badly damaged,” said Rutowicz. “Heat is going to be just really destructive to tape. I didn’t think we were going to get anything from it, but they did get quite a lot of it.”

Rutowicz said Gene’s Camera had just started partnering with a family-owned company in Pennsylvania, Tailor-Made Film & Video Transfers.

The tapes were VHS-C’s, a compact version of the VHS tape. Donna Wolk, owner of Tailor-Made Film & Video Transfers, said restoring them took a combination of time, determination, and a gentle touch.

“I mean, those tapes were like melted together,” said Wolk. “They couldn’t take the screws out of them because the screws were melted. So, they had to bust those tapes open and clean them out.”

Wolk said this specific project took a full day to complete. “I mean, they have to do that by hand,” she said. “Cleaning it all out because it was full of soot and trying to salvage what was salvageable.”

Technicians worked painstakingly, going through the footage frame by frame, physically cutting out damaged sections, and putting the good pieces back together. They hand-wound the recovered footage onto a new hub, which was placed inside a new shell—so the memories could finally be played back and saved digitally.

“Amazed,” said Krueger. “Amazed at what was on there. Then it’s like, ‘Oh my God, I remember shooting that. Oh, I remember that moment.’ And to know that—I mean, the intended purpose was to capture that moment in time forever. And to know that it was literally saved from the ashes and we still have it.”

Tailor-Made Film & Video Transfers was able to recover three and a half hours of video—three and a half hours of memories.

“To me, it feels like they’re worth a thousand lifetimes, because you have to start your entire life over,” said Nickelson. “So, when you have a reference point of where you came from, it helps in the rebuilding process.”

Almost a year has passed since the fire.

“It doesn’t even feel like the same place,” said Nickelson, looking over the construction of their new home.

But the soil is the same.

“These tapes—it’s like, there’s proof that I existed before the fire. Because it does change you,” said Nickelson.

The old footage is now helping Nickelson and Krueger build a new future.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Julia Sandor

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    VINEYARD, Utah (KSTU) — ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through one Vineyard neighborhood, children were stirring as they all tried to steal a Baby Yoda inflatable.

“Basically, there’s one inflatable and everyone is trying to steal it from each other and whoever has it the day after Christmas by 9 a.m. wins,” said Chantel Amone, one of the neighbors.

They’ve already gone through six different inflatables. When kids and their parents go to steal them from another house, they sometimes get damaged. When they’re broken, they switch to a different inflatable, like the Baby Yoda.

“On the very first one someone nailed it into the grass really hard,” Haven Roney said. “My dad tried to grab it, it ripped, so we had to grab another one.”

At the time this story was done, the Goddard family had possession of the inflatable.

“We had people coming in at 6 in the morning, stuff like that,” Troy Goddard said. “I slept on the porch, we’ve got booby traps set up, boxes, trash, it’s pretty fun.”

For the next 36 hours, stealing is somewhat encouraged among this group, with parent supervision. And all the chaos that follows is welcome right on their front lawn.

Some of the children described the past two weeks of this game as fun, crazy and challenging. The grown-ups agree.

“I would have never guessed that I’d be climbing on a car and trying to get an inflatable off a roof,” Ryley Roney said. “If you asked me a year ago that I would be doing that for Christmas, that that’s how we’re celebrating the season, I would not have believed you.”

Some decorations are more important than others, but the question on everyone’s mind is who will be crowned the “GOAT” of the Hampton Neighborhood? The winner will receive a trophy and bragging rights for the whole year.

“It’s really the memories, like I hope they remember this when they’re old and gray, that they’ll have these memories of snatching the inflatable,” Amone said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Tim Pulliam

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    SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, Calif. (KABC) — The night before Christmas became a nightmare on the 15 Freeway as high winds and rain came down Wednesday afternoon.

More than half of the northbound side of the freeway was covered with mud and debris at one point, leaving drivers stuck for hours.

When asked how the weather impacted his travel, Eric Escobar said, “Bad. We’ve been driving for three hours.”

He said it normally takes him three and a half hours to get to Vegas, but his GPS was estimating an eight-hour drive Wednesday night.

The Cajon Pass was crippled by a chaotic winter storm.

Parts of the Inland Empire were hit with heavy rain, flooding and debris flows.

In Hesperia, roads were washed out. A man was even seen surfing the muddy waters on Bear Valley Road through the middle of Hesperia.

The community of Wrightwood saw cars submerged in flood water.

Crews responded to multiple rescues and road closures, forcing drivers to navigate detours and unexpected delays.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.