UpLift Media

 Steve Hartman, a CBS reporter, is often assigned stories like the ones we like to cover on Uplift Media. Good news that is heartwarming, wholesome, and hits the audience in the feels. As such he covered Bruno Serato back in 2010 highlighting this restaurant owner and chef for his philanthropy and penchant for feeding poor kids at the local Boys and Girls Clubs in the city of Anaheim, CA. His restaurant, The White House, was where he entertained the higher society individuals and made his money, AKA his day job. However, his passion and love for feeding these kids often required that he make large financial sacrifices. He refinanced the restaurant and his home in order to continue operating his charity. As Hartman puts it, "he was giving away more meals than he was selling." But Serato never complained and he never wanted to stop. Serato doing what he loves Then tragedy struck. An electrical fire burned his prized restaurant to the ground and along with it his ability to hav...

Sanders consoling Hagler Competition comes with high emotion especially if you have an aggressive disposition. That drive and desire to win can come with disappointment and tears when the outcome does not end in victory. In a team situation you are always sad over a loss but in some ways that can be absorbed and shared since it takes a team to win and it takes a team to lose. However, that is not always clear cut especially when a game winning situation hangs in the balance and one specific player either comes through or fails to. Do the former and you are the hero likely carried off the field on your fellow teammates shoulders. Do the latter and the loss feels like its all on you. That was the situation with Hayden Hagler, who dropped a touchdown pass in overtime. If he caught it, the win was theirs and he was the hero of the story. But he could not secure the ball and keep possession so the heartbreaking opposite occurred and Hayden was emotionally devastated.  Even good coa...

If you missed any UpLift coverage this week, here is a playlist on our Youtube channel to help keep you caught up. Please leave a comment here or on the Facebook page about which stories were your favorite so we can keep providing the content that matters most to you, our devoted audience. We would also love it if you would consider subscribing to our YT channel .

Ginger Maxville Young children tend to put almost anything in their mouths. Perhaps its a right of passage and a way of experiencing & exploring the world around them with more than just one of their five senses. Perhaps its just a fidgety behavior done out of sheer boredom. Whichever is the case, that kind of behavior can sadly lead to very scary and life threatening situations as choking can be common. If it fits in their mouth, it most likely can choke them. So when an adventurous five year old student on Ginger Maxville's bus started a commotion, her first assumption was the he was playing around stating, "I thought he was just teasing me and I thought he just wasn't following my instructions about sitting down." The child's persistence along with his sister explaining that "he had a coin stuck in his throat" caused the bus driver to 'switch gears' and think through the life saving classes from years past. After pulling the bus over into...

Reyna & Const. Henderson  Whether you are lost personally or have lost someone you love, there is hardly a more helpless feeling. And if you have lost a child, the sheer terror of that event, even if only a few minutes is beyond measure. All the ingredients for such an episode however, were ripe in the story of a very adventurous four year old named Reyna Harthi. She was home with a babysitter who lost track of the energetic little one that just so happened to have decided to go exploring with her dog in the wooded area surrounding her home. Soon she was more than a kilometer away having navigated through two different barbed wire fences with no idea where she was or how to get back. The girl's mom, Elvira Harthi was soon notified and police were called to the scene to help locate the missing child. Constable Garfield Henderson and his K-9 partner, Enzo soon arrived and began the tracking process. Having quickly picked up on Reyna's scent the pair carved a path through the...

What comes to mind when you consider the workplace title of High School Janitor? Probably not many glamourous images related to the job duties of cleaning up after hundreds of teenagers. You might imagine a person dawning a uniform, gloves, and a variety of cleaning tools like a mop, bucket, rags, and spray bottles. It would seem appropriate that said individual would have a big key chain to access all the rooms and storage areas to complete his or her assigned duties. You would be accurate in those observations but if you visit Trinity High School in Euless Texas you might find out much more about their janitor, Charles Clark.  His career with the school began twenty-five years ago and very shortly after starting his daily tasks he noticed some students that seemed to be falling through the cracks. Rather than keep to himself, he decided to sit down with them for one-to-one chats. In these discussions you could observe Charles encouraging the teens, advising them, answering q...

Its never fun when technical difficulties arise and prevent the show, concert, or sporting event from proceeding as planned. Most audiences are held captive as sound booth techs scramble to identify the issue quickly. That was the scene at a basketball game in  the Columbus Ohio area between Waverly High and Portsmith West. This left kids and audience members standing at attention, some with hands over their hearts, others saluting in an awkward pause as the music never quite began.  In the stands a talented man named Trenton Brown got an elbow nudge from his wife as if to say, "fix it honey." He knew exactly what she was doing because she of all people know how talented a singer he is adding to her prodding, "just start singing it" and he did exactly that. Soon the crowd joined in so that it was not just one man singing a solo. But even when fellow voices joined his, Mr. Browns certainly stood out and remained booming, proud, and beautifully patriotic. He took wh...

 Even in a normal work environment it can be hard to live out your faith. Though the Civil Rights Act protects everyone from discrimination when it comes to hiring practices, it can still be difficult to navigate the do's and don'ts of any public display of those belief systems. Adding to the complication and gravity of the situation we have a very public figure in that of Joe Missoula, head coach of NBA team, the Celtics. If someone like him decides to share their faith, its a higher risk option and one that must be navigated carefully as it most certainly puts a target on your back to those that might be opposed. A third barrier in this specific instance is the potentially perceived insult to the royal family as Joe is asked about his thoughts regarding their attendance of one of the Celtics games. The exact question was, " Did you get a chance to meet the royal family and if not, what was it like having them there in the building?" The question came from a reporter...

The photo to the right is meant to be funny. The idea of a kid driving much less getting pulled over by a police officer before the age of 16 is absurd, right? Perhaps so in the case of the toddler in the photo. Perhaps not when it comes to a determined and hungry 8 year-old from East Palestine, Ohio who shall remain nameless given his status as a minor. His desire for a McDonald's cheeseburger was so intense he did some YouTube research on how to drive a car, procured his parents keys, loaded up his 4 year-old sister and began driving to retrieve his munchies. Despite it being his first time out, You Tube apparently prepared him well. The 1.5 mile route to the drive through included several turns, several intersections where the boy lawfully stopped at red lights, and made it to his destination without incident. Upon placing his order and getting to the window, the McDonald's employees thought they were being pranked. Surely the parents are hiding in the back and their eyes we...

 Jumping requires functioning legs you say? Trampolines are no place for a wheelchair you say? Well you would be wrong and Wyatt Burggraff would know. In a recent viral video this courageous young man, who deals with the challenges of spina bifida visited a local gym and quite literally jumped on a trampoline. The gym is a TNT facility in Fargo North Dakota built and operated specifically for those with special needs. Wyatt has been attending the fitness & gymnastics programs at TNT now for two years. At first he was very nervous and maybe even scared of the trampoline. But as you will witness he not only loves jumping on it now, he can be heard in the video shouting "Faster! Faster!" as if to say to Nate (the trainer) this needs to be even more thrilling, take it up a notch. Director of TNT Kim Pladson remarked, "To just see how they have embraced the joy that we, almost at times take for granted because that's just who we are, that's who TNT is, and our co...

 The idea of bringing you Good News did not start with UpLift Media . Various reporters on small, medium, and even large networks at times get to do a segment that is considered a "feel good " story. That being said, any student of journalism knows the mantra, "if it bleeds, it leads." This crass but sadly accurate statement essentially means if you want ratings, views, and reactions then lead every newscast or front page headline with the negative and bloody reality of life. UpLift Media was created to go against that notion and buck traditional journalism rules to bring you exclusively good news. Perhaps we owe some of that inspiration to Nate Eaton, seasoned reporter and founding member of East Idaho News .  Nate got his start in his childhood home, pretending to forecast the weather in his garage so the desire to bring you the news was an early inclination. His professional career began shortly after graduating BYU Idaho with KIDK in Idaho Falls. Prior to his c...

Yoel & his wife Marissa  We Americans  often fail to realize how blessed we are. As such we get embroiled in online debate about our government system, its ugly failures, and even go so far as to suggest changing the system entirely rather than just work out the problematic parts. Cuban immigrants like Yoel Diaz do not understand that kind of mentality. He worked hard to escape a communist regime and be afforded just the basic opportunities that a democracy like the US allows.  In his search for a better life and opportunity he was able to immigrate last year and begin his employ as a seasonal worker for UPS. Though a very qualified computer science teacher in his own country, his wages for this knowledge are only $12 per month, an income that does not support his needs just for basics like shelter, food, and bills paid. In the now viral video below (filmed by his wife) a very grateful Yoel states, " This is my first hourly paycheck. I feel every hour counted. That ev...