Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

From Empty Gum Wrapper to National Movement Helping 100 Kids

In 2013, Brian Martindale was down to his last piece of gum, so he took a simple walk to Liberty Food Store in Bay City, Michigan, to buy more. Inside the store, he picked up a copy of The Bay City Times and saw something that would change his life forever: a front-page photo of a 10-year-old girl in a princess dress named Jessica Schwerin, whose mother was desperately seeking a kidney donor. Even though he had never met Jessica or her family, Martindale felt an overwhelming compulsion to help, and within months he donated his kidney to the little girl who would eventually become like a daughter to him.

That life-changing moment opened his eyes to the thousands of children waiting for kidney transplants across the country, inspiring him to found the nonprofit Kidneys for Kids in 2022. Since then, Martindale has driven over 25,000 miles across America in his “Driving for Life” initiative, literally circling the earth in his quest to connect 100 kidney donors with 100 children in need. Reflecting on that fateful day, he says if he hadn’t run out of gum and made that walk to the store, he never would have seen Jessica’s story. What started as a simple craving for chewing gum has grown into a national movement that’s giving children across America a second chance at life.

PrevPreviousThe Glowing Comeback That’s Bringing Joy to Summer Evenings
NextScientists Transform Nature’s Most Dangerous Weapons Into MedicineNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

The World’s First Quantum Battery Could Change How Everything Charges

March 28, 2026

Everything you have ever charged, from your phone to your electric car, relies on the same basic chemistry that has powered batteries for well over a century. Australian scientists just took a meaningful step toward changing that entirely. A team led by CSIRO in partnership with the University of Melbourne

Read More
Happy News

Scientists Found A Switch Drives Alzheimer’s And Turned It Off

March 28, 2026

Scientists at Heidelberg University in Germany believe they have identified a hidden mechanism deep inside the Alzheimer’s-affected brain that may be one of the primary drivers of the disease, and they have found a compound that can switch it off. The research centers on two proteins that under normal conditions

Read More
Happy News

Paid Leave Access Expands To Millions of Americans

March 28, 2026

A record number of Americans now have access to paid leave for the first time in history, thanks to a steady wave of state-level action that has quietly transformed the landscape of workers’ rights over the past two decades. A new report from the National Partnership for Women and Families

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.