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Blood donations to the Red Cross have increased by 40 percent thanks to viral Snoopy t-shirt

Snoopy is still the coolest.

snoopy red cross, blood donations, snoopy shirt
@fourr_eyess/TikTok, @staytunednbc/TikTok

Be cool. Give blood.

Wanna get people to start a movement? Make it cool. And these days, nothing says “cool” quite like going viral on TikTok.

This was the exact recipe for success used by the American Red Cross to get more blood donations.

In a partnership with the ever popular “Peanuts,” the foundation announced that anyone who donated blood by Apr 23, 2023 would receive a t-shirt featuring (let’s be honest) everyone’s favorite character from the comic—Snoopy.

Not only Snoopy, but Snoopy in his coolest form…Joe Cool.

The t-shirt also has the words “Be cool. Give blood.” I mean, the American Red Cross has created other t-shirts as a donation incentive in the past, but the planets really aligned in the making of this one.

Folks on TikTok have gone absolutely crazy for it, with users on the platform sharing how they procured their own hot ticket item.

@staytunednbc A #Snoopy shirt is going viral on TikTok and is increasing the amount of blood donations, according to the #RedCross. The #Peanuts♬ original sound - R. Mac Lewis

As a result, more and more people have learned about the blood donation process and became donors themselves.

According to CNN, donations have risen more than 40% thanks to the campaign, which is especially good news considering that 2021 was the country’s worst blood shortage in over a decade.

@fourr_eyess The American Red Cross really popped off with this one #americanredcross#giveblood#fyp#joecool♬ Berry Pie - Dolly Parton

COVID 19 exacerbated this, of course. But current donor restrictions also play a huge factor. Under current guidelines, gay and bisexual men are required to abstain from sex for three weeks prior to donating—a rule that has been criticized as discriminatory towards men who have sex with other men. Advocates in LGBTQ+ community fought for a change to the rule, and in January the USFDA proposed eliminating the prior guidelines and instead focusing on individual risk factors. While the proposal has not yet been finalized, having more eligible donors could certainly help increase numbers.

And Snoopy t-shirts help too. Obviously.

Wanna be cool, donate blood and get your own t-shirt? You can schedule an appointment with the Red Cross here.

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Family

Women are cheering on a mom who left her husband after he refused to clean the house for 6 days

Her video highlights a big problem women face.

via @5kids5catssomedogstoo/TikTok

Lynalice Bandy shares what her home looks like after working six 10-hour days and getting no help from her husband.

A viral TikTok video highlights an extreme version of inequality that many wives and mothers in heterosexual relationships face. However, the mom in this story hit her limit and won’t deal with it anymore.

Lynalice Bandy, who goes by @5kids5catssomedogstoo on TikTok, posted a video that showed her home looking like a disaster after she worked six 10-hour days straight while her husband did nothing to help.

Her time-lapse video shows every room in the house completely trashed, with toys, food and laundry scattered everywhere. "Shampoo on the carpets in the girls' room, nail polish all over Nugget covers, hair, and carpet. Scissors were used to cut hair, the down comforter, the mattress cover, and two Nugget covers," wrote the mom.

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Dad who went viral for daddy-daughter dance in wheelchair shares the story behind the video

"I had to relearn how to do everything from crawling, eating, like I had to relearn everything."

Good Morning America|YouTube

Dad shares story behind the viral video of his daddy-daughter dance.

Many parents will do just about anything for their children, but oftentimes that just means showing up for events and being their biggest cheerleader. It's a seemingly small act that can absolutely mean the world to a child and creates positive core memories they'll talk about with their own children.

For one dad, showing up for his kids' activities got a little more challenging after he was struck by a drunk driver in 2006. The accident left him using a wheelchair. "I had to relearn how to do everything from crawling, eating, like I had to relearn everything," Charles Potter told Good Morning America. But that hasn't stopped him from doing all the dances his daughter's school puts on, like the one that went viral in December 2022.

Potter was on stage participating in a daddy-daughter dance recital when his wife caught it on video and uploaded it to TikTok, where it quickly went viral. The video currently has over 13 million views, 2.2 million likes and over 37K comments, and while the text overlay gave some background on the video, it doesn't tell the complete story.

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Pop Culture

Tense video shows a woman filming herself after sensing a man following her. She was right.

“See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”

@lacie_kraatz/TikTok

Lacie films as the mysterious man visibly gets closer.

It’s no secret that even the most seemingly safe of public places can instantly turn dangerous for a woman. Is it fair? No. But is it common? Absolutely, to the point where more and more women are documenting moments of being stalked or harassed as a grim reminder to be aware of one’s surroundings.

Lacie (@lacie_kraatz) is one of those women. On April 11th, she was out on a run when she noticed a man in front of her displaying suspicious behavior. Things got especially dicey when the man somehow got behind her. That’s when she pulled out her phone and started filming—partially to prove that it wasn’t just her imagination, and also out of fear for her safety.

“Hello. I’m just making this video so that women are a little more aware of them,” she begins in the video. “See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”

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Pop Culture

Awesome Twitter thread explains the surprising origins of Dr. Seuss and 'The Cat in the Hat'

It all started back in 1954 with a national quest to understand “Why can't children read?”

Wikipedia, @bpoppenheimer/Twitter

How exactly did Dr. Seuss come up with "Cat in the Hat?"

Dr. Seuss is one of the most enduring and endearing children’s books writers of all time. His work has been around for over sixty years, and while certain titles certainly fall short of today’s standards, kids continue to enjoy the unique use of wordplay, illustration style and abounding optimism of his beloved classics.

But how exactly did Dr. Seuss came up with such an impactful idea in the first place? That’s a story unto itself, and one that, much like his fictional works, still feels relevant today.

As explained in a Twitter thread by writer and research assistant Billy Oppenheimer, it all began when another award-winning author, John Hershey, started investigating the looming question of 1954: “Why can't children read?”
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Pop Culture

The last surviving witness to Lincoln’s assassination lived long enough to share his story on TV

Samuel J. Seymour was 95 years old when he appeared on “I’ve Got a Secret.”

via Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia

Samuel J. Seymour witnessed the assassination of President Lincoln.

Samuel J. Seymour was one of the approximately 1,700 people at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was also the last to live long enough to talk about that historic night on television.

Seymour was 5 years old when he went to see the play “Our American Cousin” with his nurse, Sarah Cook, and Mrs. Goldsboro, the wife of his father's employer.

When Booth shot Lincoln, he pulled the trigger during the biggest laugh of the night so that it wouldn’t be heard. What caught Seymour’s attention was when Booth fell from the balcony after a scuffle with Henry Reed Rathbone.

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Family

Mom's video on why parents should give their kids adult names, not baby names, has parents debating

Over 11 million people have watched the video.

via rubyyvillarreal/TikTok and Adele Morris/Pixabay

Parents are debating over whether to give children "adult" or "baby" names.

The names we choose to give our children can significantly impact their lives. Multiple studies from across the globe have found that a person’s name can influence their employment, social and economic outcomes.

Unfortunately, humans make snap judgments about one another, and having an unusual name can lead people to make unflattering assumptions. “We’re hardwired to try to figure out in a heartbeat whether or not we want to trust somebody, whether we want to run from somebody,” Northwestern University researcher David Figlio said, according to Live Science.

However, an increasing number of parents are giving their children non-traditional names to help them stand out. “Parents are trying to be original, almost branding their kids in an era where names are viewed on the same level as Twitter handles or a website URL,” writer Sabrina Rogers-Anderson said.

Ruby, a mother on TikTok, took a hard stance on parents giving their children names that sound childish in a post that’s received over 11 million views. Ruby says she named her kids as “adults, not babies” hoping they would never “outgrow” their names.

@rubyyvillarreal

#stitch with @nikkiruble love having nicknames as they are younger and it doesnt mean they will perfer it over their name as they get older. Just gives them options 🤷🏻‍♀️ #nicknames #babynames #babytok #adultnames #pregnancytiktok #toddlersoftiktok #momtok #momlife #babynames #babyname

“The whole concept when I was trying to look for a name and choose a name for her is I did not want her to outgrow her name,” she said in the viral video. “I wanted the name to fit her as a baby, as a toddler, as a child, and into adulthood. So, it's like I really am happy with what I ended up with naming her and it just fits her so well.”

She captioned the video, “love having nicknames as they are younger and it doesn’t mean they will prefer it over their name as they get older. Just gives them options.”

People in the comments responded with modern names they think that kids will outgrow.

"My name is Koazy and I’m here for a job interview," Stalker joked. "Hello sir, I am Bluey Mason Garrison! I was called in for a job interview last Tuesday," Pastel Purr added.

"I can’t imagine knowing [a] 30-year-old named Emma or Posie," Mikey wrote.

However, a lot of people commented that names that seem like they’ll be outgrown will sound fine in the future when those names are popular with the new generation. “Kids grow up with their generation having their own names on trend. They will be normal adult names when they are grown,” Kerry wrote.

“Names grow with the generation,” Lauren added. “The name Dennis sounded like a baby name once too. Names grow up just like generations.”

@rubyyvillarreal

Replying to @19eighty_5 my kids name and the process 😬 #babynames #nicknames #babytok #adultnames #momsoftiktok #momlife #momtok #pregnancytiktok #toddlersoftiktok #babyname #babyfever

In a follow-up video, Ruby shared the names she gave her children. Her girl is named Karla Esmerelda and her boy is called Deluca.

“I just really liked how simple, how bold, and strong that the name by itself just really kind of is. Doing some research names with the letter K tend to be like very bold and powerful names, so I really wanted it with a K and not with a C,” she said.

She named her son Deluca, after a doctor on “Grey’s Anatomy.” She said she chose the name because there was nothing to connect it to, and it sounded “nice.”







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