+
Heroes

Who do firefighters call when they need help? A group of amazing moms.

The massive fire in north-central Washington just became the largest wildfire in the state's history.

This scorcher, known as the Okanogan Complex, was measured at 400 square miles, which is about two and a half times the size of Seattle.



Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images.

And since it's only August and dry conditions are likely to continue, the fire is showing no signs of slowing.

Firefighters and first responders working to slow the blaze are getting a boost from a few brave volunteers known as "The Soup Ladies."

There are over 1,200 firefighters and first responders on the front lines of the Okanogan Complex. Now, they're joined by The Soup Ladies, a group of Washington-based volunteers, many of them moms and grandmothers, who prepare home-cooked meals for first responders during emergencies and natural disasters at no cost.

The Soup Ladies support first responders at the Okanogan Complex. Photo by The Soup Ladies.

"The Soup Ladies are working out of a commercial kitchen in the general area and disbursing food to crews," volunteer Sheila Lein told Upworthy. "Yesterday, the First Responders enjoyed Italian Chicken Cacciatore, slow-simmered beef stroganoff and fresh peach crisp." YUM.

The Soup Ladies started in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, when volunteer Ginger "Mama" Passarelli noticed there weren't any organizations helping the helpers.

So Passarelli traveled to the Gulf Coast to volunteer with her church group to help look after the emergency personnel.

Photo by The Soup Ladies.

According to Lein, who relayed to Upworthy what Passarelli saw in Katrina's aftermath, the emergency personnel were working long hours in extreme heat and "only munching on granola bars from their pockets, if they were lucky enough to have them."

"Right then and there," Lein says, "The Soup Ladies organization was born and we have been dedicated to the well-being of our First Responders ever since."

The Soup Ladies travel across the country, delivering comfort foods to men and women on the front lines.

They have supported first responders in their home state for nearly 10 years, during search-and-rescue missions, standoffs, and natural disasters. But their goodwill doesn't end there.


Funded solely by personal donations and the volunteers themselves, teams of Soup Ladies traveled to New York after Hurricane Sandy and to Oklahoma in the wake of devastating tornados. During the five-day trip to Oklahoma, a crew of four Soup Ladies churned out 13,000 meals!

Ginger Passarelli and an NYPD officer after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Photo by The Soup Ladies.

Thanks to their hard work, they're well-known to police and fire agencies across the country. As Lein told Upworthy, "When disasters and critical incidents arise, the agency leads know that one phone call will bring the Soup Ladies as quickly as possible."

For the volunteers, it's all about showing gratitude and keeping the first responders safe.

According to Lein, many of the volunteers have personal ties to fire personnel or law enforcement, so they consider each first responder a member of their great big extended family. For them, making and serving comfort food is the best way to say thanks.

Photo by The Soup Ladies.

"We truly believe that bringing home-style meals to the first responders will keep them safer," Lein told Upworthy. "The meals are generally served with a good grandma-style hug and the workers go back into the field knowing we care."

It's a nice reminder that everyone can be a hero to someone else.

As the Okanogan Complex rages on, I'm grateful for the brave crews that face danger head-on and the hardworking volunteers who support them, whenever and wherever.

Photo by The Soup Ladies.

A size 21 Nike shoe made for Tacko Fall.

A local reporter at Hometown Life shared a unique and heartfelt story on March 16 about a mother struggling to find shoes that fit her 14-year-old son. The story resonated with parents everywhere; now, her son is getting the help he desperately needs. It's a wonderful example of people helping a family that thought they had nowhere to turn.

When Eric Kilburn Jr. was born, his mother, Rebecca’s OBGYN, told her that he had the “biggest feet I’ve ever seen in my life. Do not go out and buy baby shoes because they’re not gonna fit,’” Rebecca told Today.com. Fourteen years later, it’s almost impossible to find shoes that fit the 6’10” freshman—he needs a size 23.

Keep ReadingShow less

Dog does the 'pick a card' challenge and it's adorable.

There are a few kinds of dog parents: ones that only have outside dogs, those who have inside dogs but they're absolutely not allowed on the furniture and dog parents who treat their dog as if they birthed them themselves and give them every luxury invented for four-legged fur children.

Clearly, people are going to have feelings one way or the other about dogs and their place within a household, but I think everyone can agree that seeing a dog be pampered will always be adorable. Opie the Pit Bully is one of those lucky doggos who wound up living in the lap of luxury, and the pooch got to do a "pick a card" day to showcase that his owner loves him the mostest.

In a video uploaded to TikTok by Opie's owner because...ya know, opposable thumbs and all…Opie is faced with two cards that he can't read: 1) because he's a dog, and 2) because the cards are facing toward the camera. That doesn't stop the sweet puppers from playing along, though.

Keep ReadingShow less

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo by David Cadenas on Unsplash

What we imagine the look on Mr/ Pickles' face to be after becoming a dad.

It’s been an exciting time for a couple of tortoises at the Houston Zoo—and really, for tortoises everywhere.

The zoo announced on its blog that their oldest resident, Mr. Pickles, a 90-year-old radiated tortoise, and his 53-year-old companion Mrs. Pickles (that’s quite an age gap there sir, but no judgment) recently welcomed three new hatchlings.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, here are the new baby names: Dill, Gherkin and Jalapeño.

Clearly, Jalepeño is the spicy one of the bunch.

While this news is certainly momentous for Mr. and Mrs. Pickles, it’s also a huge achievement for the entire species, which is currently critically endangered.
Keep ReadingShow less

Grace Linn, 100, speaks at a Martin County School Board meeting on March 21, 2023.

Four hundred years ago, copies of William Tyndale’s English translation of the Bible were publicly burned by the bishop of London, with church authorities insisting that the Bible should only be read in Latin (and only by the clergy). In the centuries since, many books we now consider classics such as Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," Jack London's "Call of the Wild," Walt Whitman’s "Leaves of Grass," Victor Hugo’s "Les Misérables, Charles Darwin’s "Origin of Species"—even Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "Benjamin Bunny"—have been banned or censored in one way or another in various countries.

Battles over books are nothing new, but once in a while, they become particularly ugly or absurd, prompting people to speak out against book bans.

People like 100-year-old Florida resident, Grace Linn, whose speech at a Martin County School Board meeting has gone viral.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Tonight Show/ Youtube

Jennifer Aniston appearing on "The Tonight show"

Let’s face it, platonic relationships between men and women rarely get the same amount of attention as romantic ones, to the point where we debate whether or not they can actually exist in the first place.

That’s what makes a clip of Jennifer Aniston gushing about her decades-long friendship with Adam Sandler so cool to watch. There’s no Harry-Met-Sally-ing here, just one pal talking about another pal.

Aniston sat down with Jimmy Fallon to promote the film “Murder Mystery 2,” starring both Aniston and Sandler, but the conversation quickly veered into several anecdotes about “The Sand Man,” including how the two first met at a deli in their 20s.

As with any healthy friendship, there’s plenty of ragging on each other.

Keep ReadingShow less