Sweet Tea: To the rescue

We have World Cup fever here in Atlanta, where in just over a week we’ll host our very first World Cup match. I was surprised to find we’re the only Southern city repping the U.S.! I know that has a lot to do with infrastructure and having a honkin’ huge stadium, but we’ll make sure to do the South proud.

THIS IS WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Kids play on the Soccer in the Streets field at the East Lake MARTA station in Atlanta. (Olivia Bowdoin/AJC 2023)

Ugh, I get chills thinking about this. As a journalist, you spend a lot of your time wondering if what you’re doing actually makes a difference or, heaven forbid, if it’s causing harm.

Then something like this happens, and you feel renewed.

• AJC sports columnist Ken Sugiura wrote a column about how Atlantans are disappointed over pricey World Cup tickets. He spoke to two fans from social media for the article.
• Lo and behold, an Atlanta-based sports marketing executive named Vince Thompson got a hold of Ken offering to purchase World Cup tickets for both fans and their guests.
• Good begets good, and Thompson was moved to go further. With the help of Ken, he got in touch with Soccer in the Streets, an Atlanta nonprofit that last year provided free recreational soccer programs to more than 2,500 young people.
• He worked with the organization’s leaders to get tickets for a group of children they serve.

What I love about Thompson’s story (well, and Ken’s, of course) is that the executive said he was following the advice of his business magnate father, who told him to always help people if he was in a position to do so.

“I try to honor him with that every day,” Thompson said.

⚽ READ MORE: The coincidence that made Thompson believe it was all fated

TURTLE AWAY!

Be free! (Courtesy of Jekyll Island Authority)

First of all, Earl Grey is a very good name for a turtle.

Earl Grey is a 17-pound sea turtle whose rescue and recovery at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center made them a social media star, with more than 30 million views on Facebook and Instagram.

• Sea turtles strike a particularly fond chord in the viewing public’s hearts, and Earl Grey has an added benefit: They’re kinda wonky.
• Earl’s a rare but naturally occurring cross-breed, the offspring of a loggerhead father and a Kemp’s ridley mom. A mutant, if you will, though not quite a teenager. Not a boy, either! Or at least we don’t know yet. It’s impossible to determine the turtle’s gender until they reach sexual maturity.
• (For the purposes of this write, I’m using they/them pronouns because it’s cool to encounter gender diversity in the wild and, also, Happy Pride.)
• Our little mutant angel was rescued from Massachusetts Bay last November after winter weather left them “cold-stunned,” a form of hypothermia.
• Alas, Earl Grey was made for the sea, not stardom. They were released in late May on Georgia’s Jekyll Island.

“Sea turtles all have distinct personalities and react to changes in their environment differently,” said Jaynie Gaskin, the center’s director. “That charge into the ocean is their way of telling us, ‘We’ve got it from here.’”

🐢 READ MORE: Earl Grey is sporting new hardware in their return to the water

SIPS FROM AROUND THE SOUTH

⛰️ Canton, GA: A Georgia woman voluntarily donated her kidney. Then, because that wasn’t rad enough, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with 14 other kidney donor athletes. She said you can live an extraordinary life after donating an organ. Though, such a gift makes for an extraordinary life in itself. More from GPB

🍼 Chattanooga, TN: The Tennessee Aquarium welcomed its first newborn lemur! Lemur pregnancies can be subtle, and mom Kintana didn’t exhibit many outward signs of her condition until — surprise! Baby lemur. It’s so cute I want to sob. More from the Tennessee Aquarium

🩵 Denmark, SC: A truck-driving Army veteran preacher helped thwart an alleged kidnapping attempt when a handcuffed woman ran toward his rig for assistance. That is a potent series of words. More from the AJC