A day to remember there are newsworthy blessings every day

"The world is so full of a number of things," begins the famous Robert Louis Stevenson line from "A Child's Garden of Verses" that I'm sure you can finish without my help.

Following the news can make us forget Stevenson's sentiment about ever-present sources of happiness. War in Europe. War in the Mideast. Natural disasters across the globe. A seemingly unending string of mass shootings. Prices rising. Car crashes. Endless political sniping. A government constantly teetering on the edge of a calamitous shutdown.

Where amid all this, we may well ask ourselves, do we find cause to be thankful?

I will tell you. It's your local newspaper. Yes, the very same source of all that pain and negativity is also a daily source of stories that reaffirm our humanity and uplift our hearts. On this day every year, I like to look back at the previous week to see how such stories abound. Yes, of course, for the holiday, we seek out positive stories like that on Page 1 today about MaryAnn Ogilvie's volunteer work on behalf of homeless veterans. And of course these are important and powerful stories.

But many like them occur nearly every day. Consider, for example, this partial sampling from the past week:

• Al Buttimer, the principal at Westview Elementary School in Wood Dale, and Erica Berger, Diamond Lake School principal, were the subjects of different stories during the week but shared practically the same response to the events behind them: "They got me."

And they deserved to be "got."

Our staff writer Mick Zawislak told how Berger was surprised when veterans leading a student assembly on positive behavior turned to her and gave her pins honoring her leadership in school programs recognizing the service and sacrifices of veterans.

Staff writer Rick West explained in his story, Buttimer thought the school assembly he was overseeing was a final wrap to the school's "week of kindness," but the theme changed when Sam Ally, of Oak Lawn, showed up to describe to the kids their principal's heroism that saved his life during a health episode at a pickup basketball game earlier in the year.

These positive stories are sweet enough, but think, too, of the additional messages embedded in them - that schools teach kindness, patriotism, service and sacrifice routinely, that people save other people's lives with no expectation of response, that people whose lives are saved or just enriched feel the need to publicly thank and recognize their benefactors, even if it's just at an elementary school assembly.

• On Monday, Zawislak told of an anonymous donor who dropped a gold coin into a Libertyville Salvation Army Red Kettle, while Suburban Mosaic columnist Madhu Krishnamurthy described, among other positive news, a Council of Islamic Organizations effort to distribute 3,600 turkeys to needy families across Chicago for Thanksgiving. These are just two of what will be nearly countless stories of people's generosity and compassion during the holidays.

• Meanwhile, also on Monday, West provided a Page 1 story about the accomplishments of suburban high schoolers you may see if you watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Tyler Ulbert, a junior at Lake Zurich High School, Tommy Chapski, a junior at Marmion Academy in Aurora, and Deona Julary, a senior at Hinsdale Central High, who were selected from among thousands of students across the country to perform with Macy's Great American Marching Band.

• On Sunday, staff writer Christopher Placek kicked off our Neighbors in Need series with a description of a Northwest Suburban High School District 214 program called 214 Cares that provides emergency financial assistance to students and families in the district experiencing everything crises like hunger, homelessness and more. The program, by the way, is one of five grant recipients in a holiday partnership between the Daily Herald and the McCormick Foundation that helps fund agencies that address hunger, homelessness and health care problems in the suburbs. (The McCormick Foundation matches donations to the Neighbors in Need fund at 50 cents on the dollar, and you can be part of the good news by donating to dailyherald.com/neighbors.) The program may be seasonal, but the important work done by programs like 214 Cares takes place year round.

As always happens when I start this column every Thanksgiving, there is way more to recall than space in which to describe it. But know that the list includes innovative businesses big and small from traditional offerings like Crumbl Cookies in Geneva and Extract Juicery in St. Charles to eye-popping attractions like the Wonderverse entertainment complex at Oakbrook Center and Golf VX golf simulator with restaurant and bar in Arlington Heights, Susan Klovstad's "Good News Sunday" series reviewing inspiring stories of the week and much, much more.

So much, indeed, that we should all be as happy as kings.

Happy Thanksgiving.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald.