UVALDE, Texas — Some people are donating money, others are jumping in their vehicles, feeling the need to comfort the community of Uvalde after the shooting.

Crosses now stand in the heart of Uvalde. Each cross represents people that will be part of this community forever.

Bonnie Fear’s organization, Lutheran Church Charities, brought the crosses to Uvalde’s town square.

Each cross carries a name of a victim with a marker so people can leave a message.

"It could be for them to help express their grief, in the end, it ends up with the family our hope is our family can then get that heart and read the heartfelt messages for their loved one,” Fear says.

“I will always love you, my beautiful granddaughter,” a message reads on the sign of Laya Salazar, from her grandmother.

It is impossible to know what can heal a wound so permanent and deep.

“If they need to, they need any prayers or they need our support silently we just listen and be with them," Fear says.

Albert Villegas is one who felt he had to come to help those impacted by the shooting know they are not alone.

“Faith, you got to have faith when things are going good, and things are going bad," says Villegas.

Villegas and his wife drove from five hours away, through the night, to be in Uvalde to be with those who are suffering. They set up a prayer station.

"People are going to come by and need prayer, say a little prayer, Maybe they need a hug. Comfort them, you know?" Villegas says.

Fear's charity also brought Golden retrievers from Texas and Oklahoma as comfort dogs.

What it will take to heal this town is a question without a clear answer but those who have come are hoping they be part of the journey to find it.

DENVER, Colo. (KMGH) — The world's largest land animal can get down.

At the Denver Zoo, the staff members of the pachyderm team have trained all five of its elephants to engage in the "Elephant Yoga" program.

The bulls can stretch, bend and even roll.

While it's entertaining to watch, it's also beneficial for their health.

"Elephant programs need to have an exercise program. So, part of our exercise for the elephants who live here is yoga- different stretches to keep their joints mobile, active, and engaged," said Maura Davis, assistant curator of pachyderms at the Denver Zoo.

The program also has health benefits for elephants at other zoos.

“So, Billy is one of our donors for plasma. He does stand nice and still, allows us to take a couple of liter of blood which has lifesaving platelets and opportunities for young elephants that need it.” Davis said.

Zookeepers say elephants can be trained as soon as they are able to eat solid food.

This story was originally reported by Danny New on thedenverchannel.com.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KTNV) — From living on the streets to giving back to the homeless community, Dana Canfield is the "Street Barber" of Las Vegas. He gives free haircuts to men and women living on the streets.

“All I ever wanted when I was out there was a haircut and a fresh shower to give me a jump-start to a new life,” Canfield said.

Barbering is in Canfield’s blood. Both of his grandfathers ran barbershops in California in the 1940s.

“I remember growing up in my grandfather’s garage, and there were barber chairs everywhere and I even got a pair of scissors from 1945," Canfield said.

Yet Canfield didn’t follow the family trade of trimming right away. He moved to Las Vegas, and his life took a turn for the worst.

“I had a big house. I worked about 15 years ago in the automotive industry, and I found myself kind of overindulging in some things in the city, and I ended up homeless," Canfield said.

For nearly four years, Canfield lived on the streets battling drug addiction and run-ins with the law. However, during that time, he grew an appreciation for his fellow neighbors living outside, all while recognizing a basic need that was not offered in the homeless community.

Once Canfield went through rehab and back on his feet, he wanted to give back.

“The haircuts really provide a little bit of hope; a little bit of a jump-start in their life," Canfield said.

Currently, Canfield is halfway through barber school. Like his grandfathers, he says he plans to open up a barbershop while continuing to serve the Las Vegas homeless community.

Canfield pops up at various events, rescue missions or just on Las Vegas Boulevard.

This story was originally published by Rachel Moore on KTNV.com.

Positive news matters.

A year ago, I wrote about our new series called Acts of Kindness, which shares positive news with our community.

Today, our newsroom is more committed to sharing positive news than ever.

That’s partly why this New York Times article caught my attention this week. The article looks at “bad news bias” -- an over-indexing of negative stories in news coverage.

The numbers themselves are bad news, in my view.

A Dartmouth College professor studied negative news and found that about 87% of national news coverage last year was negative. I know we were in a global pandemic, but to me that is unacceptable and not at all accurate of our world.

Local and regional news in the U.S. was less negative.

Also, this sentence in the article stood out: “If we’re constantly telling a negative story, we are not giving our audience the most accurate portrait of reality.”

For several years, I have been saying something similar to our journalists and people in our community: “No neighborhood or area is all good or all bad. And if all we tell is the negative we are not accurately reflecting our world.”

We want our journalism to give you an accurate representation of our community, and we also know everyone needs a smile in this dark world we live in.

So you can find Acts of Kindness in our newscasts and on our website every day. Kristyn Hartman’s Positively Cincinnati series continues every Wednesday. And we challenge our reporters every day to find stories about good things happening in our community.

We are beginning to use an internal computer program to track positive news in our newscasts and on our website. Measuring attributes like this is a way for us to make sure we are delivering you the right mix of news -- one that tells a true story of our community without “bad news bias.”

We can control only our own coverage. Unfortunately many other media organizations still over-index on negative news.

But we will do our best to be different and give you the best news coverage we can.

If you have good news stories, please send them to newsdesk@wcpo.com.

And as always, please feel free to contact me and tell me how we’re doing.

Mike Canan is the Senior Director of Local Media Content at WCPO 9. Contact him at mike.canan@wcpo.com. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram at @Mike_Canan.

We are living in historic, strange and, let’s face it, depressing times.

The coronavirus has impacted every person in our community in some way. Local businesses are shut down. Many of us are working or living in isolation. Opening Day, our region’s unofficial holiday, didn’t happen Thursday.

I don’t know about you, but I need to see something positive mixed in with stories about the virus’s spread, people dying and so many others out of work.

That’s why last week we launched Acts of Kindness.

When I am out speaking in the community, I tell people every corner of our community is neither all bad or all good. Our job as journalists is to paint that picture accurately.

That remains true when it comes to the impact of COVID-19. There’s a lot of darkness out there. But there are also everyday people doing heroic things to help their neighbors.

We have a responsibility to tell you those stories -- in addition to the stories about the virus’s impact.

This initiative builds on Kristyn Hartman’s weekly feature, Positively Cincinnati.

Kristyn has been one of our chief storytellers on Acts of Kindness.

She told us about La Soupe’s efforts to bring more meals to people in need. And then how a local restaurant donated its kitchen to help even more.

She told us about a 5-year-old leaving inspirational sidewalk chalk messages.

Raven Richard told the story of a teen who started a program to take deliveries to people who would be at-risk if they were to contract the virus. She also followed up on a story by Josh Bazan about the need for University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music students to borrow keyboards. Raven’s story detailed how the students received an outpouring of keyboard donations.

Ally Kraemer reported on a Brown County woman collecting pet food to help people be able to keep their pets.

Jake Ryle reported on restaurants raising money and helping medical personnel and employees who have lost their jobs.

We have all of these stories -- and more-- collected here on our Acts of Kindness page.

So if you feel like the news is all bad these days or you just need a pick-me-up, go to this page and hopefully you will find something to smile about.

We all need a few more smiles right now.

Mike Canan is the Senior Director of Local Media Content at WCPO 9. Contact him at mike.canan@wcpo.com. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram at @Mike_Canan.