Truckers need food too

In recent days, many restaurants have closed. Fast food outlets still accept drive-thru orders, but most trucks are too big to use the drive-thru windows. Nearly two years ago, a Sonic restaurant in Fordyce, Arkansas, built a drive-thru specifically for heavy-duty trucks. A photo was posted on Facebook and the news spread quickly.

So far, about 500 truckers use the special drive-thru each month, with the average ticket price being about $2.50 more than from passenger vehicles. According to the restaurant manager, "We know how many trucks there are on the highway, and we wanted to find a way to accommodate them. Those guys get hungry too, so it seemed like time to do something about it."

Math teacher makes a house call

Two weeks into doing her middle school lessons at home, 12-year-old Rylee Anderson of Madison, South Dakota, came up against a math problem she could not understand. So she emailed her teacher, Chris Waba. Could he help? "You bet," he said. Beside teaching sixth-grade math at Madison Middle School, he also happens to live directly across the street from Rylee.

Rylee was waiting for him to email her some tips, when the doorbell rang. Mr. Waba was standing on her front porch holding a marker and a large whiteboard! For the next 10 minutes, he sat at a socially safe distance and talked Rylee through the graphing problem, as she listened through the screen door. Her Mother snapped this photo. Mr. Waba does not make a habit of going door-to-door with algebra and geometry tips, but says he could sense that Rylee was frustrated and about to give up.

Smile

Smile! That's what these pine cones say outside Aviva Zierler's home in Silver Spring, Maryland. They were placed there by the her four children, Sadie, 9, Yeshaya, 3, Rahm, 7, and Mirele, 5. Their mom drew the letters for her children, and they followed her design.

She explained, "We were inspired by all these great ideas going around of ways to bring joy to people at a distance." At least one neighbor, a senior who lives alone, smiles every thing she looks out her window and sees these pine cones on the lawn.

A "Crumbs of Comfort" anniversary

This month we will share our 2,000th crumb of comfort. If your crumbs ever fail to arrive, it's because my computer has crashed and cannot be repaired at this time. Otherwise, crumbs should continue, and today's is an encore which does not mention the words virus or pandemic. Enjoy!  In Minnesota, the town of Climax is even smaller than Garrison Keillor's imaginary hometown of Lake Wobegon. But Climax has two things in common with Lake Wobegon. All the men are strong, and all the women are good looking. And the children? Well, you decide.

Greater downtown Climax, MN.

From 2011 to 2015, the Lady Knights basketball team of Climax-Fisher High School strung together 84 straight losses. That was four years of ridicule. But coach Jonathan Vonesh never lost faith in the girls. A few quit, but most remained determined to turn the team around. It finally happened, and you won't believe how.

In 2015, the Knights were one point ahead of Bagley High at halftime, and "the crowd was getting into it," remembers player Grace Bowling. Then the Knights got in major foul trouble. First, all the seniors fouled out. Then all the juniors fouled out! There were only three Knights left, two sophomores and a freshman -- the least experienced players on the losingest team in the state. Coach didn't tell them to win. He just told them to keep working 'til the end. You can't win with three against five.

The three girls didn't score once from the field, but they played stellar defense. When they got the ball, they drew fouls and made free throws, one after another. When the buzzer sounded, the Lady Knights won! What happened next? "We were all hugging and crying and screaming our heads off," said Heather Grove. "It was probably the best moment of my life," added Adrianna Vasek. "You kind of learn that no matter what people say about you, if you keep putting in the time and effort, it will pay off," said Michaela Burstad. That's a lesson the team can never forget.

When Coach Vonesh was contacted by ABC News affiliate WDAZ, he credited the victory to "survival, and a lot of prayers," adding "it was like they won a championship." Thanks to the Lady Knights, Climax now has one more thing in common with Lake Wobegon. All the children are above average.

RVs for MDs

Emily Phillips lives in Celina, Texas, north of Dallas. Her husband is a doctor who returns home in scrubs and medical gear after working with patients each day as an emergency physician. She was concerned he might inadvertently infect her or their three children. Her mother suggested they get an RV and park it by the house so he could be near his family without making closer contact.

Her Facebook appeal quickly turned up two local offers of RVs. Emily then took the idea online with a Facebook page dubbed "RVs4MDs." That's when everything took off. There are now 10 online administrators who work 24/7 matching RV donors with medical people looking for a camper. Check the Facebook page for more details.

Business is booming at this restaurant

A California eatery has found a compassionate way to keep their business open while caring for hospital staffers. In addition to continuing its takeout and delivery services, Tootsie's restaurant at the Stanford Mall in Palo Alto has been using its catering services to feed doctors and nurses at local hospitals.

Since the restaurant launched its "Adopt a Doctor or Nurse" program last month, community residents have commissioned his restaurant to prepare and serve more than 2,000 meals to various hospitals in the Bay Area. Not only has the program helped feed hospital personnel, but the influx of business enabled Tootsie's to rehire a number of staffers who had been laid off at the start of the shutdowns.

Great news from "a good town"

Bremen, Indiana, is so little it has one traffic light, one supermarket, and a one-screen theatre. Residents don't like to brag. Signs on the outskirts modestly say, "Welcome to Bremen, a Good Town." But sometimes modesty is the secret of genius. A business called NISCO in the industrial park makes sound-dampening products for car doors. But in less than one week, NISCO re-engineered its five multi-functional lasers to produce polyethylene isolation gowns for first responders.

Gowns are now made and donated to first responders each day. NISCO has already produced enough for every fire department in Marshall County. "This is tremendous," said Scott Ford, Associate Vice President for Economic Development at the University of Notre Dame. "This example offers a ray of hope in these trying times."