![The Wayland Police Department have issued a warning on the rise of scammers during the holiday season. “Hang up [the phone]. if you get a text and you do not know who it's from, just delete it. Don't click on any links, nothing,” Wayland police chief Edward Burman said. “Every single one of them is a scam.”](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_0954_720-e1734676255647.jpg)
![WHS’s Connect Program ran its annual holiday gift drive to fulfill the wishlist of children enrolled in the Dorchester based non-profit daycare organization, the Yawkey Center. This drive brought the town together and impacted both the students in Connect, as well as the greater Wayland community. “You could see how helpful the town was and how our community came together and wanted to help out a community that wasn't our own [and] kids who were less fortunate than we were,” senior and Connect Program member Jordynn Lee said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/screenshot_2024-12-20_at_12.21.24___pm_720-e1734734228474.png)
![The Boy Scouts will be selling trees on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays noon to 6 p.m. until they sell out.
“This event is one of the things that [the Boy Scouts] get to have a direct impact on the community,” freshman Alex Macleod said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-8.38.38 AM.png)
The Good News: Week of Jan. 11
Credit: Elizabeth Zhong
In these days, we are all in desperate need of some good news. So, join WSPN’s Alyssa Dickstein as she shines light on one piece of cheerful news every week.
The media is too often flooded with stories of devastation and destruction. It has become a feat to find a single positive story to counteract the negative headlines. It’s 2021, and the news still has that same nauseating 2020 flare. Right now, any story that can renew your faith in humanity, even just a little bit, counts as good news in my book. Today’s story is courtesy of this USA Today article.
Brainerd, Minnesota – Customers pay it forward for three days straight at a Dairy Queen drive-thru. As you may know, we love good deeds on this column, and it seems as though this town is full of good samaritans.
The term “pay it forward” refers to paying for the car behind you at a drive-through or the customer behind you in line at a shop.
“They were encouraging the attitude when people were coming through and the energy was just really good to see,” the store manager said. “Since March, tons of things have changed, tons of things are going on, and it’s not just in the store. We are people. We have things going on outside… The energy was definitely uplifting. There was no negative energy going on.”
As this restaurant manager said, these times are chaotic. Since they haven’t gotten better yet, we should take victory in the small acts of kindness and take pride in how they can positively affect others. If anything, the past year has shown us that people can still help other people while social distancing. The forces at large prevent us from helping other people from within a six-foot proximity, but it is not impossible – the branch manager recalls that non-customers even called in to put money on a gift card. That way, if a car could not afford to pay it forward for the next customer, the chain could continue; the small acts of kindness could continue.
Your donation will support the student journalists of Wayland High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, cover our annual website hosting costs and sponsor admission and traveling costs for the annual JEA journalism convention.
Alyssa Dickstein, Class of 2021, is a third year reporter and second year editor for WSPN. She writes for the publication’s columns “The Good News”...
Elizabeth Zhong, Class of 2021, is this year’s graphic designer for WSPN. She is the president of Student Council, co-President of the Tri-M Music Honor...