LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Terrible tweets, cruel comments, constant complaining. It's easy to feel consumed by a negative world, but look closer.
There's heart, humor, and humility guiding many of our neighbors, friends, and family in greater Louisville.
WDRB assigned anchor Chris Sutter to focus on them. Below are some our favorite WDRB Positive stories from 2022.
It's been a while singing telegrams were a thing. A southern Indiana musician brought them back, with a sultry twist.
"Happy George" delivers singing telegrams in a speedo for birthdays, bachelorette parties or any occassion people need a laugh. April 14, 2022
"You can't ignore him when he walks into the room," said the owner of Highland Morning, Michael Coe.
"I saw a lot of hair, yes," Josh Ralston explained.
"He looks like Jesus, kind of," Drew Vincent added.
"Happy George" often shows up in just a pink speedo as he congratulates, wishes happy birthdays, and performs at Bachelorette parties.
"That's pretty much all I'm after is people loving each other," Happy George said. "And have a sense of humor, because what else do we have?"
Toby Stigdon finds peace out on the water, and that's been more important in the past year than ever before.
The serenity at Lake Stanfield in southern Indiana has always helped Toby Stigdon find his peace. That's been more important in the past year than ever before after his cancer diagnosis.
"It is terminal," Toby said. "I just got to live each day, and spend as much time as I can with my family," said Toby.
That's far from all he's doing in his final days. Toby wanted to help people in the same boat as him. He did just that during a 66 mile trek down the East Fork of the White River.
John Damron took a bad habit of chewing tobacco and turned it into music. He plays tobacco cans on TikTok, and the internet loves it.
"I like to cut up and stuff, and whenever I make people laugh and they comment about how funny it is or how silly it is, it makes me laugh," Damron said.
He's played tobacco cans to Lizzo music, Jack Harlow's "First Class," and 90s favorites. When he performed to "The Diary of Jane," by Breaking Benjamin, he got more than 2 million views.
Each 20-second video takes some real work, but he loves every second of it.
Austin Whitaker's life has taken turn after turn. A life-changing moment threatened to slam the breaks on all of it.
Austin Whitaker is doing something few thought he could.
"When it happened, I was about nine months out of high school," Whitaker said.
The high school graduate was getting his first taste of freedom, when he was shot in the back during a home invasion in Old Louisville.
A doctor told him he'd never walk again, but Whitaker wasn't about accept that.
"Don't tell me I can't do something," he said. Not only can he walk now, he's racing Go-Karts.
It's why racing at Clarksville's Sportsdrome Speedway at 1207 Kopp Lane in Clarksville fits him like a glove. His vehicle of choice is a go-kart on steroids.
'The most exciting 2 minutes of flushing in sports'
Scroll through social media on Kentucky Derby weekend, and get ready for the photo dump.
"The toilets are in heavy use on Derby Day at Churchill Downs," track spokesman, Darren Rogers said.
Pictures are snapped under the Twin Spires, in the grandstands, and on the backside.
But there's something at the track that no one posts about, even though they're probably more important to Churchill Downs on Derby weekend than anything else.
"The toilets are in heavy use on Derby Day at Churchill Downs," said track spokesman, Darren Rogers.
Jeffersontown's Spaghetti and Meatball
The hometown hero banners have been a downtown Louisville thing, until now.
A miniature version is up on the old Bearno's in Jeffersontown. It says "Meatball's J-town," but it has little to do with Italian.
Alan and Eddie Craven are known around town as "Spaghetti and Meatball."
"They're the guys on the bikes," said John Carney, a Jeffersontown business owner.
A guy who is sort of an expert in smiles, comedian Tom Mabe, is responsible for putting Meatball's face on the building he bought.
"I can relate to 'Meatball' a whole lot," Mabe said. "I have a son, Josh, who's on the spectrum."
In the days after the September 11th terror attacks, Bullitt County 2nd graders put pencil to paper, trying to comfort the hurting and those trying to treat them.
The letters are still posted in a NYC hospital more than two decades after the tragedy.
Fast forward to 2022. A Kentucky woman at New York Presbyterian Hospital, with a loved one, snapped pictures of the 9/11 letters from those Kentucky classmates, still up on the walls.
"I think that's just incredible," one of the students, now a grown woman, Maryanna Brewer said. "It's amazing that after 21 years, it's still standing there."
One of the doctors who was there on 9/11 is happy the letters are.
B&K Enterprises in Charlestown made the jumpsuits in "Elvis," the summer blockbuster.
 B&K Enterprises in Charlestown, Indiana made all the jumpsuits for the movie "Elvis." (WDRB Image) July 7, 2022.
An Academy Award winning costume designer called co-owner, Kim Polston on the phone.
"(She said), 'This is what specifically I would like, to make sure this looks like this, and this looks like this. Can you do that?'" Polston recalled.
In all, 34 jumpsuits were made for the film, and 10 of them made the cut. When the Polstons walked into the theater and saw their creations on the big screen, they were touched and proud.
In a busy world, tranquility is important. The rolling hills of the Bluegrass may be where your center awaits. Those that live there seem to think it's the perfect place for a Yoga class.
Horse Yoga Retreat by Hallway Feeds could be the first and only yoga class that includes horses. The inspiration for the sessions in Midway, Kentucky came during Kentucky Derby season, of course. May 23, 2022
Downward dog (or horse), child's pose and sun salutation are all covered. The yogis do it, and so do the horses. Some of the stretching even happens on horseback.
"I couldn't have even dreamed of it," said yogi, Rollins Mathews.
They were looking for a new marketing idea. It was Derby time, and the thought was to come up with something to keep Kentuckians calm, in a time when the Commonwealth goes crazy.
"Our team said, 'what about a horse yoga retreat?'" Koch explained. "You know there's been goat yoga, and I'm sure there's been cat yoga, and some other things. I said yeah, 'we know a guy.'"
Geraldine VonDielingen just crossed her 50th year working at McDonald's in Seymour. Sept. 19, 2022. (WDRB Photo)
We've all found ourselves under the golden arches, hungry. A trip to McDonald's comes with the familiar fries, burgers and soda. But often, an unfamiliar face takes your order.
That's not the case at one McDonald's in Seymour. Geraldine VonDielingen worked there before the McMuffin and McNugget were on the menu.
"Nobody works for 50 years anymore, let alone a fast food restaurant," said Madeline Scales, a co-worker of VonDielingen's.
There's always that house in a neighborhood where the Amazon truck seems to just park. Rev. Jim Sichko lives in that home in one Richmond subdivision.
"This is a lot of stuff," an Amazon driver could be heard saying, during a drop-off.
Deliveries have been constant since Rev. Jim Sichko asked his social media followers to help.
All of the things inside the packages are not meant for Sichko. He, like everyone else, watched in disbelief as parts of eastern Kentucky disappeared in rising flood waters.
Sichko posted to Twitter asking for help, and people from around the world delivered.
"It speaks really to the essence of good in people's hearts," Sichko said.
Blooms from flowers bring us joy in the good times and comfort in the sad.
Volunteers meet each Monday to form bouquets.
"There's nothing more heart-warming than the sentiment on a card or just the arrangement itself," Carol Nance Coulter said.
That last part is what's bringing volunteer after volunteer to a blossoming group called "Flower Power."
Flowers from funerals are repurposed to brighten the days of hurting people in hospice and nursing homes.
"You take her in the wheelchair, and her eyes would immediately go to the flowers," said Barry James, whose late wife received a delivery from "Flower Power" before her passing.
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