(upbeat music) - welcome to teen kids news, i'm veronique. let's begin with our top story for this week. (upbeat music) almost every day we hear in the news about all of the huge problems our world faces, wars, global warming, deadly diseases and widespread hunger. it probably seems that there's nothing we can do as teens to make this world a better place. but as amelia reports, that's not true. - that's correct. while few of us can make a meaningful impact on the world stage, there are still countless things we all can do to make a positive difference. and it can start in our own back yard.

to tell us more about this, is sabrina ma. she started an organization in her high school that has spread to schools all across the u.s. hi! - hi, thank you so much for having me on the show today. - it's great to have you. the school club you started is called ark, tell us about it. - yeah, so ark stands for the acts of random kindness club. ark is a student organization that strives to make high schools and their surrounding communities more positive, uplifting and optimistic. we do this by conducting uplifting campaigns and projects, because we truly believe that it's the little things in life that make a difference. - what lead you to start ark? - so in 2011, i was facing a lot of personal adversity in the form of depression and academic stress. and i went to a very large public high school and realized that many of my peers were going through their own types of adversities ranging from bullying to gang violence to drug abuse

and i wanted to do something that not only maybe helped my own well being and uplifted myself but also uplifted those around me. so that's where the idea for ark started and my best friend and i, hannah pham, decided to start the club together. - those are some serious topics. what kinds of things do members of ark do? - so ark has conducted hundreds of acts of random kindness ranging from making packages for our custodial staff, finals week care packages for students during exam season. we've produced short films about kindness and we've even organized a kindness flash mob in which almost a hundred students came together and connected acts of kindness around schools in synchronization. - that sounds pretty cool. was starting up the club easy or did it run into some challenges? - when i first started ark, i was a wide-eyed immature sophomore in high school

who had very little leadership experience. therefore, i often found myself barking orders at members which caused them no to take me seriously and not to really respect me or my other teammates. additionally, there were only 10 members in the club, and we couldn't find a classroom to meet in. so we had to share a detention hall with students facing detention. so it was just absolutely terrible in the beginning frankly and after my sophomore year, i honestly thought the club was going to crumble and fizzle out. but then i realized that if i want to run a kindness club, i have to be kind and i have to have good and compassionate leadership, styles and strategies. so the summer after sophomore year, hannah and i decided to completely overhaul the organization and make the leadership structure a lot more team oriented. we elected a board of directors and had weekly meetings

to discuss how we were going to run the meetings and how we were going to delegate tasks. and after that, the club started to gain a lot more attraction and popularity amongst students at school. - that's pretty impressive. how big is ark today? - so hannah and i have passed the torch on to other students in high school today, but we are incredibly humbled and inspired to say that the ark's membership has spread to thousands of high students across the nation at over 40 high schools. and every year, actually, all the high schools in north california get together to have a kindness convention in which they conduct a very large act of kindness together, as well as discuss their trials and tribulations and impact they've made throughout the year. so it's just incredibly inspiring to us that the club has remained sustainable and is quickly re-scaling. - right, you're in college now. so what have you taken with you

from your experience from ark? - so i'm currently a sophomore at georgetown university now, majoring in computer science and business administration. and although i'm pursuing new and exciting endeavors, i think founding and leading ark really ingrained values like compassion and empathy within me that i still carry as guiding principles throughout my day-to-day life and in the future, i really aspire to be the founder and ceo of a technology company that uses innovative technologies to create a positive impact in society. and so although i was known as the kindness kid in high school, in the future i really hope to be known as the compassionate ceo. - sounds like a great goal. if someone wanted to bring ark to their high school, can they do that? - oh, it's a very easy task. so all you do is go on the ark website and there's a create a new club tab which will give you all

the information you need to create your own ark club. - great, thanks sabrina and good luck in college. though i don't think you'll need it. - thank you, thank you so much for having me today. - as sabrina would say, it's the little things in life that can make a difference. for teen kids news, i'm amelia. - coming up, i'm going to show you why trying to play injured is a technical foul. - [luke] closed captioning is brought to you by.

- sports are fun and good for our physical and mental development. but sports can also be dangerous and not taking the right precautions can put you in the doctor's office. diyu has the story. - what comes to your mind when you think of a dangerous sport? football? hockey? maybe even rugby. but i bet basketball wasn't at the top of your list. meet rj mehan, he knows first-hand just how dangerous a sport basketball can be. - i've pulled a couple muscles. actually recently i just got an avulsion which is when you pull a muscle and it pulls out a piece of the bone too. - [diyu] no stranger to pain, rj had to sit out earlier in his seventh grade season because of a broken arm. - i went up to get a rebound and i fell, someone pushed me from behind, i fell. i went to catch myself, stuck my arm out. and i just felt like this jolt of pain go up through my arm. - [diyu] and rj is not alone. between 2005 and 2011, experts found that 1.5 million high school

basketball players were treated in emergency departments. that's certainly a lot! in an attempt to keep sports safer, many schools are hiring people called athletic trainers. - we're there to prevent injuries, evaluate them quickly, treat them immediately and try our best to make sure that as we return them to play, we do it in the most safe an efficient way possible. - [diyu] unfortunately, not a lot of schools have athletic trainers for their sports teams. - in the high school setting, there are about 42% of u.s. high schools that have athletic trainers. in the middle school setting, i think it's even less. - [diyu] whether your school has an athletic trainer or not, there's one thing to keep in mind. if you're hurt, don't just tough it out. - when you're feeling those aches and pains from sport, whether it's your knee or back and it's just not going away, it's hampering what you're trying to do on the court. - if you don't follow the recommendations and you cut short your healing time, it really could keep you out for the rest of the season, you could be re-injured

or you could have a career ending injury. - [diyu] experts say that there is more than one way to avoid injury during your sports season. whether it's basketball, football, baseball, or even tennis. - many of the injuries in basketball are preventable. and the ways to sort of avoid injury are gonna be stretching and conditioning, proper warm up and cool down afterwards. - [diyu] professional athletes can spend up to an hour getting ready for a game, sometimes more. so get a good warm up in before playing and remember, if it hurts, stop and tell your coach or parents. - we're here to help. we're here to make sure that we can get you back as quickly as we can. and a lot of times, you're not gonna compete at you're best until your feeling good. - having an athletic trainer on your team is surely a slam dunk. for teen kids news, i'm diyu. (crowd cheers) - ever wonder how the seventh inning stretch came about? well former president william howard taft was a very big baseball fan.

one time when he was at a game, he stood up in the middle of the seventh inning and everyone around him stood up in respect, and the rest is history. i'm matt for teen kids news. - why you might want to do a project that isn't assigned to you in school. i'll tell you in make the grade, next on teen kids news.

- it's time for make the grade, here's christin. - every year i see headlines about big science contest winners and say coulda, woulda, shoulda. that means i could have entered. in fact i would have if i knew how. therefore i should have found out what to do. some schools make it easy. they have clubs or classes where you can work on science fair projects. but for a lot of us, entering a science competition means we have to be self-starters. and the first step is research. i did a quick google search and found pages of competitions. international, regional, even local. there are also virtual science fairs online. ask your parents or a teacher

to help you make sure they're for real. if science isn't your thing, look around and you'll find essay and art contests, too. even if you don't win, the effort is something to be proud of and something colleges will be interested in too. i'm christin, here to help you make the grade. - every state has one, but most of us don't know why they look the way they do. here's eric with flag facts. - "remember the alamo." those words honor the outnumbered defenders who died fighting the mexican army in 1836. but from that defeat came the birth of texas. first, as an independent republic. then as our 28th state. - what's unique about the flag of texas is how much texans love their state and their flag. but they have reason to feel proud of that flag. - the star symbolizes unity.

it's also why texas is nicknamed the lone star state. the five points are said to represent the ideal characteristics of a texan, loyalty, prudence, fortitude, broadmindedness, and righteousness. texas values are also embodied in the flag's bold colors. red for courage, white for purity and liberty, and blue for loyalty. - [randy] i think they're happy to be americans. but there's that whole texas pride, and what you see in that flag, is the independence of texas. - i guess that's why they say you don't mess with texas. with flag facts, i'm eric. - there's been a lot of news lately about gluten in foods. for those people who are gluten sensitive or who have a condition called celiac disease, most doctors agree that it's important to avoid gluten. but some people claim that cutting out gluten is good for all athletes. a no gluten diet will supposedly help give you an edge in sports.

however, according to health experts, it won't. if your doctor says that you have no problem eating gluten, you don't have to worry about it getting in the way of your play. (upbeat music) - hooplaha is a website that gathers really cool videos from across the country. we'll show you one of them when teen kids news continues. we'll be right back.

or know someone who has. so, our hooplaha pick this week tells us about an organization that offers a creative way to deal with bullying. - [children] hooplaha! - [girl] i feel like everybody that's been bullied and have pulled through it, and are now in a better place. it's just kinda like, a positive outlet for people you don't even know. - you will rise project is a website, youwillriseproject.com,

anybody can submit artwork, short stories, poetry, you know, any kind of creative works about their experiences with bullying. - ever since i was little i wanted to make a difference, and with my experience with bullying, i was like, art, and bullying, so excited. a lot of times kids do tell people. but no one does anything and when we allow them to speak in a creative voice, they speak plainer and louder than they could just talking about it. - it really helps getting out the emotions i have towards it. - i didn't really like to do a lot of art before i was part of the project, and then i realized how much i like to paint and stuff. - my favorite piece is obviously my shoes i made. i made these shoes that had silver rhinestones on them, and they light up purple when you turn them on.

and it kinda just resembled how i can just like, walk over people who try to bring me down, and i can just shine through the hard times, i guess. - [paul] visual art, poetry, short stories, videos, animation, music, songwriting, we encourage people to do whatever they want. - i never thought of myself as a visual artist, so i got to like, write my own monologue, and do some photography. i think that's what really got me really excited. - so if you're being bullied, just know that you are not alone, you're not the first person to go through this, there are people who care about what you have to say, and we encourage you to get in touch with the you will rise project, look at the work that other people are making, send us your own, and just become a part of our community, because people really do care. - [luke] this report is brought to you by allstate.

the berry family wants all americans to know distracted drivers can cause deadly consequences. - it just takes a split second for your entire life to be changed. - [luke] in 2011, as josh and robin berry and their three young children drove home from vacation, a distracted driver hit their minivan head on. the crash killed josh and robin and paralyzed their two sons. - we just don't want anything to happen to other people, what happened to us and we're trying to turn our story into something that can help people. - no one actually realizes how bad it is and like, oh i shouldn't do this until it actually happens to them. - [luke] to help make roads safer by putting the brakes on distracted driving, allstate is kicking off its fifth annual reality rides tour. - for more than a decade, allstate has led the conversation about distracted driving. by expanding the tour, we're offering a safe environment for more people to learn about the dangers of distracted driving. - [luke] new for 2017's tour are touch-screen monitors that display distracted-driving facts

and let participants take selfies to spread the word on social media and a virtual pledge wall, which shows their commitment to not text and drive. - nearly 60% of people surveyed after participating in prior reality rides tours have said that they will not text and drive. - i was trying to drive, stay in the right lane and i kept swerving left and right. i mean, it was impossible to keep focus. - [luke] to learn more and find a reality rides stop near you, visit facebook.com/xthetxt and this next important message about driving safety, is brought to you by the national road safety foundation. (dramatic music) (book slams) (phone buzzing) - [narrator] what if your mom or dad texted while driving and got hurt or worse,

imagine how you would feel. - is everything alright? - i don't know. - [narrator] that's why they don't want you to text and drive. - from being nearly destroyed in a fire to being auctioned off piece by piece, this carousel has had its ups and downs. i'll have that story.

but katie found a place where history not only goes round and round, it also goes up and down. - [katie] it was 1922. world war i was a recent memory. warren harding was president. it was the same year the great gatsby was living the high life. 1922 is also when this carousel opened for business in the midwest. so how did it wind up in a park near the famous brooklyn bridge? because a woman named jane walentas and her husband wanted to give a gift to the city of new york. - so i looked at a lot of carousels all over the country,

and this one was in an auction in youngstown, ohio. there was an amusement park that was being sold. there had been a fire at the park which burned their rollercoaster and the firemen saved the carousel, but some of the horses were singed. - that was the beginning of a long labor of love for jane and her team of artists. so could you describe the work you did on this carousel? - yes, the first thing i did was i scraped all the paint off it down to the original paint and we proceeded to repaint it all to the way it originally was. - [katie] the painstaking work of repairing and restoring went on for 25 years. - i was looking at some old footage that i have from the early days and i thought, oh my goodness, i was so young when i started! - jane may have gotten older, but the carousel was looking brand new. when the work was finally finished, the carousel was officially named, what else, but jane's carousel.

so tell me how the carousel works? - well the inside row are the jumper horses, and they go up and down together, you can see these gears, one goes up and the other comes down. - [katie] oh so when the gear turns, they go up and down? - up and down, uh-huh. - oh. and the outside rows are standers. those are the big horses, and they're just stationary. - [katie] so they don't move, up and down. - [jane] they don't go up and down, no. - [katie] and here's something else i learned. the whole platform floats on air! - [jane] so a true carousel is not in the ground at all, there's not a track, it all hangs off the center pole, which is what makes it a true carousel. - [katie] the music is the real deal, too. this is the original organ from 1922. it survived that fire in the 1980s, but in 2012 the organ was damaged by super storm sandy. another round of repairs for jane and her crew! - do you want to see behind? - sure. - i'll show you these instruments. this is the snare drum, and when the organ goes,

these beat on the drum. - wow. - it's quite a piece of equipment. (upbeat instrumental music) - the old organ has a modern twist. the music is controlled by a laptop computer. why is it that just about everyone loves a carousel? - i think there's a fantasy about it, you know, being here on these horses and riding into the sunset, and the music and the lights and the mirrors, it just creates a very happy environment. - [katie] no matter how old you get going around in circles never seems to lose its appeal and that's the special magic of a merry go round. for teen kids news, i'm katie. - that wraps up our show. but we'll have more teen kids news for you next week. so make sure you tune in.

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alex: coming next, attempting to help some injured manatees. can these large sea cows be saved? plus, two dogs are trapped on a ledge above a rushing river. this is "animal rescue."