Barack Obama Tweets Uplifting Local Stories To Remind Us What Went Right In 2017

Former President Barack Obama took some time on Friday to reflect on the past year and tweet out some stories that ā€œremind us whatā€™s best about America.ā€

Despite President Donald Trumpā€™s promise to ā€œmake America great again,ā€ 2017 really wasnā€™t a great year for everybody. From political upheaval to deadly mass shootings to natural disasters, many people faced difficult times.

But Obama pointed out thatā€™s not all that happened:

He then shared three stories from 2017 that highlight the resilience, generosity and resourcefulness of Americans.

The first story was about a Houston wedding planner named Kat Creech who transformed Sarah Samad and Mohsin Dhukkaā€™s postponed wedding plans into a Hurricane Harvey victim relief effort. The initial small group of wedding guests turned into hundreds of volunteers and a group called Recovery Houston, local station KPRC reported.

The second story was about NFL defensive end Chris Long, who gave his first six game checks to fund scholarships for students in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. Then according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he gave his final 10 game checks to launch Pledge 10 for Tomorrow, a campaign to ā€œpromote educational equity and opportunity for underserved youthā€ in the three cities heā€™s played for ā€• St. Louis, Boston and now Philadelphia.

Obamaā€™s final share was the story of Jahkil Jackson, a 10-year-old on an intrepid mission to help the homeless population in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune article details the boyā€™s ā€œstash of blessing bags ā€” packages filled with socks, toiletries and snacks,ā€ which he insists his parents keep ā€œin the car at all times.ā€

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Obamaā€™s final message was to encourage Americans to do something.

ā€œAll across America people chose to get involved, get engaged and stand up. Each of us can make a difference, and all of us ought to try. So go keep changing the world in 2018,ā€ he wrote.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.