🕺 Everybody dance now. College kids have cracked the code on fundraising. Want to raise the most funds possible? Make like Lady Gaga and Just Dance for days on end.

Students at Penn State University just wrapped up their annual THON dance marathon, dancing for 46 hours straight to raise money for children and families affected by childhood cancer. Proceeds are donated to the Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, specifically to a program called Four Diamonds. This year, the marathon raised $16.9 MILLION, a nearly $2 million improvement on the year prior.

Auburn University’s Dance Marathon isn’t quite as big, but the students there still managed to raise over $356,000 for an area children’s hospital. Since its establishment in 2011, the event has raised more than $4 million.

Sometimes, people say youth is wasted on the young. But these college kids are taking one for the team, dancing on all of our behalfs to benefit the children. Their bodies can take it. My hips and knees would disintegrate.

 🚴 Back on the bike. Douglas Concha is trying to ride his bike over 18,000 miles on 6 continents in just 9 months. The feat would establish a Guinness World Record, and Concha is raising money for Doctors Without Borders as he strives to achieve it.

Just five minutes after Concha had stopped to replace a tire in Beaumont, Texas last week, a truck hit him from behind and ran him over. Miraculously, he wasn’t killed or paralyzed, though he was in tremendous pain….as you can imagine.

The accident happened on Thursday. His plan? Get back on the road by Monday.

He wants to use his pain as inspiration to push for those in pain around the world. Brave dude.

It’s like in Forgetting Sarah Marshall when Paul Rudd’s “Koonu” asks Peter: “If you get bitten by a shark, you’re not just gonna give up surfing, are you?” Peter, like most of us, replies, “Yeah, probably.” (I’ve used that reference before, and dammit, I’ll use it again.)

But Douglas Concha isn’t most of us. Or Peter. He’s a legend. And he’s getting back on the bike.

💕 On Mondays, we celebrate Pink. Pink is a low-key underrated musical icon. Turns out, she’s a heck of a person too.

Before her show in Brisbane, Australia, she spent time with a six-year-old girl with a terminal heart condition. She couldn’t have been nicer, and while young Lillian was understandably shy in the moment, you can tell just how excited she was in the aftermath.

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Later on stage, Pink dedicated Lillian’s favorite song, “What About Us,” to her, putting the cherry on top of a night to remember forever.

🧑‍🚀 Out of this world support. Kids can be mean. That’s not news, but it doesn’t make it any less sad when bullying hurts someone’s feelings. One young boy, a huge fan of space, was crushed when he was teased for his clothes with astronauts and planets on them. He wanted to get rid of the clothes altogether.

Not on NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez’s watch.

@thevanessahernandez

@Meg I saw this and had to get my dad to say a few words 🥹 #josehernandez #nasaastronaut #latinoastronaut #amillionmilesaway

He made a video for the boy, encouraging him to continue embracing his interest. He pointed out that if he had listened to his friends when they told him wanting to be an astronaut was a dumb idea, then he would’ve never gone up into space. He encouraged him to wear the clothes, be proud of them, study hard, and hopefully he could work at NASA with Hernandez one day.

If I’m a space-fan, and I’m faced with the choice between listening to some punky kids or a NASA astronaut, I’m going with the astronaut 100 times out of 100, and doing so with pride. Such an important message delivered in such an important moment. Bravo, Jose!

🌉 The beginning of a golden idea. On this day in 1934, 90 years go, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Golden Gate Bridge took place. The icon, one of the most recognizable structures in the United States, took four years to build. For decades, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and the two main cables are made from wire spanning over 80,000 miles long.

It’s an absolute marvel of engineering…and quite the beast to maintain. Did you know that they’re just never done repainting it? It’s so long that, inevitably, some portion needs touch-ups of that famous red at all times.

Have to keep it looking good for its appearance in literally every single introductory San Francisco shot in movie history.

🐷 Can’t throw this pigskin. We still refer to them as pigskins, but most American footballs are actually made of cowhide. Sadly, that didn’t stop some rowdy Mardi Gras parade-goers in New Orleans from throwing a terrified piglet around like a football. One Great Samaritan, hearing the piglet’s squeals, was not having it.

He confronted the men, demanding the animal and taking it to the humane society the next day. Fortunately, the piglet was uninjured. He already has a foster mom and dozens of people interested in adopting him, but he’ll be headed to a permanent home on a private farm sanctuary.

It takes bravery to see something wrong and step in to do something about it. And it takes great compassion and care to see it through until the situation is safely resolved for the long term. Now, the piglet will have happy and healthy days ahead, hopefully just watching football and not playing a central role in a game of it.

🏎️ Toys are for adults too. Who among us didn’t want one of those ride-on electric cars as a kid? Maybe it loses its allure as you grow up and become eligible to drive an actual car, though. Suddenly 2 miles-per-hour doesn’t feel very fast.

But what if the toy car went 92 mph?

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German man Marcel Paul just set the world record for the fastest ride-on toy car by going that fast on a modified toy. It looks terrifying! Paul spent 10 months researching and modifying the toy, using his background in electrical engineering. His goal was to eclipse 88 mph, the speed the DeLorean had to hit in Back to the Future in order to time travel. A man of great taste.

Great Scott, Marcel!

🏀 Nothing but net. Kids spend hours in driveways, on streets, or in parks preparing for this moment. They replay the scenario over and over again. And even in practice, with nobody watching and no stakes, they rarely pull it off.

A layup. A free throw. A three pointer. And a half-court shot. All made consecutively in under 30 seconds.

That’s what seventh-grader JJ Franks pulled off last week, winning $10,000 and the admiration of his peers, “the big kids,” and the community. The half-court heave is absolutely epic.

🟢 Going green in Vancouver. Sometimes, guys just gotta be dudes. And sometimes, that means putting on a green spandex suit that covers your entire body, including your face, and dancing your butt off to rub salt in the wounds of an opposing player in the penalty box at a hockey game.

The “Green Men” were a fixture at Vancouver Canucks games for years, wreaking havoc on opponents in the sin bin, making them regret all their life choices to date. But they retired, hanging up the green spandex, in 2015. This weekend though, they returned in all their glory to an adoring Canucks crowd.

It’s just one of those things that’s so, so dumb, you have to laugh. Even the Bruins player couldn’t hide the smirk from his face.

🎓 From cornhole to college. There are a lot of ways to get college scholarships, and now we can add another one to the list.

Be an absolute wagon at the sport of cornhole.

That’s right. For the first time in history, two “athletes” have earned partial scholarships for being really really really good at tossing bags at a board. Two students and friends from Highland Ranch, Colorado have signed their letters of intent to play cornhole at Winthrop University in South Carolina. Gavin Hamann and Jaxson Remmick will be the first ever scholarship players. The two-time American Cornhole League High School National Champs have made the emerging sport their own, and now the backyard game is moving out of the backyard and into the world of collegiate athletics.

Only in America, baby!