Teachers' Happy Surprise: 5 Most Uplifting Stories

A celebrity good deed and a quick-thinking mom were at the heart of some of the week's most uplifting stories:

• Stephen Colbert Becomes Teachers' Favorite: Stephen Colbert describes himself as a product of South Carolina public schools, and this week he showed his gratitude. He announced funding for every single request from his home state's teachers on a crowdfunding site. He got some corporate help, but the tab was still about $800,000.
• Teen Takes Great-Grandmother to Prom: It's a little unusual for a junior to take a senior to the junior prom, but in this case, it was kind of sweet. Indiana teenager Drew Holm took his 93-year-old great-grandmother, Kathryn Keith, to the dance, and both had a great time. Even if one of them had an early bedtime.

• Utah on Verge of Wiping Chronic Homelessness: Utah makes it sound so easy: Solve the state's chronic homeless problem by putting them in homes. It may sound farfetched, but Utah's Housing First initiative has since 2005 cut the number of chronically homeless from 1,932 individuals to a mere 178. And it's indirectly helping the temporarily homeless, too.
• Woman Saves Self, Kids With Pizza App: A Florida woman helped save herself and her three children from a hostage situation with help from a pizza app. Police say her boyfriend was holding them captive but allowed her to order pizza online. Never has the "comments" section been put to such good use.
• Liberia Now Ebola-Free: The World Health Organization announced a welcome milestone in Liberia this week: With no new cases in 42 days—twice the incubation period—the nation has been declared free of Ebola. Last fall, Liberia saw 400 new cases every week. It's great news, though the epidemic has raised other health challenges.

Click for more uplifting news. (More uplifting news stories.)