Election Day has arrived.The Commercial Appeal will have plenty of coverage of everything from the presidential race to school board contests in the suburbs.But if you’re looking for a lighter read while waiting for those results to come in (later tonight or even days from now), we have that too. Below you’ll find a mix of good news stories from the Memphis area, highlighting some of the inspiring pieces The Commercial Appeal team has written recently.Collierville first-grader gets royal treatment as ‘Wish’ grantedA 6-year-old girl who has been battling cancer saw her wish come true Nov. 1 at Collierville High School.Emma Mosteller, a first-grade student at Collierville Elementary School, jumped for joy and radiated excitement when she found out that she and her family would be taking a weeklong vacation to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida thanks to Make-A-Wish Mid-South and Collierville High.Emma went on a princess-themed adventure organized by the school’s Student Government Association before finding out that her Disney “Wish” had been granted.Corey Davis has more on Emma’s big day at Collierville High in this story.’Kid from Raleigh’ becomes star on Memphis food sceneYears before realizing he had a talent for food, Phillip Dewayne was studying architecture in college. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t a good fit.So, he dropped in hopes of finding a better path for himself. He landed a dishwashing gig at The Peabody and worked his way up to line cook.More than a decade later, Dewayne recently opened his second restaurant, The Archives Bar & Bistro in Hotel Napoleon in Downtown Memphis.“My love for Memphis comes from being a Black kid who can show other young Black entrepreneurs that it’s possible,” he said. “[The Archives] is my second restaurant venture with no investors and no partners. There’s no one else involved and, theoretically, I’m an accidental entrepreneur.”You can read Ellen Chamberlain’s full story here.Memphis rapper Kia Shine helps raise autism awarenessBack in 2007, Memphis rapper, songwriter and producer Kia Shine captured the Bluff City’s hip-hop zeitgeist with his signature hit “Krispy,” off his Top 20 Billboard debut LP, “Due Season.” In the years since, Shine has worked behind the scenes, with his productions used by top artists from Drake to GloRilla, and branched out into acting on the big and small screen.But the 49-year-old, born Nakia Coleman, has spent much of the past few years focused on philanthropic work. Two years ago, Shine and his wife, Alecia Coleman, started the Memphis-based nonprofit Autism Advocates. Their effort was the result of personal experience with their son Jameson, who was diagnosed with a severe form of autism more than a decade ago.Bob Mehr has more about Shine’s nonprofit and his latest entertainment projects in this story.Collierville ‘Top Gun’ flyer joins military calendarJenn Bennie of Collierville, an Iraq War veteran and Navy pilot trained in the “Top Gun” manner, is the October model in the 2025 edition of “Pin-Ups for Vets,” a calendar that recruits military veterans to recreate the glamorous “nose art” and poster poses of World War II to raise funds for veterans’ health care.“I do believe in what the pin-up represented for history, and what they did for morale,” said Bennie, a self-described yesteryear and “classic movie” buff who leads video tours of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Arlington National Cemetery and other locales on her “Walk with History” YouTube channel. “They gave the planes legends, like ‘The Memphis Belle,’ and personality. These women were doing their part.”You can read more about Bennie and her journey from Navy pilot to pin-up in this story from John Beifuss.Memphis filmmaker makes splash with ‘Slice’ documentary”My mission is to honor, amplify and immortalize the stories and voices of the Black South,” said Memphis artist Zaire Love at the 2023 Indie Memphis Film Festival awards ceremony, where she won back-to-back prizes for a pair of short films.Now, the world has a chance to experience those amplified stories and hear those amplified voices, loud and clear.Love’s 16-plus-minute film “Slice” — which won the Hometowner Documentary Short award in 2023 and went on to collect more prizes while playing an additional 20-plus festivals — recently became available online via The New Yorker, as part of the prestigious magazine’s ongoing film series.”Slice” introduces viewers to a distinctively Memphisesque swimming pool diving style known as “slicing,” which Love says combines “athleticism, creativity, and joy” while putting the lie to the notion that “Black folks and water don’t mix.”John Beifuss has more on Love and “Slice” in this story.Burke’s Book Store’s co-owner Corey Mesler marks ‘landmark year’For decades, Corey Mesler has been in the book-selling business, most famously and significantly as the co-owner of Burke’s Book Store at 936 S. Cooper.For just as long, he has been a published author, first as a poet and then as a writer of short stories and novels. More than 40 novels, collections and “chap books” (booklet-style poetry anthologies) carry his name.Even in the context of such fecundity, 2024 stands out. “I think this is a landmark year for me,” Mesler said. “It’s my 50th year in bookselling, and my ‘Selected Stories’ came out.”By “selected stories,” Mesler means “The World is Neither Stacked For You nor Against You: Selected Stories” (Livingston Press), the author’s first career anthology — a collection of 28 short stories from the past 15 years.John Beifuss has more about Mesler’s “landmark year” in this story.Bartlett man among FedEx’s top volunteers — in the worldBartlett resident Daniel Russell likes to get out in the community and lend a hand, from volunteering through the FedEx Cares program to serving as a Scoutmaster with Boy Scouts.”I get satisfaction from doing that and trying to make a difference,” he said.His volunteer efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.Russell recently received a FedEx Founders Award, which recognized him as being a top volunteer globally among all FedEx employees during the 2024 fiscal year. His 1,200 hours were the second-most hours logged.Find out more about Russell and his volunteer efforts in this story from Corey Davis.



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