It’s no secret that 2020 has been a difficult year for so many.
And going into 2021, the world remains an uncertain place but hope for a brighter future is still high.
Global News is taking a look back at some of B.C.’s good news stories of 2020 — those that touched our hearts and restored our faith in humanity.
February
On Feb. 8, Houston the golden lab was out for a walk with his owners when he slipped and fell into the river in West Vancouver’s Cypress Falls.
He washed downstream and over a couple of waterfalls before managing to swim to the bank and climb onto an angled ledge.
Houston’s owners thought he was gone, but firefighters rushed to the scene and sent a trained member down to rescue the dog.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, a movement to thank frontline health workers gained steam all around the world.
People began taking to their balconies, yards and sidewalks to applaud, cheer and bang pots and pans at 7 p.m. every evening. The event still continues in some communities.
Global News also launched its #BCHealthCareHeroes segment, saluting a health-care worker every night on the 6 p.m. news.
June
A number of stories this year involved our favourite four-legged friends.
On June 24, little Thorne was found swimming off the Sunshine Coast after she fell overboard. She had been in the water for an hour when someone spotted her.
The same day, firefighters in West Kelowna were congratulated for rescuing a kitten from a storm sewer.
July
Then on July 1, emergency crews came to the rescue of a dog trapped in a South Okanagan canyon. The German shepherd was stranded on a rocky ledge in Trout Creek Canyon.
About a week later, Global News brought you the story of Jasper, the 63-kg (138-pound) Great Pyrenees who spent three days in the wild and apparently managed to swim across North America’s most powerful river flowing to the west coast three times.
The owners, who live in Castlegar, said Jasper had been able to push his way out of their yard because of an unsecured latch and decided to take a dip in Columbia River, not realizing it was rushing with a late spring freshet.
Jasper was reunited with his family, tired but otherwise OK.
In mid-July, Bert ter Hart of Gabriola Island became one of only about 300 people to have successfully sailed solo around the world. Just six people — ter Hart the only North American — have done it navigating by pen, paper, charts and a sextant.
He made landfall in Victoria after 266 days alone at sea.
In late July, a story went viral about a stolen teddy bear.
It wasn’t just any teddy bear — it contained a voice recording of a Vancouver woman’s late mother.
Mara Soriano pleaded with the public to help her find it, with locally born movie star Ryan Reynolds even offering to help.
Four days after the story hit the news, Soriano was reunited with the bear.
September
Bike thefts are a common occurrence in Vancouver, but in mid-September, it took less than two hours for a North Vancouver couple to get their stolen bike back, thanks to their own detective work and quick action from RCMP.
Matt McMaster and his wife, Vanessa, posted a photo of the bike online, and a woman soon replied saying she’d seen someone riding it along the Welch Street greenway towards the Lions Gate Bridge.
McMaster was on the lookout as he cycled home from downtown Vancouver, and as he was waiting to make a left turn, a stranger crossed the street right in front of him with his bike.
He said he called police and got the bike back that same day.
October
A seven-year-old Squamish girl was honoured in October for her efforts to save her mother following a serious car crash.
The month prior, the car carrying Adelaide Paris and her mom, Brynn, went off Highway 99 and down a nine-metre (30-foot) embankment.
With her mom injured and strapped in the front seat, Adelaide was able to scramble free, climb up the steep slope and wave down help.
Police said the girl was a hero because no one had seen the crash happen and who knows how long it might have taken for them to be found.
In late October, a B.C. family who raised millions of dollars to fund the most expensive drug in the world decided to pay the kindness shown them, forward.
Harpreet and Gaganpreet Deol’s one-year-old son, Aryan, has spinal muscular atrophy type-1, a condition that causes muscular weakness and atrophy.
He is young enough to be eligible for a gene therapy that can radically improve his condition.
The Deols were able to raise the money needed for the drug Zolgensma, and when they exceeded their goal, they decided to share with other families affected by the condition.
Cherie Ehlert’s 11-year-old daughter is not eligible for Zolgensma, but her family still needs assistance and money for therapy, and one morning, they woke up to a $10,000 donation.
November
A Nanaimo couple has lots to be thankful for this holiday season after their truck broke down in November and they were reported missing.
Cody Martin, 32, and Tamara Sandulak, 29, had told family and friends they were going fishing with their dog at Nanaimo Lakes.
The couple had stayed with the vehicle the whole time and were found a few days later, tired, cold and hungry but very grateful.
In November, a group of paramedics on Vancouver Island went above and beyond to help a local senior play his best.
Wally Firth, 85, had suffered a fall at his retirement home when he dropped his violin bow, and when the paramedics asked him to play for them he kept apologizing because his bow wasn’t in very good condition.
One of the paramedics posted on Facebook asking if anyone could help Firth with a new bow and David Symons, an educational sales representative with the music supplier Long & McQuade, came through.
The group presented Firth with his new bow and got to hear him play.
“Amazing, truly amazing. I keep using that word, but it’s all I can think of,” he told Global News.
In another bike-theft good news story, an Ontario man got his bike back more than a decade after it had been stolen in Vancouver.
Back in 2009, Kenneth Feeney was in town working in construction ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
When his bike got stolen while he’d been briefly in hospital, he thought it was lost forever.
Years later, Const. Kevin Regie, who is part of a neighbourhood response team patrolling Granville Street, happened to find the bike in someone’s cart.
Officers decided to cover repair costs and shipped the bike back to Feeney in Ontario.
December
Earlier this month, the public came to help a 77-year-old man in Kelowna after Global News told the story of how he’d been living in his pickup truck for nearly two years,
Lance, who did not want his last name used, is on a fixed income, and after paying for groceries, insurance and a car payment, has little left for anything else.
After Global’s report, messages of help started flooding in from across Canada to help Lance with housing, groceries and monetary donations.
“I feel a lot of warmth and the concern for me … it’s quite humbling, really,” he said.
Also in the Southern Interior, the Grinch was hard at work in Sicamous and Salmon Arm when residents noticed their Christmas decorations were gone.
Police said a tipster contacted them after scrolling through social media and noticing that several residents were saying their lawn decorations had been stolen.
The tipster told RCMP the items were now on display in a yard in southeast Salmon Arm.
Mounties went to the home, seized the items and returned them to their rightful owners.
Just one day later, an Okanagan man witnessed a remarkable rescue when a man on a paddleboard saved a young deer from potentially drowning.
A man had used his board to paddle out to a deer that was in visible distress and had likely been in the lake for some time.
He put it in an innertube and towed it back to shore.
The witness wasn’t able to talk to the man because he was too far away, but he took a photo of the rescue and sent it to Global News.
B.C.’s top doctor went viral a few weeks ago after she was caught on camera doing a happy dance.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry caused a stir on social media for a candid moment caught on camera ahead of a news conference on the province’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
When told there would be a two-minute wait before the briefing started, Henry performed a tap-inspired dance move to the jazzy “on hold” music playing in the legislature’s press theatre in Victoria.
A Christmas card campaign touched the hearts of many earlier this month when a long-term care worker asked the public to send cards to the residents of Memory Living at Chartwell in Langley.
They will not be able to spend the holidays with their families because of the pandemic, and visitations restrictions have been in place for months.
So one employee of the care home took to Facebook, hoping to spread cheer any way she could.
“I encourage you to reach out and send cards to your local retirement homes as well so we can collectively help brighten the 2020 holiday season for those who need it most,” Danielle Axton told Global News.
Her Facebook post has been shared more than 1,400 times.