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Krista Bo Polanco

00:00:00

Hey there, welcome to CNN 5 Good Things! I'm Krista Bo Polanco, and let's jump right into the good stuff.

Coach Chris Polhemus

00:00:07

I wanted to continue the lesson with my students long after I'm gone.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:00:12

You'll never guess how far this teacher from Long Island went for his students with disabilities before he retires. You'll also hear why this oncologist is calling a new drug a game changer for one of the most difficult cancers to treat.

Dr. Rachna Shroff

00:00:26

It was a feeling of incredible hope that we are at the dawn of a new era.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:00:31

'Later on, the 30-year comeback story flowing right through a city in California.

Michael Thilgen

00:00:36

I'm proud that life is rebounding as a direct result of the work that we do.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:00:44

Plus, when you think of search and rescue animals, a dog typically comes to mind, right? Well, think again. All this goodness and more after a quick break, but when we come back, these cities are fired up for the finals.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:00:59

You know, I'm the kind of sports fan that can only tune in when it counts because I just can't handle the stress. And I gotta say, I have never been more excited about an NBA final than I am this time around. The New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs are facing off in a championship rematch series we saw 27 years ago, which also happens to be the last time the Knicks ever got this far. The Spurs are hoping history will repeat itself. To win it all would obviously mean a lot to the players, but you gotta meet the people who have spent over a decade, or longer in the Knicks' case, dreaming about this moment.

Anthony Donahue

00:01:34

My name is Anthony Donahue. I'm from the Bronx, New York, and I'm also known as Anthony MSG. I've been going to Knicks game since 1994. I was 10 years old when I went to my first game, and now I'm 42.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:01:46

'A regular at-home game since 2001, just like Spike Lee, the longtime season ticket holder's devotion to the team has made him something of a celebrity at Madison Square Garden. His love for his hometown team doesn't stop at the buzzer either. His apartment has what he calls a wall of fame of Knicks legends like Patrick Ewing, John Starks, and more.

Anthony Donahue

00:02:05

If you pinch me and blood comes out, I promise you it's going to be orange and blue, like the Knicks of my life.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:02:11

Anthony MSG said a Knicks win would be the cherry on top of an already amazing year.

Anthony Donahue

00:02:16

It would mean everything. I mean, if you're telling me I would have a daughter get engaged and the next one to championship all within like eight months, that don't even make sense, bro. You better, you better call Ben Stiller and write that movie.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:02:29

But Spurs fans are just as pumped for their team's chance for its first NBA title since 2014. And San Antonio's good luck charm comes from on high. That's the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco, also known as the Spurs Nuns, celebrating the team's Western Conference championship win last week. And they are some of the team most visible fans. Even giving some players like 7'4"superstar Victor Wembanyama a blessing on the court before games start. Their love for the team started about 20 years ago, when a group of retired sisters would watch games on TV and would then write letters to the then head coach Greg Popovich when they thought he lost his temper on the sidelines. He wrote back... And the relationship's been strong ever since.

Spurs Nuns

00:03:13

It's a huge blessing and a huge surprise just to receive the overwhelming generosity and support and we also love the team. It's all wonderful.

Dr. Rachna Shroff

00:03:24

I cried tears of joy. It was goosebumps. It was a feeling of incredible hope that we are at the dawn of a new era.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:03:32

A new experimental pill has doctors excited about the future of pancreatic cancer treatment after a major study found patients who took the daily pill lived nearly twice as long. That's a big deal because pancreatal cancer has long been one of the toughest cancers to treat because of how hard it is to catch it early. The drug is called Daraxonrasib. Gastrointestinal oncologist Dr. Rachna Shroff explains how it works.

Dr. Rachna Shroff

00:03:56

I've been calling it a game changer. So daraxonrasib is what we call a targeted therapy, so it's a little bit different than immunotherapy. It targets a really key signaling pathway in cancer cell growth and progression. So it's called the RAS signaling pathway. In fact, over 90% of patients with pancreatic cancer have what we call a KRAS mutation, which is a mutation in that pathway. And so daraxonrasib works by kind of cutting off that signal for cancer cell growth, and therefore you see tumors shrinking and or, you know, people responding and living longer.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:04:26

The phase three study involved 500 patients with stage four pancreatic cancer, whose disease had already been treated with chemotherapy. About half received another chemotherapy regimen and half got the daily pill. Patients taking the drug lived a median of 13.2 months compared to 6.7 months for those receiving chemotherapy. And after 16 years of treating pancreatic cancer patients, when Dr. Schroff heard those results, she got emotional.

Dr. Rachna Shroff

00:04:51

We have now proven that we can drug the undruggable, which is that RAS pathway, which has been the holy grail of cancer. And I think it's just the start of kind of what I'm calling the RAS revolution.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:05:05

It's not a cure, but it's a huge step forward, given patients who've taken the daily pill reported less pain and a better quality of life. Dr. Schroff said daraxonrasib is also being tested for colorectal patients and lung cancer patients.

Dr. Rachna Shroff

00:05:19

And so that's why this is such a big deal because hopefully this is not just going to help pancreas cancer patients, it's going to help a number of cancer patients across the spectrum.

Michael Thilgen

00:05:35

There are sections of the creek that used to be in concrete, and now the water is flowing. The birds are there, the fish are there. All manner of life is inhabiting that place. When we arrived, it was not.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:05:53

'That transformation didn't last long happen overnight. Michael Thilgen and a group of his neighbors in Oakland, California, decided they wanted to do more than just admire the nature around them. They co-founded Friends of Sausal Creek instead. It's a volunteer-led nonprofit dedicated to restoring the watershed and the habitat around it. It's celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Over the years, they've alongside the city on major conservation projects. That includes removing invasive plants, replanting native species and helping restore portions of the creek, allowing rainbow trout to swim through freely again.

Michael Thilgen

00:06:27

I'm proud that there are areas of the creek that look just like nature had it and that life is rebounding as a direct result of the work that we do.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:06:42

Today, friends of Sausal Creek manage roughly 20 restoration sites throughout the watershed, and hundreds of volunteers still pitch in every year. For Michael, one of the group's proudest accomplishments isn't just what they've grown in and along the creek, but the bonds they've been able to form.

Michael Thilgen

00:06:58

It's an opportunity to build community, to meet neighbors, and it's a joyous experience. When we started, there was a phrase that had some popularity called: think globally, act locally. And we are focusing on local activity, hoping that the same kind of activity is happening in other communities all around the world.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:07:30

Most retirement parties last a few hours. Chris Polhemus, or Coach Chris, as he's affectionately called, celebrated his by walking 88 miles across Long Island, New York, over four days.

Coach Chris Polhemus

00:07:45

I wanted to continue the lesson with my students long after I'm gone.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:07:51

After 40 years of working with kids with developmental disabilities, he's retiring from United Cerebral Palsy of Long Island's Children's Center, where he spent 13 years as a physical education teacher.

Coach Chris Polhemus

00:08:02

My goal is a lot more than getting them up and moving. I want to make it a positive environment, a successful environment for them. I utilize music. I play the ukulele, I play guitar.

Coach Chris singing

00:08:13

Hello, Andrew, it's great to see you. Yeah! Nice job, bud!

Coach Chris Polhemus

00:08:19

It's an easy way to communicate with my students. I see it through their smiles on a daily basis. It's just so much fun to work with these students. It's more than students, it's a family for me.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:08:30

So Coach Chris decided his final lesson would be about determination.

Coach Chris Polhemus

00:08:35

The students I see on a daily basis, they are so determined and so hardworking. They show me that every day and I need to show them that I have that same determination that I am on board with them.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:08:48

So last Friday, he set out from Comack, New York and walked all the way to the Montauk Point Lighthouse over four days, clocking more than 220,000 steps. It's a journey he's trained for since last winter by walking around campus for an hour and a half before school started. Along the way, he was able to raise close to $13,000 for a new independent living program at the school. The space will help students practice everyday skills like cooking meals, doing laundry, and making beds so they can live as independently as possible as adults.

Coach Chris Polhemus

00:09:20

'There were posters, there were people jumping around, high-fiving, just amazing, amazing journey I've been on, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:09:31

Coming up, meet the search and rescue specialist with whiskers, webbed feet, and a growing fan base.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:09:39

Most search and rescue teams rely on dogs for their extraordinary sense of smell. This one has an otter.

Splash field recording

00:09:46

Good boy!

Krista Bo Polanco

00:09:47

And his name is Splash.

Michael Hadsell

00:09:52

God has put him together to do this job, so he's perfect for what we're doing right now.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:09:58

'That's Michael Hadsell, Splash's owner and the president of Peach River K9 Search and Rescue Association Dive Team in Sarasota, Florida, who spoke to CNN affiliate, WWSB. He's trained at the two-year-old small-clawed Asian river Otter to find human remains in low-visibility areas and places dogs can't go.

Michael Hadsell

00:10:16

He has to use these whiskers, and they're kind of like a magnetic field. They use this bubble technique where they push the bubbles out onto what it is they're looking for, they suck it back in and they taste it. And that taste response apparently goes to the brain and it tells them it's a match to what he's looking for.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:10:33

Since then, Splash has made headlines by helping law enforcement efforts around the country. Michael has worked with search and rescue animals for decades, but he started training otters to find people in 2020.

Michael Hadsell

00:10:46

I had lived overseas for a little while and I had seen otters used for fishing and for hunting and stuff and I thought, I wonder, and I wrote an article that said that they could work odor problems underwater and I though, okay, maybe we can make this work.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:11:01

Michael says he got Splash from the World Wildlife Zoo in Phoenix in 2024. And so far he's been deployed about 30 times and has helped find nine cadavers. And typically he does it all with a dog named Nova.

Michael Hadsell

00:11:13

They're buddies, they hang out together all the time, they swim together.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:11:17

When Splash isn't on the clock, Michael says he loves to play in pools, eat salmon, and sometimes even nap under the couch.

Krista Bo Polanco

00:11:28

All right, that's all for now. Thank you so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the show. And be sure to join us tomorrow for the next edition of CNN One Thing. 60 Minutes had a dramatic shakeup this week and CNN's Brian Stelter explains why despite controversy, the perception of CBS under its leadership is different from its current reality. Take care, until next time.

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