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COVID-19

Good news Thursday: Baseball tournament traditions continue, virtual camp allows global participation

From Iceland's capital, 11-year-old plays in Warriors camp

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In this photo taken on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, VeAnne Navarro has a virtual fist bump with students including Bjarki Robertsson, lower left on screen, of Reykjavik, Iceland at Golden State Warriors basketball camp in Oakland, Calif. The Warriors had to adapt their popular youth basketball camps and make them virtual given the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Bjarki Robertsson, an 11-year-old from Iceland, participated in a virtual basketball camp put on by the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, California. While the camps are normally held in-person, they were moved online due to the pandemic. The move gave basketball-lovers like Robertsson a chance to participate.

“It’s amazing what they can do with the technology,” Maria Robertsson, Bjarki's mom, told the Associated Press. “It’s an adventure and he really learned a lot.”

Young baseball players get memento filled with stadium dirt

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Akashi Commercial High School baseball players collect dirt of the grounds after being defeated by Riseisha High School during a semifinal game at the National High School Baseball Championship at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, western Japan, on Aug. 20, 2019. (Kyodo News via AP)

The pandemic canceled sports for people around the world. For high school baseball players in Japan, that included the much anticipated national high school baseball tournament in August. Even though the players won't be able to play, they won't miss out on one of the traditions of the tournament: taking home some dirt from the stadium.

Players from the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese professional baseball team, gathered dirt from their home stadium where the tournament finals would have been played and plan to send the high schoolers portions of the gathered dirt in a special key chain momento.

BYU student runs half-marathon through campus

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BYU sophomore Madison Flinders holds a medal her family gave her for running half marathon on the BYU campus after a race she signed up for was canceled. (Madison Flinders)

Madison Flinders was disappointed when the half-marathon she was signed up for was canceled, but instead of not running the 13.1 miles at all, she decided to run through the BYU campus instead.

'It was a really fun adventure. I love running, and I love the spirit of running on BYU campus, so I thought, why not combine the two of them?' Madison said.

Flinders said her family is supportive of her running, and this time they surprised her by meeting her at the end of her run with a medal.

Farmers turn donations into help for those struggling with food security

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Farmers Feeding Utah has helped connect Utah farmers with products they are unable to transport to families with not enough food. (Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash)

The pandemic has disrupted lives of Utahns across all sectors of the economy. Many families lost their jobs, which lead to food insecurity. Farmers, on the other hand, faced a different problem, according to the Deseret News. The pandemic left them with too much product that they couldn't transport to consumers, so Farmers Feeding Utah worked to connect those farmers with families in need.

The Deseret News reported that the organization has held four events to deliver food to families across Utah.