Kelly O'Keefe is usually volunteering to help others. Now she's accepting help from strangers after her home was destroyed by floods. "It's really difficult to be the one with my hand out," she says. John Burnett/NPR hide caption

Crews perform dredging work along the upper Hudson River in Waterford, N.Y. General Electric's cleanup of PCBs discharged into the river decades ago will end this year. Mike Groll/AP hide caption

Rodney Carey (left) with students at the Youth Empowerment Project in New Orleans. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

Ruby Corado, second from right, and Selena Cruz whip their hair around playfully while joking with Lazema Mills, left, and Giselle Gartzog, right, at Casa Ruby, a drop-in and service center for transgender people in Washington, D.C. Through the center, Corado helps people find housing, medical care and get food. Lexey Swall/GRAIN for NPR hide caption

Antonio Sanchez is well known to jazz fans, but the drummer and bandleader got a boost when director Alejandro González Iñárritu chose him to compose a percussion-only score for the film Birdman. Courtesy of the artist hide caption