There’s no denying that we all need a little bit of help at times. Sometimes you get stuck in a financial rut, and a good friend lends you a bit of cash to get you through until payday. Or maybe you noticed a car broken down on the side of the road, so you pull over to offer your help. Regardless of the reason or the cause, people are committing random acts of kindness on an everyday basis, and in a time when you see negativity on every media outlet, it’s important to remember the good that’s out there.Kayla Cooper is a struggling nursing student working two jobs, and she needed to buy a car. Unfortunately, when she went to finance a car at Auto City in El Cajon, she was told that she didn’t qualify. Defeated, Kayla left the dealership. Dan Laguardia was at the dealership at the same time trading in his Scion for a new BMW when he heard the exchange between Kayla and the salesman. When Dan found out that they weren’t able to help Kayla, he turned to the salesman and said: “Call your customer back I’m giving her my trade in.” A few minutes later, Kayla returned and Dan handed her the title and the keys to the Scion. Overwhelmed by Dan’s generosity, she sat in her new car and began to cry. All it took to turn Kayla’s life around was one person recognizing that she needed something more than him. “The car had more value to her than it did for me trading it in,” said Laguardia. “That gives her a bit of a jumpstart in life. If everybody did that for everybody else, we’d be in a much better place.”
A Dutch charity, known as the Ambulance Wish Foundation, is making a difference to the lives of disabled senior citizens. A team of 270 medically-trained volunteers is using their medical transportation to help hospice patients and immobile seniors check a few things off of their bucket list. The organization facilitates trips for dying seniors, going to places like the zoo, to bring a little bit of life and happiness back into their lives. As of now, the team has helped more than 7,000 patients fulfill their bucket list wishes.
Police officers Ken Cody and Guang Song were on duty when they were called to a local supermarket in Cape Coral, Florida. An elderly man in his 80s had come out of the grocery store to find out that someone had stolen his only mode of transportation, his bicycle. After taking the report, the police officers went to the local Walmart and bought the old man a brand new bike. Because of their random acts of kindness, this elderly fella won’t have to scrape up the money to buy a new bike.
A woman was told that all her tires needed to be replaced immediately. Unfortunately, it would cost her $1,400, which she couldn’t afford. As she began to cry, a man who was listening to the interaction stood up and offered to pay the bill. He only asked that she pay it forward.
70-year-old Pat Smith is planning on spending the rest of her life helping to clean our beautiful planet. After making a New Year’s Resolution, Pat has spent the past year cleaning up 52 beaches in Britain. Armed with rubber gloves, a litter picker, and trash bags, Pat cleaned one of Devon and Cornwall’s beaches every week in 2018. “I’m driven to try and protect our living planet for my children and grandchildren and I will continue to do everything in my power to achieve that,” said Pat. “I won’t stop as our beaches need me.” All it takes is one person to care just a little bit to make a major impact.
19-year-old John Lopez Jr. is a happy, upbeat, courteous cashier at a Walmart in Princeton, Texas. A week before Christmas, a woman went through John’s line that didn’t have enough money for her purchase. While Laci Simms was watching, John offered to pay for the woman’s bill, which came up to $110! Laci Simms posted the interaction that she had witnessed on Facebook. People that have interacted with John before commented and shared the status. Brandon Weddle, who also knows John, decided to set up a GoFundMe to try and repay John for all of his kind efforts and help him with his college fund. As of February 27th, generous contributors donated a little over $37,000 to John!
Emoni Hardy was already having a rough day when she received a phone call explaining that her son had been shot and was in the hospital. Despite being shot, her son was okay and he was released from the hospital. On the way home, Emoni stopped at an ATM to get out $60 for the prescriptions her son needed. Somehow she ended up losing the money. The pharmacist, who overheard the woman crying, offered to pay for the medication. “She said, ‘It doesn’t matter. Go take care of your son.’ You know she was like, ‘We have kids. I have a son and I understand. I feel your pain,'” explained Emoni.
Roberto Mendoza is a world-renowned chef, who has prepared meals for presidents such as Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and George Bush. Roberto grew up in extremely poor conditions, so when he won $250,000 from a lottery he immediately knew what he was going to do with the money. “I know what it’s like to be hungry. I told myself when I was a teen that, if I’m ever in a position to give back, I’d do everything I can to make sure no one else has to go hungry,” explained Roberto. And that’s exactly what he did. Not only does Roberto cook for the homeless in Charlotte, North Carolina, every Saturday, but he’s also planning to build a cafeteria in a small village in the Dominican Republic. Roberto has been visiting the village frequently for a few years. “This last December, I bring toys, clothes, shoes and cook for the little ones. This is a very poor village where sometimes they eat and sometimes they don’t,” he said about the village. Roberto was given the gift of being an incredible chef, and he uses that gift to feed those who can’t afford food. Such a beautiful thing to do!
When the government shutdown put many federal employees out of work, the Sikh Center of San Antonio immediately jumped to action making fresh food for the community. “We don’t worry about one community. We all belong to one race, which is the human race. We think we are all brothers and sisters and we need to support each other no matter who we are. We may have different color, different class or religion, or social and economic status, but at the end of the day, we are all brothers and sisters,” said the President of the Sikh Center of San Antonio, Balwinder Dhillon. You see, the color of someone’s skin, or the god they choose to pray to, doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. We are all human and we all deserve to be treated with kindness and respect.
Gerron Board and his girlfriend started a food truck business called Soulful Choices. Whenever they have leftover food or extra money at the end of the day, they feed the homeless and hungry people in the area. “I just want to make sure that while I’m in a position to help, even if it’s just food, if I have enough money to take out and help people who are in need, it makes me feel great,” Gerron said. Because he’s so generous and compassionate, Gerron has earned the nickname “The Soulman.”
When social worker Alan Naiman died at the age of 63, people were shocked by what he left behind. Alan had worked for the Department of Social and Health Services making $67,234 a year. He also took on side jobs that caused him to work three jobs at once sometimes. Naiman saved and invested very well throughout his career because when he passed away he left $11 million to different children’s charities in the area. Even his closest friends and family didn’t realize what was going on. He was known for his frugality—he used duct tape to patch up his shoes, bought his t-shirts from the grocery store, and squirreled away every penny he made. He secretly saved $11 million to donate to children’s charities.
When a fire started in an apartment complex in Dallas, Texas, Byron Campbell and his friends didn’t think twice about helping. As the fire blazed in the distance, they drove straight towards it to try to get there in time. Immediately, the men ran into an apartment on the first floor to grab a mattress. When they went back outside, they told the residents on the third floor to jump down, as they held the mattress in the air. Not only did they save the lives of several people, but they also saved the life of a 1-year-old baby. “I have my child because of him. She gets to live another day because of him,” said Shuntara, the baby’s mother. Sargent Mike Mata with Dallas Police said there’s no doubt people would have died if the young men didn’t help.
On every order, Taco Bell employee Kelly Stewart writes a positive message for the customer. “I got this message that said ‘when you reach the end of your rope tie a knot around it and hang on’- Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Heather O’Donnell said. “It made me stop in my tracks and smile. Knowing someone took time out of their work or life to write this is another example that there are still good people out there.”. When Kelly was asked why she does it, she just answered that she just likes to make people feel good. The world could use more people like you, Kelly! Keep up the amazing work!
With his two boys by his side, Shane McDaniel cut enough wood to fit into 80 trucks over the summer, but they had no intention of ever selling it. “My boys and I have cut and split nearly 40 cords of firewood this summer. It is seasoned and ready to warm homes where it is truly needed. It is more firewood than most people have ever seen, as I’m sure anyone who has driven past my house has noticed.” He continued by saying “Norms crew is standing by ready to help stack and deliver. Please remember it’s not for sale at any price. We get lots of offers. Too much blood and sweat to do that.” That wood was worth quite a lot of money, but they chose to give it away instead. Take what you need and give away the rest. Sounds like a good motto for the rest of the world to follow.
Amanda Fessler was on her way home from the hospital when disaster struck. Amanda’s daughter was recovering from brain surgery and Amanda was ready to get the 2-hour drive home done and over with. Unfortunately, her car started smoking along the way. Fortunately, she was able to call a tow truck to get off the highway and to a hotel for the night with her daughter. The car still wouldn’t start the next morning and Amanda desperately needed to get her daughter home. It was then that things started to look up for Amanda. She wrote on Facebook, “This man ( Donta ) recognized our distress in the morning while trying to replace the car’s serpentine belt. He not only offered his tools, he came in and saved the day. Not many people would have been so generous and rushed to the aid to help others. His assistance came at a real time of need. Our check out time was growing near and my daughter desperately needed to get home to recover from her brain surgery. I could not thank him enough for all that he did. Please help me show him some love by sharing this post in hopes that it finds him. He was definitely our angel that day..” When he was asked why he stopped to help he said “I do it all the time. I try to help.” We could all take a page of Donta’s book and “try to help” all of the time.
When a passerby was walking through the streets of Bensheim, Germany, they noticed that there was something amiss with the manhole cover. A plump little rat that got herself stuck inside one of the holes on the cover. Animal rescuer Michael Sehr was called to the scene, but he quickly realized that there was no way to lift the cover so he could push the rat out from the other side. Eventually, a team volunteer firefighters were dispatched to help out the chubby rodent. They had to reposition the manhole cover several times, but Michael was finally able to push the rat out of the small hole. And don’t you think that Michael went home without a reward! The little girl who found the rat initially drew Michael a picture of the rat surrounded by a bunch of hearts! This just goes to show that even the littlest of lives are worth saving!
Amanda Rico was turning 30 so she wanted to throw a huge party to celebrate. But that all changed one night when she was reading a book to her children. The book “Light Up the Darkness” had a passage in it that resonated deeply within Amanda. The passage read: “I was just a boy one winter’s night beneath my favorite tree. It was the night of my 12th birthday all alone as I can be. No cards, no cake, no candles, no presents wrapped for me, because no one threw a party for a little boy who couldn’t see.” This caused Amanda to completely change the way she was looking at things. Instead of having the extravagant party she was planning, Amanda decided to throw a party for the 30 abused and neglected children that lived at St. PJ’s Children’s Home. She surprised 30 children with a night to remember!
Kevin Booth was waiting for the Sumner Food Bank in Sumner, Washington to open when he noticed a brown bag on the ground on the side of the building. The homeless man picked it up, but once he saw what was inside, he immediately started to panic. When the food bank opened its doors, Kevin walked in and handed the bag over to a volunteer. When they opened it up, they realized that the bag had $17,000 inside of it! They didn’t know what else to do, so they called the police. When the police arrived, they tried to see if they could figure out who put the money there by watching the security cameras. They couldn’t figure out who did it, so the police followed the law and kept the money for 90 days to see if someone came forward to claim it. No one ended up claiming the money, so they gave it back to the food bank. To thank Kevin for his unshakable honesty, the food bank gave him a portion of the money in gift cards as a reward. A GoFundMe campaign was also started in Kevin’s name and it’s received almost $15,000 in donations.
