All month, I have been focusing on individual feats of kindness by one person in each post. Today, as the A to Z Challenge comes to an end, I find I want to share more. I want to show you so many ways that kindness exists in this world. And the best part - It costs you nothing to be kind. Nothing.
It costs you ZERO to be kind. But it is worth a million to the recipient of your kind deeds.
When bride-to-be Elise Boissonneault lost all her possessions to a raging wildfire including her wedding dress, a heartbroken plea asking if she could borrow anyone's gown as a replacement had hundreds of strangers send words of encouragement and offers.
Everyone from designers, photographers and wedding planners got into the act online until finally these random people managed to gift Elise not one but two dresses - one for the ceremony and one for the reception.
When autistic child Chase Coleman - a regular at the cross-country team for years - was pushed to the ground during a marathon race by a stranger, the young child was so distraught he decided to give up running. Chase's mother's social media post of the incident received over a thousand encouraging messages from across the world asking Chase to reconsider. To show the boy they really cared for him, over 600 people took part in a fun run organized exclusively for Chase while thousands of others showed up, just to support him, all wearing 'Run with Chase' t-shirts.
When a man climbed off the bridge railing near Golders Green, North London, members of the public rushed and held on to the suicidal man through the railings. They held on for an entire two hours until a fire engine arrived to save the man.
Knowing that 83 year old Lalita Subramanyam would be alone on her birthday as she was on their 'senior citizens requiring care and protection' list, the Mumbai police squad in Wadala surprised her with a birthday cake and party.
Broken after her 15 year old Nathan committed suicide, Angela McElhiney went on Reddit asking for help to clean up a video clip. It was one that meant a lot to her - that of her son singing 'Wayfaring Strangers' - a song about the singer going to heaven. Reddit users (including a musician who worked till 2 am), all strangers to Mrs McElhiney worked around the clock editing out all the unwanted background noise to give Angela a cleaner version of her son's voice forever.
When nursing student Jerich Marco Alcantara could not make it to his graduation because the subway car he was in came to a halt for hours, the commuters inside the subway held a makeshift graduation ceremony for him, presenting him with an instant e-diploma as the crowd cheered him on to raise his spirits.
When Jerry Wayne Pino, a Vietnam veteran, passed away, he had no family to attend his funeral. Friends of the funeral home workers' college-going son stepped up to serve as his family at the funeral. The American flag folded over his casket was given to the teens who hung it in their high school locker room in honour of Jerry.
The staff at Chick-fil-A food outlet secretly learned how to sing 'Happy Birthday' in sign language for their hearing impaired employee, James.
Brock Hardwick was 7 years old when he was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the spine and brain, glioblastoma. Hospitalized for months and facing a grim prognosis with cycles of radio and chemotherapy, his mother Brittney planned a special celebration month - Brocktoberfest - to cheer him up, expecting a few relatives to send him gifts.
When word got out, thousands of mail and gifts arrived for the child from all over the world. The Make-A-Wish foundation stepped in after a spinal surgery that month and took him to Disneyland as he had hoped.
Brock Hardwick died a month later.
7 year old Anu had her leg amputated soon after birth. The video below is of the elementary school girl from Birmingham going back to school after having a new pink prosthetic that would allow her to run and dance like her friends. Watch the children's reaction for their friend.
This is my last post for the A to Z Challenge. I hope you all enjoyed this series of Heroes of Kindness. I loved reading your feedback.
Have a wonderful day, wherever you are.
It costs you ZERO to be kind. But it is worth a million to the recipient of your kind deeds.
1
When bride-to-be Elise Boissonneault lost all her possessions to a raging wildfire including her wedding dress, a heartbroken plea asking if she could borrow anyone's gown as a replacement had hundreds of strangers send words of encouragement and offers.
Everyone from designers, photographers and wedding planners got into the act online until finally these random people managed to gift Elise not one but two dresses - one for the ceremony and one for the reception.
2
When autistic child Chase Coleman - a regular at the cross-country team for years - was pushed to the ground during a marathon race by a stranger, the young child was so distraught he decided to give up running. Chase's mother's social media post of the incident received over a thousand encouraging messages from across the world asking Chase to reconsider. To show the boy they really cared for him, over 600 people took part in a fun run organized exclusively for Chase while thousands of others showed up, just to support him, all wearing 'Run with Chase' t-shirts.
3
4
Knowing that 83 year old Lalita Subramanyam would be alone on her birthday as she was on their 'senior citizens requiring care and protection' list, the Mumbai police squad in Wadala surprised her with a birthday cake and party.
5
Broken after her 15 year old Nathan committed suicide, Angela McElhiney went on Reddit asking for help to clean up a video clip. It was one that meant a lot to her - that of her son singing 'Wayfaring Strangers' - a song about the singer going to heaven. Reddit users (including a musician who worked till 2 am), all strangers to Mrs McElhiney worked around the clock editing out all the unwanted background noise to give Angela a cleaner version of her son's voice forever.
6
When nursing student Jerich Marco Alcantara could not make it to his graduation because the subway car he was in came to a halt for hours, the commuters inside the subway held a makeshift graduation ceremony for him, presenting him with an instant e-diploma as the crowd cheered him on to raise his spirits.
7
8
The staff at Chick-fil-A food outlet secretly learned how to sing 'Happy Birthday' in sign language for their hearing impaired employee, James.
9
When word got out, thousands of mail and gifts arrived for the child from all over the world. The Make-A-Wish foundation stepped in after a spinal surgery that month and took him to Disneyland as he had hoped.
Brock Hardwick died a month later.
10
7 year old Anu had her leg amputated soon after birth. The video below is of the elementary school girl from Birmingham going back to school after having a new pink prosthetic that would allow her to run and dance like her friends. Watch the children's reaction for their friend.
This is my last post for the A to Z Challenge. I hope you all enjoyed this series of Heroes of Kindness. I loved reading your feedback.
Have a wonderful day, wherever you are.
Author's note:
This is part of my #AtoZChallenge where I will be focusing on Real Life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion.
Of course, I have been tracking these lovely human beings for years now and have found children as young as six years old and old women in their eighties from across the world who will restore your faith in humanity. You can find the entire list of Real-life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion here.
It brought smiles watching video of the girl with pink leg or the bride who was offered wedding dress . Really kindness is what the universe balances on and it costs zero.Would go through your full series once my a2Z is completed
ReplyDeleteWow doc- I have a huge lump in my throat at reading these stories; the world is so so beautfiul and abundant! Thank you for sharing this thought with me. Cheers
ReplyDeleteZ is for The Book Thief #atozchallenge
This post sums it all up doesnt i, An apt way indeed to end the challenge. It surely costs nothing to be kind :)
ReplyDeleteThis was a beautiful post! So many acts of kindness and yes as you said it costs nothing to be kind! May your posts inspire to be more kind. Congratulations on completing the challenge. I can only imagine the amount of research you must have done to collect these stories.
ReplyDeleteOh man, why do you do this? I'm not much of a crier, but that sign language video had me bawling out loud. And hat's off to the Mumbai police for doing that, they might implement this in Singham 3 now :D
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting these stories. I myself have been at the receiving end of kindness from complete strangers where they would go out of their way to help for no rhyme or reason and to this day I don't know who they were and it always awes me that there is so much beauty and humanity in the world! It's a complete restoration of faith!
ReplyDeleteHi Dr Roshan - wonderful ... such a delight to read all of them - people are so generous of their time and thought ... such a great mix of happy life - sad, yet happy ... thanks so much - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteDr Roshan - each one of those instances of the milk of human kindness had my eye grow a little more moist. Absolutely fabulous end to the Challenge and a sterling example of what the #WATWB is. Thank you for making my day so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog on the Master List of A2Z Challenge.
ReplyDeleteI read a few of your posts. Interesting.
Though this world does have its many unseemly challenges. your posts bring out the silver lining in the cloud, as they would say.
Take care.
Pradeep
http://bpradeepnair.blogspot.in
When I read these and think there must be thousands more that didn't get recorded, I realize how much kindness is really out there. Thanks for this post!
ReplyDelete