Thu 4 Jun 2009
DDBD: Pink Lovers
Category: Fun & Games
Img: Paper Girl
Welcome to the first installation of Doe Deere’s Box of Delights! This one’s for all the pink lovers. In a typical Sphinx-like fashion, I shall present you with a question which you must answer in order to be entered. Winner will be picked randomly on June 9th.
What is the most memorable, no matter how small, good deed that you’ve done?
390 Responses to “ DDBD: Pink Lovers ”
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
When I was 12 I spent my entire afternoon on my birthday cleaning up the local park. It wasn’t for community service, or personal gain, I just noticed that there was garbage everywhere and was worried about the dogs accidentally choking on a piece (like in the Arthur episode). I got my dad’s pokey stick and cleaned for three or four hours that day before going out for supper with my family to celebrate my special day.
I’ve wanted to do it again, but the park is closed now.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
The most recent deed, was saving this kitten about 3 weeks ago from the street, I had to bottle feed her and now she’s getting bigger. She’s now the boss of me O.O I get pawed in the face and get scratched but she’s adorable, helping stray animals and finding them a good home is always something special to me.
Check her out :)
http://twitpic.com/6ly4p
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
My grandpa passed about a year ago, so all my cousins and I go over to her house and clean for her, do her yard work, etc., anything to help out. She always tries to pay us, but that’s not what we’re doing it for! We learn new stories from her all the time, and, at the risk of sounding corny, it feels good to help make her life easier. She’s done so much for all of us, and now it’s our turn to help her. I don’t know why we all waited so long.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
We have this stray cat that gave birth in our garden and then took off. Of her kittens, only one survived and we fed and took care of her until she grew and now she has her own kittens! I regularly feed her and her kittens everyday. I lovingly call her Kitty (how original! LOL)
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
When I was in sixth grade my whole class went to volunteer for the Oregon School for the Blind. We helped disabled kids learn how to have fun! We played kickball with them, showed them the fun of bubbles, and pushed them on the swings. It was a lot of fun getting to know them, they really aren’t so different after all. They are just normal people that need love to. That was very memorable to me.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Today my mum and I were getting in the car at the local polling station as we’d just voted in the election. Just as she’d started up the car, I saw a tiny vole squirming around amongst the chunky gravel stones outside and jumped out of the car. We tried to pick him up with a pink cloth but he was so scared at first he refused to be picked up even though he was struggling so hard. Finally we managed to get him around the belly and let him out in some bushes, saving him from being run over! That’s my ‘good deed’ for today, haha.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
When my sister was in the hospital to give birth to her son, she was terrified. So I stayed with her for three days without hardly any sleep and no shower. But when she finally gave birth and I got to be in the room with her, it was well worth all the sleepless nights.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
One night when my boyfriend was really really drunk, a few days after we’d gotten together, we got into a fight. At the end of the night I wound up carrying him to my dorm room and putting him to sleep on the floor. When we woke up in the morning I had to tell him everything that happened.
He told me that waking up next to me was one of the best things that’s ever happened to him, having someone who cared enough to take care of him.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
The most memorable good deed that I have done was when I babysat my cousins’ little girl and one of them got completely sick and threw up everywhere and I got her all cleaned up and cleaned the house up for her so she didn’t have to bother with it.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
A good deed I like to do any time I go out is to tell at least one random person something nice about what they’re wearing or how they look. I know it would make me happy if someone did that, so I feel good knowing that I’ve brightened up someone’s day a little bit.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
A few years ago, one of my roommates broke up with her boyfriend. Since she was convinced they were going to get married, she was absolutely devastated. To cheer her up, all of us roomies dragged her out of her nest of blankets in the closet and bought her a massage at the best hotel in town. I was her chauffeur, and we ended up having to call Triple A for car assistance (I drove her car, and wasn’t used to driving an automatic). It’s definitely a day I won’t forget.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
The most memorable good deed I have done.. would have to be when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. My mom came down with a really bad cause of the flu, and I was really looking forward to going to school, but it was so bad, she couldn’t drive. So I stayed home and took care of her. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
*case. I’m so awesome I misspell words! LOL
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
It’s maybe a bit silly… and small, and nobody knows that I do it, but whenever I walk through the churchyard that I live next to, and I see some of the flowers have fallen or blown over, I make sure I go on over to pick them up no matter how far away they are and put them back in their place. I just don’t like to see them a mess, and I like to think that it’d be appreciated if the people knew.
xx
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Not the last good deed but the one I certainly will always remember was when my great-aunt was in hospital after her husband died and I went to help her eat. The nurses always do it quickly quickly so me, my mum and my grandma took turns. It was lovely to be able to do something nice for her even though she didn’t always recognise me.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Feels a little odd trying to get something out of a goo deed… but OH WELL; I’m curious.
My mother-in-law’s oldest son passed-away after years of illness when he was 10years old. She has never really “recovered”, so this year for her birthday I am compiling stories from all of her other children, and cousins and aunts and uncles, and grandparents who knew that oldest son; and putting together a coffee table book with pictures and stories of him.
Sorry about my terrible spelling and grammar.
- Jess
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I went to Africa the winter of my Junior year in high school with my family. While we were there, we gave shoes that we had collected from our friends and family to children “without feet” meaning those that had been born with severe foot issues, such as facing the wrong way, bowl-legged, etc. The looks on these kids faces when we brought them their shoes… Now, I’ve always been a fan of shoes, but I don’t think I’ll ever love a pair as much as those kids loved theirs.
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June 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
The most memorable was when someone at the self checkout line walked away and there was a ten dollar bill stuck in the dispenser thing. I noticed it and ran after him. He seemed really surprised I didn’t keep it.
I seem to see people dropping money a lot, and I always tell them/give it to them/chase them down lol
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
The most memorable would have to be sorting diapers into packages at the food bank with a guy friend of mine during an afternoon volunteering.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
My most memorable good deed is memorable not because of the deed, I was just doing my job. What made it memorable was that the girl came in the next day and gave me a thank you card.
What happened was this girl had slipped in one of the slides and twisted her ankle. As I was patching her up I chatted to her and her brother and friend. And the next day while sitting in the office on my break she came in with a thank you note for me. It hangs in my locker at work and makes me smile when I see it.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Living in Virginia Beach for a while, you see a lot of wild animals on and around “people areas”.
One day we saw what looked to be a giant accident with cars all coming to a stop around a four way intersection. Stopping to see if we could help, we found no accident but rather a VERY large, very angry snapping turtle in the middle of the intersection.
The poor thing saw the cars as adversaries, was positively rageful and no one was trying to do a damn thing, just watching it with a laugh and taking pictures of it’s hissing and snapping.
Risking a chance, I got one of the tubs out of my car and an umbrella and my roommate and I rushed forward to try desperately to save the turtle before someone did something cruel and stupid.
The plan was to herd him into the tub with the umbrella and then carrying him off the road.
The reality was that it snapped onto my umbrella with enough force to destroy it, bending the metal in the process, and me carrying him hissing from the end of the umbrella, to the side of the road.
Drivers hated us, the turtle was deprived of tasty human fingers, and we drove home with a broken umbrella, giggling.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I found a pregnant cat wandering the streets in the city in the middle of January. She was freezing and starving so I took her in and nursed her back to health so she could give birth. We fell in love with her kittens and ended up keeping all of them!
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
About 2 years ago, just before moving out of Oregon and quitting my job where i had alot of great friends – one of our coworkers was wheelchair-bound, and his wheelchair was in really bad shape. He had resorted to pushing himself backwards in his chair to avoid a busted wheel. I decided we were going to collect some money for a new chair for him. Alot of people at the office chipped in and we got him an amazing, light, smooth new wheelchair. It was delivered to work, where it was set up at his desk. He was overwhelmed when he found our surprise, and so very happy. He did some ‘wheelies’ for us, and it was wonderful to see him so cheered up!
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I was a hospital volunteer for three years when I was a teenager. I would say that’s the most memorable!
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
In high school, two of my favorite teachers were in a nasty car accident. As soon as I heard, I spent my last period art class making get well cards for them both, and sent them around to as many students as I could before school was out that day. Anyone who didn’t get a chance to sign them could do so in the cafeteria the next morning before first period. Once every inch was pretty much covered in signatures and messages, I brought them to the front desk and asked the receptionist to please put the cards in their mailboxes for when they got back.
They sure did appreciate all the messages they got from students once they got back to school :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I gave $800 to my friend when she was down on her luck to pay her rent.. she said thank-you. Meanwhile I only had $300 in my bank, so i went into debt for about a year.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
My high school youth group goes on a service project trip every year. Now this may not be small but was certainly memorable. One year my church went to the Dominican Republic. One of the members in our church did PeaceCor for a year in the DR and lived in a remote village. The town not too far away needed help building a Chocolate Factory. Since chocolate is the biggest produce in the DR. The DR is very moist and if the beans get moist they are rotten. So this Chocolate Factory helped dry the beans easier and quicker. Basically the factory was a long tunnel that we built from scratch. Mixing the cement, building the foundation, putting in the supports. The only thing we didn’t get to do was put the plastic covering over it. Without this factory a pound of beans was around .80c and the price nearly doubled ($1.50ish) with the factory. These beans are then fermented and sent to the major chocolate factories in the USA and around the world.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Every morning, I take the elevator to the third floor of my building. On the way up, I hit the button to take the elevator back to the first floor for the next person that comes in for work.
If I take the elevator down in the evening, then I press the button to go back to the third floor (we only have three levels).
It’s nothing big, but people always appreciate the doors opening the moment they press the button. And it’s one way I can be sure to think of others every day.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Well, once i met a boy about my age and we really clicked and started becoming friends really quickly. He told me he live alone (allthough by the time he was barely 18), and that he didn’t have much contact with his familly and he had to support himself.
One day during summer vacations i was at home, having lunch with my familly and we were texting each other. When i asked him how he was doing, he told me he was at a random mall of the city and that he was starving because they didn’t pay him until next week, and he had run out of money too early.
I inmideatly got up, grabbed a topperware put all the left overs of the lunch (which were quite a lot), and asked my aunt to drive me to where he was. I didn’t tell him i was bringing him food, nor he expeted it, i just told him to wait for me, that i would be there in half an hour.
When i gave him the topperware, i could swear his eyes widdened with a mix of shock, surprise and gratitude.
after that, our friendship was unstopable, and we became best friends =)
The end.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
One of my friends had moved out of her house with her boyfriend because her family didn’t have enough room for her and her siblings. When she and her boyfriend broke up, she didn’t want to move back into her family’s home because her siblings had their own rooms and were getting along for the first time, and she didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I offered my house to her and let her move in with me for 6 months while she got on her feet. It was tough because we have very different lifestyles, but it really helped her out- I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I realize that my good deed might be very small in comparison to some of the other ones here – but my most memorable was from last winter.
An old man was trying to walk down a very very slippy staircase with lots of ice on it. (It was outdoors, of course. And I do live in cold Norway!)
When I noticed him, he didn’t have that much longer to go, but he had sort of frozen in the middle, and weren’t sure how to step to not fall. I ran over to the staircase and gave him a hand, helping him down the rest of the stairs. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
On Easter weekend my brother brought his daughter down to see her auntie (myself) and grandparents on Friday night, but he had to return her to his ex-wife Saturday night, causing him to miss the family dinner my parents had planned. Because I knew how hard it was for him to hand off my niece like he had to, I went with him, and took my car instead of his, so he’d have company and someone to talk to for the 2 hour drive back to our parents’ house after dropping her off with his ex-wife.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
My high school youth group goes on a service project trip every year. Now this may not be small but was certainly memorable. One year my church went to the Dominican Republic. One of the members in our church did PeaceCor for a year in the DR and lived in a remote village. The town not too far away needed help building a Chocolate Factory. Since chocolate is the biggest produce in the DR. The DR is very moist and if the beans get moist they are rotten. So this Chocolate Factory helped dry the beans easier and quicker. Basically the factory was a long tunnel that we built from scratch. Mixing the cement, building the foundation, putting in the supports. The only thing we didn’t get to do was put the plastic covering over it. Without this factory a pound of beans was around .80c and the price nearly doubled ($1.50ish) with the factory. These beans are then fermented and sent to the major chocolate factories in the USA and around the world.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
This story starts out odd, but ends well. I was in the restroom of the Chicago airport and noticed a passport resting on top of the TP dispenser. Not trying to be nosey, but completely curious, I opened it up and saw that it belonged to a woman. What struck me most about the ID, however, was her hair. She had the creamiest, most shimmery blonde hair I had ever seen. I assumed the women would come back for it when she realized it was missing, so I left it there. Leaving the restroom, however, I felt that maybe I had made the wrong choice and should have taken the passport to the lost and found. This is where things take a funny twist. As I was walking down the terminal, there – in front of me – was the long, creamy blonde hair glistening over a woman’s shoulders. The woman was about 15 feet in front of me and all of a sudden I noticed her grab her purse and start rummaging through it, all panicked. I ran up to her and said, ” I know this sounds odd, but did you just lose your passport?” She looked at me in disbelief and then I grabbed her hand and said, “I think I know exactly where you left it!”
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Last winter, one of my close friends and I hadn’t been getting along very well lately, so things were a little tense between us. We were both in the computer lab around 1 am finishing up our projects. On her way out, my friend slipped and dislocated her knee.
She screamed my name, and I ran over and saw what happened. I called the ambulance and her mother, and me and a few other students who were there helped her and talked to her until the paramedics arrived. I went with her in the ambulance, and waited with her in the hospital until her mother arrived. Until she was signed out, her mom and I did lots of little things to cheer her up: treating her to Coke, drawing silly characters on the brace and medical tape, and just talking about things that made her happy. When she got worried the teacher would fail her for not showing up for her project presentation, I told her I would retrieve her project from the lab and give it to her teacher along with the doctor’s note.
We didn’t end up leaving the hospital until around 6 am. When her mom dropped me off at my dorm, both my friend and her mom thanked me for staying the entire time despite how late it was, and that I had to be awake for a presentation at 7:30 am. Both of them thanked me for looking out for my friend when she needed it most.
This somehow fixed all the tension my friend and I had been having, and we got a lot closer.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Donated money to cancer this morning.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Selling marshmallows with choclate for a charity :) we selled more than 800 marshmallows! :) Now the children in Liberia can go to a school! I’m only 16 years so I help the people where I can.
:) Hope everybody does something, something small is better than nothing
Sorry for the bad english, i’m from belguim
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
My story has a lot of background so sorry in advance: I used to work in an office building next to a store called The Asian Convenience Store. There was a nice little old lady who ran the store and I saw her every day when I went to buy snacks. We could never talk much but she was always super polite and one day she even lent me money for the bus and told me I could pay her back whenever! One day, a horrible thing happened to her. A man who had just been released on parole went into the store and beat her horribly, all for a pack of cigarettes. By the time passer-bys called the police, he had crushed her windpipe. She survived the attack but was too traumatized to go back to work in the store so her daughter and her daughter’s husband took it over.
Now it was the two younger people I became close to and I chatted with them and saw them everyday. Usually both of them were in there but one day, when it was just the daughter working, I was in there when a really large, intimidating man came in. He didn’t buy anything or really look for things to buy, just kind of hung around (which was strange because the store was extremely tiny). I could tell he was making the daughter nervous so I stayed there at the counter, talking to her and keeping her company until he finally left. I was more than twenty minutes late getting back to work, but she was so grateful and I could tell it made her feel so much more comfortable! I felt warm and happy the rest of the day that maybe, though I couldn’t help her mom, I made her a bit safer :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
My friend Anie has never really had a good relationship with her father. They have just never really been able to co me to terms with their supposed roles in Korean society. Anie is American through and through. Her father is still very Korean.
When she went off to Notre Dame for college, their relationship was even more strained. She wanted very badly to connect with her father, but never quite knew how.
One day I bought a box of notecards with envelopes from barnes and noble. I put address labels with her address @ university on every last envelope! Just so he couldn’t make more excuses for himself, I got first class stamps for ALL the envelopes!
He knew who I was, so I arranged for my sister to drop it off, with some excuse that they had gotten it at the address down the street. I attached a note too, that said something along the lines of “Don’t let your only child get away from you”.
To this day I have no idea if he ever sent her any of them. But I do know that they’re on better terms than they were. That was 3 years ago, and while I’m sure most of it involves personal maturity on both their parts, I’m glad they talk.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I was on my way home from a rather long day at the library. It was October, I think, or maybe November. My point: it was wet, cold, and dark. I had very little money left, and wasn’t sure when I’d see the next paycheck. On my way I noticed an old man under the neon lights of some boutique. For a while I just stood there, frozen, looking at that contrast. It was on a busy street, there was this Mexx store, there was this cafe, liquor store, with all these people buying half a metre of fabric for ten times the amount of this guy’s pension, spending half the amount of his pension for one meal.
I crossed the road, gave him all the money I had, and left. There really was very little, enough to buy bread and milk, at best. But he was thanking me as if it was the biggest thing anyone’s ever done to him, and his voice was shaking.
I cried like a wuss all the way back home. I often give money to beggars on the street as here where I live it’s the only way to make sure that charity reaches those who need it, and not some figure who will supposedly spread it to the masses. But I think I’ll remember this man for a long while. I hope he’s alive and well.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I smile at old people (or someone who really looks like they need someone to smile at them) when I pass them on the street, and when they smile back they look really happy. I really make it a point to do this because it might just bring a tiny bit of joy into that person’s life.
Another time I talked with my ex-boyfriend from high school for over 2 hours; I talked him self out of killing him self. Even though he broke my heart in HS, I forgave him and now we are good friends.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Wow – Cary, that was a really brilliant thing to do. Kudos to you for the thought and action!
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Well, the most recent good deed that I’ve done, I guess…would be when i went to a resturante and the workers had gone on break, leaving a spanish dish boy there alone. People were ordering and he couldn’t speak a lick of english and I felt horrible for him! The customers were being extremly rude so i stepped in and translated for him and the people with my broken spanish! We got all the orders in and the man gave me a coke on the house! I was so happy that I got to help him! It felt really good! <3
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
The latest one? I talked to my 3year old cousin about fairies and the nature.It’s going to be a good thing to grow up believing in fairies, the ultimate nature lover’s, and eventually respect the environment…
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
When I was 10, my family was really poor. My brother and i lived with my dad who worked a night shift for not a lot of money. There were times when Dad had to pick between paying the phone bill, electric bill, water bill, rent, or food. He always choose us in the end. Sometimes not getting any food for himself.
So, for his birthday, I slipped $5 into his wallet while he was napping. I had saved that up for over a year and I thought it would be something to help him.
He must’ve figured it out because he came him and cried and hugged me. I just didn’t want him to keep choosing between us and him. We should all be able to eat and live :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
In college, I knew a girl who had really bad endometriosis. Both she and her family were not well-off by any means, and she was literally on her last pack of birth control pills…the same pills that helped regulate her system and make the symptoms of her disease bearable. She literally had NO MONEY to get her next pack of pills, so even just her anticipation of what her body might do when she went off the pills was awful for her.
My grandfather was still practicing medicine at the time, so I first asked my friend’s roommate what kind of pills she took, then called my grandpa to see if he had any samples. I thought he’d just send over a month or two supply, but he sent a SIX MONTH supply! I was able to sneak it into her room…she wasn’t supposed to know who sent it, but her roommate spilled the beans.
I remember the look on her face and the tears in her eyes very vividly. She gave me a giant hug and said “thank you” like a million times. It was really cool to know that something so simple could help someone that much.
Cool question, Doe! You have super readers.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
A sweet little old lady came into the retail store I used to work in once. She had trouble walking, so I calculated the shortest route to pick up everything on the list, and slowly pushed the cart around for her while she shuffled along side. It was the nicest experience I’ve had providing customer service ever; she was so thankful, and I felt like more than a low-wage monkey performing repetitious tasks for once.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I work as a hostess at a restaurant in my town. Tonight, I’m covering a shift for this girl Lauren, whose grandfather passed away recently.
My good friend Cait is the Head Hostess and was supposed to cover the shift, but she has been having trouble with her relationship with this super sweet guy Brian, because they never get to see each other, because Cait always gets stuck filling in for other people on her days off.
I’m not feeling great today. I had a fever yesterday and a sore throat for three days. Fever’s gone, and I told Cait I’d take the shift for her so she could go see Pixar’s Up with Brian. She thanked me and told me I was saving her relationship, and promised me 100 ice cream sandwiches. :D
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Every year I volunteer with a non-profit organization called Camp del Corazon. It’s a camp for kids 7-17 with cardiac issues (I have a congenital heart defect myself). I not only volunteer as a counselor for the camp, but in the office any time they need me, for whatever task, however menial or seemingly small. Every little bit helps. I will even have eBay auctions where the proceeds go to camp, even if I could easily use the money for myself. I don’t want them to ever have to turn a child away due to lack of funds (the camp pays for every child to go)
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
My mom works at the hospital and one of the nurse’s father-in-law fell and had to have hip surgey and they needed an overnight sitter to be with him and take care of him and I took up the job, I told them I’d do it for free but they ended up paying me anyways. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
my bff was in a very abusive relationship – while i couldn’t get her to leave him at the time i did however manage to get her to train in capoeira with me which distracted and empowered her at the same time! 6 months later she quit her job that was making her unhappy
and left the destructive scumbag!
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
omg give it to Emily Nicole.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I live in LA where it is impossible to estimate travel time due to dogs, cats, drunks, people who are constantly high on california bud, celebs (wait I repeat myself!), people yapping on their cellphones, rubber neckers, and random cones/barrels in the road that are changed each night along with the freeway on/off ramps to make your trips infinitely more exciting.
Anyway the point is, if I have to be somewhere on Monday night I make sure to leave Tuesday morning and use my signals (gasp!) and actually let people into my lane. My driving karma has not come back to me yet, in fact my beloved car was just totaled by some dick who was speeding to make a light and t-boned me in an intersection.
Oh well, fuck my life. Maybe one day one of these rude Californians will actually give me a little thank you wave for my constant good deeds on the streets of LA.
I like to think of myself as a crusader for polite and sane driving in the rudest city in the world, La La land.
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June 4th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Being there for my mother when her best friend tried to commit suicide and ended up in the hospital. My mom doesn’t have very many friends outside of her work and sometimes, it is hard for her to talk my dad about things, so I knew that me being there for her to vent and discuss things with – was the best ‘deed’ I could do. I am grateful for my mom and all she has done for me.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
When I was at highschool I was in a friendship group that could have been considered a bit of a clique. Think the plastics from Mean Girls, only with fifteen girls, instead of three.
One day they all started verbally bullying a girl in the group that quite a few of us were good friends with, trying to make her feel as small as possible with the usual. “Nobody likes you, who here even likes her?!” I was the only one out of the entire group that stood up and said, “Actually, I like her, she’s one of my best friends so back off!” which shut them all up at once.
It sounds a bit silly but I’m really proud that I’ve never been one to follow the crowd or who’d be nasty, just to fit into a popular clique and that it didn’t even take a second thought for me to stick up for her.
That was years ago, but whenever I bump into her she always reminds me of that story.
x
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
One time a friend and I bought a bag of mini Mars bars, y’know the big multipacks. We walked around the shopping centre and handed them out to random people, just because. People were kind of taken aback but most were thankful!
Guess they didn’t follow the ‘don’t take candy from strangers’ rule though…!
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
one that i will never forget and i don’t know if it counts as a good deed or not. is when walking through the campus a few months ago i saw a little girl crying and nobody seemed to care.. i was running late to class. but i couldn’t just leave her there she was like 6 years old.. so i went with her. and asked what happened to her… she told me she couldn’t find her mom.. and that she have been walking through the campus for a while.. so i took her to the cafeteria and buy her donut :P and some hot chocolate.. and we went with the security people at college i told them what happened.. and this security lady told me that they will take care of her but i don’t know i just couldn’t leave her there not knowing if she would be okay.. so i decided to stay with her .. half an hour later her mom arrived she was very scared but relieved that she had found her after all.. she thanked me so much for taking care of her little girl.. she told me that she had lost the little girl when walking to the parking lot after buying some books
i was very happy to see that the little girl was finally with her mom..
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I took a very feeble kitten from the street and now she lives with me and I adore her! And I also have planted many trees!So I make this planet more green and my grandchildren will be able to come and see already huge trees in many years.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I was buying lunch at the school cafeteria and was about to walk away when this girl who was behind me came up to the register. She didn’t have any money, but you could tell she really needed something to eat (I had seen her in the cafeteria most other days just sitting by herself without anything to eat). So I bought her lunch. I never found out her name, what grade she was in, or anything.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
working in a coffee shop i find that ppl are often unexplainably cranky. perhaps its the lack of caffine at the 5 oclock hour..but when 7am rolls around…theres just no reason to be rude. but, ive found that a kind gesture and a smile go a really long way to make someone’s day. so, whenever anyone comes into my store and seems down, or is unkind to either myself or my baristas, i tell them, “i can see you are having a bad day, i want to buy your coffee for you” then i smile and walk away. its amazing the kind of emotional return you get for such a small monetary gift. :)
*smiling is contagious…pass it on!!!
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
the most memorable good deed i’ve done is giving our car, a 1995 mercury cougar, to our neighbor as a christmas present. we’d recently gotten another car, and just before christmas our neighbor fell into a hard time of things. his car had broken down, and he was struggling to make ends meet getting to work.
we went to the store and grabbed one of those HUGE, like three feet wide, red christmas car bows and wrapped it around the car after taking it to a local car wash. then we picked up a gas gift card and put it inside a funny christmas card with a note that said to walk around the corner to our house, where we’d hidden the car from direct line of sight of his front door.
he went totally insane! some might think it creepy, but we really didn’t need two cars, you know? he needed it far more than we did, so that weekend, just after christmas, he and my husband went down to the dmv to change the title over. they did a “bill of sale” for the cost of the title transfer, making sure that our neighbor didn’t owe any gift tax, and everybody walked away feeling just a bit more of the christmas spirit. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
About 4 years ago I started up with Big Brothers/Big Sisters. I have had a sister named Frances the entire time and she is really a member of my family now. It has been so wonderful watching her grow up. She was just leaving 6th grade when I met her and she is not finishing her sophomore year of highschool!
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Around the end of April, I was walking home from school when a woman came up to me asking me where “the doctor’s office” was. She barely spoke English (and there were at least ten doctors in the area), but she had an address to a place that was nowhere near where we were standing. Since we weren’t really able to communicate, I just offered to walk her to the office, even though it meant turning around and going back to where I’d come from, in the rain. It was a long walk and I got home an hour later than I normally would have, but I’m glad I was able to help despite the language barrier.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
My most memorable good deed is pretty insignificant, but I remember it even though it was about 4 or 5 years ago now.
It was back in the day when I did tap dancing classes (I was an ultra cool 10 year old…), and every week I noticed that there was this girl who was ultra shy and kept to herself, wheras I was the mega chatty one, who, to be honest, forced herself on people a little bit, but was always in a crowd of people.
Anyways, this girl kept to herself, and didn’t talk to anyone, but always seemed quite lonely. I always meant to go and talk to her, but I could never think of a good excuse.
Lo and behold, one week, we were at the same audition, and the next dance class I went over and talked to her about it. I’ll never forget the look on her face, the way she smiled because someone was actually talking to her for once. She ended up friends with the majoirty of the people in the class, and it was pretty insignificant, just starting a conversation, but it was pretty memorable for me, because it was such a tiny thing, but it made such a difference.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
When my boyfriend’s mother was gone for the week I took over all the household duties for her, and actually left the house cleaner for her when she came home, than she had left it when she departed. She hates coming home to a messy house and her son is a bit of a clutter-bug, so I tried to make it as easy as possible for her, so she doesn’t have to deal with too much on top of her illness.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I used to throw balloons and paper airplanes out of my window high up on which I wrote messages of love. For example: Someone loves you very much | There is always hope, don’t give up | you’re gonna have mindblowing sex this week | imagine me kissing you | … Sometimes I included my cellphone number and once a man called! He had found an airplane of mine and wanted to tell me that it made his day which had actually been very depressing so far. So spreading some love made me happy as well :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
What an adorable box!!! Most memorable I guess would be a few months ago when I helped a newly blind man find his way home. I can’t wait to read through all these. :-)
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
About a year ago, I was walking to my house, and there was a pregnant woman trying to push a baby carriage up stairs and carrying some grocery bags, no one else that was walking by seemed interested so I ran and helped her carry it up the stairs into the building, she was really grateful and said something about her having a hard time and thanked me with a huge smile. that made my day, and the rest of the week. And it still makes me smile when I remember. (and the baby was so adorable <3)
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
When I was in Paris a year ago I was visiting the Louvre. We were walking trough the halls and then I saw a women and the zipper from her pants were open. I can’t speak french so I showed her what I meant. It was so funny and she was very thankfull.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Ha ha ha, well I remember once when I went into a public bathroom and used up the last of the toilet paper I went into the next stall and put in a little bit more so the next person wouldn’t be without. Because I really hate when that happens to me!
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
i work at a coffee shop. every night we literally throw out 2-3 trash bags full of bagels, scones, ect that we baked earlier that morning. i but aside a few take out bags and give them to these homeless men i see everyday on my way home from work
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
A while back, my then-boyfriend and I were driving through downtown St. Louis, on our way to the zoo. I’d been drowsy all day and had cranked the passenger seat back to take a quick catnap before a full day of bear-watching. As I floated in and out of consciousness, we pulled up to one of the largest intersections in town, idling at the red light.
Out of nowhere, there was a squeal of tires, the thunderous explosion of grille-on-door, and the delicate rain of glass. I shot straight up from my reclined position and took in the sight: an old Buick stood in the center of the intersection surrounded by glass and smashed in the front, nose-to-side with a light truck. The truck’s driver seemed to be okay, but the Buick’s driver wasn’t moving. No one that was stopped at the lights moved. Except me.
Before I knew what I was doing, I’d leapt out of my vehicle and torn across the pavement to the Buick. Inside was an elderly black woman slumped over the steering wheel, not moving. I opened the car door and spoke to her. She stirred and attempted to sit up. I helped her right herself as she babbled nonsensically. She didn’t look hurt but kept clutching her midsection where it had struck the steering column. Like she had internal injuries.
I made sure she stayed in the car and reassured her over and over that the ambulance and police were on their way. She kept muttering something about having run the light and not seeing the truck; she wanted to get out and see what happened to her car. Fortunately, she didn’t move and could focus on me.
Sooner than I’d thought, because St. Louis isn’t really known for its excellent response time in this area of town, the authorities showed up. The EMTs rushed over and began inspecting the woman, testing all her vitals. One of them pulled me aside to ask me what had happened. As I gave my statement, I scanned the intersection. No one else had moved – I was the only one who helped.
I couldn’t believe that not a single other person in all of the dozens of vehicles that witnessed the crash had gotten out to help either of the victims. I hadn’t even had a conscious thought – I just acted. It was a strange feeling, especially when I realized that nobody else did the same.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
There was this girl in my gym class in grade 11 and she was always being made fun of by all the ‘pretty’ girls. She was a bit of a Tomboy and a little bit shy and introverted. I started talking to her and she confessed to me that she was thinking about commiting suicide, I was shocked because even though people sometimes talk about it she was really serious. So, I talked to her and she began telling me more, like that her step-father was abusive towards her when her mother (who works for the army) was away. I became friends with her and hung out with her and she told me a few months ago (I still talk with her over msn) that I was the one that talked her out of commiting suicide and to actually live her life to the fullest and how she wanted to become something. I asked her how I did that and she told me just by having someone to talk to about her problems that actually cared was all that she needed.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Actually, I made it my profession and studied psychology. Now I am helping people with psychiatric disorders every day. Patients with psychiatric illnesses are just so great to work with. Bit that’s not everybody’s cup of tea and most people don’t understand my joy.
:)
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
When I worked in Disneyland Paris (I’ve worked there for 2 years) I was a <a href=”http://disney.go.com/disneyhand/voluntears/details.html”voluntEAR and one day got asked to accompany a family through the parks. They had a little boy of 6 who was terminally ill, and a little girl of 8. I was supposed to only spend 1 day with them, but ended up taking the rest of the week unpaid leave of my daily job to accompany them, be their personal guide and make sure the holiday was one they would never forget. I never forget, despite his discomfort and the pain, happy and radiant the little boy looked and how much he laughed. Even though I was only part of their life for a few days, I really hope I made some kind of difference, however small.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Of course, I fail at html tags.. It was supposed to be: VoluntEARS, obviously :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
About a month and a half ago we had a blizzard and it was absolutely freezing! I went out to get the mail and I found a baby mouse (tiny, not much bigger than a quarter) I took him in and named him felix, he was too little to eat and drink so I had to eyedropper feed him. We think he was hurt by a cat or something because one of his legs was pretty mangled. He passed away the week later but I felt okay because he died comfortably instead of freezing out in the snow or being eaten.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
(hm? Did this post?)
This one is really silly, but it’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done!
The year before last, my (now) husband was waiting in a cold line for a Black Friday computer deal. He called me around midnight, requesting some warm food, and some nearby folks jokingly request hot cocoa. I relay this to my mother, and instantly knew we were thinking the same thing! So we went to the line, armed with gallons of hot cocoa and bags of cookies to pass around. Some people were skeptical, but most seemed to really enjoy it. The funny thing was, we had EXACTLY enough for everyone in line. I thought we were going to have a cup left over, but someone got in line just as we reached the end.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I used to be best friends with this girl. About two years ago we found out she’d been lying to us for around 18 months about having this boyfriend. We were all shocked and really hurt that she could be so deceitful but I decided to take her back into our group because otherwise she’d have had no friends and despite all she’d done I didn’t want that to happen to her.
I’ve been put in a similar position recently, when the same girl pretty much abandoned us for a boyfriend, a real one this time, but now he’s left school I’ve accepted her back once again. She was really upset a few months ago because of some drama with him and I invited her to mine to talk about it, even though we had barely talked in months.
I didn’t think she really deserved my sympathy or even my attention after the way she’d treated my friends and I, but when it came down to it I still cared about her, and couldn’t abandon her even if she’d do the same to me.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I love that so many of these good deeds are about helping animals. I’d have to say that’s the deed that makes me feel the best too…rescuing 3 kitties from the shelter. One of them was sooo sick, his fur was falling out and he was just emaciated. I fed him baby food every 4 hours for weeks and weeks, and now he’s the biggest and strongest of the 3. At the time I was really scared and I questioned wether I’d taken on too much, but it all worked out and we’re all stronger for it.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I used to help the Veterinary technicians at the Oregon Humane society, mostly with check-ins and basic health screenings, and the occasional vaccination. I got to meet all kinds of puppies and sweet kitties, but Lola I will always remember, because she came to us in the worst way possible.
Her former owner had taken it upon himself to break all four of her legs, and beat her with some sort of blunt object, and then proceeded to dump her out on the traintracks. Thank goodness we found her!
Anyways, it was really rewarding getting to help rehabilitate sweet Lola (who was a really nice Pit-Bull girl, despite what had happened to her). I even helped teach her to walk again! Hurray! As if that didn’t make me bust with joy, I got to show her to the family she would find her permanent home with! Double yay!
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
When I was in high school and still lived at home, our neighbors down the street had three dogs that they took terrible care of. Two of them were tough and did fine being outside all the time (we lived in a small community in Alaska so dogs were never tied up), but the third one was really young and skiddish. I was finally able to befriend her after weeks of trying, and she eventually was brave enough to follow me home. We weren’t able to take her in, but whenever the weather was bad or she just needed some love she’d come to our house. We started calling her Little Girl, and yy mom would even let her snuggle up in her bed with her. I think it was probably the only positive attention she ever received. The Humane Society eventually picked up all of their dogs and adopted them out.
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Halloween when I was eleven and living on a naval base, the “take one please” bowl of candy we’d left while trick-or-treating was smashed and all the candy stolen. My sister and I sat out there for two hours giving our candy away, since every family had a father or mother out to sea and money was tight, so we wanted them to still have candy. I still feel good about that.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I volunteer at Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue (www.rirabbits.org/) and help educate people about the proper way to care for house rabbits. It’s amazing that so many people have them as pets but don’t feed them properly or don’t let them out of their cage enough or simply dump them in the wild when they get sick of them. It’s horrible. This amazing rescue is also a no kill shelter volunteer only shelter and they have adopted 998 rabbits within RI since 2002. I got involved once I got my first rabbit last year. They make awesome pets! Mine is litter box trained and is free range when my bf and I are home. She’s awesome and it make me angry and sad that so many rabbits are abused and left for dead in the wild so I wanted to help out and educate people about the awesomeness of bunnies as pets.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I brought blonde brownies to my entire japanese class and gave one to each person, even the one who thinks im ignorant and likes to remind me most days. I loved his face, a cross between bliss and horror.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Once, when I lived in my old house, I was walking home when one of the neighbor’s children whizzed past me on a razor scooter. He was their four year old son, Danny, and he didn’t have a helmet or even shoes on. Most likely his mother was too busy with his older sister to know he was even out of the house. Needless to say he crashed spectacularly, cutting his lip open, scratching up his cheek and getting a y nose and skinned knee all at once. I dropped my bag and ran over to pick him up and wipe his face off as best as I could, he was the cutest little blond haired, blue eyed boy in the world, and hugged picked him up to get him to stop crying. Then i carried him home, with him still bawling and bleeding. his mom barely even noticed what a mess he was when she opened the door, she just said a quick thank you and went back to whatever it was she had been doing.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
While i lived in japan, i went to a church that made onigiri, or rice balls after church to distribute to the homeless. I helped out every sunday, and one day i saw a homeless man in the corner just watching from the stairs. I invited him down, where we had refreshments and snacks.
he gave me a toothy smile and i saw him every sunday, and invited him down, where he started to help make the onigiris as well
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Very simply, I think the best thing I’ve ever done is speak to a mentally slow person as if they were a normal person. I didn’t sugar coat or dumb down the conversation, I just spoke.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I think one of the greatest deeds I’ve done for another person was when my best friends aunt died of cancer, this woman had been like her second mom, and talked to her on the phone for four hours. And not only did I comfort her through that, but the fact that her boyfriend had ditched her for his friends to play video games. It makes me feel good to think I helped her get through two thought things at once.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
My most memorable was one week after hurricane Katrina happen, i went over to Mississippi/Gulf port and helped people get water,food and canned goods together in a box. It makes u realize how important the simple things in life are, which we often take for granted.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
my most memorable deed was when i gave one of the old men at the nursing home i work at, my sketch book so he can draw. the place i volunteered at was an elderly home for the mentally disabled, and its ran by the city, so it was really dingy :/
mr. Claude would draw on the walls and get in trouble, then draw on toilet paper /^_^’ it was a mess. so i gave him my sketch book. i even took piccy’s with him and his drawing. i’ll miss him :]
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
what an amazing idea for a drawing! reading these comments makes me feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about how amazing people can be (:
one of the nicest things I think I’ve ever done was actually in first grade. the father of a girl in my class had just died from stomach cancer, and none of the kids in the class were really sure how to respond to the girl since she was so sad. as a result, no one talked to the girl, and so she sat alone by herself during playtime. one day I went and sat next to her and asked her to play a game with me. 17 years later we’re still amazing friends.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
One of my most memorable good deeds was the one time I let my baby brother win a board game. Being 4 years older, I naturally won most every game we played together and I will never forget his smile when he won.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
I was at Disneyworld a few years ago, my mom and I stopped to eat in a Toy Story themed arcade place. I bought a bunch of tokens but was disappointed to notice all the games were really kiddish, so I didn’t use many tokens. As my mom and I were eating I saw two little girls at a table near by, they were pleading with their mom to get some tokens. I heard the mom tell her daughters they had to watch their money and they could play games at home.
Right before I left I grabbed my big cup of tokens and walked over to the table and smiled at them and set it down, “Here, I’m leaving now and I wont be using these. You guys take ‘em.” The mom looked at me, “All of them?” I nodded and the girls looked so happy and so cute. The mom thanked me and I left with my mom.
I dunno, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I feel like I made those girls happy, and I feel like I made that mom really happy too. :3
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
When I used to live in California, my friend Damage would buy lunch for the homeless man across the street from our hangout. We would sit with him and eat together, the three of us talking about misc randomness.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
My memorable good deed is very small in comparison to the incredibly kind things people have done, but nonetheless it still brings a smile to my face when I think about it :)
Last year we enlisted as many school teachers as we possibly could and gave students the chance to “vent their frustration” by paying to throw wet sponges at them. The teachers seemed to have fun keeping on their toes, attempting to dodge the sponges and cursing when they were hit, and the students loved it ;) We raised nearly $200 in the process of having heaps of fun! We donated the money to help educate underprivileged girls in Africa. We hope that by our silly fun that others can be educated and be given the same chance we’ve been granted :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I let my friend date my ex. I think that was pretty generous.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I was London once in the fall/winter when its reeally cold and rainy and there was this homeless lady @ kingston station outside sitting on the ground, i walked by feeling sorry for her, then stopped and turned around and gave her 1 of my warmest and one of my favoritest jackets ;))))) I walked away feeling vainless and full of delight !!!
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
What is the most memorable, no matter how small, good deed that you’ve done?
I saved a kitten.
I love animals and cats aren’t excluded! Tho I like dogs better, but still. I had a cat for 14 years and she was my love.
So how it went. I was studying really hard for an exam and at sudden I head a cat cry. A small kitten. And that’s just really terrible! I tried to ignore it for a second or two, then I started thinking how it sounded like. It sounded like if my neighbour wanted to kill his cats. OMG I so didn’t want that! So I started thinking about calling the police and report him! But instead I went out of my house in my pyjamas, slippers and a tank top (I looked really bizarre!) and checked the area. Ha! The cat was crying louder and louder and hell I couldn’t stand the sound of it. It made my heart broke. I ahem got on my neighbour propriety, sneaking around in my pink slippers, trying to understand where the sounds comes from and praying that it’s not somewhere too high. And then the cat started to cry even more! Can you imagine it?! I was so desperate to run to the neighbour’s door and ring the bell. A couple of times. No body was home. HECK! So I finally found the place from where the sound was coming of.. and omg what I saw! Three kittens, plus their mom. Not older than a couple of weeks. One of them was trapped upside down with his head between a leg of the table (that came down as a V, really vintage looking). Damn when I saw that I knew that the poor kitten’s neck would break in a matter of minutes. Ah, the terrible truth! Then I tried to find a way there. My neighbour has some really big propriety, and me sneaking around there wasn’t the best idea ever. But still, I managed to get to the kitten, not without a problem and.. oh boy! The mom was pissed at me, plus the trapped kitten started moving even more, crying even louder, desperate to save himself! It made me smile, because I knew that he would me safe in a matter of seconds. I lifted his little body and saved his trapped head. He stopped crying as soon as I got him on the floor. Ahhhh pure silence! I felt really proud of myself, and under pressure. But at least.. I did something good, even if when I told later about this to some friends, they laughed at me. Oh well.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
A few weeks ago my aunt was incredibly stressed out from a family situation going on, so I took her out for lunch and shopping, and the day before I bought her a pet stroller for her dog. Afterwards, she said it made her feel a lot better and that I made her day, which was pretty much the best reward out of it.
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June 4th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I urged a pleased customer to fill out a positive survey on a co-worker I don’t even like very much. I figured if the customer took the time to call back and request a big thank you be sent to the analyst she obviously did an outstanding job and deserved recognition. So I suggested the survey, knowing our system is set up so management gets a copy. They will be proud.
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
7 years ago, my mother went through a really hard time. she had gotten into drugs, lost her house, spent all of her money and lost her mother, all in one year. everyone in our family bailed on her, even my siblings. no matter what she did, no matter how mad i got at her, i still stuck by her. (growing up she was such a good mother, we had a very normal life. i knew this wasn’t her, just 1 wrong guy in her life screwed everything up.) she went to rehab, i was by her side through everything. i went to meetings with her, visited just about every day. i was really her back bone, her shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen. because of everything that has happened her and i are the best of friends. as of right now in my life, this is my most memorable good deed i’ve done… i was there for my mother when she needed it the most and no one else was. <3
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
When I was around 12 or 13, my friend Deanna called me one night in tears telling me how her family forgot to get anything for her birthday party because a day prior her little sister sprained her arm and had to go to the hospital, leaving no time to get anything for her party.
The next morning, I asked my parents for 30 dollars called my friend Julie, and we rode our bikes to the supermarket, bought cake, balloons, confetti, and other birthday decorations, rode to Deanna’s house, and celebrated.
We are all about 21 now, and we all still remember how much fun her birthday was.
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
When I was in second year, our school paper tried to instigate a “pay it forward” type thing on our campus. I guess that sort of means I didn’t just do the deed on my own, but I did volunteer to be a part of it, so I think it still counts.
It was hard to think of something I could do that would still make a difference. So one day while buying textbooks in the campus book store, I saw a girl looking extremely distressed who I recognized from one of my classes. She picked up one volume and commented on how expensive I was, and I nodded. Then she complained that she was working three jobs and OSAP (an Ontario government agency that gives loans to students) still wouldn’t give her anything. My parents saved for my education and I had a scholarship that covered my tuition, and while I’m not exactly rolling in it, I decided to buy her book. She tried to refuse at first, but I explained that it was also for the school paper and I hoped she’d pay it forward, so she didn’t feel so bad about it. She was extremely grateful, even though it was just one textbook and a very small dent in what she has to pay each term.
The best part is that afterward, an acquaintance of mine spotted me, and commented that I had been looking down earlier in the morning, and he was hoping I was okay. I said I was (and I did feel good after my good deed), but he said that a big hug can never help. And don’t tell my boyfriend, but this guy gives the best hugs ever! I don’t tend to believe in fate and God and stuff like that – but maybe there is such a thing as good karma!
Though I feel kind of bad using this deed in attempt to win pink things! I do love pink though.
And I love the good samaritans here – especially Ia. I think just treating people like human beings and your equal is the best deed, and an easy one to do.
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
well, i love dogs, i rescued 2 dogs from the street, luna and patan, girl and boy, and they had puppies! and i keep all of them!
now my house is a dog house and i love it!
i dont imagine my life without them.
also i feed the dogs and cats that has no home, i cant see them suffering, it really hurts my heart. i think i spend more money on dogs that in myself, but im ok with that!
well *hugs* xenia!
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
I was at a pitstop durring a long car ride when suddenly a huge storm hit. I was running from the parking lot to the rest rooms when i see a little old lady running ahead of me, get picked up by a huge gust of wind and thrown backwards.
I ran forward, caught her, picked her up and ran her to shelter.
im kinda embarrassed by it because it sounds so “prince charming”
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I helped several classmates with their schoolwork constantly this year. They aren’t my friends or anything, but I just felt like being generous with my time and devoted myself to helping them really understand and utilize the concepts we learned in class. I allowed them to call me at home several times a day sometimes before a test and always walked one of them through each problem online. I helped them and didn’t expect anything out of it – I guess I just did it because I wanted to see them succeed and I wanted to help :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
If you ever make a “green lovers” once, I shall try…
I’m a good-deed kind of girl… but I guess the fact that I used to wake up really early to make sweets to my friends at school just to see them smile would be one of my most memorable… at least, that’s what they mostly remind me of.
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I honestly try to do good deeds all the time. The most recent good deed is helping a friend who also happens to be an ex out with his current girlfriend. All my friends look to me for advise so I’m used to helping people with their problems. However him being my ex makes it a tad uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I always listen to him and try to be there for him simply because I know he needs a friend!!!
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
one of them, is me playing with my ‘aunts’ (my family friend) kid. they moved to the philipines from america when the girl was 3, so she was already speaking english by the time they moved. so when she got to the philipines, alot of people made fun of her because of her accent, or they didn’t really talk to her because she spoke english. when we visited them over the summer, i played with her alot, and my aunt told me that what i did was really special & nice. the girl has cousins my age, but they don’t really play with her, she said, and that cami (the girl) said that she liked me alot as her big sister.
i don’t really look at it as a good deed, but my aunt & her husband, and my mom all think so.
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Every christmas, I always try to keep cash on me (im a credit card person) so when I come across any homeless people I am sure to give them something. Its nice to know that I will have something to give to someone who really needs it more than I do.
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
When my best friend’s father needed emergency heart surgery, I stayed with her at the hospital all night, even though I had my math midterm the next day. Even the thought of failing the next day (though I didn’t) scared me, I couldn’t leave her by herself.
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I went to a competitive college prep high school and was a member of National Honors Society (NHS) throughout to help make my college application more competitive. As an NHS member I was require to complete a large amount of community service and so would do a different project every year. My projects ranged from volunteering at a local girls club to tutor and hang out with underprivileged pre-teens, to volunteering on a non-profit sustainable farm and even going to Mississippi to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina hit. On every project I felt as though I was doing something good and helping my community. But when writing my college applications I realized that I probably would not have become involved in any of those things had I not been so concerned about getting into a good college. Most high schools require their students to do community service so they can write college essays about it, and that is exactly what I did. I realized that my mixed motives kept me from really getting involved in something that I truly wanted to commit to.
When I got to college I involved myself mostly in things that I was interested in: singing, making music, my classes and making new friends, but after my first semester I came home and when I went back to church, even though I am not very religious, realized that I felt like something was really missing from my life. I went with my church group to the tenderloin in San Francisco to sing Christmas carols for the homeless and economically disadvantaged family. Connecting with all the people in the community center through music and even though it sounds corny, the holiday spirit, was the most amazing feeling I have ever shared with people I didn’t know. I continue going to the retirement home near my college and spending time with some of the college alumni who have moved back there to be near the college again. I never had grandparents so making a real connection with that generation has been one of the biggest and most amazing journeys of my life!
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
The last time I saw my grandmother before her death, I spent the day helping her with her crossword puzzle (something that can be trying after the first hour, but brought her so much joy). I didn’t know then that it would be the last time I saw her, but I remember thinking to myself: “Enjoy this time with her”
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I like this story as it just goes to show how much the little things that you might not even think about when you’re doing them really can make a difference to someone.
In a class with a really quite mean lecturer, a girl was doing a presentation and I thought she looked a little nervous (which isn’t surprising given how mean the lecturer can be at times) so whenever I noticed her looking at me I smiled encouragingly. A few days later she passed me in the corridor and stopped me to say thank you for smiling as it had really helped her with her nerves and encouraged her whilst doing her presentation.
It’s not saving the world, but it made a difference to her when it mattered.
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
One evening my boyfriend and I were at the cinema. As he took out his Pulp Fiction wallet (y’know,the Samuel L. Jackson one…), the boxoffice cashier gushed, “Oh I love your wallet, i love that movie, happy happy joy joy, etc!”
I’d never seen someone so enthusiastic about a WALLET.
A few weeks later, we were in a shop and I saw the exact wallet for sale.
Not knowing this girl, or if she was in work that night or WHAT, I took a chance. I bought the damn thing, and walked over to the cinema on the other side of the city.
She was there, and looked pretty tired. I skipped the queue and just handed her the bag, and said “PRESENT! (^_^)”
She looked scared at first (I doubt she rememvered me), but I can’t forget the big shocked happy face she had on as I left. It wasn’t big or important, but it was random as hell and FUN!
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I am so inspired by all of the posts here. It is wonderful to know that good people do exist!
I feel that my most memorable good deed is teaching children that caring for others is important. That may seem kind of silly, but I feel that the best thing anyone can do for anyone is to teach someone else to care and make an effort.
I work in childcare, with children ages 2-3. I try to stress to them each day that they truly are lucky for having what they have, and that they should remember to help others. Two months ago, it occured to me that just telling them to help wasn’t enough – I needed to be doing it with them. I needed to show them how. Since then, we have hosted a various drives for clothing, toys and food.. We also went through the classroom together in search of things we did not use, or need. We then took those items and had a sale for all the things that we didn’t use, but that weren’t in good enough condition to give to charity. Most of the items were bought by the kids in my classes parents, but that’s okay – it raised money for a great cause. The things that sold at our little sale raised money for a local no-kill animal rescue center.
We’re cooling it a b it with the drives right now, as we’ve had so many all at once, but I already have plans for some for us to do come fall.
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
I’m a customer service specialist for a non-profit organization, so I actually get the joy of helping do “good deeds” on a national level every day :)
I can’t think of anything “memorable” at the moment, but I always try to do little good deeds…I always hold the door for people, if I go to an arcade I give my prize-tickets to some little kid, just yesterday I warned a lady stepping into the bathroom stall next to mine that that particular stall was out of toilet paper (I found out the hard way…eek!).
I also recently surprised a friend with a specialty gourmet cupcake whilst she was in the middle of a horribly rotten day.
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
My good deed is that I “saved” a horse a long time ago.
Years ago, when I was seven, I rode horses. My riding teacher asked me if I wanted to go to a horse show that she was competing in. I went. I was hanging around the horse trailer when all of a sudden I noticed there was a horse in the field. No one was around it nor was it tied up. I watched the horse for a while. It started moving farther away, I knew something wasn’t right. I went up to my riding teacher and I asked, “Why is that horse out there?”
Later, after she found its owner, she told me good job and said “That horse could have run away and gotten hurt. You saved that horse!” It had never occurred to me that the horse could have run away. I was so excited that I went right home and told my mom. :]
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
This is a great idea, Doe! :D
Well, the most memorable deed I’ve ever done would have to be last year…
My mom is a social psychologist and works in a children’s house… It’s a place where children can go after school, to have lunch, do their homework, eat some snacks, play, learn crafts and computer skills and some other activities. The celebrate birthdays, holidays and special ocasions. It’s for childs who either live on the streets or live in awful situations.
There is this girl, Jennifer, who lived with her mother, her 5 sisters and her step-father… She is over a year younger than me… And her step-father used to rape her.
After a few months, she moved out of her house to a definite children’s home, where she’s been living for over 2 years now.
The deal is that here, in Uruguay, 15th birthdays are celebrated for girls with a huge party, a white dress, a big cake and many guests… Kind of like 16th birthdays in the US.
She turned 15 last year, and she had no dress, no shoes, no place to make the party… And my mom and myself helped her to get anything within our own posibilities…
I borrowed my own 15th birthday dress, and even my white shoes, I made a cake (big one -.-) and gave her a present, which was a denim jacket…
The smile on that girl’s face was something that I will never forget… How her face lit up was just beyond anything I could have ever imagined!
It was a great day, and I still cherish those memories! It was amazing! And it felt awsome!
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
trying my spanish on a man at the thrift store who thought he was buying $30 shoes when the lady really said $13. “Uhhh…..senor….”
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
i donated my hair to locks of love. it took a really long time for me to grow my hair to donate but i think i was definitely for a good cause. =)
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
when i was a teacher, one year for international woman’s day, i read my class a piece about how i had been sexually abused for years as a child. i felt it was important that my students put an actual face to the statistics and to know that the topic was something they didn’t need to be ashamed to discuss. following that class, one of my students ended up going forward with court proceedings against a relative who had abused her years for years saying to me that i allowed her to realize that she could move forward and that she could be a good person and do something with her life.
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I used to work in a busy foot-traffic area of downtown, where there are a lot of homeless people. The official policy of the building I worked in was to ignore them and have them shuffled out of the building by security as soon as possible, and I had arguments with my managers more than a few times about the way they treated people. Where I live, it gets pretty cold in the winter, and this one particular day it was about -40° C (or F). A lot of the buildings downtown are connected by above-ground indoor walkways, and in one of them on my lunch break, I found two homeless men huddling out of the cold. They were really nice- they complimented my dress and chatted with me for a bit and explained that they were just trying to get warm indoors somewhere. I had to rush to get back to work on time, but I asked my manager for a break, got two coffees from the break room, and took them back to the walkway. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, security guards had kicked the men out and I couldn’t find them, so I had to pour out the coffee and recycle the cups. =(
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
My dad used to work in construction until he tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder. Any site that he worked on was always cleaned and returned to the condition that it was originally in, which included removing all nails from the ground. Today, when we see a nail on the ground, we pick it up and throw it out. While it may seem insignificant and far too simplistic, the way I see it, my dad and I are impacting other people’s lives because that nail just as easily could have put a hole in the tire of an emergency vehicle that was going to save a person’s life.
It is an easy good deed to do; when you are walking on the street, look around and see if you can find a nail. Whenever trucks carrying construction equipment go over bumps, they inevitably scatter nails across the street. A careful eye is all it takes to impact someone’s life.
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I helped my ex-boyfriends best friend (who i dont particularly enjoy spending time with) when he was too drunk at our place one time. I hid his keys and got him bundled up in bed, but alas, he threw up!! I spent half of the night cleaning it up, and taking care of him when everyone else was gone and ex-bf was passed out :S
He thanked me in the morning, and decided to be slightly nicer to me after that! Haha!
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
One week befor she died, I gave my grandma a hug. Might seem wierd that a hug should be a good deed, but it really was in this case. I’ve got Aspergers Syndrome, and I’m really not fond of body contact. It feels like wading through a pool of slime and being pinched by needles at the same time. She always kept asking me about it, and I never gave her one. I realized I had to step out of my comfortzone just for this one time, and give her a hug. After all, she was dying and I realy loved her. So I did. She started crying, she was so happy. And my grandma wasn’t the emotional kind of person so it ment a lot. Sometimes you have to make nice things for those closest to you. Small but important things.
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Talked a stranger out of ending their life while I was going through a tough time myself. They didn’t jump in the end and it was the best feeling when I ran into them again not long after and they told me they were seeing a therapist and feeling much better :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
my good deed is when on my birthday i found a baby squrell and i gave it to a rescue group so he would survive and anothertime i found a dying bird and i made her more comfterable when she dided and buried her with a cute tombstone :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
The most memorable good deed I did was to set up a booth at my school to aid the women in the Congo who are being brutally raped and mutilated. We made fliers with facts on what is going on in the Congo. We also made lollipops with a fact about the Femicide going on and those were given out to people who donated. We raised around 200 dollars and sent it to the Pansy Hospital that helps the women who have been victims. Afterward I felt so happy and better than I ever felt. That moment made me realize that helping someone can bring you such great joy. Even though it was not a large amount of money and amount would be appreciated.
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I don’t have one particular thing that stands out in my mind. But I try to live my life doing good deeds every day, even if they’re small.
I avoid plastic bags at grocery stores and try to bring my own. I break for animals crossing the road. I try to be there for my friends even when I don’t necessarily agree with their decisions. I know that my family means well even if I sometimes find them to be old-fashioned in thinking. I smile and say “hi” to sales people when I’m shopping because I know what it’s like to work retail. I try my best to forgive and forget my friends even if we get into a fight. I try my best in my immediate ability and just hope that it’s good enough.
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Two years ago, when I was working at my college bookstore, a girl came into the bookstore asking to use our phone. Her car had been towed during the 2 minutes she was in the store and needed to call the company to see how much the car cost to pick up. This girl was a foreign student, and was in the country with no family or friends, meaning no way to pick up her car. I felt really bad for her, because she started crying while we were there, so I decided to lend her some money.
I asked my boss if I could run to the ATM at the student center to give the girl money for her car, and he tried to convince me that it was a scam. Scam or not, I felt for the girl, as my roommate at the time was also a foreign student, and I realized how hard it must be to have no one in the country to help her out. So, I clocked out of work and took her to an ATM. Then, we flagged down a campus officer who offered to drive her to the impound.
Honestly, if I didn’t ever get the money back, I would have been happy that the girl had a way to get her car back and get home safely. But she did end up tracking me down the very next day and paying me back. I am so glad I was able to help her out. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I found about four kittens that were abandoned in my backyard. They weren’t any older than 10 days so I took them in and bottle fed them. I found homes for two of them and kept the other two for myself because I got so attached. If I had it my way I would have kept all four haha.
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
my most memorable deed is giving someone their phone theyd lost. where we were if you drop your phone somewhere, your not getting it back
so then like ten minuets later i saw a girl looking for her phone i asked them about it and they said what their wallpaper was so i knew it was hers :) i handed it to her and she got the biggest smile on her face :D
i felt happy in my tummy lol :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Okay, well, until a few years ago, I thought this was a dream…
I feel bad sharing this for these purposes, but…
When I was younger, until I turned four, I lived with my gran and grandpa. My gran used to go out a lot, and my grandpa didn’t keep well. One night it was just me and him in their house, and he started taking a fit, as I thought. I phoned an ambulance, gave the address, and, according to my gran who was told by the doctors, saved his life. What makes it even stranger is I couldn’t have been older than three or four.
L xXx
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
My great grandfather is blind. My great grandmother takes care of him everyday. She never does anything for herself. When I was little, she took care of me. I was given a female chihuahua/poodle puppy who was neglected. As a gift to my great grandma, I gave her it. It made her so happy, She calls bella her baby and puts a smile on her face.
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I went to get a makeover at my favorite makeup counter just for fun. I overheard a girl arguing on her cell phone with her significant other about how she was very sorry but she would be late for their date. My appointment was before her’s but I let her go before me and even though I had to wait over an hour and a half for my turn, it was very rewarding to see how greatful she was and how beautiful she looked. ^_^
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I once used to work for Michaels Arts and Crafts as an instructor. Every few months or so they would have many instructors set up and do their thing in the middle of the store to drum up business for the classes.
We’ll about 1/2 and hour into the show this little girl comes over to us, she can’t be over than 5, and just sits down and hangs out with us.
I gave her some stuff to draw with, and some tips to help (but I don’t think she listened), and the Wilton instructor gave her a cupcake.
She was with her for the next hour and a half. I eventually had to send someone to track down her guardian as we were getting worried. But it turned out ok in the end.
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I used to volunteer at an elementary school library. Whenever the kindergardeners came in, I would always get to read them a story, and it was always so special knowing that all these adorable little kids were following my every word, and that they were always so excited to see me. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
A good deed….? I mus be evil because I’m racking my brain trying to think here.
I washed the blood stained walls at work. I work at my local vet and my job is just to vacuum and mop the floors. I noticed the surgery walls had blood on them and thought it might upset the animals so I washed them down.
I also spend lots of extra time at work when there’s cats there so I can pet them and keep them company a little.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I’ve spent the last year helping teach English to women from the Middle East that have immigrated to Canada. Every Tuesday I would sit down with a group of about 15 of them, and go through everything from the basics (animals, letters) to things about banking and shopping. The gratitude in their eyes more than made up for any time spent there.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I try to do random little good deeds everyday, i give people compliments everyday and try to treat everyone with respect. love to use coupons so i have a lot of them, a really cool good deed i like to do is if im at a store and i see an item i have a coupon for but im not getting or i have extra of those coupons, I leave the coupon on the products so that the next person buying that item gets extra savings, so im whats known as a coupon fairy. I think that with the economy as bad as it is we should all try to help each other even if its a small help.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I talked a guy out of killing himself.
Scariest moment of my life.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I live in Brazil and although it`s far from being a 3rd world country anymore, from time to time we still get shocked by poverty. A few years ago, I was coming home from Easter lunch at my mom`s, the backseat full of Easter chocolate eggs. I then saw a man fishing half a papaya out of a streen bin and as he was about to eat it I stopped the car and shouted for him to stop. I gave him some lunch leftovers and 2 Easter eggs, and I saw his eyes tearing as he thanked me profusely. That`s the kind of thing that change our lives forever…
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I gave one of my friends at work some clothes I no longer wore to take to the homeless shelter she volunteers at around the beginning of the year. One day at church she saw that the woman next to her was upset, and acting on a feeling she had she asked the woman if she needed some clothes and told her that she had some in her car, since she hadn’t yet taken them to the shelter. The woman replied that she did and my friend told me about a week later that she thanked me for them; the clothes had given her a little more confidence and lifted her spirits.
It was one of the strangest things in my life to come into work and hear, “Lauren! You saved a life!” especially for such a small act as donating some clothing.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I remember last year, one of the staff members at my school needed help moving an ice chest. Without thinking, I helped her: remove the ice, count the bottles, and stack the ice chests. It was the same day as the promotion ceremony at my school and I was supposed to play the graduation song in the band. I had to change but because I helped that staff member, I wasn’t able to change and had to be all inappropriate and sweaty for our FORMAL performance. I stuck out like a sore thumb. Good thing it was really hot out and the band teacher didn’t notice.
Pretty embarrassing though. >.<”"”
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I was drawing and this little girl (I think she’s 7) came up to me, she’s on the same swim team as my sisters- but I didn’t know her very well.
She watched for a bit and then left.
The next week her mom (which made me realize I do infact know them haha) came up to me and told me that that girl was so inspired that she had spent every free bit of her time just drawing out things, since that day she saw me.
I don’t know if that can be considered a good deed, but I inspired a girl to start drawing :)
It still makes me happy to think about.
Last Tuesday her mom broght me one of her pictures (this is a full 6 months after my story took place) she’s still going at it!
:)
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I saw this blind old lady begging for change on the street. It was Christmas time, so it was particularly cold and something about her just struck me and made me go meet her.
I emptied my wallet but all the coins were really small change, so I apologised for not being able to give her more. She touched my hand with her cold rough hand and said “It’s ok, because with your love the coins magically transform into a lot of money inside this can. You made my day just by talking to me. Thank you, bless you and have a wonderful christmas”.
That was the most humbling experience in my life, and although I never saw her again, every now and then I still think of her and pray that she’s better.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
A while ago one of my friends became the focus of a lot of gossip at school, because of one mistake she made. No one believed her side of the story except for me. I tried to get everyone else to understand the truth, but they never did.
I continued to stay on my friends side and i was the only person she had to talk to. I helped her feel better and eventually everyone stoped talking about her. Im glad i didn’t abandon her because we’re still best friends today.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
when i was a senior in high school i took in a german exchange student who was miserable in his initial homestay placement. it made a huge difference in his life and changed mine forever too.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
This is a two part good deed years ago when I was like 12 maybe. My mom, sister, and I had just finished dinner at a resteraunt and were heading home. I had not finished my steak and was taking it for later. We came across a man who was homeless holding a sign. I asked my mom if we could turn around and go back I wanted to give him my leftovers. She was very proud of me and it made me feel like the best person in the world. About a week ago my boyfriend and I were going to Big Lots to check out some sales. We passed a guy that had a will work for food sign. We went into the store did our thing and we came back out I asked my BF if the guy was still around the corner. He said he thought so but couldnt tell. I said o.k. lets run to McDonalds. I bought a double cheeseburger and some water. We pulled around to where the man was and I was like here you go. It made me feel that eventhough life isn’t the greatest for me and my boufriend job wise. There is always some one worse off than you and I have it bad but I could still afford a couple bucks to help someone out. Recently I recieved a little bonus at work so it made me think that karma happens.
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
A couple of weeks ago my family and I went on vacation to Oregon. My two older sisters and I were waiting in the car outside a grocery store, and I happened to notice that there was a steady little stream of smoke coming from where a shrub was planted. So I got and looked at it, but the ground was just smoldering a little, so I stomped on it a bit and went back to the car. But, alas! it started smoking worse! So my sister and I grabbed a bottle of water and went back over to check it out again… we could see some little flames then, and I can honestly say I really didn’t want that bush to catch on fire! We doused it out with the water and I stomped on it again. Ha.
It made me feel REALLY ridiculously good, because I hardly ever get the chance to do a good deed!!
BrassBird
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
My mom and stepdad (RIP) used to gather food and presents around Christmas time. We would put them in a large box, and then on Christmas Eve, take them to a struggling family in our church and put the box of goodies on their doorstep anonymously. Then we would knock on their door, and run as fast as we could to our car and speed away. It was so exhilarating!
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June 4th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Sorry for the double post, but I read many of the comments here and I want to say what great and amazing people read Doe’s blog and I want to congratulate everyone on their good deeds and wish them the best of luck in this contest. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I dont think it a deed, but I always carry chocolate because you never know when someone its gonna need a cheer up. Chocolate have a way to make you feel happy, it gives you comfort. I always carry chocolate and a smile. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
A non-profit, grassroots organization I joined when I was seventeen years old traveled to India to do some sustainability-focused service work. On one afternoon, my group and I visited one of the most run-down open slum communities near where we were staying and spent the day distributing rice and flour to families, as well as candy and toys for the kids. It was so profound to connect to a world I could not even begin to understand from the perspective of privilege I have been born into as an American…
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
One day a summer or two ago, I was wandering around a beautiful park with my best friend when we became very hungry. We went to a lovely burrito joint, where we got two wonderful smelling burritos to eat. As we strolled around, looking for a shady spot to eat, we overheard a couple of homeless boys about our age having a conversation about lunch- counting a few dimes and pennies and discussing what they could possibly purchase with it. Without a word, my friend and I glanced at each other and walked over to the boys and offered them our lunch. The look of gratitude on their faces was unmistakable and unforgettable. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
A few years back, my then boyfriend ate something he shouldn’t have and became very, very sick. It was like he wasn’t there, he kept moaning and making weird noises, I couldn’t get him to answer anything. We were camping at the time, and there was no way for me to call emergency or contact anyone. I stayed in the tent with him, making sure his airways were clear and he could breathe (he was throwing up a lot and it was very sick). I would never have imagined myself being so selfless, being covered in vomit, not caring about myself at all, but only for his safety and well being. It was gross and all, but needless to say he eventually made it. It was very traumatic to me, but the fact is I probably saved his life.
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I chopped off my long hair and donated it to Locks of Love. It’s a charity that takes donated hair, and turns them into wigs for people going through chemotherapy. I did this because first of all, it’s a good cause. But second of all, I had a cousin who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her name was Lizzy, and she was a Jimmy Fund kid. Unfortunately, her cancer was terminal. She died when she was only 7 years old. That was 14 years ago. Although I have no memories of her (I was just 4 years old)I still donate to cancer related charities. I hope my luscious and luxurious locks made a damn fine wig for a girl. Or guy.
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
What is the most memorable, no matter how small, good deed that you’ve done?
There was a woman, who was very elderly and was trying to send money to her grandson who was apparently in jail in canada. The story was pretty much the jail told her to send close to $2000 dollars and she was very determined to help. Her grandson was married, and is a cop in the town I am from. It all sounded very suspicious, and I suggested we try calling the station first. The number she had led me to a disconnected private line. She was very adamant and really just wanted to help her grandson, but I begged her not to send it and attempt contacting his wife no matter how angry he may get if at all.
Turns out she was almost the victim of a popular scam, and people really need to stop preying on the elderly :(
I was very happy that she did not lose her $2000 and her grandson came in personally to thank me, and I’ve never felt better in my entire life :D
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
the memory of doing a good deed that sticks out most in my mind was when I was six, i found a pretty jeweled necklace frozen i the ice on the play ground. I laboured for what seemed like hours (when you’re six doing anything for longer than your attention span of six minutes takes alot of effort) and i got it out. My friends around me told me to keep it, but I asked around until i located the owner. She was older than me and she had tears in her eyes because she had took this pendant from her mom without asking and she didn’t come home from the cold in hours in fear that her mum will be very angry. She gave me a big hug and left for home.
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Last year I was walking home from work, and I saw a boy about 6-7 years old crying on the sidewalk. I stopped and asked him what the matter was, and he said he’d lost his dog. I asked him where it happened, and he pointed a direction. We went there, and we looked. After 10 minutes or so, a puppy came running to us. The kid was so happy! I was too, both for him and for the dof who might’ve become a stray…
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Where I live the metro(subway) is not built for women with babies (or anyone in a wheelchair for that matter). On one particular occasion I saw a young mum trying to pick up her baby carriage and all the bags she was holding and make it up the first flight of stairs before she could get to the flight of stairs with an escalator. I immediately ran to her and asked her if she needed a hand. We each grabbed an end of her carriage and got her safely up.
I just got a warm squishy feeling remembering that. Was that your intent all along! ;)
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Hum, sorry, “Priscillis” is me. Priscillia…
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
My most memorable was when I was moving back to my hometown after living in a different state for eight or nine months. I was driving back all by my lonesome through nothing but desert, super broke and downhearted, and I stopped for gas at this little tiny gas station. There was a girl who had pulled in before me talking to the owner, telling him she only had a couple bucks and no gas. This was when gas was almost 5 dollars a gallon, so it wasn’t going to get her anything. The next gas station was so far away, I knew she would never get there if she didn’t fill up. I could tell he wasn’t sympathetic, so I immediately just told him to add ten bucks worth to my total and give it to her. She was very grateful, and I am really glad that I was there to help her out. Who knows how she would have been able to get out of there had someone not been there to help her out. It made me feel a lot better about my 700 mile drive all alone through the desert knowing I helped someone else through it too.
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Last year for my birthday I travelled across the country for a convention to see a boy that I liked. He happened to get very, very drunk at a party and I spent the night looking after him even though he told me several times to go enjoy my birthday.
Later when everyone else had left he told me he didn’t like me as much as I liked him. I stayed by his side anyways to look after him because I was worried something bad might happen and I even snuggled up to keep him warm when he got cold.
We’re still friends and he still says that I didn’t have to do it but I always insist that I did.
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
just smiling at anyone I serve at work, hoping I’ll make their day brighter :) cause lets admit it, some sales clerks in big cities like Montreal are just real depressing sometimes and ugh it just gets gloomy after a while
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
While living in residence this past year, my friend and I would bake cupcakes – chocolate with peanut butter frosting, spice cake with maple frosting, sprinkles, shiny foil wrappers, piped icing, the whole shebang – and distribute them to all of the people we knew in the dorms. Believe me, after eating cafeteria food for months… it was a definite good deed. :)
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June 4th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I think that my most memorable good deed was when I was younger. I had just gotten my allowance (which was $10, a lot of money for that age) and decided to donate it all to the Salvation Army around Christmas time.
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Recently at my job as a deli clerk at a local gourmet grocery store a woman came in asking for the recipe to a dish we no longer served. I wasn’t able to find the recipe for her, but took down her name, number and email address and referred it to a manager in hopes they would somehow get the recipe to her.
I had doubts they would get it to her, so that night after getting off of work I searched online for something similar to what she was looking for. I found a few good ones and emailed them to her. A few days later I got an email back from her saying how much she appreciated my help!
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
I don’t know that I would call it a good deed, more like a good decision. Over 5 years ago, my husband and I found out I was pregnant, that same month, his ex (Keri, whom he has two children with) found out she had cancer. Shortly after having our daughter, Keri’s cancer had come back. She had little reserves, as she had been treated with chemo for the past several months. On top of this, her relationship with her husband had deteriorated, and he left her with the kids. Instead of returning to work part time and enrolling in school as I had planned, my husband and I moved across town so his son (who was in kindergarten that year) could remain at his school. I stayed home with the kids while their mom was in and out of the hospital being treated. On my first Mother’s Day, my husband took the kid’s to see their mom in the hospital two hours away for what would be her last (she died just a few days later). After Keri’s death, her mother stepped in and tried to convince us to let her take custody of the two kids (we were in our early 20’s and she was worried that we weren’t ready to raise three kids…but who is ever fully prepared regaurdless of age?). We refused her proposal, the kids wanted to stay with their dad, they already saw me as a parental figure, and had become close with their baby sister. Today, the kids have just finished 2nd and 4th grade, the three kids (one boy and two girls) have 4 pets, a fancy rat, and 3 cats. The girls are extremely close though they are almost 4 years apart, they play school, dress up and make up plays all the time. Our son, the oldest, usually prefers to hang out in what I call his cat-cave (his room, in which 2 of our three cats hide out) to play Wii, listen to music (Daft Punk and Krafwerk mostly), or play with his giant collection of action figures. I graduated school a year ago and work in a salon now, my husband just completed his first semester of college. Though our early plans for family life dissolved many years ago, something new evolved, and we are thankful every day.
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
The most memorable deed that I have done is donating blood. <3
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Around Christmas time this year I was told that my co-worker didn’t have enough money to buy her children presents. She has four children (three under the age of 10) and I didn’t think it was fair that someone who works so hard, and puts in such long hours, should have to face her children on Christmas morning with no presents. Although I think they should be grateful for her and her alone, all kids deserve something to unwrap on Christmas morning.
I asked two of my friends at work to chip in and I used my entire paycheck (along with whatever they could afford to give up) and I bought her children presents, presents for her, and a gift card for the grocery store to buy whatever she wanted for dinner and breakfast. I told her that I didn’t want her to feel like it was sympathy or charity, but we all need help sometimes and I was glad to be the one to help out.
The feeling of being able to buy an experience instead of a dress or a magazine with the money I earned is something I’ll never forget.
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
When I was in the 12th grade our religion teacher thought it would be a great idea to divide us into groups and do charity work.
My friend suggested we go to her grandmother’s house to clean and help feed the pets and so we went. What we saw there made our blood run cold. She was very old and could barely stand up let alone take care of herself, the house was a complete disaster with animal feces all over the place, dishes at least a week old undone and the back door was open with a very high step where she could easily fall and break a bone.
But it wasn’t the state the house was in that bothered us, it was the fact that her son and daughter (my friend’s aunt and uncle) who were twice our age lived there and did nothing to help her, they just sat there in the dinning table watching her struggle to walk ordering her to do their laundry. When they noticed we were there they barked orders at us to leave everything spotless and make them dinner.
The poor old lady was on the verge of tears and we were furious. How could anybody treat their mother like that? We spent the entire day cleaning the house and left it sparkling. After we were done we played boardgames with her and told her silly stories to make her laugh. She kept hugging us and telling us to come visit her (which we did).
It was hard but at the end of the day seeing that bright smile on her face and that spark on her eyes was all the reward we ever needed.
Sorry this turned out so long
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
When I was in elementary school, our class would write holiday cards for people in nursery homes, women’s shelters, orphanages. etc. I had always liked to create things, but when it was for someone who was in need of some holiday cheer it made me feel like I could brighten the world little more a, even though I was only nine.
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
This is such a sweet idea :)
I try to do lots of nice little things for people, but one thing I remember seems to stand out, even though it probably seems quite trivial….
When i was younger, my very favourite band at the time, Mr. Bungle, came to my town, and my boyfriend at the time got us tickets.
My friend was also a HUGE fan, but couldn’t afford to go. Being a poverty stricken student myself, I lacked the necassary funds to help her out.
Anyway, I went to the show, and it was amazing.
At the end of the show, I found my way to the front of the stage, and managed to grab a coaster from a small pile that was propping up one the legs of Mike Pattons keyboard. I got him to sign it. It was now a treasured posession!
But the next day, I thought of my friend…. so I took a visit to her house, and presented her with the precious coaster. She was very excited, and jumped for joy! It was only a piece of cardboard with a mans signature and the indentation of a keyboard-supporting table leg on it. But to a couple of 19 year old starry-eyed girls, it was a valuable treasure!
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
the deed happened just now. i just came home from a really long day and saw a shitzu walking. He was along, near to a really dangerous street. So I spent 1 hour and an half following him, making sure he wouldnt cross a street at a bad moment, trying to see If he would find his way back home. Sadly he didnt, so i bought him to the dog parc and wrote a note asking if anybody knew who that shitzu belonged to. if tomorrow no one has pick him up, Im going to bring him to the SPCA and put flyers all around to tell the owner that his dog is waiting for him at the SPCA. I hope he wont stay alone for too long 8( I know dog owner are up really early.. at least, he I know he wont get hit by a car..
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
When Hurricane Ivan hit, the town I lived in was devastated, and everyone was without power. It was a small town and everyone knew everybody. The church started to run a soup kitchen for those who didn’t have any way of making food. There were many older people who weren’t able to leave their homes to get the food, so my cousin and I decided to create some sort of a delivery service. Every day, three times a day, for three weeks, we drove around town delivering hot meals to those who otherwise would not have had food.
It was a heartwarming experience and it made me feel incredible to help out in such a way.
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June 4th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
The most memorable good deed that I have done is helping out a man selling “The Big Issue”(I dont know if you have it in America but its a mag that is availble for under privlidged people to sell, half the money goes to the running of the mag and the other half goes to the seller. “Its not a hand out it’s a hand up”). Anyway, he was walking around the interchange trying to sell some magazines and some jerk had just told him to “Bugger off and get a job”. He looked so hurt that I spent my last $5 buying an issue from him and ended up walking home as I had no bus money. It was well worth it though as he was unbelievebly greatful and wouldn’t stop blessing and thanking me. I’m now a regular “Big Issue” buyer from that same guy. I just makes you feel good to know that you’re supporting people.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:01 am
One of the more memorable nice deeds I can recall was when I helped a lil girl that had been separated from her parents at a county fair, I bought her some cotton candy and we went and looked for her very relieved mother. The exact same thing had happened to me when I was her age and remembered how terrifying it was to be lost in a place like that.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Our martial arts group (huge group) went to a small restaurant with like two waitresses.. so they were seriously swamped with lack of hands. I helped by carrying out the water.. it was funny cause I was even mistaken for a waitress.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:06 am
What is the most memorable, no matter how small, good deed that you’ve done?
In high school I volunteered I did a lot of volunteer work and I really liked working one summer at a day camp with some kids. We taught them some things and did crafts. It was a lot of fun. The other summer I worked doing crafts with the elderly. Small things like crafting with people can make such a difference. A lot of the elderly didn’t always have someone to come and see them.
I wish I had more time to do things like that now.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Yesterday, my madre going over the speed limit, down the highway, I practically hung halfway through the window on the passenger side of the vehicle, giving a thumbs-up to everyone we passed. A lot of people smiled, and one dude even gave me a thumbs-up back. Haha. It was so much fun. Especially going by the roadside workers. Even gave them that subtle head nod thing you give people from across the room when they’re doing a good job. (:
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:13 am
My grandmother recently had knee and hip replacement surgery. It has been difficult for her, because she’s a proud independent Italian woman who doesn’t like asking for help. Her house and garden are big sources of pride for her.
I’ve been asking for ages if I can come around and help her tidy, help with the garden etc, but she keeps brushing me off, however she has been very irritable and cranky lately, because she is having troubles. This wasn’t working for anyone, as she wouldn’t LET anyone help, yet she was causing herself stress and angst by not being able to help herself.
Last weekend I drove up with four bales of hay, blood and bone, fertiliser and shovels and without asking weeded and mulched her garden. It took about two minutes of insisting before she let me continue. I also booked a cleaner to come over to give her a hand with things like vacuuming and mopping.
She gave me the biggest heartfelt hug I’ve ever had by the end of it :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:15 am
I was down on the Loop in St. Louis, and I ran into this woman who was stuck down there. Someone had stolen her car and she needed to find a way to get to her daughter who was home alone in a not so good part of the city. I helped her find a cab and paid for the trip. I saw her down there recently and she still remembers me. I’d say helping her out was worth way more than the shoes I’d planned on buying.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Hello! I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now but never commented before. I love your make-up line but I can’t get it here in Asia. I can’t say that I’ve really done a lot of good deeds…. but I looked after both my parents in the hospital when they had surgery. I also teach little kids and counsel older youths. I guess those count as good deeds right?
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:18 am
I’d have to say the best good deed I’ve done was having my daughter! I realize this sounds arrogant and selfish. At the same time, she’s brought nothing but joy into the lives of everyone she meets (well, except for that one baby sitter :) She endows a round-the-clock smile to my face and induces happiness in random strangers in the line at the bank. Even if she didn’t, she’s still a good deed unto myself, and I think that’s something we all forget to do to often.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:25 am
The most memorable good deed I’ve done was helping a young lady find her bus pass, after she dropped it on the bus. It was a school assigned pass, which are quite expensive to replace, I was informed. We searched around for it awkwardly for a few minutes before I found it and gave it back to her. She was so grateful– it totally made my day.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:27 am
I just have to say that while reading some of these stories, I feel overwhelmed and humbled. What a great opportunity for your readers to share life experiences! I feel gratitude for the bravery of some and the selflessness of others. Thank you.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:35 am
The most memorable good deed I’ve done was helping my mom when she brought home one of her friends who had become homeless and jobless. She was there for three days but during that time my mom managed to find her another job and an apartment while I helped sort through my mom’s old clothes to give to her friend, find make-up for her, give her my never-been-used hairdryer and helped cook meals. Her friend was in a terrible place in her life and I wasn’t exactly a saint and good hostess; but, I did understand that even if I didn’t like her taking my mom’s time and energy, a good person would push those feelings aside and help out a friend in need. I felt good after she left with a smile on her face.
I’m new to the blog and felt this was a good way to start off here.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:50 am
My most memorable good dead that I’ve done was when I was about 10, my sister was falling from a rock, and she’s only a year younger than me. So, she’s about the same size as me. But I caught her when she fell. She fell about 7 feet I’d say. That’s all I remember about it. I’ve asked her about it to this day, and doesn’t even remember it. Ha ha
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:03 am
It wasn’t much, but I was sitting in the food court at Uwajimaya, waiting for my friends to come back with the food. I was saving seats because there were three of us and it was VERY busy. The tables are long, probably four tables pushed together, self bussed and pretty much a free for all. You almost always end up sitting by someone you don’t know. It’s actually kind of fun.
As I was sitting a couple sat beside me and a few minutes later a group of women, mothers and daughters, moved to sit at the other end. I had coats on our chairs but they asked me anyways if the seat next to me was taken. I said it was which meant one of the women didn’t have a seat. Of course I felt bad and got up, went to a table nearby and brought a chair back to scoot in next to me. They were completely shocked that a stranger was getting them a chair but I told them my friends were taking forever and I felt bad that one of them had to stand. We all had to scoot together a little more but I didn’t mind. For the rest of the meal they thanked me and praised me for being so sweet and helpful. It made me feel so good and made me laugh a little that it was such a surprise that someone would help them out.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:09 am
What a sweet prompt! And how heartwarming to read everyone’s stories!
One summer in highschool, while I was attending some summer program at a local university, a friend and I were jamming together in the dorm’s common room (he on the piano, me on violin.) Then, a finger tapped on my shoulder and someone asked, “I’m getting married in the courtyard outside in an hour and I think your guys’ playing is lovely! Would you two play for the ceremony?” “Of course!” Friends helped drag the piano outside. It was small- just the bride, groom, 2 bridesmaids and groomsmen, and a handful of friends. But it was such a sweet ceremony! The bride and groom recited vows they wrote themselves, and then jumped over a broom. I’ve played many weddings in my life, almost all the other times for pay, but that might have been the loveliest. My friend and I were so happy to have randomly been part of their special day.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:10 am
My most memorable good deed happened in november. i went to see my favorite band, dir en grey live for the second time. i waited all day and ended up making friends with people in the line. one of them, Megan, travelled from nova scotia to see them. it ws crazy.
anyways, the band was having a private signing for anyone who bought the cd at the venue. so obviously, i was going to buy one. megan spent all her money on her ticket here, she didnt have enough. so instead of buy a shirt as well, i went and bought her the cd as well. she was so happy she got to meet them. it made me feel great
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:21 am
I´m truly lucky to be able to participate in improving the lives of my clients. I am a hairstylist & makeup artist and I have been touched by how profoundly you can change someones life by enhancing their beauty or providing them with the tools they need to increase their self worth, it might sound very trivial but it’s like watching a butterfly come out of it´s cocoon.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:30 am
My ex-boyfriends mom is an amazing woman. Unfortunately though, due to a bad divorce and a multitude of other circumstances, she lives in a tiny apartment in a not so great part of town. Because my ex and I dated for so long, but are still on good terms, I still visit with her as often as I can and make sure she is doing okay. This past mother’s day I bought her a big bouquet and slipped a fifty in her purse when I went to bring it to her. She cried when I gave her the flowers and called me crying when she found the money. I love her like my own mother and would do anything for her. So, that’s my good deed.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:33 am
My most memorable good deed happened very recently, but I doubt I’ll ever forget it. One day a friend and I were getting lunch from a Hawaiian restaurant across the street from our school campus, and while she was ordering a frozen yogurt, I could’ve sworn I saw a dog waddling about outside. We were sharing the dessert when I caught sight of it again, just about ten minutes later.
I wondered to myself, “Where’s the owner?” and asked my friend Celina if she could wait a moment, then went outside to go pet the pup. When I approached it, it came over, looking bright as a button and five times as cute, and as I stroked its fur (it was shedding like mad!) I realized that the poor thing had no collar.
I don’t remember how long I was outside the restaurant, hunched down in the middle of the walkway with a stray dog and looking like some sort of wannabe-Doctor Doolittle, asking the pup questions: “Hey, what’s your name? Where’d you come from, huh?” Eventually, Celina came out, with a half-melted yogurt in one hand and her food in the other. She asked me what was going on and when I informed her that the dog was a stray, she cooed at it.
I’m not sure how it happened, but I ended up telling her to go on ahead, and that I’d wait at the restaurant and ask around to see if anyone owned the dog. Around that time I’d taken to teasingly telling the dog, “Stop following strangers! Don’t be a bum!” and ended up referring to it as Bum, or Bummy. I asked Celina if it was okay if I could wait and not only did she say it was alright, she also decided to wait with me.
We hung around for a bit; the yogurt was soup around that time, and we ended up including two people in our vigil, one who lent us her cell phone so we could call animal control. Animal control was supposed to come by in about a half-hour, but it seemed more like two hours, and all I could think about was what was going to happen to Bum, and maybe if I could take it home, because it was a darling and came over when I called “Bum!” and lolled about and was so adorable and I think I might have fallen in love with it.
When the animal control person came, I found out Bum was a girl, and I honestly felt close to tears when I was asked to leash Bum since she was stuck at my side. I ended up helping her into the van and even got to say goodbye before the guy drove her away.
That was about a month or so ago. The day before yesterday, Celina came up to me excitedly, telling me she had gone by the shelter where the animal control guy said he was sending Bum. Apparently, Bum had been adopted by a little old lady, and Celina thought that I should know.
I still miss Bum, she was such a dear, but I’m glad that she has an owner now. I think that was one of the best things I’d ever done, I’m so happy thinking of her having someone to call her own.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:34 am
My most memorable good deed, though it wasn’t exactly me and it was quite a long time ago, was when I was living at my grandmothers house and our cat broke the wing of a bird. I was about five or six at the time, and even near fifteen years later this still sticks in my head.
Our cat had attacked it and left it for dead, and my grandmother found it outside. She had a decorative bird cage in her house, so she took the bird inside, and cleaned the cage out for it. For the next couple of weeks we fed the bird, and gave it water until it was finally strong enough to fly on it’s own. When it was healthy we took it outside and let it go. And never saw it again.
Though it’s not completely my good dead, it still stays with me to this day. It’s one of the good memories that I will always have of my grandmother after her death. And it couldn’t make me happier to have been reminded of it. Thank you. :]
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:53 am
My grandma had just came out of a hip replacement surgery. She was terrified going in. When she came out I baked her a cake (: She has a sweet tooth and it made her really happy.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:54 am
a couple of weeks ago i found this little black cat wit twisted little legs lying still beside the road. it was still warm, but its light had gone out. she didn’t have a name, or collar, and was seemed to be a stray, and maybe she wasn’t so i shouldn’t have done this but i did and i’m proud of myself.
i ran back home, got a little pillow and a rug from my own cats bed, as well as a tin of tuna. now ‘little kitty’ is buried is my backyard, all rugged up cosy ready for dinner.
xx
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:55 am
A little while ago I found two $50 notes on the ground – I immediately took them to the police station. A week later, I got a card and package in the mail from the lady whose money it was. Apparently she was on the way to the post office to send the money to her grandchildren – she was so relieved to get it back that she bought me some Turkish Delight and wrote a lovely card saying that the world needs more people like me.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:57 am
This isn’t particularly impressive but it’s sticking in my mind for some reason… I was walking back to my car after uni and some guy asked me for some money because he’d lost his train ticket and he had no money on him and therefore didn’t really have any way of getting home. I happened to not have to pay for parking that day so i had some spare change so i gave it to him.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:04 am
I was walking to my boyfriend’s house at the time, and just a way’s down my street there was a baby bird in the middle of the sidewalk. Now, I grew up in a ghetto ass town with shitheads for street mates, so I was afraid some asshole kid would ride his bike over the poor thing. I used my beanie to pick it up and carried it with me halfway to my boyfriend’s house. I talked to Finley [I'm picking a random name for the bird] the whole way and didn’t want to leave it, but I was really worried about whether or not I was doing the right thing. I thought maybe I shouldn’t have touched Finley in the first place. I should have just kept it with me, I don’t know what ever happened to Finley. But atleast I didn’t leave it on the sidewalk.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:23 am
I was flipping through random websites and I came across one that was a how-to for making banners– things that said, for example “You look marvelous” and “smile!”
I was really struck by this idea and collected twine, stencils, and multiple colors of cardstock to make a banner for my best friend, who I hadn’t seen in awhile (we go to college in separate states). So I gave her a red-and-blue banner that said “You are loved!” and she kept it hung up in her dorm room all this year.
I mentioned this specifically because she just mentioned it again, as she packed it to bring home for the summer– she said she really liked looking at it every day!
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:52 am
In seventh grade a girl from Sudan came to my school. She immediately stood out as she was about a billion feet tall, had the most beautiful dark skin, and a prominant scar across her cheek. She spoke English fairly well but was very very shy and spoke with an accent and in the beginning had no friends. She arrived at our school shortly before Valentine’s Day and was in my class. On Valentine’s Day, I had an extra valentine and since I noticed that she didn’t have any valentines, I decided to give it to her. When I handed it to her with a brief explanation, her face lit up with the biggest grin I have ever seen. I was the first person to reach out to her, and ended up becoming good friends with her.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:53 am
When I was in elementary school, my aunt, her friend, and I found a baby bird outside in the grass. It had fallen out of its nest and the bottom portion of its beak was completely gone, so we took it in and syringe fed it and took care of it. That only lasted about a week, because the poor thing didn’t make it, but I still have pictures of the bird. :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:02 am
There are a lot of homeless and impoverished people in the are where I attend university. During the year, especially when it’s really cold, when I see one of the homeless people who live in the neighborhood I like to buy them lunch or coffee. It’s only one meal, but I hope they feel more like part of the community.
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:28 am
My friend Eric and I were in the city for a day and we got a little bit lost on our way to a restaurant we had made reservations at. We ended up walking into a side street, where we saw a bunch of teenagers terrorizing a kid who was 11 years old, so we ran in there and started yelling at the kids, who ran away. We started talking to the kid (he told us his name was Dustin) to find out what he was doing all alone, and he told us he was with his mom and two sisters in the city for his mom’s birthday, and somehow got separated from them. We helped clean him up and took him to the police station, and we waited with him until his mom got there. We ended up taking them to the restaurant we were planning on going to and we bought them dinner to celebrate. It’s one of the best memories I have =^]
Eric and I got a picture with Dustin and I kept it in a keepsake box, but unfortunately the box got lost when I moved out of state =^[
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:38 am
My one would be asking a guy friend of mine to go on a date with me. I was on the rebound and thought that if I was going to latch on to someone then it should be him. He was very depressed and always felt realy unwanted and uncared for. I thought that by even just asking it would show him that he wasn’t as unloved as he thought. I got rejected, but I later found out that me asking him had given him the confidence he needed to go out and speak to a guy he liked. Now they’re a couple and are madly in love with each other. For most of the time I’ve known him my friend has been unhappy and it’s so great to see him now really happy with this guy he loves.
It still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, nobody deserves to find love more than him.
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:48 am
One day I had so much change in my purse that it was weighing me down. Sooo, since I didn’t want to walk around with it all day, I decided to walk down the street checking parking meters and putting the change in the ones that had expired. Hopefully I saved a few people from parking tickets. :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:01 am
Hmmhmmm lemme think..
My classmate, who is also my friend, broke up with her long time boyfriend. She is very in to tarotcards, horoscopes, fen shui etc stuff. I knew that she does not know how to use tarot and have always wanted to know so I met her after school and gave her one of my cards (I kinda collect them). She has no idea that I was gonna do that and her face just turned so bright! I really don´t know how those tarot cards would help her to heal her broken heart but they gave her something else to think about for a while.
It really made me also feel so good to see her better.
Love your blog.
-Oola, Finland.
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:15 am
i think the best deed I ever did, and the saddest, was one night I was out for drinks with my girls and we found a feral cat that had been run over and was paralyzed from the waist down. Using a box and some gardening gloves we managed to put him in the car and rush to my vet’s emergency room. Of course the cat had to be put down, but I stayed with him and stroked him so he wouldn’t go alone. It was very very sad, but I knew I had done something good
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:15 am
i have a friend who loves a band terribly terribly much, it’s the air that she breathes.. the band is from another side of the world and she decided to move there for a couple of months to see them. there were some concerts that she did not manage to get a ticket but i saw one in an online auction and bought it to her as a surprise gift (she didn’t have internet acces there so she couldn’t buy that herself). even though that was a little expensive i know that attending the concert meant so much to her so it was definitely money well spent.
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:31 am
I do save alot of orphaned animals. But I think the most recent one that really made me feel like i had done something nice for someone was during summer. It was one of the horrible days we had this summer in australia, it was around 42 celsius (which i think is about 107 fahrenheit). There is an old man that spends all his time in the out door shopping mall giving out bibles, he pays for the bibles himself with his pension and doesnt ask anything in return for them (i’m not a religious person but I think its wonderful that he does something like this that he really sees as helping people). I went to buy myself a drink and saw him sitting out in the 42 degree heat in his full army uniform and i knew he had been there all day so i decided to buy him a bottle of water. When i handed it to him he gave me the biggest smile and although like i said i’m not religious when he said “god bless you” it really made my day!
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June 5th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Helping my friend care for his elderly parents, one who has Alzheimers and the other who was physically disabled and has passed away now.
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June 5th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Whenever I see a homeless person who looks like they are genuinely struggling, I go to the nearest bakery and buy them a hot meal. It’s not much, but I try my best.
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:01 am
giving birth even If I wasn’t ready. Giving the kid a chance to live and be happy. :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:08 am
This happened just today. I was in drama at school and my group and I were sitting outside, working on a script. One of the girls was sitting in the garden when one my other classmates pointed out an itchy caterpillar crawling on her. She screamed and jumped up (giving me a heart attack)and shook it off herself.
My drama teacher came out because of the noise and told us to settle down. We explained about the caterpillar and he simply said “just kill it!”. I don’t want to bag him out because his an awesome teacher, but that was just unneccssary. As he walked over to it, i made a barrier around it with my hands and kept repeating “No sir, sorry, his in the barrier, can’t touch him” (haha).
I managed to presude him to get a leaf instead and put it somewhere else.
Nature lover <3 =D
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Probably nothing but the only one I can think of right now:
Yesterday I helped a friend with his math, he graduates next week and if he didn’t hand in those mathproblems he wouldn’t get a grade in that subject and that would screw up his grades so he couldn’t go to university…
I guess it’s nothing big. But for him it was really important. And for me that’s all that matters.
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:27 am
I helped a 12-15 year old girl to find her mother.
I was working on the christmas market when this girl wandered around infront of my booth looking all miserable.
So I asked what happened,if I maybe can help.
She told me that she wanted to meet her mother here but she didn’t come yet and she already was waiting for an hour.
I got her mothers phonenumber (the girl didn’t have a cell)and called from my cell.
Her mother was already here but couldn’t find her daugther so she was on her way to the police.
I caught her just before she went inside the police station.
When mother and daughter found each other again,they thanked me and I was all happy for helping them.
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:47 am
I stopped a car from hitting a pigeon who’d broken its wing. I was on my way to the school to pick up my little brothers, and I saw a pigeon in the road who was trying to drag itself onto the sidewalk. I knew the school rush was about to start so without thinking (which in retrospect was rather stupid of me) I went into the road and tried to usher the pigeon away from impending traffic. I waited with the pigeon (who appeared to be trying to get away from me) until someone came and took it away. Sadly, the pigeon’s wing could not be saved, and so the man who came to take it away thought it best to put the bird out of his misery. But at least I tried to help, and so he wasn’t hit by a car.
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June 5th, 2009 at 7:29 am
I’d played two back to back hockey matches about 2 hours journey away for two different teams in the snow. I play in goal so I was frozen stiff and my hands were blue and swollen inside my knuckle guards. After the two hour journey back I was frozen, tired as hell, dirty and I hurt all over but I still ran all the way home the moment I got off of the bus to curl my best friends hair, do her make-up and get her into her dress for the senior’s ball because I knew she really wanted to look nice and she’s no god at doing all the girly stuff!
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June 5th, 2009 at 7:34 am
A friend of mine was killed in a car crash a month ago. He was just 19. I wrote a poem for his parents and sister, it was nothing brilliant, but they cried when they read it. I didn’t want them to be alone, and to forget how much my friends and i loved their son.
^^upon re-reading its not a very eloquently written reply sorry Deer, its still rather hard to think about, but your blog made me hope that my little poem will be memorable for them, as it will always be for me. Thanks.xxx
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:07 am
The most memorable, and best deed that I have done to date is choose to be a foster parent for homeless dogs through the rescue up here in Minnesota, All Dog Rescue. I fostered a Chihuahua that had alopecia (so nearly bald) for about 3 months and showed him what it was like to be in a home where people loved him :) And I turned down multiple applications until I found the perfect home for Toby, and he is SO LOVED. I still get e-mails from his owners (they adopted him back in March) with pictures and updates of all of his new adventures, and I absolutely love it! Its an amazing feeling to know you saved a life, and brought so much joy to someone else :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:44 am
A good did I did was…Some months back, this stray dog (who we named Roxy) had some puppies. They were sleeping in my yard so me and my sisters fed them everyday. We tried to catch them so we could shower them (they had a lot of fleas) but we only caught one. We could tell she felt way better afterwards. We wanted to take them to a shelter but we never could catch them and the shelter didn’t do pick-ups. They left before we could get them. :( I still see Roxy around and one the puppies (who we named Rosalie), the other puppy, I saw only once after at my school which was odd.I think they’re okay.
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:54 am
A few weeks ago I was returning home from a burlesque night and on the way home picked up my little brother. As we turned the corner I noticed a weird glow, quickly realised there was a shed on fire and shouted for my brother to call the fire brigade. I ditched the car in the middle of the road and in full heels and 1950’s swing skirt we proceeded to attempt to put the fire out as it was threatening to spread from the shed to the house. My brother woke the family up, losing his shoes as he ran. After a minute or so I noticed a riot van pulling up so jumped out in the road to stop it, they managed to keep the fire under control till the fire brigade came.
The family had a 4 month old baby and were really grateful, we managed to save their lawnmower and baby toys because we managed to stop it spreading. I looked a bit mad in platforms and fascinator attacking the fire!
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I sent my book some friends. And now, one of them have got me an publisher who wants to read my book.
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I work as a hairstylist and one of my clients is a holistic nurse who works with cancer patients. We regularly work together with some of her patients. I’ve helped her get them through different stages of their “journey”- everything from counselling them through hair loss to helping them choose a style wigs to giving them makeup and skincare tips. It’s amazing how something so small (at least in my eyes) can really lift a person’s spirits.
Plus, it’s very gratifying to me to be able to see someone pull through such a difficult time and to be able to help them restyle a fresh head of hair.
I know it’s helpful to them but I am fulfilled by it, too.
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:06 am
My mom and I found a baby bunny that had lost its mother and one of its legs was hurt. We put it in a box with a blanket and drove for about an hour and a half around town (it was Sunday) looking for some kind of wildlife vet or refuge. Finally we found one that was open way outside town and they took the bunny and fixed him up! We returned a week later and he was much better, and enjoying his new home safe and peaceful at the refuge!
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:17 am
It was when I was in the 6th and 7th grade, two of my friends were being constantly harassed, threatened and physically abused by this one girl and her gang. After a while it got as far as death threats. I stood up for them and took a few beatings in their place, until the girl left the both of them alone. I still don’t regret it, despite the mess I got myself in, and the scary hospital visits – in the end I contacted the Police, but I’m not sure what happened to that girl.
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:18 am
When I tried to think of one good deed that was memorable to me, this is what stuck out-
For two years during highschool, I worked as a personal care worker at a nursing home. Our job description including helping residents with day-to-day living, meaning washing, feeding, dressing, and aiding them in the bathroom. But, that’s not what I remember most. What I remember most, is getting glasses of water for people who were thirsty, or reading a birthday card because their eyes were too weak to make it out. Having a dance with a resident because their favorite song was playing, or helping a lady figure out a word in a crossword puzzle, or even just taking the time to sit down and chat for a few minutes. Little tasks like these weren’t included in the job description, but it was what made working there worthwhile. Maybe they don’t count as good deeds because it was, afterall, a job, but it would have been a pleasure to do even without being paid, and I would have done it regardless. It felt really good to do these little things for the residents, because it really made such a great difference in their day.
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:26 am
A few years ago I threw a baby shower for a local crisis nursery. It was around Christmas and I really wanted to try to give back to a good organization while we were celebrating the season of giving. Then when I told my work about it they had all sorts of office supplies to donate to them. When I went to deliver everything the entire back, front and sides of my Pathfinder was full of stuff to donate. It felt really good to drop that all off. :)
I’m curious what is in your box…I hope you share your box of goodies with the rest of us, too. It is so pretty!
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Two years ago I organised a fantastic afternoon for two of my friends who were both feeling a bit down, and the two fell in love with each other!! They’re still together, and they thank me all the time… :D I feel like Cupid’s little helper now haha
(the box looks super cute by the way!)
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I used to volunteer at a retirement home near my school once a week. I made friends with a lot of the elderly people there, some of whom didn’t have any families or didn’t get to spend much time with them. I really think more people should do stuff like this because I learned a lot from these people, and I’d like to think I kept them company, too :)
x
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:26 am
I smile genuinely at strangers every single day. You never know what sort of amazing good that a smile from a stranger can cause. I think it helps to create a domino effect of smiles, positivity, and good deeds.
So…
:D
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:32 am
I kinda did alot of tiny stuff… I like to help peoples ^__^ I have been giving money to those who have lost their wallets(complete strangers to me)…
The most would be spending time/helping my friends when they are sad~
OOh… pretty box! I’m a sucker for anything PINK!! Wondering what was inside it!
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:38 am
About a year ago I was searching for a new job that I really needed and was offered a position as a cashier at Home Depot but a friend of mine was having a lot of money trouble and needed it more than I did so I talked with what would have been my new supervisor and insisted that my friend would be better fit for the position than I could be. A week later they gave the position to my friend and his money problems were no longer an issue.
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:43 am
well this is kind of sad…but i noticed in our yard one day a stray kittens body and sadly it had already passed away. Being that it wasnt moving ants and birds were trying to get to it.
Luckily i came in time to stop the brutes from defiling her remains and i went ahead and cleaned her up and gave her a proper burial underneath our large magnolia tree.
So that way now she can rest in peace :}
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Like some of the others on here, I feel a little weird using this story to get something.
My mom is hearing-impaired, but runs an accounting business. This means that when clients or offices call or she has to call them, she needs someone to answer the phone or call. Occasionally, she will get on the phone, and I’ll have to transcribe the call over an instant message service. I also keep her from walking in front of cars that she can’t hear, or let her know when the timer is going off. It doesn’t sound like a lot, and certainly not as much as some of the other lovely people on this site, but it’s very hard, and an on-going job. But I love her and want to help, so… :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Please disregard this as an entry, but I wanted to get a story out as one of the kindest deeds I’ve witnessed.
About five months ago (the day before Valentine’s day!), I and my two best friends were in a car accident. Two people struck me as being incredibly caring. One of my best friends, Alex, who was driving, without thinking of her own safety, kicked off her high heels, jumped out of the car barefoot and ran across the broken glass (thank God she managed not to cut herself) to get my other friend, Amanda, and I out of the car. We later found out that she had a cracked rib at the time.
The other was a witness to the accident. I don’t know his name, but he carried Amanda out of the car and to the curb, then came and did the same for me (I’m not exactly the lightest girl, if you know what I mean :) ). He also made sure we were okay until the ambulance came, ignored the blood, and did his best to keep us calm, which isn’t easy when dealing with three traumatized teen girls.
I just wanted everyone to know what he did, since I won’t have the chance to thank him.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Two years ago I went to Haiti (poorest country in the western hemisphere) with my family for Christmas/ my 16th birthday (yep, i’m a Christmas baby!) to take care of the suffering people. I spent most days in an orphanage playing with tiny, sick children who just wanted to be loved. I changed countless cloth diapers and I fed many starving children. But…either from being exposed to new germs from the kids, or from something I ate, I became very sick on this trip. I spent both Christmas and my 16th birthday hanging over a dirty toilet, in a tiny, un-air conditioned bathroom, puking my guts out (don’t even get me started on the tarantula that paid me a visit during this ordeal)…but I would’nt have it any other way. As sickly as I was, I was no where near as sick as the children I had come there to take care of…
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Well, my good deed is rather minor compared with some of those here, but it’s the first I could remember and is absolutely adorable.
For my senior prom, I wore a pink, floor-length ballgown. After getting dressed that day, I went to my neighbor’s house where my mother was helping my neighbor watch her kids while they were playing outside. A few of the little girls rushed over, enchanted with my “pretty dress.” I left shortly thereafter to wait for my date to arrive.
According to my mother, after I left my neighbor’s adorable 3-year-old daughter, Eleanor, started to weep. She was sad that the “princess” had left and had wanted her to come play with her. Eleanor, not realizing that I was her “princess,” was so sad that she apparently spent the rest of the afternoon crying in room and could not be consoled.
After hearing this story the next day from my mother, I decided to surprise Eleanor. I went over to my neighbor’s house again and saw that they were once again playing outside. I asked Eleanor if she knew where the princess went and she informed me with tears welling up that she didn’t. I told her to cover her eyes and to wait for me to come back.
I ran to my house to get my prom dress and came back, telling Eleanor to open her eyes. She, in true little girl fashion, became overjoyed and asked me wide-eyed where I got the princess’ dress from. At first, she didn’t believe that I was the princess, but she quickly agreed when I told her she could try the dress on. Eleanor being a tiny girl, I had her stand on a chair and, with her daddy’s help, I put the dress on over her. She was especially elated and asked when the princess would come back again. I told her the princess, her, was already there.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I suppose this is a good deed, despite being terrified. I was walking home alone and I saw a guy who was bleeding. He was stabbed and everyone just walked past him, not wanting to get involved. I phoned him an ambulance but I didn’t leave my name or anything. I was terrified
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Okay, this isn’t a small deed, but its the one i am most proud of. (This happened about a year ago…) I came into work and checked the schedule and realized i was supposed to come in tomorrow *groan* but my boss let me work that day anyway. And working that day was a boy i had never met before named Andy. We were both shy and it took us awhile to talk, but when we did we didn’t stop :) we exchanged emails and he later told me he had set his suicide date that weekend and that if i had never shown up on that one day for work, he would have killed himself, because i was his only friend. (His father had committed suicide.) Andy and i are still very close and he is now part of my group of friends and is dating a friend of mine and he is very happy. :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:48 am
My most memorable good deed has to be my first good deed. When I was really little, we found three baby birds who had fallen out of their nests. After alot of thought (you arnt supposed to touch baby birds who fall out of their nests) we decided we had to take them home and care for them.My mom let me help out with feeding and watching over them. We named them peace, harmony, and earth. Peace and harmony both died but earth grew up and when she was old enough, we set her free.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Hmm…the most memorable good deed I’ve ever done is volunteering at this place called Carriage Lanes. It’s a building designated as a place to live for lower-income people or those that are homeless. For a few hours, myself and a group of classmates did landscaping – mulching, weeding, planting flowers, painting – and our advisor actually told us that without the volunteers’ help, about 90% of the work wouldn’t get done.
Also, when we were finished, a woman who lived there told us that it was the highlight of her year having the volunteers out there. She taught us how to plant bulbs and play bocce ball :)
I got sunburned but it was so worth it. I had so much fun! It didn’t even feel like work.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I don’t really recognize “good deeds” in my life. I just try to live every day treating those around me like I would want to be treated. I try to put myself in the shoes of others.
Today I had lunch with a good friend who is heavily pregnant. I sat her down at a table and then proceeded to get her lunch – run back for extra napkins – grab a dessert. Not because she asked me to, not because I felt I had to – but because fundamentally it was the right thing to do.
Good deeds are just illustrations of one’s ability to care for others and should be applauded on every level from the mundane to the extraordinary.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
When I was younger, I became part of this volunteer program that helped criminals under the age of 16. Instead of risking a future prison sentence, we would take them to a lower court and only distribute community service hours. The sentence was light enough to be fair considering their age, but the system that we went through was serious enough to scare many of the kids from committing another crime. Often, their crimes were a result of peer pressure or bad family backgrounds.
For them, it was a small look into the real consequences of vandalism, robbery, assault, etc. It also helped their parents realize what their children were getting into. Currently, I’m still with the program, trained to represent these kids. I’m happy to say that I became part of a tidal wave against crime in my community, helping kids get back on track at a very young age. Everyone deserves a second chance.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
My Good deeds come from my work. I’m a teacher by trade, but work part time (on and off) in a frame shop.
The Children I Teach are my life, I just love giving them advice as best as I can to make the future happen. I love them so much.
As for framing, the people I meet there are wonderfully fascinating, and they always give me a sense of pride when working. There was this one instance, a middle school girl was hit by a drunk driver while getting off her school bus and instantly died. Her parents had come to the frameshop with a picture of her and asked me to make her look beautiful, little did I know who this girl was. As I assembled a frame of gold with her favorite colors (pink and green) I got to asking her parents what had happened. and they told me the story. Once I had finished the frame, they both started crying, and thanking me, and I told them that if they could wait just one moment, I would bring a new surprise. I called my manager on the phone and asked if we could donate the frame to their parents (the girl was 13), and he agreed, I came up to them with our green ticket with the letters “N/C” (no charge). The mother then just fell to the floor thanking me for the best gift she could have gotten in her time. I even did one more thing for her, I gave her a hug, and told her that if she needed anything more, the frame shop will be here.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I’ve done work with various charities throughout my life, but none of that has felt as important as a deed I did for a girl in my English class my sophomore year.
Everyone always made for of this girl, Maia, for looking rather masculine. She did karate and had a mustache. One day, she tried to counteract this by putting on makeup in class. After foundation that didn’t match, she took out a dark red lip pencil, outlined her lips, and put light pink shimmer gloss over it. Part of me said I should leave her be but I knew kids in the class were already sniggering and I couldn’t let her walk around like that all day. I told her she should fill in her whole lip lightly the put the gloss over it so she didn’t have a set line around her lips.
I got a response I never thought I would, she thanked me so genuinely it made me want to cry and she occasionally asked my advice on other makeup matters, like how to fill in her eyebrows. I don’t know where Maia is now, but i know she went to a great college and hoped to become an Olympic karate competitor.
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June 5th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
During my last year of elemantary school my best friend Sylvana and I made it a habit to sit on a very low fence and talk during the entire recess. These fences where on the outside border of our school grounds and outside of that were lots of bushes everywhere filled with nettles.
One day Sylvana lost her balance and she fell backwards towards the nettles. I immediately reacted and kind of leaped into the nettles to prevent her from getting hurt.
Naturally the nettles where practically everywhere. My hands, my arms, and they were pierced through my pants.
It hurt and it took me 2 hours to get all of them out. I didn’t cry though because my friend was thankful. It made me laugh instead.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
As a scout my rule is: A good deed for every day.
But i guess, i dont do very famous things. but there’s this old woman that leaves the bus every wednesday right where i wait for my bus. she’s blind, but still wants to go to the market to buy fresh vegetables and fruit there. she said, that’s the only thing, that is left to her, her taste and smell. but the market is quite far away from the bus station. so every wednesday i wait for her and take her arm and go to the market with her so she can buy her stuff and then i take her back to the busstation.
she’s soooo sweet, i really like her, she’s got great sense of humour and wont let herself get down.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
My most memorable good deed: Being a Bald-Buddy
About 2 years ago, when I was 19, I shaved my head (for fashion reasons). I didn’t think much about the message of my shaved head, until the mother of a girl who lived a few blocks away stopped me.
Her daughter, who was 10 at the time, had leukemia. And she was bald, like me.
The mother said that, while the whole ordeal of losing her hair, and not being “pretty” had been agonizing at first, when she saw me “a big grownup girl” rocking a bald head, her whole attitude about her hair changed.
“She feels pretty again”, her mom told me.
Two years later, this little girl is healthy, and her hair is an adorable, curly little bob.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
My mom and I go to a very small church and around the Holidays it’s hard to get people to help decorate but we’re there every year and sometimes on weekends through out the year replacing flowers and such. It’s fun to do and everyone seems to enjoy it.
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
My most memorable good deed was one I did while still in the midst of my eating disorder and trying to get my life into shape. I decided if I couldn’t be kind to myself, that I have to be even kinder to other people around me.
So one day, I got into an elevator with an African American lady, and thought that even though she was dressed simply, that she was just radiating beauty. I was really shy and hesitant, but I finally picked up some courage and said, “Ma’am, I don’t do this very often but, I think you look gorgeous.”
I remembered her reply: A huge, sunlit smile and she said, “I don’t feel gorgeous right now, what with the weather being so hot and humid, but what a wonderful compliment, thank you so much. You’ve really made my day.”
Her smile and reply was worth getting over my shyness :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I was cat-sitting for my friend on Friday night.
His girlfriend came to visit for the weekend, and they wanted to have dinner at a fancy restaurant. At the time, his cat was still just a wee little kitten, so I offered to keep his kitten company for the night. Mind you, I’m also extremely allergic to cats, but I still find them adorable and cannot help but want to cuddle/play with them.
Needless to say, after spending 2 hours with this little ball of energy, I had broken out into hives from being scratched, and my eyes were as puffed as cotton balls. :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
On my 23rd birthday I went to a club with a bunch of friends. Among them was a guy back from my time in university with whom I used to share lots of serious and not to serious thoughts, but we’d lost touch a little bit.
So on that birthday party he wanted to talk to me, but *very* seriously (while I wanted to dance and sip on my cocktail -.- )… then he gave me his birthday gift, a short story he wrote. I thanked him and told him how I remember that he’d always been a great writer but he said that actually, he’d had a real writer’s block until the time we first met and that I’d inspired him to get back to writing. He really got in there and – guess what – he’s found a small publishing house that’s willing to publish a collection of his stories. That was the best birthday gift I could imagine (being a bookseller-dork ^^).
I suppose unknowingly acting as a muse for a friend counts as a good deed, too :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
When I was in kindergarten my mom fell ill but still had to work graveyard to support my family. I remember packing her lunches to take to work while she slept during the day. They weren’t amazing lunches since I was 4 years old, but I remember the sincere gratitude she showed for each messy peanut butter and jelly sandwhich and banana I packed.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
This experience was rather scary for me. I happened to be driving on a major freeway, and was coming around a curve on a transition spot, when I noticed cars slowing down, and starting to break. Than, out of the corner of my eye I saw a small black kitten (it had to be no more then a month old,) on the left side of the freeway running towards the cars! I freaked out and and swerved to the side. Unfortunately, the car behind me was to close to my bumper, and wasn’t paying attention to the cars in front of him, and swerved into traffic, hitting another car! Well, I was in such a panic, I jumped out my car to look for the kitten, and when I turned around and looked behind me a woman in a big SUV was frantically waving at me and pointing towards the ground. The kitten was under the car! I went and grabbed it, but in the midst of all this was me being involved with an accident on the freeway, during rush hour I might add. I just couldn’t let that kitten get smashed by a car on the highway! I know, it sounds crazy. After the distress and drama of the situation, which there was a ton, but ill spare the major details, like the cops showing up etc, she ended up in a loving home of a friend of mine, and they gave me the privilege of being her godmother.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Whenever I donate blood I imagine imbuing the pint of me with warm fuzzies, so that maybe the person who get’s the donation will feel a big giant bear hug when they need it most.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Quite a few years ago my mother and step-dad were in a car accident and were unable to work for a fair amount of time. At the time, my sister was not working, so the only income we had was the paycheck from my fast food job and my step-dad’s mother’s retirement/social security, which wasn’t much and was at least partially spent on her own bills even though she was living with us at the time.
I just remember trying to hard to keep everyone’s spirits up and make sure we had food on the table while trying to keep the bills paid. When Christmas came around, I knew we wouldn’t be able to have what everyone would consider a real or proper Christmas, but I wanted to do something for everyone anyway. As I drove home from running an errand one night, I saw a tiny, fake Christmas tree lying in the street in front of someone’s house. I stopped and put it in the car and brought it home. Somehow, that little, sad looking tree brought so much happiness to our holiday.
What someone else was going to discard as trash, became my family’s Christmas tree. We decorated it and sat it on a little table in the living room and I scraped together enough extra money to buy everyone just one small, inexpensive present. Even though we had accepted and were content that our Christmas would be strictly about being together for the holiday, those small things really made Christmas for all of us. It wasn’t because we all wanted gifts, but because of the thought. I think we all appreciated each other and the little things a lot more after that.
Sometimes my mom tells that story to people she hasn’t seen in a while, as they are catching each other up on what has been happening in their lives. It always makes me smile to know that it is something that stands out as a good memory for her. <3
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
In highschool my bestfriend (lets call her Anne) had a hate on for another girl in our grade (and we’ll name her Beth). I never thought it was called for. While Beth was smart, gorgeous, and popular she was by no means a ‘bitch’. I had classes with her and she was always really friendly and nice to me. Meanwhile, Anne would terrorize her. Perhaps it was jealousy because I’d never seen her treat anyone the way she treated Beth. If she did, I would not have been friends with Anne in the first place. Anyway Anne went to great lengths to terrorize her. I tried to reason with Anne but she just wouldn’t hear it. One particular day it got out of control and Beth was sobbing in class and left. She was gone from school for the next 2 days. When she returned it was the last day before the Christmas holidays. I saw her alone at her locker and took the chance. I told her that Anne was simply jealous of her and that I hoped she knew that I didn’t share those feelings of hate towards her. I gave her a Christmas card and a hug and wished her Happy Holidays.
A few years later after grad I ran into Beth and we got to talking. She told me how much it meant to her that I took the time to come over and talk to her that day. Apparently, for all her beauty and popularity, she had been in counselling and taking anti-depressants. She told me that in our brief conversation she finally felt like someone cared. Over those Christmas holidays she stopped taking the pills. In the years since highschool I’ve lost contact with Anne but Beth and I are now great friends.
After writing that out I realize how ‘after school special’ it sounds, but it was a really amazing thing to hear how something I’d pretty much forgotten about had touched someone so deeply.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Wow, these stories are amazing and mine isn’t nearly as great.. Oh, well.
I think the most memorable time I helped someone was when I spotted this kid. He was selling these traditional May Day magazines we have in Finland. He was all alone and some of his classmates were selling more than him and he didn’t have the courage to approach anyone. He really looked sad whereas the others were having a blast. So I went to him and said if he was selling these magazines and I’ll always remember how his face lit up when I said that I would only buy the magazine from him. I was bullied in school and I was always left out on things so I knew how that little guy felt.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
A few summers ago, Medford (and other parts of South Jersey) experienced dangerous and many people were displaced from their homes. We woke up to horrible news reports of sandbags not holding despite efforts and my dad told us to put on sneakers and clothes we didn’t care about and to get in the car. We drove two hours north and met up with a church crew who then gave us addresses of those affected that needed assistance. One house we stopped at had a person’s car in a tree. This house had also had its oil tank rupture and there was oil EVERYWHERE. I helped a woman and her daughter try to salvage the toys, clothes, shoes and furniture in the little girl’s room as well as other parts of the house until it was deemed unsafe to stay inside because of fumes.
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
dangerous flooding** bah.
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
One time when I was in High School, I went to a fast food place. When I paid for my food, the girl at the cash register gave me like 10 dollars in extra change. I noticed and my friend was like, “Oh they gave you extra change, you should keep it.” And I thought about it, but it would’ve made me feel really bad, since it would’ve came out of the girl’s paycheck. I decided to give her the change back, and she was really grateful I did. I’m glad I did the right thing. =)
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Well, we were going on a class trip to NY at school, but I was unable to attend as I had to much work. The rest of the class tried very hard to make money for the trip by selling stuff and doing a lot of events etc. One of the girls is a mom and has two kids. One day she started crying in class because she had a hard time getting the money and spending time after school making money for the trip, as she had to take care of her kids and work. I felt so sorry for her so I went and did her part of the work and earned her half of the amount she had to pay to go on the trip, even though I wasn’t going my self. I called a lot of friends and asked for donations to her plane ticket and they all wanted to help so I got around $550. She said she was grateful and that’d she’d want to do something for me in return. I asked her to buy a snowglobe for me in NY, as I collect them from all around the world. When she came back from NY she hadn’t bought one, didn’t even mention it, and hasn’t spoken to me since at all. So my good deed was not at all appreciated and she couldn’t have cared less. :(
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Sometime last year, my mom was having a really sad day. So i wrote her a note that said “mother I love you” and left it on her pillow. She always has that piece of paper on her bedstand, wich is like doing something nice for me.
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Haha, it feels weird thinking if I’ve done anything good!
My sister has BiPolar disorder, has post-traumatic stress syndrome and is anorexic and builimic. As far back as I can remember I’ve been her carer when she gets ill, making sure she’s clean, fed and has taken her medication. She’s 10 years older than me, but it’s like we’re best friends, because of something so horrible.
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Staying every day by my family’s side, running for them when they need me. It’s hard sometimes, but I can’t imagine my life without them =)
Love,
Laura
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
In general my good deeds are small and secretive, but there was this one time I played violin at an old folk’s home in Japan! It was really incredible seeing the stories on each of their faces, especially when I played one piece that is riddled with sentimental atmosphere.
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June 5th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
The best time for good deeds is when riding the city bus. I always try to give up my seat for someone who looks like they need to sit down or pushing the doors open if someone is running to catch the bus. I don’t mind standing up so much, it’s actually kind of fun and I feel really good at the end of the day.
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I’ve been a social worker the entirty of my working life, and through all of those times of helping people, one in particular stands out.
I currently work for a hospice, and about a year ago we had a severely depressed patient. She woke up each day, cried for hours, and went back to sleep. She wanted to be back at home for her last days, but was unable to go. I spent some time talking with her, and found out that her favorite food was blueberry pie. So I slaved over a hot oven for quite some time crafting the finest blueberry pie in the land! She took one bite, and grinned like a little school girl. She lived out the rest of her days a bit happier, and all it took was a simple pie :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I made sure to find good homes for a litter of 6 abandoned kittens I found in my neighborhood. I kept the one that no one wanted. :]
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
on my fifteenth birthday the month after hurricane katrina i decided for my birthday i would have a party were people would not bring presents for me they would bring canned foods for the victims of hurricane katrina and all the food was donated to fema!
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I used to visit my friends grandmothers grave with her a yr ago for support. One day when we were there we noticed that all the flowers were blown everywhere from a storm. So we took some time & went around placing flowers back & cleaning as much as we could for everyones loved ones.
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June 5th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
One of my absolute favorite things to do, is browse Etsy for sellers that have low or no sales on their record, and repost them in my blog or on my Twitter, or spread it around at work. I have made only one sale myself, and I know exactly how hard it is to get off the ground. So even if it’s small, getting one or two sales for a fellow Etsy-ian makes me happier.
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June 5th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I stamped a blind old ladies tram card. It felt pretty good.
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June 5th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
It’s really hard to talk about things like this because I was raised that helping people is just a way of life, but here goes. I work with the elderly and one lady was the poorest of them all. (financially) Most of her neighbors were poor also but they could at least treat themselves on occasion. She never could. Her purse was held together with safety pins and I thought about giving her one of my used but nice purses. I thought darn it should she at least be able to have a new purse. So I gave her a little money and told her you may not spend this on anything except a purse that you like and would never have bought for yourself. It used to thrill me to see her carry her new purse :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
The one occasion that I find most memorable was last year, near Christmas… I was figure skating in a holiday show at the ice rink where I train, and I was supposed to skate right after a group of small children. When I got on the ice and assumed my starting position, my music wouldn’t come on, and I was really confused – until I looked behind me and saw that one of the kids was still struggling to make it to the rink’s doors. After a bit of inner conflict, I skated over, took her hands, and helped her to the exit, where her parents were waiting. Everyone started clapping, and I was really embarrassed, but I’m quite certain I did the right thing – better than standing there in the center of the ice, still waiting for my music to start and looking like a huge tool! (Plus she was adorable and said “Thank you” very sweetly…)
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June 5th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
i started volunteering for a special needs camp about 3 years ago. this camp is for the whole family, not just the children with the need. we provide a fun and safe atmosphere for the kids, as well as letting the parents or caretakers enjoy a vacation as well. honestly, though, knowing these people has changed my life is so many ways and i could never ever give to them as much as they have given to me.
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I was a Hurricane Katrina evacuee who made it to a friend’s home about an hour out of the city before the storm hit. During the ensuing mess, my friend and I discovered that an animal rescue operation had left some “feeder” rats from a flooded pet store evacuation because all of the portable cages were gone. No volunteers would take the rodents, so against her protests, I took them myself. Now I’m normally not a big fan of rats, quite the opposite. But these pet store critters weren’t going to be forgotten in the flood while I could do something to help.
They turned out to be surprisingly funny, affectionate and playful little pets. I kept two in a magnificent 3-story habitat and it didn’t take long to warm up to my little guys, Huey and Earl. I’m not saying I’ll always keep a rat pet, but those two littlest storm refugees were taken in with love, cuddled and coddled with the finest food and bedding, and lived a full and comfortable rat life with me.
So in the spirit of small acts of kindness, My small deed was done for the least of all creatures, the lowly rats.
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Really? – becoming vegan. I can’t stand to think of all of the animals who would have suffered in my name whether from drinking milk, consuming cheese, or eating meat.
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Back when I lived on an Air Force base, there were a lot of empty houses, as officers were being relocated continuously. One afternoon, my friend and I went around the entire base, picking bouquets of flowers from the houses that were empty. At the end of the day, we left the bouquets on people’s doorsteps with little notes, allowing people to enjoy a little beauty that might have otherwise gone unappreciated. ^_^
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I used to volunteer at an old folks home where i would have a different lady or gentlemen to whom i would visit, make crafts with, and talk to. It was really depressing there sometimes though. these people’s families would just leave them there and no one would ever visit them. it would seem like a prison to them sometimes. But it really lit up their faces to have a visitor and friend for the day. even if it was a stranger.
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June 5th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I had one recently where a fairly elderly lady needed directions so I helped her find her way. I think the little things are important, I try very hard to be good to other people because I definitely believe in karma.
You’re amazing, Xenia! <3
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June 5th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I guess this feels a bit weird to be talking about, but here goes.
My parents divorced when I was 2 years old, so my mom had to raise myself and my older sister by herself with very little income, while going to school and, since my dad never paid his child support, without that as well.
So, my mom always tried to make sure my sister and I got what we needed and a little extra and she always tried to make it seem like we had more than enough. However, I was pretty aware of how tough things were for my mom financially. All throughout my childhood, at least until I was around 11, I would take shallow baths to try to save my mom money on the water bill. By shallow baths I mean I used to bath in about 1 inch of water. My mom, did realize I was doing this until I got older. It sounds strange and unhygienic, but thats not really what a little kid thinks about.
I remember this vaguely, but my mom tells me about it all the time because it meant to much to her.
so thats my weird-good deed.
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June 5th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I stayed up all night talking and consoling a friend on the phone. I found out later that she was planning on committing suicide that night, and didn’t because of me.
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June 5th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
I spent my first two years of high school in Air Force JROTC and around christmas we were asked to help decorate this assisted living home in Mesa. One of the employees was a friend of my mom’s, and she’d asked so we loaded as many people as we could fit into my mom’s car and the cars of a few cadets and drove out to the home. We ended up spending a good 4 or more hours decorating, singing, and just spending time with these really nice elderly people, who didn’t get as many visits from family as they should have.
I’m not a big christmas person, but that year sticks out to me because I was in a group that made it a little brighter for some deserving people.
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I watched a lady walking out of Wal-Mart one afternoon, who had a buggy full of things and seemed to be rather frazzled. So, as she passed me, some of the things on the bottom part of her buggy fell off and rolled through the parking lot. I chased after them and picked them up for her and helped carry the things to her car and helped her load her groceries in her trunk. I had never seen anyone look more appreciative of something little ol’ me had done. It was one of the most wonderful experiences ever.
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I’ve done many good deeds in my life, but I will never forget when I helped an old lady carry her shopping bags to her home. She was so happy and grateful she couldn’t express it.
Just remembering it it touches me deeply.
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
There was this girl from work, who everyone thought was really skanky and ditzy, but if you got to know her, which I did, she’s really quite sweet and very smart. Anyway, on one of the school’s bathroom stalls, someone had freshly written ‘[this girl] is a dirty SLUT’
So I wrote something along the lines of ’she’s really nice and sweet!’ underneath, which sparked a bathroom stall explosion of kind words. I heard her talking later that day, trying to figure out who wrote the first nice thing about her. She assumed it was one of her friends, because I don’t know her that well. She’ll probably never know I did it, but I feel all warm and squishy inside knowing that it was me that may have cushioned the blow of being called a dirty slut on a bathroom stall.
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I teach 5th grade, so I’d like to think I do good deeds on a nearly constant basis. I feel that to teach is to give of yourself every day. It’s also important to lead by example. One of my partner teachers was having a rough day, so I left her a little note on her desk telling her how much she is appreciated. She came in a little later, as I was teaching, and gave me a big hug in front of my students. I told them it’s very important to look outside of yourself and to let others know you care. Even if that message only got to one students I know I’ve done my job.
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June 5th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I bring my neighbor’s mail in and water her plants for her when she’s away on business.
That’s the most memorable recent good deed I guess.
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
The most memorable good deed I’ve done was when I was in Greece over March Break we were walking around the island of Patmos and there was this cat with a tin stuck on its head and it was bleeding and I thought it was going to die so I help the cats body while my friend Cody carefully pulled the tin off it’s head.
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I woudld say the good deed that I do every day is being polite to people no matter how bad or good my day is! Every one should be treated with respect :) I always tell people to have a great day and it really cheers them up!
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I would have to say that my good deed has spanned over the past three months, ever since I got my car. I do a lot of driving at night since I spend most of my days at my best friend’s house and so I dont get home until late at night usually. The path I drive goes past a few neighborhoods who either have a lot of strays, or let their animals loose, or have wild animals. So whenever I see an animal in the middle of the road, I stop my car, get out and try to help them. One time, I saved a turtle that was in the middle of the road. Another time a kitty was curled up on the side of the road, too close to be safe, soaking up the heat from the tar from the day, and a car was coming RIGHT FOR HIM! So I stopped my car IMMEDIATLY, jumped out, got the car to stop and I got the kitty to go back to his home. I nearly cried, I was so scared the kitty was going to get hurt. I hate seeing dead animals in the road and so I’ve made it a personal mission to atleast help the ones I can.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I helped an elderly couple roll their weelchairs out of an elevator that was stuck between floors. It was a very scary experience for all three of them, since I was on the other end of the floor they were initially trying to reach. I managed to keep them calm and lift everything out. I have no idea where the strength came from, but I like to think there are angel helpers in this world. :)
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
This happened a few years ago. I had just gotten my paycheck cashed at the bank and I was going to the local Target to grab a few things I needed. There was a couple parked in a stranded car up the road, so I stopped to see if they needed any help. They had ran out of gas and they were about halfway on their way home to St. Louis, and to top it off, the wife was pregnant. So I gave them $40 from my paycheck to help them get some gas and a little lunch. They took my address because the man promised he’d pay me back, but I told him that they didn’t really need to or that they “owed” me. What mattered was that I could help them get back on their way.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
It’s nothing special really, but I like to help older or handicaped people when I can.
Like yesterday I helped a lady in a wheelchair pour her iced capuccino in a cup because it was too high for her.
Sometimes I’ll help someone get something on the lower shelves in the store so they don’t have to bend.
Simple things but helpfull.
I like to think that when I grow old maybe someone nice will help me.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
When I was a kid, I was in the Girl Scouts. And during the summer there were different camps we could go to (Er… if the price was right). I got to go to the horseback riding camp one summer, and I was psyched. When we weren’t doing anything, we stayed in the cabins. There was one girl at the cabin I stayed at that had poor health. She had asthma attacks a bit. We got along all right.
One night when everyone was asleep, she woke me up because she was having a bad asthma attack. I was young, worried, and I had absolutely no idea what to do, so I helped her to the main house. At the very least, there was a phone. The camp director was there too. It was a long time back, so I don’t remember if she had to go to the hospital, but I know that she was okay after that, thank god.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I renovated my mother’s bathroom for no special reason other than I wanted to show her how much I appreciate her because she supports our family full time (my father has been on disability for my entire life)
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
my grandparents are immigrants from the netherlands, who met here in canada. twenty five years ago, right after my oldest cousin was born, my grandfather wrote a story about my grandmother’s family, starting generations back. there was only one copy, typewritten with his crooked index finger.
i was assigned a bookmaking project at art school and i decided to use his story. i typed it up, illustrated several of the pages with hand drawn pen and ink and bound it. my grandparents now have not only an electronic copy of the story, but a bound book, entitled “Potato Harvest Time” to treasure, like their memories of their life together.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Adopting a homeless kitten.
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
i work in a bookstore in my town, and a homeless man comes in to look at books from time to time, always putting them aside for when he gets paid. eventually, we became friends. Billy told me i looked like his girlfriend, who died. sometimes i see billy playing his guitar on the street or asking for money for groceries. i’d bought him a coffee now and then or paid for a cab ride when it was raining, but one day i had a bit of extra cash in my wallet and decided to take him grocery shopping. i couldn’t buy him a lot because of my student budget, but i told him how much i had and we went to town. people are always surprised when the scruffy, not-quite-all-there old man approaches me on the street to give me a big hug, but he is a good friend.
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June 6th, 2009 at 12:05 am
As I struggled to think of something that qualified as a ‘good deed’ I realized that I need to make a more conscious effort to look for opportunities to do them…so thank you for this post.
The one that has stayed with me the longest happened 6 years ago when I was a senior in high school. I was taking Spanish III and a girl named Katrina had transferred into the class later in the year. She was a native Spanish-speaker who understood very little English [she was taking the class to learn proper grammar technique, etc]. The class was divided into groups for an assignment where we had to come up with a skit. No one was really taking charge of the group and I could just feel how uncomfortable Katrina was, since everyone was speaking English and avoiding her. Even though I was scared out of my mind and embarrassed about my Spanish, I decided to make sure she felt like she was a part of the group and explained what we were doing and asked for her input. What struck me was the appreciation in her face…she absolutely lit up…no signs of judging how poorly my Spanish must have sounded. About a week later she walked over and placed a handmade card on my desk that had all these cute messages about how great I was on it. She went way above and beyond, but I still have that piece of construction paper because it reminds me that even when you think your efforts are inadequate, people are so grateful when you just reach out to them. <3
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June 6th, 2009 at 12:21 am
At a rather nice military award luncheon, I noticed that one of the organizers had put her dress on inside out. She was so caught up in the frenzy of the preparations for the event she hadn’t noticed. I gently tapped her on the shoulder and whispered in her ear that her dress was inside out. Embarrassed, she quietly left for the bathroom where she turned her dress right side out. She thanked me profusely for saving her embarrassment before most of the guests had arrived.
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June 6th, 2009 at 12:35 am
I can think of a lot of little good deeds but the one that sticks with me was as small as making someone else’s day. Have you seen the movie Enchanted? It’s a wonderful princessy movie, very much in the style of the old Disney musicals, and at one point the main character whistles a particular riff and birds and wildlife come into her apartment. Walking across the lawn of my college campus one night, I heard a girl whistling the first part of that riff so I filled in the second part. She paused (it was dark so she couldn’t see) and continued the next part, then I followed with the next line. Just then our paths happened to cross and she gave me this huge grin and said “looks like I’m not the only one who likes Enchanted!” It was pretty damn awesome to be a part of someone else’s fairytale moment.
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June 6th, 2009 at 1:24 am
I think the good deed that made me feel the best was when my friend and I had been horse back riding and were heading back to the stables through a park. There had been a family camping out for some kids’ birthdays and we stopped when all the kids had started to get excited when they saw the horses. We had been nearly falling off the sadles because we had been riding hard since sunrise but the parents had told us that they were going to take the kids for pony rides but they couldnt afford it for all of them. So my friends and I took turns walking the horses around with the children in our laps, while the other let the kids waiting feed carrots to the horse/pet their manes.
It was a lot of fun, the parents took tons of pictures and the kids were beaming the entire time and told us we made their birthday wishes come true. It was tiring but so much fun and totally worth it.
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June 6th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I was driving down an isolated road, when I passed a very pregnant woman and her 2 other young children standing by their car on the side of the road. She was crying, and told me she had run out of gas, and she only had $1.56. I took the lady and her babies to the gas station, bought them a gas can and some gas and then followed her back to the station and bought her a few more dollars of gas. She wanted my name to pay me back, but I basically told her just to “pay it forward”, and then a few weeks later I ran out of gas when I was broke, and a nice stranger did a similar thing for me. All I could think was “This Karma thing really works”…LOL
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June 6th, 2009 at 1:59 am
my mom hates animals.. or rather animal fur and doesnt allow any inside the house. when I was younger, my sister and I found a stray kitten and it was raining. We snuck it partially inside (front entrance, room for putting on shoes, living room entrance) and gave it milk. We knew we couldnt keep it, but it felt nice to see the kitty with a belly full of milk and a warm place to sleep for the night =).
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June 6th, 2009 at 2:19 am
Well I remember fixing an umbrella for a little girl who was crying because her mom would get mad at her for breaking it.
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June 6th, 2009 at 3:33 am
Few years ago my best friend was kicked out of her home by her step father. I let her stay with me until she was able to find some other place to live. Actually there is always a place for people in need at my place (or just people that want to crash here after a party ;))
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June 6th, 2009 at 4:28 am
I was in Starbucks, and the woman in front of me was panicking because she realized that she didn’t have enough money, and the man with her just started yelling at her for being stupid. I was like “Woah, nelly!” and just put £5 on the counter, giving the man some awful death stare. I didn’t wait for a thank you, I didn’t wait for anyone to notice me, I just went upstairs :)
It was a nice feeling. :)
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June 6th, 2009 at 7:52 am
I was depressed, and used to cut myself. But the first time I went to a shelter to help my friend to pick a new pet, I fell in love with the animals there. Their eyes had so much hope. Even the ones who had previously been abused still looked at us like that. The first time I went to volunteer I was very shy. I practically hid in the corner while cleaning cages. But cats still walked over to me. They sniffed me with their noses, meowed at me, jumped on me, and a whole number of different things. I remember some cats in particular, like Caramel, Dash, Jingles, and Lover. Caramel has some paralysis in his hind legs, and yet he’s so sweet. He kind of hobbles around, and somehow that’s very endearing. Dash was kicked in the head and can no longer walk in a straight line, but he persists on walking around anyway. He doesn’t give up. Seeing all these animals which were all abused or abandoned or grew up on the street but still persist on living and loving made me pull myself out of the depression and get help. It was a long while, but it was worth it. I still volunteer there today.
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June 6th, 2009 at 10:39 am
A girl’s got to go out and earn some pennies every now and then, and my weekend job – prepare yourself for the glamour of it all! – is a hotdog girl at my local football club. Yep, that girl with the wistful look in her eye and the huge smile serving you pints of beer, a chicken balti pie and a sausage roll is me. I work with an amazing group of people, and it’s usually a lot of fun- but not the most sparkly place in the world.
So me and my friend N decided to spread a few twinklies to the fans- we’d been losing all season, and we thought they could do with a boost. We wrote messages on the cup holders, like: “If you’ve been waiting for a sigh to do it, this is it” and “Never forget your own unique value” and “You should smile more often- you look beautiful”. The idea of a football fan walking back to the stands, distributing the drinks among his friends and finding a small message of love on the bottom of the tray – a glittery burst in an otherwise grey day – had us smiling for the rest of the match.
Even when we had to clean up the hotdog machine afterwards.
xx
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June 6th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I was at a Mets game at Citi Field just a few weeks ago and the game hadn’t started yet. A man was sitting two rows in front of me and he had a little child sleeping on his lap. When the hot dog vendor came around the man held up his hand, but he couldn’t get up without waking up his son and the vendor couldn’t get that far into the aisle. So I climbed over the two rows, took the man’s money and chased down the vendor, who had started walking away, so I could get the man his hot dog.
And the Mets won!
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June 6th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Wow I feel as though my good deed doesn’t match up to some of the above, but I am a pink lover so I thought I’d enter!
My grandma is 96 now, and since her son (my dad) died 5 years ago, she’s been really lonely and getting worse in terms of health. I’ve taken a year out from uni ‘cos I’ve got back problems that affect my studies, so I’ve moved home. Now I go to hers once a week, cook lunch for her, and tidy up the house. She loves the company, and I get to tell her all the cool things I have planned for my future.
It’s a small deed, but it makes both of us feel pretty good :)
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June 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I helped to bury my great-aunt when she died. In Jewish tradition, (I’m Jewish) burying someone is one of the best good deeds you can do, because the person can obviously never pay you back for it, so it’s completely selfless.
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June 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I gave 8 dollars to a girl and her sister so they can buy lunch. It was memorable because in NYC, you can never be sure if the person really needs the money or if they’re just out to scam you. The girl said her mother died and she said she didn’t have any money for food. I just gave her the benefit of the doubt. I still think of that day every now and then.
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June 6th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I try not to think too much about what good things I’ve done, because I sometimes worry it would lose some meaning or it would be like patting myself on the back. ^.^;;
There is one time that I was really happy, I helped a very nice old lady make her grand daughter’s Christmas by hiding a pink ipod nano (when they were very popular and were selling out all of the time at my job) for her.
I could tell she wasn’t a pushy person and she would wait timidly behind a crowd of greedy people to ask me politely if any ipods were left almost every day. So when I saw the right one (just one pink!) come in I hid it behind a bunch of folders in our work desk, I could have been fired but I wasn’t worried. She was so happy, gave me a great big hug and even came in after Christmas with a thank you card! :D
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June 6th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
One of the most recent good deeds I’ve done is saving/adopting my dog. He’s the most amazing little animal in the world to me, I love him so much.
His history is quite sad, he use to be abused by a “family” in New Jersey. I guess it was really more of a group of friends living together and doing drugs. They were reported for animal abuse and my little hunter was taken away from them by an organization, through this organization I adopted him and have since nursed him back to health.
When I received him he was very paranoid and timid, but eager to be loved. He has many special needs since he use to be a victim of abuse… for instance, we believe that they use to put him in dog fights because he is EXTREMELY scared/aggressive when he sees another dog. I’ve been working with him and socializing him little by little, and he’s getting a lot better. His coat and his overall physical appearance has also greatly improved since he’s been in my care. He looked mangy when I got him with many fur patches missing on his tail. Since then, his coat has grown long and glossy and he looks overall like a normal healthy canine. I also had to have various treatments done on him by my vet, including dental work… apparently all of his teeth were rotting and he needed some serious work done. It was almost $800, but he’s as good as new!
I love him and I’m so glad I saved him. It’s wonderful to adopt a dog because they truly are so grateful to you. He’s attached himself to me in a way that none of my other pets ever have, he seems sincerely thankful.
He’s a mix breed, but he looks like a 20lbs boarder collie– he’s wonderful.
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June 6th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
When I was thirteenish I started a charity with the goal of spaying/neutering and getting shots and finding homes for a momma cat and two of her litters of kittens. There were seven cats total. Mission was successful except for one kitten who died while the vet was fix her insides (she’d been run over by something, all her entrails were squished to one side).
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June 6th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
What is the most memorable, no matter how small, good deed that you’ve done?
Well, actually, the most memorable for me right now is probably very memorable because it happened today. I was on the bus, and it was super crowded, and this old couple got on the bus. I was sitting on the seat by the window with someone else next to me. But, they didn’t make any move, so I stood up and offered my seat to the couple. The lady sat down, and the husband said to me, “Thank you, lass. Well done.” in his Scottish accent. They just looked so happy. It seems that in the city, few people have manners these days. But really, it feels so good to do simple niceties, like offer your seat to the elderly. And that’s why I did it.
<3
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June 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Sorry, my English is a little bit rusty :)
I help my grandfather after my grandmothers death. My grandmother was very ill and suffered a long time on cancer. My grandfather is an old fashioned man who only knows how to work, not how to cook or clean or make laundry.
When I can afford time I help him with the housework or something.
He would never say it but he’s really sad about my grandmothers death, I’ve never seen him cry since that day. I’m glad to be with him.
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June 6th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
When i was in Grade 2, i had a friend named April, and she was very tomboy-ish. She liked to play and run around with the boys, sometimes they let her, but this one day they just didnt wanna play with her. I found her under the slide crying, and i rember i hugged her and asked if she wanted to play with me. I know its not something really important, but i stil think about it. :)
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June 6th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
(If I could, I would do nothing but good deeds all the time, and I mean it. I think there is so much hope in the world, but we don’t often take the time to make hopes realities for other people.)
Today, as I was coming home on the bus, I was exhausted and just wanting to get home. A woman was waiting at the stop, and she looked a mess. She asked me if I ever had one of those days, and I said yes, and she began to get overly upset about a bad haircut. This led to some discussion about getting it fixed, and she finally told me she had just left a 12-year abusive relationship and was staying in transition houses. She showed me the bruises and cuts on her arms and legs, but the emotional damage he had caused was the most painful to witness as she started to cry. As someone had stolen her wallet earlier that day (but thankfully she had her bus pass), I offered to take her out for coffee. We stopped at a starbucks and I got her a drink and we stopped and chatted. I did not ask her name and she didn’t ask mine, but we talked as if we’d known each other forever. It was such a good feeling, being able to help someone heal by simply listening and being a friend.
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June 6th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
In Year 6 (I was 11), was when the Tsunami happened on Boxing Day in Sri Lanka. Me and my friends hired out the community hall and did a bring and buy sale to raise money to send to them. Me and my sister sent out letters to all of the surronding schools to try and get people aware of what we were doing, and we got the local press to come down as well. I think we raised about £500, but loads and loads, but still quite a bit :)
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June 6th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
When my mother had her court date, I wrote her an email telling her just how proud I was to be her daughter. I told her that I loved her, I told her that she is an amazing woman, and that everything she’s accomplished in life makes her even more of an amazing human being. Me and my mother did not speak for three years after we had our last fight- she’s a schizophrenic and I couldn’t deal with the kind of childhood she subjected me to because of it. But when I sent that email, I knew things were going to change.
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June 6th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I was walking in the mall one day last year, and found a drooled-on, well loved Barbie hat just lying around. Normally I’m a huge germaphobe, but something possessed me to pick it up. Moments later, a haggard young mother comes walking by me with her eyes on the ground and a wailing, armless-Barbie clutching three year old. I stared at the wadded up, damp thing in my hand and walk right up to the poor woman (shyness be darned!). Normally, a sulky, mall-going teenager approaching a worn-out mom spells trouble, but I smiled my biggest smile and extended my prize out to her. “Excuse me, but is this what you’re looking for?”
The weary smile she gave me and the squeal of joy from her daughter was really what made it special for me. Now I’m much more attentive to things left behind.
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June 6th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I can’t think of many good deeds I’ve done, but i can think of a good deed that someone has done for me. While this delineates from the actual question, I still feel as though this one person’s deed warrants a space somewhere in the vast interweb.
I, like you and many of your readers love makeup. And on multiple occasions i get compliments from strangers on the street or do what i call “fantasy day” and take pictures of myself w/ avante garde makeup on. For many psychological reasons, i’ve never believed in myself or thought I was good enough to pursue my passion as a makeup artist.
One night, without my permission, my friend posted a Craigslist ad using all my pictures from Myspace and Facebook. And people actually responded!!! He did this simply to show me that despite what I think of myself, there are other people out there that believe in my talent and hoped that this was proof enough. The idea that someone believes in me so much is something I’ll never forget it.
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June 6th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
This happened to me a few months ago…I was walking down the cereal isle in the grocery store, when I had seen this elderly woman attempting to climb up the shelves to reach a box of cereal. So not wanting her to injure herself I offered to get the cereal down off the shelf for her. She was totally shocked to have someone ask if she needed help, I’ll never forget the look in her eyes or the smile she gave me! She was such a cute old lady.
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June 6th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
The only good deed that comes to mind is recently, one of my mother’s friends wanted to sell something on Kijiji (the Canadian version of Craigslist, kind of). Being somewhat on the elderly side (she’s 75), she had no idea how to do this. I offered to help her, so I called her up and an hour later, she had successfully placed an ad. She thanked me profusely after, which felt really nice. :)
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June 6th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
rescuing trapped buggies
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June 6th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
It’s not that big of a deal, but I guess you’d have to understand the whole situation. I’m staying with a friend and his mom so I can go to school far from home, my friend’s mom works a lot. She managed to get three days off to visit her daughter, who she sees maybe once a year. I spent the whole three days thoroughly cleaning her house, so when she came home from her trip all she had to do was relax. It was a big thank you for letting me stay.
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June 7th, 2009 at 1:36 am
i would say it was staying by my fathers side who is a veteran, during his alcoholism, when he broke his leg and had a heart attack all within two weeks of each other. it was very hard since i was so young, i would take his car keys when he drank, and take care of him after his heart attach. there is no bitterness now. he has done more good deeds then i ever will
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June 7th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Just giving food to homeless/street people. Usually, bystanders are hesitate to pay any attention to beggers because they want money, and we don’t know why, but [first thought] it’s either food, alcohol & drugs or some type of fund. Though they are just as honest as you and me, if they want money, they’ll have a bucket. If they want beer, they’ll write BEER on a sign. Or so will food.
Three times I have given food to people, they are just thankful as someone gave them a diamond- but at least it’s for good use. And even leftover pizzas, those kids on the street will eat.
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June 7th, 2009 at 4:55 am
Stopping to pick up hedgehogs off the road so that other people don’t squish them :)
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June 7th, 2009 at 7:02 am
i dunno really. I guess i hold doors open, pick things up if someone has dropped something, give random compliments and try to be happy and friendly looking.
People say im a happy person, and good to be around.
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June 7th, 2009 at 8:52 am
I saved a bird with a damaged wing. I took care of her until her wing had healed, made sure she ate, and fed her water with a tiny bottle. She was really weak, but after a week and a half she was all good, and I let her out and she could finally fly again :D
It always feels good to help, be it people or animals!
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June 7th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I don’t know if it’s a big deer or not but recently my grandmother passed away because she had breast and ovary cancer.His house was far away from mine (actually, I’m living in an student hall of residence which is an hour and a half far from my grandparents house). I was in exam season when I heard of it and before that happened I was going to stay in the the student hall of residence for a whole month because I was scared about the exams and I wanted to focus on them, but finally I decided to go and come every single time I could, just to see my amazing and beautiful grandmother again.
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June 7th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I always find myself searching for nice little things to do for strangers. Something unexpected, something to make their day a bit easier, something to put a little smile on their face. Whether it be holding open the door for a mother with children, helping an elderly woman find something at the grocery store, stopping to pick up something that someone has dropped (especially when others just walk by), making donations (no matter how small), paying a compliment to someone you can tell is trying something new, or simply smiling and saying hello! spread the love!
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June 7th, 2009 at 11:33 am
My friend was having a bad week during her first time at college. Teachers were on her case rejecting her art and one even told her to switch majors because she didn’t have what it took. At the end of the week was her Birthday, but she was unable to go home to her family. We asked her if she wanted to do anything and she said no, it was fine. But secretly my friends and I bought balloons and decorated a cake for her and even made her a crown and we snuck up to her room and yelled surprise. She started to cry and thanks us all, then called her mom and told her everything was fine now.
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June 7th, 2009 at 11:46 am
When I was on a walk with my boyfriend we encountered a dead cat lying on the side of the road, obviously hit by a car, whose driver seemingly didn’t bother to slow down. I felt so terribly sorry for this poor cat and therefore went straight home to get gloves and a blanket and then my boyfriend and I picked the creature up to bury it in our garden. We thought that this cat was loved by someone and therefore should be treated like something loved.
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June 7th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I was out running some errands and decided to pick up some Chick-Fil-A to take home. After I ordered and paid, I moved to the side to wait for my food. A woman with two kids, a boy and girl, both roughly 5 or 6, came up to the register. She ordered food for all three of them and when she went to pay, she realized she didn’t have enough money. Without hesitation, I whipped out a $20 and offered to get their meal. Believe me, I’m not rolling in dough myself but I couldn’t let them walk out without eating. The mom looked so bewildered as did the cashier. She couldn’t believe I was being so generous but I told her that I insisted. As she paid, I got my food and left before she had time to give me the change. She may have needed that later.
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June 7th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
bottle feeding and finding homes for a litter of abandoned puppies. Lots of work and little sleep but well worth it!
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June 7th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
When I was in about, eh, 5th grade I think, my soccer team raised a whole bunch of money so that we could compete in a soccer tournament in Disney World. It was my first time going to Disney so I started collecting all of my spare change and did chores to earn money for souvenirs (Disney is quite expensive). Two weeks before we were to leave I had raised $20 (which was a lot to me then).
However, a friend told me about a trip that a group of people were to Guatemala to help build a home for orphaned boys. Donations were wanted. I was torn for a long time, pondering whether I should give up my money or not. Finally, I decided that those boys needed a home much more than I needed a Chip and Dale plushie and so I donated my $20. I realize it much but, hey, its the thought that counts.
Heh, reading back over that it sounds so cheesy and unreal, but I promise it really did happen.
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June 7th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
A friend of mine is a very passionate (and good) figure skater. At school a few months ago we stopped to chat to each other in the cafeteria. I was wearing a cream colored scarf and when she saw it she starting talking about how that was the perfect color for her skating dress and how she had been having trouble finding a color sample to send to the designer that was making her dress. She asked if she could take a picture of the scarf, but I was worried that the color wouldn’t transfer right through a photo, so I lent her the scarf and off it went to New York so that an appropriate color could be found! This is probably my most meaning fun good deed because my friend was just so happy that she could get her dream dress. It made me happy to see her that happy. And yes, a few weeks later my scarf came home after having a new adventure.
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June 7th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
It’s hard to think of a most significant or memorable good deed.
But the one I picked was kind of a return favor. I was flying to France (from Spokane, WA) for a week, by myself, and it was the first time I’d left home on my own (at 17).
I felt thankful to the pilot because the flight had been smooth and totally un-scary. So when we started the descent I wrote a letter to him explaining how I felt and saying thank you. I gave it to one of the flight attendants and she promised she’d pass it on. :)
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June 7th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I used to tutor the underprivileged to fill my high school’s community service requirements. I wound up with a particularly stubborn (belligerent, even) girl who, at seven years old, couldn’t properly add or subtract and had a lot of trouble reading. It was kind of hard at first to have the patience and deal with her, but something (I still have no idea what) pushed me to really invest myself into her, to stay nice and give lots of hugs (and candy!) no matter how ‘RAAAAHH I DON’T WANNA DO THIS’ she got and get through to her. It took a lot of effort and patience on both our parts, but with a little gentle force and a lot of TLC, she started to learn to love to read and got better and better at math– she’d bring sometimes five or six books every time we met to read to me and showed me her improving math grades! It was one of the most absolutely gratifying ‘rewards’ I’ve ever gotten for my extra oomph and, as my friend calls it, ’silly moral idealism.’ :D
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June 7th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I painted a painting and sent it to my friend who lives overseas and was in a bit of a downer. I never told him I did this. He never mentioned it. I don’t even know if he got it… but I hope he did.
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June 7th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
a good deed can be very very small – pulling through a drive through one afternoon, you could tell that the girl behind the counter was having a horrible day, she dropped my change, and the register was fighting her… and then from my back seat came a small voice “mom… can you ask the pretty lady what her name is? I love her hair…” my then 4 year old daughter asked…
all I had to do was relate what my daughter had said to make that girl’s day a bit brighter
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June 7th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
I told the truth. Might sound simple, but I had the option of keeping a secret for the rest of my life knowing the other person would never fully move on…. instead I told the truth, lost someone special… but now at least he can be happy and move on.
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June 7th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Last Thanksgiving I helped out our local St. Vincent dePaul society give out food for the families who couldn’t quite afford it. I loaded up boxes upon boxes of food, and delivered them to each car that pulled up.
The thing that made it all worthwhile and most memorable was this one woman. I finished loading up her car, and she came and hugged me, thanked me, and cried on my shoulder. She was that grateful. No words can describe that feeling it gave me.
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June 7th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
My roommates and I are foster parents for the local humane society. We pretty much only get bottlefed litters of puppies and kittens, some as young as 2 or 3 days old – once even a coyote!!
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June 7th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Hi Doe Deere! First time commenter, but looong time reader. This is a funny question because, two years ago when I was attending an all-girls, private, Catholic high school, we watched the movie Pay It Forward and afterwards as a sort of reflection, we were required to do 3 random acts of kindness and write about what we did, how we felt, etc. Now, in retrospect, assigning someone to do a random act of kindness is sort of counter-intuitive to the entire idea behind them, however arguing about private high school curriculum is an entire task in and of itself. One act of kindness in particular stuck in my mind which was when it was about 3 a.m. and I was going over the Golden Gate Bridge in California and I saw the toll people and there was a car behind me. First, I paid the person’s toll behind me, which I later wrote about in the assignment. However, in keeping up with the randomness associated with these particular acts of kindness, I immediately drove over the bridge, found the closest (open) coffee shop, and bought every toll booth attendant a large cup of coffee and a pastry AND didn’t use it as one of my three tasks for the journal assignment.
Thanks for being the amazing you, you are!
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June 7th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
I started a small community project called “The Little Yellow Flower” where i would make origami flowers and a little a little note to bright someone’s day. I would just leave them in random spots in town. Like on a bus bench or a table in a cafe. Hehe, i once watched someone sit at my table and give a smile. It made me feel so good that I got shivers. :]
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June 8th, 2009 at 12:53 am
When I was 7 and my sister was 3, I walked by my bedroom door, and something told me to go in. I found my sister passed out in my stuffed animals. She had eaten a whole bottle of flinstones vitamins thinking they were candy. I ran and told my mom, she was rushed to the hospital and had her stomach pumped. If I hadn’t found her when I did, she wouldn’t have made it.
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June 8th, 2009 at 1:53 am
It’s not exactly a good deed, because it’s something I do everyday : I’m always there when needed by people I love, weather it’s to cheer them up, listen to their stories, laugh with them… And, I see that people appreciate it… Sometimes, even people I don’t know come and talk to me (I work in a store). I guess it’s obvious when looking at me that I’m nice :)
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June 8th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Ok, first thing which comes to my mind..
It was a cold and frosty weekday evening, it gets dark really early here. I was heading somewhere and saw a little child’s glove lying on the ground. I remembered I passed by a pair of young people with a baby several minutes ago. So I picked the glove and ran back as quick as i could, to catch up with them. It was quite far already. I didn’t know if it was really their glove, but I know the baby might get cold without it. And the parents will be upset. I managed to return the glove, it was a good feeling.
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June 8th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Giving my mum a bath when she came home from the hostpital after being in there for 2 months following a heart attack which resulted in a coma and brain damage. She seemed so happy and I felt like I had my old mum back again for a moment :)
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June 8th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Although it might be understood, the best “thing” I have ever made is hoe I supported my mom through her breast cancer. Although it really “broke” me I was super strong for bith of us and helped her through a lot of problems with her job and financially, but I think she has never needed me before as much as in this period. We have never been a dream team and argued a lot – but since then we have a new relationship and we know what we have on each other.
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June 8th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I don’t think I’ve done anything very memorable. I just try to do small things every day like holding the door for people and being kind.
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June 8th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
the best deal ever was when i was in Orlando, visiting Disney(btw i´m from brazi), and convinced my father to give the money he had planned to spend with me for the meals for the whole vacation!! so i saved some of it, i couldn’t save it all, i had to eat!!! In the end i completed the amount to by my ipod video!!! that was so so so good!!! i love my puppy(ipod)!!!
xoxo
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June 8th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
This is actually really sad. Last summer on the hottest day of the year, my best friend and I were driving down a pretty busy street, we drove by an old man walking but was bleeding profusely from the back of his head! So we pulled into the next parking lot. He had kept falling down, it was obvious he was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration! And there were people on the street walking around him! The nerve! He told us he just got out of the hospital, and he has a problem with his legs, so that explained partly of why he was falling down. We examined him better and it appeared he had fallen several times on his walk back from a convenience store, because he was bleeding from the head, his arms and his legs! We finally got him to lay in the shaded area, and we called for an ambulance to come and get him. I have never seen anything like this, but I was very glad that my friend and I were there to help, because what if no one had helped him that day? Thankfully, we don’t have to wonder “if”!
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June 8th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I guess this counts as a good deed, although I enjoyed it as much as she did! :) When I was about 8 or 9, I used to ride my bike to my great-grandma’s house every morning before school and then she would walk with me to school from there. I always had to get there about an hour before school started because my mom had to leave for work earlier then I needed to. For that hour, I would read to my grandma from whatever book I happened to be reading at the time or whatever book she wanted me to read. I’ve always loved reading and so has she but as she got older, she started having health problems and she couldn’t see that well anymore. Those were some of my favorite mornings and it was something that just her and I were able to share together.
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June 8th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
My neighbor just had hip surgery and has been trouble walking her aging Border Collie. I’ve been walking him all week – and sometimes I secretly think I’m enjoying our daily outings more than he is :-).
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June 8th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
The best good deed i did is the day i fell in love i guess ^^.
To be more precise , some years ago i fell in love with a boy and unfortunately it didn’t work out, he didn’t love me, he felt only tenderness to me and i was broken….
He was so sorry, but since before i fell in love with him we were good friend, i decided to be strong and forget my love feeling to him.
It was very hard for me, and one day he fell in love with a somebody else and i still loved him…
But it was a forbidden relation , they had to hide from parents and it was very difficult for them to see each other.
I decided to help them the best way i could, i helped them to meet, helped them to get in touch, spend hours and hours on the phone to listen, to confort and give advice ( by the way my parents still remember the phone bills lol )
I even wrote a letter to his father to say how much his son was a good personn who deserved to love and lived a free love storie.
I cried with him when he couldn’t seen his love’s one, i was affraid with him when his parents discovered that they had a relationship, it was trully a hard time.
And even if i still loved him, still cried all the nights long, i decided to help him the most, no matter my suffering my love for him just told me : help him to be happy with this personn.
For my it’s the definition of love, to give everything no matter suffering or pain, i forgot me totally and helped in every way i could.
For me it was a true love, the one which can make you do things that you never imagined to do before, this one which gave you strengh! and make your heart a better place no matter sorrow.
I don’t know if all this can be called ” a good deed” but this is what i think about when i hear this words ^^
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June 8th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
When I was young, my mom and I would ask our friends to donate toys to us throughout the year so that we could take them to the children’s shelter at Christmas time.
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June 8th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
my good deed, was giving up the pacifiers i had for my baby to the girl in the hospital next to me, she sounded like she needed them more than i did. she was on the verge on snapping her baby was crying all the time… she was crying all the time i just poked my head through the curtain and said… would you like these ( showing the pacifiers)
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June 8th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
For the first week of May I flew to Florida with my Dad for my Grandfathers funeral. I haven’t seen any of my dads family since I was 8, so I don’t know anybody in the family and honestly I’m not attached to my grandparents (I never knew them). I missed a week of work on a days notice so I could support my Dad when he needed me. I didn’t have to go. But I love him.
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June 9th, 2009 at 1:33 am
A friend and I were planning on going to one of the Byte fetish parties in NYC. She’s never been to a fetish party that didn’t suck so I wanted to take her to a proper one. I liked Byte and know my way around NYC, so I offered to be her tour guide. I had just gotten a gorgeous baby blue ruffly PVC shirt and a hot pink PVC skirt from Artifice Clothing that I haven’t worn yet. I was really itching to wear it to Byte for the first time.I always get that surge of excitement when I “premiere” a new outfit. All I could think about for 2 weeks prior to departure is how hot I’m gonna look that Sunday night.
So we get to NYC and my friend checks her e-mail on her laptop using our hotel’s WI-FI. She checks MySpace and finds out that her boyfriend changed his Relationship Status to “Single” and dropped her from his Top 24 like a hot potato. There was a picture of some girl she’s never met in the spot where her profile used to be. She figured that her relationship was just peachy, since her boyfriend never even hinted at a possible breakup. Instead of braking up with her like a man, he breaks up with her on MySpace in a totally sneaky rat bastard way. She attempted to call him and chew him out, but he wouldn’t answer her texts or pick up her calls.
She was beside herself with grief and anger and didn’t want to go to Byte anymore. I FORCED her to go out and have fun for the sake of her sanity. Oh and I made her wear my brand new outfit that I’ve been itching to wear. She got free drinks and compliments ALL NIGHT long. I was severely under dressed, but was glad that my friend got a pick me up at a time when she really needed one. I was willing to sacrifice a hot new outfit just to see her smile :)
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June 9th, 2009 at 5:43 am
I took a person who I’d never met before to the medical centre when they approached me with their hand badly cut and bleeding.
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June 9th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Reading all the good things other do makes me feel bad about my self..you are all so lovely.
The good deed I do..I share my summeries and notes I took in class with my friends.
And I cook for two friends of mine every week.
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June 9th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Many of my friends have relationship issues and family problems. There isn’t a specific memory I have in mind that I can think of when it comes to doing good deeds. I am always there for my friends and family when they need me, and in a heart beat I’m willing to drop what I’m doing to make another person feel better. Every one does some nice things every once in a while which they can bring up; but I believe that the most memorable thing I could do for myself and for my friends is being there when they need someone to talk to or be with.
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June 9th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
One Christmas, my mom and I participated in the Adopt a Family program in our neighborhood. We got a family with a little boy who liked firetrucks, so we went to Toys R US and got him the biggest firetruck we could find and filled it with all sorts of goodies. It was so fun and we knew he’d be happy when he saw his present.
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June 9th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
i’m usually not much of a commenter, but i just couldn’t pass this up :P
i don’t really have a single memorable good deed though, just lots of small things. the most recent one was taking care of my mom & all the housework when she got surgery. i even cooked for the first week! which is something i hate to do.
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June 9th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I realized that I’ve always been inspired to help people and one of the biggest feats I’ve faced growing up was sharing love, my house, food, family and life with someone who needed a place to stay. He was just a kid (the same age as I at the time) and although he only stayed with us till Christmas, (about 4 months) it was long, grueling, and taught me more about myself than I’ve ever learned in school.
This kid’s mother had four or five children, and was trying to get off her feet. My parents gave me the ultimatum on if He could stay here and as much as I didn’t like this boy, I couldn’t say no.
It wasn’t easy for me, but I got through it and it’s made me stronger today.
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June 9th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
About a year and a half ago, there was a huge flood in my town, that went right through both residential and business areas, and a lot of people were forced to leave their properties.
It was the very day after I confessed my feelings for a girl that I liked, and was pretty heartbroken when I was rejected, since I had liked her for over three years. But in order to get my mind off of this girl, I ended up going out to one of the bigger business areas and helped scrub mud off of the walls and windows, clean up merchandise, and try to fix a few things that were broken in maybe ten stores.
I remember I spent my entire weekend trying to help them, with maybe two hours of sleep, and they all tried to give me free merchandise for helping them so much, but I didn’t take anything because they gave me the break from my own problems that I needed so badly.
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June 9th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
heh you know i’ll sound like a loser saying this. and it is such a small thing, but it was timing that made me feel real good about it. a couple weeks ago my boyfriend picked me up from work and hit a dog driving down the winding dark road:( the dog got up and walked(with sort of a limp) and walked into the tallll grass in the field that was surrounding us. it was literally the most awful thing i have ever experienced in my life, and i immediatley told my boyfriend to stop the car even though there wasnt anywhere we could really stop. but i got out and ran to see if i could find the dog, but i couldnt. and it sucked even more because it was so dark out it was hard to see anything:( i was heart broken and wanted to find him soooo bad, i couldnt stop crying or thinking about it that whole night. and then i had nightmares, and then another dream of us refinding the dog and taking it to the hospital. and it hurt so bad because now i will never know if that dog is ok or not. all i wanted was to find the dog and take care of him and keep him:( and although this doesnt compare to how having that happen would have felt, maybe four days later, me and my parents went to dinner down that same road, and my father saw a turtle on the road so he stopped the car in the middle of the road, reversed for a bit and said there was a turtle on the other side of the road, so i got out and put the turtle in the grass up high on the road so it could be safe, and that made me feel really good inside:) after all the pain i felt about the dog situation im glad i got to save that turtles life. im glad my dad spotted it!@!!that’s just the most recent thing i felt really good about.thank you for reading, your bloagazine is amazing i read it allll the time!
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June 9th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I’m in complete awe… I laughed, I cried… So many incredible stories. Thank you for sharing!!
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June 9th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Just last month I went to a local drugstore to pick up a few items. While browsing an isle I observed an older lady looking a bit flustered at the pharmacy. She was exchanging words with the pharmacist and I noticed a few wadded up bills and tons of change on the counter. I heard her talking to the pharmacist explaining she needed to pick up some meds for her sick granddaughter and that was all the money she had. It turns out she was only a mere $0.25 off from the total and the pharmacist wasnt about to budge to help her. I pulled out a quarter and gave it to the lady. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and just grabbed me and hugged me.
I didnt know the woman but everytime I think about that day, it makes me feel very good. If only everyone realized how such small things can mean everything to someone else.
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June 10th, 2009 at 1:45 am
Last October I spent an hour talking to homeless man outside a concert I went to.. He was in a wheelchair and wasn’t begging, he was just talking in normal conversation. He eventually told me how sickening he finds living on the street, and how someone stole his backpack out from under him while he was sleeping, and was wondering how anyone could live with themselves having stolen from a homeless man. I gave him $20.
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June 10th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I just want to say to Ellie (#174) that that is beautiful….
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June 16th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
On my 8th b-day I was playing and I saw thise baby bird out in the street. Then i thought ”Oh No! it’s going to get ran over!” so i picked it up. After i tried to find a nest that was closer. i could not find one. I then knew i had to keep him or her with me. i fed it bread every day and read books about birds. At night i even read it bed time story. but one day my mom said she had found a better home. I didn’t want to give him away. I even named him. I call him Pucky! but i knew it was the good thing to do. I was soo sad i cryed every day for two days. but i alson got happy because he was going to do just find with out me. and he and me were going to be o.k.!!
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June 17th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I helped our school raise over $14000 to build a school in Kenya this year. What was truly memorable was the expression of the man who ran the charity when we presented him with the cheque. He was almost in tears!
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June 20th, 2009 at 5:09 am
I would love to win a box of delights
In graduate school I lobbied the university to allow moms to bring their kids to the huge outdoor swimming pool that the university had just launched. We staged a “swim in” where all the students who were parents brought their kids to the pool and we had a huge fun pool party. It may not seem like something very important but I think that students come in all types and university is a place for learning and preparing for their future lives, this should involve a supportive stance on children as part of their community. One argument we had to fight in the senate was that the children would “be an unwelcome atmosphere” at the pool to which I responded “well i think guys saying sexist remarks about my body to me while trying to swim is and unwelcome atmosphere but we can’t seem to ban them”
anyhow….
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October 24th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
My 4yo nephew climbed a ladder unto our childhood playhouse in the backyard of our home. We lived on a farm in ND. There was a hornets nest nearby that were disturbed by his presence and began to sting him. I ran towards him and pulled him off the roof and ran with him to a safe shelter, I think I lucked out and only received about 2 or 3 stings during the rescue. My nephew was traumatized by the experience, but recovered from all his stings.:)
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November 21st, 2009 at 11:54 am
The most memorable good deed I’ve done was helping a young lady find her bus pass, after she dropped it on the bus. It was a school assigned pass, which are quite expensive to replace, I was informed. We searched around for it awkwardly for a few minutes before I found it and gave it back to her. She was so grateful– it totally made my day.
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