Kindness rarely makes the headlines, yet small generous acts are everywhere: a stranger who goes to the trouble of returning a lost phone, a shop that feeds people for free, a runner who gives up her own race to help a rival. The thirteen moments collected here were shared widely online between 2011 and 2014, and several of them were followed up by newspapers and broadcasters, so each caption below includes what is known about the people involved.
Why do stories like these move us so much? Part of the answer is that they break the assumption that strangers do not care. Researchers who study helping behaviour also find that generosity tends to spread: people who witness or receive a kind act are more likely to pass one on. Most of the acts below cost little money. What they share is attention, the decision to notice someone else's problem and do something about it. Some are grand gestures that changed a life; others are notes, signs and power strips. Each one is a practical idea you could borrow.
Small gestures between strangers
1. Signs for a lost iPhone. Instead of handing a found phone to a lost-property office and forgetting about it, someone printed a "Found: iPhone" notice with pictures of the phone and its case and posted copies around the area. It is a simple way to reach an owner who may not think to call the police. The photo was shared on Imgur.
2. Free power after Hurricane Sandy. When Sandy hit the US East Coast in late October 2012, millions of homes lost electricity, some for more than a week. One household with power ran extension cords and power strips out to its front railing with a sign inviting passers-by to charge their phones, which mattered when phones were the only way to reach family and emergency services. The picture circulated on Imgur.
3. Treat bags for fellow passengers. Parents of twin baby boys, around 14 weeks old and flying for the first time, handed out small bags of sweets with a note apologising in advance in case the babies cried, and offering earplugs. Crying infants on planes are unavoidable, and the gesture turned potential irritation into goodwill. Similar notes have since become a familiar parenting idea.
Sharing food and resources
4. A fridge for anyone in need. In 2014 the Saudi preacher Mohamad al-Arefe shared photos on Twitter of a public refrigerator placed outside a home, where neighbours can leave food and people in need can take it without having to ask. Community fridges of this kind have since spread to many countries, from the Middle East to Europe and North America, as a simple way to cut food waste and hunger at the same time.
5. A free meal every Friday. A Subway sandwich shop in Melbourne, Australia, put out a sign offering a free meal to homeless people every Friday afternoon. The photo was posted on Reddit in 2012 under the title "faith in corporate humanity". Even when such offers are local and short-lived, they show how a small business can make room for people who are usually ignored.
6. Free dry cleaning for job interviews. A dry cleaner's window sign promises to clean an interview outfit for free for anyone who is unemployed. A clean suit is a small thing, but for someone who has been out of work it can make the difference between feeling ready and feeling ashamed. Several dry cleaners in the United States have run similar programmes.
Generosity that changed a life
7. Dan Black gives away his own treatment fund. Dan Black, from Chepstow in Wales, was paralysed from the waist down in 2009 when a car hit him as he cycled to work. Friends and supporters raised about £20,000 for experimental stem-cell treatment that might help him walk. In 2013 he read about Brecon Vaughan, a five-year-old with cerebral palsy who needed surgery in the United States, and gave him the entire fund. Brecon had the operation and learned to walk on his own, and Black received a Pride of Britain award.
8. Glen James returns $42,000. In September 2013 Glen James, a homeless man in Boston, found a backpack holding about $42,000 in cash and traveller's cheques. He handed it to the police, and it was returned to its owner, a student from China. Boston's police commissioner honoured him for his honesty. Ethan Whittington, a stranger in Virginia who read the story, started an online fundraiser that quickly raised well over $100,000 to help James find housing.
9. Boots for a barefoot man. On a cold November night in 2012, New York police officer Larry DePrimo saw a barefoot homeless man in Times Square and bought him a pair of boots. A tourist photographed the moment, and when the NYPD posted the picture online it was viewed and shared hundreds of thousands of times. The story was covered by The New York Times and made DePrimo briefly famous.
Kindness in sport and at concerts
10. Meghan Vogel carries her rival. At the Ohio state high school track championships in June 2012, Meghan Vogel of West Liberty-Salem High School had already won the 1600 metres. In the 3200 metres, runner Arden McMath collapsed just short of the finish. Vogel helped her up, supported her to the line and made sure McMath crossed ahead of her. They finished 14th and 15th, and the crowd gave them a standing ovation.
11. Lifting a friend at a concert. At a Korn concert, fans lifted a friend in a wheelchair above the crowd so they could ride over the audience like any other crowd-surfer. The date and venue are not recorded in the photo, which was shared on Imgur. It is a reminder that inclusion can be spontaneous: the people nearby simply decided their friend should not miss out.
Courage for animals and honour for the forgotten
12. A kangaroo rescued from floodwater. During the severe Queensland floods of late 2010 and early 2011, a man waded into fast-moving water to carry a kangaroo to safety. The photo was published by the Herald Sun, which praised the rescuer. Wildlife carers advise the public to leave dangerous rescues to trained volunteers where possible, but the image captured how disaster can bring out compassion for every living thing.
13. Hundreds attend a lonely veteran's funeral. Harold Jellicoe Percival served as RAF Bomber Command ground crew with the famous Dambusters squadron during the Second World War. He never married, had no close family and died aged 99 in a care home in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, in October 2013. Staff feared nobody would come to his funeral, so an appeal was shared online and in the press. On 11 November 2013, hundreds of strangers, veterans and serving soldiers filled Lytham Park Crematorium, many standing outside in the rain.
How to make kindness a habit
None of these acts required special training. Most began with someone noticing a need and acting on it. If you would like to do more of the same, a few ideas:
- Return lost property properly, and make an extra effort to find the owner.
- In a power cut, storm or heatwave, check on neighbours who live alone.
- Support community fridges, food banks or "pay it forward" schemes in your area.
- If you run a business, consider one small service you could offer free to people in hardship.
- Attend the events that matter to people who are alone, from funerals to graduations.
Kindness also benefits the giver. Studies of prosocial behaviour suggest that helping others is linked to better mood and a stronger sense of purpose, so the person who carries a rival across a finish line or posts a sign for a stranger's phone gets something back too.
Sources: My Modern Met: Dan Black and Brecon Vaughan; NPR on Glen James (September 2013); Colorlines on the Glen James fundraiser (September 2013); HuffPost on Meghan Vogel (June 2012); ITV News on Harold Percival's funeral (November 2013). Photo credits: Imgur (phone signs), Mohamad al-Arefe on Twitter (fridge), SWNS via the Daily Mirror (Dan Black), Imgur (Korn concert), Imgur (Hurricane Sandy), quipster.wordpress.com (dry cleaner), Herald Sun (kangaroo), Reddit (Subway sign), The New York Times (boots), Julie Hamilton / Daily Mirror (Percival funeral). Collection first compiled by Bored Panda and Lifebuzz.
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