News feeds are good at showing us the worst of people. This collection does the opposite. These 30 photos, most of them shared on Reddit, Imgur, Instagram and Tumblr between 2013 and early 2018, capture people helping strangers, neighbours, animals and family with no reward in mind. A few involve real heroism, like a Florida student who shielded his classmates during a school shooting. Most are small: a sign in a restaurant window, a tie straightened on a train platform, a pianist taking a request.
The picture at the top sets the tone. Someone noticed a parked car with its window left open in the rain, could not find the owner, and taped plastic over the gap.
We have grouped the photos by theme and added what is known about each one. Many were posted anonymously, so names and places are not always confirmed; where that is the case, we say so. If a story is famous enough to have been reported by news outlets, we have added those details.
Courage when it counted
Anthony Borges, the student who held the door
Photo: Arsikere
During the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 15-year-old Anthony Borges tried to lock a classroom door and was shot five times as the gunman fired through it. His family and their lawyer said about 20 classmates were sheltering behind him. He survived after weeks in hospital and many operations, and is pictured here receiving a visit from a law enforcement officer.
Firefighters spraying across a border
Photo: Stepside79
A fire broke out on the Mexican side of the border, and firefighters in Nogales, Arizona, raised their ladder truck and sprayed water over the border fence to help put it out. The twin cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora have long cooperated on emergencies. The photo was widely shared in February 2018.
Strangers holding on
Photo: Jakr-
Passers-by and officers reach over a bridge railing and tie a rope around a man who had climbed outside it, holding him until he could be brought to safety. The photo was shared on Reddit in 2017 without further details. If you or someone you know is struggling, please contact a local crisis line or emergency services; in the US you can call or text 988, and in the UK you can call Samaritans on 116 123.
Paramedics who came back with shovels
Photo: Optimoprimo
An elderly man had a heart attack while clearing snow from his driveway. Paramedics took him to hospital, then returned to finish the job so he would not have to face it when he got home. Shovelling heavy snow is a known trigger for heart attacks, which is one more reason this kind of neighbourly help matters.
The baby he carried out of a fire
Seventeen years after a firefighter carried a baby girl out of a burning house, she invited him to her high school graduation. The top photo is the newspaper picture from the day of the fire; the bottom shows the same two people, both much older, hugging in her cap and gown.
Feeding people and caring for animals
Kenya's "Water Man"
Photo: 2spooky4Chrispratt
During a severe drought in Kenya's Tsavo region, pea farmer Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua began renting a water truck and driving for hours to fill dried-up waterholes for elephants, buffalo, zebras and antelope. Kenyan media nicknamed him the "Water Man", and online donations later helped him keep going. The before-and-after photos show wildlife arriving almost as soon as the water flows.
Curry for Dublin's homeless
Photo: anetk
A retired man named Brian in Dublin was photographed with dozens of takeaway tubs of homemade curry, which, according to the person who posted it, he cooks every evening for homeless people, paid for out of his pension. We could not confirm his full name, but the scene is familiar to anyone who knows Ireland's volunteer soup runs.
A sign for whoever is going through the bins
Photo: SpinalZeD
A restaurant owner put up a note addressed to the person searching their rubbish for food, saying they deserved better than a dumpster and offering a free sandwich, fresh vegetables and water during opening hours, no questions asked. The note is widely reported to have come from a small restaurant in Louisiana in 2015. It treats hunger with dignity rather than suspicion.
A refugee giving back
Photo: Tabea Bü
Alex Assali, a Syrian who fled the war and settled in Berlin, set up a small table near a city square in 2015 and handed out free hot food to homeless people. His sign said he wanted to give something back to Germany for taking him in. Local media and social networks spread the story at a time when refugees were often portrayed only as a burden.
Looking up a vet for a sparrow
Photo: Au_Struck_Geologist
In a coffee shop, a customer noticed the man next to him gently holding an injured sparrow while searching online for an animal hospital that could treat it. If you find an injured wild bird, keep it warm, dark and quiet in a ventilated box and contact a wildlife rescue or vet rather than trying to feed it.
Small kindnesses between strangers
Help with a tie
Photo: LyssaP
On a station platform, an older man stops to show a younger stranger how to knot his tie, possibly before an interview or a wedding. Skills like this used to be passed on by fathers and grandfathers, and not everyone has one to ask.
A bench for a reader
An elderly woman regularly came to a shop's book section to read, standing between the shelves. The manager noticed and set up a small bench with cushions for her. The location was not given by the poster, but the gesture needs no translation.
Bin men on the swings
Photo: reddit.com
Two refuse collectors take a break on a playground's swings while their truck waits by the road. The "Basura Cero" livery on the truck suggests it was taken in Bogotá, Colombia, where the city ran a zero-waste programme of that name. Sometimes a reminder that hard-working adults still enjoy simple fun is all it takes.
"I see her name on the screen"
Photo: mthani1
Instagram photographer mthani1 spotted a man smiling at his phone and asked to take his picture. The man explained he was chatting with his wife back home, and when asked if it was a video call, said no, but he could see her name on the screen. Millions of migrant workers live apart from their families for years, and moments like this show what that distance feels like.
The neighbour's request
Photo: ned.dixon
Pianist Ned Dixon found a note slipped under his door while practising and assumed it was a noise complaint. Instead, a neighbour politely asked him to play Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat. He played it with the windows open and heard applause from a balcony a few floors up.
A debt repaid after five years
Photo: stehigs321
A woman received an envelope containing cash and a letter from the person who had stolen her wallet five years earlier, during active drug addiction. Now in recovery, the writer apologised and returned the money with extra. Making amends is part of many recovery programmes, and this one clearly took courage.
The mariachi and the guitarrón
Photo: prettydorky
A mariachi musician let a hard-of-hearing boy rest his head on his guitarrón, the large bass guitar of a mariachi band, while he played. The boy could feel the vibrations through the wooden body and his skull, and his parent said he was amazed.
Family, love and second chances
A heart drawn in birds
Photo: yassertm3
A father scatters bird food in the shape of a heart every morning so his wife wakes up to a view of pigeons arranged in it. Small daily rituals like this are often what keeps long marriages warm.
A nurse and her former patient
Photo: harlesm
A young woman who had been paralysed from the waist down returns to the hospital where she was treated. One of her nurses bends down to hug her as she arrives in her wheelchair. Medical staff rarely learn how their patients' lives turn out, so visits like this mean a lot to them.
Walked down the aisle by her father's heart
Photo: Feldman742
Jeni Stepien's father, Michael, was murdered in 2006, and his heart was donated to Arthur Thomas of New Jersey. In August 2016, Thomas walked Jeni down the aisle at her wedding in Pennsylvania. Before the ceremony, she put her hand on his chest to feel her father's heart beating.
Vows to a four-year-old
Photo: Jessica Husted Photography
At her wedding to a US Marine, a bride turned to his four-year-old son and read vows promising to love and care for him too. Photographer Jessica Husted captured the boy crying and hugging her. Stepfamilies often begin with exactly this kind of promise.
The adoption is official
Photo: kinkosmyers
Surveillance footage from a bookshop shows a girl reacting to the news that her adoption had gone through. She jumps, spins and hugs the adult beside her. In the US, many children wait years in foster care for a permanent family.
"Papa's Story"
Photo: renblankk
On her birthday in 2017, Ren Blank received three notebooks from her grandfather. Starting in 2003, when she was two, he had written down stories from every day they spent together until she was five. Her tweet about the gift was liked hundreds of thousands of times, and it inspired many readers to start writing similar journals.
Teachers, mentors and communities
Josh Johnson flies out his teacher
Photo: CJ105
When comedian Josh Johnson made his debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he told the audience about the teacher who had watched his first high school stand-up performance and predicted he would get there one day. Then he revealed he had flown that teacher out to sit in the audience. Johnson later became a writer and correspondent on The Daily Show.
A stamp at 100
Photo: GallowBoob
Barbados has an unusually high number of centenarians for its size, and the Barbados Postal Service has honoured many of them with a series of commemorative stamps bearing their portraits. A Reddit post in 2018 brought the sheets to worldwide attention. It is a lovely way for a nation to treat its oldest citizens as living history.
600 volunteer dads
Photo: heyjude321
Billy Earl Dade Middle School in Dallas, Texas, planned a "Breakfast with Dads" event in 2017 but realised many students had no father figure who could attend. The school asked for 50 volunteer men. Roughly 600 turned up, including community members, police officers and soldiers, and many signed up to mentor students afterwards.
Tickets for the janitor
Photo: reddit.com
Students at a school learned that their janitor, a huge Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, could not afford concert tickets. They pooled their money and bought them for him. The photo shows the moment he found out, surrounded by applauding students.
The babysitter who saw the best in her
Photo: inkskinned
A Tumblr writer recalled babysitting a little girl from the age of 12 and praising every drawing in a mock sports-commentator voice. Years later, the girl was accepted into three major art schools and sent a thank-you letter, enclosing one of those childhood pictures. Encouragement from a trusted older child can stay with someone for life.
A parrot that learned to calm people
Photo: lady-feral
A Tumblr user explained that whenever her parrot got upset, she would say "hey" in a soft, soothing voice and talk to it gently. One day she was the one who got frustrated, and the parrot repeated the same soft "hey" to her, over and over. Parrots are expert mimics, and this one had clearly picked up the meaning as well as the sound.
Aesha Ash, a ballerina on the street
Photo: dickfromaccounting
Aesha Ash, a former soloist with New York City Ballet, began photographing herself in a tutu in the neighbourhoods of Rochester, New York, where she grew up. Her Swan Dreams Project aims to show girls of colour that ballet belongs to them too. In 2020 she became the first Black woman to join the permanent faculty of the School of American Ballet.
Why stories like these do us good
It is fair to ask whether viral "faith in humanity" photos matter. Psychologists have studied a feeling they call moral elevation: the warm, uplifted sensation people describe after seeing someone act with unusual kindness. Research led by Jonathan Haidt and others suggests that this feeling can make people more willing to help others themselves.
There is also a correction to our sense of the world. Bad news travels faster and further than good news, and that can leave people believing strangers are less trustworthy than they really are. Experiments such as the "lost wallet" studies, in which researchers handed in thousands of wallets in dozens of countries, found that most were returned, and more often when they contained money.
The practical lesson is simple. None of the kindnesses above required wealth or special skills. A sign in a window, a shovel, a few minutes on a platform or a notebook kept for a grandchild can matter to someone for years.
Sources: Photos credited under each image; collection first gathered by Bored Panda; Wikipedia: Stoneman Douglas High School shooting; Wikipedia: Aesha Ash; Ned Dixon on Instagram; Ren Blank on Twitter.
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