16 Photos of Kindness: Beach Clean-Ups, Rescues and Free Coats

Kindness rarely makes headlines, yet it is happening all the time: a volunteer scrubbing oil off a swan, a pizzeria inviting hungry strangers to Thanksgiving dinner, a bookshop putting out a sofa for one loyal reader. The sixteen photos below capture moments like these, from Michigan and Mumbai to Siberia and small-town America.

Most of them first circulated on Reddit, Imgur, Twitter and the Russian site Pikabu. We have kept the credit for every original poster and, where newspapers or broadcasters later covered the story, added the names, numbers and outcomes. A few stories could not be traced beyond the original post, and we say so where that is the case.

What links them is not money or heroics. In almost every picture someone simply noticed a need, whether a person stuck on a bridge, a cat in the cold or an elderly woman standing for hours in a shop aisle, and did something practical about it. If you are looking for ideas of your own, there is a short list at the end.

Rescues that took teamwork

Truck drivers form a safety net

In the early hours of 24 April 2018, Michigan State Police needed a way to protect a man standing on an overpass above Interstate 696 in Huntington Woods, near Detroit. Thirteen truck drivers answered the call and parked their rigs in a row beneath him, so a fall would be a few feet instead of a long drop to the freeway. After about three hours of talking, officers brought him down safely and he was taken for medical care. In the US, anyone in crisis can call or text 988. Credit: mspmetrodet / Twitter.

Pulling a reindeer out of a bog

On the Yamal Peninsula in Arctic Russia, where reindeer herding is a way of life, two men found an animal sunk to its belly in sucking mud. Working with a spade and bare hands, they dug it out and freed it. The original Russian post described it simply as a deer, but the antlers and the setting point to a reindeer. Credit: Vorotilo / Pikabu.

Washing oil from swans

The left-hand photo shows a waterway coated with an oil slick; on the right, volunteers kneel on the ground with buckets, bottles and cloths, cleaning a swan's feathers by hand. Oil destroys the waterproofing of feathers, so birds that are not cleaned can die of cold or drown. The post placed this in a city called Brest, reportedly the one in Belarus, though we could not confirm it. Credit: ikrok / Pikabu.

Strangers paying it forward

A birthday lunch, quietly paid for

A Reddit user out for a birthday lunch with his wife and baby at Sandy's Beach Grill in Huntington Beach, California, in July 2011 asked for the bill and got this instead. A stranger had paid the full $66.54 and written "Paid in full by another patron" across the receipt. Nobody else even knew it was a birthday. Posted by MuuaadDib / Reddit.

An envelope for whoever finds it

This envelope was left on a pavement with a handwritten note addressed to whoever picked it up, and a dollar bill tucked inside. A dollar will not change anyone's life, but the person who found it said it made their whole day. Little surprises like this are a popular form of "random acts of kindness". Posted by Kyrolly / Reddit on Reddit.

A curbside chair, restored and returned

A Reddit user left a worn-out wooden chair outside their home. A few days later it came back sanded, with a freshly painted blue seat and a sticky note from the anonymous neighbour who had done the work. Refurbishing furniture for strangers is a small thing, but it keeps a usable chair out of the landfill too. Posted by morfenstein / Reddit.

Scarves left out in the snow

Someone tied warm scarves in zip-lock bags to lamp posts all over their city, each with a tag explaining it was not lost and that anyone who needed it should take it. Versions of this idea now appear every winter in many cities, often organised by local volunteers and churches. Credit: AhhhThisStinks / Imgur.

Take a coat, leave a coat

Outside a shop called Eco Living, which sells fair-trade goods, a rail of winter coats hangs under a sign inviting anyone who needs a coat to take one and anyone who wants to help to leave one. Shared racks like this let neighbours donate directly, without forms or queues. Credit: AhhhThisStinks / Imgur.

Making room for older people

A reading sofa for a loyal customer

According to the Pikabu post, an older woman had been coming into this shop for about 15 years to read books standing between the shelves. Staff eventually built her a seat of her own, an orange sofa made from wooden pallets with two heart-shaped cushions. The post did not name the shop or city. Credit: tarchila / Pikabu.

"Cat Nap Terry" and the sanctuary cats

These are photos of Terry Lauerman, a 75-year-old volunteer at the Safe Haven cat sanctuary in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which cares for cats with disabilities. He spends several afternoons a week grooming the cats and often dozes off with one curled up on him. When the sanctuary posted pictures in September 2018, they went viral and brought in more than $40,000 in donations. Credit: KubMedia / Pikabu.

A hockey dream, fulfilled from a bed

German ice hockey club Crocodiles Hamburg shared this photo of a seriously ill fan who was brought to a game in her bed, wearing the team's scarf and surrounded by stuffed toys. For a fan who could no longer get to the rink on her own, being carried in to watch her team live was a wish come true. The club's post did not give her name, and we have not tried to add it. Credit: Crocodiles Hamburg / Facebook.

Small gestures for children and animals

A reserved parking spot for a balance bike

In a German town, a small child had parked a green balance bike by the same lamp post for about a year. One day a neat blue parking sign appeared on the post, complete with a picture of the bike and the word "ONLY". The neighbour behind it was never identified. Credit: Deathman / Pikabu.

A wooden house for street cats

This multi-room cat shelter, with blankets inside, bowls of food and fabric curtains over each entrance to keep out wind, was put together by someone in the neighbourhood for local strays. Insulated shelters with small doorways are what animal welfare groups recommend for outdoor cats in cold weather. Credit: LaTatiana / Pikabu.

A leaf pile with an invitation

Instead of bagging the autumn leaves, one homeowner raked them into a giant heap on the lawn and planted a hand-painted sign beside the mailbox asking passers-by to jump in. Children, and presumably some adults, took them up on it. Posted to Imgur; poster unknown (unknown author / Imgur).

Kindness on the scale of a whole community

Mumbai's Versova Beach, before and after

The headline that came with these photos said volunteers removed five tons of rubbish. The real figure was far larger. Lawyer Afroz Shah began weekend clean-ups of Versova Beach in Mumbai in October 2015, and within about two years his volunteers had cleared roughly 9 million kilograms of waste, most of it plastic. In 2016 the UN named him a Champion of the Earth. Credit: Afroz shah / Twitter.

Thanksgiving with open doors

The Bada Bing Pizzeria posted this notice: it would be closed to the public on Thanksgiving Day, but the owners would share a meal at around 2 p.m. with family, staff and friends, and anyone hungry or short of money was welcome to come in and eat their fill. The post did not say where the pizzeria is. Credit: Luffy52 / Imgur.

Ideas you can borrow

Almost every photo here is something an ordinary person could copy this week. A few ideas drawn directly from them:

• Leave warmth behind. Hang a spare scarf, hat or coat where someone who needs it can take it, or ask a local shop to host a coat rail.
• Notice the regulars. If someone in your shop, library or café always stands, offer them a seat.
• Help animals properly. A simple insulated box can save a stray cat in winter; oiled or injured wildlife is best reported to a local rescue centre rather than handled alone.
• Pay quietly. Covering a stranger's coffee or meal works best when you do not wait around for thanks.
• Join a clean-up. Afroz Shah started with one beach and a handful of neighbours. Local groups organise beach, river and park clean-ups in most cities.

Research supports the habit. A large 2020 review of 126 studies found that spontaneous, everyday helping was linked with higher wellbeing for the helper, at least as much as formal volunteering. In other words, the person who leaves the scarf on the post benefits as well.

One caution: viral kindness photos are often reposted without context, and numbers can change as they travel, as the Versova figure shows. Where we could, we checked; where we could not, we have kept the claim modest.

Sources: Individual photo credits appear under each image; preview photo by mspmetrodet / Twitter. Background: CNN on the I-696 truckers; Asia Times on Afroz Shah's Versova clean-up; Wikipedia: Afroz Shah; WBAY on "Cat Nap Terry"; Wikipedia: Prosocial behavior.