5. A dollar to a salary
On one of the coldest nights of the month, a homeless man entered a 7-Eleven in Salem, Massachusetts, where Ava Lins was working, according to Boston. Her heart went out to the man, so the 19-year-old offered him a small cup of coffee. As the man was leaving, though, Lins’ boss came in and yelled at the man for stealing the $1 drink. Lins claimed the man had paid, but confessed the next day and covered the cost herself. After that shift, though, a co-worker called to tell Lins she was off the schedule. When the media found the story, hundreds of people reached out to offer her a new job. She accepted a position as an administrative assistant with Citizens For Adequate Housing—a way better gig than her former 7-Eleven position.
6. Packing it up
When Glen James found more than $40,000 in cash and traveler’s checks, along with a passport, in an abandoned backpack in a Boston strip mall, he didn’t keep it to himself. The homeless man turned the bag into the police, who gave him a plaque at a civil ceremony, according to TODAY. A Virginia man more than 500 miles away heard about the story and set up a GoFundMe to raise money for James. The page raised more than $160,000—about four times more than he’d found in that backpack.
7. Car trouble
A weird noise from their car forced Sara Berg and her cousin, Lisa Meier, to pull over on the highway. The car had a flat tire, but neither knew how to fix it. Seeing the women in need, Victor Giesbrecht pulled over and helped them get back on the road, saying “Someone up above put me in the right place at the right time,” according to the Star Tribune. Minutes later, the women would get to return the favor. They saw Giesbrecht’s car on the side of the road just a couple miles later and drove over to see what was wrong. Giesbrecht’s wife waved them over, frantically saying he’d had a heart attack. He had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. Berg, a certified nursing assistant, performed CPR while Meier called 911. Thanks to their help, Greisbecht survived.
8. Piggy bank payback
Seven-year-old Jack Swanson had spent months saving chore money for an iPad. But when he heard that someone had vandalized a local mosque, he emptied his piggy bank—all $20—to help.
“It’s 20 bucks, but coming from Jack collecting his pennies it’s worth 20 million bucks to me and to our community,” Faisal Naeem, who sits on the mosque’s board, told Metro. International human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar heard of the little boy’s generosity and Jack a new iPad to say thanks.
Credits: rd.com