When my mom announced that my dad had fixed the old car in his garage, I felt excited—I had wheels! I called my friend Steph and made plans to have dinner at her house the next day.

The following morning, I woke up early and put on a black skirt and jacket. “Aren’t you dressed too lightly?” Mom asked. “There’s a snowstorm coming.” “I’ll be inside,” I replied as I headed out.

As I began the forty-minute drive, I was in high spirits. However, halfway there it started to snow like mad. Cars slowed. The sound of a siren announced the approach of an ambulance and I pulled aside to let it pass. As I inched back into my lane, the traffic light ahead turned red. I stopped.

When the light turned green, I pressed on the gas, but the old car died. I tried to start it. One click, then nothing. Before I could do anything else, two young men raced over from the nearby sidewalk. I rolled down my window a little.

“Give us a second,” one of them said, “We’ll help you out of here.” Soon, they began pushing the car. With their guidance, I steered into a parking spot in front of a grocery store. “You’ll be fine now,” they said, and before I could even thank them, they walked into the grocery store.

The snow was falling faster now. I called Steph on my cellphone to cancel our plan. Next, I called my parents to come and get me. Now all I had to do was wait, but I was very hungry and cold. I sighed, regretting not taking my mom’s advice.

Just as I sat waiting in the car, I noticed a man walking towards me. It was one of the men who had just helped me. I rolled down the window at once.

Katie was happily jumping rope on the grass in front of her house facing the expansive city park just across the road. The neighborhood residents often enjoyed walking around the lake in the park, and on this pleasant day, with the sun casting its warm light, Katie spent the unhurried moments devoted to her jumping routine.

Her thoughts were focused on her jumping: how to match the spinning of the jump rope in her hands and the jumping of her feet so that they didn’t get mixed, causing her to trip. When her mind and muscles were working together, and when every move flowed smoothly, all of it felt pretty good in the afternoon sunshine. While jumping, she remembered that her grandmother had given her the jump rope for Christmas. She knew that her grandmother didn’t have a lot of money and had to save up to buy the jump rope for her. Before Christmas, her grandmother had taken her to some toy shops to look at different things, hoping to find out what Katie wanted. When Katie finally got the gift, it was not just a jump rope but the very jump rope she had wanted for a long time. She felt especially loved by her considerate grandmother.

The warmth of the afternoon sun enhanced the joy Katie felt as she skipped along. Suddenly a boy rushed across the road to her. Without any warning he robbed her of her jump rope, shouting, “Give me that” and raced back across the road towards the park.

Empty-handed, Katie was left in confusion. It took her a while to recover from the shock. When she came to her senses and realized the theft of her grandma’s gift, tear swelled up. A wave of anger and disappointment swept over her. But in that moment of upset, something unusual in the park captured her attention.

Following the boy quickly, she spotted a group of kids crying anxiously by the lake.

After making sure the drowning girl was okay, the boy walked up to Katie with the jump rope.

Jenny and Molly, aged 15, were twins. With their birthday approaching, they were filled with excitement at the thought of the gifts their friends would give to them.

The special day finally coming, they got a huge bunch of flowers. Surprisingly, to be exact sixty. Facing so many flowers, they didn’t know how to deal with them.

The next day, Jenny was reading a book when she found the encouraging words: small actions can make a difference to others. Suddenly, she had a great idea, and she couldn’t wait to tell her idea to Molly. Molly agreed immediately. As planned, they would give out these flowers to people they met on the street. In this way, they could bring smiles to others. So, they tied a smile card to every single flower. With everything ready, they went to the street.

The first flower went to a dustman (垃圾工). They went up to him and handed him one. The dustman’s smile was so big, but theirs were even bigger!

Everything went smoothly. It was lunch time, and they went to the nearby restaurant, where they gave a flower to the owner. When they were waiting for their meals, the owner came up to them with one bag of snacks. She said she really liked the flower and the card. As they ate the meal, they noticed that there was still a broad smile on the owner’s face. After the meal, they had only one flower in their hands.

Wondering who needed it most, they saw an old woman in a wheelchair nearby.

My two-year-old daughter was lovingly squished(挤) between a stack of groceries in one of my two shopping carts. Shopping once a month was a well-planned process. My list was organized so that I wouldn’t miss even one item. I knew the aisle, order, and cost of each item.   

A gentleman in a suit stood behind me with three items in his hads. He looked up at his watch, then at me and smiled. I’d already let a person ahead of me with a single item. While my daughter was behaving well, I knew I’d pushed her longer than her endurance promised to last. Still, I felt for the man; he obviously had to be somewhere, and he’d be behind me a good long time.   

“Why don’t you go ahead of me?” I said shifting the cart backwards. “You only have a couple of items.   

“Thank you,” he replied appreciatively, stepping ahead of me.   

My daughter gave him a broad smile. “Heh wo,” she said in her sweetest voice.   

“Hello,” he replied, taken off guard by her friendliness. His face lit with pleasure.   

As the belt moved forward, I started unloading my cart. His few items were ahead of mine separated by a red marker with the store name on it. I was only halfway finished unloading the first cart when a realization hit me. My husband had borrowed my bank card the night before and I couldn’t recall him putting it back in my wallet. I hurriedly dug out my purse and opened my wallet. My heart dropped. He hadn’t returned it.   

The gentleman in front of me had paid and was picking up his groceries.   

“I’ve forgotten my bank card. Could I pay with my phone?” I asked the cashier hopefully.   

“I’m sorry. We only accept credit card or cash. The cashier looked down the lane, disgusted at the amount of groceries. I’m sure she was predicting she’d have to put items back on the shelves.   

“It will take me an hour to run home and an hour back. Can you just put my stuff on the side please?“I was discouraged. All my careful planning hadn’t helped. The hour and a half of shopping left me exhausted and I wasn’t sure how my daughter would handle another two hours in the car.   

Just then, the gentleman in front of me smiled at me.

The next morning, my family knocked at the gentleman’s door.   

Courtney Johnson arrived at her son Peter’s school just in time and immediately recognized him among the mass of students spilling through the front gate. Peter rushed to the car, climbed inside and put on the seat belt.

“How was your day at school today, Peter?” she asked as they left for home.

“Um, it was okay, Mom,” Peter said. “I’m starving! Can we please stop by McDonald’s on our way home?”

“Hungry?” Courtney stopped for a moment. “Didn’t you have lunch at school today? Or is it an excuse for chicken nuggets (鸡块)? Not again, Peter!”

“No, Mom! I’m actually starving. I would have eaten at the dinning hall, but I had to give my food to my classmate Aiden because he was hungry.”

Courtney frowned. “But everyone gets their separate meal at school, Peter.”

“Aiden doesn’t eat with us, Mom,” Peter revealed. “His mom can’t pay for his lunch. They are struggling financially. I found him in the playground one day and he told me not to tell anyone because he thought they would laugh at him. Today we had gym class, and everyone was really hungry. I knew Aiden wouldn’t have anything to eat, so I offered my portion (一份) to him.”

Courtney was happy that her son was kind enough to help a needy classmate. She wondered what went wrong with Aiden’s family, so that Aiden had to skip (不吃) lunch at school. When they got home that day, she received a text message from Peter’s teacher, saying there would be a parents’ meeting the next day. Then she thought of a plan. She called Peter’s teacher Mrs Dickens and shared her idea.

The next morning, when they all gathered, Mrs Dickens briefed them about Aiden’s situation at Courtney’s request.

As Courtney was about to get into her car outside the school gate, Aiden’s mom met her and thanked her for her help.

A homeless man praised as a hero in Arizona was not a firefighter but he managed to save a family from a burning apartment. His kindness and willingness to help gave him the courage to run to the apartment regardless of the enormous fire that welcomed him.

On the morning of May 18, Claudia Jimenez woke up with smoke and fire blazing around her apartment. She tried to find a way out but realized her situation was hopeless. The front door was blocked so there was no way out for herself, her two small children, and their two dogs.

The fire was quickly spreading and there was nothing else Jimenez could do but cry out for help. “I opened my window and I started yelling ‘Please, someone help me, there’s a fire, I can’t get out through the front, I need someone to help me,’” said Jimenez.

Joe Hollins, a homeless man camping near Jimenez’s apartment heard the woman’s screams. He ran to where the burning apartment was and found out about the helpless situation that the family were in. “All I see is a lady standing by an open window, screaming ‘Please help me, please help me,’” Hollins said.

Once he was under the window of the apartment, Hollins asked Jimenez to drop the children down and he would catch them. Jimenez immediately trusted the man and dropped her two kids, Valerie and Natalie as well as their two dogs.

Jimenez froze when it was her turn to jump.

When the telephone rang in the police station that day, no one there imagined they would receive an unusual call. Most calls reported illegal actions or emergencies, but this one was quite different.

“Hello,” a woman said in a weak voice. “I wonder if you can help me. I can’t leave the house, and I haven’t eaten for three days.” The operator was surprised but he asked for her name and address, and soon two police officers, Steve and Garret, were sent to deal with the case.

To their surprise, the address took them to a beautiful house with a big garden in a pricey neighborhood. Steve and Garret began to think the call might be a trick. With doubts, they rang the doorbell. After quite a while, a tiny old woman opened the door, with a bandage (绷带) roughly wrapped around her left arm.

Later, they knew the woman called Hilda Ross fell off a ladder (梯子) and that her left arm was injured. When asked why she didn’t go to the hospital, she said, “It’s just a sprain (扭伤). The only problem is that it hurts so much that I can hardly walk to the store to buy food. I didn’t ask neighbors for help since I just moved in weeks ago, neither knowing anyone nor having any friends here. My son David lives with me, but he’s on a business trip and won’t be back soon. So I had to look after myself. I didn’t tell my son about my situation because he just started a new job. I didn’t want to worry him.”

Clearly, Mrs Ross was very weak. So Steve and Garret offered to drive her to the hospital, but she refused, saying she didn’t want to trouble them so much and that she just hoped they could help her get some food with her money. However, they insisted on taking her to the hospital.

Finally, Mrs Ross agreed.