This post is inspired by Shot@Life, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation dedicated to using vaccines as a cost-effective way to save children’s lives in developing countries. (Image courtesy United Nations Foundation.)
Hi team, I need help. Here’s why:
For every comment on this post, Shot@Life gets $20 to vaccinate a kid.
Twenty. Dollars.
Twenty dollars is what it costs to give one child four vaccines that help protect them against measles, pneumonia, diarrhea, and polio. During Shot@Life’s Blogust: Blog Relay for Good, 31 bloggers have been helping to secure $200,000 in sponsor donations. We need 10,000 comments, and we’re about 1,000 away from that goal right now.
Over the years, your comments have shaped my life. Whether you were celebrating Hank’s birth with me, or cheering my Life List, or comforting me when things took a difficult turn. I know you guys care about helping other people because of how much help you’ve already heaped on me.
So let’s do this.
Can you comment twice? Yes. Yes you can. And if you have a means of spreading the word, please Tweet, Pin, link on Facebook, or post a quick link on your own site.
Let us know the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you in comments. And thanks to you for being so nice to other people. I like you.
Yesterday Fadra Nally of All Things Fadra wrote about the comments you never see. Tomorrow, I’m passing the baton to my friend Stacey Ferguson of Justice Fergie — so you can help us reach our final goal by commenting on her site as well. We have until August 31. Thanks again.
Mighty Girl 
The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is hard to write about. Many people were very kind when my mom died. I was nineteen. My friends showed up. Every day. Not in a weird way. Not in an annoying way. But they just kept being there. And in all of the other terrible things that have happened over the years ( and the wonderful things) they have been there, showing up always.
LikeLike
Not ever but certainly the nicest thing that happened to me this week was that my boyfriend walked to my office to bring me the lunch I forgot at home.
LikeLike
The nicest thing someone has ever done for me was teach me to believe that wholeness and healing are possibilities for me, and not just abstract concepts available for discourse.
LikeLike
Two days after returning home from the hospital with our just-born-daughter, in the throes of sleep deprivation, hormonal swings and new-mama-panic, a friend rang my doorbell with a complete, warm, home cooked dinner. She didn’t ask to visit or hold the baby or even expect to be invited in- she just passed me the meal& gave me a hug & a few kind words. It was such a simple, generous, loving gesture.
LikeLike
I’m way overthinking this, so I’ll go with nicest thing on a birthday (August 18th): my 8-year-old son made me breakfast and brought it up to me in bed while his father was out getting us Dunkin Donuts. I ate two excellent breakfasts, but I really liked my son’s–he was so proud of himself!
LikeLike
the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me? Every morning my son Owen gives me the biggest hugs when he wakes up, and it makes my entire world glow!
LikeLike
Sometimes life is just good to you. The gorgeous sunset at the end of a horrible commute home, bloggers and sponsors getting together to make a difference in 10,000 kids lives…
LikeLike
Not the nicest thing ever, but one small thing that made a huge impact. When I was around 11 (many many years ago) I had my tonsils and adenoids removed. As I was moving in to a double occupancy recovery room another girl was leaving. She was obviously in pain and probably still a little out of it, but as she left the room she asked her to dad to go back in and give me the TV remote that was still on her old bed. Very small, insignificant thing – but for someone in their own pain to care about the comfort of another is pretty darn big.
LikeLike
The nicest thing you can do for anyone is appreciate them for who they are and treat them with respect. Everything else is just a value added service.
Great campaign.
LikeLike
A very close friend of mine – someone who is fairly non-emotional – made me a Christmas present one year. It was a large wooden box that was meant to fit all of my baking supplies. We were roommates at the time and our landlord was getting a bit pissy with all of our stuff everywhere. So the box made sense, it was practical and she decoupaged the shit out of it. The best part was that the box had handles so it could move with us to our next home, and a special strap on the one side so I could easily carry it with my little arm. I’ve never received a gift that had so much thought and consideration put into it. It was perfect.
LikeLike
While working with youth in Liberia, my camera -full of amazing photos – was stolen. A very friendly and supportive shopkeeper did everything he could, including negotiating with two Nigerian gang members named Rambo and Reuben (seriously), to get it back. It was an unsuccessful effort, but it is a story I will remember (and laugh about) forever!
LikeLike
Most recently, the nicest thing someone has done for me is that my friend, and new neighbor, agreed to drive me to and from work because I rearended someone this weekend, the day before my move, of course.
LikeLike
My parents forgave me for breaking their hearts, and became my best friends.
LikeLike
I’ve had so many people do nice things for me in my 33 years. One time, when I was in my early 20’s I got a flat tire on the side of a busy highway at dusk, during rush hour. A nice couple stopped to help me change it. It was so unexpected, little things like that help you regain your faith in mankind.
LikeLike
I’ll just list my most recent ‘nice thing.’ My son is finally old enough to pick dandelions for Mommy and he does it every time we go out to the car. It melts my heart.
LikeLike
Nicest thing? Someone just came up to me last night and thanked me for something I did years ago… inconsequential at the time to me, but it made a HUGE difference in her life, and she wante dto share that. Who knew? Just by being nice, and doing the right thing — that I could be thanked years later for something I barely remember.
LikeLike
SO happy to see this on so many blogs!
LikeLike
I think the nicest thing anyone has ever done has been just being there, for the good AND the bad.
LikeLike
Last year for my birthday, my generally stoic husband wrote all his favorite memories with me on little slips of paper and put them in a jar. It’s a gift that keeps on giving!
LikeLike
This is such a fantastic prompt–so overwhelming to think of how much people have shown kindness to me.
Most recently, I was talking to my friends about how unmotivated I am these days, about how it takes an effort to even WANT to make an effort in my life and marriage. My friend, who knows me well, immediately told me to drop my young children off at her house so I could have a few hours to myself to recharge. She urged me to go to a coffee shop and just be. I was touched because 1) her reflexive response was to meet my need and 2) she has been experiencing a lot of first-time-mom stress and yet was volunteering to watch 3-under-3 in order to give me a break. So appreciate that this is par for course in terms of our friendship.
LikeLike
my mom let me spread my wings and fly . . . literally, she bit her tongue and cheered me on when i told her i was planning to fly halfway around the world to basically see what was on the other side. she encouraged that spirit of adventure that has never left me and for which i’m tremendously grateful. as a parent, i now appreciate how very difficult that must have been for her to do.
LikeLike
Hell yeah! (can I just keep commenting hell yeah over & over today?)
LikeLike
My friends threw me a surprise 20th birthday party (18 years ago, eek!) – it was awesome.
LikeLike
Most recently, when I was exhausted from a long weekend, my boyfriend did the dishes and cleaned up the house while I was napping.
LikeLike
When people brought food to me after my son and daughter were born. I sign up whenever I can to help do the same.
LikeLike
The nicest thing ever is hard….but one that comes to mind is when my sister bought me my first Medical Alert bracelet after I was diagnosed with diabetes. It was something I needed, but didn’t want to spend the money on (since I was spending so much on doctors’ copays, prescriptions, etc.). It just showed up in my mail one day.
LikeLike
Supporting me, loving me, thanking me for my hard work!
LikeLike
I have been told that it’s hard to do nice things for me because I always do for myself and I never ask for help. I’m going to do that (ask for help) more because I love doing for others. Off the top of my head, a very busy working mother brought me a home cooked meal when I had surgery on my arm. I don’t know how she found the time. It was wonderful!
LikeLike
I totally support this goal! My husband and friends have been so nice and helpful to me these last three weeks as I walk around with my broken arm in a cast…it shows a lotta love that my husband has been helping me shave my pits and another friend helped me with my bra today!
LikeLike
I was in junior high and it was, you know, junior high, so it pretty much sucked. But, one day I got a heartfelt letter from a parent of a kid in another grade praising me for being a good example for their kid. It is something that has stuck with me and I plan to do something similar for another middle-schooler someday.
LikeLike
The encouragement of my friends to take up running and stick with it. I’m forever grateful.
LikeLike
Sometimes the nicest thing anyone can do for me is simply listen. It’s a good way to reassure me I’m not alone.
LikeLike
Shortly after I had just gotten my very first checking account at age 18, I wrote a very large check to myself to transfer money between banks. Except I’d inverted two of the numbers, which would’ve bounced that check.
The bank manager at my new bank caught on and “fixed it” for me, since when I had opened the account a week earlier I seemed like a “good kid.” I never would have known, except she sent me a little note explaining and reminding me to double-check before I wrote checks. Thanks for protecting my credit, bank lady!
LikeLike
my parents. they are the nicest people i know and have always, always believed in me. they have done the “nicest thing” for me a billion times in my life 🙂
LikeLike
The nicest thing anyone ever did for me happened in the throes of one of my first huge, life altering depressions. I called my friend who lived about 2 hours away and asked him to come. All he said was yes. I found out later that he’d cancelled a date with a girl he’d been pursuing for weeks to come sit with me while I cried. I’ll never forget it.
LikeLike
The nicest thing my husband continues to do for me day in and day out is to say “Thank you for dinner” each and every night that I cook. It’s a small courtesy that might seem courtly, but one that reaffirms his respect for me every day.
LikeLike
Neighbors who have out of the blue brought dinner and tended fussy kids so I could rest. Literal gift from the divine is what that feels like.
LikeLike
Possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is your Life List, Maggie. It’s changed the way I think, and it’s changed the way I live. Thanks for continuing to inspire me, and the rest of my crowd, every single day.
LikeLike
My mom- gave birth to me! Thanks, mama. Giving birth is not for wusses.
LikeLike
My friend offered me a cabin in the woods of Maine to be alone with my thoughts in the wake of my father’s sudden death. While I was at this cabin, my friend’s father put me in touch with members of my father’s family I had never met. I discovered my father had a brother he never knew. Mind blowing.
LikeLike
Also: these two little faces look just like the school children who woke me up singing every morning when I went to Zanzibar. I could not love them more.
LikeLike
my old job threw be a party when i left for a new job. they all dressed like me and brought me presents. i cried over cookie cake.
LikeLike
My best friend gave me a place to stay for months while I looked for a new house. RENT FREE.
LikeLike
My best friend from high school dropped everything to help me move after an awful breakup. It was not out of character, but it was exactly what I needed.
LikeLike
I think the nicest thing someone has done for me was to answer my phone call at 4am when I dislocated my shoulder and had a fever and was thousands of miles away. The comforting voice really truly helped.
LikeLike
Yes, indeed, as Heather said, showing up— just showing up– is one of the important things you can do for a friend or a cause. I have been touched… and changed, frankly, by all of the people who have shown up to support this Shot@Life effort! Yes, it is a very easy thing to do. Still, the willingness to take part and then come back and do it again, has been simply amazing!
LikeLike
My parents call to check in on me once every week or so, even though I’m nearly 30 years old. It makes me feel good to know that just because I’m out of sight doesn’t mean I’m out of mind.
LikeLike
The nicest thing my husband ever did was bring my little girl back from the emergency room whole and healthy last year. One cashew nut and we suddenly discovered at 7 years old she is horribly allergic. Staying at home with the baby was terrifying but being there with her must have been so much scarier.
LikeLike
If you tune in and focus on the good…nice things happen to you every day. Especially when you surround yourself with people who love you unconditionally.
LikeLike
The guys on my team at work make it fun to show up at the office every day. Even if they did gift wrap my desk (and everything on it) while I was out on vacation.
LikeLike