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 done for me was tell me that they thought that I was a fantastic parent, and didn’t believe any of my daughter’s quirks are my fault.
LikeLike
My sister came through for me on my graduation day when nobody else could.
LikeLike
{FreeWill} In every circumstance,
* you can choose to make a situation better or worse.
* You can encourage or discourage.
* You can offer compassionate assistance or withheld help.
LikeLike
I’m a teacher, and the nicest thing is when a student comes back to say “Thanks.”
LikeLike
The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is to be an unmoving rock of support and faith in who I am and what I am capable of in order to let me come apart and undo long years of abuse. The man I’m marrying hasn’t saved me, exactly, but he has made me a safe place to save myself, to learn that I am worth investing in and caring for.
LikeLike
The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is to stick by me, even in my darkest moments, when it would have been so much easier for him to run away.
LikeLike
the year my husband was deployed abroad, I was alone at Christmas in Colorado. my best friend, who is Jewish, flew out from Seattle, and made it one of the best holidays ever….blending traditions from both sides. I felt so loved and valued just for being me.
LikeLike
It is hard to pick one person as who has done nicest thing. World is with many nice people.
My favorite memory, my grandmother who on sweltering hot south indian summer afternoon got dressed to walk to market to pick beetroot for her 5 year old grandchild.
LikeLike
This is so amazing! Everyone deserves access to life saving vaccines.
LikeLike
Commenting so another kid gets jabbed!
LikeLike
The nicest thing is having friends who are really honest with you when you need to hear it but don’t say “I told you so” while they help you pick up the pieces.
LikeLike
comment!
LikeLike
Nice! I’ll delurk for that. The nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me in my comments was “You write so well, darling, that it makes my head hurt.” (I don’t know about that, but I’ll take it.)
LikeLike
I heartily approve of vaccines as a great investment in children’s futures.
LikeLike
My friend gave me a really heartfelt thank you for being who I am. It made my week.
LikeLike
I’m having trouble coming up with the nicest thing EVER someone has done for me, but the nicest thing lately happened this weekend. A friend of ours showed up early for a party, saw we were still running around trying to finish cleaning the apartment and preparing food, put the food he’d brought in the fridge, and asked if we wanted him to take the dog for a walk to get her away from the vacuum and tired out before the other people arrived.
LikeLike
The nicest thing anyone ever did for me? My Mom moved her whole life to a different state so she could help me pick up the pieces after my relationship inevitably ended. She did this 10 months before it happened. Moms rule.
LikeLike
When I told my husband the thing I’d never told anyone, he supported me in exactly the way I needed him to.
LikeLike
This has made me remember so many nice things big and small; I feel very lucky.
One small nice thing that has always stood out was when I was in my early twenties, perpetually unemployed, and constantly finding myself in the position of being at parties with new friends of friends of friends who always asked, “and what do you do?”. Their jobs at the time seemed so incomprehensibly impressive, and I hated being the automatic loser of their little pissing contests.
My best friend at the time had been pretty tough-love with me in private about my lack of a career path, but when he overheard someone ask me about my work for the umpteenth time and saw the look on my face, he jumped in from across the room and said, “she’s freelancing”. It was enough to move the spotlight on to someone else, and I can still remember how grateful I felt.
(I wish someone could have told me then that I’d find the job I have and love today.)
LikeLike
I love when a parent thanks me for teaching their child something. I smile just thinking about it!
LikeLike
So many nice things have been done for me, I really can’t recall the nicest! My daughter, at age 3.5, when she was in the hospital on IV antibiotics, held my hand and took ME to get a snack because I was getting hypoglycemic. That is way up there.
LikeLike
My best friend traveled 500 to see me 🙂
LikeLike
My parents raised me to be independent, strong and kind. When my Dad was dying of ALS (ALS sucks, talk about it.) Our community gathered and brought countless meals, cleaned, showed up. I’m trying every day to pay that forward.
LikeLike
One of the nice things that happens in my life is my husband making me a coffee every morning. With a 15 month old daughter I really need that coffee to get going in the morning.
LikeLike
I suppose the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me wasn’t directly for me, but for my son. One day when he was 2 months old I couldn’t get him to stop crying. I called the pediatrician with 5 minutes before close. He got on the phone and listened to my son cry and told me to bring him in. He stayed with me and my son in that closed doctor’s office until well after hours, waiting for test results and closely observing him. Without his help that went so far above and beyond the call of duty, we never would have been able to figure out that he had a urinary tract infection. My son would have gotten gravely ill before we could have helped him. My son’s pediatrician believed me when I told him something was very wrong, and stayed with me until he found an answer. I will forever, forever be grateful to him.
LikeLike
1. My husband bought me an easel.
2. My friends threw me a surprise birthday party in college.
3. Certain bloggers & entrepreneurs have given me amazing advice or linked to me. They didn’t have to, but it meant a lot.
4. My roommate in college paid for a lot of things for me when I couldn’t afford to, and never said a word about it.
LikeLike
*The* nicest is really hard to pick (so lucky), but definitely one of the nicest was my friend coming over to my apartment every Sunday for about six weeks to spend the day helping me prep, paint and redecorate my place. It was during a period in my life where I was desperately in need of some major changes – I was, in fact, making major positive changes – but the apartment re-do was an important part of a whole plan. It was an exterior, aesthetic symbol of the internal re-do I was wrapping up and it was like gold to have her support, physically as well as emotionally. Not only did she help me get the work done, she made it fun and she brought sandwiches and fritos. Best friend ever.
LikeLike
The stranger who waved to me every single day on my bike ride home from work. 12th and Navasota. You got me through one of the toughest times of my life. You’ll never know how much I needed someone to be there to show me they cared every day. Thank you!
LikeLike
The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me would be my parents in raising me. Its such a selfless act that gets so little recognition. It deserves a lot more than the annual mothers and fathers day, but even as I write this I feel it would be awkward to just call them up and say thanks… But I’ll do it anyway. They deserve it.
LikeLike
My parents taking my family and me in while we deal with the short sale of our house and giving us the opportunity to figure out what we want the future to look like.
LikeLike
My husband said “yes” and got married to me… 🙂
LikeLike
Also! My husband being ever so patient while I struggled to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.
LikeLike
Listen. It seems so easy to do but it’s the one thing that can really help on so many levels.
LikeLike
I don’t know if I can say ever, but lately is my husband allowing me to freak out over little things so I don’t have to freak out about the big ones.
LikeLike
Been there for me, unconditionally.
LikeLike
Jesus took on the sins of the world so that I (and everyone) could be forgiven. We know love because He loved us first.
LikeLike
My coworkers taking me for lunch and being extra friendly shortly after I got a promotion that I was underqualified for. That first year was tough, and the kindness of people who stood up for me and mentored me will never be forgotten.
LikeLike
@Rhiannon, can I have your co-workers? Because they sound awesome.
LikeLike
A stranger once bought me two new tires when I popped them on a shoddy construction job a couple hundred miles from home. I never even said anything about not having the money for them (which I of course didn’t. I was 17 and driving home from college to do laundry).
LikeLike
A guy held the door open for me at school today wih a smile on his face as I was carrying a ton of books and about to drop my coffee. 🙂
LikeLike
Ha Ha I was going to mention my husband. Glad to see I’m not alone 🙂
LikeLike
What a great initiative. Thanks for sharing! laura
LikeLike
My youngest step-daughter included me in her wedding ceremony. I walked down the aisle after her soon to be in-laws, and just before her mother. It felt so good to be accepted and included as family, especially because I don’t have much of my own biological family.
LikeLike
God bless us all.
LikeLike
Hi Margaret,
Mia posted your website on facebook so how could I not come over and say hi.
One of the nicest thing anyone has done for my family is Mother-In-Law watching my daughter while I work. She truly is a blessing.
=)
LikeLike
Back for my second comment. I started talking to my kids about what they do that’s nice for each other. Thoughts were: sharing juice pops, letting the other one pick out the bedtime story, sharing a hug. They are 5 and 3.
LikeLike
after my stepdad passed away, i was consumed by grief, taking care of my heartbroken mother, and was in charge of planning the memorial service. my stepfather’s death brought out a lot of drama that hadn’t been in my family before and i found myself trying to manage many relationships as well. a dear, old friend called and asked to meet me for a burger and some beers. they were well-needed, but i was afraid to leave my mother, to take time for myself and my duties. having lost her father the previous year, thankfully, my friend knew that me declining her invitation was unacceptable. a few minutes after i got off the phone w/ her, there was a knock at the door. my friend susan said, “come on. we’re going. you cannot say no.” she knew better than i did how much i needed that escape. i will never forget it.
LikeLike
My husband letting me nap on the weekends. He takes the kids….so nice!
LikeLike
And I’m back for a second comment for a great cause. 🙂
LikeLike
This is awesome!
LikeLike