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 
Both my sons saying, “I love you Mommy” completely unprompted. Has to be the nicest thing ever.
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When I was four, I tripped in a grocery store in a remote beach town, hit my head, and stopped breathing. There happened to be a pediatrician in line and he gave me CPR. I have no memory of him or what he did, but I’ll always be grateful.
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Someone married me.
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This is an amazing thing.
The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is my husband marrying me and taking my daughter on as his own. He accepts all the joys and responsibilities of being a dad to her, 100%.
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I hope this is real and helps, as I’m a BIG believer in vaccines!
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I should also mention that my husband is always nice, and I am very lucky to benefit from his unending generosity, patience, and forgiveness.
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“Ever” is a long time… But I am always deeply touched when total strangers at the sewing store stop what they are doing to enthusiastically answer my novice questions.
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Thank you for supporting Shot@Life!
And kudos on the well-designed page!
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This is why they call you mighty girl.
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I had a spinal cord injury at age 15 (gymanstics) and spent weeks in the hospital, then a couple of months in rehab. My core group of friends came every day and say me songs from the Muppet movie and told me what was going on in school. It was an amazing gift from them, and now that I am older, I realize from their parents as well, bringing them back and forth so many times.
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In my first year of college, a new friend saw that I was struggling immensely with a research paper; she couldn’t help me with the paper itself, but she said, “I am going to help you with this!” So, we went out to buy a long night’s worth of snacks, and she sat on my bed and did her own reading while I sat at my desk and wrote the paper. Just having someone there was exactly what I needed!
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When I waited tables and sort of hated my life, this lovely young man came back after paying his cheque to lend me two books that we’d been discussing while he ate his dinner and which I couldn’t afford.
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I’m getting married soon, and my fiance and I live across the country from our families and most of our friends. I continue to be humbled and touched by how many people have offered to help us, even though so many of them only see us a few times a year.
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I told my therapist a secret that I had been carrying around for a long time, and her response was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.
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I had made a life choice that my mom, who had once said would back me up no matter what, wasn’t dealing with well. I thought for sure I would get a lecture from my dad. Instead, he went out and got me a font pack for my computer, and never said a word to me about the decision. I bet he has no idea just what that font pack meant to me.
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Wow. I just can’t figure out the nicest thing – but here’s one nice thing. I was doing a project in my house; trying to get rid of half of what I own. I was stuck on my bedroom – too many clothes in various states of disarray (baskets full of both dirty and clean clothes) that I just couldn’t get past. My friend, Liz, who seems to know the best way to help in any situation offered to take whatever I didn’t want – dirty or clean. She said she’d wash everything and donate it. Amazing!
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Daily niceness. My wife got me a cookie. I love cookies!
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My in-laws have let my husband and I live with them rent free for the past three years. I have over $100,000 in student loan debt and without their support my husband and I would either be homeless or bankrupt. Thanks to their generosity I’m able to pay my loans on time every month and we’re saving for a home.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done: Smiled!
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One really nice thing *someone* did was to give me a quick and easy way to help others. Thanks, Maggie.
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I liked it so nice, I did it twice.
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Spectacular idea, Maggie! Friends who care deeply and are careful with my feelings are the ones who have done the nicest things for me.
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This is a hard one, as I’m blessed with an incredibly nice mother and an incredibly nice husband (as well as other lovely family members). To be honeset-but-also-gross, I think one of the nicest things was when my now-husband (who was then my new boyfriend) cleaned the entire bathroom after I got food poisoning and projectile vomited everywhere – without a peep of complaint. He’s a wonderful man. And this is a wonderful project!
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My 54 years have been filled with countless (literally! Katie, countless) “kindest” things. I wouldn’t know where to begin in listing them. But, the knowledge that every day will bring more kindnesses, make each day the “nicest thing” that I could hope for.
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My 63 year old dad helped me pack up my apartment in New York and move…to Hong Kong.
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I just received a card in the mail today. It was white with black letters. The words said, “You are a good mom.” Best. Card. Ever. Made my day, month, and year.
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The story that comes to mind immediately is that, one time in 1994, I got suddenly, violently ill and oy parents rushed me to Emergency. My boyfriend, when he found out, got stopped for speeding on his way to the hospital. That always makes me warm inside. 🙂
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I don’t know what THE nicest thing anything has ever done for me, but here’s one that sticks out that I will never forget.
In 2006 I had an ectopic pregnancy. When I thought I was 10 weeks along, my fallopian tube burst while I was at work causing me to collapse (my first Dr’s appointment was scheduled a mere 2 days away). Thankfully I made it to the hospital, and had emergency surgery including 2 blood transfusions due to so much internal bleeding. After the surgery I was in so much pain, both physically and emotionally. My husband was with me most of the 4 days I was in the hospital, but one afternoon he went home to feed our dog and get a few things done around the house. While I was alone in my hospital room, the anesthesiologist who was there during my surgery came to visit me. I expected to hear a medical update about my surgery, etc. Instead, he sat down on the bed, held my hand and told me that he was so sorry that I had to go through this. He told me that everything was going to be ok, and he looked into my eyes with such kindness and sincerity that I lost it and started bawling my eyes out. He gave me a hug and told me that he thought I would make a great mother someday.
Is that not amazing? He didn’t have to do that, it wasn’t part of his ‘job.’ His thoughtfulness and words are still with me today. Such a simple gesture, but what a powerful impact it had, and I’m so thankful that he chose to reach out to me.
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The nicest thing anyone did for me: I got a scholarship to attend a school in Arizona I never thought I’d be able to attend. The class I took will help me make more money, work less and spend more time with family. Good luck on the vaccinations!
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My husband married me
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Nicest thing? My Mom forgave me for being the epitome of ages 2, 13, 16, 18, 21 etc. I miss her beyond words.
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I’m lucky to have so many nice people in my life, but the most recent nicest thing someone has done for me was to bring in timothy hay for my classroom guinea pigs (without me asking). It may sound like a small thing but it saved me a trip out of my way AND a lot of time. Those small nice gestures are really appreciated!
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a simple smile is the only thing i need. why do so many people scowl all the time?
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Someone already said it, but my husband marrying me – I appreciate it every day.
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In 2010, I was mugged and I was really badly injured and out of work for 3 months. My friends put together an online donation that provided me with money for rent and living expenses. It was amazing. I was able to focus solely on healing and not on financial stress.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me was when my wife gave me the ultimatum that I was too afraid to give myself to get help when I needed it most. My life (our life)is forever for the better because of that.
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Today my best friend offered to help pay for my family’s plane tickets to her wedding so we could all come!
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One of the nicest things anyone ever did for me was to tell me, at age 24 and in the throes of self-doubt, that I am a smart person and make good decisions. I call up this memory every time I doubt myself.
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My husband told me and then told me again how gorgeous I am at 8 1/2 months pregnant 🙂
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So glad to see so many comments!
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Great project! Good luck!
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The nicest thing anyone ever did for me was a girl who got me to quit doing cocaine because she loved me.
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Vaccinations will help keep these beautiful children and others just like them healthy
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The times when friends and family are kinder to me than I am to myself, and remind me who I am in the process.
Also, my husband’s night of driving to bring home to Virginia a ridiculously heavy and awesome chair that I bought at a yard sale. In Buffalo.
Thanks for doing this!
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Nicest thing anyone’s ever done? Whew, that’s a tough one. I think the time I moved to a new city and didn’t know many people and I had a miscarriage and needed to be taken to the hospital. My husband was two hours away working and I called my neighbors whom I didn’t know well and they not only took me to the hospital but stayed with me, picked up my husband (did I mention he was two hours away?) and offered me love and support on one of my darkest days. Pretty.stinking.nice.
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Also, the time this summer when my husband’s co-workers left a cooler full of homemade meals after he was ill and needed a special diet. That was awesome.
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When I was a junior in high school, my uncle died very unexpectedly. My mother immediately left to go to Ireland for her brother’s funeral. My father, my younger sister, and I decided to still go on our planned trip to see my older sister in her college play that weekend. Since we had room for one more, I called my best friend and asked her to come. Without hesitating a moment, she agreed. She came on a three day trip to listen to me and my sisters cry, and didn’t utter a word about it. She was just THERE. When we needed her. It’s the nicest, most selfless thing anyone’s ever done for me.
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The nicest thing lately is that my brother and SIL made a trip to Arizona two weeks ago just to see my son and me while we are visiting from Helsinki. Really, I think more to see my son, who is only 17 months old, but that is ok by me!
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My mother, father, and step-father all made super clear to me through words and deeds starting when my folks split up when I was six years old that I was allowed to still love all of them and that nobody was the bad guy. That foundation of love and recognition that people change (without it having to be someone’s “fault”) has served me in every relationship since then.
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One of the nicest things… my Dad telling me, from as far back as I can remember, that he’d always support my decisions. So far, he has.
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