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 
Why yes, I would like to contribute to this cause!
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Not *the* nicest thing, but certainly something that I’ll always remember. I once came home from a late night class and my roommate had made dinner, chilled a bottle of wine, lit candles and had nice music playing all ready for us to have a nice dinner for when I came home. It was the best Monday. 🙂
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The nicest thing anyone has done for me is how amazing my husband has been this week since the birth of our baby girl. Doting, encouraging, and dreaming up great snacks!
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The nicest thing…what a difficult prompt! I’d say it was my two best friends planning my wedding. My husband is foreign and would have had to leave the country, so we decided to get married. My best friends planned the whole thing in just 3 weeks, and completely took the stress off of my shoulders. It was beautiful!
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A friend showed up randomly one morning with omelette ingredients so she could cook me breakfast. Yummiest omelette ever!
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One of my favorite kindness stories is about the business office secretary at my college. My roommate and I ran into her while grocery shopping one evening. She had the makings of a fruit pizza in her cart. I jokingly told her my birthday, months out at that point. When we returned for spring semester I got a call out of class to report to the business office. I was sure something was wrong with my account, but she had made a fruit pizza for my birthday and called a couple of my friends to come celebrate.
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While going through a difficult time the last couple of weeks, I have realized how many good friends I have. In many different ways they have all been there for me.
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I can think of so many nice things others have done but this stands out: when I visited the country of my father’s heritage in 2003, a distant cousin insisted that I stay with her and her family, and they showed me around everywhere in their region. They didn’t have to do anything at all but they made my trip so memorable! We’ve remained good friends and I’m still impressed with how very kind that was.
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My mother works the night shift at a job she hates, and wears her shoes until they have holes in them rather than buying new ones for herself, just so that she can makes ends meet for our family. “Nice” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
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This is top of the mind for me right now. My son and daughter’s pool party was rained out last Sunday. Every lovely guest and their lovely children came to our home (condo) and gave our children the most fabulous birthday celebration they could have imagined. No one bailed. No one balked. They all came with smiles (and some with wine!), gifts and hearts of happiness. And our places is small with a capital SMALL. It. Was. Fabulous.
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My 9-yr old son thanks me often for “all the things” I do for him. He sometimes goes down the list: cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, letting him play at friends’ houses… It’s amazing how good it feels to be thanked when you never expected it to be expressed.
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One of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me was when my dad, in his last months of life, going through radiation, reached into his back pocket to pay for dinner. It was Father’s Day and I took him to a BBQ place he liked, my treat. He insisted on paying. Even in his dying days, he never stopped looking out for me. Even though he’s not here, wherever he is, I hope he’s happy and knows I miss him always.
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I contacted a couchsurfer, who I’d never met, to find out some advice on car shopping in his city, which is a few hours from where I live. Not only did he give me lots of advice, but he offered to pick my kids and I up from the airport when we were arriving at midnight, drove us to the hotel, and when it was full, he took us to another hotel, then carried our 200 lbs of bags up 3 flights of stairs, as there was no bellboy at that time of night. He then came back the next day to help us get to the bus station. A total guardian angel!
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Having my kids tell me they appreciate me being their mother. The greatest gift I ever got.
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My boyfriend wrote a sweet note and hid it in my purse for me to find later on my travels overseas
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I own a shop and am constantly surprised by the generosity of local people who bring me flowers and biscuits they have made. People are so sweet!
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Having caring and understanding teachers in high school who believed in me when no one else did. Thank you Mr and Mrs Ken and Sue Mackie.
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My girlfriend has made me a better person. I love her.
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My favorite musician invited me to his record label and gave me a copy of every album I wanted on vinyl… easily the nicest thing anyone’s done for me without asking for anything at all in return.
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I moved to a strange country by myself without knowing anyone. I was dying of loneliness because I’m shy and introverted and hadn’t gotten to know many people. My friends, who were themselves on three continents, got their cameras and went around looking for cute guys to say “Happy Birthday Faith!”, along with videos of themselves, was just about the nicest thing I could have at that time.
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I have self esteem issues that prevent me from believing in myself. But I have colleagues, friends and people around me who possess random urges to turn to me just to say “I think you’re doing a really great job. You keep rockin!” Always the nicest thing to hear =)
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My gentleman friend pleasantly surprises me by doing nice things for me daily, things I sometimes don’t even realize he’s done until later. Things like putting air in my bicycle tires when they’re a little low. Little nice things that make me appreciate what a treasure he is and also inspire me to think of nice little things I can do for him and for others in my life. Those little things really do mean a whole lot! They spread joy and kindness and good will around your life…good stuff!
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One of the nicest thing you can do for anyone is to allow them to be true to themselves. Human beings are beautifully flawed. Be accepting and respectful.
This is a fantastic campaign!
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When we graduated from high school, my best friend gave me a graduation gift: a handmade box containing journals she’d written over the last three years. The journals chronicled our entire high school experience from a me-and-her perspective.
It was, and still is, a totally amazing gift. You know how you think back to jr high and high school and all the crazy long phone conversations you’d have every night with your friends, even though you’d just spent an entire school day with them, and you think, “What in the world did we talk about???” Well, I KNOW. 🙂
She spent three years on those journals, just for me. I found them recently and was blown away all over again. Nicest and most loving gift ever.
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When a high-level leader from my company left, she emailed me to say some kind things about my work and my potential. It was incredibly thoughtful, since we hadn’t worked closely together and she must have had a million other things on her mind. Whenever I feel like a failure, I go read that email.
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Here’s another comment. 🙂
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Such a fantastic idea.
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I have chronic daily migraine and anytime someone goes out of their way, even in the slightest, to show consideration for that, it blows me away. A lot of people ignore it, or actively deny that such a thing even exists, so when someone acknowledges it with kindness it means the world to me.
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Claire, I suffer from the same! My heart goes out to you!
Wonderful cause!
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I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by good people – so picking one thing is very challenging.
I think it’s great when people give you handmade gifts. Even if you don’t necessarily love them, they put a lot of time and thought into giving you something. Truly a labor of love!
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When my friends did’t listen to me say I don’t need help but contined to help out with my newborn.
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My parents gave me a trip to Europe with my best friend since I was five, as a graduation present. I spent three weeks traveling England, Italy, and Greece, which is amazing enough, but I also got to make memories with a friend who I hadn’t been as close with through college as I would’ve liked. It was amazing.
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my girls (4 and 7 y/o) are always so nice to me when i’m not feeling well. it makes me so happy that even at this young age, they are both kind and caring.
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Ohhh this IS nice. I think one of the nicest things someone ever did for me was to take me aside and tell me, very kindly and gently, something that no one else had the guts to say to my face. That was nice.
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when i went to high school, all of my best friends transferred to other schools and i was left with only a few marginal friends which, in high school, feels kinda like the end of the world. this girl befriended me and pretty much changed my life.
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The day after my husband and I got married, we went to a great little pizza joint in our neighbourhood. The place was crawling with kids, because it was some kind of family special night that we hadn’t been aware of. The Mom at the next table struck up a conversation because we were conspicuous for our lack of kids, and she was delighted to hear that we were newlyweds. When it was time for us to get our bill, the waiter informed us that that family had picked it up already. We just had time to wave and thank them before they drove away.
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Nice thing #2 – My husband thanking me for making dinner every night. He’s so consistent that now our toddler has picked up the habit and thanks me, too. I’ve got good guys.
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my husband telling me that he loves multiple times a day. It is the nicest thing to hear.
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Shot@Life is a great initiative that will help many kids get access to life-saving vaccinations. Thank you so much for blogging about it and getting the word out.
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The nicest thing someone has done for me is that my parents brought me to this world and let me be their son!
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The nicest thing anyone has every done for me is:
My husband, before he was my husband, forgave me. I treated him so poorly the first 2 times we dated, but he forgave me anyways and he loves me no matter what. He continues to forgive me each day when I sin against him each day.
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The nicest thing someone has done for me is make me feel loved and accepted just for being me.
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After my first round of law school exams, I came down with that horrible norovirus stomach flu thing. I was so sick that I couldn’t get out of bed, so my Dad came over and brought me food and cleaned up my apartment… poor guy got it himself and was sick on Christmas.
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Nicest thing? There’s been many. This one time, I was super ill (incredibly scary for someone without health insurance like I am), and my parents thoughtfully brought me take-out from one of my favorite restaurants. I opened the bag and saw a GIGANTIC container of my favorite soup, far more than the usual size you get for a side. Apparently my father had told the restaurant employees I was ill (they knew us well enough to recognize that the food they ordered was specifically for me), and the owner had upgraded the side soup to a full bowl, for free, so that I’d get well soon.
I was pretty heartbroken when the restaurant closed not long after.
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Damn! I am going to have to come back and read more of these one day when I am feeling blue. I am thinking now about many nice things have been done for me over the years, little kindnesses and huge sacrifices. I am thinking of all the hand made cards I have collected from birthdays and holidays over the years from a very dear friend and how I can go back and read all the kind words and inspiration she wrote over the last 10 years she’s been sending those to me. I’m pretty lucky!
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For my 30th birthday my bestie wrote me a poem about all the best bits about me.
It made me laugh and cry and giggle and blush.
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My beautiful boyfriend never tires of playing with my hair or making swirls on my back (my most favourite things in the world).
He does it for hours and hours. He’s so selfless and I’m so lucky to know him.
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1) When I was getting ready to graduate high school, my dad decorated the bathroom every day during the week leading up to graduation day. He had an ongoing countdown, colorful hawaiian flower decorations, everything. I love my pop-pop.
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This is my helpful comment about a small nice thing someone did for me this month, which was to *not* sing happy birthday to me in a public place.
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My dad regularly sends me emails just to chat or tell me about his weekend, recently with the supremely adorable and heart-melting subject line “let’s share.” It never fails to make me feel loved and important, not to mention incredibly grateful to have him as a father.
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