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 
and this vaccination campaign is pretty sweet too!
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I suffered from severe depression after our daughter was born. I felt overwhelmed and incompetent and told my sister, by telephone, how I didn’t know how to bathe my daughter and felt like a total failure as a mother. The next morning, my sister (who lives in a different state) showed up at my house (at 8am!) and showed me how to bathe my daughter in the kitchen sink. She also made me get out of bed, eat breakfast, get dressed, and take the baby for a walk around the neighborhood so that I could feel the sun on my face. It was a turning point for me and I’m not sure if I would have survived those early weeks without her intervention.
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I recently broke up with my boyfriend of 8 years, and everyone close to me is being incredibly good to me. My friends let me live with them rent-free for two months while I found a new apartment, and they were supportive even when I would do bizarre things like burst into tears while cleaning the refrigerator. My mom did a lot of listening and validating — more than her usual load. And my ex is being a champ too — we divided our belongings without difficulty, he’s storing my stuff for me until I move (this weekend!), and we’re being patient and understanding with each other and are shaping up to be friends rather than partners. My brother is being particularly amazing. His marriage is breaking up, and yesterday he called to ask me how I am. Knowing that he’s thinking about me even while he’s going through so much is… wow.
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One of the nicest things my husband does for me is that he’ll pick up my favorite pizza when he knows I’ve had a rough day–it makes me smile and gooey cheese spells comfort in my world.
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When I was a skinny, self-consious, awkward teenager a young guy walked up to me in a store and said, “you look beautiful today.” Then he smiled and walked away.
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The nicest thing someone did for me recently is pretty amazing. My husband and I have been through so much this year with the loss of his job in a traumatic way, loss of a friend, and a lot of financial problems. We finally found a therapist who is helpful and kind and we both like her a lot. Money is so tight right now that I told her I didn’t know how I could see her at all or how my husband could see her more than once a month, she said not to worry about it. That we’d find a way to figure it out and in the mean time not to worry about it. That took such a weight off and really made me feel like she cares enough about our progress to keep going with us.
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My husband and I wrote our own wedding vows, and the things he said to me that day off that little green index card, are the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.
Great campaign!
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Every time my husband lets me sleep in in the morning & entertains our son I think it’s the nicest thing. But the real nicest thing was when my parents let my son, husband, and myself move in with them for a year, so we could save up and afford our own house.
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The nicest thing anyone has done for me was many years ago when we had a rapidly growing business and one month we ran out of cash. I called a meeting of 40 staff and explained the situation. It was like I was in a James Sttewart movie. People stepped forward to say ” I can wait” or ” provided I have enough to cover the mortgage I can get by for a week or so”. We survived and went on to sell the business in one of the last stock market transactions of the last century.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me was when my college roommate just sat with me, holding my hand and comforting me when things got tough. And then she drove me the hour to the doctor, without even a thought for repayment. And waited for me, even though it took hours.
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One of my favorite things to do to brighten someone’s day is to compliment them (on their hair, jewelry, shoes, clothes, comment made during the conference, brownies baked at home & brought in for the group). Complimenting strangers is especially fun!
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Someone left a flower on the hood of my car yesterday.
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I love your Mighty Life list! I have a bucket list of my own, but yours puts mine to shame. As for the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me – I would have to say recognised the volunteer work that I do. Whether it’s something big like, “you are an incredible person with a huge heart,” or “you’ve inspired me to be a better person,” those words touch my heart so very much. Thanks for taking part in this act of kindness!
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I have been so very blessed with some of the most amazing friends a girl could wish for. I can’t even begin to pick the “nicest” thing any of them have done for me because they are all over-the-top awesome!
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My husband took our teething 15month old to the grocery store at 5am so I could get another hour of sleep. It was lovely.
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Three of my friends threw me a party when I got my masters degree. It was great!
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I think I’m overthinking this but a recent lovely thing someone did for me was, after finding out I was pregnant, immediately ordered all of their favorite books on the topic from amazon and had them overnighted to my house. In my hormonal state, I cried for a good ten minutes at the kindness.
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Wonderful cause! 🙂
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My husband has done so many kind and thoughtful things for me – both big and small. It’s hard to pick just one.
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My home and husband are in west Africa, but I came back to the states to have our first child. While we are apart, I have had many family members hold my baby girl when I’ve been too exhausted to even think and friends to take me out to distract me from missing my husband. It’s been a rough 5 months, but also a wonderful 5 months.
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My husband is washing all of the dishes and doing all of the laundry while I am in school again. So nice. We don’t have a dishwasher, which means double nice.
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Nicest thing? A smile from my kids after a long hard day at work.
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My husband has done the nicest thing for me, which has been to support me after I quit my awful job to pursue what I really wanted to do: freelance and start a business. I could never have done it without him and his confidence in me.
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One of the nicest was at a city BBQ, our toddler was having a fit and wouldn’t get into the wagon to go home, I was 6mos preg and my husband and I were doing our best to keep her from running into the road and trying to reason with her. A stranger came over and knelt down next to our 2 year old. She held out a handful of jelly bracelets and said that she could have them if she got back into the stroller. Magic!! Thanks again to that lovely lady.
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great cause!
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I had thyroid surgery in June and I was blessed with generous acts of love and care too many to count, culminating with my sister and her partner bringing cupcakes to celebrate when we found out the results: BENIGN!
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One of the nicest things ever: a friend who stood by me during a very lonely time.
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Welll, after reading these comments, I’m just inspired to go out and do something nice for someone today. Thanks for all the great ideas.
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My best friend, Amanda, is constantly supporting me in all aspects of my life regardless of where that takes us. No 1 nicest thing can hold a candle to THAT.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me were my parents, just because they’re wonderful, paying for college and helping me start out — now I’m independent and do everything I can to repay them!
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hmm, hard to pick one nicest thing. it’s always the small, seemingly insignificant things that get me. a compliment, holding the elevator door for someone, a well-timed card in the mail.
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The nicest thing is when people show you they love you every day.
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Also my CRAZY busy friend who threw me a baby shower without hesitation because I asked and was scared and knocked up WAY too young.
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In the eleventh grade my family moved to another city and I had to change schools in the middle of my high school career. My birthday was during the first week of school and I thought it would pass unnoticed since I hadn’t made very many friends yet. When I got to history class the morning of my birthday a girl I barely knew handed me a homemade birthday card. The teacher of that class had a bulletin board that highlighted student birthdays for each month and she noticed mine was that week and said she just wanted to make me feel welcome. I still remember it to this day.
This is an awesome way to raise money for a good cause. I love that you are participating and I can’t wait to read all the comments. 🙂
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Back when I was first married (the first time – ha!) we were broke and all of our money went to rent, bills & food. I was dying my hair blonde at the time, and because I had no money, I had pretty long brown roots going on. One night my mom swung by with a box of Nice and Easy — my brand, my color — and nonchalantly said, “Hey, I picked this up for myself, but it’s the wrong color. Want it?” I cried for hours at that touch of kindness. And dyed my hair that night.
You’re good people, Maggie M.
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every morning when i look into her crib, my baby looks at me and smiles the biggest toothless smile ever – it’s the best!
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Thank you for sharing this post. What an amazing campaign!
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My husband’s dad died unexpectedly while we were on our honeymoon. We were moving to NH from NYC (I was, anyway) for his 2nd year of grad school, and the little house we’d rented was a mess. He and his brother had dropped all our stuff off in a pile before the wedding, and the house itself had been left quite dirty by the previous tenant and mgmnt company. Since our arrival was delayed by the funeral, etc. his friends were already back at school, and they went to the house and scrubbed it from top to bottom and organized our boxes so we could actually unpack once we got to Hanover. We wept a lot that fall, but rarely were they touched tears like the ones I shed over that clean kitchen floor.
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The nicest thing someone has done for me is believe in me, look past the flaws, and encourage me to soar.
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14 people showed up to help us move last weekend!
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My parents live about 3 hours away from me. While I pack up all my stuff for the drive home, Mom puts together a snack bag with sliced salami and cheese, crackers, fruit, little sandwiches and ginger ale–enough for a 12 hour drive! It is one of the nicest things, though.
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My grandpa worked a paper route long after he retired to save up money for my cousins and me to go to college. Amazing.
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People do nice things for me all the time – holding the door open for me at work so I don’t have to find my badge at the bottom of my purse is my favorite.
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My parents sacrificed a lot for me growing up to give me opportunities to do anything I set my mind on.
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The nicest thing anything has ever done for me is wake me in the middle of the night while I was sick and curled up on a chair on the deck of a ferry to Sweden and offer me their extra cabin, free of charge. A soft bed, a warm shower… I’m convinced it was an angel.
P.S. I LOVE your life list idea. So awesome.
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I started graduate school this week and put my daughter in daycare. And it was hard, but it was a damn nice thing to do for myself. So here’s a $20 comment in honor of my daughter for kids who don’t have as much as she does.
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An old teacher taught me to have faith in myself. That’s really stayed with me
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My best customer at work – the most regular of regulars, always ordering the same thing, always leaving EXACTLY 20% for the tip – left me a much bigger tip than usual the night before I left for a trip.
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A friend called the other day to see if we could just spend the day together. Instead of shopping we went blueberry picking and spend time outside just visiting. Wonderful day.
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One of the nicest things that people have done for me has been that they listened without judgement but with empathy when I was so overcome with grief that I almost had no words – a lot was passed between us in those silent moments. That, and the feeling that they really want(ed) me to be happy.
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