Random acts of kindness from 2016 that will warm your heart
Sabrina Drude was standing in line at Walmart, her cart piled high with notebooks, pencils and markers.
The seventh-grade teacher at Francis Scobee Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, explained to a customer behind her that she teaches in a very low socioeconomic area where kids can’t always afford what their peers can.
When her total of $97 flashed on the cash register, the customer, later identified as Lester Brown, jumped between Drude and the cashier with a bill in his hand.
“He said, ‘Put your wallet away,’ and I just started crying,” Drude told CBS News. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”
These employees who paused to pray with a grieving widow
When Dutch Bros. Coffee shop employee Peirce Dunn heard a woman in line at the drive-thru had just lost her 37-year-old husband the day before, he knew what he wanted to do -- pray.
As the visibly upset woman pulled her car up to the coffee shop window, the teen walked over and asked, “I know this may sound weird, but I was wondering if I could pray for you.”
The woman agreed.
Fellow employee Jacob Hancock, who was standing nearby, grabbed the woman’s hand -- and Dunn followed suit.
As the two teens began to pray, a third man walked up behind them and held on.
“I wished her peace on the situation and peace in her life,” Dunn told CBS News. “I prayed to help her family and his family through the mourning as well.”
This cop who stopped a barefoot homeless woman, and bought her shoes
On October 5th, as Deputy Brandon Hendrix was leaving police headquarters in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, he came across a barefoot homeless woman outside.
It was simply too much for Deputy Hendrix to take. So, he sprung into action, approaching the woman to ask if he could remedy the situation.
“What was so funny about it was that, when he approached her, she was really afraid she was gonna get arrested,” Casey Roebuck, Director of Public Information for the Tulsa Country Sheriff’s Office, told CBS News.
Far from it. Deputy Hendrix grabbed a fellow law enforcement officer -- as is protocol whenever a male deputy has a female in his car -- and drove the barefoot woman to a local Walmart. There, he let her pick out a pair of shoes that matched her dress and, at checkout, he paid for them.
This waiter who helped feed a man without hands
A “regular” at a Cinco De Mayo Mexican Grill was enjoying a leisurely meal when something out of the ordinary caught his eye.
Reginald Widener was sitting at the bar when he turned around to see a young waiter sitting across from a customer inside a booth nearby.
Widener realized that the customer didn’t have hands, and 22-year-old server Alex Ruiz was helping him eat.
“He had a smile on his face the entire time,” Widener told CBS News. “He didn’t complain about it; it looked like he really cared.”
The kind act blew his mind -- and he wasn’t the only one.
When a chance meeting brought this grieving widower joy
Six months after his wife died, 82-year-old Dan Peterson was at the grocery store when a little girl changed his life for the better.
As he was nearing the end of the canned vegetable aisle at a local Publix, a 4-year-old girl named Norah Wood tapped him on the shoulder.
“She stood up and said, ‘Hi old person, it’s my birthday today’” her mom, Tara, said.
She demanded a hug.
“I said, ‘A hug?!’ I said, ‘Absolutely!’” Dan said.
Norah got her hug and then asked her mom to take a picture of her with her new friend.
“She zeroed in on him like a missile. And she didn’t want anything from him,” Tara said. “She just wanted to make him feel loved and give him a hug. And his little lip quivered and he was teared up and it was just sweet.”
“And I said, ‘You don’t know. This is the first time, for quite a while, that I’ve been this happy,’” Dan said.
And the story doesn’t end there. As CBS News’ Steve Hartman reported, Norah now visits at least once a week.
This feisty 6-year-old who defended her autistic brother
When 6-year-old Lex Camilleri was told by a classmate that her brother was “weird,” she didn’t react in a way some people might consider typical for her age.
Instead, she simply told the child that her brother has autism.
After school, Lex told her mom what happened, and then she quickly got to work.
“She said she wanted to make a change,” Lex’s mom, Sophie Camilleri, wrote in a viral Facebook post. “She wanted to talk about ‘Disability Awareness In Schools’ in her next School Council Meeting, so she wrote a letter.”
With some spelling assistance from her mom, Lex submitted the letter to her school.
“I would like it if we could learn about all disabilities in school so that everybody understands that some people are different, but we should all be treated the same,” she wrote.
When FSU player Travis Rudolph sat with a boy who was eating lunch alone
Florida State wide receiver Travis Rudolph and several other football players were visiting Montford Middle School in Tallahassee when the wide receiver spotted a sixth-grader with autism sitting at a large lunch table all by himself. Without giving it a second thought, the player plopped down right across from the boy named Bo.
He didn’t know that this small decision would make such a big impact on Bo and his mother.
But it did.
“I’m not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I’m happy to say that it will not soon be forgotten,” mom Leah Paske wrote. “This is one day I didn’t have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes.”
When these football players supported a cheerleader who was recently diagnosed with cancer
A high school cheerleader who was recently diagnosed with cancer was surprised with her own personal cheering section at a football game.
One by one, Foothill High School football players from Palo Cedro, California, dropped off orange roses -- the color for leukemia awareness -- at Ashley Adamietz’s feet as they ran onto the field before their first game of the season.
The senior cheerleader said on Twitter that she was “shocked, overwhelmed, and speechless” by the students’ sweet gesture.
But the thoughtful act didn’t surprise head coach Joey Brown.
“For me, I wasn’t surprised at all that that’s something my players would want to do,” Brown told CBS News. “We’ve always worked long at developing character.”
The reason why this little boy asked his mom to pack 2 school lunches
For months, Josette Duran has been packing her son an extra lunch to bring to school simply because he asked her to.
She thought he was just hungry, but then she found out the truth.
One day, the mom from Albuquerque, New Mexico, finally asked her son, Dylan: “Are you not getting full, boo?”
The boy spilled the real reason why he needed two bagged lunches: “Mom it’s for this boy. He only eats a fruit cup for lunch. Can you make him lunch too? I don’t think he has lunch money.”
Duran’s touching story spread across social media, as people praised the little boy for his act of kindness.
When coworkers helped this teacher cross an item off her bucket list
Debra “Debbie” Hall was devastated when she learned she had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The teacher wanted to to let her school know about her diagnosis.
“The doctor said if she had a bucket list to get started on it quickly,” her husband explained.
“We all knew she wanted to go to Hawaii,” said Robyn Lawson, a counselor who had worked with Hall for six years. “When she regained her composure she joked, ‘Better start looking at Hawaii!’”
The staff knew immediately that they wanted to make this trip happen for Hall, her husband and her kids and grandkids. So, they started a GoFundMe page.
And with a little help, they presented Hall with her dream vacation, and then some.
When this little boy gave police officers "free hugs" after violent protests
A 5-year-old boy’s response to violent protests in Charlotte, North Carolina, warmed hearts across the country.
Deanna Hooker describes her son, Jayden, as an “old soul,” which is why she wasn’t surprised by the kindergartner’s request to visit police officers after learning that several were hurt during a demonstration over the fatal police shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott.
“I want to give them hugs so they’re not scared,” the little boy told his mom.
After school one day, Jayden picked out his favorite glazed doughnuts and drew a sign that said “Free Hugs” on it, wearing it proudly around his chest, and went to the local police department with his mom.
The cops were in tears -- and so was Jayden’s mother -- as they kneeled down to accept hugs from the little boy.
When a restaurant surprised a woman with this sweet note
When Paula Grzelak-Schultz spotted a piece of paper tucked under her windshield wipers, she thought she was getting fined for leaving her car in a bar parking lot overnight.
But when she unfolded the paper, she was surprised to find out it wasn’t a ticket after all. Instead, it was a letter from the manager of Original Joe’s Restaurant & Bar in Sherwood Park, Canada.
“Just wanted to thank you for leaving your car parked overnight,” Jay McLean, managing partner at Original Joe’s, wrote. “I’m not sure if you had consumed alcohol at our restaurant or not, but we wanted to thank you for not drinking and driving.”
Enclosed, Grzelak-Schultz also found a voucher for 1 pound of chicken wings.
“Please accept this as a thank you for being responsible,” McLean wrote. “Life is valuable, have a great weekend.”
When Jon Voight bought 6 turkeys for this woman over Thanksgiving
Sydney Gholston was standing in line at a Kentucky Walmart with a cart full of Thanksgiving turkeys when a friendly white-haired man standing behind her struck up a conversation.
It was Jon Voight.
He commented that the woman must have a big family.
Gholston, 28, laughed and explained that the birds would be used to feed children at Home of the Innocents, a local nonprofit shelter and pediatric convalescent center.
As soon as Gholston finished explaining, Voight pulled out his wallet and offered to pay for her groceries.
With his help, Gholston was able to bring six turkeys back to the Home, where they fed about 70 of the 196 residents over Thanksgiving.
This barber who spends his day off giving haircuts to the homeless
For years, barber Ged King has been spending some of his “off” days working -- but not in his shop.
Instead, the owner of Skullfades Barber Shop in Sale, England, has been hitting the streets to serve the homeless.
“I can’t really explain it for you. It’s amazing to give somebody who’s feeling low in life and make them feel better,” King told CBS News. “It’s a privilege and it’s an honor to work with these people. I think I get a lot more out of it than they do at times.”
King travels to homeless shelters, different parts of town and sometimes even hospitals to cut people’s hair for free.
When this grandma invited a random teen to Thanksgiving dinner
Jamal Hinton, a 17-year-old high school senior, was surprised to get a random text from his grandma about plans for Thanksgiving dinner. He had no idea she even knew how to use a cellphone, let alone text on an iPhone.
The skeptical teen then asked the woman, whose number he didn’t recognize, to send him a picture.
When she did, he laughed. It wasn’t his grandma after all. It was a complete stranger.
“You not my grandma,” joked Hinton, along with a selfie. “Can I still get a plate tho?”
The friendly stranger, Wanda Dench, didn’t skip a beat. She replied, “Of course you can. That’s what grandma’s do...feed everyone.”
And this year, she did just that.
This bus driver who bought hats and gloves for kids in need on his route
Bus driver John Lunceford was making his usual morning rounds when he spotted a young boy shivering at the bus stop ahead.
So, Luceford did what any caring adult would do: he gave him gloves.
“I put my gloves on him and told him it’ll be okay, it’ll be okay,” said Lunceford, according to a statement released by the Kennewick School District in Washington.
The man, a U.S. Army veteran in his third year driving buses for the district, couldn’t shake the image of the shivering student. So, after dropping his students off at school, he headed straight to the dollar store.
He bought 10 stocking hats and 10 sets of gloves, in both black and pink, promising the kids that if they didn’t have hats or gloves, he’d take care of them.
This teen who returned to work after a car accident to help the homeless
When a hungry Cameron Nelson walked into a Chick-fil-A in Avon, Indiana, last week he looked toward the counter and couldn’t help but stare — not at the menu, but at the young employee standing in front of it.
The teen, Jakeem Tyler, was counting change on one hand. His other arm was wrapped in a sling and he was wearing a neck brace.
He asked Tyler, “What happened?”
Tyler explained he was recently involved in a car accident.
“He [said he] was working cause he needs the money and also wants to feed the homeless for Christmas,” Nelson wrote in a Facebook post.
Nelson was impressed.
To help Tyler fulfill his goal of donating to the homeless this holiday season, Nelson decided to start a GoFundMe campaign. He set a goal of $2,500. In less than a week, Nelson didn’t just meet his goal, he exceeded it. So far, people have donated more than $8,000.
Tyler’s parents told CBS Indianapolis that the teen has been planning to buy food and supplies for Homeless Hoosiers, a group that helps homeless people find shelters in the area.
When this flight attendant calmed a stressed mom's antsy baby on a plane
As Heather Gooch boarded a plane with her 9-month-old son, she felt what nearly every mom feels during their baby’s first flight: stressed.
Shortly after her flight took off, she felt like a weight had been lifted -- thanks to a special flight attendant.
When Southwest Airlines flight attendant Anissa noticed the little boy getting antsy, she offered to hold him. Gooch happily handed her son over.
Little Aiden smiled and waved at passengers as Anissa walked him up and down the aisle.
“It wasn’t any longer than 10 minutes, but just to see how good she was with him and how happy he was waving to everyone really was amazing for us,” Gooch said.
These strangers who came together to give a dying dog one last special day
A dog named Maverick became a viral sensation for touring his local Florida downtown center in the back of a wagon, and the kindness of countless strangers is what made the moment possible.
Maverick had lymphoma. He was too weak and too sick to walk around on his own. So, his owners went to Lowe’s to buy a large wagon.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, however, their local Lowe’s in DeLand, Florida was completely sold out of wagons. That is, until they told the store’s general manager what they planned to use the wagon for.
Within less than an hour, employees at the store found a wagon, took it out of the box and assembled it.
“I really believe that what has helped him improve more than anything is all this positivity and love he’s been receiving. He hasn’t had time to think about being sick because he’s been getting so much love from around the world,” his owner, Joey Maxwell, told CBS News.