How A Stranger’s Kindness Can Pay It Forward

Kindness and generosity abound in Calgary. We are known for it. So we wanted to share this heart-warming letter and donation we recently received. A touching example of kindness – helping someone and not expecting anything in return. Read how this amazing gesture has helped even more:

I’ve enclosed a cheque, half of which came from a good Samaritan whose name I don’t know. I wish I did. My family decided to pay forward his kindness by sending the money to the food bank and match it with our own donation.

On May 17th my fifteen-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum, was riding the NW LRT to his high school. Some of his Gatorade poured out of his lunchbox and leaked into his backpack, where he also had his iPod and DVD player, two very important items to him. When he realized his backpack was flooded, he got upset and started shrieking on the train. Several people stepped forward to help him, and when he got off at his station, a man left the train to give him money because of what happened to his belongings. My son said it was okay, but the man was insistent.

The man’s generosity was sweet but unnecessary. It’s my son’s birthday next month so we will be replacing the damaged items. But there are so many families who are in need of food, I felt the man’s kindness could help them instead.

I wish I could tell you who he was and to personally thank him for what he did. I would love to thank everyone who did what they could to help my son in a stressful situation. But even though I don’t know who the man was, I wanted you to know where half the money came from. That was the least I could do to honour his generosity.