Two Years And One Hundred Good Turns

We celebrate our second anniversary of celebrating good deeds

Last week we hit a milestone: the story of the mom who tried to make a teachable moment out of a good turn was our 100th post! Week in and week out for the last two years, we’ve brought you a Good Turn a week, as well as the occasional diversion, like the post that looked at good turns gone bad, and our anniversary post from last year, which celebrated the ten best posts from our first twelve months of service. While our official anniversary is November 23, our 100th post took us by surprise here at Good Turns HQ, so much so that we wanted to mark that milestone as a way to celebrate the anniversary.

We heard some great stories over the last year, but we still want to hear yours

Though we’ve been at it for almost two years now, your stories continue to surprise us. Some, like the pedestrian who got involved in a small parking dispute, are ambiguous almost to the point of controversy. Others are very small—literally. Still others involve potatoes. But all of them bring a wonderful feeling to our hearts—and, we hope, to yours—just to know that there are people out there who care to take the time to help others, without expecting anything in return. Over the last year, we’ve covered all kinds of good turns, large and small, surprising and simple. Here, without further ado, are ten of our favorites:

• Could there be a more iconic good turn than the wallet returned with all its cash intact?
• And when you find yourself with a little extra pocket money, what do you do with it?
• A number of posts featured automobiles, including this story of driving through a blizzard to collect a stranded teen
• Moms figured prominently as well, including this supermom who helped out on the scene of an accident
• Another mom puts her faith in a simple thing she found she could do for her church
• Cars and moms combined when one woman stopped to help a homeless teenager
• Another simple but moving good turn: little notes of inspiration left for strangers
• One woman told the story of volunteering at San Quentin prison, helping prisoners find ways to speak up for themselves
• We heard the story of the handshake at the AA meeting that appeared to have helped save a life
• And we wrote about the court officer who gave his life to help others on 9/11

We heard some great stories over the last year, but we still want to hear yours! If you’ve ever been on either end of a kind gesture of any type, we want to hear from you. So drop us a line and let us know if you’ve been the beneficiary of a good turn, or have done one yourself, even if you think it was no big deal. If there’s one thing we’ve learned after two years of digging up stories, it’s that kindness is always more interesting than you think it is. So even if you don’t have a story to share, do someone a good turn the next chance you get. It’s a more interesting experience than you think.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user Steve Jurvetson)

Posted November 2, 2018