"Good deed" give-a-way take II (Reznik572 inspired)

Glad you started the thread, it's nice to read about people showing kindness to our brothers and sisters as well as our Earth. I am a firm believer in the Boy Scout program and am currently a Blazer leader (the 11-year old boys). This past spring the father of 2 of my boys (brothers) was sent to jail for another DUI that he didn't show up to court for and then caught drinking while on probation. It was really hard on these kids and with school just getting out they had way too much time on their hands to think about it. The older of the boys was really interested in knives (what kid isn't?) and I talked with them about what we could do to keep them busy they showed a lot of interest in making knives. Kelly Cupples (who is an incredibly generous man himself) sent us some steel and the contact info of a gentleman who would heat treat the steel. Anyway, I spent every afternoon with those boys designing their knives and grinding steel and making homemade denim "micarta" for their handles.

Since then I have moved to Oregon to start med school and find myself again as a Blazer leader and miss those boys terribly. Their father is out of prison and is trying to do his best but that summer without him really affected the boys. It's amazing how much you can care for somebody once you've spent time with them and earnestly pray for their well being. They were the ones who got me interested in knife making which is now what keeps me sane with the rigorous course load of med school so I guess I have them to thank far more than anything I did for them.

Keep 'em coming guys.
 
I would like to share something I did just the other weekend. I was travelling home for a visit from school when I stopped to fill the tank up. There was one other car other than my Jeep at the gas station. The occupants, all younger people, appeared to be a little distressed and they were counting some change on the hood. I asked the attendent what they were up to. She said that they had pushed the car into the station and had came in and asked her if she could give them a gallon or so of gas so they could get back home, then they would come back and pay the attendent back for the fuel. She had told them no for whatever reason and they had just went back out and were trying to get what money they could find together to buy some gas. I handed over my $40 and told the attendent to prepay $35 on my pump and $5 on their pump. I went out to pump, the attendent called out that they were set for $5 and their jaws hit the floor. When they were done pumping one of them ran in to see the attendent who I assume then told him I had paid. He came out and told his friends, one of which came over immediately and thanked me. I told them all not to worry about it or about paying me back, we all have our bad days and to just pass it on. They all thanked me again before they left.

I really enjoyed reading this thread and I hope it insires at least one person to go out and do some good for someone else. Kudos to myright for starting it!
Opportunities arise all the time. See someone on crutches outside of a building you're about to enter... Wait a little longer and hold the door for him or her. Little things like that can mean a lot to someone having a bad day.
 
This is the last day for this - if you've been a grinch up until now then go do something nice :)
 
And the winner is:

sadiejane

Thanks to all that participated - there were a lot of great stories here.

Sadiejane, PM me with your contact info and I'll ship the knife out to you.


sadiejane said:
not really something i consider a "good deed" but just being part of my neighborhood. i own a bicycle shop and i live in a inner city working class neighborhood.
many of the 30+ kids who live on my block did not have bikes, so my biz partner and i fixed up 26 kids bikes of different sizes and descriptions. got em all running good.
one saturday afternoon, i drug the grill from the back yard to the front, cooked about 60 burgers, had a cooler of water and soda for the kids, and beer for the parents.
gave away every single one of those bikes. shared food with lots of my neighbors, many of whom brought something too. it was an amazing day, watching all those kids whizz up n down the block on their bikes.
those kids are still riding mostly, tho you know how kids are.
so been teaching some to do basic repairs, fix flats, put chains back on etc.
have a box on the front porch with tires(kids are always skidding and tearing holes in tires...)tubes, patch kits, a cupla seats, a cupla different sizes of replacement wheels etc. the kids know they can come over and get what they need. picked up a few basic floor pumps really cheap and gave em to several of the older kids. one boy across the street is pretty good at fixing bikes so i gave him some other basic tools. told him they were his responsibility and i wasnt gonna replace em if they got lost. he still has em and makes sure they are put away after he uses them. and they often need my help on some repairs they cant figure out but several of em really wanna do it themselves.
but to be very real. this is not something one human can do alone. and i didnt have to. all those bikes were dropped off at the shop over time, in various states of disrepair. dumped there instead of the landfill at least. my biz partner also worked on getting them running right. another friend helped me haul em to my neighborhood and stack em in my backyard. another friend yet, translated my invite to every house on the block into spanish so my hispanic neighbors knew what was going on. and other neighbors brought food even tho i didnt ask anyone to. life is good aye?
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