Auto repair staff fixes cars after hours, then gives them away

Several months ago, a customer came into Knibbe Automotive Repair in Calgary with a problem. Her van needed some expensive brake work, and since her husband had recently left her and their three children, she was unsure how she'd pay for it. Compassion for the young mother's situation tugged at the hearts of several of the shop's mechanics. They volunteered their own money for parts and their own time after hours to implement the repairs.  

Since then, the shop has launched a unique give-back-to-the-community program. When a customer sells them a car cheaply, the mechanics work their magic. They donate their time and energy to do body work, tune-ups, and whatever repairs are needed to ensure the car is in good working condition. Then they post pictures of the car on their company Facebook page, and take nominations for folks who really need wheels but can't afford to buy a car. Once chosen, the lucky recipient gets a fully serviced car, free of charge, no strings attached. The shop even throws in a free year of routine maintenance and repairs!


What do the mechanics and the shop get out of it? "It really just has to do with helping people out that just don't have the means to do it themselves either through money or time," managing partner Joe Kirk says. "If you can do that kind of thing, it's what you have to do as a decent human being."

400,000 people applaud this young man's small kindness

With the divisive atmosphere in our country and our media's focus on bad news and sensationalism, human decency seems in short supply. In fact, bad behavior seems more common than ever. As headlines and 24-hour news channels broadcast more and more stories of worthy of a dystopian novel, I ask myself - is the escalation in bad behavior a matter of garbage in, garbage out?

Call me callous, but I limit my intake of news. I can't spend my life's energy fretting about other people's bad behavior. I'm on the lookout for good news, hoping to fill my mind with examples of goodness and decency so my heart will absorb the message and my actions will reflect that. Goodness in/ goodness out.

That's the purpose of this blog. It's my way of calling attention to kindness, a chance to spread some decency, share some small reminders that people who behave with respect for themselves and others still exist. I believe their stories should be broadcast far and wide. Their behaviors are the ones which can and should be emulated.

Take this story for example. At a busy Massachusetts shopping mall, an 83-year-old man hesitated at the top of an escalator. A few people walked around him and still the man stood in place. Several paces back, a woman named Paula witnessed a young man later identified as 23-year-old Alonzo Johnson approach the elderly man. "Do you need help, sir?" he asked. The man explained that he'd once been caught by an escalator and still had a phobia about them. Johnson offered an outstretched arm and said he'd ride with him to the bottom. The man accepted the offer and did just fine.

Paula captured the kindness on her cell phone and posted the act of decency to Facebook. The shot has gone viral, which surprised both Paula and Mr. Johnson.

Apparently I'm one of over 400,000 people who like hearing good news. Here's hoping each of those 400,000 people spread some kindness of their own.