The Kindest People: Heroes and Good Samaritans (Volume 6)

Some Samples: 1) The favorite place on Earth for Alan Philipson’s 18-year-old son, Ben, who has autism, was the Snow White’s Scary Adventures ride at Walt Disney World in Florida. His family even moved—from Seattle!—close to the park in 2003 so that Ben could enjoy the ride often. He rode the ride 3,451 times before its final day of operation, and on 31 May 2012 he rode it many more times, including the very last time before it closed for new construction. The good people at Walt Disney World made Ben’s last ride special. He even met Snow White herself, who visited Ben at 7 p.m. after he had rode the ride a few more times. (Ben even got to go on the ride with Snow White—and he got to hold Snow White’s hand!) After Ben’s 3,493rd ride, during which his father, mother, and grandfather accompanied him, Disney gave him a photo CD with more than 80 photographs taken when Snow White met Ben. But Disney still wasn’t done. After the park closed, Disney kept the ride open so that Ben could have more rides and reach ride 3,500! What’s more, Ben took ride 3,500 by himself! Mr. Philipson wrote a series of six blog entries about Ben’s special night. In the first blog entry, he thanked many, many people at Disney for help, ending with these words: “On behalf of Benjamin and of the rest of our family: Thank you. Really, truly, thank you so very much. I simply have no words. (Well, I mean, aside from all of these words I just typed, I guess...)” 2) In 2010, a Reddit user who posts using the name “Kibitzor” told about an especially good deed that Trader Joe’s did for Kibitzor’s grandfather, who was age 89 and who lived alone in an apartment. He didn’t keep much food in the house because almost always he could simply leave the apartment and buy food, but one day he got snowed in. He told Kibitzor’s mother that a day without food would not hurt him, but she was upset and telephoned a number of places to see if they would deliver food to him. Kibitzor wrote, “She eventually ended up asking if Trader Joe’s did delivery, and they told her they could in this instance. She read out a big order and then proceeded to ask them how she should pay. They told [her] there was no need to pay and said, ‘Merry Christmas!’ Trader Joe’s doesn’t do delivery, nor give food out for free normally. I’m glad to see people out in the world care about strangers and help out. […] Follow-up: They delivered the food within 30 minutes, and further clarification from my mom reveals that when she was ordering food, they kept suggesting other items for him (he’s on a low sodium diet). He ended up getting a few days worth of food from them. In case people are wondering, it’s the Trader Joe’s in Wayne, PA. The funniest part is now my grandpa is trying to leave his apartment in the snow to thank them, but I think we’ve stopped him.” The comments on this story reveal other good deeds done by Trader Joe’s employees. Elendae wrote, “Not nearly as heartwarming, but when I was recovering from knee surgery, the cashier at Trader Joe’s gave me a bouquet of ‘get well’ flowers, after asking why I was on crutches and insisted on having someone carry my bags to my car.” And 1000Steps wrote, “My girlfriend had a bad day once (valet wrecked her car), and she was stressed and had been crying. They gave her a bouquet as well. Such a good company.”