This is a weekly newsletter called Quiet Good Of The Week. It's about small, genuine acts of kindness out in the real world. Each issue has 5 short write-ups of real kindness news stories, plus one "kindness suggestion of the week." If someone forwarded you this email, sign up here. If you're already signed up, share it with others.
There's a 60-year-old man in Wisconsin who, when a van full of strangers broke down on the side of the road, just handed them his truck keys and figured out a different way home. He had somewhere to be. He just decided, in the moment, that the obvious right thing was obvious. That's this week.
This week's quiet good idea
Ask someone older than you to tell you a story from their life — not for advice, not for a lesson. Just a story. Something from when they were your age, or something they did that surprised even themselves. The 86-year-old in this week's issue is currently free-diving in freshwater ponds and hauling out old car batteries. You genuinely never know what someone's been up to.
The stranger who gave a 9-year-old a grand piano
📷 Jude Kofie, now 14, performing on the piano that changed everything. Photo: Good News Network
Jude Kofie is 14 now, a working touring pianist with his own album. Five years ago, he was a 9-year-old autistic kid in Aurora, Colorado, who'd found an old electric keyboard in the basement and figured out what to do with it. A local piano tuner named Bill Magnuson caught his act at a talent show and just decided — on the spot — to buy him a $15,000 concert grand. Lifetime tuning included. Professional lessons arranged. Magnuson's only explanation: "He's beyond special. He's Mozart level. It's coming from somewhere beyond." Jude was 9. Magnuson was a piano tuner who went to a talent show. Hard to argue with what happened next.
Ernie lent a band his truck and drove home
📷 The Autumn Kings on stage at Upheaval Festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan — the show they almost didn't make. Photo: Michele Kaunitz via Good News Network
The Autumn Kings are a Detroit rock trio. They were playing Rock Fest Wisconsin when their van broke down. They had ten hours to get to their next gig — Upheaval Festival in Grand Rapids, 500 miles away. Repairs would take two days. Then Ernie pulled over. He's 60, he's from Wisconsin, he had a way to get home, and he handed them his Ford Explorer and told them to bring it back when they were done. They made the show. They called it the best of their career. When guitarist Jake Diab talked about it afterward, he said Ernie's kindness "restored our faith in humanity." Ernie's own comment on the matter remains unavailable for review.
Nehemiah's been reading to shelter dogs for two years
📷 Nehemiah Turner reads aloud at the Jacksonville Humane Society, where he has now logged 100 volunteer hours. Photo: Sunny Skyz
Two years ago, Nehemiah Turner was 9 and started showing up at the Jacksonville Humane Society to read aloud to the animals through their Pawsitive Reading program — a thing that calms stressed shelter dogs and happens to also help kids build confidence reading out loud, which is a pretty good deal for everyone involved. Last week, at 11, Nehemiah became the first child in the program's history to hit 100 volunteer hours. He's already planning for 200. This was not a school project. This was just something he kept showing up to do.
Devon saved a kid who was choking. The family came back.
📷 Devon Forrest reunites with 6-year-old Oliver Webb and his family at Dirty Birdie in Monroe, Michigan. Photo: Sunny Skyz
On July 18, a 6-year-old named Oliver was choking on a peppermint at the Mall of Monroe in Michigan. His 10-year-old brother Hudson spotted it first and tried to help. Devon Forrest, 27, a bartender and manager at Dirty Birdie, was close by — and his boss had recently gotten the whole staff CPR-certified, which turned out to matter. Devon held Oliver over a garbage can until the peppermint came out. About two weeks later, Oliver's mom Mandy brought the kids back to find Devon in person. Oliver seemed pretty fine about the whole thing. Hudson, who saw it happen first and tried to step in, is going to be carrying that story for a while.
They're 64 to 86 years old and they dive for garbage
📷 Members of OLAUG dive in a Cape Cod freshwater pond to remove submerged debris. Photo: Boston25 News
In 2018, a retired psychologist named Susan Baur noticed that the freshwater ponds on Cape Cod had been quietly accumulating junk on their bottoms for decades — old batteries, fireworks, construction debris — and that nobody was dealing with it. She was 78. She started recruiting. The group she founded is called the Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage. To join, you must be at least 64, able to swim half a mile in under 30 minutes, and able to free-dive to eight feet. They clean about 20 ponds a year. There's a waiting list. Baur is 86 now, and they're still going.
Five this week. Talk soon.
— Matt