Act of kindness ripples through the Valley

There’s a lot of bad news in the world today. But our regular readers will tell you we share lots of good news stories, too.

We’ve cheered here when you’ve bought service dogs for children, built a home for a neighbor in need, sent local kids to college, anonymously paid medical bills, and organized garage sale fundraisers that collected as much as $20,000 to help a family with medical expenses.

Our role in all this do-gooding is generally to share an opportunity to help. How you respond always is the amazing part.

You support fundraisers like bake sales, car washes and countless steak and spaghetti feeds. It’s your acts of kindness that are responsible for our cheering today.

Our part in this story began when Cassandra Wood sent a note this week sharing her family’s story with us, and asking for our help saying thank you for a box her son received in the mail last week with no return address.

Austin Sandidge, 14, was riding along Knik-Goose Bay Road a few weeks ago, when his wallet flew out and he didn’t realize it. The family searched for hours, but never found the wallet with his new driver’s permit, cash he earned doing odd jobs this summer and about $100 in gift cards.

“We had settled on the fact that the most we would get back was his wallet and ID; the money and gift cards would all be gone,” Wood said.

Then a box arrived in the mailbox last week that solved one mystery, but yielded another.

“Inside was his wallet with everything still in it,” Wood wrote.

Sandidge’s jaw dropped and he immediately asked his mother how they could contact the Good Samaritan who sent the package. Without a return address, Wood told her son she wasn’t sure how to say thanks.

Then she hit upon posting the story to her Facebook page, where her note drew lots of likes and comments about her refreshing account of good-news. We shared the family’s story on our Facebook page on Monday and had a similar experience with our readers, who shared their own Good Samaritan stories. We were glad — but not surprised — to hear there are a lot of these anonymous do-gooding types in our Valley.

“It showed my 14-year-old that there are wonderful people out there and what a good deed can do,” Wood wrote. “So hopefully he will pay it forward for the rest of his life.”

Kudos to the Good Samaritan who sent this young man so much more than his wallet in the mail last week.