Handyman has Done Over 1,000 Good Deeds Including Donating a Kidney
It all started from a missed opportunity to do good.
Many people aspire to do good. They pay it forward by buying someone in line a cup of coffee, round up at the register, or they donate to the local food drive. But how many people donate a kidney to someone they don't know?
Jon Potter, 29, a handyman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania does. It's all part of a vow he made to himself four years ago to always say yes to doing good deeds and he has racked up an impressive 1,000 of them according to CBS News.
But it always that way. It all began at a gas station when a woman he knew asked him for a ride to a woman's shelter.
"She's like, 'Hey, can I get a ride to the battered women's shelter or can I have money for the bus?'" he told CBS. He answered, "no, sorry," and has regretted that decision ever since.
That's when he made the promise to help everyone he could. He finds people who need help on Reddit. It could be helping someone move – he's done that numerous times, fixing a broken window, giving someone a ride home from a party, or lending someone money.
"I give because I want to give. And that's just for me. And, if anything, I go to bed and I feel happy," Potter said. His goodness has made him a very popular person in his city.
“With all the stuff going on in the news, to see people happy, complete strangers come up to you and give the biggest, most sincere smiles,” Potter's wife Rachel Adler, 28, told PEOPLE. “It’s nice to see that genuine happiness in people. You hope it extends to their own actions.”
Potter 's favorite good deed was lending a suicidal man $2,000. The man has since become a very good friend. He helped to save his life that day.
And he did it again, when he donated one of his kidneys to Mike Moore, who is 58. Potter learned about Moore on Reddit in January 2019 after Moore's daughter posted on the site for a possible donor and telephoned him.
“The moment I heard his voice, I knew I wanted to do this,” Potter said.
His family didn't support this kind act at first, but they came around and the transplant occurred in August 2019 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"It's an unbelievable act of kindness," Moore told CBS about the gift of the kidney. But Potter has given him more than just a kidney, it has given him a reason to believe in the kindness of strangers.
"Because you find out there's other people in the world that care. And that's a strong message," Moore said. And Potter certainly cares about others.
While few people are as altruistic as Potter, there are people in communities all around the world doing acts of random kindness. You can too.
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