Ordinary Pennsylvanians who performed extraordinary acts of kindness in 2025

Meet the everyday people making a real difference in Pennsylvania.

We know the news can feel pretty heavy these days. But even when it seems like the world is on fire, someone is always out there choosing to do good.

As beloved Pennsylvanian Mr. Rogers reminds us, when tragedy strikes, “Always look for the helpers.” There are always people, perhaps on the sidelines or behind the scenes, working to make things better. “If you look for the helpers,” Rogers said, “you’ll know there’s hope.”

Here are 10 ordinary people and groups across Pennsylvania whose kindness in 2025 offered exactly that hope. Whether they saved lives or simply inspired others to be kinder, these are some of the helpers Mr. Rogers was talking about.

The teacher who challenges kids to be kind

Kristina Ulmer, a teacher at Hatboro-Horsham High School in Montgomery County, launched a “kindness challenge” for her students, daring them to do some good in the community with just $20. Ulmer created the challenge in 2018 in memory of her sister, who died in 2014. Since she began, Ulmer has helped raise more than $7,000 to fuel over 350 acts of kindness. This year, students used their $20 to help kids, families, and animals in their area, including buying toys for children in need, baking cookies for seniors, donating food and treats to an animal shelter, gathering toiletries for people experiencing homelessness, and many more acts of kindness.

The baseball team that put compassion before competition

Last year, the Spring-Ford Area High School baseball team lost one of its players, a catcher, in a January accident. When the team met rival Norristown High School for a game in April, their opponents surprised them with bracelets sporting both teams’ colors and the number 3, the late player’s jersey number.

“I know that five years down the road, when our players think back to this, they’re not going to remember the score, but they’re absolutely going to remember this gesture from the Norristown players,” Spring-Ford Coach Rob Mansfield said to WPVI-TV.

The prom-date-turned-organ-donor

Elena Hershey and Shawn Moyer went to prom together 35 years ago in York County’s Dallastown. They lost touch after high school, with Hershey eventually settling in Colorado and Moyer remaining in York County. But more than three decades later, when Hershey learned through a friend of a friend that Moyer needed a kidney donation, she decided she could help. While she wasn’t a match for Moyer, she was able to donate her kidney through a “paired exchange” that would move Moyer up on the waiting list. She donated in summer 2024, allowing Moyer to receive his life-saving kidney in February.

“A few weeks of having to rest and a few days of discomfort to extend someone’s life or save someone’s life?” Hershey told Harrisburg’s WHTM. “It really is kind of a no-brainer.”

The baker and painter who collaborated for a cause

Many people turn their hobbies into forces for good. Take Bryn Mawr teenager Sarah Kokas, who likes to bake. Since people experiencing homelessness may not be able to truly celebrate birthdays, Sarah bakes birthday cakes for kids and families at the homeless shelter Family Promise of the Main.

Earlier this year, she teamed up with local artist Rick McKnight, who paints cakes. He started illustrating Sarah’s work, and in March, the two held a gallery show of paintings featuring the cakes, which raised money for the shelter.

The teen who ran into a burning building for his neighbor

In October, North Braddock 15-year-old Xaiveyon McMillan Taylor saved his elderly neighbor from a house fire. Xaiveyon had just gotten off the school bus when he heard his neighbor, who reportedly has dementia, shouting for help. Xaiveyon ran inside her home.

“When I got to the kitchen, I saw the engulfing flames,” he told CBS News in Pittsburgh. “I had to grab her by the hand and had to pull her to get her out of the house,” Xaiveyon said. The fire quickly consumed the home, but Xaiveyon and his neighbor got to safety.

The “grocery buddies” who acted against hunger

In early November, the federal government paused benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly called food stamps), claiming (erroneously) that it couldn’t pay out benefits during the government shutdown. Yet more than 2 million Pennsylvanians receive SNAP benefits to help pay their grocery bills and put food on the table each month. As a result, food pantries across the state were overwhelmed by the rising need for food.

People throughout Pennsylvania stepped in to help. In Philadelphia, residents like Lenamarie Gorski, Erin Antoniak, Taylor Pacheco, and Stephanie Freed became “grocery buddies” and helped families get the groceries they needed by shopping for them or simply giving them grocery gift cards. “This is not something that I feel like I’m changing the world, but I do think it’s going to help,” Antoniak told the Philadelphia Inquirer, sharing how she bought a local family $300 worth of groceries and planned to cover their groceries all month if needed.

The crisis eased when the shutdown ended on Nov. 12.

The plain craftsmen who put their skills to good use

Following the devastation of Hurricane Helene, a group of Amish craftsmen from Central Pennsylvania traveled to Boone, North Carolina, and built tiny houses for families displaced from their homes. Within just two days, the skilled workers had 12 shelters standing.

The group of 62 volunteers also brought donations with them and cooked food to share. They made the trip last December, but the tiny homes began getting used this year.

“The Amish do not like to draw attention to themselves … and they don’t do anything for publicity,” volunteer coordinator Andy Owens told High County Press. “They came as volunteers to help folks who have been displaced by the hurricane,” he said, and estimated the total value of their contribution was $300,000. “Hopefully, they left knowing they made a significant contribution to life here in the High Country.”

The runners who stepped up

During Pittsburgh’s Great Race, runner Nathan Blume started to feel lightheaded—and the next thing he knew, two runners he didn’t know were helping to shoulder him toward the finish.

Blume had collapsed near the end of the race. But runners Robert Tessler and Lyubomyr Pinchuk interrupted their own running to ensure he crossed the finish line.

The unnamed hero of the SEPTA tracks

Most of the time, when one does a good deed, their name doesn’t get broadcast in headlines and news articles. Take the unnamed bystander who helped rescue a woman after she fell onto the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Metro tracks in North Philadelphia in October: We only know about the harrowing rescue because of SEPTA surveillance video that caught the woman’s fall and then the actions of the Good Samaritan who helped pull her out of the tracks and onto the platform.

The college club dedicated to random acts of kindness

College is difficult enough with a load of tricky classes and responsibilities (see: getting up in the morning), but some students add to their schedules by leading university sports or social clubs. At the University of Scranton, students started a “Random Acts of Kindness Club” that’s focused on doing random acts of kindness for their classmates and reminding them “that they can always lean on their peers,” per the club. That involves volunteering together, crafting positive messages and cards to give to people in need, sharing ways to take care of yourself and others, and generally spreading doses of kindness throughout the campus community.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Related: Ephrata family dog’s last meal is a special one thanks to the kindness of strangers