An act of kindness by a teenager from Georgia made quite a lot of waves. This act took place at a Dollar General, and unbeknownst to the teenager, he was being filmed by his aunt during his humanitarian action. Later, in a heartwarming post on Facebook, his aunt- Connie Belle Jenkins Sweet, went on to talk about how her 17-year-old nephew went out of his way to help an elderly woman at the Dollar store. The aunt mentioned that she was shopping for cleaning supplies when she saw her nephew rushing toward an 81-year-old woman who was struggling to get out of her car. [1]
In her subsequent interview with FOX 5 about her nephew’s act of kindness, Connie mentioned, “He helped her in the store and shopped with her and he walked her back out to her car. She was only going in for a soda, but she barely could even get in the store.”
The full post on Facebook read, “I take proud in knowing and being a part of his life. It brought tears to my eyes because he wanted to help her and not even knowing her situation she was so glad he took the time to help her. I HAVE AN AWESOME NEPHEW I PRAY GOD continues to DO GREAT THINGS IN HIS LIFE. Good Senqua.” The woman who her nephew helped had also fallen down just a few days before the event and had injured her back- which is what made it difficult for her to get out of her car.
Georgia Teen’s Simple Act of Kindness Deserves All The Plaudits In The World
Soon, this went viral, and the Dollar General store decided to surprise the teen with a $500 gift card at his school. They also gave him two Atlanta Hawks jerseys which had his name (Senquavious Driver), as well as his school basketball number. Interestingly- the store also had a couple of tickets for him to attend the Hawks’ games. Dan McDonald, the spokesperson for Dollar General mentioned, “He just seems to be a generally caring great young man with a really bright future. I am just glad the Dollar General and the Hawks could pair up to come to the school and say thank you, thank you for doing a random act of kindness. Thank you for modeling the right behaviour, kudos to Senquavious because he deserves the credit he is getting. He deserves the accolades because he did a great thing.” [2]
As it turns out, Driver did receive a lot of attention after his random act of kindness. “Everywhere I go people are congratulating me on what I did. They say they know me. They saw they saw me on TV.” But Driver believed that he didn’t really do anything that merited that response. The teen further mentioned, “I was just being nice because that’s the kind of person I am.” Willi Reese, Driver’s school basketball coach, also spoke about how impressed he was with how Driver dealt with this sudden bout of attention. Coach Reese mentioned, “He’s been very, very humble, but that is an attribute to his upbringing with his mother, grandfather, and grandmother, everybody. He’s a great kid.”
The kid who went viral with a simple act of kindness was most excited with the basketball jersey, as well as tickets to the game- with him being a ball player himself. But as far as the gift card was concerned, he planned on spending that on his mother.
Sources
- “Georgia Teen’s Act Of Kindness At Dollar General Goes Viral.” 5News Online. Tribune Media Wire. October 4, 2016.
- “Griffin teen who helped elderly stranger honored for act of kindness.” Fox5 NY. October 20, 2016.
