LAST month, I was on my way back to Winnipeg from Winkler. I was driving along Highway 23 when the ride got very bumpy.

I realized to my dismay I had a flat tire. Since I have no idea how to change a tire, I drove on very slowly, hoping to reach a service station in Morris, which was not too far away. However, it wasn’t long before a truck driver made a U-turn on the highway and flagged me down. He had the tire changed in a short time, and I made it safely back to Winnipeg. He would not accept any payment. His name was Joe Anderson, and he lived on a farm nearby.

Thank you very much, Joe Anderson, for your kindness. I shall try to pay it forward.

ON Sept. 17, AC/DC performed at Investor’s Group Field. My husband, my son and I decided we would go listen to the concert outside of the stadium.

We were listening along with a whole bunch of other people outside the gate when a lady and her small child approached the three of us. She offered us her tickets but warned they may not work because they had already been scanned once, so my son and I walked up to the gate and told security about the situation.

The tickets did not work, so we walked back to my husband, who was standing there waiting for us. The lady must have seen us return, because again she approached us and proceeded to give us two other tickets she had and said these ones would work because they had not been scanned yet. This second set of tickets worked, and we went in to watch the concert.

Whoever this lady was, she gave us such a gift and an incredible experience. It’s amazing the people you meet in your life sometimes.

| Education Minister James Allum seemed genuinely surprised.

That the NDP had for many years a policy that school divisions had to put kids from new suburbs into empty school desks in older neighbourhoods before the province would even consider building a new school, that came as news to Allum.

There was even a panicky time among parents when the policy required looking to low-enrolment schools in contiguous divisions.

I was a volunteer parking lot attendant at the Banjo Bowl earlier this month.

After games, our job is to help clear the parking lots as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible. Some motorists are a little impatient, but for the most part they’re pretty good.

While on duty at my post before the game, one kind lady who was having a Bombers tailgate party nearby brought me a plate with a smokie, pepperoni stick and potato chips on it, as well as a cold bottle of water. Half an hour later, she brought me some dessert.

This was one kind act that shows Bomber fans are the best. They are true blue, with a heart of gold.

Recently, my faith in humanity was bolstered. I left my purse on the bus into work on Sept. 12 while travelling down Ness Avenue, a fact I only realized upon trying to unlock my office door.

I immediately called 311 but, as is often the case with lines like 311, I was put on hold. I went back to the bus stop and paced, becoming more frantic with every minute I remained on hold.

After 15 minutes, I was full-out panicking. I finally waved to a driver who was making the turn and explained what had happened.

The woman, without question, told me to get in and she would retrace the bus route until we found the bus.

| The Brad Badiuk situation could have been such a teachable moment for a city trying to come to grips with being identified as the most racist city in Canada.

Instead, utter silence.

The Kelvin High School website lists Badiuk as an electronics teacher for the 2015-2016 school year. I haven’t heard from anyone who’s had a confirmed sighting of Badiuk in the school.

I would like to say a big thank-you to the nice lady I had the pleasure to sit next to at Central Nails at St. Vital Centre on July 30.

I’m a senior, and I decided to have my first pedicure. I was lucky to sit next to a young lady. We made small talk (no names were exchanged) and just chatted away.

I had a manicure and pedicure. When I went to pay, I was told the lady seated next to me had paid the bill for me. I could not believe it.

I’ve never had this happen before. So again, a big thank-you to the nice lady. It was much appreciated.

My aunt Claire, Mom’s sister, was a beautiful, vivacious woman with a sense of fun and adventure. That is, until an accident several years ago changed her life forever.

She passed away last January, and as per her wish, her ashes were to be buried next to her parents in Ashern. The day of the service and burial, Aug. 28, started out with a thunderstorm that gave way to a beautiful, sunny late summer day.

My parents had driven to Winnipeg from Edmonton a couple of days earlier, and when it was time to make the drive to Ashern, Dad handed my husband the keys to the Cadillac, and off we went.

And then it happened — the Caddy died. Right there on Route 90.

| As dysfunctional as the ongoing Mike Babinsky saga makes Winnipeg School Division’s board of trustees, it’s also clear that the other seven trustees have frozen out Cathy Collins.

She was the finance chair not so long ago, and along with Babinsky and board chair Mark Wasyliw, Collins is one of only three veterans among the nine trustees. And she’s a member of the NDP majority, too.

Monday night, the board shut Collins out of any significant committee chair’s role. Wasyliw is chair, Sherri Rollins vice-chair, Chris Broughton has finance, Lisa Naylor the pivotal committee handling policy and program, Allan Beach chairs building and transportation, Dean Koshelanyk gets communications. I haven’t asked, but I suspect Kevin Freedman would have been given much more responsibility had he and his wife not just had their first child.

It was extraordinary that no other school board in Manitoba has ever gone so far in disciplining a school trustee as Winnipeg School Division trustees did this week in barring Mike Babinsky from board and committee meetings for a month.

No other board has ever used Section 35 of the Public Schools Act to go beyond censure and give a trustee the temporary boot.

Still...

It sounds as though the WSD board went a long way, but you have to wonder what any trustee would have to do to warrant the even greater sanctions available under the act. WSD could have barred Babinsky for three months, and could have suspended him from any access to information and any activities as a trustee.

| I got a call a while back from Tory MLA Wayne Ewasko, the opposition's education critic, who was pretty miffed that I hadn’t asked him to comment on an education story we ran.

I can’t recall what the story was about, but Ewasko pitched a really strong case that the party wants to be asked to comment on any kind of systemic education story I do, or anything in which the government is quoted.

Which makes sense, and that’s why I’d been doing it pretty often.

I was driving in the south end when I came to a busy intersection.

Traffic had slowed down a great deal because of a pretty bad accident between a car and a minivan. There were at least five adults on the scene, as well as a young boy, none of whom seemed to be hurt.

While waiting at the light, I saw a Shaw van signal, pull into the lane in front of me and turn towards the scene. The driver then went towards the crash site, pulled off to the side, put a pylon behind his truck and went towards the assembled people with a plastic bag in hand.

He walked up to the boy and his mother and then crouched down to talk to the boy. After a short exchange, he pulled a stuffed teddy bear out of the bag and gave it to the boy, who gratefully snatched it up. This was obviously a situation where the child could use some extra comfort, and a total stranger went well out of his way and far beyond his call of duty to provide just that.

| I’ve been trying to figure out why the University of Winnipeg wasn’t ready Friday with a communications strategy when the Alberta government named president Annette Trimbee to a four-person panel reviewing the highly-contentious royalty rates on Alberta’s oil and gas industry.

I should point out right up front that the person with whom I usually deal at UW was not working that day.

This review is a national story — I think the Alberta panel made second story on CBC radio’s national news that day.

My husband and I were having lunch at Smitty’s on Pembina Highway when a nice young man in the next booth surprised us by paying for our lunch. (He and I had a non-verbal exchange, which may have prompted the lovely treat.) We will try to pay it forward.

— Pat Johnston

Share your random acts of kindness by emailing kindness@freepress.mb.ca.

I want to give a great big thank-you to Sam Henderson and her family for hosting a surprise fundraiser in benefit of my family.

I had only met Sam once through a mutual friend, and she was moved by how my family was dealing with a very difficult situation. She knew our family and friends had contributed a lot to help, so she organized a fundraising event and invited her family, friends and associates.

Wow. We were completely taken aback by this. She organized a party at her house in the country, and more than 130 people came out on a hot summer night. The entire evening happened thanks to donations and strangers showing kindness to our family.

The result was more than $8,000 raised and gifted to my family. I cannot even begin to thank Sam, all the people who attended and those who donated prizes for the auctions, food and the tent, tables and chairs. A special thanks to Kim, who donated her eatery’s services, and the band Rylan, which kept the crowd dancing all night.