New Release & Guest Post – Kindness Heroes by Jackie Kurtz
Synopsis
In a world often overwhelmed by negativity and division, Kindness Heroes offers something we all need: hope. This powerful and heartwarming book reminds us that goodness still exists in the everyday actions of people who choose to care and create positive ripples in their communities.
These aren’t celebrities or billionaires, they’re students, teachers, parents, and neighbors who saw a need and acted.
Rooted in the legacy of Matt Kurtz, a young man who believed deeply in the power of kindness, this book was born from grief transformed into generosity. Through Matt’s Kindness Ripples On, his family honors his memory by uplifting others who are spreading hope. This book tells their stories.
Whether you’re feeling hopeless, wondering how to make a difference, or simply needing a reminder of the good in humanity, Kindness Heroes will resonate deeply.
At its core, this book isn’t just about them; it’s about you. It’s a reminder that what you do matters. That the ripple starts with you.
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Guest Post
Healing Through Kindness
There was a time when my life felt settled, predictable, and safe. I was a retired data analyst living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with my husband, enjoying the rhythms of family visits, nature, and the quiet comfort of a life well lived. Then everything changed.
When our son Matt died in 2017, grief didn’t just break my heart, it imploded the life I knew. The future I had imagined vanished overnight, replaced by a silence and emptiness I didn’t know how to navigate. I was just shattered.
Matt was someone who believed deeply in kindness. It wasn’t something he talked about as an idea; it was how he moved through the world. He made people feel seen, welcomed, and valued. After losing him, I found myself searching for a way to hold onto him, and to make sure the goodness he brought into the world didn’t disappear.
At first, I didn’t think I would survive. But staying still felt impossible. I needed to do something. So I took one small step.
We committed to annually recognizing two people who made kindness a way of life with our Matt Kurtz Kindness Awards and supporting two people who needed help funding their kindness projects with our Matt Kurtz Kindness Grants.
That small step became Matt’s Kindness Ripples On.
What began as a simple tribute slowly transformed into something larger. People shared stories. Donations came in, allowing us to support more grants and awards. Acts of compassion multiplied. A community formed around the simple belief that small acts can create powerful ripple effects.
So far, we’ve given away more than $20,000 to support acts of kindness in communities near and far.
But along the way, something else became clear to me. Everyday we’re surrounded by headlines filled with division, crisis, and conflict. When that’s all we hear, it can begin to feel like kindness is disappearing from the world.
But through this work, I’ve seen the opposite. Kindness isn’t disappearing, it just isn’t amplified enough.
Behind the headlines are countless ordinary people quietly helping others, lifting someone up, or making their communities a little brighter. Their stories simply don’t always make the news.
As someone who loves books and the power of storytelling, I’ve always believed that stories can remind us who we are and who we can still become.
Over time, I realized the stories themselves needed a larger home.
That realization led to my book, Kindness Heroes: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things, a collection of real people whose actions remind us that hope is still alive in everyday moments.
The pages of Kindness Heroes are filled with the stories of 61 of our Kindness Award and Grant winners. They are students, teachers, veterans, caregivers, artists, advocates, and quiet helpers who saw a need and chose to act. These are ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Their stories are hopeful, inspiring, and sometimes heartbreaking, but always rooted in compassion. And with so much negativity in the world, I knew these stories needed to reach more people.
But Kindness Heroes isn’t just a collection of stories. I wanted it to be something you could interact with, something that invites reflection rather than just being read and set aside. Throughout the book, you’ll find personal reflections, kindness questions meant to spark thought and conversation, and quotes that remind us, especially on hard days, why kindness matters.
My hope is that when you read Kindness Heroes, it restores your faith in humanity, inspires you to spread kindness in your own way, and expands your idea of what true heroes look like.
Because sometimes the most powerful heroes are not the ones in headlines, they are the ordinary people quietly choosing kindness every day.
And those choices create ripples that travel farther than we may ever know.
If these stories remind even one person that kindness still exists, and inspire them to create a ripple of their own, then this book has done exactly what I hoped it would.
A Question for Readers
Kindness often begins with one simple moment.
What is one act of kindness—something someone did for you or something you did for someone else—that stayed with you and made a difference?
About the Author
Jackie Kurtz is an author of Kindness Heroes, and a blogger and founder of Matt’s Kindness Ripples On (MKRO), a kindness movement born from unimaginable loss and enduring love. After her son Matt passed away in 2017, Jackie transformed grief into purpose by sharing stories that remind us how ordinary people can create extraordinary ripples through compassion. Her work inspires readers to rediscover hope, human connection, and the powerful impact of small acts of kindness. She lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with her husband, Ron, drawing inspiration from nature, meaningful connections, and treasured visits with her son, Brian, in Boulder, Colorado.
