Wanganui's good Samaritan sparks more kind deeds

Good Samaritan recipient Janet Hartell has taken on board calls for her to pay forward the kindness shown to her and has donated $20 and a dozen free-range eggs to a local garage to be given to someone in need.

Mrs Hartell's thank-you post on the Wanganui Chronicle's Facebook page to the anonymous man who gave her $10 to cover her shopping when she was caught short at the supermarket has reached a global audience and continues to garner tens of thousands of "likes" and comments.

Antoinette Shallue, a spokeswoman from Foodstuffs, owner of Pak 'n Save, spoke to Mrs Hartell's good Samaritan, a local man who said he wished to remain anonymous and simply liked the idea of doing something good in the hope it would come back to him one day.

It was the first time he had done such a thing for someone else, despite a staff member thinking otherwise, and he wanted people to know there were good Samaritans out there.

Mrs Hartell said she still wanted to thank him. "I just really want to give him a hug. It's his first time and he did it for me? Oh that's just breaking my heart. I want to give him a hug and say thank you. Only if he wants to though - I don't want to pressure him."

Mrs Hartell said she wanted him to know she chose to leave some items to be donated at a garage because fuel was expensive, and she kept chickens, so always had a supply of eggs.

"Because of him I've learned, and I see things differently now. I don't know if I would have done it before. It's not the $10, it's the thought."

She said even if he didn't get in touch, she planned to get him a thank-you card that she hoped could be passed on.

After dropping the items off at the garage yesterday morning, Mrs Hartell said she visited an elderly neighbour and took a stray kitten to the SPCA for her. She went home and told her husband she would really love to have the kitten, and he told her to go back and get it, so that was her second good deed for the day.

Mrs Hartell said she felt a bit guilty for all the attention she had received. She had even been approached to appear on television, which she wasn't sure about, but if it was good for Wanganui, she would do it.

Foodstuffs said while the man wanted to remain anonymous to the media, it had passed Mrs Hartell's contact details on to him with her permission, and would be leaving it up to him from there.