The word “charity” often brings to mind headlines like “Taylor Swift donates ‘very sizable’ amount to Hurricane Harvey survivors” and “J.K. Rowling donates $30 million to help children in need”.

But the rest of us, who are not rich or famous, may sometimes feel like we can’t really contribute to charity in a meaningful way.

But what you probably don’t know is that Swift has visited many sick children in hospitals and played the guitar and sang for them. Rowling, the UK writer who wrote the Harry Potter series, once read an unfinished Harry Potter book over the phone to a 9-year-old girl in New York because the girl had cancer and wasn’t sure if she would still be alive when the book was published.

These small kindness are just as powerful as money and fame（名气）themselves. Just as Mother Teresa(1910-1997), winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize, is believed to have once said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love. And together, we can do something wonderful.”

This is probably why the annual International Day of Charity, which falls on Sept 5—the same date as Mother Teresa’s birthday—was created by the United Nations back in 2013. On this day, we can clear up misunderstandings we may have about charity and think of the importance of small kindnesses.

People might already be contributing to charity without even realizing it. In the US, for example, many companies give a small percentage of the money they make to charities. And in China, Alipay has a feature called Ant Forest that takes everyday low-carbon activity—such as walking instead of driving—and turns it into virtual(虚拟的)“energy” that is used to grow virtual trees. For every virtual tree that is grown, Alipay and its partners plant a real tree in the deserts of Northwest China.

These efforts may sound too small to make a real difference, but they do. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” as Mother Teresa once said.

Robert and Henry are friends. One day, when they were going home from school, they saw some people fighting (打架) in the street. Robert cried out, “A fight! Let’s go and see!”

“No,” said Henry, “I just want to go home.”

“You are a coward (胆小鬼) and afraid to go,” said Robert, and off he ran.

In the afternoon, Henry went to school as usual. But Robert told the boys in their class that Henry was a coward. The boys all laughed at (嘲笑) Henry.

A few days later, Robert went swimming with some boys in a river. After some time, he started to feel uncomfortable in the water. Soon, he couldn’t move his body. Robert cried for help. ▲

They just stood there.

At that time, Henry came. He took off his clothes and jumped into the river. Finally he helped Robert get out of the water.

Robert and the boys felt sorry. They finally knew that Henry wasn’t a coward. He was so brave (勇敢的) to save his friend.

I’m visiting Los Angeles for a couple of days with my friend, and while we were on a hike early this morning, I found the National ID card of a French kid on the path. There was no one around, so I thought it was best to pick it up.

Being French myself, I knew the kid was very nervous after he didn’t find his ID card. Have you ever lost anything, such as an important book, a driver’s license or a passport? Maybe you had the same feeling as the kid.

As soon as we got back to our hotel, I searched for the card holder’s name (which thankfully was not very common) on the Internet, and found a website that matched his picture. I then followed a few links until I found his dad, and sent him a direct message along with a photo of the ID card.

He wrote back to me in an hour, very grateful. It was really fun playing Sherlock Holmes! “The kid’s mom will be picking up the ID card from the hotel’s front desk tomorrow.” I was very happy to see that.