Dominick Sorrentino

If there’s one positive take away from everything that’s happened in the past few months, it’s that kindness always punches above its weight.

From Nottingham to New York City, many small businesses have demonstrated ingenuity, resilience and, above all, goodwill in the face of adversity.

Here are just a few extraordinary examples of small businesses that have lent a big hand:

SwaddleDesigns: ‘I Switched My Baby Blanket Factory in Seattle to Making Masks’

“Once a nurse always a nurse! I will do whatever I can to help my brother and sister healthcare workers!”

These are Lynette Damir’s words, founder and owner of SwaddleDesigns.

When COVID-19 cases started spiking in mid-March, the CDC approved the use of non-medical cloth face masks in the absence of medical-grade masks.

Damir dropped everything and got to work designing a 2-layer cotton mask. She and her employees then transformed their Seattle baby-blanket factory into a production facility so they could make as many face masks available to the public as possible.

Since then, demand has spiked for SwaddleDesigns’ masks. Check out the company’s handiwork, or place an order, here.

Thousand Gives Bike Couriers Delivering Essential Supplies a Free Helmet

A lot of people are hunkered down at home right now, and many of them depend on bike couriers to deliver essential goods such as food and medicine.

And if there’s one thing every bike courier needs, it’s a helmet.

Enter Thousand, an online retailer of cycling accessories. On March 30, the company announced it would provide free helmets to all bike couriers delivering essential goods and services.

Thousand has since given away hundreds of free helmets and counting. Bike couriers can learn more about how to get their free helmet by clicking here.

Spry Therapeutics Donates 10,000 Germ-Resistant Pillows

You might think that a small company like Spry Therapeutics is perfectly positioned to make bank in a crisis like this. When, if not during a pandemic, would a pathogen-proof pillow be in high demand?

And yet, in an incredible gesture of goodwill, the company has donated 10,000 of its pillows to hospitals in the greater New York area, while also significantly reducing the cost of its consumer line of pillows.

So in case you had any interest in germ-resistant pillows, now’s the time to buy.

Identical Twins Make NHS Face Visors Using a 3D Printer

Technically these 15-year-old twins don’t have a business, because U.K. law forbids anyone under the age of 18 from registering a company.

But that hasn’t stopped Angus and Charlie Graham from buying a 3D printer online and diving headfirst into the enterprise of charity.

Their contribution: 3D-printed protective visors for the NHS. As of mid-April, they had made 55 such visors.

“Anyone can do it, definitely,” Angus said.

“Just get a second-hand printer,” Charlie added. “There are YouTube videos saying what’s a good printer and what’s not.”

Thanks for the tip, Charlie.

And to the rest of you helpers out there …

There are many more small companies deserving of recognition than we could ever fit into a single blog post.

And while we may not have mentioned you by name, we’re grateful for all that you’ve done to help.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: A million times thank you.