When Samantha Manns' great-grandmother passed away, the 18-year-old knew she wanted to do something to honor her memory. The teen decided to do 89 random acts of kindness -- the age of her great-grandmother when she passed.
“Some of her last words were, ‘I don’t want anybody to be upset.’ And I was really upset for a few days," Manns told The Chillicothe Gazette. “Then I thought, maybe I can’t be happy right now, but I can do things to make other people happy.”
Yahoo! reports that the teen first started her series of good deeds at a McDonald's drive-through by paying for someone's meal in the car behind her. This set a chain reaction in motion where other customers paid the bills for the cars behind them. Next on Manns' list is filling a stranger's gas tank and paying for someone's groceries.
Manns even created a Facebook page to keep track of her random acts, taking suggestions from others and acting as a forum for ideas anyone can use in their day-to-day lives.
"I want people to feel the happiness that comes with giving selflessly and with caring uncontrollably," Manns wrote on the Facebook page. "While it's a good feeling to be known, it's an even better and more rewarding feeling to know I'm inspiring people to commit their OWN acts of kindness!"
Samantha Manns isn't the only teen making headlines this week for inspiring her community. Recently, Jhaqueil Reagan -- an 18-year-old from Indianapolis -- was in the process of a 10-mile walk in the snow to a job interview when he encountered Art Bouvier, a restaurant owner. Bouvier ended up offering Reagan a job because he was so impressed with the teen's commitment. Their story quickly went viral.
Motivated by the positive attention, Reagan is now setting up his own foundation. "It's [...] going to benefit underprivileged teens who are looking for jobs," Reagan told The Associated Press.
Do these teens inspire you? Sound off in the comments below or tweet @huffpostteen.
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