Good deeds — big or small — can have a significant impact.

Whether it’s holding a door for someone else or stopping for a stranger with car problems on the side of the road, good deeds leave a mark.

In today’s edition of the Whidbey News-Times we have an article about Oak Harbor firefighter Andrew Moon, who attempted to save a man while working at his part-time job.

A man collapsed after suffering a seizure and Moon performed CPR until first responders arrived. He performed CPR so well that the man started to regain consciousness and tried to push Moon’s hands away.

Sadly, the man later died at the hospital.

The man’s family was so thankful for Moon’s attempts to save their loved one, they asked him to serve as a pallbearer.

It’s stories like this demonstrate the sort of greatness that exists within the people living in our community.

Good deeds happen everyday, and many of them go by without acknowledgment.

Sometimes that’s because we don’t know our Good Samaritan, like the woman who wrote a letter recently to the editor of the News-Times.

The writer told how she lost her wallet in Oak Harbor and returned home in Coupeville to learn someone had already found and, by using the information on her identification, returned it — fully intact, cash and all.

Not knowing who the person was, she wrote the letter offering her thanks.

It’s important to acknowledge good deeds, large and small and, whenever possible, pay it forward.

It can be as simple as thanking the person holding the door open for you, or letting you cut in line at the supermarket.

Great things can come of even the smallest acts of thoughtfulness.