This story was submitted as a nomination to the Reader's Digest "Top 10 Nicest Places in America" contest: a crowd-sourced effort to uncover corners of the country where people are still kind and respectful in an era of cultural and political divides. If you know of a community, business, or nonprofit where kindness prevails, then be sure to submit a testimony or anecdote here before the June 5th deadline. (WS will be one of the judges!)

Recently, when a new, local brewer had an emergency, other local breweries stepped in to assist, no questions asked – because being nice and helping others defines our community.

In West Lafayette, the beer scene has taken off. In one year, we went from two breweries to six. But instead of looking at each other as competition, our local breweries help one another.

Recently, brewer Jason Cook from Teays River (a brewery that opened in 2017), had just started the boil for a seven-barrel, 217-gallon brew of a new beer that he'd been thinking about for a while. He was calling it No Control IPA, which is an homage to a 1989 song by Bad Religion.

But as he was making the massive batch of beer, he nearly lost the tip of the little finger on his right hand.

On his way to the hospital he was trying to figure out how to save roughly 1,388 glasses worth of beer. Instead of having to trash the brew, however, two other local brewers rushed over to the facility– no questions asked –to save the brew.

They could have seen this as an opportunity to gain leverage on their competition, but instead, they helped to rescue this new brewery from what could have been a major financial loss. Also, the new breweries that have opened in our area tell stories about the free-flow of help and advice that comes from the other breweries (especially from the breweries that have been around for years) because they believe that there's room in the market for each one to find a niche.

This is just one story of an act of kindness. But it shows what our area is all about: helping one another when crisis hits. And that to build a community, instead of seeing each other as competition, helping others and being nice pays off for everyone.

Reprinted with permission from Reader's Digest. To learn more about WS's part in searching for the Top 10 Nicest Places, click here.

Brew Up Some Positivity With Your Friends And Share This Story To Social Media – Photo submitted by Sara Erickson