Kindness is always free, said the ice cream lady

Madyson Silvagnoli runs an ice cream truck called Maddy's Ice Cream and More through the streets of Gardner, Massachusetts. Earlier this summer, a small boy walked up to the window and explained, teary-eyed, that he had "no dollars." Silvagnoli scooped him a cup anyway, added whipped cream and sprinkles, and told him he could always come back. "You want an ice cream from Maddy, you get an ice cream from Maddy," she said in a video later posted to Instagram. It was watched nine million times. The comments quickly turned practical. Strangers wanted to know how to pay for the next kid's cone. Silvagnoli set up something on her website called the No More Tears fund and a small merch line, both routing proceeds toward free cones for children who show up without pocket money. The tagline, lifted from the original caption, is kindness is always free. She told Today she has three daughters of her own.