If you need to know what Suffolk is like, we’d like to think that you need to look no farther than the pages of this newspaper.

Here you’ll find stories about young people doing amazing things, neighborhoods coming closer together through good times and bad, people getting involved with their community and helping others, and all kinds of other great things.

One of the amazing things we published recently that we want to amplify was on this page in Sunday’s edition. A South Carolina couple wrote in to thank Alvin, who stopped to help them with a blown-out tire earlier this month.

Jane and Steve Tennant were on their way to Virginia Beach to celebrate their aunt’s 100th birthday, a rare milestone that certainly merited family traveling from out of town. As such, the Tennants had planned ahead and gotten new tires only about a week and a half before their trip, but one of the tires was defective.

When it blew out, they were on a narrow shoulder of a high-speed road at nighttime in unfamiliar territory. To make matters worse, Mr. Tennant had recently had surgery, so he wasn’t able to change the tire himself. His wife would have to do it with his guidance.

But fortunately, she only got so far as taking the spare out of the trunk when Alvin drove up. He had gone down an exit and turned around to get back to the Tennants. He changed the tire and would not accept any payment, despite repeated attempts by the Tennants to offer him a little something for his generosity.

This isn’t the first time in recent memory we’ve received a letter like this. Letters thanking local “guardian angels,” many times from folks who aren’t from around here, seem to come in every few months.

We really do have many angels living among us here in Suffolk, and they help their fellow citizens — whether it’s their neighbor or someone from a couple states away just passing through — every day. We extend our thanks to Alvin and all those like him for giving Suffolk a good name.