Mazda will give away 50 special-edition Miata sports cars to good Samaritans from 2020

• To recognize people for their selfless deeds during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mazda announced plans Monday to award 50 good Samaritans a special-edition MX-5 Miata.
• People can submit stories until October 25, and Mazda will announce the honorees starting December 2.
• Honorees will receive an MX-5 Miata 100th Anniversary Special Edition, which is a nod to Mazda's first car.

This year hasn't exactly been great, but through a new "Mazda Heroes: Honoring the Human Spirit" program, Mazda aims to give back to some of the do-gooders of 2020 by offering them a brand-new car.

Mazda plans to give away 50 limited-edition Miatas to people who have "selflessly dedicated themselves to their communities throughout 2020," the company announced Monday.

Fifty winners will receive an MX-5 Miata 100th Anniversary Special Edition, which sports a white paint job, red roof, and red-leather interior to honor Mazda's first passenger car, the R360. The model starts at $32,670 for the soft-top version with a manual transmission, while the hard-topped automatic variant starts at the upper end of the price scale at $35,750.

People can submit stories to Mazda's website through October 25. Mazda will judge the applicants based on their contributions to their communities, their kind acts, and their creativity, and will start announcing honorees on December 2.

Back in April, Mazda rolled out the Essential Car Care program, which offered complimentary car cleaning and oil changes to US healthcare workers — even those who don't own Mazdas.