A few years back (June 2014) I was chairman of a 17-year old national nonprofit. Google had just released an algorithm (penguin I think) that identified our website as a spammer and effectively shut us off (obviously not literally, but it sure felt that way). We weighed our options (which included having our board go picket Google HQ - admittedly, not all great ideas, but we were desperate).
Our web person said "hey, Matt Cutts is speaking at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle, if anybody could help us, he could". Two days later we're in Seattle hunting for this elusive 'Google Rockstar' guy. Everyone telling me "there's no way you'll ever get to him", "he'll never talk to you", etc. Long story short, he was kind enough to let me introduce myself and when I told him of our plight, he didn't hesitate and said he would have someone look into it - next morning I had a tweet from Matt not only identifying the issues, but providing the solution! A week later we were back up and running!
That was one of the best examples of grace and generosity I have ever experienced, Thank you again Matt, you're a class act!