My neice Amanda is five, she’ll turn six in October. There is a neighborhood garage sale coming up, and my sister Sandra sent this email to my family today. I was bursting with pride:
“The reason I am writing is that Amanda has been expressing interest in having a ‘water stand’ at the garage sale. Being inspired by Sharon and her new wonderful blog, I wanted to turn the water stand portion of the garage sale into a fundraiser for the St. Raymond’s emergency fund. I wanted to know if [our family] would be interested in matching any funds raised. I have no idea if we are talking $25 or $100, but thought either way, we won’t be breaking the bank here. Bill and I will donate the water, charge $1 per bottle and all the proceeds will go to the fund.”
If Amanda gets involved in this one project, I bet it will lead to a lot more. Kids get addicted to the feeling they get when they do something to help others.
I’m proud of my neice and I’m proud that this blog may have inspired her and her mom. Of course our family will match the donation–my dad even offered to drive up for the weekend and help work at the water stand!!
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Tags: charity, fundraiser, Inspirational Kids, matching gifts
May 7, 2008 at 3:32 am |
[...] Doing a Lot When You’re Little « The Philanthropic Family I’ll talk more about this great new blog after the COF conference ends. But I had to link to this post. Maybe I just miss my two kids who I haven’t seen since Saturday, but I think Sharon is tapping into something important. (tags: philanthropy) [...]
May 7, 2008 at 9:58 pm |
There seems to be a movement of children “teaching” their parents. I do not have children (yet), but many of my friends do and I am always amazed at what these kids get their parents engaged in. Sure, they seem to convince them to buy the latest PS2 game (I think that is more for the father’s benefit than anything else); but they also seem to be getting parents to volunteer at soup kitchens (Inn from the Cold in Calgary, AB is one such program) or donating lootbags from birthday parties to kids in shelters. I have to say, as much as there are days when I shake my head and wonder what is this world coming to, I hear stories like this and I think that perhaps we haven’t screwed up too badly.
Gena
May 19, 2008 at 1:52 pm |
My Dad drove up to Chicago this weekend, as promised, and helped my niece sell water and pop. They raised $50 and we’re matching it. $100 to the St. Raymond’s emergency fund in Mt. Prospect, IL. I’ll have to send the check directly to Amanda so she can hand deliver it to the church.