A Penacook 5th Grader Just Raised Over $1200 To Help Kids Like Her Have Toys On Christmas
Generosity is awesome no matter what, that's a given. But there's something about it that hits different when its kids helping other kids. That has to be the most pure form of charity, helping, and giving ever, right?
Cue Jennifer Rabbitt-Zalenski's young daughter, Allison. According to a video post the two of them made last month, Allison approached her mom wanting to start a charity (which, I mean, how adorable that a kid wants to start a charity -- obviously not knowing all the logistics that goes into it. But just the fact that she associates that charities are good and and she wants to do good -- that's just amazing in and of itself.)
With help from her mom, Allison called an audible and went from wanting to start a charity, to wanting to put on a type of fundraiser, all so she could help kids her age have a great Christmas. Jennifer set up a Venmo account for donations, and they decided to piggyback off of the New Hampshire State Police various "Stuff A Cruiser" events that they hold to benefit Toys For Tots. The idea was to take all the donated money and buy toys with it to drop at the final Stuff A Cruiser.
Allison set her goal for $250. That'd be raising $250 in a few weeks between the day her and her Mom dropped the above video and the first week of December (when Stuff A Cruiser ends). Literally in no time, Allison hit her goal -- and then kept going. Again in no time, she doubled it. The donations just kept rolling in, day after day, week after week, until...
And the best part? $1,155 wasn't even the final total! Allison and Jennifer cut donations off toward the end of last week so they could go shopping and donate the toys for the final Stuff A Cruiser -- the final total that was raised? $1,275. IN THREE WEEKS. All based on a random idea one kid had to help other kids her age out to make sure they had something underneath their tree to open up on Christmas.
If you know me, and you know the other stations I've worked on before in the area, you know that Toys For Tots Drives are near and dear to my heart. THIS is what we need more of. Not just this time of year, not just this area of the country -- but we need THIS 24/7/365 all around the world.
If a CHILD can want to help out and can do this much good, we all can. AMAZING job, Allison (and Jennifer, too!)