$5 project: where your donations went

I thought Bella said it best so the post below is the essay she wrote mingled with my photos.

What Can $5 Do?
By Bella

This year my fourth grade teacher had the privilege to win the pie contest at the Utah State Fair. She won $105.00 as a prize. Instead of using it for herself, she gave us each $5.00 and told us to use it to do something for someone else. I knew that $5.00 wasn’t much, but my teacher said, “you can make it go a long way if you use it wisely.”

I decided to raise some more money by asking my mom to post about it on her blog, which would reach a lot more people quickly. Pretty soon the donations came in and I had $75.00 to spend. I even got some money from a nine-year-old girl, KayLee, who lives in Alaska and used the money she earned doing yard work for her dad this summer to donate to my project. She was a fourth grader too! I was so excited!



Then I had to decide what to do with the money. At first I thought I could donate some animal food to the Humane Society, but after my friend Tess from school told me she was doing that I decided to donate some toys to the Children’s Hospital instead. I called the hospital to find out what I could donate and they told me where to find a list online. Then I went to Wal-Mart with my mom and sisters and bought lots of toys, art supplies, and other fun things that I knew little children would love. It was a lot of fun to see the cart fill up.

















After the school carnival, together as a family we went to the Children’s Hospital to drop off my donations. When we got inside the building the man at the counter handed us a donation slip for me to fill out. As I was filling the slip out I thought about all of the children that would feel so happy to get the toys and art supplies that I had donated just for them to play with. It made me feel really good to be doing this for kids that couldn’t be with their family, that were very sick, and very lonely.












[while her sisters were playing around she was looking at all the "in memory of..." engravings.]

I’m glad I had the opportunity to do this project and that I could make a difference to all of the children at the hospital. How did this change my life? Well, I’ve never done something like this before so it really touched me that even at age 9 I could make a difference. Sometimes I felt like when I did something really nice it didn’t really affect anything. Now, I know that it can affect someone or even something when I do just a little service.

Thank you so much for all of the money that you donated. If it weren't for all of you, I wouldn't have been able to buy so many things. Most of you didn't even know me! Yet you still donated. Once again thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xoBella


I just wanted to throw my thank you in as well to those of you who donated and helped get the word out. I really think this opportunity helped her to see the world differently and how she, at 9, has the power to do great things. Thank you.