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Health & Fitness

Giving Starts at a Young Age!

I met a special group of young girls a week ago. Let me tell you how this all came about.

I met a special group of young girls a week ago. Let me tell you how this all came about.

A few months ago Giving Hope Foundaiton sent out letters to families asking them to donate to our organization. I receieved an email from Trisha, asking me if her Girl Scout Troup (4th graders) could decorate cans and collect money for the foundation. Of course, I said, "Absolutely."

So, they did just that, they decorated cans and set out to collect money to donate to the foundation. Trisha informed me that she would be collecting them after the Thanksgiving holiday. So, I reached out to her the week after and told her that I would like to come to their meeting to say "Thank you" to the girls for their hard work.

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I went to McDonald's and purchased each of the girls a $5 gift card. My clear intention was to go to the meeting, say "Thank you," give the girls their gift and leave. What I experienced was so much more.

I walk in to the room that the girls meet in with their leaders Trisha and Diana, two very special people and leaders helping these Girl Scouts to become better people. They introduced me and the girls each stated their names to me and were very happy to meet me. I proceeded to say hello and go to each girl and give them their gift card, it was at that moment that one of the girls said, "Wait, she bought us a gift?" One of the leaders said "Yes, isn't that nice of her." The child, not sure which one it was as I was busy handing out the gift cards, said, "She wasn't supposed to do that, this is so nice, we are supposed to help her foundation, she didn't need to buy us a gift."

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At that moment I thought these are some pretty special girls! So, I stayed a little bit more and asked the girls if they had any questions. Of course they did, they were interested in knowing about Leukemia, more or less what it can do to you.

I explained to them that the money they had raised was going to go to a family who has a child that is sick with a cancer. They were very happy to hear that their donation was going to this family, but more importantly they wanted to know how the child was doing and if there was more they could do to help this child. Then one little girl raised her hand to ask a question and I point to her to ask. She said, "Can I keep my can and keep collecting money and donate it to you?"

Of course I said "yes" but at that moment I realized that giving to others starts at a young age. Most importantly I learned that the littlest of hearts are the ones with the biggest hearts. I left the meeting that day feeling like I had just met a group of superstars, young superstars, because that is what they are -- raising money for a cause that I am sure they really know nothing about or understand fully.

What they understood was they were helping sick children, children just like them and for them helping that was more important than the $5 gift card I bought them for McDonald's!

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