Texas’ eight-year old girl makes a special birthday request, but not for herself

Many children look forward to their birthday. It’s a day when everything revolves around them, not to mention receiving fun and exciting birthday gifts. However, one young girl from Texas wanted something a little different — she used her birthday to draw attention to her favorite cause and ended up making a huge difference.

As Adisynn Kiker, from Texas, was about to turn 8 last summer, she surprised her mother Jessica with an unusual birthday request.

“She doesn’t want anything for her birthday,” Jessica told the Athens Review. “She wants people in the community to donate food to the animal shelter.”

That’s right: instead of thinking about herself, this third-grader asked people to make a donation to the Humane Society at Cedar Creek Lake, a shelter that’s always looking for help with supplies. Adisynn requested people donate pet food or other items like cleaning supplies.

In July, Adisynn collected supplies outside the local McAtee Realty, and then again after a softball game at the GBC Ballpark.

And amazingly, many people came through. Adisynn received a huge amount of donations. According to a Facebook post by the Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake, they received the following items:

580 pounds of cat litter
11591 pounds of dog food
152 pounds of cat food
28 cans of cat food
43 gallons of bleach
7 containers of laundry soap
7 simple green
60 rolls of paper towels

Thanks to one girl’s birthday wish, these items should make a difference for the animals in the shelter.

“Thank you Adisynn Kiker and team Adisynn for all our donations,” the Humane Society wrote. “Our fur babies greatly appreciate it.”

It’s no surprise that Adisynn would want to help animals. She’s been the proud owner of a dog named Beau ever since she was a baby. But it’s still a surprising act of selflessness from someone so young.

“Adisynn knows how lucky she is,” Jessica told the Athens Review. “She never does without anything. We believe and she believes it’s time to give back.”

“Helping animals was her idea. She talks about being a vet when she grows up.”

The shelter is always grateful for help and hopes more people will follow Adisynn’s example.

“The shelter is always in need of all donations,” shelter board President Lanette Ainsworth said. “It would be nice to see more kids like Adisynn become involved in their communities.”

Students ask for donation for homeless shelter

For another special occasion, three students at the Alturas International Academy in Idaho Falls helped people living on the street during Christmas in 2018.

After Caprice Shuman, Madison Hawkes, and Sydney Harper found out about the homelessness situation in their local region, they wanted to do something about it. Despite the fact that the number of homeless people in Idaho had decreased since 2016, the number was still not a small one — about 2,000 people either had to live under no roof or in one of the shelters.

“We just got together, and we were like oh, we want to do this, we want to help them provide Christmas for those in need,” Hawkes said to KIFI. “We got together, and we created posters, and we wrapped this big box, and we wanted to set this up so people can donate.”

For two weeks, the girls collected donated goods. Many people, including other students, parents and teachers, all contributed to their cause.

Anne Johnson, manager of the Haven Homeless Shelter said that the donations could make a difference for those in need.

“To me, that’s what it’s all about we just made somebody happy. We can use everything they gave us for all our clients here,” Johnson said.

The girls wanted those in less fortunate situations to enjoy the festive occasion just like themselves.

“It makes us very happy to know that we are giving back to other people and knowing that they can have their own Christmas just like us,” Shuman said.

“We wanted them to have that experience and to give back for us just means providing for other people,” Harper said.