So, he was all set up on his bean bag chair, ice cream, and football on tv, truly enjoying his late night. When the first set of commercials came on, I switched the TV channel over to the Weather Channel, mainly because I don't like C to watch, hear, or get scared from certain commercials. (Yes, I know...I'm very protective in certain areas.) Anyhow, back to the main topic here. The Weather Channel was showing continuing coverage of Hurricane Irene including the flooding, high winds, people being evacuated, etc. After a few commercial breaks of watching the weather channel C stated that
"Those people (the ones being hit by the hurricane) didn't have their home anymore, didn't have couches, beds, clothes, or anything and needed some help."
He then continued with
"I want to send them all of my money from my dinosaur."
After talking with him about this and how we can find ways to help those affected by the hurricane, he was very insistent on sending ALL of his money that he had saved to those who needed it. To say that my heart was smiling and I was filled with joy and a feeling of pride for my son would be an understatement. Even at 4 years old he had thought of such a simple, valuable, and selfless gesture to help those who didn't have anything.
Cooper went on to bed last night and woke up excited to take all of his money out of his dinosaur and take it to the store to count the money so that we would know how much he had collected for those affected by Irene.
This is Cooper at the coin counter preparing to drop in his coins.
The final total was $9.50. To an adult (and even me at the moment) this sounds like such a small pointless amount of money to send to those who will need hundreds of dollars fixing, painting, and rebuilding their lives. But, to a proud, selfless 4 year old, this was an "amazing amount of money," as he put it.
There are so many lessons within such a small event. My 4 year old has been saving money (random coins that he found next to his father's wallet, from the dryer, etc) in his green dinosaur for 2 years. Most kiddos would be ready to cash it in for a favorite toy or candy or happy meal as a reward. Without any prompting or mentioning on the coins that he had saved, he knew exactly where he wanted his money to go. He learned (even if he didn't intend to learn this), that it is better to give and help those who need it.
While eating lunch (a special lunch today), we were talking about how we could help even more and he said that we should save more money to send. I agreed with him. He then suggested that he talk with his friends to see if they want to send their money that they have saved. And in all honesty, I'm sure that he will probably do that the next time he sees them.
I did tell him though that I would post on here about his generosity and see if anyone else would like to join him in sending $9.50 to those in need of help that were affected by Hurricane Irene. If you are interested, please send me an email or contact me.
As a final note, I have to say that I am SO very proud of my kind hearted, gentle, caring, active, spirited 4 year old. I can only pray that he continues to grow with such a selfless heart and lifestyle.
P.S. if you know of a good organization, preferably through a church along the East Coast that has been affected by Hurricane Irene, that can help get this money to those in need, please let me know.
