Heather Hunter sells baked goods to Hereford resident Pat Stanley during the Huachuca Mountain Elementary School fifth-grader's attempt to raise money for school children in Africa Saturday. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review)
Posted on 04/23/2006 8:44:34 AM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Perhaps you were at Wal-Mart in Sierra Vista on Saturday and bought a cookie, or contributed some food or supplies to the children who were out front holding a bake sale and collecting items to ship to schoolkids in Africa.
If so, good for you.
This is the backstory.
A few months ago, Heather Hunter had a moment of clarity. The fifth-grader at Huachuca Mountain School was struck by an article in her Weekly Reader that described health and living conditions in some of the most desperate Third-World areas.
“The kids in Africa don’t have that much,” Heather said in a phone interview, “and we have a lot. We have a whole lot. So I asked my class if they wanted to help, and most of them said yes.”
The 10-year-old has been on a mission ever since, creating a momentum that continues to build.
“I have no idea where this is coming from,” said Heather’s mom, Jaclyn, who admits her surprise at the energy and time Heather is devoting to the cause. “She’s doing all the planning, all the organizing. I didn’t know I had this little humanitarian in the house.”
The donations from Saturday — as well as donations from a car wash Heather has scheduled for next Saturday at Sonic Drive-In on Fry Boulevard — will be sent to a village in Nigeria through World Care of Tucson, a non-profit, global relief organization. The village is home to a University of Arizona law professor who goes back and forth several times a year, and serves as World Care’s liaison in the region.
“We’ve had donations from the Sierra Vista area before,” said Lisa Hopper, World Care’s founder and president. “But it’s usually instigated by a group — say a church or service organization. We’ve not had anyone like Heather, not at that age. She’s a great example of the consciousness in children that we want to foster.”
Heather’s consciousness — altruism notwithstanding — has come to include the complex logistics that come with executing a successful event.
She contacted Wal-Mart and Sonic, told them what she was doing, and gained their cooperation. Wal-Mart sweetened the pot with a gift certificate to be exchanged for merchandise, and Heather intends to approach other businesses nearby for contributions.
“I made a flier with a list of all the things the children need in Africa,” Heather said. “Like rice and pencils and rulers and other stuff for school. That’s how the Wal-Mart customers know what to buy before they go in the store and then put it in the boxes on the way out.”
She also determined that people should be able to pay whatever they can — and that goes for next Saturday’s car wash as well.
“It’s just donations,” she made clear. “There’s no price on anything.”
After consulting with her classmates who are helping, Heather developed time sheets for both the bake sale and car wash.
“We’re working in shifts,” she said, “because everybody can’t be there the whole time.”
“Everybody” has come to include many of the teachers at Huachuca Mountain, who found themselves baking up a storm last week in preparation for Saturday’s big sale. Possibly no one helped further Heather’s momentum more than her classroom teacher, Heather Uhland, who took all the baked goods home from school on Friday and brought them to the shopping center on Saturday.
Uhland has also helped coordinate with the folks at World Care, and on May 3 will accompany Heather and her mother to the warehouse in Tucson for delivery of the monetary and in-kind donations destined for Nigeria.
“She’s doing big things in our little world,” Uhland said. “She’s a bright young girl with a caring heart. I think this is just the beginning for her.”
The car wash next Saturday is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Pay what you like.
Thought you might like a nice uplifting story on this Sunday about a little girl with a big heart.
BTTT
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