Kids Making It Better in Austin, TX

Author Suzy Becker recently received this lovely letter from a mom in Austin, Texas, whose daughter is making the world a better place! Go check out Ella’s charity page–she’s well on her way to her goal of $5,000. And read the letter below for an inspiring and adorable story of how one little girl can make a big difference.

Good morning Suzy,

I happened upon your book by chance in BookPeople in Austin, Texas and knew immediately after reading the back cover that this was a book for my daughter. She’s one of those heady little people that hears about a problem and immediately gets serious and says, “Mom, what can we do to help?” She’s been jumping around through the book but was very struck by your presentation of the global water crisis. At first, she had a hard time getting her mind around the fact that people in other parts of the world couldn’t just turn on their faucets to get clean water. That’s when we went to the internet to get more information and discovered charity: water.  We watched a couple of the videos and she loved the idea of having a birthday campaign. Without hesitation she decided that she was going to give up her 8^th birthday to raise money for charity: water and is asking that people donate $8 to her campaign rather than give her gifts (http://mycharitywater.org/ellagrace). In just three weeks, she’s raised more than $1700 and she has still has 60 days left in her campaign. We have a lot planned-a fundraiser/skating party, a bake sale, a craft fair. Her goal is to raise $5000 which will build one well and bring water to 250 for 20 years. Her dad and I are committed to doing all we can to get her there. In some ways that has been the greatest gift your book has given us.

We’ve always told Ella and our other kids that they could do anything but honestly, whenever Ella would say she wanted help out with Haiti or the Gulf Oil spill we would nod and smile and do nothing. Your book reminded us that kids can do anything and everything with a little support. Thank you for providing such an excellent resource for kids and parents. Keep doing what you do!

Best,

Maureen McGinn