Madison and Chad Gamble are living proof that no one is too small to make a difference.
The two elementary school students started a philanthropy organization called Kids Helping Kids that collects money to help children in need.
They have delivered more than $6,000 of food to the Sunday Breakfast Mission in Wilmington and neither 9-year-old Madison nor her 6-year-old brother, Chad, are showing any signs of slowing down.
The two children decided they wanted to help less fortunate kids earlier this summer, Madison explained, simply by a spur of the moment decision to do something good.
But instead of collecting canned food, Madison and her brother began collecting rocks from the fire pit behind their North Star home.
They carefully painted the rocks, Chad explained, making an incredible mess in the garage, and creating a pile of homemade pet rocks. He and his sister then went door to door in their development selling the rocks out of a cooler on wheels.
Their homemade pet rocks were a hit with the neighbors, Madison said, and the kids raised $175 in one afternoon for the Ronald MacDonald house.
After their initial success, Madison and Chad were eager to continue collecting donations from their neighbors, but their mother, Dawn, suggested they change their tactic.
“We didn’t want to disturb our generous neighbors,” she said.
The kids wrote a letter asking for cash donations and mailed it to several major corporations, including Happy Harry’s and Campbell’s, planning to use the proceeds to buy toys for kids staying at the Ronald MacDonald House.
They raised more than $3,500 through that first letter campaign, Dawn said, and her children made seven toy baskets they delivered to the Ronald MacDonald House.
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Send cash donations to: Kids Helping Kids C/O Madison and Chad Gamble 40 Abelia Lane, Newark, DE 19711 |
“It made us feel good to help people who are less fortunate than we are,” Madison said.
The two began planning their next wave of fundraising, but decided to focus their efforts on the Sunday Breakfast Mission because of the lingering economic crisis, Madison said.
They worried more kids would need to eat meals at the mission and there might be food shortages before the holidays, she said, when fewer people are donating items.
“People are still hungry every day of the week, not just on holidays,” she said.
The Sunday Breakfast Mission is a homeless men's shelter, so the kids focused their efforts on trying to make it easier for kids eating meals at the shelter, Madison said.
So the kids sent out another wave of letters to major corporations.
When cash donations came, they were very careful about how they spent the money to make sure they bought as much food as possible, Madison explained.
The kids scoured the Internet for coupons and enlisted the help of neighbors to donate extra coupons to their cause. During one memorable grocery trip, they bought $458 of food for $42, she recalled.
They buy healthy food, but try to select items like cereal and granola bars that kids would actually want to eat, she said.
“We don’t want them to look into their food baskets and say, ‘Great, I’ve got beets,’” she said.
They have made several deliveries to the Sunday Breakfast Mission this year, but have taken their food drive a step further by volunteering to serve dinner at the mission each week.
It was hard, seeing a room full of homeless children, but it also felt good to know she was making a difference in their lives, Madison said. It doesn’t take much to help someone, she said.
The energy and personal touch her kids put into the effort has a lot to do with their success, said Dawn. She is proud of their dedication to give something back.
“Children are persistent, relentless and, if anyone can make a change, it’s them because they don’t give up,” she said.
