Now that the holiday season is upon us (basically that fun time between Thanksgiving and New Years, regardless of what religious denomination you are), all the feel good stories are cropping up. And honestly, who doesn’t love one? (Or two, or three…) Well, we’ve got a good one for you: a 7-year-old donated the money from a winning lottery ticket she found.
According to Action News 41, 7-year-old Phoebe Brown was simply grocery shopping with her mom at their local Hy-Vee store in Independence, Missouri, when she found a scratch-off lottery ticket. This one just happened to be a winning ticket worth $100.
So, what did she do with the money? She donated it to a food drive. It just so happened that earlier that day, a school flier was sent around to parents notifying them of a Thanksgiving food drive being held by Phoebe’s school, Sycamore Elementary School. Naturally, the food drive immediately came to Phoebe’s mind.
Phoebe’s father, Joshua, was pleasantly surprised by his daughter’s reaction to wanting to help people–as opposed to using it for herself, stating:
“You wonder, if our kids these days, if that’s how they’re thinking. And this just goes to show you they are thinking that. And that’s a real good thing.”
Joshua also wanted to match Phoebe’s donation, so the Brown family took a trip to Walmart and purchased canned goods for the elementary school’s food drive. Besides being inspired by his own daughter, he also mentioned that he himself has been in a place of need, telling Pix 11:
“There have been times where I’ve been out of work, and we had nowhere to stay and our family’s taken us in, and helped us out. We’re thankful for our friends and our family.”
Besides helping families in need, Phoebe also helped her class win the school’s food drive with a total of 541 donated items–which is absolutely fantastic. This is definitely a story to draw inspiration from, winning lottery tickets or not.
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