Acts of kindness are needed constantly in this world. More often than not we see adults leading the charge with generosity, but not all the time. A little girl named, Sunshine, is lighting up the way for other children in need.
Sunshine, a five-year-old girl from Michigan decided to take matters into her own hands when a friend at school needed some help. One day after school Sunshine decided to empty out her piggy bank on the floor next to her grandma. Sunshine’s grandma, Jackie Oelfke, noticed and asked why Sunshine was emptying out all of her money. Jackie was shocked to find her five-year-old granddaughter’s reason.
Sunshine explained to her grandma that one of her classmates did not have enough money for milk at school and she wanted to help. Trying to gather the $.45 for a milk cartoon—Sunshine sat there pouring out as much change as she could and putting it into plastic baggies to take to school. Her grandmother noted she didn’t want to rain on Sunshine’s parade so she let her take $30 out of her piggy bank to school.
Oelfke was so moved and touched by her grandaughter’s kind gesture, that she posted an emotional video on Facebook and Youtube to share.
Sunshine and Oelfke’s video received so much love, the two decided they didn’t want to stop the help there. The family also started a GoFundMe page where Sunshine could continue to raise more money for her classmates in need. Sunshine and Oelfke would go on to raise more money than they ever expected to help her classmates receive milk
Speaking to CBS News, Oelfke said, “I was sitting my chair just doing some work and Sunshine brought out her piggy banks and dumped them on the floor next to me. She just started counting,” Oelfke said.
“She counted her money, then put it in baggies, then put it in her backpack. She said she was taking it to school for her friend … because her friend’s mom doesn’t have milk money,” she added.
The grandma said eventually Sunshine filled her in on the situation at hand. “I’m going to take it for milk money. I’m taking it for my friend Layla,” she explained. “She doesn’t get milk — her mom doesn’t have milk money and I do.”
Oelfke ended up finding out that out of the 20 kids in Sunshine’s kindergarten class, only half purchase milk on a regular basis. After dropping Sunshine off at school the following day, Oelfke couldn’t help but share the touching story.
“I feel really naive because you forget this is an issue,” she stated in the video. She went on to say, “You know we’re doing okay and Sunshine always has milk money. But for her age, the age of 5, to realize that there are other kids out there that don’t get something as simple as milk for snack, and then just to want to offer her heart, and to her it’s no big deal,” she said.
Sunshine being so young, doesn’t realize the outstanding gesture her grandma admitted. “She doesn’t understand the impact she’s made,” Oelfke said. “But now she knows she can do whatever she puts her mind to.
With the family being so inspired to help more children they decided to go beyond just Sunshine’s piggy bank in search of funds. The family decided to start a GoFundMe Page to better their efforts. It didn’t take long before this also became a huge success.
Within a week of posting the fundraiser page, kind citizens had donated over $1000 to help Sunshine give back to kids in her class.
After Sunshine’s whole class benefited, Sunshine ran to her grandma with huge news. “Guess what! My whole class got milk today,” Sunshine said. “Layla now has milk money.”
The GoFundMe Page ended up raising over $19,000 which was more than anyone ever expected. Since all of that money was raised Sunshine’s whole class received free milk for the rest of the school year. Her grandmother said she is so proud.
“With all the hatred in the world that this little five-year-old just has so much love and compassion for her friends. I’m very proud of her. Very, very proud of her. We’re going to do at her request, we’re going to do whatever we can to help kids in her class with milk money ” she stated.
The proud and emotional grandmother went on to say that she couldn’t wait to show Sunshine the viral post and to fill her in on the good news of how far her act of kindness had spread.
“..and tell her that she has made a difference and we will continue to help her friends,” she finished the heartfelt video by saying.
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