7-year-old rallies community to donate to those in need
One Longmont secondgrader rallied her school, neighborhood and community to help her donate a truckload of hygiene products to the OUR Center.
“It doesn’t matter if you are big or small, old or young, everyone can help our community,” 7-yearold Harper McCarty said on Thursday when asked what she wanted to tell the community about helping those who need it most.
Harper’s mother, Sarah McCarty, said that this desire sprung up when Harper noticed there were several people experiencing homelessness in the community and asked her mother how they could help these people. That’s when Sarah McCarty reached out to the OUR Center and asked them what donations were needed most.
About a month ago, Harper launched a video campaign with her classmates then asked her school principal to circulate it around the school. She then got busy talking to neighbors and community members to help fill her family’s Toyota Tacoma truck with supplies for the OUR Center.
Sarah McCarty said in a phone interview Wednesday that Harper always has been caring and giving toward others. “She told me that her New Year’s resolution was to help people because she just wanted to help people — you know, no strings attached. That’s just the sort of heart she has.”
However, Sarah McCarty said Harper’s teachers this year have been instrumental in cultivating this love and care for others in the greater community. “Her teacher has been teaching her a lot about Ruby Bridges and Black History Month — but also that there’s these issues out there and that little people, like Harper, can move mountains.”
“We just applaud her for such a young age recognizing and having the heart that she wants to be able to help people, and of course, with the encouragement of her parents and her school to really make this a huge project,” OUR Center spokeswoman Elaine Klotz said Wednesday.
Klotz also added that “with Harper going above and beyond her own family and neighborhood and getting her whole school community involved is just very special that she is already thinking in philanthropic terms — and this will greatly increase the impact (of her giving) by having her school involved.”
Harper said the fact that these donations will help people is what she looks forward to most and she just wants to remind everyone that it doesn’t take much to help.
Harper and her family planned to donate the truckload of soaps, shampoo, lotions and toothpaste on Friday to the OUR Center. However, Harper said the best part of the experience so far was that “my school donating so much made it fun.”
As far as what plans Harper has for the future, she wants to do something for kids at The Children’s Hospital. “There are so many ways to help out,” Harper added.