A kindergartner from Vista, California understands the reason for the holiday season.
Katelynn Hardee, a 5-year-old who attends Breeze Hill Elementary School, recently found out that some of her classmates' families have trouble paying off their lunch balances. When the young girl overheard one of her peers' mother discussing their lunch debt, Katelynn asked her mother about the situation.
"She's very inquisitive," Karina Hardee, Katelynn's mother, told KSWB on Friday. "So she started asking me a bunch of questions and I tried to answer as best as I could without too much for a 5-year-old, and just explained to her that some people aren't as fortunate as us."
When Katelynn learned of their struggles, she asked her mother if she could begin selling hot cocoa and cookies to help out. "I can give money to the lunch people so they'll have money," she said. According to KSWB, Katelynn baked the cookies, made the hot cocoa and sold the tasty treats over the weekend.
Karina reached out to the school on Monday, asking how the mother-daughter duo could donate the funds they raised selling the treats to families struggling to pay off the lunch debt. "I just left a note saying my daughter held a hot cocoa fundraiser over the weekend and would love to donate the money to any of the negative accounts," the mother explained. They ended up raising enough money to pay off the lunch balances for 123 students, quite a feat for a 5-year-old!
The school presented the young girl with an award for thinking of others during this holiday season.
