Youngsters across the Bay State are showing compassion beyond their years to benefit One Fund Boston. The non-profit created to aid victims of the Boston Marathon bombings has attracted the support of celebrities like country singer Kenny Chesney, chefs Ming Tsai and Ken Oringer, and rock n’ rollers Aerosmith. – and Mass. grade schoolers.
But Bay State youngsters are holding up their end as well.
School children like Emily LeBlanc, a 10-year-old a fourth-grader at Lowell Elementary School in Watertown will be selling baked goods, lemonade and yellow and blue ribbons outside her Waverley Avenue home tomorrow, while her cousin, a member of The Whiskey Barrel Band, will also provide live music.
“When I saw it on TV, it made me really sad. I wanted to help those who got injured,” said Emily.
It’s her second bake sale. She has already raised $1,300 towards her goal of contributing $5,000.
“She came to me,” said Emily’s mother, Valerie LeBlanc, 51. “We saw it on the news. She heard about the 8-year-old (Martin Richard). That is when she wrote me a little note. She couldn’t say it. ‘I want to help the dad that lost his son.’ I told her we would do something. She heard about the other victims and said ‘I want to raise it for all of them.’”
The Grady triplets of Paxton, felt a personal connection to the Patriot’s Day tragedy.
“The reason this is also important to me is because my dad ran the marathon before, and I’ve been going since I was one,” said Ella Grady, 9.
Ella, and sisters Lily and Olivia will be selling baked goods in their community today – .
Ella wants to raise $100, while Olivia is aiming for $5,052. The Gradys, third graders at Paxton Center School, have raised $60 so far.
“It’s real for them,” said mom Jean Grady, 44. “(Lily) said, ‘Mom, I know this won’t bring anybody back, but it will help.’”
Alex Miller, 9, of Watertown already had experience running a lemonade stand to raise money for orphan elephants. When she learned about the bombings, the fourth-grader sprang into action and enlisted her little brother Theo, 3 ½, to help.
“I heard about everyone that was hurt. I thought if there is anything I could do to help, God forbid that could ever happen again,” said Alex.
Over the course of two weeks, Alex has raised $300.
“My son has no idea, but my daughter is almost 10,” said mother Candace Miller, 40. Miller said she is proud that kids like her daughter care enough for people they might not even know to want to help them restore their lives.
“Bad things happen,” Alex’s mother explained. “(But) you can help be part of the way we try to make things better.”
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