E
very year a television starion in a major American city runs a fund-rasing activity called Quarters for Shoes. During the holidays the station encourages people to donate quarters for gifts for those members of the community who could use a helping hand.
Here's a letter that it received:
Dear Channel Five,
We are Fred, age 15, Misty, age 12, and B.J., age 9.
Six years ago our father died suddenly. Five months later our mother abandoned us. We have lived with our granmother ever since. Two years ago grandma adopted us.
Because grandma is a widow and now a single parent, she needed help in keeping our home neat. We kids are really messy and didn't keep our things picked up. Grandma gave us an allowance, but we had to pay 25ȼ for each item we left laying around. This was okay, bur Grandma is a real softy, so she would put our quarters back into our banks, thinking we wouldn't know, but we did. So we remained messy.
Last year, we were watching your station and you were talking about kids who needed shoes and Quarters for Shoes. We decided we wanted to help. The quarters are for being messy and not feeling guilty about it. We like it because we are helping kids not as lucky as we are.
The handwritten letter, signed by Fred Misty and B. J., included $136. Those three kids might be guilty of having messy rooms, but their hearts are so clean.