TOWN OF CLAYTON, New York (WWNY) – A kitchen table full of backpacks, crayons, stuffed animals and a whole lot more.
“And socks, and shampoo,” said Easton Phinney.
Phinney turns 10-years-old on Monday. For his birthday, he’s not asking for gifts, only donations for the Children’s Home of Jefferson County.
“They don’t have that much stuff. They just come with the clothes on them and they don’t really have a family,” said Phinney.
Easton’s mom, Nickie, has been helping him gather the materials. She says it all started after she saw a Facebook post ahead of the holidays. It was a letter from a foster child out of state, explaining the basic things they wanted for Christmas.
“And I had Easton read it one morning and he got so upset. I seriously didn’t know if I was going to send him to school or not because he couldn’t stop crying,” said Nickie Phinney, Easton’s mom.
That Facebook post inspired Easton to give back to the community for his birthday.
“Because I didn’t really need that much things. I got them,” said Easton.
Nickie says they raised over $2,400 from the community. Those donations coming from local businesses and people seeing Facebook posts about it.
She says there are enough bags and supplies for 56 kids, one for every child in the Children’s Home of Jeffeson County.
She says the donations exceeded her expectations and the excess supplies will go to the children’s home for kids to use in the future.
Easton says he hopes the bags bring the kids one thing.
“A smile on their face,” said Easton/
Easton wants his actions to inspire others to do something similar. That would be his ideal birthday present.
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