Month: March 2013

Mr. “Cete” Dillon is doing very well.  He may get to come home earlier than expected.  Thank God for a good report from the doctor.

Jones Family –http://gavincarrie.blogspot.com/

Zach is the some of two of my former students.  They have trained Zach to be a loving and giving child.  Read about Zach’s Lidz for Kidz.

At just 8 years old, North Live Oak student Zach Morgan has started a drive that is all his own. He has already collected nearly 300 hats for children whose medical treatment has made them temporarily bald. And it was all his own idea!

Zach’s age and own good health make that effort surprising, but a look into his background and personal interests makes it a little less so. The son of Sandy and Paul Morgan, Zach has been encouraged from an early age to share his own good fortune with others.

After staying at home for Zach’s younger years, Sandy has gone back to work part time at a non-profit agency for children, so Zach is familiar with the attitude of helping others.

Zach has worked at Special Olympics and last year joined his mom in RAKing (doing Random Acts of Kindness). He left anonymous treats on the doors of people in the neighborhood, left quarters on vending machines and five dollar bills on tags in Walmart with notes saying “You’ve been RAKed.”

“We’ve always taught him to give back,” Sandy Morgan said, and Zach says the idea of the hat drive was “half Mom’s and half mine.”

“I saw an ad for St. Jude’s on television,” Zach said, “and it showed some kids who didn’t have hair and I thought how I’d like to give them hats.”

Zach is quick to think of hats because he has a collection of baseball caps himself. He got the first one, an LSU cap, when he was about five, and when he had three caps he started to think of them as a collection. In addition to his own caps from five years playing for different teams in the Live Oak Sports Association, he has caps from the Cubs (his favorite), Live Oak, Florida, the Saints, the Dodgers, the Reds, the Yankees, the Phillies, and the Cardinals.

So he thought of the caps right away, but he didn’t get serious about a drive until he saw a Disney Channel announcement of their Disney Friends for Change grants. Sandy writes grants, so she explained how they worked and helped him write an application for $1,000 to buy hats and have a pizza and movie party to give them out to kids at Our Lady of the Lake. The grant requires a partnering agency, and OLOL is Zach’s.

Zach hasn’t waited around to get the money, but has gone out to get hats himself. His Facebook page Zach’s-Lidz-for-Kidz has generated about 25 hats that were simply mailed to him and he has collected others by word of mouth from friend to friend.

Then, two weeks ago, he gathered some friends together and held a three-hour drive at Watson Walmart that brought in dozens more and over $300 in cash donations.

One hat Zach asked for directly was an LSU hat signed by Paul Mainieri. Zach e-mailed him asking for one, and he sent two. Zach has already given away one of them to a boy with leukemia who saw his Facebook page and asked for a cap. He was thrilled with the gift.

Zach admits that some of the hats would fit nicely into his own collection – especially the Mainieri, Jordan and Mickey Mouse – but he’s giving them away, most of them through OLOL, but others to those who request them.

“The response to the Facebook page was amazing. We just hit 300 likes,” Sandy said. “At one point Zach said, ‘Mom, this is getting out of hand.’”

Zach’s school, North Live Oak Elementary, will host a hat drive the week of April 22 and kids who give a hat will be able to wear a hat to school. Live Oak Elementary will also host a drive that week, and South Live Oak will host one the week of May 6.

To donate a hat or make a request, contact the Facebook page or send the hat to 36165 Greenville Ave., Denham Springs, LA 70706.

Operation Christmas Child – MK Hannah is Healed in Heaven

 Yesterday, we asked our online community to pray for the gravely ill daughter of Dr. Aaron and Stephanie Kelley, serving at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya. This morning, March 14, sweet Hannah went to be with her Savior. Please remember to lift up the Kelley family; their faithfulness to the Lord and understanding of His sovereignty has been inspiring. They will need your prayers in the days ahead. To pray more specifically for the family, you can follow their blog updates: http://www.aaroninkenya.com/