LITTLE Lara Bennett recently held a seventh birthday party with a difference.
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Over 20 friends and family attended the party at her home in Forster.
But instead of presents, Lara asked if guests would consider bringing money to make a donation to the local organisation Heart to Heart.
The organisation, founded by Forster woman Donna Rankin, aims to re-engage local girls in high school through mentoring, art and a humanitarian trip to Vietnam.
The result of Lara’s birthday was a $600 donation. The money will be used to purchase desks and a lockable cupboard for computers that were recently donated for children with intellectual disabilities at an orphanage school in Vietnam.
Lara’s mother Katie said her daughter had overheard her tell a friend about the organisation and decided she wanted to help.
“We were actually at another birthday party and I was telling one of the mother’s about the work of Donna and Heart to Heart and Lara had been coming back and forth and heard the conversation,” she said.
“She later asked me what an orphanage does and I explained it to her. I then asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said she wanted to ‘give that Donna lady some money for the orphanage.’
“I left it a week and then asked her again what she wanted to do. She remained firm and said she definitely wanted to do it.
“We then put a note about the donation alongside the invitation to the party and sent it out to all her guests.”
Ms Gale said a wishing well was then set up at the party so guests could drop their donations into it.
Twenty two of Lara’s friends were so keen to chip in that they even donated some of their own pocket money on top of donations their parents had already made, Ms Gale said.
“I’m very proud of her but also of all her friends. Those 22 little girls have made a huge difference.”
Heart to Heart’s Donna Rankin and Kiera White recently met with Lara to accept the donation. Ms Rankin said she was blown away by the generosity of such a young girl.
“It’s quite an incredible thing for a young child to forsake presents and to understand the concept of giving to others. The gift of giving is powerful and brings so much joy and this little girl already understands this,” she said.
“On hearing about Lara’s donation I contacted My Hounge Le, the director of the orphanage. She was really moved and said ‘with such a generous heart, this young girl will certainly go far in life’.”
Ms Rankin gave Lara and her sister Charlotte a special Heart to Heart bracelet and inducted her as an official Heart to Heart member.
