There are thousands upon thousands of animal shelters scattered all over the globe. Some of these organizations are backed by money and have all the amenities they need to care for the animals they have. Others, unfortunately, aren’t as lucky. They struggle to get money that the animals there are oftentimes overlooked.
These shelters often accept visitors. Rarely do they see young kids who want to lend a helping hand just to make the animals’ homes so much better. This is exactly what happened to one young boy. He went to a shelter, saw the dismal environment it was in, and was more than willing to do more to help the felines he saw there.
The Story
A 9-year-old boy named Ben walked into his local animal shelter. He had with him a big plastic bag in his hand and this contained cash. His reason was to give them all the proceeds he’d raised at a lemonade stand he had started just for them.
This young philanthropist is named Ben Miller, and he is from Boise, Idaho. He had successfully collected an impressive $1,150 just in one weekend of working and hustling. He did it just the way children his age do, which was even all the more impressive.
Ben’s venture was his third lemonade stand fundraiser since 2019. This was when he visited the Idaho Humane Society along with his grandmother. While he did enjoy his trip, he noticed that some of the cats in the shelter didn’t have toys to play with. He took pity on the felines and wanted to do something that made their lives better. Hence, he sold lemonade.
Right now, he has managed to donate a grand total $1,950 to support the cats that he truly and deeply cares for. In order to raise funds, he enlisted the help of his mother. She helped him create an event on Facebook. She made the post public and this brought in people from across the valley. There were also kindhearted souls who sent money without even purchasing their own glass of lemonade simply because the admired what he did.
“Thank you to all our friends and family that helped support Benjamin’s fundraiser yesterday! He reached his goal and raised $1,170 for the Idaho Humane Society!!! It was such a fun day meeting so many awesome people and their pets. We had a check and letter mailed from the sweetest woman ever, a car full of people pull up saying they had just heard about it on the radio, several volunteers for the IHS, people traveling from all ends of the valley, and the highlight to top the day off…Ben’s teacher coming by! We’re now just coordinating with the IHS on when we can come down to deliver the money and they can snap some pics with him (he wants to get his picture taken with the oldest/long term cat there, to try to help it get adopted as his final goal). Thank you again to everyone who supported his big ‘love’ for animals,” said Amy Miller on Facebook. And the best part of the day was that Ben’s teacher came by to show support as well.
Ben shares that he doesn’t plan to stop his charity work for the shelter. This idea has made his mother proud. She says he’s always had a big heart. She shared, “It really just blew me away.”
Watch the local news coverage that talked about Ben and his philanthropic endeavor.
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