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Miamisburg Creek News
Best friends forego birthday gifts to help others in need
Nine-year olds ask for Blessings in a Bag contributions
Hot Topics
By Kristin McAllister,
Staff Writer
7:01 PM Thursday, March 31, 2011
MIAMISBURG — Two best friends and classmates at Bishop Leibold Catholic School decided it was more important to give to others, than to receive gifts for their same-day birthday.
Nine-year-olds Kayla Werbrich of Miamisburg and Marita Bockelman of Springboro asked guests of their birthday party this past Saturday, March 26, to contribute to families in need in their school’s Blessings in a Bag charity drive, instead of to either of them.
“I wanted to help others because they need things more than I do,” Werbrich said, with Bockelman agreeing.
“It makes me feel good, because they need stuff, we don’t,” Bockelman said.
The girls’ moms, Deena Werbrich and Barb Driehaus, said they are proud of their daughters’ compassion for others.
“They have friends who have done similar things, and we thought it was really nice that they wanted to do the same,” Werbrich said.
Driehaus said she was touched by the girls’ maturity in putting others, first.
“Yeah, I thought it was really special,” she said. “We’re both very proud of them.”
So, too, is the girls’ school bus driver, Cindy Melke, of Miami Twp.
“I learned of what they were doing and it really touched me,” she said. “It inspired me to do the same for my birthday.”
Deena Werbrich said the girls will get to see their collected donations packaged and sent off to families.
“It will give them a real feeling of closure, of the impact they’ve made,” she said.
For the girls, it’s about sharing.
“We have so many toys and stuff, we don’t need all of that,” Bockelman said.
Werbrich said that knowing a fellow child is benefiting from her and her best friend’s good deeds “feels good.”
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