Eduardo feels his palms get clammy as the classroom of eyes center on him. He squeezes his hand into a fist, takes a deep breath, and begins to share his vision to help others by collecting bottle caps.
Eduardo, 11, lost his mother to cancer at a young age and is learning what it means to give back.
“We spend a lot of time talking with the children about what it means to give back,” says Lisa Bursey, Possibilities Home Co-Director. “We are continually reminding the children they are capable of giving back, it is not something for just adults. We want them to grow up confident in the truth that, even as children, they hold the ability to change the world.”
Eduardo heard about a campaign where, for every 3,000 bottle caps collected, the organization driving the campaign would pay for the cost of 6 months of chemotherapy for a child. He combined the experience of losing someone he loved to cancer and the words of his caregivers and stepped forward to initiate the collection of bottle caps to make an impact in someone else’s life.
“He went to each classroom in his school and explained what he was doing,” says Hope Garcia, Posibilidades Home Captain. “He shared this vision with everyone he could. He’s turned large water bottles into collection sites – attaching campaign stickers, decorating them, and taking them to each classroom.”
Eduardo is donating significantly more than 3,000 bottle caps to this good cause.
“It has become a pay-it-forward situation,” says Lisa. “He has received help and he felt called to help someone else. To be a witness to the initiative he is taking is a moving experience.”
As Eduardo and the other children at Possibilities Children’s Home allow Lisa’s words to sink it, they are coming to know they are worthy and they are children of a great Provider.