Boy inspired to keep helping
As the final donations from his weekend food drive were weighed and added up, Christian Beatty was beaming.
Over two days, the nine-year-old Juniper Ridge resident collected 1,127 pounds of food, plus another $1,100 in cash.
His reaction?
“Ho-lee crap.”
After hearing about a fire at the Kamloops Food Bank last week that destroyed most of the organization’s food supplies, Beatty initially set out to collect enough food to fill his parents’ truck at least once.
His first day of collection at the Juniper Market netted nearly 500 pounds of non-perishable goods.
The rest came during a second collection day on Monday, Aug. 6, at the Real Canadian Superstore.
“Lots and lots of people came,” said Christian, who said his final tally is well beyond what he had hoped.
“I felt like people actually meant what they did. Like, they did it not just because [the food bank] burned down, but because they wanted to.”
Bernadette Siracky, food bank executive director, praised the outpouring of community support that has followed the fire.
“This is amazing,” she said. “We actually have food to put in hampers . . . this community supports us, always.”
Beatty wasn’t the only person with a big donation to bring in Tuesday morning. Kevin Rains, branch manager at the Sahali Scotiabank also stopped by as the food was being weighed to drop off a cheque from all three local branches for $5,000.
Rains said he and his co-workers heard about Beatty’s project on the news and wanted to pitch in.
“I think this young man is pretty inspirational,” he said.
Though he had never organized a food drive before this past weekend, Beatty said he’s now planning an event for next August and hopes to run one every year.
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