At just 8 years old, Presley Anderson has raised $1,100 for the thousands affected by the eastern Washington wildfires over the summer.
Presley heard about the families who lost their homes and the fallen firefighters who battled those fires from her principal at Brooklake Christian School in Federal Way, who urged students to wear yellow on Friday, Sept. 4.
“I just felt bad,” said Presley, the Mirror’s Citizen of the Month for September. “I don’t like seeing people in pain or hear about people dying or being dead. But I just didn’t feel good so I thought about it the rest of the day and then when we were going home, I just told my mom that we need to do more, we just have to.”
Presley, her 6-year-old brother Terry and her family held a hotdog fundraiser that Saturday at their home in Puyallup.
Everyone helped — her father went to a fire station to ask for some boots to fill with donations, her uncle set up a gofundme.com account and her brother had the idea to provide Starbursts for dessert.
They were out there for the whole day with 72 hotdogs.
“We had a sign that said hotdog lunch with any donation and we had to scratch out lunch and put dinner on it because it was starting to get late,” laughed Heidi Anderson, Presley’s mother.
However, most people preferred to donate without receiving the hotdog lunch or dinner.
“We weren’t asking for a dollar amount, we just accepted any donations,” Anderson said. “We ate a lot of hotdogs that day.”
But figuring out where and who the money could help was a task in itself. Anderson wanted a place that would match their donation because she felt it was important to be good stewards of that money.
Eventually, Anderson found a business in Wenatchee called Jet Pro Auto Wash who has agreed to match up to $5,000. The business will then donate the money with their match to the Community Foundation of North Central Washington.
“They were really excited because there’s still a really big need there,” Anderson said. “A lot of displaced people and they’re putting them in temporary tiny houses, which I’d never heard of a tiny house before.”
For about $2,400, people can live in the temporary tiny houses while their homes are repaired from the fires or they find other more permanent ways of living.
“Mom showed me a map on Friday night [of the fires in Washington] and I’m so glad we’re doing this,” Presley said.
As a teacher at Brooklake Christian School but also a mother, Anderson is amazed an 8 year old could have such an enormous heart.
“It’s pretty incredible because she’s always been this way and she’s always, she’s got a huge heart for Jesus,” Anderson said. “She can’t hear about something [bad] and let it go.”
“I can’t, I think about it the rest of the day,” Presley agreed.
Presley is part of the Good Samaritans group at her church and, as part of the group, helps collect comfort items and travel-sized shampoo and conditioner to give away to homeless people. They also give away a note with resources for where to find a hot meal or shelter for the night.
“She’s just got a special gift and she’s always known that she has a gift for making people feel special and loved and she just wants to help wherever she sees a need,” Anderson said. “It’s really cool to see. I’ve never seen a kid like that and she’s mine!”
When Presley grows up she wants to either be a roller coaster engineer (she loves roller coasters) or a teacher. And even if she’s a roller coaster engineer, she has found a way to help people.
“She said, ’ You know how you’re always talking about how expensive it is to go on roller coasters? Maybe I’ll start a charity for the kids who can’t afford to go on my roller coasters. We’ll raise money for them and they can come to my theme park for the day,’” Anderson said.
Presley and her family plan to drive to Jet Pro Auto Wash in Wenatchee soon to hand them the funds but are still accepting donations in a new gofundme.com account. To donate, visit www.gofundme.com/sh4sjpgc
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