PORT ANGELES — Out of the more than $10,000 given to the Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the American Red Cross for Haitian relief, one donation in particular stands out for Executive Director Michelle Kelley.
That is the $11.46 that a 5-year-old girl pulled from her piggy bank and delivered to the chapter’s Carlsborg office last week.
“I wanted to do something for the poor children in Haiti,” Kelley said the Port Angeles child, Hailey Economy, told her, as she handed her a manila envelope decorated with a heart.
“It was all her own idea,” said Hailey’s mother, Jennifer Economy.
“I just wanted to help them,” Hailey said, “and get them food and stuff, and to help them get toys and help them get a brand new house.”
Economy said that her daughter watched the television news about the devastation in Haiti after a magnitude 7.0 quake hit the Caribbean country on Jan. 12, killing an estimated 200,000 people and leaving as many as 3 million, many of them children, in need of food, shelter and medicine.
“She asked, ‘Why can’t some of the families come to Washington to live?'” Economy said.
When her mother told her it wasn’t that easy to move from one country to another, Hailey suggested that five or six children come to live in their house, “and she’d be their friends.”
Economy said that also wasn’t possible. Hailey, out of ideas, asked what she could do.
Her mother told her she’d already done something, by sending money to a charity that was helping people in Haiti.
“And she said she had money in her piggy bank, and could she send it to them,” Jennifer said.
“It was money [that she’d received] for birthdays, for Christmas, for helping around the house or being good,” her mother said.
Jennifer suggested about $10 as an amount, and said that she thinks Hailey added some change.
They went to the Red Cross chapter office at 151 Ruth’s Place, Suite 1-D, in Sequim, with Hailey’s 3-year-old twin brothers, Ben and Jake, also in tow, last Monday.
“Hailey was so serious about wanting to help the children in Haiti,” Kelley said.
How did Hailey feel about her generosity?
“Happy,” she said.
The money goes into a large pot: people in Clallam and Jefferson counties had donated $10,982.46 — there’s Hailey’s 46 cents — to the Red Cross chapter by Friday, Kelley said.
“It is truly amazing,” she said.
Hailey’s donation seems to have set her mind more at ease, her mother said.
“She kind of got scared from the earthquake stuff and had nightmares for a few nights,” Jennifer said.
“She hasn’t had nightmares since she gave that money away.”
Donations for Haitian relief — with Haiti Relief on the memo line — can be mailed to the Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the American Red Cross at P.O. Box 188, Carlsborg, WA 98324.
Donations also can be made online at www.peninsularedcross.org or at the national organization Web site at www.redcross.org, or by phone, using a Visa or MasterCard, at 360-457-7933, Kelley said.
Donations also can be texted on a cell phone, according to the chapter’s Web site. A $10 donation can be given by texting ‘Haiti’ to 9-0-9-9-9.
The Jefferson County office of the Red Cross chapter is at 219-D W. Patison, Port Hadlock. The phone number is 360-385-2737.
________
Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
