KELLER, Texas — What makes Christmas the best holiday of the year? Just let 7-year-old Abigail Dorn count the ways.
“Because Santa gets to bring you presents,” she said. “I get to see my elves, sometimes it snows and you get to smell Christmas. It smells good.”
However, this past Christmas, after getting $20, Abigail’s mom and dad tried telling her there was a far more important reason for the season.
“I think really what we were trying to teach her was that it’s more about the spirit of giving than receiving,” said Abigail’s dad, Brian Dorn.
“My mom and dad told me there were a lot of people that were getting poor, so I started to help them,” Abigail said.
Abigail, a second grader at Woodland Springs Elementary, had already come up with a plan, which she kept secret from her parents until they stopped by the craft store.
“She kinda just laid it out at the craft store,” said Abigail’s mom, Sarah Dorn.
“I was like, 'Maybe I could spend my $20 on some beads,'" said Abigail. “So then I did. I spent it on beads and string!”
Abigail told her mom she could use her beads to make bracelets, then sell those bracelets for money, use the money to buy food, which she would then use to feed the hungry.
“And I’m like, ‘Oh, OK,’” Sarah said with a laugh.
“We thought that might be the end of it, but she had this goal in mind of buying 50 cans of food,” said Brian.
Her mission is called Abigail’s Beads that Feed. She has already far surpassed her goal. “And I just keep going,” Abigail said.
Over the past two months, Abigail has donated more than $300 in food to the Community Storehouse in Fort Worth.
“The community can be impacted tenfold by having just one more child with a heart as big as hers,” said Brandon Board, director of sales at the Community Storehouse.
Abigail plans to do much more. “No one would be needy,” she said before taking a moment to think. “Well, maybe a few people, but a less amount of people than there was in the first place.”
As long as there’s a need, there will be one little girl and her beads.
For more information on Abigail’s Beads that Feed, visit her Facebook page or check out her store online.