Posted on 07/20/2009 1:51:01 PM PDT by jan in Colorado
Isabelle Redford is a 7 year old little girl who loves to draw, but her art is more than just kid stuff.
She is an artist. Her drawings are good enough to earn some real money but she isn’t spending it on toys or candy. Isabelle draws cards and raise money to help the orphans.
It all started when Isabelle was 5, her mother Kelly Redford told her a story about twin girls in Haiti whose mother died during childbirth. Isabelle immediately asks her mother, “What can we do, we have to help.” Isabelle brainstormed and thought of a way to help by making cards because she loves to draw.
She started by selling cards at garage sales and to her friends and family. Her sales took off and, now, the cards are sold through the Global Orphan Project in Kansas City, Mo., a charity that builds and runs orphanages around the world.
Isabelle has earned more than $10,000 — half of that was enough to build an orphanage in Haiti and she was able to visit her own orphanage in person. When Isabelle arrived to the Isabelle Redford House of Hope, the girls were chanting her name and they gave her the warmest welcome.
Isabelle spent two nights with her new friends at her House. “I also loved the girls in my house,” she said. “I was glad that six girls had a place to live. We were just friends immediately and I, we didn’t have to speak the same language. We just were having fun and we laughed and played a lot.”
One orphanage is not enough for Isabelle. She continues selling her artwork and collecting money to put toward her next project.
Her mother said, “I thought we’d get to $5,000 and then she’ll feel like she’s accomplished something and she’ll be done. We got to $5,000 and the amount of money that she received was actually more than she needed. … And she quickly said, ‘Well, no Mom, this is a perfect amount for the start of my second home.’”
The Global Orphan Project is about to break ground on another Isabelle Redford house — this one in Malawi, Africa.
“I really want to do this all over the world where they really need it,” Isabelle said.
Her mother is not surprised. “Her heart and her compassion and her love is just so huge, and really from as early back as I can remember,” she said, “she’s always been full of compassion.”
I imagine that Isabelle on her own could do a better job than the entire UN or USAID.
What an awesome young girl!
And it doesn’t require government taking money from people that have it, who also need it to use on their own “projects.”
A great sucess story
Absolutely fantastic. What a heartwarming story, and inspiring little girl. I’m going to share this with my six-year-old daughter.
This is what people can do when government is out of the picture and people can follow their compassionate heart.
I live across the street from a Haitian orphanage of sorts. 17 kids screaming their heads off until 2 or 3 am, parents no where to be found, but proudly blaring their island folk music (Think polkas backed with poor French) until the same time. Oh, and things find their way off of my neighbor’s porches onto theirs. They setup a barbeque grill in the trunk of a broken down Camry. Not one of them speaks english, not one of them works.
no thank you. There are orphanages right here too.
I’m sorry. I looked at this child’s work. Anyone buying this card is doing the equivalent of saying ‘isn’t it cute. HOw nice I guess I’ll help by buying this card.” The picture is crap ( even for a 7 year old) if you wish to donate money to a group that does similar work why not take the time to find one that has LOW over head and delivers most of the effort to those in need.
I hate these kinds of stories. It isn’t about anything other than guilt tripping others into giving to your project
We could all learn a lesson from this child. What a great story - it’s nice to hear good news. Thanks for posting.-—JM
A nice story, but I would have recommended starting a college fund, which she’ll need to start drawing from in a little over 10 years. Hopefully, she’ll make more $$$ and do just that.
Tax her into the ground! How dare her display independence and innovation!! Isn’t that the mantra today?
yup. profits are evil.
What a wonderful story, that is how it should be, people giving out of love, concern and compassion, not forced to give through taxes that end up in some fat cat’s pocket while the poor remain without.
Where did you see it? I have gone to the article and there is nothing there.
There is a link in the article to the global orphan project. They have a store
No real correlation, but here’s a funny email I rec’d;
I recently asked my friends’ little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, ‘If you were President what would be the first thing you would do? ‘
She replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’
Her parents beamed.
‘Wow...what a worthy goal.’ I told her, ‘But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that.. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and rake my yard, and I’ll pay you $50.
Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house. ‘
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ‘ Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?
I said, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party.’
Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.
How does one build an orphanage of any quality with $5,000? My backyard shed cost me $2,000, and my son and I put it together— no running water, no electricity.
Thanks for sharing that. Sometimes all it takes is personalizing an issue, and all of a sudden, the truth becomes much clearer!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.