Inspired by children’s book, 6-year-old starts foundation to help the homeless

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Donation box with clothes, living essentials

INQUIRER.net Stock Photo

While she is set to enter first grade soon, Paris Williams has been fulfilling her dream to help those in need by launching her very own non-profit organization, which is aptly called the Paris Cares Foundation.

The 6-year-old, with the help of her parents, has been able to send over 500 care packages that contained food, drinks and essential goods to the homeless in her local city of St. Louis in Missouri, USA, as per Fox-affiliate KTVI on Aug. 10.

“It makes me really proud because with everything that’s going on in the world this small child who is entering first grade has such a big heart. She wants to give. She wants to help others,” her mother Alicia Marshalls said in an interview.

Along with the goods, Williams highlights the “care” in her “Paris Care Packages” by putting drawings and personal notes on each one. The television station noted that these packages were delivered via non-contact drop-off, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The young girl has also donated at least 250 meals to essential workers in her area so far, and she does not plan on stopping any time soon.

She is also aiming to hold a hot-food drive for the homeless on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, as well as raise money for underprivileged children for Christmas.

Inspired by a book

Even before the pandemic, Williams has been trying to help out the homeless all because of a book her teacher read to her Cari Chadwick Deal’s book titled “One Boy’s Magic.”

The young girl was inspired by the book’s protagonist, a boy with powers who decided to feed the homeless—and she did just that in real life with her own kind of magic.

“She was reading books at school about giving and she came home one day, and she was like, ‘I want to give back to the homeless. What can we do to help the homeless?'” Marshall told the television station.

“We kind of brainstormed some ideas and we came up making care packages,” she added.

Williams was previously featured by the television station when she was just 5 years old. That was when she first started giving out care packages to the homeless before founding the Paris Cares Foundation.

“I decided that when I got home I would make care packages for the homeless so they would have some food to eat,” Williams said in an interview that aired on Nov. 28, 2019.

Those willing to help out the Paris Cares Foundation can donate via its GoFundMe site or by buying her t-shirts and masks on her BonFire page. Ian Biong /ra

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