“She is a superstar, we are so proud of her.”
They were the words of Joe Bell, whose five-year-old daughter Felicity has raised £500 for the Royal British Legion (RBL).
Mr Bell, who runs an electrical contract company, is also an adult instructor at the army cadets. They attend fundraising events for the charity, but as a result of the pandemic, they had been cancelled.
After he told his daughter this, he said that the primary school pupil wanted to take it upon herself to help raise some money for them this year.
Mr Bell’s wife, Chelsie, runs a small craft business so they had the supplies and decided in September they would start producing poppy key rings, and sell them for £2.
24 hours after posting them on social media, they had 50 orders.
“She could not comprehend how many people that was, until we explained it to her, she was amazed, she said that she needed our help because she could not do it on her own,” Mr Bell said.
“We were so proud, she has always had a keen interest and she always gets involved.
“She is very interested and is very empathetic towards the remembrance day and the poppy collection.”
The keyring making went on for six weeks and were so popular the family from Ryburgh had to stop selling them, as the three of them could not keep up with demand.
But, her fundraising did not stop there.
Mr Bell ordered RBL poppies for Felicity and she took them into school for her friends, parents and teachers at All Saints Primary School to collect donations.
“When she realised what a charity was and how it worked, she now seems hooked on the idea of helping people out,” he said.
“She is a superstar, we are all so proud of her and we hope it continues and it carries on for the rest of her life because it is a great mindset to have. The whole family is just so proud of her.”
He might just get his wish of her carrying on with the charity mindset, as she is already planning her next collection.
“She has now decided she wants to start another fundraiser for autism awareness,” he said.
“We have not decided yet, she is talking about climbing Ben Nevis, so she is ambitious.”
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