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By Patricia Trebe (View from Lockport)
Best friends do everything together, and Amanda Clemmons, 9, and Heather Grein, 8, are best friends. They go to Milne Grove School together. They are in Brownie Troop 324 together. And they decided to have a birthday party together.
"We just thought it would be fun," said Heather.
And with Amanda's birthday this past November and Heather's coming up in March, they decided on a Jan. 29 pool party at the Community Wellness Center at Lockport Township High School. But these little girls did something special for this birthday party - something that is unheard of today and quite a surprise to some adults.
"With Christmas so close there really wasn't anything we wanted or needed," Amanda said.
"We have so much stuff we just didn't want to get more stuff that we didn't need," Heather said.
So the girls and their parents decided they didn't want presents for the birthday girls. Instead the girls asked their friends to bring pet supplies which would be donated to the TLC Animal Shelter in Homer Township.
"You know they just wanted to do something for animals because they both love animals. But this thing just snowballed," said Jean Clemmons, Amanda's mother.
Jean called TLC and asked for their wish list and sent it out with the invitations. The girls invited everyone in both their classes, a total of 60 kids. And when Jean told the people at work at LaGrange Hospital what her daughter and friend had planned, she also received donations to add to their kitty.
"Plus a few doctors gave us cash so we also had about $90 in donations," Jean said. "For three days after work I was hauling things to my car."
Approximately 40 kids showed up for the party carrying everything from leashes to bleach.
"The things we got were just incredible and everyone brought a roll of paper towels so we had about 40 paper towel rolls," Jean laughed.
The girls received collars and leashes, bleach and paper towels, food and treats, kitty litter and toys, stamps and film to name just a few of the items.
"We had 50-pound bags of dog food and bags of kitty litter. People just gave and gave," Jean said.
The girls were thrilled. "we didn't care that we weren't getting the presents... I think it was just special that people gave so much stuff," Heather said.
Amanda agreed. "we didn't need anything and the animals do. And I just love animals," she said.
On Feb. 1 the girls and their parents filled the back half of a conversion van with their presents and took it to TLC. The delivery turned out to be the most exciting part of the whole experience for the girls.
"They were so shocked. They didn't think we would be giving them so much stuff," Heather said. "And they took our pictures and they let us play with the animals and they were just so happy," Amanda said.
Yes they were happy and surprised, said Janine Carter, Shelter Coordinator for the TLC Animal Shelter in Homer Township.
"This was a very large donation. Sometimes schools will do this for us but we have never had a birthday party for us," she said. But what struck Carter was how sweet the offer was and how much the girls gave up for the shelter.
"How many 9-year-olds would give up getting presents for their birthday?" she asked. "It seems today that people are just bombarded with stories about bad kids. But there are alot of good kids out there with great big hearts. And we met two of them last week."