Giving Back

As a cystic fibrosis patient, Veronica Pomeroy knows what it’s like to receive kindness from family and friends.

So it was in the spirit of giving back some of that goodwill that prompted the 10-year-old to respond to a magazine ad asking for shoe boxes filled with goodies to be sent to underprivileged children around the world.

But Veronica didn’t stop with one gift. Instead, she took the cause to her school, Bay Laurel Elementary in Calabasas, and with the help of two friends has collected nearly 300 brightly wrapped shoe boxes, containing everything from books to toys to toothbrushes. Most of the boxes crowd her family’s garage, waiting to be picked up by the sponsoring organization.

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“Just the whole idea that you’d be giving kids presents for Christmas and Hanukkah and you’d be making them happy sounded like a great idea to me,” said Veronica, a fifth-grader.

Getting support from the school’s officials wasn’t hard. Since it opened five years ago, Bay Laurel has held annual community service projects. Though the first events were organized by parents, school officials have encouraged students to think of their own ideas.

But none has been as impressive as Veronica’s, said Principal Martha Mutz.

“Veronica’s is the most grandiose [idea] that has come from a kid,” Mutz said. “Usually it’s smaller things where we’ll raise some money and send to Oklahoma or to the earthquake victims in Japan, but nothing like this.”

For three weeks, Veronica and her friends Lexi Cline and Lindsay Rich have campaigned throughout their school--visiting classrooms, making weekly announcements at the assemblies and over the intercom system, plastering posters around campus--to rally classmates to participate.

The girls’ parents offered a reward to the class that gave the most boxes: an ice cream party. A second-grade class beat out the girls’ fifth-grade class for the prize. Despite that loss, Lindsay, 10, still enjoyed helping to plan the fund-raiser.

The charity, Samaritan’s Purse of North Carolina, asked for shoe boxes to be filled with toys, books or other items that can be used by children in war-torn and impoverished countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

In addition to a $5 check for shipping and handling, Lindsay packed her box with a book of brain teasers, a teddy bear, a lollipop and a pair of sunglasses. Then she covered them with white tissue paper and wrapped the box in bright Christmas paper.

“I know if I didn’t get any Christmas gifts I would be really sad,” Lindsay said. “So I think we’re gonna bring a lot of smiles to many faces.”

Lexi, 10, filled two boxes with a pair of slippers, toys from McDonald’s Happy Meals, a Snow White mirror and “just a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t want anymore that are in good shape.”

Veronica added a personal touch to her box: a picture of herself and a letter describing her family, her hobbies and her dog and two cats, and packed crayons, a note pad, pencils and some books.

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“I’m really excited about if I get a letter back from the person who gets the box,” Veronica said.

Even though the neatly wrapped boxes piled in the Pomeroy family garage offer proof of her daughter’s determination, Robin Pomeroy is still amazed that Veronica and her friends were able to pull off such a feat.

“We never imagined in our wildest dreams that they’d get this kind of response,” she said.

On the first run to the school, there were only 30 boxes. But the second time Pomeroy sent her husband, Clark, to make a pickup, their minivan returned “filled to the gills,” she said.

“And it all rests on the shoulders of this little girl who thought of it and all these children who helped,” she said. “It’s not just Veronica’s good wishes, it’s all of theirs.”