A child's tragedy is motivating other children to help a grieving family.
At only three years of age, little Kenzie Ashton Boivin was fatally struck by a vehicle on Feb. 28 in the area of Ospika Boulevard and Massey Drive. Her family is naturally overwhelmed with emotion, and those who know them are also moved by grief.
"It invades my brain," said Jenna Weldon, an early childhood professional who lived nearby.
"They live right across the street from my dad. We had our daycare there," Weldon said. "She would be out playing with us sometimes, she was just a sweet little girl, so it is just heartbreaking. So we are trying to do what we can for a very nice family."
Now at a different childcare location called Heart To Hart Preschool / After School, the kids in Weldon's facility wanted to show solidarity.
"We think that there is a real value in teaching the children a sense of responsibility and civic engagement," said Weldon. "We had a meeting with the children and explained to them what happened to Kenzie and how difficult this situation must be for her family to deal with. The children came up with the idea of doing a bottle drive and then donating all the money we raise to Kenzie's Family. We hope that by teaching the children to give back to people in need in their communities, we can help them to turn into more responsible adults."
Being small kids, the best way for the bottle drive to happen was for an account to be set up at a bottle depot and have people drop off their returnables and channel the money into a special account instead of into the donors' pockets.
The account's name is Heart To Hart located at the BBK Bottle Depot. Patrons can drop off their empties and tell the attendant to apply the cash to that file. All of the money raised this way will go to the Boivin family.
