Six-year-old Raina Neufeld is collecting 11,920 pennies, nickels, dimes and quarter to support the Canadian Red Cross Japan Earthquake Fund.
Raina set her goal based on the distance from Prince George to Japan. Raina, with help from her mom Amber Neufeld, have been collecting donations from friends and family since the quake happened on March 11.
"We have a lot of pennies. Me and the whole family has been helping," Raina said. "I wanted to help them. I was feeling very bad for them. I couldn't think of leaving them like that."
Since March 11, Raina has collected over 4,600 pennies, 102 nickels, two loonies, two toonies, seven quarters and 84 dimes.
Amber Neufeld said she was surprised when Raina took such a strong interest in what was happening in Japan.
"We were watching the news from Japan on TV and Raina asked me if they are going to be okay. I said, 'Well, no. There has been a big disaster there,'" Neufeld said. "She said there has to be some way we can help them. With her autism, she normally doesn't take a lot of notice of such things."
Raina's first idea to help was to fly all the earthquake victims to Prince George, Neufeld said. However, she said, they settled on a little bit more realistic goal of raising money instead.
Family from as far away as Saskatchewan have been helping with Raina's penny drive, and she hoped to take it to Ron Brent Elementary, where she goes to school, after spring break.
"We have friends from Alberta who are sending donations her way. We have family and friends from Williams Lake who are helping," she said. "We donated our pennies and nickels and quarters, too."
