Illinois Boy, 8, Donates $1,000 Prize To Cancer Stricken Girl, 2
Sep. 5 2012, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
Edwardsville, Illinois boy Wyatt Erber, 8, donated $1,000 he won from a local bank's scavenger hunt to his neighbors the Kieltys, who have a 2-year-old daughter named Cara who is stricken with leukemia.
"I wanted to give it to them," he told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. "I didn't know what to do with it."
Wyatt's mother Noelle Erber told ABC News, "He's always been a very sweet boy...I'm very lucky to call him my son."
Noelle said that the boy, a third-grader, "was really aware of what cancer is" and that "when he found out Cara had cancer, his heart sank."
Cara's mother Trisha Kielty said charitable Wyatt called her and asked, "How much chemo will $1,000 buy Cara?
"I knew he was wanting to do it for Cara, which is the sweetest thing ever," Trisha said. "But an 8-year-old giving adults money? I tried to protest to his mom. Then she told me he asked how much chemo this would buy Cara.
"He gets it."
Trisha said her family accepted the money and "focus on the fact Wyatt is such a gracious kid," adding that the toddler "grins ear-to-ear whenever Wyatt walks through the door."
Upon learning of the boy's philanthropy, local charity Edwardsville Neighbors in Need matched the $1,000 donation.
RELATED STORIES:
Heartbroken Robert Pattinson Being Inundated With Gifts: He Donates Them To Hospitals