Lower Burrell Boy, 10, Collects Donations For Hurricane Victims
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LOWER BURRELL (KDKA) – A fifth grade boy in Westmoreland County decided he wanted to help those in need, so he joined forces with a local trucking company to help hurricane victims in Texas.
Most 10-year-old boys are thinking about video games or just hanging out. Brayden Vickers has something else on his mind, and that's giving back.
Brayden is a fifth grade student at Stewart Elementary School in Lower Burrell.
He told KDKA's Brenda Waters when he saw on the news what Hurricane Harvey had left behind in Texas, "a lightbulb just went off. I just thought I needed to help, so I did."
He went to his principal, his football team and neighbors for donations. With the money he collected, he says he began buying things at the Dollar Tree. He has collected more than 700 items.
"It makes me feel good," he said. "It makes me warm and fuzzy."
His mother, Brittne Vickers, says her son recognized the need for others five years ago while on a family trip to New York City.
"It was his first time he had ever seen homeless people, and he was very upset by it and very moved by it," she said.
Brayden's items will be taken to Weleski Transfer. The company began collecting cleaning supplies, baby formula, diapers and other items last week.
"I think it's awesome," Harriett Archibald, of Weleski Transfer, said. "He has such a feel and a heart for the needy and for the people who are hurting, and I just think it's a wonderful thing. And it's such an inspiration, I think, to our young people."
Weleski is donating the truck and the driver for this mission to Texas. They hope to pack up the truck by Friday and hit the road on Sunday to head to San Antonio, Texas, where a church there will distribute the items.
