[gatagato]

Rachel lived outside Seattle and early on showed a desire to give back. At age 5, she learned at school about an organization called Locks of Love, which uses hair donations to make wigs for children who have lost their own hair because of cancer or other diseases. Rachel then asked to have her long hair shorn off and sent to Locks of Love.

“She said she wanted to help the cancer kids,” her mother, Samantha Paul, said. After the haircut, Rachel announced that she would grow her hair long again and donate it again after a few years to Locks of Love. And that’s what she did.

Then when she was 8 years old, her church began raising money to build wells in Africa through an organization called charity:water. Rachel was aghast when she learned that other children had no clean water, so she asked to skip having a ninth birthday party. In lieu of presents, she asked her friends to donate $9 each to charity:water for water projects in Africa.

Read more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/op...nd-raiser.html



Her wish was to rise $ 300: see what happened.

Donations in honor of dead girl's charity top $1M
SEATTLE (AP) — The birthday wish of a girl who wanted to raise $300 for clean water in Africa has been granted and then some, as donors gave more than $1 million after she died from a car crash.

Rachel Beckwith had been near her goal when she turned 9 on June 12, so her donation website closed. She was injured in a 13-car pileup on July 20 and taken off life support days later. A pastor arranged for the website to be reopened.

The "charity: water" nonprofit says more than 26,000 donations have come in by Friday. Founder Scott Harrison says some came from Africa, Brazil, Thailand and Europe.

Rachel's mother, Samantha Paul, says she's "in awe of the overwhelming love to take my daughter's dream and make it a reality."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...c694572cef4151
http://www.charitywater.org/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...rachel13m.html

[Karma]

Excellent post and excellent story.

[güttsfükk]

kinda crazy that some africans donated to this charity rather than just use their money on their own doorstep considering it's a charity for africa.....

[kellyhound]

Hard to beleive there's a god after reading such dramatic cases.

A 9-year-old girl remained in critical condition Wednesday evening after a semitrailer jackknifed into a logging truck and caused a pileup of 15 vehicles on westbound Interstate 90.

Shortly before 8 a.m., the driver of the semi slammed on the brakes as the semi approached stop-and-go traffic on I-90 at 133rd Avenue Southeast in Bellevue.

The collision created a chain reaction, with 13 passenger vehicles hit by the semi truck, the logging truck or logs from the truck, according to Sgt. Keith Trowbridge, of the Washington State Patrol.

The girl, who was in one of the passenger vehicles, was taken to Harborview Medical Center.

Six other people had minor injuries and were treated at the hospital and released, according to spokeswoman Susan Gregg.

Sean Mee was in front of the car carrying the girl who was injured. Wednesday evening, he recalled looking back a moment before the accident and making eye contact with the girl's mother, who was driving.

He saw the semi pushing through traffic toward them. "Then out of nowhere this logging truck clipped the semi, and the axle flew off," he said.

The woman's car turned sideways and blocked him and others from the impact of the crash, he said.

Mee described the wreck as the worst he'd ever seen.

"It stretched for a quarter-mile of highway that was just demolished. I felt like I was stuck in a bad dream," he said.

The impact of the semi "basically ripped out the rear axle of the trailer underneath the log truck," Trowbridge said.

The logging truck continued a short way west on I-90 while its driver tried to gain control.

Along the way, logs hit other cars. "The logs were dragging on the ground and striking other vehicles," Trowbridge said.

Semi-truck driver Ric Nobles said he was badly shaken by the accident but declined to comment about the cause, saying it was under investigation.

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[Agapeti]

What a great story!