Subject: A heartwarming day!
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 00:10:11 EDT
From: DaisyTheClown123@aol.com

As a poor student, I could not contribute much money to the Red Cross, but I 
wanted to do something, so someone gave me the idea of doing Face Painting 
and balloons in front of a local grocery store to raise money for the Red 
Cross. My younger brothers and sisters wanted to do something too, so they 
did what they could do - we had kittens who were old enough to go to new 
homes, so they donated them to sell to raise money, too! My younger sister 
came along to take care of the kittens (I rustled up a costume for her ... 
she was so excited to dress up as a clown for the first time! We both had 
little flags on our hats, and silver teardrops in honor of those affected by 
the attacks. We sat out there from 2:00 Sunday afternoon until 7:30 that 
evening (a long time for my 9 year old sister!) It was so sweet to see 
people's reactions ... so many adults would drop in money and refuse to take 
anything in return! one guy gave me about $5 and I painted a cheek art on his 
girlfriend, then he turned around and gave a dollar each to a couple 12 year 
old boys who had wandered up and were looking at my menu. I had a really good 
talk with one of those boys, too ... he had a lot of insight, and even though 
Idaho is so far from NYC and Washington DC, he was so patriotic and 
sympathetic of the people over there. I painted him as a "Captain USA" (Blue 
mask around eyes, red & white stripes from mask to hairline, sparkling 
silver-blue star in middle of forehead) He said he'd try to keep his face 
nice overnight so he could wear it to school in the morning! Sparkling 
silver-blue tears were popular too, as was a star with 5 waving stripes cheek 
art, and the words "God Bless America". I ran out of red and blue balloons, 
and only had a couple white left, I made a lot of hats in red and blue with 
white hearts with "God Bless America" on them. "Rescue Dogs" were popular 
also... I make hot dogs out of 360P's now, makes them stand out and be a bit 
different from what people have seen, everyone liked them. People were 
touched by how the kids gave up their kittens for the Red Cross, they were an 
attraction all by themselves! By that evening, they all went to good homes 
with families. That evening I was shocked when I counted the money ... over 
$200, and that's with no suggested donation ... doing FP & balloons for ANY 
size donation. I dropped off the money at our fire station this morning ... 
they're also collecting for the Red Cross. If anyone else wants to raise 
money but is unsure where to send it, I would suggest calling your local fire 
station.
Anyway, sorry for rambling so long. This was the first time I did a charity 
gig of this type, and it was an unforgettable experience! I'm proud to live 
in the USA!
God Bless You, God Bless America, and Keep Spreadin' Smiles!
      *Daisy*
Robin McKerracher
Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
See my website at www.daisytheclown.homestead.com!