The girl who inspired a posthumous miracle
Rachel Beckwith, 9 years old. Maybe you’ve heard about this young girl already? Her story truly made me grateful.
As background, two charities are nearer to my heart than any others: charity:water and water.org. With the technology at our disposal, I believe everyone should be able to have clean drinking water.
Well, Rachel Beckwith thought so too, at 8 years of age. She already knew it was wrong that some children don’t reach their 5th birthday because of lack of clean water. In fact, estimates are that about 1 billion people don’t have daily access to that resource.
Rachel’s 9th birthday was June 12th, and this little girl asked for NO presents except to help her raise $300 in donations to charity:water. By her birthday, she was $80 short of her goal.
Then she died in a horrific, 14-car accident.
The story spread, and her own member page on charity:water was flooded with donations.
Take me for example. Even though I’m a member, I donated specifically in her name, and here is what I wrote:
I’m already a supporter of charity:water, but I’m glad to donate again specifically in Rachel’s name. She picked the right cause, and we WILL one day ensure no one goes without clean drinking water.”
Rachel’s posthumous charity:water donation page simply asks for $9 donations to represent her 9th birthday…but guess what? The girl’s wish has led to over $320,000 in direct donations. Her page is here: http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign?campaign_id=16396&amt=9.00.
The Rachel Beckwith charity:water miracle has taken on its own life, multiplying due to people’s gratitude for this young child’s unselfishness. And as I write this, there are still 26 days left for contributions before Rachel’s final gift has been counted; many more benefits will come.
With a smile on my face, I see that Rachel wanted her initial $300 donation to help 15 people; 3 families. At the moment, a minimum of 15,000 people and 3,000 families will be better off. It will be a joyous celebration to see the final tally.
We can remember this lesson in perspective for the rest of our lives. Some people say it’s impossible for one person to change the world. And many people would say it’s impossible to collect $320K for any cause in less than a week. It’s not. It’s a matter of having the right perspective.
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