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SALT LAKE CITY — A 7-year-old who was mocked for wanting to use her birthday to raise money for charity has had the last laugh: her campaign to protect the pine marten — an endangered relative of the ferret — raised more than five times her original goal amount.
Winter Slade, of London, Ontario, wanted to do something special for her birthday. She felt she had enough toys, so she told her mother that instead of presents, she wanted people to donate to a charity to protect endangered animals.
Slade got the idea from a televised public service announcement sponsored by Canadian non-profit Earth Rangers. Earth Rangers runs the Bring Back the Wild program, which helps children to raise money to protect endangered species and their habitats.
Half of the money raised by children for the Bring Back the Wild program goes toward teaching conservation in schools; the other half, to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Slade's mother, Michelle Slade, said her daughter was excited for months about the plan. But parents of her friends were not very supportive.
"One mother said to me, 'Why would you do that? That is so stupid,'" Michelle told the Huffington Post. "Mind you, my daughter is right next to me."
Two other parents called the idea "stupid" within earshot of Winter, according to Michelle. She was dumbfounded.
"I leaned over and said, 'Well, I guess your child won't be invited to her party then,'" she said.
According to Michelle, on the way home, Winter cried and asked why the parents had "said I was stupid." The mother decided that if the other parents were not going to be supportive, she would reach out online for support.
She posted on Thursday night the link to Winter's fundraising page on Reddit, asking for even small contributions. Overnight, they raised less than $100, but the story kept growing. After being shared on social media and on websites such as Grist.org, the campaign hit $2,500 by Sunday morning.
The "#helpwinter" hashtag appeared on Twitter over the weekend to raise support for her cause. And the Earth Rangers tweeted on Friday afternoon that Winter had raised more than $4,700 for the pine marten.
"Winter is just so excited," Michelle said. "She talks about it all the time. The pine marten, blah blah blah, the pine marten. The funniest thing is she keeps saying she's raised $15,000 instead of $1,500, which is funny because she doesn't really understand money. She's only seven."
