She felt the need to help others and at 12 years of age she decided to forgo birthday presents for cash to donate to a local charity.
Elena Oliver is a student at Bath Middle School and took advantage of a day off school for the Martin Luther King holiday to donate to the Allen Lima Leadership Teddy Bear Fund. Oliver asked for cash in lieu of presents for her birthday and today she presented one-hundred and ten dollars to the fund. The donation will go towards the purchase of teddy bears for children that find themselves in the hospital. Her reason for donating is simple.
"I like to have kids happy and people happy, and I like to think of others so I decided to find a place to donate to, and I chose the Teddy Bear Fund," said Elena.
Oliver handed out several bears to other kids today at Lima Memorial Health System. This is not the first year she has donated to a charity. She started her yearly contributions three years ago at nine years old with a different charity each year. Board members of the ALL Teddy Bear Fund are humbled that Oliver chose them this year and are inspired by her generosity.
The teddy bear fund has been around in some form since the 1940's and today distributes an average of ten-thousand bears a year.
