‘They need it more than I do:’ 7-year-old donates savings for Hurricane Ian victims

By Rhythm Sachdeva

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    TORONTO (CTV Network) — A seven-year-old American boy donated his piggy bank savings to Hurricane Ian relief efforts in Florida after learning about the storm’s devastating impact.

Dominic D’Andrea told CTV News Channel that he had been saving up for a “Corvette or an electric scooter,” but hurricane victims need the money more than he does. According to D’Andrea’s mother, Jacyln, it started when Dominic wanted to know why she was upset during a car ride on Wednesday. After she explained about the hurricane, when they got home he promptly retrieved his piggy bank.

“I kind of knew where his little mind was going because we had just had the conversation in the car,” she said in an interview Sunday.

She posted a TikTok video that was a snapshot in time of Dominic’s initial reaction to wanting to donate his money, which quickly garnered popularity on the site.

“I decided to record it (so that) my husband can see the actual … reaction of what he was saying to me,” Jacyln said, explaining, “the whole reason why I posted is just a proud mom moment for my family and friends to see it.”

Inspired by Dominic’s generosity, and seeded by the donation of his US$280 piggy-bank savings, his parents are now in the midst of a fundraising effort to buy supplies they plan to drive to hard-hit Fort Myers Fla., on Wednesday.

According to Jacyln, they are raising money to buy basic sanitary products, mattresses, and gas tins they plan to transport in a rental truck this week.

The death toll from the storm, one of the strongest hurricanes by wind speed to ever hit the U.S., grew to more than four dozen, with 47 deaths confirmed in Florida, four in North Carolina and three deaths in Cuba.

The storm washed out bridges and piers, tossed boats into buildings onshore, shorn roofs off homes, and left hundreds of thousands without power, the Associated Press reported.

“They might have nothing,” Dominic said in the TikTok video. “So, I’m giving them my whole piggy bank jar.”

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Sonja Puzic