Youth
www.SanTanSun.com
Jan. 9 - Jan. 22, 2016
27
Second grader raises $2,000 for Phoenix Children’s Hospital BY ALISON STANTON
Laurie Preston and her husband, Jeff, were getting ready for bed one night last August when their son, Kai, approached them with an unexpected business proposal. Kai, 7, told his parents that he wanted to start his own business—appropriately called “Kai’s Business”—and that his first project would involve creating and selling coloring books that would raise money for Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “When we asked him why he wanted to do this, Kai said that he wanted to help the kids and that he could do it by doing something he likes, which is drawing,” Preston said. His now-3-year-old sister Lexi spent time at Phoenix Children’s Hospital when she was 11 months. This impacted Kai. “He saw kids who were sick, and he wanted to do something for them,” she said. Kai, a second grader at Navarrete Elementary School in Chandler, told his folks that he wanted to raise $100 for the hospital. As it turns out, he was able to meet this goal by twenty-fold. In late December, Kai presented a check for $2,000 to some of Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s pet therapy dogs. The money will be evenly split between the hospital’s PetSmart Paws Can Heal Animal-Assisted Therapy Program and the Hope Fund, Preston said. The day after Kai announced his plans, Preston said her son called his first family business meeting. During the meeting, Kai told his parents
that for the coloring book to be as successful as possible, he would ask some of his friends to help. Preston said Kai and nine of his friends dubbed themselves the Creative Kids and soon got busy drawing outlines of pictures for the coloring book. When one of the kids suggested that the coloring book contain only drawings of super heroes, Kai disagreed. “Kai said it was very important that the coloring book have all kinds of different pictures that all kids would want to color,” Preston said, adding that the finished Creative Kids Coloring Book contains 24 pages of different drawings including dogs, R2-D2, robots and a princess. Jeff, who works in graphic design, put the coloring book together and added captions under each photo. Preston said Kai and his band of Creative Kids friends then sold the coloring books for $5 each, and they also donated some of the books to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “I thought making a coloring book would be the easiest thing to do,” Kai said. In addition to drawing and coloring a picture of Batman for the cover, he also drew a lady bug, The Incredible Hulk, two robots, Robin from Teen Titans, a princess, butterfly and “candy corn monster.” Kai said it was exciting to raise a lot more money than his original goal of $100. “Then we got to $500, and then my high goal was $1,000, but I got $1,000 more than that,” he said. Preston said watching their son present
Kai Preston, 7, third from left, recently donated $2,000 to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Kai raised the money by creating and selling a coloring book, along with the help of nine of his friends. Kai was joined at the hospital by his mom, Laurie, left, Kate Watson from Phoenix Children’s Hospital and his dad, Jeff. Submitted photo
the check at the hospital was something she and her husband will remember forever. “It was definitely emotional,” she said. Preston said she is very proud of Kai and his desire to help other kids, and the nine buddies who helped make it happen. “He could not have done this without the support of his friends. They all have really kind hearts,” she said. Kai said he hopes to eventually do another project that will raise more money for a worthy cause.
“I’m thinking about making ‘Star Wars’ toys, but I’m not really sure yet,” he said. Looking back to that warm August evening, Preston said she and her husband are amazed at how much Kai was able to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time. “He kind of caught us off guard with his idea, but it got us thinking, ‘Gosh, how many people have ideas and never do them? But this is something that Kai made happen,’” she said.
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