Girl, 9, spends lockdown buying party bags for other children to make them smile – and she walks miles to deliver them
A MUM has revealed how proud she is of her nine-year-old daughter who dedicated her time during lockdown to creating hundreds of party bags for children.
Rachel Clotworthy, 35, from Essex, was amazed when Faith announced she wanted to buy presents for other kids to make them smile during the difficult time.
The Assistant SENCo agreed on giving her a £70 Amazon budget to purchase a range of toys and gifts to put together bags to leave on children’s door steps.
The mother and daughter duo have now delivered hundreds of party bags and even have an Amazon wish list for people to make donations – after the good deed became too expensive.
Rachel shared her daughter’s achievements on Facebook, writing: “In April my daughter asked me if she could buy gifts and drop them on children’s doorsteps so they could smile.
“Not realising how much this actually meant to her I agreed to giving her £70 budget and access to amazon to order bits and pieces.
“Well that went very well, 50 bags delivered to children. I then gave another sum of money for another load of bags, then another.
“After making 150 bags, spending over £200 I had to say we would stop. She was so upset but understood and was happy that she had made 150 children happy during this time.
“My lovely community decided they didn’t want her to stop and after requests to donate we made an amazon list with all the bits I’d previously purchased and we have made a further 100 bags.
“Today we are delivering 21 bags to one single street so every child in that street gets a ‘Little bag of happiness’. So proud of her for thinking of others during this time.”
The post has now racked up over 20,000 likes and hundreds of comments with many strangers praising Faith and her mother.
Rachel said her daughter found the lack of social interaction during lockdown difficult and was keen to make others smile – despite suffering with self esteem and confidence.
The mother said it makes her ‘heart burst’ to know her daughter is thinking about others above herself in this challenging time.
The duo ordered mini notepads, activity books, crayons, sweets, toys, tattoos and stickers from Amazon to fill party bags.
She said: “We had a discussion and she decided that she would have a limit of £70-80 on Amazon and she would make some party bags and leave them on children’s door steps.
“I was extremely proud of her. The best thing we ordered were the blank postcards as Faith said children can use them to write to people they are missing.
“We started delivering to houses that had rainbows in the window but then decided to set up a Facebook page called ‘Faith’s little bags of happiness’ where we asked the local community to nominate children who needed to smile and could receive a bag.”
She continued: “Following the final post so many messages came in asking for me to set up somewhere people can make a donation.”
The mother and daughter duo spend most evenings putting the bags of goodies together and dedicate a couple of evenings to walking and delivering.
She said they often walk four miles at any one time and spend their weekends putting the bags together.
Rachel didn’t agree with having a funding page so decided to set up an Amazon wish list where they added all the gifts they previously ordered.
The mother said: “It went crazy, the items were all purchased within a week and the deliveries were coming so fast one day we got over 30 parcels.
“Faith and I were absolutely overwhelmed, the kindness and generosity of the community was amazing.
“One resident messaged us and told us she had made purchases from our list and wanted to nominate for all the children in her street to receive a bag.”
Faith and her mother then delivered 19 bags following the lady’s request and said that was definitely the “happiest street in the UK” on that day.
The mum and daughter plan to continue making the bags for children and think it will become a project they can continue a couple of times per year.
She said: “Faith has also asked to make bags for children returning to school and also some for elderly people but I’ve told her we need to walk before we run!
“The bags keep us busy enough at the moment but we haven’t closed the door on that idea completely.
“We would both like to thank our local community for their amazing kindness and support.”
The nine-year-old added that it makes her happy to see other children happy and she enjoys spending quality time with her mum.
Faith also said she will remember the moment forever when she delivered to one whole street and everyone was happy and shouting.
She said it was “the best day ever.”
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