Following what their daughter did this past week, Audrey and Joshua Brown have realized they’ve won the lottery in more ways than one.
Audrey was shopping at a local grocery store last week with her children when her oldest, Phoebe, noticed something on the ground.
"I stepped over a lottery ticket. she sees it and grabs it up and says 'mom, mom it's a winner.' And I'm like 'no it's not.,’” said Audrey.
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But Phoebe was right.
"I picked it up and then I looked at it and told my mom it was a winner,” said the second grader.
Phoebe had found a scratch off worth $100.
When Audrey asked Phoebe what she wanted to do with the money she immediately thought about her school’s Thanksgiving mission.
"That day a flier came in from the school to help with … canned goods and nonperishable items and she said, 'mom, mom, can we do that?' And I was like, 'yeah,’” said Audrey.
With Phoebe’s dad, Joshua, pledging to match whatever she spent, the family went to Wal-Mart to buy as many canned goods as possible, all of it to be donated to Sycamore Elementary School’s Thanksgiving food drive.
Joshua was also blown away by his daughter’s generosity.
"You wonder, if our kids these days, if that's how they're thinking and this just goes to show ya they are thinking that. and that's a real good thing,” he said.
And although Phoebe did admit buying toys crossed her mind, her real motivation was simple. Help fill the pantry to feed other people this Thanksgiving … Also, knowing the winning class would get to shave off their gym teacher’s beard.
2nd graders at Sycamore Elem. shave teacher's beard for winning food drive. Phoebe here used a $100 lottery winning ticket to buy food pic.twitter.com/CXmn5xpgfD
— Josh Helmuth (@Jhelmuth) November 22, 2016
"So we could shave Mr. Horeman's beard and we could also help other families,” said Phoebe.
Phoebe’s second grade class won the Thanksgiving fundraiser with 541 total items donated.
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Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com
