During all the Black Friday madness, there was one shopping trip more meaningful than most.
At the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Nov. 23, kindness came in the form of a second grader by the name of Rylee Hebert.
“Some kids don’t get a big Christmas like other kids,” Rylee said.
The eight-year-old girl from Plaistow, New Hampshire has been making bracelets and selling them to her classmates and family friends.
“I said, ‘I want to do a charity,’ and my mom said, ‘how about Toys for Tots,’” Rylee said.
She even set up a table at Salisbury Beach over the summer and collected a full piggy bank.
“Two hundred and sixty-five dollars,” she said.
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All of which she’s spending on others.
Rylee searched high and low for boys and girls and babies and teens, for the perfect toy to give away.
“It must be hard to give up all the toys, is it,” asked NBC10 Boston Reporter Katherine Underwood.
“No, I feel like I already have enough toys and I want to help people who don’t have a lot of toys,” Rylee told her.
It’s an understatement to say her parents are proud.
“It’s just incredible and she thought of this all on her own,” said her mom, Keenan.
“She’s wise beyond her years for sure,” said her dad, Scott.
With arms full of toys, Rylee loaded up her parents’ SUV to head to the most important stop of the day.
She dropped all her beloved toys into the Toys for Tots box at Romano’s Pizzeria in Haverhill, sending them to kids in her community who need them.
“It makes me happy to help other people,” Rylee said smiling.
Since NBC10 Boston last spoke with Rylee, in late November, she has raised more than $1,000. She went shopping again and collected so many toys that the Marines had to come to her house to pick them up.
