That day we decided to
sell candles and donate the money to
charities. Earlier, we had read about
the horrendous conditions of orphanages
in Romania. Our local newspaper did
a special report about local people
who took money, clothing, toys, food,
medicine, and love to the orphans there.
It touched our hearts, stayed in our
minds, and changed our lives forever.
We decided to donate all of our profits
to the Romanian orphans.
That same day, we sent
letters to local businesses asking if
they would sell our homemade candles.
With our babysitting money, we bought
beeswax sheets and wicking. Then we
figured out how to package and tag the
candles for sale. Two other girls joined
us in our business venture, and Val
came up with our name, The Helping Hearts.
The old Chinese proverb
"It's better to light a candle than
to curse the darkness" became our motto.
This motto suits us because we think
it's better to take action than just
to sit around and say, "That's too bad,
but I can't make a difference."
During our first week
of business, an ice storm hit our area,
leaving 100,000 people without power.
Candles were selling like crazy! We
sold about $1,100 worth the first week.
Soon, we could not keep up with the
demand, so we taught other kids how
to roll candles. Some of their first
candles did not meet our quality expectations,
so we melted them down into beeswax
ornaments to sell. They were a big hit;
we even made money from mistakes!
We sold candles every
weekend until Christmas at a store and
a restaurant in our neighborhood. After
expenses, we donated over $5,000 to
the orphanages, and we had only been
in business for 45 days!
For Valentine's Day, we
came up with several different designs.
We decided to ask our whole school to
roll candles for a school dance. Forty-five
girls and boys attended our candle rolling
workshop. At the dance, we sold $300
worth of candles.
In all, we raised around
$7,000 for the Romanian orphans. This
is the last we gave to them, but they
are constantly in our hearts. When we
are older, we want to go to Romania
and help the children. We both want
to be pediatric cardiac surgeons (heart
doctors for kids), so we will truly
be "helping hearts."
In 1997, we decided to
donate the proceeds from our business
to a different charity. We found out
about a suicide awareness program for
teens, called SMILE, which stands for
Students Mastering Important Lifeskills
Education. We gave a total of $1,000
to this great program. Now we are giving
our profits to Hurricane Mitch relief.
We plan to continue The
Helping Hearts so that we can help unfortunate
children and troubled teens. It is exciting
to look back and see how our idea started
small and grew big. Our parents thought
we might raise $200; we thought we might
earn $1,000. Actually, we have donated
more than $8,000 to charities! It has
been a lot of work, but a lot of fun,
too. We roll our candles with love,
fill them with compassion, and sell
them with the hope of making the world
a better place.
Arielle
Ring, 13, lives in Washington, with
her parents, a brother, a sister, a
dog, and a cat. She loves soccer and
ski racing. She collects Beanie Babies,
which she buys and sells on the Internet.
Valorie
Darling, 13, lives in Washington, with
her parents, her brother Adam, her dog
Dakota, and her cat Spud. Val is on
the drill team at her school. Gymnastics
takes up most of Val's free time, but
she also enjoys making quilts.
Copyright 1999 New Moon
Publishing, Inc.
Used with permission from New
Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their
Dreams
