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Local sister-brother duo passionate about helping others

'Everyone is different, and not everyone is as lucky as we all are, so the people who don’t have very much need more help,' says nine-year-old Orillia girl

Nine-year-old Lucy Goodman and her five-year-old brother, Henry, have a passion for helping those less fortunate.

The children’s mother, Nicole, says the passion was ignited a couple of summers ago when Lucy wanted to have a lemonade stand.  

“Afterwards I didn’t think we needed to keep all the money, so I said you can do it, but you have to find somewhere to donate it,” Nicole explained.

Lucy spent the summer of 2019 doing lemonade stands in church parking lots, and she raised $400 for the Sharing Place Food Centre.

“It became her mission,” Nicole said.

Nicole says her young children have a lot of empathy for those less fortunate because their family has a lot of open discussions about things that are happening in the world and in the community - both good and bad.

“As a family, we are really open about talking about how not everybody is as fortunate as we are,” she said.

“My kids are really curious about why people are talking about Black Lives Matter. Why are people hurting? And we have a lot of those conversations.”

Last year, Lucy was nominated for Citizen of the Year, which Nicole says was the highlight of her life. Now the Grade 3 Monsignor Lee Catholic School student has the mission of helping others and inspiring other children to help.  

“My daughter is always incredibly proud. If she has a show-and-share at school or something like that, she always wants to talk about what she’s doing in the community,” Nicole said.

“She got to have a private tour of the new food centre when it first opened. She walked along with (executive director) Chris Peacock and he showed her everything that was going on and she was so proud. She said ‘I helped build that, I gave them money to help do this,’ which is just adorable.”

Because of the COVID pandemic, Lucy and Henry haven’t been able to do the lemonade stands, they also haven’t felt comfortable asking for donations from people and struggling small businesses. So, in order to keep helping the community, they’ve been forced to get creative.

Just recently, Lucy and Henry bought hygiene products such as shampoo, body wash, pads, and tampons - with a donation from their grandparents - and then they donated them to the Orillia Youth Centre.

“I think helping other people and other kids is really important,” Lucy said.

“Everyone is different, and not everyone is as lucky as we all are, so the people who don’t have very much need more help.”

Lucy has also been making birthday boxes for those who use the services of the Sharing Place. The boxes include decorations, party supplies, sprinkles, icing, cake, and it comes in a big box designed like a present.

“It makes me happy when I see what I’m doing is working and helping,” she told OrilliaMatters.

Lucy’s little brother Henry, a junior kindergarten student at Monsignor Lee, says it’s important to him to help his sister with her journey.

“We do it because it makes people happy, and we like to share,” he said.

The sister-brother duo have their sights set now on the goal of running a food drive in their neighbourhood later this spring.


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Tyler Evans

About the Author: Tyler Evans

Tyler Evans got his start in the news business when he was just 15-years-old and now serves as a video producer and reporter with OrilliaMatters
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