Three-year-old Millie Moran is learning about paying it forward this holiday season. It’s a lesson delivered by mom Beth and inspired by a pair of generous relatives whom Millie never got the chance to meet.
In early December, the little girl, accompanied by her mother, dropped off a pile of new books at Literacy Lambton’s Lochiel Kiwanis Community Center headquarters to support that organization’s annual Give-a-Book campaign. The organization provides reading material to families in need through several local agencies.
Prior to that, Millie donated a whole host of her own toys to a non-profit daycare, brought canned goods to her mother’s gym (in support of a family-in-need the gym was sponsoring for Christmas) and also brought in non- perishable items for her own daycare’s food advent calendar.
Millie’s acts of kindness are both a life lesson and a tribute to her late grandfather Steve Moran and late uncle Matt Moran, Beth said.
“I lost my dad and my brother in 2014 and 2017, respectively. So I kind of avoided the holidays for quite a while. But having a little one changed that,” said Beth Moran. “My dad always modeled the importance of being kind and altruistic to my brother and I. And that’s a value I really want to share with my daughter.
“I speak quite openly with Millie about her grandpa Steve and uncle Matt, even though she never got to meet them – she hears lots of stories and sees lots of pictures of them,” Beth continued.
“Then last year I saw the idea for this online and that’s when we began. Millie was only two-and-a-half years old, so we gave a monetary donation to her non-profit daycare and we wrote a Christmas card and put it on the tree, addressing it to Grandpa Steve and Uncle Matt – that was their Christmas present. This year as Millie gets older, I wanted to start doing more tangible things in their memories to help her be able to see and learn the importance of giving back, kindness and generosity.”
Giving back to those less fortunate is a lesson that Beth wants Millie to learn not only during the holidays, but throughout the rest of the year as well.
“During the year, I try and find ways to do these things as well. We did a book tour during the summer and we stopped at a bunch of Little Free Libraries and dropped off gently used books and made some trades. We actively donate on a social media free site,” she said. “Millie’s always happy to see people come and pick up things at our door.
“We are a family that has a budget and we always have to watch our budget, but I’m trying to convey to Millie that there’s always a way to help others, to give back to people who have less. I want her to know that we’re wounded and it’s great that we have some amazing family members and neighbors who model these same behaviors as well.”
Millie’s nascent Christmas tradition is an absolutely fitting tribute to both Steve and Matt Moran, Beth said. Both were generous to a fault, always lifting people up and helping wherever and whenever they could.
“My father was very involved in the community. He lived in Sombra and he volunteered in the community building structures at parks, he was on the council when he was Sombra Township, he was always a very generous person with gifts – he’d make toys for anyone having a kid,” she said . “St. Clair Township actually donated a bench in his honor at Brander Park, right off the splash pad. And his sisters and I came up with something to put on the bench, something that was important to him, so it says ‘giving is life’.
“My brother Matt was very much the same – he would have given the shirt off his back to anyone in need. So I just want Millie to grow up learning how important kindness is, how important it is to both give and receive.”
Already, Millie has taken her learning to heart, Beth said.
“We’ve written our letter to Santa and the only thing she’s asked for herself is a book and a journal, because she loves journaling in the morning. She also asked Santa to fix our dryer,” she said, laughing. “But I got a friend to help us with that. Even her Christmas list just makes me so happy as a mom – she’s not focused on material things, some of her list included things for other people.
“She just loves (giving) … whenever we look for things to donate, like some of her toys, for instance, I have to put the brakes on,” Beth added. “Because she wants to give away everything to everybody. I feel really blessed as a mom that at three-and-a-half she feels secure and happy enough that she’s able to give back to other people.
“Every year we’re planning to write a Christmas card to Grandpa Steve and uncle Matt, listing the acts of kindness we did as our gift to them for the holidays, and I plan on saving the cards. It actually feels a little less like they’re gone.”