An eight-year-old Caneyville girl, inspired by how the Ronald McDonald House took care of her mother 17 years ago, took it upon herself to collect thousands of aluminum pull tabs and donate the tabs to the facility that was so important to her family.
The mission of the Ronald McDonald House “is to keep families close by providing essential resources and a ‘home-away-from-home’ for families of critically ill children receiving inpatient or outpatient medical care” at nearby hospitals.
Seventeen years ago, circumstances dictated that Selena Linder become a resident of the Nashville Ronald McDonald House when her oldest daughter, now 17-year-old Keely Vincent, was required to stay in a hospital for several months just after she was born.
“Ronald McDonald House gave me a home when I couldn’t be home,” Linder said. “They fed us and made sure we felt at home when we couldn’t be home because I wanted to be close to my baby, who was in a hospital for three months … and they don’t charge families anything.”
Linder, obviously thankful for the service the Ronald McDonald House provided her, has impressed upon her children the important role the facility played in allowing her to stay close to Keely while she was in the hospital.
Not long ago, Linder’s youngest daughter, eight-year-old Kinleigh Hampton, saw a Ronald McDonald House commercial promoting how the facility turns aluminum pulls tabs into cash to help families whose children are in the hospital (the facility promotes pull tabs as a fundraiser because space limitations preclude the facility from accepting aluminum cans).
“I saw the commercial where you could donate coke tabs to help other families and babies like they did my mommy and big sister and I wanted to find a way to help,” Kinleigh said.
Kinleigh then began her fundraising effort by visiting the family’s large barn and pulling tabs off drink cans. Kinleigh and her family then asked friends to save soda cans, soup cans and any other can that has a pull tab.
As a result, Kinleigh and her two sisters, Keely and 12-year-old Shaylee Hampton, and their mother delivered thousands of pull tabs to the Nashville Ronald McDonald House on Saturday.
“I am a super proud mommy,” Linder beamed. “Kinleigh is eight-years-old and has a heart of pure gold. She’s always more worried about everyone else rather than herself. She is the most loving, caring child. She wants to see others happy.”
Kinleigh, according to Linder, wants to take more pull tabs to the Nashville Ronald McDonald House so the facility can provide the loving and supportive environment they provided her mother. If anyone would like to donate pull tabs to Kinleigh’s fundraiser, please contact her mother, Selina Linder, via Facebook or Facebook Messenger, and help her special little girl help others.
(Headline photo: Kinleigh Hampton with the thousands of aluminum pull tabs she gathered)
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
