Compassion leads four year old to give back

Photo: Picasa

Four-year-old Molly Ann Marie Cormier is seen here surrounded by her Build-a-Bear collection. Molly and her mom recently won the 50/50 at a Dirigo home game and Molly made the choice to donate their winnings to breast cancer awareness instead of adding to her collections of bears. Inset: Pink footballs in honor of a few team members she refers to as, “My Dirigo boys” hang from her bedroom wall. (Times photo by Cherri Crockett)

DIXFIELD- Molly Ann Marie Cormier is only four years old and already has two great loves of her life; as she states, “My Dirigo boys,” and her collection of Build-a-Bears. Her love for the latter was tested recently while attending the October 20 senior night football game of the Dirigo Cougars.

It all began when Molly’s mom, Delanna Garey, inquired of family friend and DHS senior, Nelson Pepin, if she made the entire football team pink socks to wear during their game, if he could get them to wear the colorful attire.

“The look on his face was great,” noted Garey. “He looked at me with a big smile and told me he could definitely get the rest of the team to wear them. Then it just snowballed from there. Everyone was doing something pink. Pink flowers for the senior moms, the cheerleaders wore pink, there was a woman there selling pink and blue scarves, we had pink bracelets that read, HOPE. Everyone was into it.”

Molly explained, “My mom and I are always at the games so I can cheer my Dirigo boys on. I like football. I like Nelson. He is number 81.” Holding up her mom’s phone, Molly pointed at a picture of her and Nelson. “See, his number is 8-1, 81. And, I had a jersey on, too.”

That night, Molly and her mom purchased an arm’s length of tickets for $5 and went back to their seats. They cheered on the cougar boys and at half time, over the loudspeaker came the numbers of the winning ticket.

“My mom and I read the numbers,” stated Molly. “We saw the match and we went to the chow house.”

It was during that time when Garey had a conversation with her daughter.

“I told her it was a lot of money and she could either buy six Build-a-Bears with it or she could donate it to breast cancer awareness.”

Molly didn’t make a decision right away. As they entered the chow house, Molly gave the ticket to the woman attending the raffle and told her, “I want to give it back to breast cancer awareness.”

The crowd was stunned to hear that Molly had refused to take her $170 and, instead, donate it.

“I was so proud of her. She was all smiles,” stated Garey.

Molly and her mom have the conversation about money and helping others more often than you would think.

On the home refrigerator there are three envelopes. One reads GIVE, another SAVE and the third, SPEND. You see, Garey is helping Molly to live by a Dave Ramsey principle of saving until you have enough to buy what you want with cash.

“I want Molly to grow up and know that she doesn’t have to live paycheck to paycheck,” stated Garey. “Right now she knows that each week she has to put a percentage in her savings, some to a good cause and she can choose to spend the remainder. It gives her a good sense of the value of money.”

This is not the first time Molly, with guidance from her mom, has decided to give back. The two have sold lemonade around town to raise funds for River Valley Animal Advocates and even participated in a walk-a-thon to benefit the Franklin County Animal Shelter. Currently, Molly is saving her money in her GIVE envelope to donate to Responsible Pet Care in Oxford.

“I love all animals,” stated Molly. “I saw a video on the computer of animals that needed help. There was a kitty that has a booboo on his nose and I want to help him.”

Looking at her mom, Molly stated, “Right momma, we’re going to help that kitty.”

When asked what she hopes to be when she grows up, Molly stated, “I want to be a vet-er-in-arian. You know, a person who takes care of all kinds of animals.”

When this reporter confirmed that she wanted to be a veterinarian, Molly, very deliberately repeated back, “No, I want to be a vet-er-in-arian. You got it?”