DORVAL – When James Thomas Lowden and his mother started to plan his 11th birthday party last month, naturally, they started with the invitations.
“He wanted to invite his entire soccer team and a lot of kids from class,” James’ mother Sarah Thomas said.
“So when we totaled that up, we had 29 kids. Christmas had recently passed, he had received lots of gifts.”
“He had already received some from family for his birthday, so I said, ‘you know what James, maybe we should include something that says no gifts.'”
So, James added a note in the invitation asking for donations for the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
The 11-year-old said asking for donations for the hospital instead of gifts was a no-brainer.
He’d been a patient there himself a few months earlier when he broke his thumb.
“I knew that there were people there with worse problems as me, so I wanted to donated some money,” he said.
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In total, James received $365.
A few weeks ago, just like Canadiens star P.K. Subban, he presented it to the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
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“We think it’s absolutely fantastic,”said Kim Fraser, a hospital spokesperson.
“It’s kids helping kids and it’s the core of our mission.”
According to the hospital, around 200 kids donate to the hospital every year, bringing in a total of $150,000 annually.
“It all adds up right? If you look after the dollars, the hundreds and thousands and millions will take care of itself,” Fraser said.