At only seven years old, Tyler Sheffield knows a thing or two about generosity.
The very day his neighbours in Hanley, Sask., lost their home to a fire last month, Tyler started a bottle drive.
“It was a nice thing to do and I felt sad that they lost their house,” Tyler said.
After Tyler got his mom to post his fundraiser on Facebook, bottles and cans came pouring in from the community of Hanley and the surrounding area.
“The first load was a whole trailer load,” Tyler explained.
Tyler’s father, Terry Sheffield, said they were able to raise $1,324.70 from the first trip to SARCAN Recycling. Along with other cash donations, Tyler was able to donate over $1,700 to the family.
The recyclables have continued coming from places including Dundurn, Asquith, Martensville and Saskatoon.
The Sheffields are now gearing up for a second trip to SARCAN, as a mountain of bags of cans and bottles fill their front yard.
Terry estimated Tyler could raise around $3,000.
The Grindheim family said they lost nearly everything in the fire during the early hours of June 25.
Over the past decade, the Grindheims have endured much heartbreak. Josh, 15, and Abby, 13, live with their grandparents, Shirley and Daryl. The teens’ mom, Sandra, died in 2007, and their father, Darren, passed away from cancer in 2015.
“We’ve had so much support, any way you can think of,” Shirley said.
“It feels really nice knowing that there are people out there who care like him. It’s not like he’s an adult or anything, he’s just a kid who really wants to help out and we’re thankful for that,” Josh said.