They were items she just didn’t need any more – cars, books, a toy lawn mower. She found a cash box, set up a table and held a garage sale during the Fourth of July. She made some money, and knew exactly where she wanted it to go. Her garage sale would help a particular group of hospital patients. It would help children just like her.

Azlyn McQueen is seven years old and possibly our youngest donor. In late September she visited the Foundation’s office at Parkview Huntington Hospital with her mother, Parkview Huntington Hospital’s (PHH) medical laboratory scientist Niki McQueen, to drop off a check. It was a gift with a very specific purpose.

“I wanted to help people get toys while they’re in the hospital,” Azlyn said.

The gift was all Azlyn’s idea, according to her mother. “We had a family gathering over the holiday, and part of that was a large garage sale. But Azlyn knew just what she wanted to do. She found her own cash box to make her own money.”

Not bad for someone who just entered the first grade.

Azlyn no longer has the toy cars she played with when the summer began. Some of her well-read picture books are also gone, as is the toy lawn mower she pushed as she “helped” her father, Nick, mow the grass at their home in rural Whitley County. They were all sold at the garage sale, to be enjoyed by other children. And the money she received – which was matched dollar-for-dollar by a companion gift from her parents – will go to put smiles on even more children’s faces.

Azlyn’s gift will become part of the Parkview Huntington Foundation’s Pediatrics fund, which supports and enhances treatment for the hospital’s youngest patients. Now, while Niki McQueen is doing her important work in the PHH lab, Azlyn’s generosity is at work in the hospital, too, providing a special kind of care that heals.

To learn more about how you can make a big difference for others, please visit ParkviewFoundations.org.