The Littlest Volunteers
Written By Jeff Wagenheim
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Grand Prize
Operation Stinky Baby
Gabriella Alvarez, age 6
Colbert, Washington
The corn fritters were tasty, made right there at the roadside stand, and the Alvarez family kept coming back. This trip to Honduras was an adventure for then 4-year-old Gabriella; she and her mom were visiting her dad, who was on a nine-month diplomatic assignment at the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa. During every fritter stop, Rob and Suzanne would chat with the woman who ran the stand with some help from her daughter, who was the same age as Gabriella. The girls didn't share a word.
Back home weeks later, looking at pictures from the trip, all Gabriella wanted to talk about was the girl at the corn fritter stand. She paused at a shot of the girl with a torn, barely stuffed animal and said, "She looks sad. Let's send her Izzy's stuffed animals."
"I don't think your little sister would like that," Suzanne said. "What else can you think of sending?" Thus was born Operation Fluffy. Gabriella wanted to call her project Operation Stinky Baby, in honor of her most beloved stuffed animal, but her mom suggested she come up with a name the community could get behind.
It started with Gabriella and her mom going to yard sales to buy stuffed animals to send to Honduras. "With the enthusiasm of a 6-year-old," Suzanne says, "Gabby got others involved." The homeowners would get up from their lawn chairs to search for more animals. Friends and neighbors gave them up too, and the fire department contributed from the stockpile it takes out on calls. Suzanne had thought they'd collect maybe 25 animals, but three months later she and Gabriella were boxing up more than 300.
After Rob got home from his assignment in Honduras, he showed Gabriella pictures from the day he gave the stuffed animals to the girl at the corn fritter stand and dozens of other kids. Gabriella pointed to bears or bunnies or doggies she remembered, now having the stuffng hugged out of them by their new owners. Suzanne says "she really got" the idea that if you have more than you need, you share: When Rob and Suzanne decided to adopt another child from China, where they adopted all three of their daughters, Suzanne asked Gabriella what she thought. "Of course we should," she said. "We have enough chairs."
Photo: Gabriella with her own stuffed animal
