An incredibly thoughtful young boy has been praised for donating money which he carefully saved for a trip to Disneyland to buy food for Hurricane Dorian evacuees.
Six-year-old Jermaine Bell from Allendale in South Carolina was due to visit the Florida theme park for his seventh birthday this weekend.
However, when he heard of locals being forced to evacuate their homes as Hurricane Dorian approaches, he decided to put the money to better use.
It’s believed South Carolina could potentially be in the path of the destructive storm, so Jermaine used his hard-saved cash to buy food, like hot dogs, chips and water, to feed more than 100 evacuees.
The selfless six-year-old also stood alongside Highway 125 with a pair of handwritten signs advertising the food to those in the process of evacuating their homes.
He told WJBF:
The people that are traveling to go to places, I wanted them to have some food to eat, so they can enjoy the ride to the place that they’re going to stay at.
I wanted to be generous and live to give.
Jermaine’s grandmother, Aretha Grant, said he’s praying with and for the families who have been forced to leave their homes, after realising how fortunate he is.
She told the news outlet:
He actually even prayed for a family while they were here in reference to their house being okay when they got back, so that was really tear dropping.
They weren’t able to take everything. So just knowing that they couldn’t take everything and we were able to have a house, so that’s the blessed part that he should be thankful for and get out of it.
Jermaine revealed he plans to go back to saving for his trip to Disney as normal as he wants to visit the Animal Kingdom, see the lions and ‘have a lion party’.
The first-grader has been praised by thousands of people after his mum Lauren shared a video of him helping out.
One person commented: This story is now making the rounds down here in Central Florida. What an amazing young man! I am actually a Disney Cast Member, and would be happy to help Jermaine out with some free passes to the park.
If that’s not good karma, then I don’t know what is.
Good on you, Jermaine.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.