By Spencer Sterritt

11-year-old Nanaimo student inspires community, raises thousands for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation

Dec 18, 2017 | 4:44 PM

NANAIMO — For her 11th birthday, Nanaimo student Deeya Sharma wanted to do something different.

Instead getting gifts from friends, she raised $7,500 for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation in a matter of weeks by appealing to other classes at Pleasant Valley Elementary and the Nanaimo community.

“I think of all the kids out there and people who have cancer and all this stuff they go through to get better. If I can do a little bit in someones life, the most I can do, that’s the best I can do,” she told NanaimoNewsNOW. “Just to put a smile on their face.”

The money was presented to the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation on Dec. 5.

Deeya also cut off her hair for the charity Wigs for Kids, who work hand-in-hand with the Foundation. Since she’d blown past the original goal of $3,000, her twin sisters cut off long locks of their hair too in what she called a “perfect moment.”

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“It made me feel like everbody is trying to pitch in and give all they can,” she said of the community support behind her birthday wish. “It’s exciting to me that everyone likes to pitch in and help a kid out when they really need it.”

Deeya said of all the charities to help, it made the most sense to donate the money to one helping youth since “I’m a kid and nobody can understand a kid like a kid.”

She shared a story of how a school friend had crashed on his scooter and needed help with damage to his eye.

“I just felt so bad for him and I was trying to do anything I could to help him. And I think this is the best way.”

Her mother Sue said it was inspiring watching her daughter unite her school and be able to give so much back.

“If an 11-year-old can do that, can you imagine what we as adults can do if we put our minds and heads together?”

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit