‘Do something positive:’ 7-year-old girl on mission to help friends less fortunate

She’s only 7, but Aniyah Callaway is wise beyond her years.

Back in February, she learned not everyone has a place to sleep or a winter coat.

“She said, ‘I saw some homeless people on the street’ and she was just like, ‘I want to give them blankets or something to keep them warm,'” said Tiffany Ware-Callaway, Aniyah’s mom.

“They had no shelter, but it was cold,” said Aniyah Callaway. “It made me feel like I just want to help them.”

Now, she’s doing just that with a project called Operation Help Our Friends.

“She was like, ‘Mom, maybe we should give them something to eat or we can give them toothbrushes so they can brush their teeth,’ and then it just started, the list just kept going on and on,” said Ware-Callaway.

Included in the bag, a special note from Aniyah.

Aniyah now puts together Blessings Bags and has asked everyone to donate items from soap to beverages.

“It makes me feel great because I just want to help them give them some stuff so they can have some things to be clean with some drinks and others,” said Callaway.

“I am extremely proud of Aniyah,” said Ware-Callaway. “We encourage anything that she wants to put her heart and mind to, we tell her that we can do it and we encourage that. But we also want her to know that if she’s promising that she’s going to do something, that she’s going to stick with it for the long term.”

This means Aniyah is putting together a third round of Blessings Bags for distribution.

“We don’t give the youth credit for the positive things that they’re doing,” said Ware-Callaway. “We’re so focused on the negative right now that sometimes that overshadows the sunshine moments. So I would encourage adults to take a lesson from the young people. Do something positive and stick with it. Make the best of what’s going on right now in 2020.”