Five-year-old Sunshine Oelfke was saving up her money for a snowmobile, until a recent conversation with a classmate changed her mind.
Sunshine's grandmother, Jackie Oelfke, recounted the story on Facebook, explaining what Sunshine said when she found her sitting on the floor emptying her piggy bank.
"After a few minutes, I see her bag up some of [the money] and I asked her what she was doing with the baggy of money. Her response put me in tears...’I am going to give it to my friend at school because she don’t get milk for snack. Her mom don’t [sic] have any milk money and I do,'" Jackie wrote.
Jackie helped Sunshine take the $30 to her teacher, explaining the little girl's thoughtful idea. Of the 20 students in Sunshine's class, about half don't get milk. According to CBS News, it costs around $180 a month for every child in class to get milk every day during snack time.
“We will do this,” Jackie said the teacher Rita Hausher, told her, with a hug.
"I always tell my students when they do something that really amazes me," Hausher told WLUC-TV. "I get kindergarten goosebumps. I got kindergarten goosebumps from my toes to the top of my head."
Social media users caught wind of the little girl's big heart, and a grassroots movement began.
Sunshine was determined to raise as much money as possible for her friends, so Jackie created a GoFundMe account where others could donate to the classroom's milk money fund so that no student would have to go without milk during snack time.
In just 11 days, the campaign has raised more than $5,200. That's enough money to cover milk for the entire class for over a semester.
Jackie said she's grateful for Sunshine's kind heart, despite the hardships in her life. Jackie said she has raised Sunshine because her mother has drug issues, and has been in and out of prison.
"She doesn't understand the impact she's made," Jackie said to the TV station. "But now she knows she can do whatever she puts her mind to."
