Seven-Year-Old Donates Entire Piggy Bank to Hurricane Ian Relief

As Americans watched Hurricane Ian hit Florida last week, many wondered how to help victims of the storm. Some donated supplies like blankets, generators, and gasoline. Others opened their homes to evacuees.

Seven-year-old Dominic D’Andrea of Illinois emptied his piggy bank.

“I was really saving up for a Corvette or an electric scooter, but people need this,” Dominic told his mother, Jaclyn D’Andrea. He first learned about the hurricane on his way home from school last Wednesday. 

“This kid has a heart of gold, and I kind of had an inkling of where it was going per our conversation we just had in the car ride,” his mom told the Daily Journal of Kankakee, Illinois. “So I turned on my phone to record him because my husband was already at work.”

In the video, Dominic lifts a plastic container of bills and coins. He promised to donate all $200.83 to support hurricane relief efforts. His mom posted the video on TikTok. It got thousands of views. The Weather Channel and NowThis share the clip.

Inspired by Dominic’s generosity, others reached out to add to the total. In just a few days, Dominic’s family raised over $12,000. They used the money to buy supplies. The family rented two tractor-trailers. Dominic's mom will drive them to hard-hit Fort Myers, Florida. She's going to set up a supply station.

Dominic won’t make the trip. He has school. But his mom said he’s happy to have helped. “At this moment, he’s just super proud to be helping, even if it means unloading the boxes, or the bags he can carry and put them in the truck and all that good stuff,” she said.

Photo by Fabian Blank courtesy of Unsplash.