Little kid, big heart

Four weeks.

Four weeks of the worst kind of drudgery: Bed making, setting the table, helping pick up around the house.

To a 5-year-old like Henry DePew, that might as well have been a year.

Usually, the rosy cheeked, whisper-voiced boy spends his hard-earned allowance on toys.

But not this time.

This past weekend, the Coeur d'Alene boy toddled into Kootenai Humane Society with his jar of bills and change and donated it all to the animals.

A whopping $12.19.

"We were pulling into the shelter, and he wasn't quite so sure this was a good idea," his mother Sue DePew said with a laugh. "But she (the KHS volunteer) made a really big deal of it, and he felt good. He forgot all about getting a toy."

It's a delicate matter, teaching a toddler about charity, Sue said.

Donating was an idea that had never popped into Henry's head, until the boy watched a PBS special with his parents, Sue and Brett, several weeks ago.

"It was about people and animals who have less than us," Sue said. "So we talked about how you help other people through volunteering time and money."

Henry, a preschool student at Trinity Lutheran Church Learning Center, quickly thought of a cause close to his heart.

The family has a yellow lab, Sue said, and recently had to put down their black lab.

"He's grown up with dogs. He's a really big animal lover," Sue said.

Henry's mission was simple. He would continue his daily chores that earn him $3 a week from his parents, with a 50 cent bonus if he does an especially glowing job.

He would combine that with spare change he spied on the ground, which every 5-year-old with common sense knows is up for grabs.

Eventually, he hoped, he would accrue enough to help other dogs.

Day after day, he toiled.

His parents confirmed his good behavior every day at the Responsibility Chart on Henry's door, where they marked with magnets if he had done his chores well that day.

Did he make his bed? Check.

Was he respectful? Check.

Henry's collection jar slowly filled.

"Kids will happily go along with the rules, if you're consistent," said Sue, a private cook, adding that Brett is vice principal at Charter Academy. "If we forget about it, he reminds us. It's really about following through with things."

When he decided to donate, the drive to the KHS was one full of ambivalence, his mother said.

Why donate now, Henry wondered, when there are so many toys to be had?

"We talked it out again. I said we can keep the jar, and we'll be able to fill it up again," Sue said.

When he passed over the money, she said, the volunteer behind the counter was exultant.

The good deed was also rewarded with petting some kittens in the shelter.

"I think he's learned that sharing can be fun, and that it's good to save your money," Sue said. "I think he saw how happy it made us, and he really likes it when we're proud of him."

On Tuesday, Henry nodded when asked if the chores were hard work.

He donated his dollars to dogs, he said, "because I wanted to offer it to them."

In a recent car drive, his mother added, Henry had said that donating made him happy.

"'I have 150 toys, I don't need any more,'" Sue quoted. "I don't think he has 150 toys, but that's what he said."

KHS Executive Director Rondi Renaldo said she thought the donation was amazing.

"The little hearts they (children) have, they can teach us a lot," she said. "There's so much negative out there in the world, and you get one of these stories and realize, 'Wow, the world is still good, and people are still nice.'"

KHS is always desperate for monetary donations, and for folks to adopt animals, Renaldo said.

Don't tell Henry, but his money will go to help kittens.

"It's going specifically to kitten food," Renaldo said. "People forget about how many kittens we get, and we actually have to purchase kitten food more than any other kind of food."

Sue predicted the family will soon get Henry a special piggy bank, the kind with three slots labeled "save," "spend" and "share."

"He likes to do the right things," Sue said. "We're going to look at other things that interest him and expand where he donates his money."