Girl with connection to Children’s Village leads charge to raise money to help kids

COEUR d’ALENE — Brittany Cooper is 9 years old and she wanted to raise money for Children’s Village.

“There’s so many kids out there with no families,” she said Tuesday. “And I think they just need like a loving environment.”

So she and her little sister, Mackenzie, 6, have been selling lemonade and crafts from their driveway. Over the past few weeks, they earned about $20.

That was just the start.

A couple on a walk recently passed their craft sale and Brittany noticed “they were feeling pretty darn down.”

“He had no money and he just lost his dog,” she explained. “It was his first time and his wife’s going on a walk without their dog.”

So Brittany said to the couple: “‘Here, you really look like you could use some cheering up.’ And I handed them things for free.”

A few days later, the man returned and told the Coopers their generosity did cheer him and his wife up, as they were sad over the death of their dog of 15 years.

He wanted to return the favor, as he knew they were raising money for Children’s Village. He gave $250 to the girls.

“He said he couldn’t forget their kindness and they wanted to help her reach her goal,” said Ginger Cooper, their mom.

The girls were ecstatic.

“They were so thrilled with what they had raised that we went straight to Costco and bought everything off of their needs list for the month of May,” Ginger Cooper said.

They delivered fruit, crackers, milk, cleaners and other food and supplies on a rainy afternoon.

Brittany walked up to the front door and asked to speak to the person in charge, but was told they were not in. But, she was assured she could return to meet them.

Mackenzie carried a drawing with some messages, “We thank you,” “We love you,” and “Thank you for taking us in.”

“Did we get eggs?” Brittany asked her mom.

“That was the one thing we didn’t get,” Ginger Cooper answered. “Good memory.”

Brittany and her sisters, Kaitlyne, 12, and Sarah, 10, have a connection to Children’s Village. They lived there for a time before Zack and Ginger Cooper adopted them from foster care about six years ago, and they remember.

Ginger said Brittany daily thinks of the children that she left behind who still need homes.

“The children must need money,” she would say to her parents.

So she raised it for them.

“I don’t think a lot of people will help me with that,” she said.

Ginger said Brittany is a headstrong girl and has a passion to help children around the world. She talks of supporting kids in Africa.

“She’s got an awesome heart,” Ginger said.

Brittany also has a dream.

She wants to own “one big Children’s Village” when she grows up.

And she makes a promise to all those kids who will live there.

“They’re going to get homes lickety-split,” she said.