Community Corner

11-Year-Old to Raise $4,000 for Give a Goat

Homewood resident Michael Colton, 11, is planning on collecting $4,000 to donate 50 goats to the Phillipines.

When most kids think about summer vacation, they envision sleepover parties and lazy days by the swimming pool. However, 11-year-old Homewood resident Michael Colton has something else on his mind: goats.

Colton recently decided to raise money to donate to the Give a Goat Organization, which gives goats to towns in the Phillipines to use for milk and other dairy products.

“You know, goats are actually a really good asset… you can milk them, they are cheaper than cows because they are smaller and cheaper to transport,” Colton said. “I believe they give pregnant goats (too), so then the goats have young and the cycle goes on and on and on until there is a lot of goats in that town.”

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Colton said his desire to do good stems from stories of his parents’ travels to Indonesia prior to his birth. Colton said his parents often share stories of their time in Indonesia, describing, among other things, people living in boxes on the side of the road.

“I know that I have a pretty good life. It just really kills me that other people have to live in homes filled with dirt, and (very little) for dinner,” Colton said. “It’s really sad.”

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During the month that he’s started his fundraising project, Colton has already raised over $1,000 from relatives and members of his church, in Homewood.

“I thought it was a very good cause, so I decided to get 50 goats for them,” he said. “It’s $4,000, so I’m already a fourth of the way there.”

Colton currently has a collection envelope at his church and also in the teachers lounge of his grade school, .

But that’s not all.

Colton says that he is planning on walking 15 miles in June as a final effort to bring in donations for goats.

“My mom said you should probably find some sort of fundraising idea …  so I decided to walk,” Colton said. “I am pretty sure it is going to be very fun.”

If you are interested to contributing to Michael’s cause, you can send check donations in his name to ,.


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