Kid Hero: 5-year-old Donates Allowance on Toys for Other Kids

Ben in the library playroom he upgraded with his allowance.
Ben in the library playroom he upgraded with his allowance.

Question: If Ben Johnson makes 25 cents for every chore he does around the house and he donates $20 he's made from all those chores to buy toy trucks and cars for other kids, how many chores did he work?
Answer: Who cares? This kid is a saint.

The Texas-based five year old took a trip to the Fond Du Lac library while visiting his grandma in Wisconsin. He hit up the play-area, naturally, and was pleased to find a mat printed with a town road map-perfect for sending toy cars and trucks speeding down the rug's winding highways. Only one problem: there were no toy cars or trucks to play with. The librarian explained that over time the cars "walked away."

Like the rest of the country, Fond Du Lac residents were hit hard by the recession. The county's unemployment and poverty rates rose significantly from 2008 to 2009. And at least one in eight kids live in poverty as of 2010. So it's likely supplying toys to the local library wasn't top of mind when it came to budgeting.

That's where a not-so-anonymous donor comes in.

"Ben gets an allowance for doing small chores around the house. He gets 25 cents per chore," Ben's mom, Tracy Johnson, told the Fond Du Lac Reporter. "He gets to spend a third, save a third and put a third away for helping others."

About 80 chores earned him enough liquid cash to buy kids in his Grandma's town a permanent collection of miniature cars and trucks to play with then they come to the children's area of the Wisconsin library. Since super-nice Ben lives over a thousand miles away, he probably won't get to play with those toys much himself. Just saying, Santa.

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