boy holds stick drive to provide heat for the poor

BROOKLYN --- A young local entrepreneur has organized a Stick Drive to collect wood he plans to distribute to "poor people who live in houses with chimneys (not apartments)." Garrett Anderson, age 7, patterned the drive after the various food drives his school sponsors every year. He is also accepting donations of nickels which will go towards the purchase of sticks.

Garrett and his younger brother, Caleb, age 5, plan to scout the neighborhood on their scooters to collect the donations. Caleb has been assigned the task of holding the collection box, which boasts a handwritten sign that reads: "Stick Drive. Please bring sticks and put them in the box. Help the poor."

Once they've amassed a large enough amount of wood, they plan to go door to door offering sticks for the poor to burn in their fireplaces.

When asked where he got the idea of a Stick Drive, Garrett responded with a fond memory of helping his Uncle Joel collect sticks for firewood from throughout their yard in New Jersey.

But it all burns down to the fact that Garrett just wants to help others. "If I give sticks to people," he says, "then their lives will be good because they will be warm."

ten months

Dear Daniel,

You've been so happy lately -- deliciously happy. After pushing through tooth #5 you've been acting as though you've been given a new lease on life, and to demonstrate you ferociously shake your head, then sink your pearly whites into anything -- my hands, my feet, my chin -- that happens to be nearby. I've even got a few bite marks to show for it.

Ten months is such a fun age. You clap whenever you're happy or feel like someone in the room deserves praise. You wave hello, whether we solicit it or not. You bob your little body up and down to dance whenever you hear music. You're starting to feed yourself small bites of grown up foods. And you never, ever sit still.



You also pull things off of shelves and out of bins with reckless abandon, and your fascination with doors gets you stuck behind them more often that you'd like. But when I pick you up to move you somewhere else, you bounce and jump up and down in my lap with such giddiness, it's nearly impossible to get frustrated with the messes you make. You can cruise along furniture, though you typically find it easier to just get down, crawl over, and stand back up a few feet away.

You are finally starting to sleep better! You've renewed your relationship with the binky, and if I swaddle your legs, lay you on your side or tummy, and put your silky cloth in your hands, you quickly relax into a deep sleep. It sometimes feels like an intense routine, but if it helps you sleep, I will follow through with it for as long as it takes.

Because that's how we roll, Danny Boy. Every day with you is an adventure, an exhausting, beautiful, happy adventure.

Love,
Mama

 Annnddd...Danny out.