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Casey Paterson is a little man with a big heart.
If you’ve recently passed the 800 block of Geikie Street, you might have seen young Paterson on his soap stand - or even heard his yells of ‘Soap for sale!’
The seven-year-old entrepreneur has been making and selling soap to raise money for supplies for the SPCA - and donated his first haul to the Hinton shelter last week.
“It made me feel really very happy because I was helping all the dogs,” said Casey.
The animal-lover was inspired to do something for the SPCA after seeing one of their commercials on television.
“I saw the SPCA in an ad and it made me very sad,” he said, “and then I said ‘Maybe I could help them.”
Soon after, while out for a walk with his mom, Twila, Casey picked up some wild plants that he loved the smell of. He said he wanted to make soap with the plants and asked his mom, “If we sell the soaps can we buy food for those sad animals?”
And with that, his soap-selling venture was born.
Casey made his first batch of soap that same afternoon, drew up a sign, and sat outside his house to sell the bars at $4 and $2 each.
Within 30 minutes, the soap had sold out.
Customers were passers-by, friends, family, coworkers, and members of the community who replied to a post shared by Twila on Jasper Buy & Sell on Facebook. She said there were so many responses they had to make more soap to fill the requests.
The following weekend, Casey set up his stand again and started yelling, “Soap for sale!” to bring in more customers.
“It was so darn cute to watch,” said Twila. “With every purchase we tried to work on mathematics, adding up the tallies and making change, so it was an all around great experience.”
In total, Casey raised about $230 from soap sales.
But that wasn’t enough for the keen fundraiser. Casey then went on a bottle drive and collected recyclables from friends, family and other community members, raising another $160.
He took the cash to Peavey Mart in Grande Prairie and bought six of the biggest bags of dog food he could find, plus a bag of cat food, 15 soft food packets and 10 bags of kitty litter.
“He was beyond pumped to go and drop all the food and to show off his hard work to the SPCA.” Twila said. “It helped him understand if we can help we should help, any way we can.”
When he dropped the supplies in Hinton, Casey said he got a pat on the shoulder.
“(They) said, ‘You’re being a good person,’” he said.
“I felt proud to help make the animals happy because they don’t have any food and nothing except they get petted.”
This was Casey’s first fundraising effort, but he said it won’t be his last. He has plans to collect socks and sweaters for the homeless and is preparing another batch of soap to sell.
“We are beyond proud of our little man,” Twila said. “He has such a giving and caring heart, he always has and I hope it continues with him.
“We tell him everyday to be nice and be kind so I hope he can help spread kindness wherever he goes.”
