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Girl skips birthday gifts, donates to animal shelter instead

Posted at 2:59 PM, Jan 05, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-05 14:59:57-05

A 10-year-old girl in Alaska spent her birthday picking out gifts, not for herself, but for some animals in need.

Sienna Keough celebrated her birthday on December 30 and says she has always had a passion for animals.

So instead of asking for gifts, she asked for donations to help out a local animal shelter.

In total Sienna raised $705 from family and friends and went shopping for toys, food and treats.

She checked the Anchorage Animal Care and Control's Amazon wish list and pulled together three carts worth of goodies to donate to the shelter.

"When my mom asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I didn't really need anything and I wanted to help somebody else," she said.

Laura Atwood with Animal Care and Control said, "It's so heartening when we see this coming from young people. It's just so sincere and so genuine. So we're just very appreciative."

The store where Sienna went shopping, matched Sienna's donation up to $700 so all together the shelter received more than $1,400 worth of supplies.