PHOTO BY MEGHAN ERKKINEN

Sixth grader Shelby Burrus has asked for grocery store gift cards in lieu of birthday presents the last two years in a row, in order to purchase Thanksgiving turkeys for local food banks. Here, Shelby (center) is pictured with her friends, Emmy McFadden and Patrick Finigan, who helped her unload turkeys at the All Saints food bank in Puyallup.

Student skips birthday gifts for less fortunate

By Meghan Erkkinen

Sixth grader Shelby Burrus has done what a lot of children her age would never dream of – the 11-year-old has given up birthday presents two years in a row.

For the second year, Shelby, who will turn 12 next month, asked for grocery store gift cards instead of presents this year. With the gift cards, Shelby purchases frozen turkeys to give to food banks, so that families who would otherwise go without a Thanksgiving dinner do not have to.

“There are a lot of people with financial problems who can’t afford a Thanksgiving dinner, and I have money, so I decided to help them out,” said Shelby, a Tacoma resident and a student at Puyallup’s All Saints School. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Although Shelby’s birthday is in December, she celebrates it early, in October. This year and last year, she received about $300 in gift cards, enough to buy about 30 turkeys. She and her mother, Carrie Burrus, who works in Milton, visit local grocery stores to find the lowest-priced birds to get the most they can from their money. They then deliver about half the turkeys to the Fife Food Bank and the other half to the All Saints food bank.

“It’s getting tougher because with the economy getting tougher, the stores are less likely” to give discounted rates, Carrie Burrus said.

Shelby got the idea for giving back last year when she was cleaning out her room. She noticed she had a lot of stuff, and that she did not need any more clutter for her birthday, so instead she decided to ask for something else.

Shelby remembered how Fife, where her father works as a police officer, always has a toy drive around the holiday season. Shelby had volunteered with toy drives, and was a member of 4H and the National Junior Angus Association, with which she has helped conduct fundraisers.

A light bulb went on in Shelby’s head, and she started letting friends and family know to forego the presents.

This year posed another personal challenge for Shelby. Because she is often on the go due to her participation in school and various after-school activities, Shelby has found it difficult to find a computer on which to do her homework. So, she decided to start saving for a laptop. She knew birthday cash would be a great way for her to jumpstart her savings plan.

But in the end, Shelby decided she would continue saving her allowance and continue the tradition of helping the less fortunate for her birthday. She plans on continuing the tradition next year, too.

“I feel really good,” Shelby said.

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