9-year-old delivers a lesson in giving for Thanksgiving

LA MARQUE, Texas (KTRK) -- A 9-year-old girl in La Marque is teaching the adults in her community a thing or two about the spirit of giving. She found out some families couldn't afford Thanksgiving dinner and decided to do something about it.

Calleigh Garcia is a fourth-grader at Odyssey Academy in Galveston, and she earns her own money through a vendor at Tanger Outlet Mall. She said using her hard-earned money to buy Thanksgiving dinner for families in her community was fun and made her feel good ahead of the holidays.

She said, "We have cookies. We have candy canes. We have cocoa mix."

That's just a portion of what's in boxes filled with food for four families to enjoy a complete Thanksgiving meal. Calleigh said she loves Thanksgiving and was surprised to learn that some of her schoolmates couldn't afford the groceries.

"I overheard somebody saying that they couldn't have Thanksgiving, so it made me sad," she said.

After that, Calleigh told her mom she wanted to use her own money to go shopping.

Janie Garcia said, "It made me very proud. As parents, we try to teach our kids the best we can. This shows us that we're doing what we need to do."

It took two weeks to arrange everything for delivery day. When the moment finally came, Calleigh said she knew she was going to have fun.

"For the people who are getting the stuff, I feel like they are going to feel special."

The elder Garcia said their family has been on the receiving end of help from the community, so that makes this opportunity to give back mean even more to them.

Calleigh hopes to earn more money through the vendor Sparke + Spice at Tanger on Black Friday so that she can help more families out with a Christmas meal.