[Updated July 25, 4:25 p.m.] For her 9th birthday last month, Rachel Beckwith told people that instead of giving her presents, they should donate to a charity providing clean water to families in developing nations.
The Seattle-area girl came up with $220, short of her $300 goal. She figured she’d try to raise more money next year.
Then came the crash.
Rachel died Saturday, taken off life support at a Seattle hospital three days after she and six other people were injured in a 14-vehicle pileup on Interstate 90 near her home in Bellevue, Washington, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.
But before her death, as word of Wednesday’s crash spread, so did news about Rachel’s fundraising wish. Her church took to Facebook, Twitter and its own website to promote her cause.
As of Monday afternoon, Rachel’s online fundraising page for the nonprofit group "charity: water" had landed more than $130,000 in donations, from more than 2,400 donors.
"Rest in peace knowing that your wish is helping people in ways that you could have never imagined," one contributor wrote on the campaign site.
Ryan Meeks, one of Rachel's pastors, said that "life is coming out of this death, with Rachel's generosity."
"It's inspired many, and it’s been amazing over the last 24 hours," Meeks told CNN's Don Lemon on "CNN Newsroom" Saturday night.
Rachel chose to help the nonprofit group after its founder spoke at her church, Eastlake Community Church in Bothell, Meeks said. On her fundraising page, Rachel explained her goal.
"On June 12th 2011, I'm turning 9. I found out that millions of people don't live to see their 5th birthday. And why? Because they didn't have access to clean, safe water so I'm celebrating my birthday like never before," her fundraising page says. "I'm asking from everyone I know to donate to my campaign instead of gifts for my birthday."
"She cares about other people more than herself," her aunt, Veronica Del Rosario, told KOMO for a story that aired Saturday. "She wanted everyone to give money so that children and parents could have water."
The charity says all of its public donations directly fund water projects. Its 2009 annual report said that in a three-year period, it provided 2,321 clean-water projects, helping more than 1 million people in 16 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia.
The church was scheduled to hold a service for Rachel on Sunday night.
"For a 9-year-old kid, a huge step of faith would be to say, 'Hey, for my birthday, I don't want anything. Give to those who are in greater need,'" Meeks said. "And not everyone’s that mature at 90, and yet here she is modeling for us at the age of 9, how to live that kind of life."
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the world should be more full of people like this. thank you God for giving her to us for a short period of time.
Thank God????....................wow
Amen.
yes, thank God or the Goddess or even just the wonder of how giving humans can be. Does it matter who is thanked?
Wonder how much of the $$ will actually be used for water purification and how much will be absorbed by the church and other agencies for "operating costs"? The pastor of the "church" that lies next to our neighborhood lives in a waterfront million dollar house.
Ashton, if you did any reading before making your assumptions you would know that; 1) None of this money goes to or thru the church. mycharity : water is its own non-profit; 2) 100% of all donations go straight to on-the-ground projects.
I recognize that you probably have a bad opinion of religion, as evidenced by the tone of your remarks, but try to do a little reading before jumping to conclusions that cannot be supported by any evidence.
ashton, you are ignorant
Ashton...as the saying goes, "Better to close your mouth and appear stupid than to open it and removed all doubt". If you have a chip on your shoulders at least get your information straight so you can sound like you have a legit beef...you putz!
Likewise, I know a pastor of a "church" that also lives in a multi-million dollar riverfront home. All you dummies attacking Ashton need to realize that just because some non-profit puts pictures of ragged little starving children on the screen doesn't mean that's where your money is going. There are so many scam jobs and rip off artists posing as charitable organizations that you have to be sure you know where your money is going.
Ashton when is the last time you helped anyone out in need ? You should take a good long look in the mirror and ask yourself. How can I make a difference in someones life like this little angel did.
Ashton, please learn how to read. I am sure that if you are illiterate, there us a program to help you. http://www.charitywater.org/
Dude, you are SUCH a buzzkill... You're so uncool, it's a wonder your butt doesn't fall off...
A young black lady was kill on highway 90 up by Maryland.Two cars with thugs was raceing went across the media head on and crash into this young lady .She had just gotten a job in Washington. These thugs were teenagers.I wonder where their parents were? I know we don't here much about about minorities being helped in accidents or any thing else good , but god see it.God will not turn his back on his people.Satan has look at the heat in the southern states.I am truly thankful to god for the heat.Winter months will be worst.
Wow, and you need a literacy program too. Where do these people come from with computers that can't write?
Ramble much?
This whole story was so sad, but so much good is coming out of it. At last check, the money was nearing One Million Dollars...
Her mom and little sister were in the car with her as well – Mom had a pretty nasty gash in her head, but the little sister was barely bruised. Rachel certainly had some very wonderful angel wings protecting her family.
So much good coming out of something so tragic. If all of us could just have a touch of selflessness that this little girl had, our world would be a bit better I think.
$862,674
This young girl thought of others who are in need and took action.
Why is that she had to die to reach her dream. People only started giving after this precious life was lost. People are tools. People are lemmings. People really need to wake up. We should have been donating to her cause before she passed on. The fact it takes a gigantic news outlet like CNN to cover yet another depressing story of a young person's death to spur on this charity boom makes me sick. I am thankful however for the donations and praise for this child's life but humans should be ashamed that it took a little girl's death to do the right thing.
Jim-
It's the American way. We don't want to be involved when there isnt publicity. We want to be involved when we can turn on the TV or pull up CNN and tell our friends how we contributed!
Truely Well said.
Because sometimes that's what it takes. If it were easy, they wouldn't be dreams.
the youth are the easiest to manipulate
especially through churches
Tragic that this girl was USED by the church as a propaganda piece.
Just because the church supported the ministry doesn't mean the money was going to the church. She saw a need and reached out to meet it. Unless you don't believe there are people who don't have clean water?
sometimes just wonder how this kind of things can happen? can't we take care our self? jason statham workout
Update to the story. It says her page has raised over $130,000 from over 2,400 donors. As of right now it's raised over $1.2 million from over 30,700 donors. That's more than 10% of the total amount raised by mycharity:water in it's existence.
I can't believe all these morons thanking God for giving her to us for a short time.
God didn't make us, we made God.
Hey guys.. a few words about myself,.. I'm usually one of those ignorant folks that would browse through the forums, seek out
Due to some recent events in my life I came to a conclusion and had decided to change
Necessary information and leave
this ugly aspect about myself and begin contributing as well, or may be at least saying thank you once in a while to those that continually contribute here.
Regards,
Curt
Why the HELL do we need MONEY to provide drinkable water to those in need? Because most people are lazy, selfish and ignorant. Most people would just not show up to work and keep collecting their paychecks if they could with no consequences attached. If our entire world population consisted of selfless, admirable people like this little girl than we'd have no need for currency; we'd all be helping each other out with a smile on our faces just because it's the right thing to do.
Don't just donate a few dollars, leave a thankful comment and forget about this. Follow this girl's example. You don't have to start donation boxes for charity or anything, but please, for the love of God, put in an effort to make they days of everyone around you brighter. Hold a door open for the person behind you, offer to help a senior citizen across the street, don't hold grudges and be slow to anger... you get the idea.
This whole rant probably sounds pretty corny, but that our society's values have degraded to the point where this girl is a special case of selflessness is a sad story in itself. It's a fact that the quickest way to find happiness is to spread happiness to others, so please do what you can to help make the world a happier place.
Yes, and you repaid the comment with your own unpleasant assumptions.
Cass, I agree with your statement except the part where you call someone jerky. Give them a chance to see what you see.
I'm with you in the rest of your comment.
I'm very outspoken like you are but I learned to control myself. Keep up your good works but SCRATCH 'JERKY'.