Henry is one incredible kid! He was about to turn six, and his birthday party was approaching fast. Instead of asking for gifts, he asked for donations of used children’s books to donate to the Children’s Reading Room and collected seven boxes of books to share with other kids in Guelph! How amazing is that!?

The generosity and support displayed by this act of kindness is genuinely unique and heart-warming. Thank you, Henry!! We are so grateful for your generosity and are touched by your selflessness.

Henry’s mom, Carolyn, explains how they came up with the idea…

“We had just moved in February and had done a lot of purging, particularly of toys that the boys didn’t play with anymore. When it came time to organize Henry’s birthday party, we thought it would be nice to ask people to bring a book to donate to the Children’s Reading Room instead of buying him a gift. We wanted to ensure people didn’t feel awkward since we know people like to bring something to a party, so we thought this was a great idea. We asked for used book donations instead of gifts on the party invitations. We also explained to Henry that if he could collect 20 books, we would buy one large gift for him…the Ninjago Lego set he has always wanted! People loved the idea and brought so many books!”

“So Henry was happy that he got his favourite Lego set. After working so hard to purge, I was happy not to have more stuff in our house, and everybody felt good about donating their books to a good cause!”

Check out the beautiful birthday pictures and the many donated books below.