The Young Chronicle: For 1st Graders May 16th, 2015 | Page 2

THE GOOD DEED
Arshiya was excited!
It was the last day of
school before summer vacations officially started. She
was sure, like every
year, her parents
would be planning
an exciting trip this
time also. She
skipped and jumped
all the way home.
She couldn’t wait for
her father to come
home from office in the evening.
Her father usually came home
around 6 pm every evening.
But 6 o’clock came and went.
Then 7 o’clock, then 8 and at 9
pm, the doorbell rang. She ran
to the door and let her father
in. Arshiya saw how tired Daddy was looking and controlled
the dozens of questions she
was bursting to ask.
Over dinner, Arshiya’s father
told her that since he had just
taken up a new job, he would
have a lot of work this summer
and would not be able to find
the time to go anywhere for the
time being. At her look of intense disappointment, he told
her he had a special task for
her. Besides the normal holiday homework and activity
camps, he wanted Arshiya to
do something that was different. And if she succeeded,
there would be a special reward for her!

This thought
cheered Arshiya up.
She was always up
for a challenge! She
thought and she
wondered what she
could do that would
be different.
The next morning,
she woke up to see
her mother watching the news. There
had been a bad
earthquake in Nepal. There were appeals for people to
donate money,
clothes, food, blankets, etc. The newscaster said one sentence, ‘Every little
helps’. That struck
a chord with Arshiya and she decided
that she would also
do something to
help out. She had
an idea!

Her parents had enrolled her in
swimming lessons for the summer.
She discussed her idea with her
swimming coach, who was very supportive. A few days later, all the parents of the kids in the swimming
classes received a notice for a special event called ‘LAPS FOR NEPAL’.
In it, people would donate some
money for every lap a swimmer
would complete.
The parents were enthusiastic and
so were the swimmers! The event
was a success and the children
managed to raise Rs. 20,000 in donations. There was also a special
round of applause for Arshiya,
whose idea contributed to a good
cause and also fulfilled her father’s
challenge.
Daddy told Arshiya he was proud of
her and as a special reward, she
would get her summer trip to a place
of her choice! But Arshiya convinced
Daddy to donate the money for the
trip for the earthquake victims as
every little would help.