Ryan's face lit up. To encourage him, Susan drew a red thermometer on a piece of paper with 35 lines across it, each line representing $2. For every $2, Ryan could fill in a line and put his earnings into an old cookie tin. "But Ryan," Susan said, "you'll have to do extra chores, not just the ones you already do."
"Okay," he said.
His first job was to vacuum the house. While Keegan and Ryan's older brother, Jordan, played outside, Ryan cleaned for two hours. He got $2. A few days later, instead of watching a movie with the family, he washed windows. Another $2.
Hearing about his goal, Ryan's grandfather hired the three brothers to pick up pinecones for craft projects, earning $10 for each garbage bag they filled. When Ryan brought his spring report card home, his parents gave him a $5 reward for good grades. That, too, went into the tin.
By Easter, when the school's fund-raising campaign ended, Ryan's class had raised nearly $30 in pennies.
"I'm still collecting for the well," Ryan told his teacher. Chore by chore, loonie by loonie, he had by now amassed $35.
AS SUSAN left for work one morning, she glanced at the thermometer on the fridge. It was two thirds full. Who do you give $70 to to build a well in Africa? she wondered. She called the school, but they didn't know. Then Brenda Cameron Couch, a friend who worked at an international development organization, told her of WaterCan, a small nonprofit agency in Ottawa that funds and monitors well building in developing countries.
Couch called WaterCan and told them about Ryan. "Seventy dollars might not be a lot, but this kid has worked hard for it," she said. "I'd like him to give you his money in person."
On the day of the meeting in late April, Ryan, wearing a tie and dress pants, nervously handed his cookie tin to Nicole Bosley, WaterCan's then-executive director. "There's an extra $5 here," he said, lowering his voice. "You might want to buy some hot lunches for the people making the well."
"Thank you, Ryan," Bosley said, smiling. She began telling him about WaterCan's clean-water projects, explaining that while $70 would buy a hand pump, it actually cost closer to $2,000 to drill a well. Too young to appreciate such a large sum, Ryan replied, "I'll just do more chores, then."
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) matches WaterCan's funds two for one, so Ryan would have to find almost $700 to build his well. That night Susan and Mark sat in bed discussing what to do. "He's come so far," Mark said. "We can't just tell him, 'Ryan, you tried, but you can't really make a difference.'" Yet how could a six-year-old raise $700 just by doing chores?
The following week Couch sent out an e-mail to family and friends telling them about Ryan's project. The next day her accountant cous-in, Blaine Cameron, e-mailed back. Touched by Ryan's actions, he wanted to send in a donation matching Ryan's. Others told Couch the story was so moving that she should try to publish it. A few months later, the Kemptville Advance -- circulation 5,500 -- ran the story, calling it "Making a Difference: Ryan's Well."
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"Okay," he said.
His first job was to vacuum the house. While Keegan and Ryan's older brother, Jordan, played outside, Ryan cleaned for two hours. He got $2. A few days later, instead of watching a movie with the family, he washed windows. Another $2.
Hearing about his goal, Ryan's grandfather hired the three brothers to pick up pinecones for craft projects, earning $10 for each garbage bag they filled. When Ryan brought his spring report card home, his parents gave him a $5 reward for good grades. That, too, went into the tin.
By Easter, when the school's fund-raising campaign ended, Ryan's class had raised nearly $30 in pennies.
"I'm still collecting for the well," Ryan told his teacher. Chore by chore, loonie by loonie, he had by now amassed $35.
AS SUSAN left for work one morning, she glanced at the thermometer on the fridge. It was two thirds full. Who do you give $70 to to build a well in Africa? she wondered. She called the school, but they didn't know. Then Brenda Cameron Couch, a friend who worked at an international development organization, told her of WaterCan, a small nonprofit agency in Ottawa that funds and monitors well building in developing countries.
Couch called WaterCan and told them about Ryan. "Seventy dollars might not be a lot, but this kid has worked hard for it," she said. "I'd like him to give you his money in person."
On the day of the meeting in late April, Ryan, wearing a tie and dress pants, nervously handed his cookie tin to Nicole Bosley, WaterCan's then-executive director. "There's an extra $5 here," he said, lowering his voice. "You might want to buy some hot lunches for the people making the well."
"Thank you, Ryan," Bosley said, smiling. She began telling him about WaterCan's clean-water projects, explaining that while $70 would buy a hand pump, it actually cost closer to $2,000 to drill a well. Too young to appreciate such a large sum, Ryan replied, "I'll just do more chores, then."
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) matches WaterCan's funds two for one, so Ryan would have to find almost $700 to build his well. That night Susan and Mark sat in bed discussing what to do. "He's come so far," Mark said. "We can't just tell him, 'Ryan, you tried, but you can't really make a difference.'" Yet how could a six-year-old raise $700 just by doing chores?
The following week Couch sent out an e-mail to family and friends telling them about Ryan's project. The next day her accountant cous-in, Blaine Cameron, e-mailed back. Touched by Ryan's actions, he wanted to send in a donation matching Ryan's. Others told Couch the story was so moving that she should try to publish it. A few months later, the Kemptville Advance -- circulation 5,500 -- ran the story, calling it "Making a Difference: Ryan's Well."