Four-year-old William Zidle of Gorham recently gave his piggy bank to the Red Cross in Portland to help aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.
His piggy bank contained $116, and he helped count the money. He wanted to help kids, who were left homeless and without food, water and toys.
“They are going to need to buy stuff,” said Zidle.
Zidle, a pre-school student at Circle Time School in Portland, is the son of Matt and Janet Zidle. “He wanted to give money to the kids,” said Matt Zidle, who is a weatherman for Channel 8 news.
Janet Zidle asked her son whether he wanted to donate some of his savings to help the flood victims. He gave it all.
“He’s generous, and he hasn’t cried,” said Janet Zidle.
She said the piggy bank had $40 in bills with the rest of it in coins. But the piggy bank is already starting to fill up again, as his grandfather recently gave him $1.
William Zidle’s nine-month-old sister, Lillian, also donated. “She didn’t have as much as William,” Janet Zidle said.
The Zidles wrote a check to make the gift to the Red Cross $300.
William Zidle, who wants to search for dinosaur bones when he grows up, has hurricane maps posted on a wall in a playroom in the Zidle home. While munching on an apple, he pointed to past hurricanes, naming the storms and the states that the storms hit. “The playroom is my office,” he said.
Matt and Janet Zidel of Gorham with their son William, 4, and daughter, Lillian, 9 months old.
William Zidel of Gorham, 4, gave the contents of his piggy bank, $116, to aid kids, who were victims in Hurricane Katrina.
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