4-year-old girl named Florence helps people affected by a hurricane with the same name

This month, a toddler named Florence Wisniewski, 4, kept hearing her name mentioned in the media. The Chicago, Illinois, resident eventually asked her mother why people kept saying her name.

Her mother and father took the moment to educate the little girl about Hurricane Florence, which was what people had been referring to. That curiosity ended up with Florence learning to give back to others.

Florence Wisniewski’s parents, Tricia and Paul Wisniewski, used the hurricane as a teaching moment for the toddler and her two siblings, Bud and Olivia. Tricia said:

“We brought it to her [attention] to show her, like, the world doesn’t revolve around you, look at all of these things happening. We asked her, ‘Do you want to help them? How do you think you should do it?’”

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. The little girl agreed that she wanted to help and with the help of her parents she created a poster.

The poster showed photos of her face along the hurricane’s path. The little girl explained why she was willing to help:

“I think it’s right to do. It’s the right thing to do to help people. I’d want help if I was stuck in a hurricane.”

The pre-schooler along with her mother both felt that “people need toiletries and diapers and pacifiers. They need formula and water and baby food.” They then decided they would collect those supplies for people affected by the hurricane.

They initially put a little bucket on their front porch with the poster. Then they asked Florence’s teacher if they could put a collection box in her classroom and posted it on Facebook.

Within a couple hours, the image was shared with many community groups on the north side of Chicago. Tricia said:

“Thousands of people had seen it in their news feed!”

Officials from the Gladstone Park Advisory Council also shared the image on their Facebook page.

People brought supplies to Florence’s donation boxes at her home and school. The family collected enough supplies from pet food to diapers and all the supplies could fill a small truck.

The supplies are set to be given to charities who will distribute them. Tricia explained that the whole thing,

“It started as a lesson to teach out kids to help people.”

Her husband added that Florence was now at the age where they could start teaching her about such things, and they wanted to start locally. Paul confessed that they were surprised by the response.

Hurricane Florence began as a slow-moving storm at sea which was categorized as a 4 hurricane. It made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane and within days was downgraded to a tropical depression before dissipating.